Baby, it's cold outside!

All is good here.  Hope it is where you are as well.  The temperatures I'm seeing in the news  leave few us us truly comfortable...or safe.  Climate change is coming for us all.  

In Austin, anytime it drops below freezing, people head to the grocery to fill their pantries for Armageddon.  It's crazy how so many freak out.  We did our regular grocery run yesterday and ran into shelves like this all over the store.  It didn't really affect us.  I was able to find everything we needed by sometimes buying a different brand or size, but I still don't get this urgent need to hoard food for a freeze.  

There wasn't much to do yesterday, so I cooked.  I made a batch of homemade croutons out of old bread, a big pot of beef/vegetable soup, a pot of chili, chicken korma, a batch of oatmeal/chocolate cookies, and bread.  Even if we lose power, we will eat good.  

Saturday, we covered the greenhouses.  I had to adjust the greenhouse cozy to fit a larger greenhouse this year, so I did that early Saturday morning and by mid afternoon, we had my two covered as well as Rob's.  We were in goodwill one day and I found a nice quilted bedspread with a poly batting for $8.  I decided my time to make quilts for the larger greenhouse was worth more than that, so we were buying them when it was warm and no one else was thinking about it.  The last few times we've been in goodwill, there were no warm blankets.  This morning, both my greenhouses are at 36*F.  That's not very warm, but it's above freezing and the plants should be alright.  I opened the small one yesterday to check on it and I swear, it was warmer in there than the digital thermometer said it was, so I'm not really worried.  Also, the humidity in there is 80%.  If it was that cold, that water would have condensed and fallen to the ground and the humidity would drop, so I remain hopeful that the tropicals will be fine.

We went out for dinner on Saturday night.  Nothing fancy, just some Chinese at a favorite place but it was just us with no distractions and that's always nice.  On the way home, we saw the most magnificent sunset as the cold air moved in.  It was like the sky was on fire.  

I have a Christmas cactus that's late.  Someone suggested that maybe the cactus was on time and Christmas was early.  I like that idea.  

The plants are packed in that greenhouse, but with the bigger portable greenhouse, there's a path that goes all the way to the back.  Last year when it was freezing, I could not have gotten to the back if I'd tried.  

Last week, I identified an opportunity at work.  We have a small issue that only affects a few customers, but is annying and costs us a good bit of money every year.  It's too small to get the company's attention for a fix, but it needs a consistent process because everybody that bumps into it takes a different approach to solving it.  I pointed that out to my manager and instead of sending out an email under his name to ask if his peers agreed that we needed a solution, he forwarded my email.  That felt good.  And, the reply emails that started with some version of "I agree with Lane..." really felt good.  Now, I just gotta think of a way to solve it...oops!  Don't offer what you don't have, I guess.

I saw this and thought it was funny enough to share.  

Everybody have a great week!  Hunker down and stay warm like Bella is.  Spring will come...eventually, but we might have to chant "I believe in spring, I believe in spring..."  If we believe enough, spring will come.  

Lane