I'm sure you're all getting tired of hearing about the snow and the cold, especially if you're experiencing it, too. But there's no leaving the house and not much else to write about. The latest from our area:

• The state police want everyone to stay off I-94 until at least Thursday.
• The county sheriff wants everyone to stay off all the other roads until further notice.
• The electric company wants everyone to cut back on their power use.

Today's high temperature is expected to get up to 0 (zero) degrees. It is currently -6 degrees. I think most of the county is shut down today. On the bright side, the sun is shining and the sky is blue at the moment. It's too cold to go out and take photos, so I shot a few through the window.

Snow and shadows.

My neighbor's house has at least six steps going up to the front door.

The stop sign on the corner is in danger of being buried.

Brett came home from work early yesterday and is off today. We watched a movie and played cribbage last night (we each won one game). I'm thinking backgammon today.

In other news, my right arm is killing me. I'm typing this while wearing a wrist brace. My arm hurts from my fingers up to the right side of my neck. I don't know if it's arthritis, or tendonitis, or a combination of the two, or something else entirely. All I know is I can't do much with my right hand anymore. We stopped playing cribbage after two games because it had become too painful for me to shuffle the cards. But I'll soldier on.

I think the weather might get better after today. We may actually hit double digits - ABOVE zero - tomorrow. I'll celebrate by going to the post office and getting my mail.

The cold temperatures, the snow, the wind... this has been the most relentless winter I can remember since we moved here 22 years ago. Maybe in my entire life, although our winter in Idaho Falls in 1983-84 was pretty bad. I don't remember all the issues with wind and drifting snow in Idaho, but that could be because it was 30 years ago and the memory is getting fuzzy.

I was supposed to be at the Red Cross office today for my weekly volunteer stint, manning the reception desk and doing data entry. I missed one Monday this month because the office was closed for MLK Day. I missed another Monday because of the weather. Today I called in to talk to one of my supervisors and we decided I shouldn't try to come in. Shortly after that decision, I saw that the sheriff had declared a county-wide road emergency and the county road commission had hired construction companies to try get some roads open with front end loaders where the snowplows were unable to get through the snowdrifts. Shortly after reading that, my husband called from the nuclear plant to tell me that all non-essential workers were being sent home early and had been told not to come in tomorrow. He was told that the county had given up on keeping the roads open. My guess is that the roads they get open are just drifting shut again right behind the plows and front end loaders. If you've never lived near a Great Lake, you may not fully appreciate the unrelenting, howling wind that the lakes sometimes produce. I am amazed that we haven't lost power yet this winter. Gee, I hope I didn't just jinx us.

An indication of how brutal this winter has been so far: Our local schools, which had maybe a half-dozen snow days total in all the years joyouswind was attending elementary school, middle school and high school, closed today for the sixth time this month, and they've already announced they will be closed again tomorrow. Not because of the amount of snow which our county equipment can usually handle, but because of the heavy wind causing massive drifting on area roads and dangerous wind chills for children waiting at bus stops.

So, I'm sitting here monitoring the county sheriff, county road commission, and nuclear plant's Facebook pages, waiting for Bookmark61 to make it safely home, and feeling very grateful that I braved the whiteout on Saturday and made it to the grocery store. And you have no idea how grateful Brett and I both are that he bought that huge 4WD truck a few months ago when it felt like summer was going to last forever.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Living in a tiny village is better in these conditions than living in one of the bigger towns up the road. A couple of snow plows can keep village streets passable, guys with plows on the front of their pickup trucks keep parking lots cleaned up, and good neighbors with snow blowers keep the residential driveways cleared. I'm not sure what we would have done this month without Donnie across the street and Paul next door keeping our driveway open for us. I owe both of them some major cookies when this is all over. If it ever ends.

Brett just made it home safe and sound. He's putting the electric battery warmer in his truck and tucking it in for the night. I hope you are all staying safe and warm and counting your blessings if you are not affected by this weather.

I’m tired of Saturday; I just want it to end and move on to a new week.

I stayed up too late again last night. That’s becoming a bad habit, but I didn’t have to be anywhere this morning and the weather was supposed to be pretty sucky anyway so I just planned to sleep in. Well, the weather was apparently sucky because our phone rang at 6 AM. It was the local community college letting us know all classes were canceled today. Neither of us is taking or teaching classes at the college, but they insist on calling us at six o’clock in the friggin’ AM on SATURDAY to make sure we don’t spontaneously decide to visit the friggin’ campus during a friggin’ BLIZZARD.

Ahem. Pardon the outburst.

I eventually went back to sleep because three-and-a-half hours just wasn’t going to get me through the day. I was awakened two or three hours later by a buzzing sound. It was our neighbor snow-blowing our driveway. That wakeup I didn’t mind, especially since it was getting late.

The sun was shining by the time I made it downstairs, so half the county and I decided to take advantage of the break in the weather and go to the grocery store. If I’d just thrown on some clothes and left immediately, everything would have been fine, but I had to take a shower first and put on some makeup and do tai chi and play with the dog and stop at the post office. By the time I finally headed out of The ‘Duh, the sun was no longer shining brightly. By the time I’d gone a mile, I was in a world of white and could barely make out the hood of my van. I pulled out the GPS just so I could see where the intersections were because the road signs were lost in the whiteout. If not for the GPS, I would have run a couple of stop signs.

I was going to pull into the gas station about two miles up the road, but I drove past the driveway without seeing it. So I soldiered on, driving very slowly, my knuckles white under my black leather gloves, and I made it safely to the Meijer store five miles up the road in The ‘Ville. I had to park way out in the hinterland of the parking lot because, as mentioned, half the county was there to stock up for the next wave of this unrelenting Canadian-Siberian-Arctic-Polar- Lake Effect-Vortex-Clipper.

When I finally fought my way into, through and out of the madhouse, the sun was feebly shining again so I ran another quick errand in The ‘Ville and came home by a different road, with a quick stop at Domino’s to grab one of my favorite Sweet & Spicy Chicken Habanero sandwiches. (I know, I had a van filled with groceries, but I was exhausted by all the snow and wind and humanity and it was nearly 3 PM and I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so sue me.)

Because of the stop at Domino’s, I took a different road home; a road that’s lined by open fields. The wind hadn’t let up, so I was in whiteout conditions most of the way home (although it wasn’t as bad as I’d been in earlier). I managed to see the gas station before driving past it this time and decided to fill up my gas tank since I was already out and cold and miserable anyway. It’s become a matter of perverse pride here that we are experiencing colder weather than Alaska, so of course the guy on the other side of the gas pump greeted me with, “It’s warmer in Alaska than it is here!” to which I responded, “Yeah, it’s warmer in Hawaii, too.” I know where I’d rather be right now, but I’ll settle for just being indoors. In fact, I may not leave my house again until Easter.

Brett left me a message on the whiteboard this morning.

It was cold yesterday, too. I'm getting really tired of wearing three layers of everything. I even zipped the extra coat into my coat. I never do that; it makes me feel like the little brother in A Christmas Story, and it actually overheats me. But not in these dark, miserable days of blowing snow and sub-zero windchill.

So anyway, I've been staying warm the past couple of days by wearing three layers of everything, plus the extra coat, plus chopping a lot of these:

... along with some tomatoes and onions...

... to make this:

SALSA!!!

When I pulled my canning pot down from the way up high place I store it, I found my food mill inside it. I bought the food mill last fall when I was making apple butter and had forgotten that I stuck it inside the canning pot because I had nowhere else to put it. It was so shiny I couldn't resist taking a picture of my reflection in it. When I looked at the photo I thought it looked like I was looking out of a fishbowl. Well, how could I NOT make a fish face after thinking that?

I canned about twelve pints of salsa over the past two days. Brett has tasted yesterday's batch and pronounced it good. I'm out of storage space, so I'm going to have to figure out something else to keep me warm tomorrow. Maybe I'll bake a pie.

How are you staying warm?

Not much going on, but I thought I'd update you anyway.

• I spent all day Thursday in the kitchen only to end up with a mediocre dinner and a cake in the trash. I think I'm taking both the dinner and the cake out of my repertoire.

• I worked on the sword form in tai chi on Friday. My right arm and hand were pretty sore afterward, but I've just about got the first five seconds learned... sort of.

• Bookmark61 and I went to see Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit on Saturday. It was okay. The action was good enough, but I'm not sold on the reboot, and Keira Knightley was completely miscast. Patriot Games is my favorite Jack Ryan movie. There is no comparison between Anne Archer's portrayal of a strong and confident Cathy Ryan and Keira Knightley's portrayal of an insecure and annoying Cathy. It's a script problem as much as an acting one.

• Today (Sunday) has been about football. I dug out my Peyton Manning Colts jersey that I haven't worn for about three years and it worked its magic. I've always liked the Broncos, having spent a good portion of my childhood in and around Denver, and I am happy to see Manning get another shot at the Super Bowl. The Seahawks/49ers game is in the last quarter as I type. I have no emotional investment in that game.

• Tomorrow (Monday) and into Tuesday we are under the threat of lake effect snow that they are predicting in feet instead of inches. Sigh. Since Monday is a holiday, I don't have to go to the Red Cross and should have time to run to the store for milk and toilet paper before the weather hits... if it hits us. Brett says murisopsis and OldDogSparky can have this round.

• The planned Sister Trip to Colorado this summer is off, or at least postponed. I'm now thinking about going to GeoWoodstock in the St. Louis area. If I do, I'll want to run over to the Kansas City area to grab the oldest cache in Missouri while I'm that close. Then, I'll want to run over to Mingo, Kansas to grab the oldest cache in Kansas since I'll be so close. Then, I'll probably feel like I should run down to Arkansas to see my family since I'm in the region. That's a lot of driving; I'm still undecided about going to GeoWoodstock.

• And finally...

... the alien scarf is two-thirds finished (not counting blocking and fringe).

And now you are caught up.

It's been a full morning, of which all those disparate people and things listed in the title have had a part. After struggling with aches and pains yesterday, I am feeling better today. I've about decided to blame the weather for my achy days. It seems whenever the wind chill gets down in the zero to sub-zero range, my joints mount a major protest, regardless of whether or not I stick my nose out the door. Which I didn't yesterday and probably won't today because Thursday is my big cooking day.

I did get some stuff done yesterday, including the next-to-last module of online Red Cross training I've been working on. That is what I blame for my painful hand. I take notes while going through the training, and my right hand just won't hold a pen anymore without pain. I am going to get serious about trying to have something done about that this year. I usually try to avoid surgery, but this is getting ridiculous. Although, forks and spoons are also getting difficult to hold and that might not be such a bad thing for awhile.

I also finished up the third alien in the scarf I'm knitting. Thankfully, the knitting needles don't seem to cause my hands too much pain. Here's the half-done scarf:

I'm hoping to make good progress on alien #4 today when I'm not in the kitchen.

I tried to take a selfie with Boo this morning. He was uncooperative. I know, big surprise. We did a lot of this:

"She's on the floor! Playtime!"

A bit of this:

"I want to lick your face! Pleeeeeeeze let me lick your face! Your face is my second favorite thing to lick!"

A little of this:

"You're choking me!"

And finally, after I'd given up:

"Hey, look! A camera!"

 In other news, there have been tears of both joy and sorrow shed today. I got word that a sweet, gentle, kindhearted man I knew from my time acting in The Great Passion Play in the late 70s and early 80s passed away this morning. I knew him as Pontius Pilate, but after I left he went on to play the Christ role.

That was a very fun time in my life and David's death hit me harder than I expected. I didn't know him well, but he is one of those people who is strongly associated with my memories of the Play.

In happier news, I am a great-godmother! My nephew/godson and his beautiful wife welcomed their firstborn into the world this morning, a son named Lincoln. I've kind of lost count of all my great nieces and nephews; somewhere around 20, I think.

And now I should have whiled away enough time for the butter to soften. Time to throw together an Applesauce Spice Bundt Cake with my last jar of homemade cinnamon applesauce.

I just spent a boring old day at home.

I did some ironing.

Krysten's apron made my living room smell like onions when I ironed it.

I created a patch for Krysten's apron using some ancient Stitch Witchery and a piece cut out of a man's handkerchief.

Then I had to resew the button I removed.

I mended a rip in Krysten's coat.

And sewed a button on (this time without sewing her pocket shut).

I worked on the jigsaw puzzle from Hell.

It doesn't look like it would be hard, but the pieces are weird shapes. It's been a challenge!

I wrote a letter to my Mom.

And I knitted another alien face.

I'm improving. Four faces to go.

How did you spend your Saturday?

I was inspired by murisopsis to try something new with my knitting. We spent New Year's Day with Val and Sparky. We even took Boo with us to play with Ranger, but poor old Ranger just couldn't handle Boo's level of obnoxious energy. Val wanted me to show her how to purl, so I brought some yarn and needles with me, reminded myself how to do it, then showed Val how it's done. Except I showed her in English style and Val knits in Continental style, so in the end I wasn't very helpful. But it did inspire me to try to knit something besides dishcloths.

Years ago, my friend Cammie showed me a scarf she was knitting for her brother and I decided I would attempt to do something similar. I searched online until I found a book with the pattern, stopped at a yarn shop while I was out running errands before the polar vortex hit our area, got two shades of yarn and a set of the right size needles, and began trying to learn how to add in a color while knitting. This took several tries and I had to do a lot of ripping out and starting over, but eventually I did it right and began knitting nicely striped rows of black and gray.

Pay no attention to that curled end. I accidentally purled a row I should have knitted.

By throwing in some carefully placed purl stitches, I am creating a hidden design in the striped pattern.  This is called Illusion Knitting, and even a beginner like me can do it. Here's the first section of my scarf from a slightly different angle. Do you see the design?

It's easier to see from the other side.

It looks like I got confused on a couple of rows of knitting and purling, but for a first effort I'm pretty pleased overall. The finished scarf will have six alien heads. It reminds me a little bit of The Silents in Doctor Who, which is why I opted for gray yarn instead of the green recommended by the pattern.

I got this pattern from the book Stich 'N Bitch which I downloaded onto my Kindle Fire for only 4 or 5 bucks. I was able to open the PDF file for the pattern and send it to my HP wireless printer using the ePrint app. There's something very satisfying about using all this modern technology to create something in one of the most ancient crafts still practiced.

Since the horrible drought we had a couple of years ago that killed off that year's raspberries, cherries, plums and everything else we grow in the backyard, I try really hard not to complain about snow in the winter. If we'd had snow that winter a couple of years ago, some of our fruit might have made it that summer. So, much as I hate it, I know our winter snows are necessary to sustain not just our backyard produce, but the farms, orchards and vineyards that are vital to the local economy. But COME ON! When you start measuring the snow in feet instead of inches, enough is enough! And I have had enough of snow and ice and wearing long johns and extra shirts and hand washing one of my two pairs of expensive wool socks every night.

I have tried to make the best of things. I've made snow ice cream. I've made a Kahlua float with snow ice cream. I've blown soap bubbles out the back door and watched them shrivel up before they could float away. Yesterday the sun came out for awhile and I went outside and took photos and blew more bubbles. It had warmed up to about 20 degrees, so they didn't shrivel, but they looked so beautiful sparkling in the sunshine with all that glittery snow. I can appreciate the beauty of the snow, the fun and interesting things you can do with soap bubbles or boiling water in arctic temperatures, and the deliciousness of snow ice cream and Kahlua. But I'd trade it all for a few days of sunshine and bearable temperatures. Today it's supposed to get into the 20s again so I am rebelling and wearing only one shirt and no long johns. I can't quite bear to give up my wool socks yet.

Here are the photos I've taken. Nothing spectacular, but it might give you an idea of what we've been dealing with here in Pure Michigan.

We went to Krysten's place to take her spare car key to her so she could get to the frozen battery in her trunk. The snow is wet and heavy and almost impossible to shovel. She's cleared a narrow walking path to the outside door.

That's our grill and a rocking chair. There's another chair somewhere in the backyard.

Every time the driveway gets shoveled, the mountain of snow gets higher.

The view down our driveway.

The view down our street.

Boo in the backyard. Brett keeps a circular path shoveled so he can run a little.

The view up our street.

You might notice that the roads are pure white. Usually after it snows, the streets turn ugly brown and gray (and in some places a weird blue color) from the sand or salt or chemicals that are dumped on them to melt the ice and make them safer to travel. It's been so cold, nothing works because the second the ice melts, the super cold air refreezes it. So the road crews don't waste the sand, salt, and chemicals. The roads actually look kind of pretty, but driving on them is an adventure. I've gone out with Brett in his truck, and I've driven my van to the post office and around a couple of blocks just to get it running and moving. Maybe tomorrow I'll venture out to the grocery store. The streets should be ugly and slushy and safer to drive on by then.

... it's freaking cold outside. In 22 winters spent in Michigan, I don't recall schools ever being closed for three days in a row, but everything is going to be closed again tomorrow.  I thought it was because of the sub-zero temps and sub-sub-sub-zero wind chills, but I ventured outside The 'Duh today and saw just how bad the roads are, so I'm guessing that's part of the equation as well. Luckily, Bookmark61 showed up just as I was about to head out the door to rescue joyouswind, so he drove us in his big, 4WD truck with the heated seats.

Krysten needed rescuing because her car has some serious design flaws and her spare key was in her old bedroom upstairs. I would really like to know who at Chevrolet thought it would be a good idea to put the battery in the trunk, make the ignition lock onto the key when the battery dies, make it impossible to open the trunk using the fob or the switch inside the car when the battery dies, and make access from the backseat to the trunk one-way only - through the trunk. We had to take Krysten her spare key so she could open the trunk and remove the battery (which is now sitting on her bathroom floor thawing out).

On the way to The Joe to rescue Krysten, we got stopped in The 'Ville by a policeman directing traffic so a snowplow could maneuver into the road. The plow was trying to clear a residential street that was blocked by snowdrifts almost as tall as the plow. I didn't fully appreciate how much snow we've had until then. Of course, until today I'd only stuck my nose outside long enough to start my van and let it run for a few minutes and scoop up a bowl of snow to make ice cream.

Making snow ice cream (delicious with Kahlua, I discovered tonight) is one of the ways people around here have been amusing themselves to stave off cabin fever. There has also been blowing of bubbles to watch them freeze, and tossing of boiling water out the door to make more snow. Boo thinks such things are insane. When we open the backdoor to let him out, he sits his butt down in the middle of the kitchen and just stares at us. I suppose if boiling water turns to snow before it hits the ground, poor Boo must be making peecicles. I can understand his reluctance to come within grabbing distance of the door.

I've been amusing myself knitting. Specifically, trying to learn how to knit something besides dishcloths, which is a useful skill, but I have a stack of dishcloths in the kitchen and a backup stack in a bag in my bedroom. I have a superfluity of dishcloths. So I am teaching myself how to knit with two colors to make stripes and purl to make designs and I'm working on a scarf. I estimate that I'm about one-twelfth of the way done. If I hadn't ripped it out and started over six times, I might be closer to one-tenth of the way done. My goal is to finish it before next January, and then learn how to knit socks. I know, I know - my life is too exciting for words!

And that's the news from The 'Duh. Stay warm.