Chilled to the bone

First off it is dang cold here. Temperatures with minus signs in front and relentless gusting frigid arctic winds. 25 below wind chills today, the coldest in years. We also had a ridiculous ice storm.
So there's that.

Lucky for us all, the sun keeps rising.

 And setting.

And rising again.

The nights have been so crisp and clear, and one night, an icy cloud made the moon look like a nebula. I froze trying to catch a decent picture.

I think I caught Jupiter on the corner there. 

I've been chilled to the bone, which is a nice change of pace from hot flash flushed, but I'm really starting to yearn for some creature comforts lately.

I've been meaning to post, but bitching about the weather is so, so boring.

I could bitch about the inane idiocy of dealing with new Blue Cross insurance, fun stuff like having a prescription refill be denied because they decided to put this med on their excluded drugs list. I could still pay a fortune for it, but it wouldn't even go toward my deductible, which is an obscene amount of money. Hours on the phone and in person at the drugstore and on the phone with Florida Blue getting conflicting and wrong information.  Just thinking about the wasted hours is boring me. Tedious stuff.

Also tedious, my never ending series of things that have to be fixed around here.

Things do indeed fall apart- washing machines, microwaves, ovens, vacuums. I sit around another day at the beck and call of a delivery/repair/installation guy, hoping to cross one more stupid thing off my list of things that need to be fixed or replaced.

Helpful hint of the day, even though they are cute and really neat, don't waste your money on a roomba, I'm two for two for them dying a frustrating electronic death. I loved those little things too,   I felt like I had little friends helping me clean, chirping cute uh-ohs when they needed to be recharged or empty. Now they just beep the hopeless beep of obsolescence, of wasted money, and I'm back to vacuuming by myself the old fashioned way.

I've been trying to keep everybody happy and healthy here, which is easier said than done, wrangling teenagers and a tired husband. I think we're figuring things out though, life things, getting along, talking to each other, so I'm grateful for that. There have been some rough patches emotionally for me, times where I default to my fall back, which is everything is wrong and sad and broken and unfixable, and then I remember that I'm menopausal and the kids are still teenagers and life is right on schedule. Nothing is as sad or messed up as my teen years, and we've been so very lucky, so I continue to count my blessings. And pour my whiny heart out into draft posts that never see the light of day. I'm over 10% for my drafts that never get published, too dreary or true or pathetic to hit Publish. But I keep them around, they're good reminders of the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride. And sometimes, there is wisdom to be found in those unblogged posts, comfort in knowing I've felt this way before and I likely will again, but I'm OK.

And every day, the sun comes up, and the sun goes down. And I get a little bit closer to the hot, hazy days of summer, of bright light, heat, warmth. 

If you look close, you can see my Christmas tree lights reflected in the window.

Don't judge me, but it's still up, sparkling away in a cozy corner of my life.

It's really a Winter tree, since we skipped the seasonal ornaments and went with snowflakes this year.  

Prettiest tree yet. We're actually joking about leaving it up until Spring. 

Wouldn't bother me one bit. I'll take all the light I can get right now, sparkly or otherwise.