Fold Over

There was a time in my life when my to-do list at work might easily have included three hundred or so phyllo triangles, but that was decades ago. Even so, I found out today that that's a skill I may never forget. 

A neighbor of ours, suffering from a bit of cabin fever after being iced in all week, invited several friends over for a happy hour this afternoon. She offered to provide the drinks if we brought snacks. I had an unopened package of phyllo dough in the fridge, left over from Christmas, along with feta cheese and some greens from our CSA share that I had blanched and chopped. 

It was not a stretch to mix together a little filling, melt some butter, and start folding away. Our kitchen has a few exterior walls, and it's been cold in there all week, but today I appreciated the pastry-pantry temperatures that kept the butter, filling, and dough in perfect condition, allowing me to knock out three dozen little triangles in under 15 minutes. I think the neighbors will be impressed, even though they needn't be.

But we'll let that be our secret.

Leaning Into Her Ninth Decade

Heidi's mom is turning 80 in March, and like with most things, she's got some thoughts about how she'd like to celebrate. In fairness, we did ask and offered to organize the party and treat her and her guests. Her birthday conveniently falls on the Friday that Heidi's spring break starts, and we've booked dinner for 18 the following evening at a longtime local favorite steakhouse.

I spent part of this afternoon making the invitation on the web-based design site I favor. I really like the way it turned out, considering I started from scratch: just a blank page, no template. We started gathering the items for the gag swag bags, too. Louise wants Bingo cards, reading glasses, pill organizers, and salt substitute for everyone. She also chose the earliest time available at the restaurant, so we can say we got the early bird special.

Is It Though?

One of my bowling friends gave me a spontaneous hug this morning. "I'm so glad you retired and decided to join us!" she said.

"Me too!" I answered. "It's the best thing about retirement so far!"

Another of our bowling buddies raised her eyebrow skeptically.

"I said, so far," I laughed. "Give me some time; it's only my second year!"

It's Still Bad Out There

We woke to a scrape, then the bleating of a backup alarm, followed by tires spinning on the ice. A moving van was stuck on the tight turn in the corner of the driveway outside our condo. The window on the landing gave us a front-row seat to the crew as they tried first to gun the engine, then to push on the truck's cab, neither to any avail. 

The side of the trailer was stuck on an enormous mound of ice and snow at the edge of the drive, where residents had piled it while shoveling out their parking spaces. We winced when one of the men slid under the back and poured salt melt beneath the tire. "That'll get you killed," Heidi said. But his risk was without results. The van was wedged high enough on the embankment that the wheel was off the ground. 

Next, they produced a crowbar and began chipping away at the pile. At last, one of the neighbors on that side of the complex came to the rescue with a snow shovel, and Heidi followed with our steel forged sidewalk scraper, the perfect tool to break through the ice.

The crew themselves produced some cardboard boxes to wedge beneath the tire, and a little while later, I saw the truck bump down once they had chiseled the ice from its purchase. With a little more shoveling, they were finally able to back the truck up, more than an hour after they had run aground. 

The turn proved to be impossibly tight, however, so they backed the van all the way around the loop road that rings our complex until they could finally pull forward and drive down the entrance hill, rescheduling their call for another day.

Prognostication

"If it snows like they say it will," I told Heidi last week, "you won't go to school at all. Especially with a work day Friday. I'm calling it now."

Nailed it!

Good Neighbors

It's not often around here that we get the kind of snow we had Sunday, and that's a good thing. While the community we live in pays for a plow to clear the circular road around the complex and shovelers to do the sidewalks, residents are responsible for digging out their own cars. With no assigned parking, things can get ugly quickly if someone leaves the space they spent time and energy clearing, only to return and find it taken.

Having lived here for decades, it seems like we've seen a lot of mini-dramas unfold over winter parking, but we've seen a lot of neighborly gestures, too. Naturally, in a community of 186 condos, there has been a lot of turnover in residents over that time, and I'm struck by the markedly different vibes from storm to storm. 

Some years have found everyone out together, shoveling out all the cars on our end. Other years we have witnessed people throwing their snow right in front of a car that hasn't been cleared off yet, doubling the work for that other resident. One recent change I've noticed is that at least two of the young men who live nearby have dug out their neighbors, for a price. These guys in their 20s, both of whom live with their moms, will only lend a hand if they are paid.

This year, too, I've noticed another trend. 🤨 Anecdotally, as I look out my window and see which neighbors are helping the community, it's all been middle-aged ladies, like us, carrying one small shovel of snow at a time to make room for others.

Active Reader

I spent part of my day yesterday resting up for snow removal and reading magazines online with my public library account, which turned out to be more than simply recreational. Aside from the interesting information I gained, my reading also spurred me to action. After enjoying a fascinating article about family Christmas celebrations in Montreal, I considered making plans to revisit that beautiful city. But then I remembered that Heidi's passport expired, and so I renewed it online before even turning the virtual page. It will be here in six weeks, and international travel plans will be back on the table.

Likewise, after reading a charming essay about another author's memories of making orange marmalade with his English granny, "The recipe is basically a ratio—2-to-3-to-6, fruit to sugar to water," he says, I was inspired to satisfy my hankering for a bit of the bitter spread by preserving the oranges I had and making a microbatch of Mrs. Barrenger's Marmalade. On homemade sourdough toast with a dollop of burrata, it was a delicious breakfast this morning, and fuel enough for all the shoveling we did today.