Friday bullets - November 12, 2021

It's Friday and we've had all the weather... rain, sleet, snow. every time I looked out the window the weather was different. 
  • This sight never fails to make me happy. A new load of hay in the barn.

And it's a good thing, because with this rotten weather, we burn through hay.
  • Our co-op has a craft fair in December where students can set up a table and sell things that they have made. L. and K. have now stocked up on supplies in order to make enough things to sell. K. is planning on making cardboard Star Wars things (he needed hot glue) and L. is making clay Minecraft characters (she needed clay). G. would like to participate but is still deciding on what to make.
  • I now have the three turkeys I need for Thanksgiving. We'll be 27 (if I counted correctly) at dinner, plus we really, really like leftover turkey sandwiches. We'll cook two ahead of time all cut off the bone and cook one turkey on the day. It is good that they need a long time to thaw because I have a side of beef which will be ready soon and three, twenty pound turkeys take up a lot of room in the freezer. I'm also thinking I may need to thaw and can the frozen applesauce that is currently taking up a shelf. I'm not complaining; it's a good problem to have. A freezer that is also a tardis would be fantastic.
  • J. and I are being interviewed on WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station) on Monday, which feels a little surreal. Do I or do I not mention that G. and L. will sometimes wander around the house humming the theme music to All Things Considered?
  • I finished my third skein of the yarn I am making. I think that means I only have ten more to go. 
  • Today I made a batch of granola and three different types of instant oatmeal. People are pretty excited because it has been a while since I have made either of these things.
  • It has been a much better week for R.
  • I finished the book, The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway last night. I was really excited about this book because it was such an engrossing story and I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. And then it ended. Actually, I should say it just stopped. Pretty much all of the different plot points which were crying out for some sort of resolution or explanation were just left hanging. It was published in 2013, so I quickly went on a search because surely, there was a sequel would all would be revealed. Nothing. Supposedly the author was working on a sequel, but that was in 2013. It seems unlikely that I will ever find out how the story really ends. Most annoying. 
  • On the other end of the spectrum, a book I finished last month, Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati, had, in my opinion, the total opposite problem. I loved the first four hundred pages. It was another book I was looking forward to recommending to people. But one hundred pages from the end, all of the plot points I was concerned about were tied up and I couldn't bring myself to read them. Yes, I stopped reading a five hundred page book one hundred pages from the end. I just didn't care about the rather painful details of the actual working out of the conclusion. So, one book ended too early and the other book ended too late. I've never had such a streak of difficult endings before.
  • I found snow pants at a decent price for G. and L. last weekend. That felt like a huge success. I even found them before there was actual snow.
  • And suddenly it is nearly 10. How did that happen? Evenings never seem to last as long as I think they should.
  • One last item for those who might have missed it. The director of the documentary is hosting two Q and A sessions about the documentary. They are online and free, you just have to register.

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