Quarterly Update: Winter
Yes, it’s cold.
First, and most importantly, the chickens are doing well. They roost outside every night, even in the cold. I was worried the first couple of super cold nights, but then I remembered that birds have been doing this whole cold thing way longer than mammals have.
They are laying eggs still a few times a week, which is such a treat, especially when I can find them and they’re still warm.
Other good news is that my blood thickened, and I don’t need to wear my down-to-the-ankles super warm, puffy coat (aka my sleeping bag) on days below 40 degrees. I just like to. =)
When I say my blood thickened, I mean that in the fall I found 50 degrees cold, and was wearing my long coat. Now, after having experienced below freezing for several weeks, 50 degrees is warm enough for a bike ride in my regular coat. It is really remarkable. San Francisco would probably feel really warm right now, and I still say that having proper heat and insulation makes a big difference.
Oliver is settled well into his not-so-new-now school. He’s making friends, learning how to study for spelling tests, and excited about chess. It turns out that there are a lot of people in St. Louis excited about chess. From what I’ve heard, one of the world chess champions, Susan Polgar, took a position at Webster University teaching chess. Then, chess students from all over came to St. Louis to study chess with her, establishing a strong and vibrant chess community. There are chess teams all over, and even the World Chess Hall of Fame is here. I’m going to have to brush up on my game.
We’ve had one good snow, which was a lot of fun. Oliver was up before dawn, asking to go out and play. He convinced me by saying how he’d never been in falling snow. We built a snowman, made snow angels, had a snowball fight and went sledding all before breakfast. We haven’t had a school snow day yet, but we did have a wind chill day. School was cancelled because the wind chill was –30 degrees. That is cold.
All of that said, I’ve had some really great visits with family. Thanksgiving was one of the most fun family gatherings we’ve ever had. After a delicious meal at my aunt’s house, Oliver and one of his cousins went out to play and found some mud (aka “muck”) down by the pond. They got covered (eyebrows to shoes), and had so much fun. After they got cleaned up, all of the cousins (young and old, after some prodding) had a Nerf gun battle. It was fun. I grew up having water gun fights. This was like the cold weather version of that, where the goal isn’t to annihilate another team, so much as to get everyone as wet as possible. There was lots of laughter. I’ve also had some visits with my cousins, without any of our parents around. I realized that it was the first time that’s ever happened for me, us visiting as adults. I’ve been gone a long time. I’m really looking forward to more of those visits.
Lastly, I’ve been getting out dancing in St. Louis. I learned to swing dance here in college. I did that a lot in my 20s in SF, and not very much since parenthood. I love to dance. The scene here is small, but there’s more than enough to keep me entertained. It’s big enough that there’s more than I can do, but small enough that it’s not overwhelming to make a choice about what to do in any given week. Another benefit of the smaller scene, is that it is more social. The attitude seems to be: the same general set of people go to most of the events, so you might as well get to know them. As a newcomer to St. Louis, this has been a great way to get to know some really lovely people. A smaller pond may not make me a bigger fish, but it at least makes it easier to find other fish to swim (or dance!) with.
