Today brought increasingly cold weather and a promise of snow tonight (although I remain doubtful). We were once again foiled by the Grays Harbor Transit as we waited about forty five minutes for a bus home after the three of us acquired groceries (French dips, carrot sticks, and asparagus tonight – kids’ choice; moussaka tomorrow). I need to remember to never, ever, EVAR assume a GH Transit bus is coming anytime soon – next time we’ll huddle up in Safeway and drink cocoa and wait until I see the prostitutes drift away from the bus stop to avoid a potentially-awkward transaction when they elect not to climb aboard. But today, whoops, I thought: for sure a bus is coming soon as we are right-smack in the middle of a prime-traffic time slot. Um, no.
Good Lord, were we cold by the end of it all.
Fellow passengers were dressed ill for the weather, holding large bags of Top Ramen Valu Packs on their laps and hunching shoulders until the warm air blasting through the bus warmed them. When Nels boarded the crowded bus he sat by a young woman heading to drug treatment in Hoquiam. He talked her ear off – I mean he talked non-stop. She was very sweet and gracious and listened attentively like a total champ. And when she disembarked she told a young man sitting a few seats behind us – “You’re cute!” (and he was, with the guitar case and the tiny jeans and emo hair and blue eyes and labret piercing), so she gets total props. I held my daughter close and balanced our groceries and tried not to puke – the bus ride makes me very ill unless I breathe deep and keep my eyes out the front window. In fact I got sick enough I had to bail blocks early and walk; Nels accompanied me, swinging a bag of bolillos and skipping, happily talking about how much he wanted to eat a bite of bread. Phoenix stayed on and disembarked closer to home, breathless and sparkly-eyed from her solo jaunt when she came to the door later.
It was cold enough as soon as I got home and after I made dinner (we hosted my mother as well) I re-started on Phoenix’s wool underlined coat; it should be done tomorrow although I just ordered online for a little covered button kit to get things JUST right. She’ll have to make do in fleece and rain slicker for a couple more days.
It was a curiously tiring day, perhaps all the more so because this morning I did a lot of cooking and cleaning instead of fucking off on the internet for entirely too long. And now: a hot shower and a glass of cheap red wine; a late-night movie tucked in with kids and cats and a very sleepy-looking husband who should probably go to bed but can’t stand not to be up with us while we’re up.
I got cold just reading this post. A few more days around here and gloves will no longer be an option. Stay warm and cozy!
Someone else who gets sick on the bus! And Mikko loves loves loves the very back back seats. It’s too much.
We finally bought some new mittens for the little guy’s hands, because we have a studied habit of losing one from each pair. We have, in the past, put doubled socks on his single bare hand, but we thought we’d be responsible parents this year. I would try knitting some, but they’d be done round about May.
In your last paragraph: Isn’t it true that you need a balance of doing and not doing? I know I feel tired if I get too far one direction or the other on any given day.