If we were having coffee: Oh what a night edition

Yesterday’s sunrise.

I’ve always envied people who sleep easily.  Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.

~ David Benioff, City of Thieves

Heralding the storm.

If we were having coffee, tea, or some other beverage, I would be surprised and happy to see you.  Come on in!  It’s a mess out there, isn’t it?  Since it’s so late in the day and the snow has started again, maybe we should make this a pajama party rather than a coffee chat.  I’m already in my PJs because it’s been that kind of day.  We can have grown-up beverages, too, if you’d prefer.  I’ll probably stick with herbal tea.  A nice rooibus.  I had a rough night last night (as you could probably tell by how tired I look) and tea is about all I can handle for now.

A wider view.

How are you?  Did the storm they named Jonas come calling on you last night or this morning?  If so, how did you fare?  Did you get a lot snow?  How about wind?  Did it roar and howl?  What have you been up to lately?  Are you well?  Have you gone on any good walks or hikes?  Traveled anywhere?  Treated yourself to something special this week?  Read any good books or watched any good films?

In the beginning.

M and I have watched a couple of movies since our last coffee chat.  Trainwreck, which was pretty much as expected.  Funny and entertaining.  And Get on Up, a bio-pic about James Brown, the Godfather of Soul.  I enjoyed both but of the two, I liked Get on Up the best.  I am a fan of soul and funk, the music was good, and I learned a bit about James Brown.

Snow falls.

As for books, I’m still reading The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman.  I should finish it sometime this week.  It’s an interesting book about Jan and Antonina Zabinski, Polish zookeepers in Warsaw who saved over three hundred people who were hiding from and/or escaping from the Nazis.  I also started reading Adyashanti’s Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering.  I seem to have quite a collection of books about non-duality on my bookshelf.

I made a sweet potato and black bean chili for dinner last night.

If we were having coffee, tea, or something else, I would tell you that last night was a very long night.  The storm that has been named Jonas came whistling in with snow around 2:00 PM yesterday.  It snowed and snowed and snowed.  I went out before dark for a little while to walk in the woods and enjoy the snow, but most of the accumulation happened after dark so the pictures I took are not much to look at.  From the looks of things on the deck, we got about six inches or so of snow.

Snow squiggles.

A brief side note:  I am not a fan of the naming of winter storms.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe because I feel as though it amps up the hype and fear factors.  In this case, perhaps amping it up wasn’t a bad idea.  This storm has caused a lot of damage at the beaches around here, and it isn’t finished yet.  I’ve been following local news primarily, but I know that west and north of us they received a lot of snow and it will probably be a while before they dig out.

Snow streaks.

Around 11:00 PM the snow changed over to sleet or freezing rain, and then to rain.  That’s also when the wind began to howl and roar, pelting and pummeling the house with the rain and its own force.  I went to bed as usual, but could not get to sleep with all that noise going on.  M, it should be noted, sleeps through pretty much everything so he didn’t get the full experience of the storm last night since he was busy in dreamland.  The house was rattling and rocking, and sometimes the wind boomed so loudly that it startled me from a drifting half-sleep that was neither sleep nor wakefulness.

Winter paints a scene.

Since sleep was so elusive and the storm was so loud, I gave up on bed and sat out in the living room until about 4:00 AM, mostly listening to the storm.  It was not insomnia keeping me awake so I turned the television on for a little while.  We don’t have cable, but do pick up quite a few channels over the air.  Unfortunately, there’s not much on in the middle of the night.  Next time I will use my internet bonus bytes and stream something.  (The bonus bytes are “conveniently” available from 2:00 AM until 8:00 AM.)

Looking out last night.

If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have gone out into the elements just to see and feel what was happening outside.  I didn’t think of it until this morning.  I’ll put that on my list for next time, too.

Rainy morning.

Today has brought more wind and rain.  Our backyard is beginning to resemble a lake.  The rain changed over to snow a little while ago, and it’s expected to continue to snow for the next several hours as we get hit with the back side of the storm.  The wind continues to blow at about 25-30 mph, with gusts (they say) of up to 50-60 mph.

As the snow melts.  (This afternoon before the rain changed back to snow.)

If we were having coffee, tea, or some other beverage, I would tell you that I am a little disappointed about the rain.  Maybe tonight’s snowfall will stick, but it is so wet out there that I’m not sure it will.  Then again, the low tonight is expected to be about 24°F so if it freezes, which is likely, we might end up with an interesting winter wonderland come morning.

It was slushy on the deck this morning.

If we were having coffee, tea, or something else to drink, I would tell you that it has been a lazy day, especially for me.  M will be cooking dinner tonight (because he’s a great guy).  He’s making potato and leek soup, salad, and I can smell bread baking so that means he decided to make some kind of yeasty rolls.

Swaying in the meadow this afternoon.

If we were having coffee or some other beverage, I would turn the chat over to you at this point.  Pardon me if I’m a tad sleepy-headed.  I think we might be watching a movie later if you’d like to stay.  Or we can grab Bananagrams and play a fun game of that.  If you’re leaving, be careful out there.  Quite a bit of snow has fallen since you arrived and the temperature has been dropping so I’m sure there must be ice on some of these back roads.

Misty rain.

Thank you so much for visiting.  Be safe, be warm, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

This post is in response to Part Time Monster’s #WeekendCoffeeShare.  Put the kettle on, start the coffee maker, open a bottle of wine, or whatever your preference is, and join us.  I’d love to hear all about what you were up to this week.

A little snow left on the ground.