nopin

Monday, November 15, 2010

Notes from here and there

1. Breaking news from the front page of the Minor News: Moose tangles self in rope, is freed by policeman

2. My avocado seed, beginning its new life as an Alaskan tropical tree:


We got several inches of fresh snow last night! Yay!


Pumpkin, kale, and crumbled sausage soup:


I confess that like many cabin dwellers, I do not make a high priority of actually going to the outhouse, which is down a slippery slope. I tend to pee wherever I can safely skitter to in my house slippers. The girls have made it their job to escort me outside. They've even expanded their vocabulary to accommodate: When I tell them, "I have to pee," they beat me to the door. Anyway, lately they've gotten lazy. They just walk to the edge of the porch, leeeeeean around, and supervise me from a distance. When they stand on the porch before I've swept it off, their paws melt perfect paw prints into ice. When I later sweep the snow, the prints remain until they eventually sublimate away.

11 comments:

Rena said...

You crack me up.
Ah, an out-yard, instead of an out-house! On the plus side, peeing in your yard is imparting valuable nitrogen into your "American meadow". So if you keep those spots in mind once the snow melts, you might want to plant your spring garden there.

just sayin.

How nice that the girls escort you to the bathroom. Minnie the cat only escorts me to the refrigerator during lunchtime.

b said...

Why don't you just pee in a paper/styrofoam cup (esp for middle of the night or just-before-you-turn-out-the-light-at-night-from-reading-a-book-in-bed-and-you-are-nice-and-toasty-under-your-covers pees) and then pour out the cup in the morning?

Heck, I would just always pee in the cup during the winter time. It's friggin' cold out there!

b said...

P.S. More on the cup idea. If your own ex-sled dogs can't even make it past the porch, you shouldn't be expected to either.

Arvay said...

Meh, it doesn't bother me. It's funny that you keep mentioning the cold, because it's not the cold that bothers me so much as the inconvenience... I have to bring a tissue, then come back inside, then wash up. What I miss most about conventional toilets is not that it's warmer, it's that it's closer and has a sink right next to the toilet. I'm probably a bit OCD on this, but I like the time between peeing and handwashing to be as short as possible. I have purell in the outhouse, but it's not the same.

As for the girls' not leaving the porch, that's due to laziness, not cold. You can bet that temperatures above zero are more than comfortable for them! You can also just as surely bet that they would venture beyond the porch to pee, themselves! :P

Anonymous said...

"I have purell in the outhouse, but it's not the same."

What's the freezing point of Purell?

Arvay said...

I have no idea, but I've seen it at -35F, and it wasn't frozen. It's not pleasant, though!

On a side note, does anyone else find washing with soap and water a pleasure? They have all kinds of ways around it now--purell, wet wipes, dry shampoos, etc--but I actually *enjoy* water and soap. Maybe I'm just odd.

mdr said...

B worries about your safety and long-term health, just like me

mdr said...

You've always had green thumbs. The avacado plant from the seed you left here was growing very well until you moved away.

b said...

well the paper cup solution solves your problem too! and although you claim the cold doesn't bother you, i'm sure it's not like you enjoy it either - especially in the middle of the night. heck you used to not like getting up in the middle of the night in parkmerced to pee in the winter. Other readers: is there anyone out there who thinks it is pleasant to go out in below 0 temperatures to have to use the toilet?

Arvay said...

b, are trying to prompt me to complain about the cold? Well no, it's not pleasant. But I see nothing to be gained by making an annoyance into an active complaint. I could complain all day, if I wanted to--about the cold, the inconvenience of living an atavistic lifestyle, the general annoyances of being a grad student anywhere (bureaucratic problems, the dullness of crunching data), my low income, etc, etc. There are lots of things to complain about!

Or, I could wax poetic about my endless suffering, write dark poetry and listen to dark music. Tell people how I am building character through a spartan, difficult life, etc, etc.

Or--and this is my choice--I could suck it up, take the bad stuff with the good, and not make any drama out of either the bad or the good. Bad, good, it all comes and goes. It's what I call *living*.

b said...

boy talk about miss the point!