Novemberness

I knew it had been a long time since I last posted, but I didn't know it had been two and a half weeks. Sorry about that, if anyone is still out there. We've had some stuff going on.

First, our cat Pie Bear went outside about two weeks ago and was attacked by something. Probably another cat, but our vet raised the interesting idea of a raptor, and since then I've been unable to get the image out of my mind. After an expensive trip to the emergency vet, Pie was supposedly getting better, but somehow we couldn't see it. Finally Rocket Boy took him in again, and we learned he was ACTUALLY at death's door. So he was re-hospitalized, is now home again, and seems to be better. Oh, so so so much money to save a silly black cat. Here's one of his wounds, healing nicely:

November is such a serious month. It seems appropriate that serious things would happen during it.

The weekend after Pie was attacked, we paid a visit to the cabin -- to drain the pipes and close it down for the winter. The fall colors were gorgeous, in a bleak sort of way.

I saw the beaver too (or one of them -- I assume it's a couple, at least).

We tried to go swimming at the Fairplay pool, but it was closed for the month. We may not try again until 2016 -- though I shouldn't say that, I suppose. Rocket Boy usually visits the cabin once or twice during the winter, and maybe he'll try to swim.

One of those November days the kids and I went to a park in north Boulder that they like.

A storm was coming in, but not quite here yet.

But a week or so ago a storm did finally come in, dumping over 13 inches of snow on us in the midst of seriously cold temperatures.

This was a few days after the dumping, so all the snow is compressed. It never really did look like 13 inches, because it was so cold and powdery -- no substance to it. Here's the view out our kitchen window, one of those mornings:

And here's a close-up of that thermometer:

I just love waking up and finding that it's 10 degrees, don't you? At least it was 10 degrees ABOVE zero. There was another morning where it actually said 10 degrees BELOW zero, but I didn't take a photo.

It's November, folks, not January! Why does it have to be so cold now?

Well, I shouldn't fuss. November is often a very cold month, and it's warmer now -- in the 40s, even though there's still a ton of snow on the ground. I haven't been outside in a few days, though, because I caught something from a student last week. Saturday night I started coughing -- and it was so sudden, I thought I must have aspirated something, even though I couldn't remember doing that. I coughed desperately for an hour or so, then took a pill to make me sleep. But in the morning I woke up coughing again.

Then I did a terrible thing: we'd planned to take the kids swimming that afternoon, so even though I was coughing, I went along. I tried to cough as little as possible in the pool (crowded with all the other people trying to escape the cold temps) but I did cough some, spreading my germs far and wide. When we got home, I went straight to bed, and bed is where I've been ever since. In fact, the time it's taken me to write this blog is the longest I've been up since Sunday evening.

I am getting a little better, but now the rest of the family is coming down with it. Rocket Boy came home from work around 11:30, ate some soup, and went to bed, where he remains. Kid B spent the day dozing on the couch with the TV on. Kid A insisted on going to school, even though he had "the cough" too, but I imagine he will stay home tomorrow. (Just as well -- several people in his class have lice.) Yesterday my temperature hovered around 101 all day, but now it's down to 99.5. I will probably go to work tomorrow. Meanwhile, I think I should get dressed (I've been in my nightgown for 2 days straight), because Rocket Boy is clearly not going to be able to retrieve Kid A from school in half an hour. The question is whether I can. I haven't really had anything to eat in 2 days.

We don't have any plans for Thanksgiving yet. I'm thinking we might take it REAL easy this year.