Warm and sunny

We were supposed to get a little snow last night, but the storm passed us by completely, not a drop of precipitation. February just doesn't feel like February anymore. On Friday it got to 76 degrees! Beat the previous record (set 45 years ago) by 4 degrees. I know one weird temp doesn't mean that much, but February seems completely different from the old days. I don't know what to wear in the winter anymore. Why do I even own turtlenecks?

It was an odd week because the kids had both Thursday and Friday off -- both teacher workdays. I, of course, did not have those days off. Thursday I got nothing done, but Friday I went to school early and did class prep and grading until it was time to teach my one little class at noon. Rocket Boy took the kids to the Botanical Gardens -- a good choice, since it was (as noted above) 76 degrees. They got home around 5:30 and we completely forgot about the eclipse. Later though, after the twins went to bed, I went outside and saw that the beautiful full Snow Moon was surrounded by rainbows. This photo isn't very good, but it sort of shows what it was like.

Since Valentine's Day is Tuesday, I finally got the kids to choose their valentines (for school). I checked out Target and found almost nothing, checked out Rite-Aid and found a little more but not much, so in the end we went to King Soopers, which still had an excellent selection, and everything was marked down. Kid A chose "truth or dare" valentines, with laffy taffy to go inside, and Kid B chose valentines that came with little plastic stencils, with gummy bracelet valentines as an alternative (neither set had enough for his whole class, so he got both). Today, after computer time was over, I got them settled at the dining room table and they wrote all their valentines and I helped assemble them. When we were done, I packed the valentines into two ziploc bags and checked the notes from their teachers to find out whether they were supposed to bring them to school on Valentine's Day or the day before. Turns out it's neither: their V-Day party is FRIDAY. So we're all ready, FIVE DAYS early. Oh well, can't complain about being prepared. It would have been much harder to try to engineer all this on a school night.

I still have to think about what to do for V-day at home. I have a nice card for Rocket Boy, and I observed Kid B writing a stencil card for me and one for his father. But what else? Make heart-shaped cookies? RB and I won't try to do a romantic dinner: too expensive, especially including childcare. See's Candy is on the "grab your wallet" boycott list, because they sponsor "Celebrity Apprentice," which Trump still gets money from, so I encouraged Rocket Boy to patronize Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory instead. However, we're down to about $50 in the checking account, so he really shouldn't buy anything. (Not to panic -- the rent money will show up in a day or two.)

I don't feel as though I accomplished much political work this week (just spent hours and hours reading news stories), especially compared to the awful things that happened, such as Betsy DeVos getting confirmed. But good things happened too: Kellyanne was reprimanded, the 9th Circuit Court upheld the stay on the travel ban, and sleazy Michael Flynn was revealed to have perhaps committed treason (hoping for more on that this week). Also, it's not clear what "accomplishment" really looks like, so I probably shouldn't get down on myself. I did some stuff: no phone calls, but I wrote 9 postcards, sent 2 or 3 emails, signed 3 online petitions, and today I happily signed the electronic valentine to Elizabeth Warren. I also studied the grabyourwallet list carefully, but since we are not doing a lot of shopping, period, it is hard to know how to help. I did see that Kohl's, Target, and Lands End are considered good places to shop at the moment, so if we need underwear or socks, I'll have choices. I'd love to reward Nordstrom for dropping Ivanka Trump's stuff, but I can't afford to. I also missed this week's protests. There was one in Boulder and another big one in Denver, protesting the anti-abortion rally. I love the fact that 10 times as many pro-choice people showed up as pro-lifers -- but I didn't go. Another time. One of my emails to Senator Cory Gardner was to ask him when his next in-person Town Hall would be. Ha ha. The man is running scared, afraid to show his face in this state. Hey, Cory, it's OK! We're not violent. We just want to chat.

Tonight I decided to write three more postcards: valentine postcards! I don't know if they sell such things, but I just took three nice cards from my pile and stuck some little hearts on them. I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on them in addition to my messages, and all four of us signed them. We sent them to Trump and to our two Colorado Senators. Very enjoyable exercise! I believe postcards are not the recommended form of communication (phone, email, tweet, Facebook, and Instagram are what keep being mentioned), but I do get a kick out of them. I choose the scenes carefully and write something different every time. I don't use "scripts." These are my own (UNPAID) words. I think as long as I am doing something, and millions of other people are also doing something, it's all you can ask.

So that was pretty much the week. We watched another Raymond Chandler movie ("Marlowe" from 1969 -- I got it from the Denver public library) and I read Poodle Springs, which is the last novel he began, finished by Robert Parker. Mildly entertaining. In February I like to read Barbara Pym books, so I read Crampton Hodnet and started Some Tame Gazelle. The plan is to alternate Pyms with other books. When I finish STG I plan to read a Chandleresque novel I have out of the library called The Black-Eyed Blonde, and then I'll read Pym's Excellent Women, and then I'll read the book for the book group, and then I'll read Jane and Prudence, and that might finish out the month. We'll see.

Speaking of all that, I should get ready for bed so that I'll have some reading time. Tomorrow I will have to grade papers all morning before class, but I am otherwise prepared. My additional part-time job starts Thursday. And on we go.