I Come From the Land of Ice and Snow: Well, not really. But here in the Willamette Valley, we've endured a week of below freezing temperatures after a snowfall last Friday. The temp was supposedly hovering around zero degrees at points during the weekend. It felt like it.

Sunday in Springfield

Here at Whelan Ranch, we've had busted water pipes in the pump house and frozen pipes in the laundry room, making the home experience ever so slightly more challenging than normal. As it stands now, there's cold water coming freely from the bathroom faucet, but the kitchen sink isn't cooperating at all. We did have hot water for a time, but...things refroze, to make a long story short. Taking a shower? Fahgeddaboutit. Currently stinky and apparently going to stay that way for the time being.

Considering that winter hasn't officially arrived yet, if this is what it's going to be like until spring, I'm seriously contemplating hitch-hiking to Honduras.

Other stuff: Feeling all right, for the most part; a little weaker than usual, but that's to be expected during a second round of chemotherapy. The periods of nausea are becoming predictable: the week of treatment, then I tend to get a break for a couple of days, then it returns the Monday-Tuesday following treatment.

Dad hasn't been feeling well this week and I was finally able to get him to the doctor's yesterday (verdict: stomach virus; he's doing better today). Getting him there was draining; I'm used to him being obstinate, stubborn, and just plain contrary, but there have been times lately when I think he's actively working to undermine me. I don't want to become one of those "bad" caretakers, so I'm making a herculean effort to avoid being angry and resentful. It's work.

[Sometimes I wonder if I reveal too much on this blog. Yes, this is one of those times.]

In lighter news, a stray cat has adopted the Ranch. I'm nowhere near the point of being able to coax it inside, but the critter empties the food bowl I put out for it nightly. There are plenty of places to hide here, but even so, enduring freezing temperatures for a week...impressive.

Speaking of resilient animals, Anna's hummingbirds are year-round residents of the Willamette Valley and we always have feeders up for them. Of course, during this cold spell, the feeders have frozen so I expected that they would have moved on by now. But I've heard the call of the male who claims the front yard as his territorial every day and even saw him chase away a rival this morning while I was out scraping the driveway.

Not much more on my mind right now...the kitchen faucet has just started to drip a little, so maybe a shower is in my immediate future after all. Here's hoping.

Noon update: HOT WATER!