Weather With Me...

..is cold, rainy and blustery...what one of the television weather forecasters calls a 'Level 1' (out of 5) storm.  The clouds have been enveloping us in a heavy, damp envelope all day. As darkness is drawing in, I look up from my place on the couch where I seem to be spending more and more of my time in time to see the clouds, still low, breaking up just enough to reveal the hills behind them.It is what we sometimes refer to as the 'cloud movie' as we watch them slowly drifting back to cover the mountain again.

I have not felt motivated to do much other than begin clearing some of the more dead and dry Christmas decor which has been on display for almost a month. The dancing tree has been carefully wrapped in it's special cardboard container, the wax candle trees surrounding the créche  as well as the créche itself are back in their boxes. I'm saving the tree for another day as I don't feel like carrying all the boxes upstairs to be filled with ornaments and taken back down again.

John and Jim got John's new phone and have synched it with his new Apple watch. We're changing providers so I could have gotten a new phone but elected not to. We haven't even finished paying for the one I've got! After Jim went home, we turned on the television and there was no sound. Peter came to the rescue and couldn't figure out why it said 'speakers off' or how to get them to turn on again (I got that far without Peter) but he did figure out a work-around and connected the sound via bluetooth.

This morning as John was playing with his watch he got a message from the bank (or was it?) asking if he had made certain credit card charges. Rather than call the number given in the message, John called the bank's customer service. It seems the message was legitimate and the charges made on our credit card were for online gambling (not by us). The charges have been removed, the credit card has been cancelled and a new one is being sent, but in the meantime we will have to use mine. Once we get the new cards, we'll have to start remembering who has the old number and changing them. We should make a list and put it with our list of passwords. Trouble is, both things are something of a moving target, constantly changing, so a list is of only limited usefulness.

I made it to Pilates in the pouring rain, ran through the parking lot in nothing but a sweatshirt, having forgotten my rain coat in the rush out the door, and arrived in class uncomfortably damp. We did a lot of lunges and squats which are becoming increasingly difficult as my knee tends to swell like a balloon. Riding my cheap exercise bike isn't nearly as interesting as riding through Tokyo, but it's only for 20 minutes, and I have no intention of ever riding it for any longer than that.

It is now completely dark, and the windows have turned to black holes as we have no shades. Time for a glass of wine and a sound check on the television.