The dog has not wanted to step outside for more than a few minutes and I can’t blame him. Between the heavily salted sidewalks which hurt his paw pads (he will not tolerate wearing booties), snow drifts in areas is as deep as he is tall and the frigid temps, he’s only good for a couple of minutes before deciding “Nope!” and bolting back towards the house.

It looks like it’s going to be single digits during the upcoming week. Daytime with the sun shining brightly now hovers at twelve degrees. The Frost King has arrived and holds his icy grip on us.

That’s OK with me though – I’m staying inside as much as possible. I had been dealing with some kind of sore throat-headache-sinus thing that finally morphed into a month-long relentless cough, the residuals of one of the many viruses that has been circulating this winter. My guess is I picked something up from one of the grandkids, those little petri dishes carrying their colds and viruses home from school. But it could have been from anywhere. At one of the kid’s basketball games. In the supermarket. In a waiting room. I had been priding myself all year for being pretty healthy – just a lesson that pride is a slippery slope.

For the first three weeks of this exhausting plague, all the natural remedies were tried: Hot teas of echinacea, mullein, coltsfoot, fenugreek, etc. Elderberry syrup. Fire cider. Herbal tinctures. Steam inhalations. Essential oils. I figured it might run its course, but nothing even remotely helped – instead things progressed for the worse. I’ve heard from others it could last for months but after one month of this I started to get a little scared.

Finally I broke down and went to Urgent Care, where they supplied a nebulizer treatment (which didn’t help) and prescribed three medications, one of which sounded so scary on the package insert that I decided not to take that one. It didn’t matter, because none of it made any changes to the cough at all. Five days later I was finally able to see my regular doctor, who thought the lingering cough had been caused by RSV, prescribed yet another medication and an x-ray. A week following that and finished with all those meds, things are finally starting to settle down long enough to sit at the computer. Still coughing, but not up all night and as wiped out from it. While grateful for the science, at the same time I feel polluted by the multiple pharmaceuticals lingering in my system and look forward to them clearing out of my body. So here I sit at twelve degrees, mostly observing the world from behind the window of The Urban Porch.

There is a cat that has begun arriving most nights, setting off the motion camera usually between the hours of 1:30am and 4:00am. It will jump up onto the same section of railing and stare at where the ivy is growing up the side of the house.

During the daytime the House Sparrows are in and out of the vines and leaves, so I imagine that is where they are sheltering at night, since they do not migrate. The cat never appears to make a leap but will sit there at rapt attention, leaning forward in anticipation. Then it leaves, only to arrive and repeat the same pattern the next night.

It looks well-fed so I imagine it might belong to someone. My neighbor also has a bird feeder in the area where our yards touch and sometimes it will shift its attention to that spot. Perhaps mice are under the feeder scavenging for spilled seed, but the cat never makes any further moves. While it is interesting to observe the nocturnal behaviors of the local fauna, I seriously dislike bird-killers and am not a fan of outdoor cats, which (at least around here) are an invasive species. Throughout the year there are a number of neighborhood cats that arrive at night to traverse or hang out on the porch, both feral and not. I wish there was a gentle, yet effective way to discourage their visits.

We have had ongoing snow over the past few days – first six inches, moving into the next day adding five more inches, followed by two more inches a few hours later. The view from my bedroom window presents as white on black

and black on white.

Ever lengthening icicles have formed off the soffits, stalactites generating a steady drip-drip which I cannot hear but provide a visual meditation.

The bathroom window has created a whole new volume of ice pictures over the last two days, which I may share in a later post. I have a few names for this one – “Hibernation” or “Isolation”….. or maybe “Leave Me Alone.” What do you think?

Before we got slammed with snow, while out walking the dog I did notice the neighbor’s Fence Dino had been changed into a winter sweater. It is enjoyable to catch random pops of color amidst the winter landscape.

And while out for groceries last week this beautiful display of chestnut mushrooms (Pholiota adiposa) was so eye-catching that I couldn’t resist taking a photo.

Over the last month, most social engagements had to be canceled due to “the cough.” Alas, a box of chocolates I had purchased to contribute to one of the gatherings must not be wasted! I think I better remedy that now…

So…. twelve degrees. A day of changing sheets, doing laundry, paying a few bills, planning what to make for dinner, catching up on some correspondence, reading and a few television series I’ve missed. Sounds like the life of a retired person…which I guess I am. All that, and finally sitting down to write a couple of lines here, while I eat some of that ungifted chocolate. Rudi is cozy in his blanket, and not long after the sun sets, that’s my plan too.

~*~