Friday was possibly a knitting group day, but I wasn't in the mood for traipsing all that way with a prospect of snow, and decided to walk in the sunshine instead.
First I started the car and trotted to the mailbox at the end of the block, noting that there was an icy wind in progress. The kind it's hard to breathe in.
So I brought in the mail with another change of plan, involving reading warmly at home, sweeping the living room floor and crocheting.
The mail was a couple of cheery greetings from the Infernal Revenue, one telling me last year's income for tax purposes, the other saying lucky you, old taxpayer, you're getting a cost of living increase. However we also have to raise your Medicare payment so it will sort of evaporate the increase.
Thanks to Reagan way back, part of social security can be Fed taxable, so I did a quick and rough calculation, close enough for gummint work. I determined that I'm very unlikely again to have enough income to pay Fed taxes again.
Which probably also means no State tax either. A couple of times I've sent what I thought I might owe the State, their forms being a bit ambiguous, and they've shot it right back at me. Oh.
So the papers are neatly filed ready to be forgotten.
And the crochet proceeds
This piece is an exercise in geometry as much as anything. It involves having to calculate how to turn inside and outside corners without too many stitches, to incorporate those imported little squares.
And generally fathom this unexpectedly interesting and baffling series of issues presented by what seemed simple at the outset. That sums up so much of life, when you think about it.
I also needed to deal with the rest of the coconut milk left from the great tofu masala caper, and the chickpea "mayo".
So I employed a supply of whole wheat macaroni, inherited from Handsome Son, and, using the mayo and coconut milk with a chunk of cheddar, parsley chopped in, made a sort of cheese sauce for mac and cheese.
It's okay, a little bit piano, and I think the next helping will include maybe capers or olives or feta cheese or something with a bit of bite.
On top is smoked paprika which I really love, first time I've used it, having only the sweet variety up to now. The color and scent are mwah.
Still reading the Delderfield and starting to want a list of characters like those intros to Russian novels, to keep the neighborhood straight. But it's good winter reading, not deep and demanding or intense.
The intenser Delderfield tries to be, the shallower and magaziney he gets. Like Catherine, in Less than Angels, a writer of magazine stories.
Catherine's character is a great sendup of the genre of mag story writers, in true Pym fashion. Except that Catherine is quite dispassionate about her work. She's one of my favorite characters in literature, partly for this reason.
Happy day everyone, enjoy the unintended humor that comes at you. Especially if you've triggered it yourself, which this hapless blog writer often has
