It is now very cold here. My shabby black leather coat is no longer sufficient. I must get out my shabby warm coat, with gloves and safety pins in the pockets.

Once in a while, when I wear my winter coat for the first time, I will put my hand in the pocket and pull out money. It’s always an incredible thrill when that happens.

It’s not going to happen this year. We’re so short that I sought cash through every pocket in the house months ago. There wasn’t any then. There isn’t any now.

But we still have our house. That’s something.

My flowers are dead. There are a few chrysanthemums hanging on for dear life but everything else is wilty and gross. Plus, the utility company trimmed around their wires yesterday and now we have some really funny-shaped trees. (They left huge limbs all over the yard, too. I think they should have cleaned up their mess, at least.)

And. . . . I bought our Thanksgiving turkey yesterday, and it’s thawing in the refrigerator. I love preparing for holidays. (They were on super-sale, too.)

The college was giving free flu shots this morning, so I got one. I’ve never had one before, as my immune system is very compromised (Jerry’s Kid) and my doctor always said it was a bad idea to deliberately inject even weakened germs/viruses/whatever flu is made of, into it, but this year with all the new flus hovering about, he told me to go ahead.

I am also being evaluated by my students this week. Last semester, the evaluations all went really well; I am hoping for similar results this semester. It’s impossible to make everyone happy; indeed, it is not my job to make them happy. (It’s nice when I can, though.) From the expressions on a few of their faces over the course of the past few weeks, I think I’m doing pretty well with the ‘not making some of them happy’ part of the job.

We had to watch a film tonight about grammar. It was almost two hours long. I thought I was going to die of sheer boredom after about forty minutes It was very educational and interesting. And honestly, I’ve seen worse. They weren’t in English, and we threw things at the screen, and we got up and left before it was over, but I have seen worse.

The dialogue was, shall we say, different. If I tell you that the best part was when they kept saying “Wow! That’s a big wheel of cheese!” you might understand why we all kept nodding off enjoyed it so much.

It did make me want some cheese, though. And now that I’m home, I think I’ll go to the kitchen and get some.