It was another bitterly cold day here in North Iowa, and today when discovering we are getting visited by another arctic vortex, it’ll make just about everyone want to buy a one-way ticket to a beach on the Mexican Rivera. When running into another colleague, I mentioned how this type of weather makes me exceptionally nervous and worrisome for all the people that have to be out in it.
Two different times today I noticed low-slung cars getting hung up in un-plowed snow. I have no idea why people who’re living here buy them in the first place when knowing we have six months of winter. I remember very well that young man I helped get un-stuck in a parking lot last winter who thought he could barrel right thru some deep snow. His low-slung foreign car’s underside was tightly held fast by hard-packed snow. As far as I’m concerned, those are Florida cars that don’t belong in Northern Iowa.
I would say the bulk of my morning was spent shoveling snow and thank goodness I got it all finished before the temperatures started to drop and that wind picking up. While driving out to the east side of the City around noontime, I noticed far too many homes with sidewalks and driveways that hadn’t been touched. It surprises me how few people actually shovel snow anymore. It seems all the more homeowners are buying those monster snowblowers for such small areas in need of shoveling.
I happened upon an article today that was talking about the “real” Parmesan cheese that comes from one special area of Italy and made from a rare breed of cows milk. The more I read about it, the more interesting it sounded to where I looked to see if it could be purchased online. Of course Amazon which now seems to sell everything does have it, and believe me, it’s expensive.
Since I was out on appointment this afternoon on the east side, I stopped at HyVee to see if they sold that cheese. I only found one genuine Italian made cheese which was Piave. I took my chances and purchased a small hard wedge of it. When I got back to the office, I opened it and cut off a thin slice. Wow! I was surprised by the real cheese “bite” it offered. I did look online to see what its uses are and found it can be used as a grated topping for pasta or a thinly sliced side garnishment. The next time I have pasta, I’ll have to grate it for a topping. I was even thinking it would be a good topping for roasted or grilled chicken.
Since I had a few hours to kill, I forced my self back at that nasty year-end accounting of mine. After today, I’d say I’m definitely on the down-hill slide of it when seeing my worktable getting all the more cleared of little papers, big papers, white papers, colored papers, and every other shape and size imaginable. And to think there are hundreds of thousands of others out there doing pretty much the same thing at the same time.
After looking at our extended weather forecast, I noticed this Saturday is supposed to be above freezing, so I decided to host a public open house at 341 S. Carolina here in Mason City. I’m hoping there’ll be a good number of homebuyers out that day since it’ll already be the 2nd of February. I’m still a bit shocked when seeing only a few homes coming on the market at this time. For what it’s worth, 341 S. Carolina is a great home for anyone who’s into yards and gardening because there’s a 1/2 acre there that can be put to a multitude of uses. I still think it would be a great place to raise chickens, and if you happen to stop by, you’ll agree.
Tonight’s one-liner is: We are sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.
