In the eye of the maelstrom

Of course a maelstrom is a cataract or whirlpool, and the "eye" is a very bad place to be, because that's where everything gets sucked down to destruction.

I was thinking more along the lines of being in the eye of a hurricane, because that's a point of calm surrounded by raging destruction.

Hurricane is such a prosaic and overused word though. Which made me want to use maelstrom instead. It sounds ever so much more posh! And to be fair to myself, it's not uncommon for English speakers to substitute maelstrom for hurricane.

A complicating factor is that I'm nowhere near the eye of a storm. I'm out on the edge. My close family member, who rather (but not completely) unexpectedly showed up for a visit 10 days out of alcohol treatment, is. Upon arrival this person commenced (most likely continued) drinking heavily. This person is the one in the center of the whirlpool. This person is flirting with real mortal disaster.

My place in all of this is to be a sounding board and adviser to my Mom and to the relatively sane ones among my siblings. I'm the guy who has to look at possible problems and line up options and be prepared to put together and execute a plan on the fly. Which is fine. Better than fine, really. It's hard and stressful and hard and stressful is good.

Given the above I've spent some significant time in discussions with various treatment/recovery professionals and with family members. I'm getting stuff done and have a pretty comprehensive set of options explored. For the moment it's a waiting game. It is what it is.

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It's been cold the last few days and nights, with high temps never reaching the freezing point and overnight lows tumbling to near zero. December. Here's some yesterday:



Rambling around the pasture babbling. Hope Red doesn't turn me in to the mental health people.



More babbling on about ice, snow, cows, chopping ice, and the scatterbrained state of my decision making processes.



Also yesterday I attempted a sausage cheese balls recipe that looked good for some reason. I was rather anchored in place while waiting for return phone calls, so I gave it a shot. Apparently sausage cheese balls are a real big thing in the south, so I'm surprised I never ran into them. But I guess you can't run into everything. Though I once had a girlfriend who gave it the ol' navy try!

Well, I wasn't impressed. Nona kind of liked them, but then she was throwing up this morning so maybe I'll leave this particular arrow out of my quiver. YMMV.

So far so good today. In a big surprise that no one saw coming, the weather continues to be typical for December. As does my whining!



You can't see cows on the other side of a hill until you look over the top of the hill, Who knew? I deleted the "other" video by the way. It was beyond help.



Still useful after all these years. For some values of useful.



When I checked out at the food store this morning the college freshman girl checking me out (home on winter break) said, "Would you like paper or plastic Mr. Evertson?"

Very sweet, polite, smart, hardworking girl, and one of the reasons I have a great deal of confidence in the future of our nation.

But still. Mister Evertson? Do I look like I'm, um, oh firetruck. I do, don't I?

Be well and enjoy the blessings of liberty.