Coping Skills: Chocolate

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This is the current list of coping skills.

4. Eat a little chocolate.

https://www.francolania.com/2017/08/20-health-benefits-chocolate/

https://luxatic.com/best-chocolate-brands/

https://www.lakechamplainchocolates.com/chocolate/organic/

Snow

It stopped snowing yesterday evening, then started again late last night.  Now it's barely snowing, but there's a thicker layer on the ground.  In some places, it's thick enough that the grass doesn't show through, which hasn't happened in a while.  There are drifts in a few places, but not really deep.  It looks several inches deep on the back step and patio.  Yesterday we shoveled that area a few times, so it's probably not piled up over the door.

It's four-bird cold out.  That means they're crammed onto the hopper feeder, as many as will fit, more interested in gobbling seeds than squabbling with each other.  :D  I've seen a flock of sparrows, several cardinals, and a mourning dove.

EDIT 2/3/22 -- It is now snowing quite briskly, and the wind is blowing.  Snow is about ankle deep in most places, but I can see a few drifts that are calf-deep. 

There is ice and snow on the trees, which are tinkling in the wind.  I've seen a lot of small twigs down, but so far no large branches.

I brushed snow off the car again.  Surprisingly some of the ice cladding underneath has melted; most of the windows have only streaks instead of solid glaze.  The windshield is still glazed, though.

The road has been plowed but not recently, so probably some time late yesterday.  Parts of the road are almost clear, but looking up and down it, I can see drifts in some places.  That means some stretches of road, and especially corners, probably have deeper drifts.  :/

EDIT 2/3/22 -- My partner has shoveled the patio a couple more times.  It's snowing less now, but some is still blowing around on the ground.  There's a calf-deep drift at the edge of the southeast porch near where the steps go down along the house, which is on the way to the fly-through birdfeeder.  Much of the south lot still has grass showing through a thin layer of snow, but north of the driveway there are drifts.

EDIT 2/3/22 -- After supper, it was still snowing.  I went back out and shoveled a path on the back step and a few feet onto the patio.

Birdfeeding

My partner shoveled off the back step and part of the patio.   It's still snowing a little.

I fed the birds.  When I lifted the hopper feeder, a male cardinal flew off the back side of it!  He was that reluctant to stop eating, he hadn't realized I was there.  LOL  They're swarming the feeders.  I'll probably need to refill those at least once today.  Usually I just put out a scoop and wait until the next day.  But right now, most of the wild food is covered, though I figure some are probably foraging berries on twigs and seeds from tall weeds.  I'll keep the feeders full to make it easier.

I've seen a large flock of sparrows, a flock of mourning doves, several cardinals, and a dark-eyed junco.  I'm starting to think that poor junco got separated from a flock somehow.  We have them some years, and not in others.  They're flocking birds and act a lot like sparrows.  It's rare to see one alone. 

EDIT 2/3/22 -- I spotted two dark-eyed juncos together, both male, and another in a different place that might be female.  I'm glad they have a little flock at least.

EDIT 2/3/22 -- After lunch, I refilled the birdfeeders again.  Most were empty or close to it.  The birds have been at them all day in varying numbers.  Presently a flock of sparrows, two dark-eyed juncos, several mourning doves, several cardinals, and a starling.

Poem: "You Are So Busted"

This poem came out of the February 1, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from Dreamwidth user Nsfwords, who is sponsoring it in two installments.  (The final installment should arrive on February 18.)  It also fills the "You Are So Busted" square in my 2-1-22 card for the Valentines Bingo fest.  This poem belongs to the series Eloquent Souls.

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Notes for "You Are So Busted"

These are the notes for "You Are So Busted."

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Read "You Are So Busted"

Thanks to a donation from nsfwords,  you can now read the first half of "You Are So Busted."  (The second half is slated for sponsorship on February 18.)  Denis has always hated his soulmark.

Dreamwidth Community Bug Fix

In checking the followfriday community, I saw that while I'm a member of it and subscribed to it, I did not have a "Post" link in the top menu bar, nor did it come up in the "Create Post" window in the pulldown menu of communities I can post to.  But the community profile page said that posting was set to All Members.  I checked with jjhunter who was able to fix it.  I wanted to describe what happened, because it's likely to come up in other cases where people are trying to revive older communities -- and you need Administrator access to fix it.  If you run a community, you might want to check your settings and make sure they're doing what you want.  

Fixed! Thank you for the bug report -- it looks like this community may have been grandfathered into the posting access for all members, and on the backend in the members tab only some select members actually had posting access. I toggled the overall setting off posting for all members, saved, and then reset it to all members, and it's now showing all members as having posting access now.
-- jjhunter