Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

January came in a hot mess and is going out a hot mess. Thankfully, in between we had some really lovely, sunny days. Just last week the sun made an appearance a couple of days, giving me and the boys a chance to get out and enjoy the warmth several times each day. Friday evening, though, straight through yesterday, rain fell. Overnight it turned to snow. The snow is still falling now, which is fine by me. If I had my druthers, I'd rather have snow to take walks in than rain. Snow is just more fun. But it's time to say so long to January. It's been a good month. Lovely Beautiful Daughter turned 29 and Angel Baby turned 22. We were going to celebrate both birthdays today, but out of an abundance of caution we decided to wait for a day when the roads aren't slick. That might not be until April or May, but we've become used to waiting to see each other. The last year has taught us to be patient. I've been working on my book. Not making a ton of progress because I...

This past week being Thanksgiving week, I decided to use a couple of my personal days and take the entire week to just hang around the apartment with Ado. The time away from campus has been absolutely wonderful. I wanted something colorful to cover up the old phone jack on the wall in the kitchen. Now, this makes me smile every  time I walk into the kitchen. I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument. I figured since Funny Delightful Son didn't want to take this to school with him, my opportunity to do so opened up. I now know how to play one song. So far, my week has been me learning three chords on the ukelele, beginning a painting of birds on a wire, painting over the birds because I decided I didn't like them and painting new birds that I now like, going to the dentist for some teeth work I've been putting off (and happy to find out my blood pressure is good -- 112/80 (though the 80 is borderline) -- which I credit to regular meditation), pu...