It was in the high 60s today with blue skies most of the day. I am tired and my legs hurt, but Bode and I got out to “go walkies” both this morning and this afternoon. It felt warmer outdoors than inside.
This morning I heard more birds than usual. We had a fairly calm walk. This afternoon there were people riding motorcycles, bicycles, scooters, and pushing baby strollers. Lots of dogs out too. Bode got excited, had a hard time on the way back, even with stopping to sit frequently.
It was rather slow going this morning. Bode needed to go out just before midnight then again later. Two nights ago he needed to go out several times. He is really good about getting my attention, even when he doesn’t feel well.
This morning I couldn’t seem to get warm, even after a second pot of tea. It is quite mild out, so it is me, not the weather. We stayed in until after 2 pm. Almost all the snow is gone and the river was the highest I have seen it since we moved here. There were pieces of ice floating in it too. Guess it is the combination of snow melt and yesterday’s rain.
There were things to see out the back window this morning though, such as the first cardinal this year. It was behind the house next door. What a splash of color against the winter gray and brown of the tree trunks, branches, and fallen leaves and muted green of the lichen and moss. I was thinking how Bode’s color, fawn, matches the fallen leaves of winter.
Later I looked out back and saw something different at the base of one of the larger trees up the hill right behind the house. I looked more closely and it was a doe, with her legs folded under but her head up keeping watch. I then noticed motion, and saw her fawn was nearby browsing through the brush. My landlord said that there were deer out back, but this is the first I saw them.
This was the scene this morning — corn meal pancakes on the griddle, nice cup of tea, and Bode waiting patiently for his bite of pancake. We went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon even though it was to be warmer today.
Accomplished one goal today, backed up my 2007 photos to a CD. Made Bode a new batch of biscuits too. Saved the bacon drippings from yesterday morning to give them extra flavor.
It was raining when we went out for a walk at around 2. When we went out yesterday saw some mouse tracks in the snow by the river. The snow was too slushy for that today.
I spent some time working with sound files today. Discovered that the LAME library I downloaded for Audacity was giving an error when I tried to save an edited MP3 file. Was thinking of upgrading to QuickTime Pro, while trying to navigate to the specs page, saw someone was online at the Apple Store for chat. They suggested using Garageband instead. Discovered that the files were 8-bit and wouldn’t import properly. Got on again and another rep checked with a software engineer who confirmed that QuickTime Pro could handle the files and was my best bet.
We have had several days of what I would consider typical January weather, cold and a bit of snow — which does brighten things up.
I have been getting re-acquainted with Joomla! for a project, and this morning even modified a Perl CGI script from 2005. Woohoo! It was the script that I use for the “news” section at the bottom of the main home page that displays recent information from a MySQL database. The modification involved adapting it to search a web calendar database for recent events and display them as an include. Surprising how fast things come back although I had to double check the syntax of some Perl functions.
Christmas was fairly quiet. My sister came for the week and stayed with my parents. Bode just loves her, she takes him for long walks and even runs with him a bit. I have still been dragging, missed Christmas Eve services. Last year I went to two of them, so guess it comes out even.
As to resolutions, the only one I have thought a lot about is dropping “been there, done that” from conversations. When someone wants to share their joy at discovering something, they need to hear that I am celebrating with them. I was thinking while listening to holiday music on the radio that although some of us have heard the music from The Nutcracker again and again, some child was probably discovering it right at that moment.
The midnight blue homespun pullover sweater is still on hold, stopped at the shoulders, only the joining and adding sleeves left. Instead, I started a pair of socks in fingering weight navy blue yarn. I think the bulk of the sweater was getting to me. Socks are small and portable.
My left hip, which flared up after that bug I caught this fall, has gotten to the place where I can flex it enough to put on my socks without pain. Not sure whether to classify this as a blessing or lifting of a curse, but it is a positive development.
We didn’t have any snow for Christmas this year, but had spectacular sunsets every evening starting on Saturday. The picture above is from Christmas Eve.
