Well, here we are. It’s the last Friday of January. And that means, of course, that it’s International Cabin Fever Day!! Wheehee!! And a great big HAPPY CABIN FEVER DAY to all my brave readers!!! Believe me, if you are reading these ‘musings’ each week, then you truly are brave. Or perhaps crazy like me! I know that some of you have actually been with me ever since the very beginning. And that was a long time ago. Amazing. Some of you need to get out more. I hope you have been enjoying your Cabin Fever Day. You know, presents, birthday party (hey, this is CABIN FEVER we are talking about here), paper party hats. Muffin ate hers. Well, she tore it apart with her teeth anyway. She always likes to do that. It’s the lion in her. We played games, like her favorite, Skiffleball. Then we chased each other around the apartment. That doesn’t take long, this place is quite small. But it does have it’s cozy feel. Which I like. The chase was going well until I tripped over the stool in the bedroom and ended up smashing against a cabinet, then bumping into the bed, then landing in Muffin’s water dish. So much for that water dish. She now has a new one. Hopefully I wasn’t the one that put that dent in the washing machine. Who puts a washing machine in a bedroom anyway. Should be in the bathroom. Okay, the bathroom isn’t big enough. But a minor change would have fixed that little problem. Even the birds got a treat today. You should have seen them. Bouncing around out there on the feeder. They seemed to be quite happy. Yes, I know. But it is terribly hard not to feed them when they sit out there all day long, looking in the window with those sad eyes, cooing so softly, looking over at the empty feeder, then looking in the window again. Kind of gets a person. Muffin agrees. She wants me to feed them more. Get them nice and fat. Then invite them in for supper. She can’t fool me. I know why she wants them inside. HA! Like I’m really that stupid. Well, okay, maybe sometimes. Fine, most of the time. Well, sometimes I’m not. Sigh. It’s winter and I’m, I’m…ready to bang my head on the wall, pull my hair (what little I have left), roll on the floor (okay, already did that one today), and, and… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s okay. I’m fine. I’m calm. I think. Sigh. And there is still so much of winter left. I don’t think I’m going to make it this year. Every year it gets worse. Muffin agrees. She used to need a reason to bite my foot. Now, it’s just because it’s there. We just sit here staring at each other, rolling our eyes, sticking our tongues out at each other (yes, she does that), jumping up and down for no reason (well, I have a reason, my foot is sore), then we both lay flat on the floor and don’t move (that is easy for me). Sigh. At least it has been a bit warmer the last few days. But next week, back to the deep cold. Sigh. Then there is Fuzzy, to the left, I hope. Depends if this works. Otherwise there will be no Fuzzy. But I will still be here. I hope.  I see it didn’t work. Sigh. Fuzzy always enjoys coming for a visit. And being petted. And of course getting ‘scritched’ around the ears. All deer like that it seems. She always comes running up to me as soon as I go out (which is only as often as necessary this time of year), her tail wagging, much like a dog. Amazing really. Muffin always likes to say ‘hi’ to the deer also. But she doesn’t get to see them up close anymore since they rarely come up on the deck now. Speaking of sleeping. I’m not. But I was. Sleeping, that is, last night, which is quite normal for me to do, and I woke up just after 1am, I’m just laying there, still not quite fully awake, when suddenly it hits me, something is burning. Now, I don’t know about you, but that is not something I want to smell anytime, much less at 1am. Woke me up fast. Smelled sort of like plastic, or maybe wires, burning. No smoke though, and I couldn’t find where the smell was coming from. Still, I had to stay up for awhile just in case. Good way to end sleeping for the night. Finally decided it must be from outside. So went back to bed. Muffin couldn’t figure out what was going on, I don’t normally get out of bed so quickly. Sigh. Speaking of bed. No, I will save that for another time. It’s time to call it quits for today. The sun has set, just to the right. Hopefully. If it doesn’t I think I might cry. Or scream. But screaming scares Muffin.  Okay, it’s below instead.  This idea obviously isn’t working too well. Sigh. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your CABIN FEVER DAY and your weekend. God bless!

Steve and Muffin. And a bunch of other critters. Wheehee!!

10 extra points if you can guess where that pic is taken, a special gift to the one who answers first!

Here it is, another day, another cold day, another very cold day, another day to stay indoors and drink lots of COFFEE!  What else?  This is weather where it is necessary to dress warmly.  You know, two pairs of socks, long underwear, two sweaters, that sort of thing.  But when you go outside it is necessary to dress very warmly.  Takes awhile to get dressed to go outside in this weather.  By then I don’t want to.  But really, for me, I never want to go outside.  Sometimes, however, it is necessary to do so, otherwise Muffin and I would get hungry.  And that is not good.  Especially when Muffin gets hungry.  That is not good.  Especially for me.  And my feet.  Speaking of feet.  It has been suggested to me that I should go barefoot, and then I would not need to worry about getting wet socks and changing those socks so often.  Right.  Me go barefoot in the winter.  I don’t even go barefoot in the summer.  Bad thing to do.  For me at least.  Just not going to happen.  The floor in here is way too cold anyway.  My feet need to be warm.  And I stress that word need.  People don’t believe me when I say that.  Oh well.  It’s  too hard to explain sometimes.  People just kind of stare.  I get that same reaction at the store.  I’m looking for something, can’t find it, so I ask.  And the person, who supposedly works at the store, just stares.  Like I just dropped in from some other planet and I’m asking for some strange object that has never been heard of before and the person I asked is trying hard to think of something to say but doesn’t really know what to say because of what I just said because what I said doesn’t make sense to the person I said it to and therefore the person doesn’t know how to answer and finally just says something like, ‘I don’t know, not my department’, even though that person has been working in that department for the past 6 months or they might say, ‘we don’t sell that anymore’, when in reality they never did, or they might say to try a different store which translated means, ‘go away, I don’t want to talk to you anymore’ or I phone a restaurant and ask if they have any gluten free meals and they say, ‘what is that’ which really does answer my question or they ask if that is some kind of foreign food, which on one hand it really is kind of a foreign food and again it does sort of answer my question but there are some restaurants that offer such meals now.  We have one.  Well, okay, there are 2, though one only has it sometimes and one said yes, we have several different salads that are gluten free.  Salad.  I am asking for a meal and they suggest salad.  That, to me, is not a meal.  I’m not going to a restaurant just to eat a salad.  Not a chance.  Sigh.  It is still cold.  Very cold.  It has been a long winter.  And it’s still only half way.  It’s definitely CABIN FEVER TIME!!!!!  And I have it.  I really have it bad now.  I’m ready to climb the walls, bang my head on the ceiling, fall down (what do you expect?), roll on the floor, pull my hair and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s okay.  I’m calm.  I’m fine.  I think.  Sigh.  Soon it will be International Cabin Fever Day.  That’s the last Friday of January.  Needs to be sooner this year.  Winter began too early this time.  Sigh.  I think I might go on vacation soon.  No, I can’t actually go anywhere.  Muffin and I will just stay home.  Lock the door.  Don’t answer the phone.  Just stay home and look at pictures of Hawaii.  Sigh.  And Muffin adds, eat.  Sometimes I think she reads Garfield.  I will have to make sure I buy a lot of food ahead of time.  My vacation might last a month.  Sigh.  I told you I have CABIN FEVER.  That’s the proof.  One of my neighbors must have gotten a drone for Christmas.  And it flies around at night.  Comes quite close to my windows, which I don’t particularly like. So I have to make sure my drapes are closed before it gets dark.  Probably doesn’t look in the window, but who knows?  Okay, maybe that’s another sign of CABIN FEVER.  But I can’t help it.  Sigh.  I get CABIN FEVER every year, but some years are worse than others and this is one of those worse than others years and probably the worst in a very long time.  Sigh.  That happens.  To me at least.  Some people never have the problem.  Strange.  I’m sure Muffin has CABIN FEVER too.  She gets that look.  It’s a CABIN FEVER look.  Fortunately I wear slippers now that winter is here.  Helps to protect my feet.  From cold.  And from teeth.  Wheehee!!  I think. Oh well.  Okay, I’m just kind of babbling today.  That happens too.  Think warm, enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.