Ah, here it is, a beautiful sunny day, and I am sitting overlooking a calm, small lake reflecting the deep blue of the sky.  There is a robin singing in the distance, a loon is calling across the lake, a small fish jumps making tiny ripples only slightly distorting the mirrored image of the pines in the lake, a squirrel is rustling through the dry leaves in search of pine cones that he recently cut down from a tall pine, one of those cones just narrowly missed my head, a small sandpiper has landed on the shore and is running about looking for insects.  Such a wonderful scene, and it is very real, though not today unfortunately.  Today it is cloudy, cool, damp, a bit of freezing rain mixed with flurries.  It is still winter.  And will be for several more months.  Sigh.  We actually lost a bit of snow yesterday when we had some slightly above freezing temps, but there is still a lot on the ground.  On the plus side, the deer are coming around regularly again.  There is mama, Junior, and Major.  Junior and Major have grown.  But all are still nice and friendly and will come up to me when I call them.  I am going to try and get a pic of me and Major together, but it is kind of tricky.  Sigh.  They all get a bit nervous when I bring out the camera, even though it is tiny.  Not sure why it bothers them.  Oh well, one of these days.  Very icy these days, treacherous walking around.  At least for someone like me.  My balance isn’t very good anymore.  So walking on ice is not the easiest thing to do.  Found that out again yesterday.  Hurt my back, hip, elbow and my eye. My eye because my face landed on my hand.  Sigh.  Most people are looking forward to Christmas.  I’m looking forward to spring.  Sigh.  It’s been one of those weeks, which actually started a week and a half ago.  Sometimes weeks can be quite long.  Sometimes weeks can really stretch into weeks.  Sigh.  I think CABIN FEVER  is going to hit early this winter.  I can already feel it a bit and winter has just begun.  Fun.  Speaking of people.  I’m going to have to start recording what I say.  Because I seem to always get the opposite answer to questions I ask.  So I want to make sure I am actually asking what I ask so I will know I am asking what I ask correctly so I can make sure I ask what I want to ask so I know if I am getting the right answer to what I ask otherwise I will have to stop asking what I ask so I will know what I didn’t ask and then I will know if the answer is correct for what I actually asked and didn’t ask.  Sigh.  If all that made sense then you are in worse shape than me.  Sometimes I think my brain is so mixed up that it will never be the same again.  Of course, maybe it has always been this way and I never knew it until now.  Can’t be.  Otherwise how would I know that it’s the way it is if it has always been the way it is and that it hasn’t changed the way it is so that the way it is, is the way it was which makes it the way it is.  Or isn’t.  Whichever.  Sigh.  I guarantee that I am mixed up now.  Oh well, sometimes that makes things easier.  I think.  Though not often.  Gives me headaches.  Sigh.  Have been trying to do my fall cleaning.  Yes, I know it is winter, but winter came early so I didn’t get my fall cleaning done.  So now I must do my fall cleaning in the winter which really is still fall anyway.  At least according to the calendar.  But who cares what it says on the calendar.  Just look out the window.  There is snow on the ground.  It is cold.  It is winter.  However, I am doing my fall cleaning.  Quit trying to get me off topic.  Muffin does not enjoy winter either.  She really does not enjoy winter.  She wants the door open.  But it’s too cold.  It’s all frosted so she can’t see out that window anyway.  So she has to look out the living room window.  She doesn’t like that as much.  Except maybe at night.  That’s when the raccoons come around.  And they climb onto the bird feeder.  Which is right outside the window.  At least one is anyway.  Then Muffin gets all fluffed out, big tail, hisses, spits, growls and claws at the window.  That scares the raccoons away.  Even though they are much bigger than Muffin.  It could be the fact that she jumps at the window that scares them.  Whatever, it works, and they leave.  But they still come back every night.  And the same thing happens.  Speaking of birds, the rock doves are looking for lunch.  Be right back.  It is quite neat to see all those heads peeking over the edge of the roof as soon as I go out with the food. The feeders are now full to overflowing with doves.  They will even sit on top of one another when there is no room left to actually sit on the feeder, then they just stretch their head down to get at the food.  And the bird on the bottom doesn’t seem to mind at all.  One day there was 20 on the feeder plus 8 on the backs of others.  There are actually more than 60 rock doves that come for food each day.  There are 2 other places that they go also, that I know of anyway.  Good thing, it would take a lot of food for that many doves, they are quite big.  Some of them are getting quite friendly and will eat from my hand.  Unfortunately it is too cold to stand out there too long, otherwise I am sure that many more would be trying it as well.  See?  You got me off topic again.  Now it will have to wait until next week.  Sigh.  I hope you all enjoy your week, God bless!

Steve. And Muffin. And deer. And doves. And other critters.

Good morning all on this wintry afternoon!   Winter arrived way too early this year, just wasn’t expecting that at all.  But that’s the way it goes.  Winter is just not my favorite time of year.  At one time I actually liked winter.  There was always a lot of extra things to do.  Such as snowshoeing.  Which I enjoyed.  And all the winter birds that would come to my feeder.  It was fun.  I was strange back then.  Now winter is just cold.  With snow.  And cold.  And wind.  And cold.  Back to putting on 50 lbs of clothes before going outside.  And it’s still cold.  After all, it’s winter.  And winter is cold.  No matter how insulated a person is with the warmest of clothes…it is still cold.  Can’t get away from that fact.  Just stay inside and drink COFFEE!  Poor Muffin.  She also does not like winter.  Because she can’t have the door open anymore.  She likes having that door open, she figures it is much better than just looking out the window.  Even though the bird feeder is right outside the window.  It’s still not as good as the door.  Sigh.  But all the extra bandages on my feet help to insulate them a bit from the cold.  Somewhat.  Sort of.  Actually nothing really works.  My feet get cold easily.  But then, so does the rest of me. And it is much worse now than it used to be.  Feeling the cold that is.  That’s part of the post polio syndrome.  Naturally.  Now if it would make me feel the warmth more instead.  But then, it would likely only happen when it is summer.  Sigh.  Speaking of phones.  I have one.  It’s the old fashioned kind.  You know, a landline type.  The kind that sits on a table and you can’t carry out the door with you.  It doesn’t fit in your pocket type of phone.  Nothing fancy about it.  Doesn’t have call display or anything like that.  It’s just a phone.  Most things that people today call phones are not phones.  They are mini computers that people carry around in their pockets.  Well, okay, they actually carry them around in their hands.  And they never put them down, no matter what else they might be doing.  Like the person at the ATM.  Trying to do something, I think it was a deposit.  But this person would not put that phone down.  And was constantly making mistakes on the machine.  And then had to start over.  It was enough to make a person jump up and down, bang their head on the wall, roll on the floor and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I’m calm.  But it can be frustrating.  Same thing happened at the store.  A lady trying to pay for her groceries with her credit card.  But she would not put down her phone.  And she kept putting in the wrong pin number.  She finally had to use a different card.  Still didn’t put down the phone.  Not sure how she managed to keep texting through all this.  Though she did make mistakes there too, at least twice!  It was enough to make a person jump up and down, bang their head on the counter (no wall close by), kick the cart and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!  It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I’m calm.  Sigh.  My phone isn’t like that.  It’s just an old fashioned phone.  It’s used for talking.  That’s it.  I think I got sidetracked.  Hmm.  Oh, right.  I got one of those telemarketer type calls the other evening.  This nice lady said ‘hi’ and then proceeded to talk about some survey she was doing.   Finally after about 5 minutes she actually stopped to take a breath so I was able to say something.  I thanked her for talking with me for the past 5 minutes and politely told her I wasn’t interested in taking part in her survey which was interrupting my very not so busy schedule and said ‘goodbye’ and hung up.  She seemed to be speechless.  Sigh.  They always like to call when I’m not busy doing something else and they think I should give up this valuable time to take part in some survey which I am not even interested in doing when instead they should offer me $100 for participating in the survey and then I might take time out from my not very busy schedule to participate in their survey which I am not at all interested in doing but for $100 I just might be willing to do it and I think that would be fair since the person on the other end of the phone is getting paid so I think it is only right for me to get paid as well and it needs to be a sensible amount like I just quoted so it would make up for the fact of giving up my time that I wasn’t doing anything with anyway and that way it would be profitable for me to do so even if I am not interested in the survey that they are doing which usually has nothing to do with me anyway since it usually has to do with odd things like what TV programs I watch which is easy because the answer would be none or which radio programs I listen to and I say something like, ‘you mean they still have radio?  Wow, I haven’t even owned a radio for years’, and an answer like that can leave them speechless as well, I know, I have done it.  Sigh.  It’s winter.  It’s cold. It’s snowy.  Sigh.  Time to stay indoors for the next 5 or 6 months.  That’s it for today.  Sigh. It’s been one of those weeks.  Speaking of weeks, enjoy the remainder of yours, God bless!

Steve. And Muffin.  Wrapped in a blanket and drinking COFFEE!