What I saw yesterday. A group of school children coming into the park to play. A park ranger walking to meet her colleagues. Townspeople coming to get their mail.

Captain’s Log Stardate 2022.2.5. The cold persists. The music endures. The companionship maintains.

There is something be said for hauling around bags of mulch and spreading the contents about the garden. It’s this. They’re heavy and they’ll make you sore.

I have a small cow in my front room. It sits beside my easy chair. I keep books on it.

I went to stand beside the road in the hills just south of town and watch the sky. Again.

Got up early yesterday, drove in the dark to meet my brother to play golf. We did. Ate lunch. Came home.

No sleeping child in the front room, no sleeping child in the guest room. It’s just me so I slept in.

Once again, I am writing from beneath a warm quilt and high-count cotton sheets.

I thought seriously about simply skipping my little morning word exercise today. There are children in the house and my writing area is temporarily a bedroom.

I’m on a roll. I’ve cooked dinner for friends two nights in a row. The kids are coming tonight. So, that means two more dinners.

I thought, going into 2022, I was going to avoid writing this sort of thing, because I really wanted to lighten the mood this year. But talk about elephants and rooms.

Previously, on This Mundane Life: John took down, boxed and stored the outside Christmas lights. Ladders were involved but no falls were reported.

All the leaves are brown and mostly on the ground except for the evergreens and a few of the oaks reluctant to drop their treasure. Winter is here and its cold.

Ah, suburbia. Home to extravagant Christmas light displays. I love it.

My Christmas cards went out yesterday. While I was lying in bed last night, however, I realized there were a few people I wanted to add to the card list.

If there’s an upside to winter and long dark nights. It’s cool air and long dark nights.

Gray skies promised rain all day yesterday. Gray skies failed to deliver. I guess they had business elsewhere.

I entertained yesterday afternoon. Had two people over. There was wine, cheese, and some wassail. It was fun.

On our very first Christmas together my wife and I put up a tiny Christmas tree on her grandmother’s old oak side table.

There’s a feeling I’m unable to shake that a big test is coming. It probably has to do with this Saturday.