Back Home, Back in the Groove, Back to the Grind

I squeezed every minute of "away" that I could out of yesterday, not leaving the motel until 1 PM, and then taking the long way home down the bay side of the Door peninsula.  I even stopped in Ephraim and Fish Creek to take some frozen bay pictures and in Fish Creek I noticed that Beach People was open so I stopped in to do a little browsing and a littler bit of shopping.  I got home around 3 o'clock and there was Durwood's smiling face waiting to listen patiently to my prattle.  When I unpacked I realized that I left my surge protector with all my chargers plugged into it in the room.  Grrr.  I called TCK (she works there a few evenings a week) and she'll bring it along when she comes to GB a week from tomorrow.  But grrrr, really.  I can't believe I missed seeing that snarl of wires when I did my last sweep to check for anything left behind.

It's cold.  It was 12 degrees when I went out to top up the birdbath.  Durwood said that it's supposed to snow an inch or two this afternoon too.  Good lord, what have we done to pi$$ off the weather gods?  Anybody planning a ceremony to retire Winter and usher in Spring?  Call me, I can bring a dish to pass and a few folding chairs.  There's hope though, when I crossed the Leo Frigo Bridge over the mouth of the Fox River and the bay of Green Bay yesterday I saw open water.  Open water!  Really, and not just a crack either... Open, Unfrozen, Water.  Whew.

Filippo Pelagio Palagi, Gabrielle Capello and Carlo Chivasse, Sofa.  Arlene thought it was too quiet so she went looking for the kids.  They weren't in the playroom, that would be too logical.  Not in the conservatory playing hide and seek among the potted plants or swimming naked in the fountain.  They weren't in the kitchen bothering Cook or in the library making forts with Grandfather's books.  She was sure they weren't upstairs in the schoolroom doing their homework.  If they had been, she would be certain they were all sick.  She had that cold feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach; not being able to find them meant they were getting into something they shouldn't.  She checked in the barn to see if there was a litter of kittens keeping them occupied but Jack the stableboy said he hadn't seen them.  Her heart froze when she glanced into the parlor and there they were, coloring in the white spaces on the Italian silk brocade sofa with markers.

I'm debating about wearing longies to work today.  Maybe just wool socks and foot warmers with a couple shirts/sweaters and a shawl.  It is getting up into the 20s, after all.  No need to go full-on winter.  Fingers crossed.  It's Monday!  It's payday!  Yay!
--Barbara