nada rien ahtle nothing

At the moment it is a typical winter weekend morning on Cavan Corner. The blower for the forced hot air whirs and the warm air coming up through the floor vent is doing battle with the cold radiating through the sliding glass door. Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse (they've all met a horrible fate; the mice that is). Valerie's friend Evan fell asleep on the couch around eight last night so we just let him sleep. He had mentioned he had a hard time adjusting to a school schedule after two weeks off. Alex has been catching up on his sleep after his first semester at college. Ruth has been in sleep debt ever since Elliott was born and Elliott sleeps dreaming and processing all that he lives his waking hours. Valerie, not needing much sleep like me will most likely be the next to appear in the kitchen.

Long tree shadows stretch out over the sparkling snow-covered backyard. The cool gray branches are motionless in the absence of a breeze. The back deck is still adorned with Christmas lights, ornaments, and garland. Ruth did a nice job decorating; the lighted deck at night looked like it should be filled with merry-makers if it hadn't been below freezing every evening. I think I'll suggest to Ruth we sting up some plain lights for the summer; they would inspire us to spend time out there in the evening being festive.

The continental divide is all white and the sky above it and in every direction is
the blue that we all want our blue skies to be. It is suppose to warm up significantly today and I was concerned that the warm up would be Chinook wind induced but the cloud bank that would have to be sitting above the divide to indicate that is not there. A long run should be a visual pleasure today although the true delight is internal as runners know. Sun block on my face will be in order; I hope I can find some.

The kitchen looks like a family tired and hungry on a Friday evening threw together some bacon guacamole cheeseburgers and had all they could do to get the table cleared off and the dishes dumped in the vicinity of the sink. The cluttered counters look worse than it really is. I think twenty minutes is all that it will take to erase the evidence of lipid-laden crime. The two hour run will erase the evidence of my participation although my guilt is double that of the others.

Pancakes anyone?