Respite

Time Warner appears to be up and running again. Whatever it is that causes the massive slowdown, it happens every holiday.

The holidays were fairly quiet. Christmas Eve I spent a good chunk of the morning at Panera, enjoying coffee and a bagel and catching up on some reading. Part of that has been the preparation for the new Bible study, about which I'm very excited. The material is fairly basic (the study guide is titled First Steps for the New Christian), but it's presented in a dynamic, personal way. The study begins January 10th; sign ups continue through the 6th, as I can do the two-day shipping thing and have the books in hand by the 10th if I order after church that Sunday.

Then it was home to throw the roast in the crock. I'm not a huge fan of the crockpot, and still have issues with figuring cook times, so it was a guess that I could put a 3 1/2 pound chuck roast in the pot on low at 11 a.m. and have it edible at 5 p.m. I shouldn't have worried; it literally fell to pieces as I took it out. The gravy came together well, as did the rest of the meal.

A new friend from church came to dinner Christmas Eve. She was the only one to take me up on my offer, and we had a wonderful time.

Christmas Day was very quiet. I passed on an invitation to a friend's house for dinner; not up to five adults and eight smallish children (four of them under the age of five). The landlords were out of town, so all the noise I had was the thunder of the cats upstairs. Honestly, it sounds like a herd of buffalo at times.

Out again for coffee this morning, and a beautiful morning it was. The sun shone brightly all day, and the temps were up to almost forty. I have to confess that I opened the sunroof - the roof itself, not just the sunscreen - on the way home. I would do that if it hit forty in March, so what difference should it make that it is December?

It isn't going to last, though. Friday - the day I have a million errands to run - we are supposed to get 5 - 8" of snow. Maybe. They don't seem to know for sure yet, but it is supposed to start during the morning commute and continue until sunset. Part of me wants to run errands anyway (brushing a couple of inches of snow off the car three times is easier than doing 7 inches once), and part of me wants to hole up. The errands can wait until Saturday, I think. I have to check the coupons.