Good early morning GH. When I got up a bit ago, the view out the Weather Window was just the soft glow of street lamps and seemingly every light in the house across the street. Otherwise, not much to see. We are currently at 33 degrees, with an expected high of 39 degrees. It certainly is quiet here in the off season early morning hours.

Ran into an interesting man at our favorite watering hole last night. He raises llamas, sheep, goats, chickens, peacocks, and cats. He lives on about ten acres and commented that feeding that menagerie all this past winter has been markedly more expensive due to the drought conditions last summer and the odd warmth of last spring. Apparently hay is twice the price per bale.

Yesterday, as I mentioned, we saw the movie Chasing Ice, that was a true chronological record of the shrinking of the glaciers and ice packs around the world. It truly was gloom and doom, a photographic record of the devastation caused by man's activities and the devastating effects of the climate deniers in our government. To say the least, it was not uplifting, and Mary and I came away with a renewed felling that it may already be too late. I just hope that the kids who are being squeezed by the sequestration in our government today, somehow find the educational opportunities and the finances to pay for them. Maybe they can solve the problems that too many officials and talk radio types are denying. I'm just not sure it may not already be too late. I should mention that the sequestration is already squeezing the monitoring and enforcement efforts of the EPA, NOAA, and similar agencies. If you are of the type that believes in the rhetoric that government is bad, just consider these words. "It is said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried." Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, when you are determined, you generally can accomplish anything. Hope springs eternal.

I finally have the appointment for my knees this AM. I never thought I'd look forward to the pain that comes with the treatments, but the stress and strain of snow removal this winter, seems to have taken a toll. (Mary says we are leaving town next winter in February, but the way things are going this year, we would have to leave for March too.) However, the alternative to these treatments is knee replacement, and unless the pain becomes so bad that I can't handle it, I'm not going. Plus, maybe as time goes by, new treatments will be developed that won't require the big time surgery and rehab that comes with knee replacement. Hope springs eternal once again.

So, until it is time to get up for...Tea time and the like, I'll be saying Ciao.

P.S. I had to mention a word that I came up with last night, goofidity. For me, the definition is something that you do that is; goofy and stupid in its outcome. If you had the chance to do it over again, you probably wouldn't. But like an accident, these events are mostly unpredictable and therefore, an act of...goofidity. I dunno, I like it.