Cold Valentines

Started today with this week's trip to the laundromat. It was surprisingly quiet when I arrived there at quarter after 10. The only people there were a middle-aged man and an old woman who were complaining about the generation gap and how horrible anyone who isn't their age is. I read An Unsutible Job For a Woman and ignored them. It didn't get much busier in the hour and a half or so that I was there. People were likely still trying to avoid the 20-degree temperatures.

After I got home and put away my clothes, I pulled out my Valentine's Day decorations. I don't have a lot for this one, just two tinsel garlands, one white, one red, a bear-shaped tin, a red ruffle-and-rose-trimmed candy box that was too pretty to throw away, and lots of heart-shaped window hangings. I also have two cardboard hangings I picked up from the thrift shop last year, a pink bear with a valentine and a Holly Hobbie-type pioneer child against a pink backdrop.

I ran Tales of the Gold Monkey all morning after I got in. The Late Sarah White was by far my favorite of this batch. Jake, Corky, and Jack fly to Manila to rescue Sarah when Jake suspects that her reported death may have been faked. The other two episodes were more bizarre. The Lady and the Tiger involved Jake rescuing an Amish mother and son from a very hungry big cat and a group of Western-loving Japanese soldiers. The Sultan of Swat has Jake defending his childhood baseball hero when he's accused of killing a native girl.

One of my big chores for this week was getting all those boxes and the recycling leftover from the holidays downstairs and out to the curb. I did manage to get it all downstairs...but I ran out of time to get it to the curb and just barely made it to work on-time! Good thing it's cold but not windy, and the clouds wouldn't come in until later.

Work was on-and-off steady all night, busy enough to keep boredom at bay but otherwise not a problem. I was in and out with no trouble.

And of course, when I got home, a car was blocking the part of the curb where I usually put the recycling and trash. I hope my neighbors don't mind my moving it in front of their house. I had to be really careful bringing it out front. The side path is fairly clear, but the front yard is covered with ice and very slippery!