settling into winter

Last month we had a few unseasonably warm days, and I guess it spoiled me, because we aren't getting any breaks in the weather now and it's making me grumpy.  It isn't brutal outside, but with the snow we've had the past few days and the wind blowing hard, I've had to settle for riding the stationary bike.  Finally Gabe and I walked in the pasture yesterday and today.  Even when I have a good book to read while I'm pedaling the bike, I'd rather walk.  Getting outside in fresh air is one of the best weapons against wintertime depression.  There's still snow on the ground, even though a lot has melted.  In fact, we got a fresh covering of the white stuff this morning to dress up what was left from the weekend.  I have to walk slower when there's snow or I'll wear out before I'm done.  

Cliff always reads while he's on the recumbent bike, but that's about the only time he picks up a book; when he's passing time on the couch, he's usually look at tractor repair videos, welding videos, tractor message boards, and such.  He'll finish his book at the rate of thirty minutes a day, then bring me the iPad he uses as a reader, and say, "Get me another book, will you?"  I hate having to choose his books, because we don't always enjoy the same type of book.  When he came to me with the usual request today, I said, "Don't you have something in mind you want to read?  Maybe a biography or something about football?"  "No," he said, "just get me another one of those Flowers books, I guess."

Now, if you have read the John Sandford books that feature Virgil Flowers, you know that many of Virgil's cohorts have a descriptive term they put ahead of "Flowers".  So when Cliff talks about him, he adds that term.  Silly man.  Anyhow, I figured since I was doing a library search for John Sandford e-books, I'd get him one Flowers book and one Davenport book.  That way if he decided at the beginning he didn't like the first, I'd return it for him (I don't know why he won't return his own books) and he would still have one to read.  He looked at the Libby app and said, "I think I've read one of these books; I remember reading one with the word "prey" in the title."  

I explained to him that all thirty Davenport books have the word "prey" in the title.

Back to the subject of weather, we do have a good day coming up Sunday, when it's supposed to be near sixty.  Of course, we'll be watching the Superbowl and the special programming that precedes it, once I get home from church; so I doubt we'll be taking advantage of the heat wave outside.  

We'll be attending a funeral this week, but that and the Superbowl are our only plans.  This makes for pretty dull blog entries, but I'll try to keep posting more regularly, even if it's just drivel like this.  

Spring starts in forty-nine days!