Last night I did something I very rarely do. I went to bed before midnight. DH was spending the night away from home so I got to cuddle up with the kitty, in bed, and read until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I set my book on the bedside table, turned off the light and and was soon dead to the world. I hadn't been asleep more than 20 minutes when I was woken by a loud chirp. My first thought was that Angel-Who-Isn't had managed to entice another bird to step into her mouth and she had brought home her new friend to play with. But no. I couldn't move my feet which meant Miss Tubs (short for Tub O' Lard) aka Angel was lying on them. As I lay there listening I realized the chirps were coming regularly every 30 seconds and as the fog cleared from my brain I finally understood that it was the smoke detector demanding a new battery. By the time I had figured out which one was the offending chirper, dragged over a chair, pried it from the ceiling, removed the dying battery and got back in bed I was wide awake. I eventually got to sleep at my usual well-past-midnight-hour. No problem. I'm retired. I can just sleep in. Right? Wrong. A few minutes after 8am someone nearby decided to take a sledge hammer to the side of an empty semi-trailer. At least, that's what it sounded like. Even Angel had left the comfort and warmth of my bedroom to seek out some peace and quiet.
It did start to snow late in the morning but there was no where near the 15cm/six inches that had been forecast the day before. There was barely 2.5cm/one inch of the white stuff covering the ground but that was irrelevant as I never drive in snow! It took me 20 minutes to walk to the school, 10 minutes waiting for the bell to ring and 30 minutes to walk back home with The Eight Year Old. His brother, The 13 Year Old had to catch a bus from his school to my house and arrived shortly after us. I gave them hot chocolate with marshmallows, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruitcake, muffins and orange juice to fortify them for their journey home and we talked about snow and food and how sliding down hills on a Winter coat doesn't work as well as a toboggan. I told them who all the old, black and white people on my picture wall were and how they were related to them and then hustled them out the door as I didn't want them walking home when dusk fell.
So, in spite of the short night and awful start to my day it has been most enjoyable.

Oh how I miss posting pictures with my articles. I don't know when my computer will be coming home.