Quiet.... but cold.... weekend

I write "weekend", because it is.  But since Bill and I are retired and not even volunteering anywhere at this time, one day is really pretty much like any other.  We tend to do our shopping and run our other errands during the week, hoping to get everything done before noon on Fridays.

It seems that's when the weekend traffic begins these days.  Or, even earlier...  sometimes 10am on Fridays is pushing the traffic congestion problem.  Also, we figure we have all week to buy groceries etc so we let those who have other obligations during the week have the weekend with a few less shoppers like us.

I don't know if this theory is true anymore.  Seems people have more free time or maybe more flexible time these days than when Bill & I had full-time jobs all those years ago.  Bill retired on his 55th birthday in 1996.  I retired on my 20th anniversary of working at O'Bleness hospital (you had to work 20 years to take your retirement pay-off, otherwise you'd forfeit it) in 1997.

That's all neither here nor there...  I tend to get sidetracked sometimes thinking about what was.....

It's been very cold here.  Down into the low 20's at night.  Heavy frost in the mornings.  This morning I ran the car 10 minutes just to get the ice off the windshield and side mirrors.  I couldn't find my ice scraper...  know I stashed it somewhere....  but we got the ice off before we headed out to the Post Office.  It did get up to 44 degrees today.  If the wind doesn't blow that feels almost balmy!

Celeste and her husband have several deer feeders here on their property.  They are automatic (battery operated) and every now and then they spew out a bucket or so of corn.  

 There were at least 9...  maybe 10 deer.... chowing down this morning.... I took this photo while standing in our rig looking out the window.

These 4 stayed around long enough to get in the picture.

These two does were a bit closer to us.

I've not put out my game cameras this time.  Just didn't feel like dealing with it right now.

A lot of folks we know are doing the Christmas Bird Count this week.  I haven't checked into anything around us...

maybe should have, but wasn't sure what our situation would be.

We do have a few feeders out... 

It seemed to take a long time for our feathered friends to find it, but we now get 50... 60... or ???? at a time now hanging out underneath the feeders now that it's so cold.

Mostly American goldfinch, cardinals, house finch, and chipping sparrows on the ground.  Chickadees and titmice at the feeders.

We still see an Eastern phoebe around, and the other day we saw a pair of bluebirds.  

So we do have a nice diversity of species.

We're in an on-going process of getting ready for our trip to Spain.  Last week we ordered Euros from our local bank...

We still had all that change plus a few bills from our trip to the Mediterranean last year.... but not enough to even get us from the airport to the place we'll be living. 

Bill had been checking the Euro/Dollar exchange rate, and it's been steadily rising (not in our favor) so we decided just to get this chore done now. 

It's kind of funny...  we have little medicine bottles that hold pesos, colones, or whatever change we had when we left a place.  

Don't know when we'll ever use some of those again....

One last photo...

I didn't take this, but got it from Heather, our oldest granddaughter..

She'd opened up a Christmas present and decided to model it for us so we could see how it looked.

Personally, I think she looks great no matter what she has on.

And...

She's the mother of a 15 month old daughter, Evangeline, our great-granddaughter.

(They live in New York, but she sends photos frequently)

Well, as usual, this time on a Saturday night we're listening to Prairie Home Companion on PBS.

For me and Bill, it's a great way to spend a Saturday evening.

That's All For Now!