one more cup of coffee then out the door

I was sitting in my chair last night about dusk, well, make that 4:30 about dusk and I realized that I had no plans to be out of the house until Monday. Sometimes this is fine but last night with the landscape that resembled Siberia and the falling darkness, it was not fine. I had a mental moment.

Consequently we have plans to head out to do some things today. A stop at the food coop, a stop at Friendly Confines in LeSueur, a stop at Kohls in Mankato and maybe Aldi's for some coffee. Gus will ride along in the back seat.

This morning, I have been sitting in front of the fireplace making my menu and grocery list for the coming weeks. I must be tired of my own cooking, too, because I bookmarked some new recipe websites.

Karen, thanks for the recommendation on the book. I bought it for my Kindle in the middle of the night when  I was awake and started reading it this morning. I think I'll like it.

It's cold here again this morning...about ten degrees...with a light snow. The flakes are so small you can barely see them. The ground is not quite covered but it is accumulating. That's all the news from my weather channel.

A friend of mine, a frequent poster on Facebook, shares stories of meals cooked, meals enjoyed at restaurants, books read, trips taken, friends and relatives gathered. Reflecting back, she wondered if she was being too focused on herself and she resolved in 2012 to be less that way. Here is her post:

Around the beginning of the new year, I was reading an article in the New York Times about the self absorption of the younger generation, probably fueled by Facebook, where they write and receive feedback on the trivia of their life. I thought, right, where did they get the idea that that stuff is worth writing about or of interest to anyone. Everything is so overdone I get the idea they might hire a professional photographer to record at their death bed, at least I won't be around to watch that. Then it struck me - that's exactly what you do, Sharon. I write, because I love to write, but it may give people the idea that I think the minutia of where I'm going, what I'm doing, what I'm eating are of major import and interest. It's the kind of thing only my mother would probably want to hear. And maybe not even mom would really care. I remember when Tim's mom would ask what he had been up to, he would say "nothing much." Then I'd try to fill her in, but she would cut me off and wander on to her latest news. As a psychologist he knew that she might consider it bragging and people are really just being polite and waiting for their chance to speak. My New Year's resolution - not to focus on me. This won't be easy, I'm kind of a major player in my life & I enjoy my life & it's the only one I've got. (Now that my children are adults they are entitled to their own lives, so I don't plan on living my life through them.) I won't be telling you about last night's supper, a tomato, garlic tart on puff pastry that I made, and of which Tim ate every last crumb. Or maybe I'll just include a disclaimer, "The following is only the ramblings of the writer and is not necessarily of interest or import to anyone else."

I replied with this:

Like you, I write somewhere about most of the details of my life. I had never given a thought that it might seem vain or self-centered. I love reading about the minutiae of your life and I love writing about mine...so let's not stop. Toss that resolution to the curb. Live a rich full life and tell stories about it!

And she replied:

I'm forgetting my self-effacing, Scandinavian Lutheran guilt and taking Teresa's advice and try to live a rich full life and write about it. Taking pleasure in the little stuff is what I'm all about.

So, there you go. We do reflect and think about all we share and we come to the conclusion that if you don't want to know, don't read it. Haha!

I posted a message to Tom and Betty here the other day. I hope I'm not taking liberties by publishing this update from them as a guest post.

We miss y'all [how's that for Texas]. Since Betty and I have been down on the island we've been doing a lot of walking. We'll walk a couple of miles then stop for a beer at one of the beach bars they have here. We do this a couple times a day. The first four days I was really stiff and sore but have gotten quite good at walking again [the drinking part of the exercise was never in doubt]. I really haven't done this since my letter carrying days. The weather has been great except for a few windy days. We go out to eat every couple days - lots of seafood and mexican. Half a block away is Jake's bar and grill with some pretty good specials. Tomorrow is carnita night so will try it out. We like it here so much that we're thinking of doing three months here next year and bring the dogs. The place we have now is for a month, but we've decided to extend our stay another two weeks at another place that is dog friendly and if we like it we will have first choice for next year. It's half of a duplex and we can let the dogs out in the back yard. It's also cheaper than the place we have now. New years day was the polar bear plunge down here. Tell Hombre I got pictures. It was moving day from the motel right there at Boomerang Billy's across the street to our condo so I couldn't register to do the plunge myself. Anyway, the water temp is 65 degrees [brrrr!]. So long for now.

Off to do the errands and have a little fun.