Tuesday, January 6

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so we got up late again this morning. I headed to the treadmill right after breakfast, and then after I was ready for the day, I did this and that until lunch time.

Mother joined us for lunch, after which Hubbie and I ran errands. We had no trouble traveling, since the predicted ice storm skirted us. It was very cold, though, and a few icicles, created by a light rain, clung to the bushes near the front porch. A small patch of ice was on the parking lot of the grocery store, too, right where I tried to step out of the van. I lost my footing momentarily, but caught myself before I fell.

We spent about two hours running to various places, including the newspaper office to pick up yesterday's issue, which was not delivered last night. We learned that the reason it had not been delivered is that the newspaper carrier lost his 40-year-old daughter to cancer yesterday. We are heartsick for him, even though we are not personally acquainted with him.

Besides the newspaper office, we went to the grocery store, the pharmacy, and an office supply store. We wanted to see if we could buy a calendar at the office supply store, with big enough spaces to accommodate all our events, including numerous monthly birthdays. But we didn't want to pay the arm-and-a-leg price charged for the calendars. So we'll make do with free ones from a bank.

From there, we stopped by the bank to pick up calendars for the household, for my office, and for Hubbie to keep track of his gardening affairs. Then we went to the health store for very potent multi-vitamins for me, and 8-grain cereal, also for me.

Then we went to another bank, and the WDCS. Mother gave us her list, and Hubbie shopped for her, while I shopped for us. A trip to the gas station, to fill up for our outing to the capital city tomorrow, completed our listed errands.

When we got back home, Mother said that our favorite electronics store in another town had called to say that the computer surge protector/battery back-up unit was in, so we made the 15-mile trip to pick it up.

It was after 4 p.m., by the time we were finished running around. Mother had stayed at our house making a big pot of potato soup for tomorrow night's supper. Tonight, we had leftover steak strips in onions and bell peppers over a bed of rice, along with the leftover corn casserole dish.

Mother went home shortly after supper, and we settled in front of TV. At 9 p.m., we watched our favorite college basketball team play to an exciting upset win over their opponents.