Monday, February 23

I woke up sneezing and sniffling, and with a sore throat to boot this morning, so I skipped water aerobics. I didn't get on the treadmill, either. I debated whether I wanted to stay home and cook a pot of chicken noodle soup, or travel a couple of hours to a town east of us to go shopping. Shopping won out.

I buzzed Mother on the intercom to invite her to go with us. Hubbie called his sister to let her know we'd be in her town. His other sister is celebrating a birthday today, so he arranged for us to meet both sisters for lunch at 12:30. We left here about 11 a.m., and arrived at the buffet restaurant about the same time as his sisters.

The trip over was pleasant on this sunny, but chilly day, though we were disheartened at one point to see acres and acres of pine trees either bent over or broken in half ...an aftermath of last month's ice storm. Pecan trees, too, were damaged, their tops broken off, and heavy limbs fallen. Great heaps of limbs were stacked along the roadsides. Utility poles, like dead things, lay next to newly erected ones. Reportedly, some 33,000 utility poles had to be replaced, mainly in the northern part of the state.

On the bright side, though, daffodils were blooming in clumps here and there, and fields were blanketed in some sort of purple wildflowers. Overhead, hundreds of snow geese, their white breasts and black-tipped white wings flashing against the blue sky, flew in formations that parted and merged in undulating geometric shapes.

Further along, a yellow crop duster airplane dipped low to spray dormant rice, soybean, and Milo fields in preparation for the spring planting season.

We enjoyed lunch with Hubbie's sisters. I opted for baked chicken, half a baked sweet potato, and lots of veggies and salad, followed by a small dish of frozen chocolate yogurt.

After our visit, we went shopping. First, we stopped at a department store, where Mother and I both found chambray shirts on sale. From there, we went to a craft supply store. We bought lots of stuff there, including the black and red card stock we needed. We also got other patterned papers, a stitching template, border stickers, ink pads, gel pens, and a pen set for hand tinting black and white photos. I used a gift card given to me by Son and Daughter-in-Law to pay for the photo pens. I'm anxious to try this craft.

Our final stop was the warehouse club store for bulk paper goods and food items, as well as fresh fruits like bananas, apples, and grapes.

By 4:30 p.m., we were on the road home. Later, Hubbie and I had a cold cereal supper and toasted wheat bagel halves with homemade strawberry preserves, and bowls of fresh fruit. Then we settled in to watch the second half of "Oliver Twist," that I'd recorded on DVR. Following that, we watched a Sci Fi movie called "The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake," a so-so fantasy.