Wednesday, Feb. 1

First day of February. Hope it's a good month.

Up at 6:30 this morning to go to water aerobics. It was a mild morning, but there was a dense fog. Because of the vegetation growing along the fence line of our neighbor's property, it's very difficult to see cars coming around the curve at that point. This morning, it was impossible.

So I turned right onto the road and drove to the neighbor's house, where there is a semi-circle driveway that affords a clear view of the road. Even then, I nearly missed the driveway, because I couldn't see it until I was right on it. Fortunately, I was traveling slowly enough to be able to turn safely.

The pool was still cool, but pleasant once I got used to it. Considering the low visibility this morning for driving, I was surprised that so many turned out for aerobics...twenty-four. Guess everybody figured they needed to be there today, because the pool will be closed Friday. Our lifeguard, who is also a staff member with the athletic department, will be traveling with the baseball team for a game over the weekend.

From the pool: one of the members had to have cancer removed from her nose yesterday. She reported to another member that it had to scraped three times, which has left her nose sort of tilted. We all hope she will not be disfigured.

Back home, once I was ready for the day, I did this and that until lunchtime. In the meantime, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. For lunch, we finished most of the soups.

Afterward, I looked for pint canning jars to be put into the dishwasher, so that Mother and I can work on making strawberry preserves tomorrow. Before we can do that, I need to shop for pectin, lids, and sugar.

We didn't do much else for the afternoon, except watch TV and play on my laptop. Every once in a while, to entertain her, I show Mother interesting humor e-mails, or beautiful nature and animal photos that friends and family have sent me.

Later, we put together a new recipe for supper...fried rice that called for shredded carrots, scallions (substituted green onions) frozen English peas, and soy sauce. I added seasonings, baby corn, and shrimp. It was fine, if not outstanding. Hubbie and Mother seemed to like it.

Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, where I got a couple of packages of strawberries out of the freezer to thaw in my fridge overnight.

At home, I turned the TV off, and Hubbie and I spent an hour in our own activities...he worked on income tax stuff, and I set up the main 2012 calendar, recording birthdays and ongoing organizational meeting dates, plus any upcoming activities and appointments that I'm aware of.

Throughout the year, I tuck various things into the back of the calendar...recipes, appointment reminder cards, tickets to shows, and stuff I don't know what else to do with. By the end of the year, there's quite a collection. So when I set up the new calendar, I'm forced to go through this pile and discard or file what's there.

I also like to review the previous year and make a list of the ten or so most important events. I started doing this back in the 1990s, and we've often referred to the lists.

Our hour was up before I completed those two tasks, though, so I'll work on them tomorrow evening.

Back to TV, we watched a movie called, "Harvest." A young man home from college is conflicted about whether to spend his summer there, where three generations of his dysfunctional family live, and where his grandfather is dying of pancreatic cancer, or go back to his friends and girlfriend.