~~~
Day’s Verse:
Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
1 Cor 13:4-7
~~~

As I’m sure you astute readers have noticed, I haven’t said much here in the last week or so. It’s been a difficult week, and one in which my thoughts tended to follow one depressing track that didn’t make much in the way of a blog. I wouldn’t want to read more blogs about layoffs, misery, depression, and so forth.

…Especially since good things have happened in the last week, too. The weather cooperated and I rode home one day in shorts! With temperatures into the 50s, and staying well above freezing for a couple nights running, a huge volume of snow melted. I started seeing all this odd furry green-and-brown stuff on the ground where the snow was. I feel like I’ve seen this stuff before — it’s not asphalt, and it’s not sand or salt or ice — but I just can’t remember what it is. Fortunately we have more snow predicted for tonight, so I’ll put that puzzle on hold. Maybe that stuff won’t be there when the next snow melts.

We also had the world’s least romantic Valentine’s Day, but not for any lack of desire. Poor Ian came down with his first (and probably only; the boy has the constitution of a horse) cold of the winter, and I’ve quarantined myself away from him. Occasionally he asks in a sad, pleading voice, Can I please have a kiss?, but I steel my heart and say No, and present him with my cheek.

Thus, last Saturday Ian sat and felt miserable all day while I did loads of laundry, scrubbed piles of dishes, and thoroughly disinfected our toilet, sink, and bathtub all in one fell swoop. It wasn’t a bad Saturday, but for a day supposedly devoted to romance we experienced a distinct lack thereof. Fortunately we’d both agreed to boycott Valentine’s Day anyway, so I didn’t expect much. Ian did please me by donating fruit trees in my name, which was much better than chocolate I really don’t need anyhow.

I’m sure other things happened, but honestly I can’t think what they are, except that I broke a shoelace on the shoes I leave at work. Really that just gives me an excuse to replace those shoes with nicer ones, since my old shoes were definitely pushing the limits of what the dress code defines as acceptable footwear (“Clean tennis shoes”; these have seen at least 4 years of service and certainly don’t look clean to me). I have a 15% off coupon to REI, which may seem like an odd place to buy shoes for work, but they actually have some pretty nice options.

I guess that pretty much randomly picks out some things from the last few days. There you have it.