Monday cold-snap.

I thought the latest cold snap had snapped itself out. We keep hop-scotching between warm nearly-80-degree days to 40-degree nights and 58-degree afternoons. Not nice. (Hop-scotching.... now that's a phrase you don't hear much anymore. And does anyone under 50 even know what that is?)

We're late in decorating our big tree this year. We went out on Sunday afternoon to get the tree, brought it home and got it into the tree-stand and poured warm sugar-water into the bucket, and there it is.... nothing on it but Roy Rogers' gold eight-pointed star at the very top of it. (The one and only honest-to-goodness star tree-topper that sat for years on Roy and Dale's family Christmas tree.)

Tomorrow, my husband will put the lights on the tree, then I will do the ornaments, add the tree skirt (really a gold satin bedspread with fringed edging-- looks fabulous). Then we can both stand back and look at the tree and say Ta-daaaaahhhhhh!

When we got home on Sunday from tree-shopping, our Clear Lake friend V stopped by for an afternoon visit..... she and her friend K were in one of the nearby towns so they called to see if we were home. We weren't actually home, but we were on our way, and they pulled into the driveway about fifteen minutes after we did.

We talk about V all the time, saying how much we miss hearing her calling out to her cats..... she lived next door to us in Clear Lake, and my cats perked up their little ears when V sang out to her own cats every day. My blue-eyed AngelBoy, however, was the only cat who wasn't amused by V's singing... he would scrunch-up that pretty little face of his till his whiskers were nearly in knots. AngelBoy didn't like much of anything out-of-the-ordinary.

Anyway..... we knew V was on her way to our back door on Sunday because we heard her singing out to our chickens as she walked down the driveway. My husband and I were both in the kitchen when we heard her, and we laughed because we were both thinking the same thing--- V's cat songs have turned into chicken songs up here in the Hill Country. The chickens, like AngelBoy, were not amused. I should have given V some bread-bits and vegetables... then the chickens would have sat there for an entire opera's-worth of singing.

Another week here without W the handyman. He is busy doing a big flooring job and has to finish the whole job before he comes back here. My husband says he's on W-withdrawal. My husband painted some of the wood trim this afternoon...... he waited till it warmed up some, then stood in the sun out in the driveway where it was warmer.

The propane delivery truck was here this morning. With the extra insulation that W and my husband added to the house this past summer, plus all the new seals on the few windows that were letting in the air, the electric and propane bills have not been as high as last year. Everyone still talks about last year's winter and the horrible freezing days we went through that had water pipes bursting like straws. (Been there, done that.)

Oh well..... this cold snap too shall pass. I cannot complain. I saw on the news this morning that upstate NY had two feet of snow and roofs were collapsing from the weight of it all. I'm sure everyone in upstate NY would love to have 58-degree days right about now.