Right at home...

Arriving on the front porch this morning like a long, lost cousin with suitcase in tow, winter's snow greeted me as I performed my morning ritual. Even before I plug in the coffee, I look outside through the tall, narrow window to the left of the front door. Flipping on the porch light, I take in the temperature, the wind according the flag which is staked to the railing, and of course, the prevailing weather. Rain? Snow? Stars and therefore clear? This morning, one inch of snow and snowing heavily.

Throughout the day, the flakes continued to shower down. I am reminded of the character on Third Rock From the Sun who uttered, upon seeing snow for the first time, "Oh no! Albino brain chiggers!"

I felt like a million bucks all day. Made chocolate chip cookies with liberal amounts of walnuts from the bags of cracked nuts our neighbor Esther brought over the other day.

And watched the snow fall. And loved every minute of it. I took Quincy out for two walks, the latest one we waded through six inches of new, heavy snow. He's mostly Dachshund and had to do porpoise-like leaps in order to navigate his way through. He's come a long ways, our little California doggie who never saw snow in all of his six years until this winter. At first, he wouldn't budge off the dry spot on the porch. Now, with joyful abandon, he finds snow a lot to his liking.