The dogs are not too big to sleep in bed with me, but I'm such a light sleeper that

I sit bolt upright if a fly sneezes in the next county. Even at my age I still have acute hearing and learned to sleep with one ear cocked in my youth. Bad habit in a way.

This cold is normal here and it will hit 10-20 below at least a few times every winter. May get worse too because global warming seems to be causing greater extremes in both directions. Climatologists say we might be able to grow orange trees here in 10-15 years if we can figure out how to winter them over. At 850' above sea level, that won't be easy. We're not Denver, but we are pretty high up. The gardening zone's the same as southern Maine.

I know you're joking; however,

when it comes to reality re c-preps, here's my method which makes everything soooo much easier. For 72 hours before Prep Day, I stick to a low fibre diet. 24 hours ahead, I take a single senna pill. By the actual Prep Day, most of the work is already done. And you can lose 3-4 lbs along the way.

Who, me or the lovestruck lady bird in the park?

Whenever I used to feel sorry for myself about something,

I could almost hear a voice in my head asking, "Are you in jail with Mandela?" Helped my perspective.

Lots of food for thought there.

HappySlug's comments call to mind a puzzling thing that happened in my own life. I was living way out in the sticks after spending quite a few years in L.A., during which time I'd studied martial arts quite a bit. But at this point I only had one dog and he was at the vet's recuperating after an operation. So I rounded the corner of the house and got surprised by a neighbor I hadn't heard arrive. It startled me so that I jumped backwards, and for some strange reason instinctively adopted a Japanese defensive posture. Never could figure out why, because what I'd studied was Tae Kwon Do (Korean).

My neighbor, who'd only walked over to borrow the traditional cup of sugar, was as startled as I was. She thought I was going to strike her. But I can tell you that only once in my life did I ever have the urge to deliberately hit anyone outside the ring or dojo. Any degree of self protection training has a tendency to make people more peaceable because they're more in control of themselves and at least feel more secure in their surroundings.

Funny; one time in L.A. I answered the door to find a very non-threatening LEO standing there. He was on some mundane community errand or other, can't remember what. But I was new to the neighborhood, and he was awfully handsome, so naturally we got talking. Pretty soon he asked me if I was into martial arts and I wondered, totally surprised, what led him to ask such a question. (I dressed very girly at that age.) He told me he'd noticed that every time he changed his position in the least, so did I, in a way that optimized my ability to strike if necessary.

I said, "Damn - does it show that much?" wondering what kind of weirdo I'd turned into.

He said, "No. It wouldn't be noticeable at all to most people."

We were both single and went on a few dates, but you can guess what made the situation untenable - politics.

Yet another urban myth? Like worms in McD's hamburger meat?

The latter ridiculous on the face of it because worm costs more than ground hamburger per lb. I know because I once rescued a newly hatched dove with a broken wing - it never would've survived in the wild. So I bought a bunch of worms and mashed them up so the mixture could be fed by dropper. His wing never healed enough for him to fly, though he could use his legs; I wound up building him a big outdoor aviary and only brought him in on cold nights.

I say 'him' because the dove eventually started the mating dance every time he saw me.

Well, it's no worse than the goose (or was it a swan?) who fell in love with a gentleman walker in the park at some big city. It was on the news - she walked right beside him and would fend off anyone who came too close. I know geese in particular are extremely possessive and protective of their adopted humans.

Can't wait to see it, even if it has to be via Netflix.

We do have one old seasonal theatre in town with the traditional big screen, but I seriously doubt they'll show this movie. I KNOW they'll never show 'Twelve Years A Slave". Or anything about Mandela.

At the UMC around the corner from my house, they're decorating with poinsettias - if you bring one in, you can honor the person of your choice and the list will be read aloud during service. Imp that I am, my first thought was to buy 2 and name them in honor of Obama and Mandela. Except I know that wouldn't make the cut! They might send me out into the cold with a couple potted plants for a crown. Then I thought, well, I'll sneak at least one in and name it in honor of Madiba. But it would be my luck that at least one person in attendance would know who that meant and raise unholy hell. Nice thought though. Maybe I'm losing my touch for agitation, or the current bucket might've been exhausted at the town council meeting Thursday night.

Don't worry; it will fill up again all too soon to overflowing. I've always thought my dying words would be:

"AND ANOTHER THING!!!"

Due to better nutrition in part, young girls of today can begin to 'bloom' as early as 9.

What about them, pray tell? Donohue doesn't represent a healthy portion of Catholicism, to say the least.

Sorry as I am that we had to lose Mandela,

the man has certainly earned his rest. Godspeed to him.

All too true - if it bleeds, it leads.

Thanks for the OP.

Yes, I've had trouble playing videos too. Since I run Chrome on both laptop and of course the Chromebook, I synced the two and suddenly lost ALL audio from every source. Learned to open windows incognito mode as a workaround. But it doesn't always work. So transcripts are always appreciated.