A Mystery!
There was another snowstorm yesterday. It no doubt ruined a few Valentine's Day plans, although things were pretty well cleared up by the afternoon. I had no plans of course. There was one strange thing though. Someone left this at our door. It's a shiny little bag with chocolates in it. Mike found it when he came back from work yesterday. There is a clip outside the apartment where the management can leave messages and newsletters and things, and this was hanging there. So who left it? We don't know anyone around here, and there was no note attached. No one else had one on their door.
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It's tempting to speculate that there is a secret admirer somewhere out there, too shy to approach, yet destined to be the next great romance. However, due to near symmetry of the chocolate count, I'm inclined to believe that it was meant for both me and my brother. Perhaps some kindness from someone who sees two mature gentlemen who don't seem to have much going on. Or maybe someone left it at the wrong door. A perfectly mundane explanation may be forthcoming, or perhaps it will always be a mystery.

Hmmm... how about that?
A couple of posts ago I talked about a fellow named Arlie. Guess what -- by cooincidence I just discovered you can see what I was talking about on YouTube! Ah, the marvels of the Internet.

Brrr!
A friend from Tuscon Arizona called yesterday. He is rather elderly and the conversations are almost always about the same themes, but we stay in touch. Toward the conclusion of the call the subject invariably turned to the weather. He complained of all the cold weather, and said that's why we live in the Southwest in the first place! He had a point.
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I feel like I've been cold for weeks. I've even resorted to the thermals, so I can look like a cross between a lab experiment and a hillbilly as I pad around. The apartment seems to have been built for warm weather, being rather drafty and hard to heat. Besides the fact that the artificial warmth gets uncomfortable after a while, there is the desire to leave the lightest "energy footprint" possible, so as to be a good planetary citizen.
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In the courtyard, there is still some snow on the ground and the swimming pool is frozen over. I'm sure all of this is quite mild to some people, but I grew up in Southern California! I admit it, I'm a lightweight.