{Virtual Coffee}

Hello Tuesday. Good-bye January. It's time for Virtual Coffee! If we were meeting for coffee today you would be taking your chances because Riley is home with a stomach bug and we are just sitting on the sofa, watching some tv, reading some books and generally taking it easy. That's an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie which was my breakfast because I'm 51 years old and can eat what I want.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you I have been feeling like I've been chewed up and spit out by life. I'm finding it hard to just go through the motions and I'm really needing more rest than usual. I wonder if the January blahs have caught up with me or if there is something else looming and gloaming. I am reminded of the old adage, "it's always darkest just before it gets pitch black". Whereas I'm usually the one telling others that this, too, shall pass, I have been having to repeat those words like a mantra as I slip and slide through these days and weeks. I would share with you a story which serves to remind me that things do, in fact, pass. It involves my friend's dog, Rosie, and Riley's red plastic lego ball.

It did pass and my friend was brave enough to, um, retrieve it, clean it up and return it.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you the Queen of Arts came for a visit last night and got a taste of how scrambled my life is. She came bearing wine

and chocolate

two things that soothe many a savage beast. When she left for home, Riley and I dressed up

and went out looking for some snow because it has been kind of hard to come by this winter.

Rain and freezing rain has been on the heels of each bit of snow and not even the lake has frozen close to shore

but the grass is like an skating rink and the trees and bushes are encased in ice.

Even these guys are having an easy time of it.

In honour of the Queen's visit we left behind some rocks

and then I locked him back up in his cage.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you we found two old bath bombs in the back of the linen closet and I would show you a bathematical equation. This

plus this

plus this

equals this

which looked an awful lot like the tea I was also drinking.

I guess it was because it was old, the bomb didn't bomb as much as slowly fizzle.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would want to share a few quotes that I have been meditating on, the first from Katrina Kenison which is, "Cast your lot with 'being' instead of 'doing'. The second from Goddess Leonie, "The person who is happiest wins". And then suggest we go over to Amy's Lucky Number 13 to see if she will rustle us up some of her Hillbilly Lattes.