I got up this morning, determined to stick with housecleaning, and nothing on the book will be written.  So I loaded up all the recyclables and took them to the landfill.  Everyone else in town must have had the same agenda; the place was jumpin' and we were all scooting around in the wind and snow, thrusting our recyclables into the many containers.  It took me a long time to load up and a long time to unload all the stuff I had.  I had to go into town then and get gas already - darn that ethanol stuff.  My mileage goes way down when there's ethanol in the gas.  John got his chain saw sharpened and cut up some wood.  Now he is snowblowing the driveway - it is supposed to get extremely cold again tonight.  My back end (of the truck, that is) is now very light and slews around on these back country roads.  I was lucky to get back into the driveway when I got home. 

And I made hamburger soup again - it's my favorite, lately.  I also cooked for the dogs, and they know when I'm cooking for them.  They are so eager to get the food.  I had to feed them early, just because of their longing eyes.  The weatherman had promised sunshine all day today, which my chicken needs to be healthy, but again, there are just gray skies out there.  At least she has her lightbulb in her house.  I've been feeding her small pieces of ham  lately.  She really tears into them.  Maybe the meat provides her with extra B vitamins that keep her going.  I know there's Vit. D in sunshine...

I finally picked up the mail on the way home, from my mailbox, which I had not done since before Christmas.  Looks like a ton of seed catalogs came.  John wants me to make pea and lentil soup right now - his favorite.  The slow cooker can come into play now.  As soon as that's on and cooking, I'm going to settle down with that stack of mail and catalogs, books that came recently, etc.  The novel is taking a day off while I contemplate how to dispose of the body.