The weather day by day doesn’t change. The clouds just hang around. It is a little warmer but in winter a little warmer only means one less layer. I am in my cozy clothes and have even added socks to my ensemble. The air is still.

Lately I have been watching disaster movies. The Earth has been threatened by aliens, the sun, snow and cold, meteors, zombies and various monsters, even dinosaurs. Some of the movies are truly bad. Sometimes I watch all the way through other times I give up. The first ten minutes are more than enough. I still wonder why anyone would pay to have such bad movies made. In most of them I don’t know any of the actors. I understand why they are in the movie. Work is work and someone might just be discovered. I wish, though, they had thought about the poor audience.

When I was in Ghana, this was the worst time of year for weather. It wasn’t winter, but it was harmattan, desert like weather. The days were so hot that when I’d sit in a chair in my living room (hall to Ghanaians), I always left my body imprint. The wind blew dust everywhere making the air hazy and blocking the sun. I’d shower at night and feel cool for the first time all day as my shower only had cold water. In late February the harmattan would begin to change. The days were hot and humid, the worse combination, and we moved closer to the start of the rainy season, my favorite season.

The Super Bowl is on tonight though I figure I really didn’t need to remind anyone. My Patriots play in yet another championship. I know people hate them, and I understand. I spend a lot of years hating the Yankees. My friends and I are getting together to watch the game. Yelling and moaning and cheering are so much better when you’re in a crowd, even a crowd of three.

“Faithful followers, there is no shadow of me and a beautiful spring it shall be,” predicted Punxsutawney Phil this morning, but I’m skeptical as he is only correct 40% of the time. Come on, Phil. Didn’t you notice how cold it is when you stuck your nose outside?

Today is cloudy and a little warmer than the last few days so I have to bite the bullet and go out do a bit of shopping. I have only a small list, but I have to go to three or four stores.

Henry’s fur is all over the floor again. You can chart his route by following the line of dust. It goes from the couch, down the hall to the backdoor. I’m going to vacuum it today. I’m also going to bring my laundry basket downstairs. It is full.

When I was a kid, I would have welcomed today, a warmer than it has been Saturday. If the movie looked good, I’d go to the matinee. If not, I’d ride my bike around town, walk the tracks or even go ice skating at Recreation Park where the town erected a rink every winter. The DPW filled it with water which wasn’t very deep so the rink froze quickly. At the end of the day they’d spray the rink again so the ice would be cleared of all the skate ruts and marks, sort of a do it yourself Zamboni. I wasn’t a very good skater, but I could go backwards a bit. I’d skate until my feet started to hurt.

Quite a few years ago, I dragged my skates out of storage and went with friends to the rink in Hyannis. I could still skate, but it didn’t take long for my feet to start to hurt. I spent most of the time drinking hot cocoa and watching the skaters. I still have my skates, but I used them as a Christmas decoration. I sling them over my wooden sled. I am ten again.