Today is a dull, winter’s day with a muted sun, clouds and only a few spots of blue. It is in the mid-30’s. The deep Arctic front starts this evening when it will get down to single digits, think 7° as the high. Monday will be the warmest day, says I with tongue in cheek, at 37° with a nighttime high of 18°. I did mean high!

Snow is coming, not just cover the ground snow, but historic snow, enough snow for constant weather warnings and updates. It seems the exact amount of snow changes with the hour. It starts Sunday and will continue through Monday. The cape is predicted to get 6-12 inches but the snow could mix with rain here by the ocean. Boston wins the predicted amount of snow crown, 12-20 possible. I’ve been channel hopping, looking around hoping to find the weather site with the least amount of predicted snow. Maybe hoping will make it so. I can live deluded for one snow storm.

I can predict my future. I know for certain what the next few days will be for me. After today, I will stay home, warm and cozy. I’ll start a new book as I just finished the latest Robin Cook, a Christmas present. I’ll loll on the couch. I’ll eat bon bons and sip champagne. ( Make that last one a wish, the bon bons and champagne.)

My sister and brother-in-law Rod surprised me yesterday. They have been surprising me for a while. When I ran out of coffee, they sent me a large bag, 18 ounces large, of coffee. When my coffee maker developed a mind of its own as to whether or not it wanted to work, they sent me a new coffee maker. Yesterday was a package from Harry and David with chocolate, cheese and sausages. I’m calling that the start of my snow preparation kit.

My family and friends have taken care of me this winter. Thank you, all of you.

I am going to make a quick trip to the grocery store. I can think of no better way to spend my time than fighting crowds at the milk aisle. I need animal food, mostly dry dog food. I didn’t buy a big enough bag on Sunday. Jack, too, would like a bigger variety of canned food. He didn’t eat the prix fixe menu of fish he was offered the last couple of days. He ate the bowl of treats both days. Jack knows the way of the world.

When I was a kid, I would have been positively elated, even giddy, at the thought of this much snow. No question, Monday will be a snow day, and Tuesday too looks likely. My mother must have been beside herself.

It is really cold. We’re at 26°, the high for the day. Yesterday, the snow melted then, last night, it froze. In places it looks like waves, ice waves cresting on the lawn. The rest of the grass is covered in frozen snow. My feet made crunchy sounds when I got the paper. I was most careful walking across the yard. Everything is slippery. The dogs and I have had enough of out so we are snuggling together on the couch. Every now and then Henry sighs.

When I was a kid, January was the most boring month. We had no holidays off from school, and, I swear, every day was bone chillingly cold, well below freezing. It always took a while to get warm once I arrived at school. My cheeks stayed red and my feet stayed cold. I remember my classroom and all of the winter sounds, the hissing radiators below the windows, the gurgle of water through the pipes, the scratching of pencils on paper, creaking chairs and pages turning. I remember hoping, maybe even praying, that we wouldn’t have outside recess.

A long while back, I passed a schoolyard where the kids were at recess. I paused to look, prompting memories of my own. Every recess, we stood in the divided geographically by sex and tradition school yard, the girls on one side, the boys on the other. The girls had their groups and games and the boys had theirs. Girls jump roped, mostly the younger girls, or played clapping games. The older girls stood in groups and boy watched and maybe gossiped a little. The boys played basketball at both hoops in the school yard. I don’t remember jump roping.

I do have one recess story. I remember standing in a group of girls talking, laughing when I was in the fifth grade then I noticed my friend. She hadn’t made it to the safety of the group and was being bullied by a boy saying horrible things to her and making her cry. I told him to stop. He didn’t. How silly! I punched him in the face. He stopped. I ended up in the principal’s office. Once she found out the story, she told me not to do it again and to find a peaceful way to protect my friend. She let the bully have it. I really wanted to applaud.