Today is sunny and in the low 40’s, but it still feels raw and cold. I fell asleep on the couch last night. Both dogs joined me and were still with me when I woke up this morning. All the lamps were lit and the back door was open. It was 11:20. I jumped up, went and brushed my teeth, got dressed and left right away for PT at noon in Orleans. I was early.

Nala has been coming in from the yard with dog food cans in her mouth. So far the number is 4. The yard also has all sorts of paper trash strew about the area nearest the deck. On my to do list is to grab the prisoner stick and clean the backyard before the villagers attack. I’m envisioning screaming neighbors carrying lit bundles of sticks standing in front of the house yelling, “Clean that yard. Clean that yard.”

Last night I went out on the deck. It was slushy and getting icy. Given my track record, I held on to the railings. I was on the hunt for one of my new Christmas pillows which had gone missing from the storage bag. From my vantage point, I saw it among the backyard trees and decided to get it. Nala saw me move and ran back toward where she had dropped it, but I distracted her and beat her to the pillow. It was a bit dirty but cleaned well. I’m putting it and all the other Christmas pillows down cellar today. I just hope this pillow is the last of Nala’s Christmas victims.

I get in the mood for certain foods when my larder is mostly empty so I think about ordering delivery. Three weeks ago I had an Italian sub, and it was exactly what I wanted. I knew that at the first bite. The other day I ordered Chinese food. It was perfect that day but less perfect the next one when I had leftovers. Today I’m thinking something hot for supper, maybe even soup. I think about holding a warm bowl of soup with steam escaping from the middle. I think about hands warned by the soup hot bowl. I also think about Saltines.

Today is Martin Luther King Day so I have posted excerpts from Martin Luther King’s speech delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. 

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, 

From every mountainside, let freedom ring! 

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.”