Chapterhouse

I wish you could have seen us this morning, Scruffybutt and me. It's cold and raining, turning to freezing ice later today, so I decided we should go walkies early. I bundled up in my coat, warmly lined, rainproof , black with a hood and all kinds of zippered compartments and cinch-thingies for the cuffs and the hood, the one I got for our first trip to London. That has nothing to do with anything, but I'm just trying to give you a visual.

Scruffybutt was in her pink and black sweater, the one shown on her blog, but which is kind of tattered and worn out now- it's great for keeping her warm and keeping the mud splatters off of her. To complete this picture, you must see me carrying a black umbrella. Over her. See, my hoodie kept the rain of off me, but that little pink sweater isn't waterproof, so ... what was I to do? The tricky part was keeping the umbrella over her while holding her leash and picking up her poop.

No wait, the really tricky part was getting her out the door in the first place. This dog does not do rain or cold. I have to nudge her hind end with my foot and pull on the leash at the same time to make her go through the door. She hates getting her feet wet, so she does this spastic little shaky-feet dance. When a gust of cold wind gets on her face, she shakes her head and growls. It was pretty funny. You should have seen us.

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We're expecting an ice storm, with downed trees and power lines over the weekend and on into Tuesday. The last time we had a serious ice storm was over thirty years ago. Shut the whole city down, not just because of the icy roads, but because trees were blocking the streets. I was living in an apartment back then and was one of the lucky ones because my side of the block didn't lose power.

This time, I'm living in a house heated by gas, so even if the power goes off, we should be fine. It's going to be awfully hard on a lot of other folks, though.
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Poor Tomcat - this is the one day of the year that he has to go in all day on a Saturday - some kind of annual conference-thingy that they do. Why, oh why, did they schedule this on the opening Stock Show Weekend!? For those of you who are not from around these parts, the annual Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo ushers in the coldest, nastiest weather of the year, just as surely as the Annual Byron Nelson Golf Tournament brings us the Spring monsoons.
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Well, now that Scruffybutt and I have had our walk, I'm going to spend the day writing, even if I have to do it the old fashioned way, with pen and paper by candlelight. Stay safe and warm, everyone.