Merry Happy Boxing Day

Last Christmas I got plenty of exercise while shoveling all that endless snow.

This Christmas, Riley and Patches got a lot of exercise by playing in the warm sunshine in the absolutely snow-free yard.

I loved last winter's snow, but oh there was so much of it and it went on for so long. After two big storms in December, we got little "nuisance snows" of two and three and four inches nearly every day, for months. The streets were narrowed by about 1/3 because of snow shoved to the side by the plows; intersections were impossible to see around, because of the tall mounds; sidewalks were slippery and icy and snowy and if you encountered another dog while walking, you could not just step off the path to make room because there was a wall of snow at either side and so you either endured the barking, or you made a mad scramble up the wall and into the drifts.

This year is so much easier, though eerie--we are just back from walking Riley and it is 46 degrees, sunny, and windy. It is an April day on December 26. The forecast for the next week is for highs above freezing every day.

I am kind of loving this weird warm drought, though it means that I cannot use the new snowshoes I unwrapped yesterday morning.

I can, however, use this, my other present:

Oh, I might not move from this chair for the rest of the winter.  It is not just comfy and exactly my size, but it rocks.

(And so does Doug, for buying it for me.)

I hope you all had a festive holiday and did not partake of too many bloody Marys, as it appears that Boscoe did.