OOPS!!! Sorry I didn't know that about Jan. 1 being "everybody's" birthday, if a specific date isn't given. Oh well, Happy Birthday, whenever it is. :>) Mwoods, your statement about each year bringing "joy, laughter, and some tears" is so true. None of us ever knows what's ahead for us. But, as my DH says, "It's been a trip, but I wouldn't change any of it!"

Boy, I am really late. I just got my laptop back today. The 3rd would have been my DH's 81st. So was a bit sad for me. But......I hope you had a really really good day. Kathy

I hope each of you has a truly happy day. H a p p y B i r t h d a y ! Shirley

Greetings again, folks. Some time ago one of the old guys used to bring out a cupcake bearing a candle, Jasdip, but it hasn't been happening for a couple of years or so. I spoke earlier of having forgotten to take an empty water bottle to my friend's house on an earlier trip, but we'd emptied a second and were on our last bottle so I was taking the two empties when the young woman picked me up. A couple of days later my water provider friend called me from the end of my lane, saying that he was very reluctant to tackle my snowy lane, so was leaving a bottle at the end of my lane. There was next to no conversation or I would have told him that there was a fairly thin layer of snow the day before when I'd walked out for my mail, and no drifts in the lane. My landlord or his son had driven a pickup truck up the lane after the first snow leaving a track in the rather thin snow blanket, and the second had added only a little more. We lack a sleigh but I took my scoop shovel out, installed the water bottle on it and hauled it in without any tipsys: I'd thought maybe son would need to tie a rope around the neck and walk beside to keep the bottle upright had it tipped. A few days later, after rain had removed the snow, a previously unknown lady had picked me up with a couple of bags of groceries and we were talking at my house (she gave me her name and phone no., saying maybe she could drive me occasionally) when my water friend drove in with the second bottle. I felt the need to tease him a little, asking whether he was letting his venturesome spirit shrink a bit in his advancing years. It's rather pleasant to realize that winter is about half over. Earlier I'd thought of my life here being rather open-ended, but I've been thinking that even a couple of minor restrictions in my capabilities would mean that I could no longer live here. Good wishes to you all. ole joyful