Rainy Days are Gifts, Too

It is one of those dreary, rainy days here in Wisconsin--the kind that makes you wish you could curl up with a good book in a window seat and let the day slip by.

Every morning I feed Snowflake and India Ink, and then India heads for my daughter's bed for a nap while Snowie roams outside. Usually we see him sitting on top of the house for a while, too. Today he took one look outside the door and made a U-turn. He just requested the door to the attic be opened for him--perhaps this is his substitute for the daily jaunt and roof top observation.

When I opened the deck door this morning, about a dozen soggy fuzzies came charging through the door. They know they are allowed into the sun porch, but I was not too impressed with the whole floor being covered with little muddy foot prints. Ears, the oversized, long-haired, white cat with two black ears, looked as though he had walked through the muddy stream to get to the house. Eeeew.

I ordered a microscope from Sonlight and yesterday our package came. What a beauty! We are all impressed and each of us took turns figuring out all the knobs and levers. I love my Brock Magiscope, but I think I will also love this one, too. It seems to offer more for the money than any of the high school scopes I have seen elsewhere.

I am going to take my boys shopping today. We need to buy rockets for 4-H projects, ceiling fans, and fabric for curtains for one of my son's bedrooms. We'll stop at the book store and get my copy of Star Watch rebound with a spiral binding at Copyworks so that it will be easier to use when handling the telescope.

Telescope. That makes me realize that we have missed the Leonid meteor shower completely. One of my friends at my astronomy club claims that Wisconsin has on an average only 20 days per year that are truly clear for good viewing of the skies. There are more nights than that when the skies are clear enough to enjoy the sky, but if you want to see the deep sky objects with a telescope, you need a night without the mists and wisps of clouds.

Today is art and piano lesson day. It is a lighter schedule and we will be done by noon. I'm glad the weekend is here, but I would like the weather to improve so that I can collect corn cobs for kindling and rake leaves. My yard is not ready for snow. Our corn is now all picked, but my brother-in-law's is not. It will be nice to have the harvesting finished.

Oh, and before I go, I thought you might like to know that I did get brave and have a rather short hair cut. The jury is still out. With the tight wave my hair naturally has coupled with the rigidity of graying strands, it seems to be poofy on top and flat on the sides. :-( I'll work with it for a while and see if I can get it to do anything reasonable!

Take care and God bless!
Jean