My youngest son has shamed me into replacing the standard incandescent light bulbs throughout the house with CFL bulbs. The CFL bulbs use less electricity, so that makes them environmentally friendly, and it will save money on the electric bill. It took a while for me to find 3-Way CFL bulbs, finally found them at the local ACE Hardware store.

There are a few older light fixtures in the ceiling that are too small for the CFL bulbs that I bought to fit into. So, I will have to keep my eyes open for different sizes and shapes of CFL bulbs to fit into those.

Well, I heard that the groundhog saw his shadow this morning!  Six more weeks of winter!  I’m unhappy about that, I’m tired of the cold this year.  I don’t know why it has bothered me more this year than usual.  Though come to think of it, it is probably because I’ve got the thermostat set lower to save energy and money.  That is probably the real reason!  Thank goodness for long johns and warm sweaters!

We lost our electricity in the middle of the night last night.  I don’t know why it happened, I have to assume that the wind blew a little too hard and knocked a tree down across the lines, or maybe a car ran into a pole and knocked the pole down.  All I know is that the electricity went off and it is still off.  I hate when that happens!

I sleep with the white noise of a fan blowing in the bedroom, and with no electricity, there is no fan.  With no fan, there is no sleep.  With no sleep, there is crankiness!  I could have turned the generator on, but it makes so much noise that I can’t sleep anyway, so I didn’t bother.  I just laid in bed and hoped I would fall asleep.  Didn’t happen.  I think I’m going to buy one of those battery operated fans so that the next time it happens I can use that for the white noise!

My girlfriend just got a new apartment.  She’s very excited about it, but has complained that she doesn’t have a dishwasher!  I suggested that she look into buying one of those counter top dishwashers that are about the same size as a large microwave oven.  It just sits on your counter top beside your sink and washes up to four place settings at a time!  They only run about $235.  I know that’s what I’d do – I would hate to live someplace that did not have a dishwasher!

Yesterday was the first day of winter, and the shortest daylight hours day for the season.  I enjoy watching the beautiful snow blanketing the earth during the winter; it is so breathtaking beautiful when small amounts of ice cling to the branches of the trees and there is enough snow cover so that no grass is peeking through. 

Having said that, I have to say that I’m glad that I work at home and don’t have to travel in bad weather and can just enjoy the beauty of the snow through my window, or put on my cross country skis and go skiing right outside my door.  I truly do love the life up here, and the distinct four seasons that I can enjoy so many different types of outdoor activities!