It is cold outside tonight.  The frigid cold that has enveloped the Midwest has come to Saint Louis.  I’m still kicking myself for not going biking this morning.  The last forecast that I had seen had the cold coming in last night.  Believing it I just rolled over when the alarm went off this morning.  In reality it didn’t arrive until later this morning.  At eleven, Barbara and I tried our luncheon walk.  We got about a quarter mile when the wind left unrestrained by about three miles of runway kicked rock salt in our face.  We bid a hasty retreat.

Tonight, Anne and I removed the Christmas tree to the backyard bird (and squirrel) feeder menagerie, as cover for the birds and IMHO the Alpha Predator.  So proclaimed by its owners, the Alpha Predator is the cat that lives across the street.  We’ve seen the evidence of its predation ourselves and there is nothing like an evergreen for cover.  Anne refilled her feeders, in expectation that tomorrow they will have a lot of demand.

So on a day that Garrison Keller would describe as a day that Mother Nature lets us know that she is really trying to kill us, let’s turn the page.  I’m thinking of summertime, both summers past and this summer yet to come, hence today’s header and this post’s picture.  Anne and I plan on getting passports.  This is primarily motivated by the end this June, of the policy that allows using an American birth certificate to reenter the USA from Canada.

The couple that we shared last summer’s stay in the Door Peninsula is planning a bicycling trip to Quebec.  We’ve thrown our hat into the ring.  Phil and Mary have vacationed there before and have praised the experience.  So if the fates comply and the exchequer agrees this will be among our summer vacation plans.

This post’s picture features an exemplary Cabin’s steps line-up, featuring Jack (Grandroobly), Anne (Pooh), Gene and Harry (Bugs and Horsy), Dan and Dave (The Boyz of Noize), Anne (Banana), Val (Valdemort), Jim (The Engineer), Fran (The Commander) and Betty (Radical Betty).  This post’s picture was photographed by Mark (le Marquis).