The first thing that I did this morning was to start the washer. Later, I set up our outdoor Christmas lights. It is a pretty easy job. I have a bicycle in the basement that is kept festooned with twinkling mini-lights. This is the equivalent of leaving the Christmas lights up all year-long. I just haul it out, tie it to the front porch railing, plug it in and we’re ready to go again for another holiday season.

I stripped the upstairs beds and advanced the laundry. Bob and Noreen our former Saint Louis friends and now part of the Rochester contingent are coming to visit us in a couple of weeks. Their son, Andrew, is graduating from Fontbonne University. In addition to Bob and Noreen, their daughter Meghan and Noreen’s sister Cece will also be staying with us. It will be quite the full household.

I suspended laundry operations when we launched on our bike ride. No sense having the machines running, while we are out of the house. It was warm today, at least for December, but also windy. We checked out the site of yesterday’s controlled burn, around Deer Lake. I found a scorched golf ball that some duffer had lost in the weeds. A passing jogger took our picture. We saw a Red-tailed Hawk that seemed to like the burnt grass, maybe because it no longer hid the little mice. Anne got to see Charles, the Great Horned Owl, sitting in his favorite tree. We left the park, heading east, to shop the Central West End. Anne had a particular gift in mind. There was some sort of Christmas festival going on there when we arrived. It had llamas, goats and even a camel. We lunched at Culpepper’s, got a window table and were treated to a continuous parade of seasonally attired pooches, but not a single cat. It was turning cold again on our way home. We got 15 miles.

Returning home, I fired up the laundry again. Anne refilled her bird feeders. We reviewed our photo catch of the day. NPR had an article this morning on the NYC DOT haiku traffic safety signs. Created by John Morse, I’ve included three that have a biking theme. I think that I’ll leave the rest of the laundry for tomorrow, it is supposed to rain.