The temperature this morning is 30+ degrees less than yesterday at this time. The cold moved in much faster than the weather people predicted. The wind is very blustery and we have a light coating of snow that is being blown all over.

We had to replace lamps yesterday. A couple of weeks ago my light bulb blew out and I replaced it but the new one lost the lowest level right away and died altogether while tripping the circuit breakers on the power strip. Mom's lamp blew out its new bulb also. The lamps were old so we made a quick and frustrating trip to Wal-mart as the most likely source since we already knew Target and Menards didn't have anything we liked because we looked there for lamps to replace a couple of small ones in the bedroom. We thought we found a nice pair packaged as a unit with shades but then took a close look at the bulb requirements. Two problems: the maximum illumination would have been about 150w when we like the 200-250w for reading and needlework and we couldn't find a single three-way bulb that met those lower restrictions. So we traipsed back to the lamp department where we found a nice pair rated for the wattage we liked and could find bulbs for---but it came without a harp or shade. Evidently, lamps are sold by the piece today. We found a couple of nice shades and decided to cannibalize our old lamps for their harps which worked well. I feel nostalgic for the days when you walked into a store, said I want that one, took it home and put in a light bulb and plugged it in.

The new cats are settling in--oh, are they settling in. They are into everything. We had many years with older cats who were more sedate and laid back. We forgot exactly how trying dealing with young cats barely out of kitten stage could be.

I usually am not interested in sports history but I decided try The Perfect Pass by S.C. Gwynne. Delancey Place features it as their selection today. The section they quoted is beautifully written, amusing, and well researched. Lovely combination.

I have seen articles for the last couple of years about drought conditions in parts of Africa. I didn't realize it might be this bad. Several years ago Atlanta was almost in this situation but the rains came and refilled the reservoir.