Charmion! what a great clean out for your bro! Wish I could do that with R but more books just keep arriving.

CITY: Talked to R and affirmed no hope of hi getting to the country last night so I came to the city. After arriving, I found myself so tired I felt drugged. In hindsight, it may have been the heaviness of the impending storm - another 4 or so inches of wet snow this morning!

I went to bed early after giving him a nice salad. Barely slept, coughed in the early am, said good bye when he rushed off about 7 and got up about 8:30 feeling fine. Realized the Quaker meeting was having a pot luck and discussion of something. Decided I could deal with it and made a pot of rice and a pan of ratatouille and dumped them into the slow cooker and went off.

Turned out to be a rewarding, useful time. R phoned and came late for some food and comments. An amazing young woman participated for over an hour before I realized she had never attended a Quaker meeting before. I am so often in the country, I am never sure who is new, or not. As someone began by wondering why our group is "in a slump"... I asked, "what is the most important thing about being a Quaker?" Everyone agreed that it is spiritual renewal and we went on from there. It was a lively discussion and brought out some points on what we need to do to help others who might want to be a part of it. I feel the need to have/write a better handout for first timers to help them recognize the diversity of both our group and the Quakers generally.

Came home about 3 and read a while. 80 min phone call with a friend in PA who needed to vent, share, feel supported, and cared for, etc. I will try to reach her more often. Now I am here, then going on to FB. R is back at work after returning for a sandwich about 6.

The snow is melting but very messy and may freeze tonight - 32F right now. I am glad to be in a warm place and no where to go!