Today is our last sunny day before a sequence of cold descends from the upper Midwest, so I'll go scoop the leaves from the street gutter and drop them onto the lawn to mulch in. There will be more leaves, this is the first of two or three such operations during the winter.

Hospitals in regions of Texas are at 100% capacity in their ICU units; the next step is triage. Day five of the New Year and of staying home is involving phone calls to friends for a social boost each day. My radio plays public radio, and right now the administrator (the Tarrant County Court at Law Judge who is elected and who isn't really a judge) of my county is on the radio saying that the governor has taken away the county's ability to act, the governor is calling the shots (and he doesn't believe in closing down or restricting activity for COVID, etc.) so the judge can't close businesses, call a curfew, curtail school activities, etc. "Trust your physicians, quit reading some of this crap on the Internet" he says. 34% of COVID tests in Texas are coming back positive during this Omicron surge. That is HUGE.

I need an excuse to turn on and drive the SUV to keep things running, so I can take some recycling over to the village bins (outdoors, not monitored) and take a drive past the outdoor donation spot for Goodwill (set the bag into the canvas collection rolling hamper thing with no contact). The last time I left it parked for days on end I ended up with wasps nests underneath making it sound odd until the mud dropped off. No mud daubers this time of year, but still, it needs to run about once a week.

Did I mention the set of jersey (t-shirt) sheets that I've decided to donate? I don't use them often, they feel good when first put on the bed, but they're so stretchy that it's almost impossible to get in and out of bed without a struggle and the blankets bunch up too much. These sheets stay in the linen cupboard until I decide to give them another try, and am reminded again why I don't really like them. They've been laundered and to Goodwill they go, with some twine around the set and a note indicating the size. Good luck in their next home.