When it rains, it pours - or, the devices are in cahoots. The water softener sussed the news that the insurance company coughed up the rest of the cash from the car. Devious things, these machines in our lives.

I had another night of getting up in the wee hours to pull on outdoor clothes and take the dogs out. Normally they have full access through the dog door, but the ice is still out there and the 80-year-old next door doesn't need to have the dogs out in the yard barking at 6am to get their over-the-fence daily treat. (As soon as they see their kitchen light on, Pepper starts making noise, though I zapped her earlier this week to stop it for a while.) I let them out after 8am and texted that the dogs were available for their treats. I walked out again, to be sure my neighbor got back into his house ok. I've also sprinkled lava sand on the front walk here and will probably shovel ice in the back on the patio. If I put sand down back there the dogs track it in like crazy. Getting out the back glass sliding door is difficult with the iced up track. I have to lift the door up a bit before it will slide. This isn't the time of year to have that door go off the track completely so I'm very careful.

There seems to have been an explosion of paper around here so tackling that is job one today.