NORTH NORWAY — Ant, ants, everywhere black ants. I feel as if I have ants in my pants. They are coming in from somewhere under the sunroom, which does not have a basement and there is little we can do until spring. Have to be careful with the poisons because of the cat. They seem uninterested in food but love to do the backstroke in the cat’s water dish. And they are attracted to light. I will be sitting reading in the evening, with my reading light focused on my book and sure enough, here comes an ant running around the perimeter. We have never had ants here before. One of my sisters has contributed to my peace of mind by suggesting they are eating the timbers holding up the floor and pretty soon we will fall through. Come spring we will declare all out war on ants.

We have been sick, Dell, the cat and I have all been under the bed with something. Dell and the cat recovered nicely but my body decided to go into bronchitis which is a miserable thing to have. After the doctor prescribed some cough medicine I was able to sleep and am now recovering, slowly but surely.

Missed Christmas with the family. With a one-year-old, a two-year-old and a three-year-old, I hear it was quite entertaining. Mary had all her family home and they held their tree and breakfast Sundaymorning before going to Pat and Charlie’s for the family dinner and tree.  Pamela and Dylan had to leave Sunday afternoon but Tricia and Katri stayed over as they would have been traveling into the teeth of a storm.

Paula has strained her back and is taking a day or two off to rest and recover. Dana planned to start his job in Freeport but it had been delayed until Wednesday at the least. Paula was having “Hoppin’ John” for supper hoping it will bring good luck.

Due to all the bad weather, Pat and Charlie postponed the Verrill family get-together until April. No one wants their family out traveling when the roads are icy. Paula said she was sluing around in the Walmart parking lot and a warning came on to tell her it was slippery. Before this last storm, there were deer tracks all over. Despite the cold, they were looking at our shrubs and digging around where the hostas live.

Hope to be able to get out and go somewhere next week so as to have some news to write about. Keep warm.

Just read something Nora Ephron said. “When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”