It's All About the C-O-U-N-T D-O-W-N . . .

It's 30 some hours away from the new year and everywhere we look there is a sense of a countdown going on. It, of course, crept up on us again as usual and we are in the spiral.

Will we be among those out and about cheering in the "new year" probably not as we have our own way of welcoming in the new year -- quietly.

There is the sense of clear bright skies ahead and the feeling of stepping out of the old and into a new refreshing start. It is always an exciting feeling for us and we look forward to that again . . . and again.

Peeking a look at various scenes around this day we see some areas have moderate weather while others have some extremes.

We've lived in both and prefer the moderate.  When the temperatures go way below zero and then the wind-chill factor is added in, we really thank our lucky stars that our temperatures are reasonable.

We did have temps this morning in the high 20s, but that is livable. We talked with Gail's sister the other day (who lives in Stanley, Idaho) and she reported that they had temperatures some -30° below zero and then went to a balmy 30° above zero -- a 60° swing. They took that as a sign to "go out for a walk to town" . . . We don't walk to town at any temperature any longer . . .

This morning I did take the time to enjoy a leisurely "soak" in our new tub -- very refreshing and invigorating and is the reason that I am a little later doing this post. I also ran us out of hot water which we will have to address in the coming months.

While we had a bright and sunny Christmas, Lisa & Bob, up in Arlington, Washington enjoyed a real "white Christmas".

Having lived in the Seattle area for many years we know how it can snow during the holidays -- but not always.

It is nice that they get to enjoy the snow without having to do too much driving in it as they both are on vacation this week.

Seattle with its hilly areas is "interesting" during snow storms . . .

All of this weather makes me hungry . . . and I happened to see an article that caught my attention referring to the many restaurant chains that are no longer around or almost no longer around:

There were many more featured in the article but these I did have some history with.

The only one that I never ate in was the Red Barn and I included it because there is just one left and it happens to be in Racine, Wisconsin.

There are still some A&W's left around but nowhere near the number as during the 40's,  50s and 60s, when even I worked at one.

Bob's Big Boys were always a favorite for me as was HoJo's for awhile. And Lums too.

Oh well, they were fun and part of a bye-gone era. I wish our town of Healdsburg had more just plain "down-home" type restaurants instead of predominantly high-end touristy types -- but we did discover just last night a new Chinese restaurant in town -- Dragon -- that was very good with the take-out that we ordered.

Speaking of Chinese -- 2018 is the year of the dog. And what better dog for us than Dino!

Dino continues to help us to enjoy everyday life. He doesn't seem to mind the fact that we don't walk him as much as we used to do.

He does enjoy the routine that we provide and reminds us when we are not in full compliance.

We'll be searching our database to see who among those of us in the tree are celebrating this "year of the dog".


And so, we have even fewer hours left to this year than when I started this post. We have one more full day -- New Year's Eve -- and then the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game and other New Year's activities.

That is a bit of our week and year. We wish everyone a great New Year and hope to see you all "in a few"!