♫ . . . It's Rainy Outside . . . ♪

Not to be confused with the controversial "Baby, It's Cold Outside" . . . but it is cold outside and inside as well -- at the moment (explanation later).

The birds are lovin' it -- they are filling up on seed and suet at our feeding stations. We enjoy watching them from the comfort of our couch . . . we're old.

That is a quick look at our backyard area this morning as the rain came lightly down and the birds went berserk in a feeding frenzy.

I am not sure what kinds of birds these are but do know that they are hungry. In the far right picture, one bird can be seen digging into the feeder while directly below is another bird catching the spillage.

We are really glad for the rain and are expecting more in the coming days.

So, why is it cold inside . . . well, we shut down the heat every night and open the bedroom windows to get a "good night's sleep" and when it is cold, we do.

Then in the morning, when the house temp is around 60° I turn on the heat when I get up so that it is warm when Gail gets up.

But this morning, somehow I turned on the a/c and went about getting ready and sitting in a cool family room reading the paper wondering why it was still cold in the house and passing it off as the outside rainy weather was permeating through the walls more than normal . . .

The situation got remedied when I went to check the thermostat and realized my error -- old . . .

This time of the season there is so much that I need to be reminded about that I don't think that the "string" is working all that well.

My concentration seems to be lacking in some of the details like things that need to be ordered. Things like items that are used up and need to be reordered like groceries.

Then there are the things like gifting that need to be taken into consideration and the assurance that everything and everyone is taken care of -- e.g. like the mail person, the paper person, the yard person, the pool person, and a few others.

Maybe I need heavier string or more fingers, it's getting bothersome though. At some point, I'll just probably shrug and say "it is what it is . . ." and move on -- maybe work some on the puzzle . . .

Speaking of puzzles, we finished the "Sam's Garage" after almost two weeks of struggling.

It was a difficult puzzle partly due to the fact that the pieces were small and there was 1000 of them and all showed up in the final effort.

Gail was convinced that we could never finish this one (but she almost says that about every one).

She also was convinced at one point that there were more pieces than we needed to finish the puzzle and then thought that there were missing pieces -- neither was the case, thank goodness.

We have started a new puzzle today and it is "Christmas" themed and should be done by Christmas.
It has 1000 pieces, but the pieces are bigger which means more of the "evidence" is shown on each piece and therefore a bit easier to recognize . . . again, we're old.

More puzzling -- well -- certainly from this perspective, it looks like a gigantic puzzle.

It is the representation of our family tree which sprouts new growth frequently as
I add (and subtract) things weekly.

And if you enlarge this you might see the branch where you and your family can be found . . . but most likely, not.

The work on the family tree is as rewarding as the other jigsaw puzzle -- the difference is that there is no finish in view. Every day there are changes and so the view is only as good as that particular day.

And as echoing what we hear from everyone else these days -- time is flying:

And that is not all that (who) is flying. Santa arrives in the time frames listed above and it is even shorter wait now . . .

I'm getting that "panicky" feeling again about "are we ready for Christmas" and what else needs to be done . . .

That is a bit of our week. See you all "in a few"! 👫