Hocus . . . Pocus! I Am a Vampire!

It's that time of year again when I turn into a vampire.

Not literally, of course. But as I'm heading out to the bus at 4:45 am with Orion watching from the southeast and the Big Dipper pointing its handle at the horizon to the north and coming home with the first stars coming out and the twilight ending, I do feel a bit vampirish. If it weren't for the window in my cubicle and the occasional stroll outside, I wouldn't see the sun at all. And it's a condition that lasts through mid-April, when the days finally start to get a bit longer.

No wonder I feel a bit fatty-gyooed.

So it is nice when the weekends come and I can be outdoors, soaking up the sun and making Vitamin D. Tomorrow, my adventures will likely include digging all of the carrots out of the garden and getting stuff stowed in the shed for winter; we've got our first winter storm scheduled to start storming into the area on Sunday.

For those of you who are interested, I'm trying a new summer accoutrement storage approach, in using the kids' playhouse, both underneath and inside, to store stuff for the winter. The shed is great, but it gets so crowded with stuff over the season that it's hard to get in there. So when the snow is here in earnest, the tomato cages and the kids' bicycles are going in the playhouse, with the wagon and one of the wheelbarrows is going underneath the playhouse.