A Chilly Morning and Icicles of the Foil type

I'm sipping on a cup of hot brew, wearing flannel pajamas, wrapped in a pink fuzzy robe and covered up with my soft brown plaid blanket. I can hear the furnace revving up, the warm air drifting down from the vents in the ceiling. YES! Winter is here this week.

The street I live on has a few houses with outdoor lights and decorations gracing their lawns. We are one of those. It's not that the spirit is stronger with those few houses but it relates to the fact that those houses got their lights up before this cold front wrapped it's frigid arms around us. It's too cold for the natives to be decorating the outdoors.

I may brave the weather and make another trip to the little storage house to get the garland that should be hung around the front door. My tree is standing and loaded with the crocheted angels that I am very partial to. While working at a nursing home, a little lady was making them and selling them for a dollar a piece. I bought a bunch and only wish that I had more of them. They are starched stiff and adorn my tree each year.

Icicles; the kind that go on Christmas trees. Remember those? As children we weren't as particular as the adults we have become. I can remember our family saving the icicles from the year before and putting them back on the tree for the next Christmas. We had to be frugal.

 We hung them carefully for the first few minutes then as the novelty worn off, I can remember pitching them at the tree. Yesterday I bought some icicles. I haven't put them on a tree in years.  As an adult, I carefully draped them over each branch, watching as the lights picked up the foil and the whole tree glowed brighter. I now have a trail of those icicles littering the rug and the hardwood floor. I stoop to pick them up and toss them at the tree, remembering the times we tracked them across the room on those child Christmases. Ah, yes. Icicles. How did I make it without them all these years.

Soon I will put on some warm clothes and start the car to let it warm up before I leave to collect Carrie for her ride to school. At least we don't have nasty slippery roads to contend with. The rain has moved on through and by Saturday it should be in the mid seventies..but only for ONE DAY and then another blast from the north. What a strange winter we are having.
Clinical report: The major improvement I have noticed is I can now raise my arms above my head, move them across my chest and wear pullover t shirts. The nerve/burning sensation beneath my right upper arm gets worse as the day wears on. I'm taking a couple of Tylenol throughout the day.
The incision sites are healing with a minimal amount of swelling now.
I'm done here and I'm off to get some warm clothes on. Time is rushing along.