It really doesn’t matter if you go away for a week or a month, you pretty much have to hit the ground running when you get home.  I did come home to a very clean house and a very happy Kobe and Rosie thanks to the attentions of their new best friend Tita, who moved in with her cat Sheena during my absence.  Besides all the usual things to catch up with, this time I had lots of birthday wishes on the machine and in the pile of mail.  So nice.

And, of course, there is the time-consuming issue of changing the time on the clocks that don’t have enough sense to do it for themselves, such as my iPhone and MacBook.  So silly.  I headed out to church on Sunday in the dawn’s early light.

After missing two rehearsals,  I had a very special treat on Sunday sitting in the congregation and listening to “my” choir sing Mendelssohn’s “How Lovely are the Messengers.”  Wow!  I was blown away.  In regard to this group, the adage about a chain’s being no stronger than its weakest link just does not apply.  And David, my Valentine, sang “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”  If I can figure out how to do it, I will post the audio of it.

And, in my absence, spring had sprung.  John, my knowledgeable and faithful gardener, had hauled off a pile of debris to the dump (euphemistically known as the transfer station) and then came back to load up some logs from a departed tree to take for his fireplace.   I keep having him plant more trees whenever we have to bid a sad farewell to one.  He once joked that he is going to have my back yard officially declared “The Jean Urbanski Wilderness Area,” an idea that I whole-heartedly embrace.  I’m having a plaque made.

I found this view peeking in my bedroom window on my return home.

And I opened Rosie’s window so she could take a better look out back (The Jean Urbanski Wilderness Area).

I did take a break on Monday afternoon to meet a good friend at the Ike Box to share pictures and details of our respective recent trips.  Jim had toured the Desert Southwest and had some great pictures.  I was particularly  interested in his visit to the picturesque and iconic seat of Presidio County, Texas — Marfa.

The population of Marfa is fewer than 2000 folks and fewer than 8000 for the entire county, and yet, like so many county seats in Texas, there is a beautiful county court house in the center of town.

 One can only wonder what sorts of cases were heard here — claim jumping, cattle rustling?  Jim rustled around in here unguided and undisturbed.

All this was just on his way to hike three national parks in the general vicinity.

In addition to the great photographs, he also brought back a coffee table book about the Chinati Foundation which he has lent me.

At the Ike Box, I was introduced to the concept of Mexican Mocha.  I am pretty sure it contained 3000 calories and was worth every one.  Nevertheless, I came home and contrived a guilt-free version.  Got it down to about 50 calories, no caffeine, no fat.  That is not to say that it is soooooo good for you, but it is soooooo good.  (Better living through chemistry?)

My excellent accountant and my brilliant financial manager work together to figure my taxes so accurately that all I had to do to get my returns off my desk was basically to hit “send.”  I really do not resent paying my taxes.  Sometimes I do wish there was a menu to choose from to indicate specifically which services I would like to support.  I’m big on health care and education but not so much on foreign wars.

And last night I escaped the household disarray to go down town to the Elsinore

to see the “old movie of the week.”  This time it was:

Too much fun!  We remembered that as children we said we were “going to the show,”  and mentioned that nowadays, we often say “film” instead of “movie” to connote a bit of haute something-or-other.  Woman of the Year is a really good show.  We also remembered that in our tiny towns, it had cost 10 cents go to the show and 5 cents for a Hershey bar. (There isn’t even a cents key on this keyboard!!)  On Saturday afternoons we  saw a program consisting of a cowboy movie, at least one cartoon, a newsreel, an episode of a serial (my favorite was Nyoka, Queen of the Jungle.)

and features of coming attractions.  It really makes no sense at all to call them trailers.

Now, in an attempt to further ignore the household disorganization, I am going to try to find something green in my closet to wear to an Irish tea party at Deepwood Estate tomorrow