It’s dark and it’s raining cats and dogs (who came up with that proverb??). It makes the Christmas lights stand out even more/better. Today was the first time that Government officials decided to go out and sprinkle salt on the roads as counter measure against slippery roads. In other words: winter is knocking on the door.
Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of two of my brothers. Their birthday is about 4 days apart, just in a different year. It was nice to see them again. I don’t see some of my brothers often enough. The rest of the day was filled with watching college football. I didn’t have to fill in the picks this weeks, because the regular season is over again… unfortunately. I finished somewhere around place 31,000 out of 194,000 people competing. Not too shabby. It’s been an odd season, though. I did watch some of the SEC Championship game, but fell asleep as soon as I noticed that this was going to be a walk over by Alabama.
Today I didn’t do a whole lot. My parents came to visit us to look at the renovated bathrooms and to look at the Christmas decoration that we put up. We shared some doughnut balls and had some coffee. After that I watched ski jumping in Norway, where in fact the weather was not any better. I didn’t sleep well, which is why I decided to take things easy today.
Our washing machine decided to break down. It completely turned off. Fortunately I paid for an insurance for 7 years, so hopefully it’s a matter of making a phone call and let the repair guys do their job free of charge. It’s just an unwelcome inconvenience. I would like to settle in for Christmas, not having to worry over things anymore till the next year starts.
I look forward to my well-deserved vacation.
I understand that the expression “raining cats and dogs” comes from the time when many people had thatched roofs on their houses. The family pets would get into the thatch where it was warm (and probably mice to eat.) When it rained especially hard, however, the thatch wouldn’t shed all of it and when it began to get wet, the animals would come out (or fall out) hence “raining cats and dogs.”