It is still dark at the farm this morning. I slept on the red couch, bathed in the brilliant cold blue-white mercury vapor security lamp.

It was quiet except for the 3:05 freight on the old Alexandria & Orange line sounding its horn at the grade crossings at Winston, Virginia.

It was nearly sixty degrees yesterday, starting lovely in Arlington, but then swaddled in clouds and spritzing rain. I drove out of it near Remington, and for a couple hours returned to an odd Spring-like air mass over the farm.

The temperature plummeted overnight, and I stepped out on the porch in the blackness to look for the black cat with the white mittens

I will stay long enough to see if Heckle shows up on morning patrol with the first light. In any case, I will have foot out for my feral feline associate. I hope she has found a better gig for the winter. My pal Jinny provided a heated cat-house (no jokes, quite true and practical) but I suspect that regular food is more in line with Heckle’s minimalist expectations.

Food occupied several first thoughts. I did not stop at the store on the way down, and have no eggs. That means one thing: if I am going to breakfast I can either cook back up in Northern Virginia, or I can treat myself to a stop at the Frost Diner. I put out the dry cat food by the garage and the last can of the wet food on the front porch, just in case the cat and I do not pass.

I had to marvel at the silence. It is really calm down here. No car bombings, like LA, which is an alarming development from the weekend in Lotusland.

There is much more to talk about as the new year lurches forward, but this is an Official Holiday, and I am going to take it and see if I can actually make it to the gym and accomplish one of my resolutions.

I did make a list of all the people who sent holiday cards, and will do something with it presently. I will remove the timer from the lights and unplug the ones on the balcony.

The Holiday is over, and time to get back to work. I don’t feel like I spent much time in the holiday spirit, but the time of merrymaking for most of the rest of us did give me the time to get some important things done.

Now, on with the show for 2012. But first I am going to stop at The Frost Diner before I head north. They open at five, and I have had a hankering for a three-egg omelet with grits. When in Culpeper, I figure, do like the Culpeperins.

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com