They're predicting 8 or 9 inches of snow to start tomorrow morning and go until the early morning hours of Thanksgiving. With that timing, I'm not sure I'll be able to dig out of my driveway, nor is my invited friend sure he wants to drive 45 minutes if the roads are still bad around noon time.

So we all agreed that my sister and I would consult again Thanksgiving morning to assess the snow situation and make a final decision. If we cancel Thanksgiving dinner, we will reschedule our restaurant dinner out for Saturday, same time.

The restaurant even said they would hold both reserved times open for us, so we have that flexibility. The downside will be that they won't be serving their special Thanksgiving menu on Saturday, but what can you do?

I have off the rest of the week. If, say, the snow unexpectedly ended early, like by tomorrow early evening, then I could be out there shoveling and wrap it up Thursday morning with time to spare. But that's not what the weather forecasters are saying.

I picked up a pizza on the ride home from work and inched my car into my rather tight one-car garage. I pulled out the snow shovel and scraper for the car, and brought my rubber boots inside so they won't get filled with snow. I guess I'm as ready as can be.

The boys caught yet another mouse last night in the basement and brought it upstairs. I was able to chase them back to the basement before they dropped the (live) mouse en route. Much as I hate them handling icky mice, Waldo does look awfully cute with a small furry mouse stuffed in his mouth. I doubt he does much damage to the mouse because he's missing most of his teeth. However, his claws, and Luther's, are like hypodermic needles. They lost the mouse and I think it found safety under the washer or dryer.

I was very upset to learn today, by overhearing other employees talk about it and then reading a news story about it, that the wild turkey that had been hanging around the bank where I work, located right in the downtown of a small city, was killed by two local thugs. I don't know if they caught who did it, but eyewitnesses said they saw 2 guys who looked to be about age 20 or so run out of their car to grab the turkey. And then they broke its neck and tossed it in their car and sped away. All this in broad daylight. Sad. The bird seemed attached to its reflection in the plate glass windows of our office building. There's always some loser who ruins a nice thing.

In other news of the unfortunate kind, I learned from talking to a plumber on the phone that the rusty, leaking old iron septic pipe in my basement will cost about $800 to repair. I emailed him photos and he estimated 4 or 5 hours of labor at $100 an hour (hard to believe), and another "couple hundred dollars" for materials. They will have to cut the pipe and replace it. He said they couldn't just reapply the sealant between the 2 connections becus mine has old lead sodder and isn't up to code. I guess it's just as well to get that out of my basement. I have the money, but of course you hate to spend it on things like that. I had a feeling it was going to be expensive.