I attended a wonderful democracy rally last night with a few friends. I'm so proud of my little hometown. The old gymnasium was packed to standing room only, and there was a very inspiring array of speakers, including representatives of the ACLU, local politicians, the local Indivisible chapter, and multiple other organizations fighting the felon. I think my favorite speaker was the pastor of our Congregational church. I was just impressed at his impassioned speech. Impressed because so often faith leaders retreat from political upheaval and play it safe by remaining "neutral." He was not. We also heard from a young Mexican immigrant who had already witnessed ICE arrests in nearby local city, some local high school students and a 97-year-old woman.

The snow and ice have finally begun to melt with warmer temps forecast all week before turning cold again. I took advantage by going out and doing some pruning: a fairly large branch of a Japanese maple growing straight into a mountain laurel, and a hard prune of bluebeard so it doesn't outgrow its space. Soon I am looking forward to cutting pussy willow branches to bring inside.

Now that I'm pretty much recovered from my cold, I did return to the gym for 2 days last week, but decided I would make Sundays my day of rest, and pull back the workouts from 4 days to 3 days a week. Since I was also going to the gym the other days of the week to use the treadmill, the whole schedule felt kind of demanding. Hopefully having Sundays "off" will make it feel more reasonable; it's not like I'm not going to do stuff so I will get some steps in anyways....

I am beginning to think more about various home improvements I want to do. There's always more than I can handle. I guess the first priority is repairing 2 small holes that were punched into my vinyl siding after storms. The 2nd  one occurred just last week when ice on some old cable wires caused the wires to literally rip out of the side of the house. I didn't even know the wires were not needed when I upgraded to fiber last  year, but they chose to leave them there. I have since had someone from the cable company come out and remove them, but now want to repair the holes to avoid insect or moisture infiltration.

I have actually been considering replacing my roof earlier than anticipated; it was last done in 2013 so it's just 12 years old. I would like to get metal roofing for over the garage and the front entry way and I would really like to get the guy who did it last time because he was honest and gave me a great price. I also have 2 exterior doors I'd like to replace plus a bigger fridge and would love to get an induction stove. And also redoing the stone stairs leading to the back yard.  Obviously I'm not going to get all of that done this year; I tend to knock off the "easiest" projects first so who knows what will get done, and when.

Happy to say I have already gotten both state and federal tax refunds totalling about $3k.