I Sure Hope Those Caterpillars Know Their Stuff!

When we moved here, everyone told us that you could tell if it was going to be a cold winter by looking at the woolly bear caterpillars. If they were mostly brown, it would be a warm winter; if they were mostly black, it would be a cold winter. Last winter, the caterpillars we saw were about 50/50, and we were told that the winter was a mild one (it certainly wasn't mild by my standards, but I'm a Florida girl, so what do I know?). This year, the caterpillars have been mostly brown. A good sign, eh? But last night the temperature went down to the low 30's. Brrrr!

(This is not a picture of an actual local caterpillar. I found it on the internet. When we find real caterpillars, I am busy telling the kids Not to Touch them because they probably Sting, so I forget to get my camera. Our caterpillars had more brown, but otherwise the idea is the same.)

The floor guys finally decided that the signs and omens were propitious for installing our floors on Monday. It took them all day, and T. nearly died of starvation when we couldn't get into the kitchen to get lunch at 12:30 (I told him that a little fasting would build his character, but he feels his character is perfect as it is), but our new floors are really gorgeous. The house is just so much cleaner and brighter and nicer now. Well, actually, it isn't quite as bright as it would be if the workmen hadn't done something funky so that the overhead lights in the back room no longer work. We can't figure out what went wrong, but the lights worked Sunday night and haven't worked since the workmen left on Monday afternoon. But the important thing is that the carpet, as far as we can see in the gloom, looks really good.

(Ed keeps piling junk on the window sills in an effort to discourage Harry from jumping on them. Harry jumps on the desks on his way up to the window sills, and tends to knock stuff over. I've told Ed that I'd rather have some stuff knocked over than look at all that junk. I think we are going to compromise and just leave the junk on the window sill over his desk.)