The miserable trailing end of the cold (36.6 degrees) leaves me divided: on the one hand I'm getting cabin fever and want to go off somewhere new and different. On the other I know I don't feel up to it.
So I stayed in, and I'm glad I did. I had a lovely, several-hours chat with someone I've been estranged from much of the past year. While things aren't normal again, I think we can both see normal from where we are, and we both want it. Given that the Valentine's Day is sure to draw a lot of bitter and sarcastic comments everywhere on the Internet, I'd like to offer this as a moment of love shining through the dark. We had a good day.
And I took the chance to clean a few balata rubber coatis I got years ago from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.. It was just a matter of rubbing aloe over them. They look great when shined again.
In outside news, residents of one apartment complex in Ang Mo Kio remain baffled by a mysterious hongbao -- an envelope with money given as a Chinese New Year gift -- distributed anonymously several weeks ago. Someone gave a two-dollar bill to everyone in the building. Residents guess someone in the complex had an excellent year and wanted to share the joy. This was reported a week or so ago, but today seems like a nicer day to talk about it.
Trivia: In the Get Fuzzy comic strip, Satchel's parents are a Labrador retriever and a Shar-Pei. Source: Groovitude: A Get Fuzzy Treasury, Darby Conley.
Currently Reading: The End of the Byzantine Empire, D.M. Nicol.