Today was not a good sleep-in day, as Ruckus made up for yesterday's pleasant behavior by starting to yowl at 3 a.m. In any case, I had to get up at 5 to take a friend to the airport, so as a result I am writing to you in a bleary, coffee-free state. Expect typos and snide remarks about cats.

At least the coffee situation is on the way to being rectified, and shortly I'll settle into some sort of detente with morning. In a few hours I'll head downeast to my reading . . . it's a two-hour drive each way, and I'm not thrilled to have slept so badly, but oh well. At least I won't melt into a puddle while also being exhausted. And the view off the coast will be lovely.

Yesterday T announced that he is considering his next handyman project: rebuilding our shed, which is close to collapse. Even when new, it was a Home Depot piece of junk, and now it is a rotting piece of junk, and the roof is likely to fall in under the snow. So he spent a few hours cogitating and measuring and drawing, and has now designed a beautiful little renovation, with a new roofline, windows, cedar siding, and an enclosed woodshed addition. I hope we can figure out how to afford this, and I hope it can get done before the next load of firewood arrives, and I can't wait to see the cute little woodshed, with its sliding door.