Tuesday's Thaw

Tuesday was an incredibly warm day here in Redford. We were supposed to break our all-time record high of 56 degrees F. So, for the first time in a long time, I got to wear a light jacket.

At lunch, I went to the Library to drop off my books and pick up some more. Unfortunately the one book my Mother told me about (Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen) was out! But, I did get three other books and hopefully, it will be in the next time I try. My Mother said it was so good that when she finished it the first time, she immediately began re-reading it.

I posted a photo I saw of an almost unbelievable sight. The accompanying story read in part:

"It was a chance encounter in the charred landscape of Australia's deadly wildfires: A koala sips water from a bottle offered by a firefighter. David Tree noticed the koala moving gingerly on scorched paws as his fire patrol passed. Clearly in pain, the animal stopped when it saw Tree.

'It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery,' Tree told The Associated Press on Tuesday. 'I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally.

He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby.'

The team called animal welfare officers to pick up the koala Sunday, the day after deadly firestorms swept southern Victoria State.

'I love nature, and I've handled koalas before. They're not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him,' Tree said.

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl. It rarely comes down from the trees and doesn't like walking.

Koalas are especially vulnerable to wildfires because they move slowly on the ground."

Other photos of the wildfires, the burned out cars, the burned up homes and the dead people are just horrible. But this one touched me...

When I got home after work I checked and it did hit 58 degrees today, breaking the all-time record. We also broke the all-time record for the low temperature last night (it never got below 37 degrees F.) Now this is what I call a January Thaw! It's supposed to stay above freezing but with a LOT of rain tomorrow and high, possibly damaging winds (with flood watches). Then we go back to normal temps up to and through the weekend.

So, before I did anything else, I changed into my boots and took out my hoe. I ditched the large puddles in front of my drive into the ditch (Department of Redundancy Department) to help dry things out. Then I took the hoe and knocked down any remaining ice dams (only on the north side roofs). So, now it can rain all it wants and I don't have to worry...

Inside, I treated the cats and changed clothes. I emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the stove top.

For dinner, I first made a salad, with leaf lettuce, Romaine hearts and thin-sliced red onions, topped with vinaigrette. Since I had the knife out anyway, I diced up the two red peppers and two green peppers I bought for the gumbo ya-ya (they were starting to wrinkle up) and popped them into the freezer.

Then I warmed up the last of the linguine with clams and topped that with a healthy portion of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. I ate dinner watching TV, but shut it off when I was done and dug out a library book. I read that until I started nodding off, then turned out the lights and went to bed.