What I learned today...

During my daily chat with one of my CA girlfriends, she asked how I'd be spending the upcoming weekend.
Keep in mind that she'd just shared how she was going to a holiday party at a winery in Sonoma, then she and her husband were going to crash at a friend's condo there so they could make a leisurely drive back on Sunday, stopping along the way at one of their favorite restaurants.
Audible Sigh.
I took a deep breath, and told her that over the weekend, I hoped to get the bird out of the basement. Oh,  and we were going to chop more firewood, and maybe, if I wasn't too tired, I would bake something full of apple-y goodness, before the 3 boxes of apples we have stored in the mudroom turn into something disgustingly mushy.
Somehow, I don't think I'm going to be having as much fun as she's having, but I'm not going to have to put on any restrictive garments for my weekend activities, which has become Priority #1 in my world.
Sad. Very, very sad.
She didn't even appear shocked to hear there was a bird flying around in the basement, because she listens to me complain about errant wildlife on a daily basis. The bird got into the basement after the Unfortunate Mouse Incident last week, because now, I absolutely refuse to go down the narrow basement stairs. The only other way to get into the basement is to open the 'Dorothy Door', which is what we call the big old hatch-like door by the side of the house, because it looks like it could be straight out of the tornado scene in the Wizard of Oz.
Because of my irrational fear of rodents, I've decided when I have to do laundry, instead of going down the narrow basement stairs which would not provide ample turning-around-room-in-case-I-come-face-to-face-with-a-mouse, I need to go out the kitchen door, walk around the house, open the Dorothy Door, and enter  the basement this way. Normally, no big deal, except earlier this week, when the weather did this

Obviously, I needed the dryer, which means basement. Grrrr. Oh yeah, and Brrr. So a stupid bird flew in (at least I hope it's a bird and not a bat, but hell, nothing at this point would shock me) and now there is yet one more unwanted critter in the basement.
But, I did learn something this week. Something I never had to think about when I lived in NoCal.
Steel-toed shoes are not a good choice in the snow. I don't need to explain this, do I ?
I have to go walk around the house now, so I can leave some birdseed out for whatever is flying around downstairs.

UPDATE: Snow melting, bird flew away. Life is good.