Every three or four days, it snows. Then it snows again. The world is pretty but hard to navigate when I’m protecting my cyborg knee and my old partly rotten knee, not yet rotten enough to operate on.One depressing thing is that I know I will have to go through all this again probably next late fall for my right knee.  It wasn’t in as bad shape this fall as my left knee, that had absolutely no cartilage left.  But I know it’s going too.  I no longer use a cane for the stairs in the house; the only time I use the cane is when I go out, because the world is icy and I never know when I’ll encounter steps without a railing that are easy to trip on.  I’m doing the cooking, can accomplish 90% of what I usually do in the house.  Exercises are boring and time consuming, but I do them religiously because I want a strong knee.  I’m starting weights again to maintain my upper body strength.  This must be incredibly boring to read.Soon I hope my blogs will be more lively.  We’re going through all our old CDs to put them on an Ipod.  We both hate CDs.  They are always falling out of the rack with a great crash and the jewel cases cracking.  I hate the CD player, it’s very cranky and never wants to play what I want it to.  The cats are always landing on the CD rack making another big crash.  I look forward to the portability of the Ipod.We’ll hold on to our old vinyl records.  The ones we kept are not replaceable.We’re entertaining tonight. I didn’t feel up yet to making a complete dinner for a crowd, so we’re doing desserts and champagne.  I’m making a cherry pie. We froze cherries from our sour cherry tree.  I love sour cherries – they were plentiful in Michigan when I was growing up. Actually one summer when I was eleven I earned some money picking cherries up north by Crystal Lake, standing on a ladder.  My father had some extended job for Westinghouse up there and we rented a cabin on Crystal Lake.  I made friends with a girl my age from a farm family, and that’s how I came to be picking cherries.I wrote three poems this week and revised another two essays. All the seeds I ordered so far have arrived.  This weekend is the census of birds that come to feeders for Audubon.  This morning I’ll start counting the different kinds. Then tomorrow we’ll watch the Super Bowl.  We no longer watch in a group because I actually like to keep track of the plays and a group is way too noisy. Plus if it’s one of those lopsided years and unutterably boring, in a group you can’t turn it off.Our 2^nd youngest cat Mingus has a virus in his eye, the vet told us on Wednesday. I have to give him drops that obviously sting three times a day.  He is very good about it, doesn’t scratch of bite, just squnches his eyes as tight as possible.  I feel bad for him.  Or course he has no idea why he’s being tortured.  I expect the other cats will catch it from him, as they’re always licking each other and cuddling.  Something to look forward to.  Medicating three or four cats three times a day.At least the days are getting longer.  I especially appreciate a longer afternoon. I hate it when it feels like midnight at seven. Most mornings, it’s light when I wake and the birds are already active. I can tell the temperature roughly by the rhododendron leaves on the bushes outside the bedroom, how tightly they curl. Well, off to do boring dreaded exercises that use up most of my morning.