Thirty degrees here on the mountain this morning at 8 am.  Thirty-four downtown Murphy.  I had to pour hot water into the birdbath again because I still have't connected the little bath heater to the bird's water supply.  As soon as the water was available, more than a dozen robins flocked to the rim and the tree branches overhead jockeying for water rights.  Kind of strange to see so many robins this time of year.  Our decaying leaves supply birds all winter with little sprouts and buried insects.  One suet block hangs from the back porch eaves and one on a wire strung where squirrels can't get at it but we can view it from our kitchen island.  Suet brings the male and female downy and the red-bellied woodpeckers during fall and winter.  I don't understand why the red-bellied has been named so as there's no red on it's belly.

Before doing errands at Wally-World, we had our senior coffee at McDonald's.  Businesses were quiet.  There was no line at Dunkin Donuts and only a few old people in McDonald's.  Maybe people are still full from over-eating at Thanksgiving or out of money after the Black Friday frenzy.  The sun warmed up the air nicely this afternoon, forty-five degrees, allowing me to put up more outside decorations and gather kindling for a fire.  We needed a fire yesterday in the dank dreary windy weather but Cliff was too tired to start one after responding to a structure fire at 3:30 am.  I don't do the fires as I'm afraid I'll fill the house with smoke.  There's an art to getting a good fire going without summoning the fire department.  Anyway, it's his thing and I don't want to get good at it or I may have to do it more often.

With the sun beginning to disappear behind the mountain, the birdbath heater is now plugged in,  all the outside lights on and there's pot of Ree Drummond's (The Pioneer Woman) simple, perfect chili simmering on the stove for tonight's supper.  I'm so thankful for energetic days that I can be active and pain free.