I looked it up. Going broody means laying on eggs that might not be the hen’s own. Red Hen, formerly named Ruth, has gone broody. Pete says that she is also laying eggs, which I do not believe. She puffs herself out and settles down for the hatch. She reminds me of my mother who used to get on the bus, sit down, and spread herself out, maybe taking a moment to look inside her purse. No eggs were involved.

Imagine if people laid eggs. I don’t suspect that we would eat them. We, being the slobs that we are, would just leave them where we laid them. There would be eggs everywhere. What a mess.

Very cold here – may get to -15 F. This is turning out to be an almost brutal winter.

Well, Pete did not hear back about the New York Times running his letter. But I told him to write to the editor and ask if it might be of interest to a larger audience, in which case they might consider having it be a regular New York Times article.

Me, I did get the proposal in last night, to the editor of the McCarthy Press. I attempted to beat the crowds who were going to be emailing him today. Don’t know if I did. Well, I will follow Pete’s lead and call him next week.

It was what I call a calm before the storm day today. Tomorrow is going to be a bit tougher, as I will explain. Pete and I got to U-Haul and got Ready to Read floppy books, which we brought back to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel for cleaning. I figured they would supplement what we already have on hand. They will also be ready for next week’s special needs students.

My writing group, consisting of two people, me and Becky, met, and shared our freewrites on flexibility with one another. Becky wrote a first-person account of being a tree. I could see it, a series of images of a tree, bending in the wind. It also made me think that I would like to do as the editor in McCarthy is doing and get a small independent press going and as well offer writing courses.

I need for someone with money to jump in and give us the money, which we would use to purchase the hotel. There is someone out there, I am sure of it. I’m just not sure about how I’d go about locating them. I need money for the hotel and then an equal amount of money to keep it going. In the meantime, I am keeping the little book project that could going.

I next gave Linda a hand stamping books, holding them open while she stamps.

Then I headed over to Benders of Hair and had Betty cut my hair. It was getting towards the end of the day, but as tired as she was, she did a good job.

Tonight, just taking care of administrative stuff. Pete’s taking care of the animals.

Next: 3. 1/3/26: Forward Ho