This will be our 9th Groundhog Day. When I started doing this the goal was to present a “typical” day for us. But I am now convinced we will never have a “typical” day. Last year wasn’t typical because we were in NYC and when I looked at when Groundhog Day would fall this year I thought, “I don’t even work that day, so that won’t be a normal day for us.” Unlike someone with a normal 9 to 5 job, my day doesn’t vary by just weekday or weekend. There’s a typical day for when I work the night before, and when I work that night, and one for when I didn’t work the night before but do work that night, and one for when I did work the night before but don’t work that night, and one for one I didn’t work the night before and don’t work that night, and weekday and weekend variations of each of those. So while today was a typical day for a Friday when I didn’t work last night and don’t work tonight. I might not have another day like this for several weeks.

5:00ish am

Since I didn’t work last night, I’m asleep when Groundhog day begins. I had a strange dream that woke me around five, but I was quickly able to fall back to sleep once I realized I didn’t need to be up yet.

7:35 am

Annelise’s alarm is the first to go off. I set mine for 10 minutes after hers as a back up, but I every morning I still wake to hers. I hear her get up, then head to the bathroom. I wait to see if she’ll show up in my room or if she’ll attempt to get ready without me. I hear her head back to her room, but then I few minutes later she comes into mine and asks for help picking out something to wear. She is very particular about what she will wear. No dresses, no skirts, nothing with ruffles, lace or sparkles. Nothing too complex, limited buttons and zippers, and no rough fabrics. Basically she wants to be in a fluffy cloud of cotton. Today her problem was that there were too many choices. We chose a blue sweatshirt and khaki colored jeggings. I leave her to get dressed and head into the kitchen to fix breakfast, and pack her lunch.

8:00 am

She appears in the dining room. Don’t believe the clock on the wall, it’s about 10 minutes fast and half of the year an hour off. I wish her a Happy Groundhog day and she replies with “Oh, it’s THAT day.”

Breakfast is the same everyday… scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and apple juice. Today the fruit is blueberries.

After breakfast while she’s brushing her teeth and hair. I get dressed and pack her lunch. Her school offers free lunch to everyone, but much like with her clothes she’s very particular. So everyday I pack a lunch and like breakfast isn’t almost always the same… Pasta with butter, a fruit, a veggie, yogurt, chips or pretzels and a snack (two if she’s staying after school).

8:30ish

Annelise has two friends that she walks to school with. They usually get to the house sometime between 8:25 and 8:35. It’s just one of her friends today. I help her load up all her stuff, lunch box, backpack, instrument and send her out the day.

After Annelise has left for school I make myself a cup of coffee. I discovered that I was out of creamer, but since I’m not working today it’s Bailey’s to the rescue.

Every morning I take my coffee to the front porch. This is my quiet place. Where I hide from everything I need to get done, and the chaos that is the house somedays. Back in the spring and early summer I practically lived out here as I was dealing with the grief of loosing my mom. Now how long I stay out depends on the weather, and how fast my coffee gets cold.

While on the porch I get a text message from Annelise. She arrived at school and made the startling discovery that she had two identical hats. She got a new coat for Christmas and I knit a hat to go with it. Well there was a practice hat before the real hat. It was a little big so I made a new one. I think one of the cats dragged it out of my knitting basket and Annelise found it thinking it was hers.

I contemplate my day while sitting there. Last night the decided to cancel play practice after school, so Annelise will be home two hours earlier than usual. I had planned to go for a bike ride in the afternoon but want to be home before she is so now I’m trying to adjust my plans for the day. I could just skip the ride and do it tomorrow. I’ve been trying to get out on my bike more. It’s been so long since I’ve had a regular riding routine and I’m trying hard to get back in the habit. I decided that the weather is nice enough I can probably ride this morning.

9:15 am

I head back inside determined to get somethings done so I can go ride and be back to the house before noon. The first thing I do every morning after coming in from “porch time” (that’s what Annelise calls it), is take care of all the animal stuff. Lulu is still the only dog. But we have added three cats. They were with us last year too, but we were in New York so they didn’t make an appearance in the annual post.

In 2021, we lost Kikapu, Moe and Callie. It was not a good year for our pets. That left us with just Lulu. We knew at some point we would get another cat but we weren’t quite ready right away so we signed up to foster. In May of 2022, we took in a mama cat and her seven kittens. The kittens were a week old when they came and in the end we adopted the mama cat and two of the kittens.

Mama we named Coco and that’s what it says on her adoption papers, but we have always just called her “Mama.” This was her the day she came and then this morning while lounging on my bed (her favorite place to bed.

One of the kittens we named Oreo. Oreo is the perfect gentleman. He is calm, never destructive, only sharpens his claws on the scratching post, cleans himself meticulously, and will calmly curl up next to you (is never intrusive). This morning he is resting comfortably in his favorite rocking chair.

The other is Sparky. Sparky is special. I thought what they said about orange cats was a method. But Sparky confirms every single stereotype. He’s destructive (shredding toilet paper is a favorite pastime), claws at everything including me (we call his biscuits murder muffins), if there’s something on a counter he’ll push it off, he eats the dog treats, and if you aren’t paying attention to him he will force himself upon you. This morning he is being particularly vocal about his water dish being empty. He also must supervise when I clean the litterbox and be the first to use it after. And sweeping up the escaped litter is a challenge as he tries to lay in the path of the broom.

9:40 am

After the litterbox has been cleaned all the water bowls refreshed and everyone has gotten their breakfast, Lulu and I head out for a walk. I can feel the morning slipping away from me so we take the short route.

10:10 am

After we’re back and the animal are settled. I quickly sort and start a load of laundry to wash while I’m out on my bike. Then I change into my riding clothes.

10:30 am

I head out on my bike. I’m terribly out of shape, and trying hard to make it a priority to ride more often. My plan is to ride the greenway. I’ll ride out for a half hour and then back for about an hour of spinning. Unfortunately, I was slower coming back and didn’t get back to the house until 11:40.

11:45 am

I went to switch the laundry to the dryer and discovered I had never started it. So I got that started. I ate a quick peanut butter sandwich so I went start to feel woozy, then jumped into the shower. I maybe took to long in the shower because by the time I was out and dressed it was past 12:30 pm.

12:32 pm

I head out the door and head to the village. I have to hurry because the movie I want to see starts at 12:45. I use to love movies. way back before I was even into cycling, I was into movies. I worked for Blockbuster for several years and had friends that I would go to the movies with any chance I got. For awhile I had a tradition of going to a movie every Saturday morning by myself. I’d go to the first showing whatever was playing. Last Spring, in an attempt to reclaim a small piece of myself I started going to see movies I wanted to see by myself. Of course Saturday mornings were out. I needed a day when Annelise was in school. There’s a small historic theater a few blocks from my house that plays first run movies, but is only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday. So whenever I have a Friday when I didn’t work the night before I go to a movie.

12:43 pm

I arrive at the theatre. Get my ticket, popcorn and soda and head into the “Screening Room.” The Theatre use to be one big auditorium with a balcony but has been divided into four individual auditoriums now. The main theatre, the two upstairs theater, and then the tiny screening room under the stairs. It has less then 50 seats. The room is completely dark when I walk in, and the opening credits have already started. I have no idea if anyone else is in the theater and I’m terrified of sitting on someone as I try to find my seat. I use my phone the best I can to navigate to a seat. I hear a sniff someone behind me so I know there is at least one other person there. I’m watching “All of Us Strangers.” Happy Birthday Paul Mescal.

2:30 pm

Movie is over. It was good. I head out of the theater and cross the street to the Natural Food Co-op to grab a few things that I had forgotten on my shopping trip last night. Then head home.

3:00ish pm

Get back to the house. Finally, toss the clothes into the dryer. I really should get started on some house work. There are dishes to put away, floors to be swept and vacuumed, and there are already several baskets of towels that need to be folded, but I’m not feeling great. I was sick over Christmas and am having a hard time bouncing back. It seems like the slightest thing can make me feel “off” and my stomach is suddenly very sensitive. Maybe it was all the popcorn at the movie, but I’m feeling queasy so I lay down on the couch for a bit. Of course this just means that Sparky is going to crawl all over me demanding attention.

4:00 pm

Annelise arrives home from school. I’m still not feeling very motivated to get up and get anything done. I lounge on the couch for while Annelise decides what to do with her free afternoon (the first one for her in months). She decides to work on a Lego set that she got for her birthday.

I continue to relax and scroll through Facebook as she works on her project and watches old Scoopy Doo cartoons. I come across the news that Carl Weathers has died. This was particularly upsetting to Annelise as we were planning to see him at Galaxy Con next month (he plays Greef Karga in Star Wars).

5:00ish pm

I finally pull myself up off the couch and get started on the laundry. After it’s all folded I don’t get it put away fast enough. Mama pushes it aside for a spot to lay down and of course Sparky see it as the perfect bed.

Sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 pm

I start to get to work in the kitchen, putting dishes away, cleaning out Annelise’s lunchbox and getting supper on the table. I had a different plan for supper based on Annelise being at the school until 6 pm. I had scratched that plan earlier in the day, but hadn’t come up with another plan. I had some meat that I hadn’t divided and put in the freezer yet so I decided to fix some of that with scalloped potatoes and a veggie. My goal was to eat around 6:30pm.

6:30

Nailed it. Supper on the table at exactly 6:30. It was steak for me and pork chops for Annelise. She doesn’t like to eat cows, but she does like it when I use steak seasonings on her pork chops. Over supper Annelise recounts her day for me. We usually do this, but today she wants to make sure that I get it down for Groundhog Day. In Homeroom, they did nothing. In English they had a sub so they didn’t do anything. In Band they “played.” In History, they did a crossword puzzle about the Presidents. At lunch she sat with her usual friends and they talked about “I don’t remember.” In Math they did a worksheet. In Science they made study guides and in PE/Health they had free time.

7:00ish pm

After were done eating, Annelise goes back to working on her Legos. I tell her to be dressed and ready to leave for basketball practice at 7:20. I get started on clearing the table and loading the dishwasher. Oreo’s one vice is people food, and after every meal he likes to check out what is left and try to steal what he can. Lulu helps with the prewash.

7:20 pm

We head out for basketball practice. It’s close enough for us to walk, but I’m trying to save time and energy so we drive the three blocks to the school. Practice runs until 8:15pm. Ever since COVID, I’ve taken to staying in the car during her practices and lessons (dance, basketball, piano, violin). I usually watch something on my phone and knit or crotchet. Basketball has been different this year. She chose trying out for the school musical instead of the basketball team because she wasn’t sure she would make the basketball team and she could always play Rec Ball. So we signed up for Rec ball but there weren’t enough girls in her age group to form more than one team. So they have no one to play against, they just practice and have occasional scrimmages at practice. Since I might not ever be able to go to a game, I try to go in and watch practice when I can. So while she practiced I worked on my temperature blanket. I’ve only completed the first week of January so far.

8:30 pm

We’re home from practice. She wants to finish working on her Lego set, but I want her to be in bed on time since she has an all day rehearsal tomorrow. I tell her if she can shower and get ready for bed quickly whatever time she has left can be used to finish her project.

8:45 pm

The automatic cat feeder goes off and all the kitties go running. Oreo gets there first and the others line up outside the “cat room.”

9:00 pm

Annelise finishes up with her shower and sets about finishing her Lego project.

9:30 pm

Bedtime. I get Annelise tucked in. Lulu likes to go to bed at the same time. So I get her settled in her room. Then I sit down on the couch and attempt to get this post wrapped up, so I can go to bed.

9:45 pm

The cats are not making this easy. They think that if I’m on the couch then that must mean I want to cuddle. I’m working on the laptop and struggling. I had been loading the pictures to the app on my phone, but now that I’m on the actual computer nothing seems to be working right. They’ve changed wordpress. This use to be so easy. Type some word, add a picture. I can’t seem to choice photo size, or even resize the type.

10:30 pm

Still trying to figure this out and then Annelise appears in the living room. She can’t sleep and is asking for melatonin. I give her a some and send her back to bed. (Again ignore the clock on the wall, this one is 10 – 15 minutes behind and also half the year an hour of, we seriously don’t have any clocks in the house that have the correct time).

11:20 pm.

Getting frustrated with this. I decided to work on it tomorrow and head to bed. I start turning off light. All three cats are in the living room. But then as I walk down the hall I see someone waiting for me. And then when I get to the bathroom door, there he is again. Did I mention Sparky is somewhat of a puppy? Following me everywhere.

11:45 pm

I’m in bed. Days over. Another Groundhog Day complete.