I'm up early this morning as is Rose. When she went out to get the paper she said it felt like spring, but I'm afraid this warmer weather isn't going to last long. Snow and freezing drizzle for tonight is forecast and colder weather again for the next few days. We're all ready for spring.

Margaret and I talk every day. The doctor put a different cast on her foot yesterday. She gets physical therapy daily. After therapy she sits in a chair for a long time. Norm can have his dinner with her, I think any night he wants to. She keeps referring to it as a 'nursing home' when it is actually a 'rehab facility'. We have to keep correcting her. Norm keeps the road hot between their place and the facility, and the rest of the family is there quite a bit.

Ding called me Tuesday and, from all places. Marshfield! He had been to Carthage on a work run to drop off some piece of medical equipment. He is 'on call' occasionally and has to make runs to hospitals in and out of town. He didn't have a call on the hospital that Margaret was in but told her would come see her if he did. He said he was having breakfast in Marshfield as he was going through. There were probably none of the places still there that were there when we lived in Marshfield. That's been over 50 years!

Chase, Leslie's son and my former neighbor in Springfield, called me one day this week from New Jersey. He's a photographer; and, though he was just a boy when I lived in Springfield, he's all grown up now. He will have a project in Nicaragua in June with a non-profit organization called Rainbow Network. The organization provides assistance to the people of Nicaragua.
His brother Jeffrey is still stationed in Iraq about two hours south of Baghdad. Jeffrey's deployment should be over in July. His family (wife Sheila, daughters Alexis and Hannah) live in the state of Washington which is where Jeff will go for his mid-tour leave this month. I was quite flattered that Chase called me.

Rose and Shirley are having some things done to the kitchen - starting with an over-microwave combination. They're actually replacing the old microwave which hasn't work for quite some time, so we have to use countertop units. The new unit was delivered yesterday, and Chuck is going to install it tomorrow. Chuck is a friend of my boys so he calls Rose "Aunt Rose."

Breakfast is ready. I still have more updates later on today.