Back with my sisters

I'm back with Kate & Savanna for the next 4-5 days. Ellen is on a visit to Swarthmore (or to be more accurate, the Philadelphia area, since none of her close friends actually live in Swarthmore any more with Wallace's move to Kendal) and she dropped me here about an hour and a half ago. We got up early to get ready this morning. It is going to be pretty frigid the next few days - in the single digits - so we had to take steps to keep the pipes from freezing in the house, though I think the likelihood of that happening is slim if we left the house unheated, but I don't want to take the chance. So we did what we do when we take longer trips - we put up blankets to close off the kitchen and bathroom area where the pipes are and left the electric heat on in that area only at 40 degrees. Today is Ellen's birthday, so we started the day with  a short "celebration" - i.e., I gave her a birthday card and a gift. Ellen herself would be happy to have her birthday totally ignored, but I always feel better doing something; I just keep it simple. Things went pretty smoothly getting ready to leave and we started out just as the impeachment hearing got underway with Amb. Yovonovich testifying, so we listened to that on the radio as we drove down to Shutesbury. I think the sisters may be out this afternoon and I'll either just stay here and do things here, or have them drop me at the Amherst Library and work there. At the moment, I'm leaning toward staying here.