Kalib visits us all day; I meet some friends on my walk; Melanie and Lisa come out

I can't remember precisely what time, but I think about 3:00 AM, I was suddenly awakened by what sounded to be a "thump," followed by the sound of Kalib screaming. I leaped out of bed in an instant and dashed for his room - even as Margie, who is still moving ever so slowly and always with a bad limp, did the same.

But all was fine in his room - except for the fact that he was sitting in the middle of the bed that Margie made for him and he was screaming.

It must be kind of frightening, that having been his room for as long as he can remember, to suddenly be in it by himself, with his parents and all their furniture gone.

He quickly settled down and went back to sleep.

Then, at 4:30, I heard him scream again and this time I heard the pounding of his footsteps as he charged through the door and down the hall. I jumped up again, but Margie stayed put. "He's going to Caleb," she said, as I charged for the door.

Caleb, of course, is a night-shift worker and although it was his night off, I could now hear what sounded to be him playing video games."

"You got The Little One, Caleb?" I shouted out.

"I've got him," she shouted back.

So I went back to bed and fell asleep and stayed asleep for too long, even though, totaled up, I feel significantly short of the eight hours they say you need.

When finally I came out, this was the scene that greeted me.

A bit later, I was sitting here, in my office, at this computer, when Margie brought him out to feed the fish. I always clean and rinse my hands real good before I put them into any of my tanks, but Kalib suddenly plunged his hand in and offered a pellet of fish food directly to one of my fish.

I suspect that all the fish will be okay. The fish in this tank are all eight or nine years old, so, if I were to find one floating tomorrow, how would I know if a germ got them or it was just old age?

I'm pretty sure they will be okay.

Not long afterward, I went walking. I soon came upon this car, stuck off to the side of the road. Judging from the deep, burned-in rut of a tire spinning, it would appear that someone tried to pull it out but didn't succeed.

A little further on, I came upon Danny, Becky and their mom. They had come out to go sledding. I am always happy to see them and they are always happy to see me.

So we did a New Year's family portrait.

Afterwards, mom mentioned that she was looking at the picture that I gave them of Becky and Danny with their bicycles, the morning after their grandfather Red - her father - died. It was the first picture that I had ever taken of the two together - although I had once photographed a little tiny Danny with his late grandfather, Red.

She looked at the date on the photograph and was surprised. "I couldn't believe that it has been five years already," she said.

Becky then asked what I saw when I looked down at the white snow and the brown snow. "I see white sugar and brown sugar," she said.

Then she showed me the new phone that she got for Christmas. She was very pleased. Her mother told her not to lose it, because if she did, then she would have to go back to having one of those generic "minute" phones that you can buy at Wal-Mart.

Everybody then set off to walk up the hill, but Becky set the fastest pace, so we walked together as the other two dropped back again.

"I'm the fastest walker," she told me.

She then told me how excited she was about an all-night get-together that her church was hosting for its young people. "We're not going to go to bed all night," she said. She said they would probably go bowling, too.

Once we got to the top of the hill, she climbed to the top of a snowmachine trail off the road - and then zipped past me on her sled.

Back home, Jim, my good black cat, came to see me, to get an affectionate scruff.

Jim and Kalib. A short time before, Kalib had been vacuuming the floor.

Melanie and Lisa came out late in the afternoon. The three of us went to Little Miller's for coffee and brought one home to Margie.

After we came in and sat down, Kalib put some stickers on himself. Here, he shows one to Lisa.

Then Kalib started chasing Melanie around the wall that separates the kitchen from the woodstove and the living room. Or maybe Melanie was chasing Kalib.

I am not quite certain.

Now, I am very sorry to say, there are three images left that I had planned to include in this post. I am unable to load them. The picture upload feature of Squarespace, my blog host, has frozen up. I cannot upload any more pictures. Over the past two hours, I have tried all kinds of things. I have cleared the cache, I have refreshed the page, I have closed down my browzer and opened it back up again. I have restarted my computer.

Nothing does the trick.

Nearly two hours ago, I sent a message to Squarespace support, where they promise to "respond to service related incidents immediately," hoping that they might help and solve this problem. So far, nothing.

So I am unable to finish this blog post.

Update: I just got a response. I have been informed that I am at 99.9 percent of my storage space and that is why the upload is stalling.

So I have to buy some more storage space.

I don't have time right now. This will have to do it.