I'm home, albeit reluctantly

I knew when we started the trek north we'd probably be swapping this:

View from the Younger Daughter's deck, April 15, 2012. There are roses blooming in a neighbor's yard, although they're hard to see without enlarging the photo.

for this:

View from our back porch, April 19, 2012. Siberian squill is blooming under the apple trees, but it's a little hard to see when it's covered with  fresh snow. 

I would have been perfectly happy to stay in Texas until the summer heat and humidity drove us north in early May, but the US postal service has this ridiculous rule that they won't hold mail for more than 30 days -- and our 30 days were up yesterday.

Sorting through the accumulated mail had its amusing moments. The S.O. is going to hit 65 soon so is being inundated with advertising from various insurance companies all trying to sell him Medicare supplements. AARP must be mailing several a week. For a change, the junk mail from insurance companies is outpacing the junk mail from Capitol One and the junk mail from various political fundraising organizations. No new Obama bumper stickers -- maybe the campaign's computers have figured out that if I didn't send them money after the first dozen or so Obama 2012 stickers that they've given me, I'm not likely to send them money now.