NICE TRY, BIG MICK!...

      Daylight! My big dog steps outside to look around and spots a tightly furled, dry leaf skittering across the porch in a gust of wind. It looks just like a little rodent running by. 
     Mick tenses, then pounces! The weight of that great body instantly turns the "mouse" to tiny bits of leaf-crumb. 
     Mick looks quizzically at both his paws; no rodent!... He stands up and looks beneath his body; no rodent!... 
    He looks at me with wrinkled brow, and I can read his mind: 
   "I wonder where the rodent went!"

RING AROUND THE MOON...

     
  

     It's five o'clock and 25 degrees out here this morning. 

     The roof and grasses are well coated with a rime of frosty diamonds, and it's interesting to see the brightness of the good-sized ring around the moon.

     The ring, I know, is brought about by refracted moonlight, which is actually reflected sunlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. 

     The shape of the ice crystals focuses the light into a ring, which is what I'm looking at right now. There's probably a folkloric name for that effect, but I can't tell you what that name might be.

     There's a sheer cloud deck across the pre-dawn sky, and behind that veil, I can see some blurry stars.

    My big dog Mick is energized by cold, and he is prancing like a show horse back and forth across the frosty grasses.

       I am relieved when, finally, he decides it's time to go back to the house, where I can seek the warmth... and coffee!