Did you ever have a day when most everything goes sideways? Yesterday was one of those days.

It really started at midnight the night before (so it still counts as “yesterday”) when I woke up, and the room seemed a little cooler than usual. After all, it was below zero outside. So I made my way through the house to the furnace without turning on a light.

I checked the furnace, the temperature was down a little bit, and I couldn’t get the furnace to click on. I fiddled with the thermostat a little bit, and remarkably it turned on after awhile — it turned out that the electricity came back on then. If I had turned on a light I would have realized what was going on. As I walked back to the bedroom and noticed the electric clock was flashing, it all became clear.

Anyway, the furnace warmed up the house and all was well. The next morning I fed the cats right away, and when I opened the door, a young black cat sneaked through the opening. Luckily I was able to close the inside door so that he couldn’t get into the living room.

The cat ran back outside but not before a bunch of snow fell off the edge of the front roof — landing on the back of my head.

What a way to start the morning. Water trickled down my neck, and the moisture wasn’t good for my hairdo either.

The remainder of the day was frigid cold, snowy and windy, but I just kept reminding myself that it could be worse. I feel so sorry for the people in California. So I buried myself in business paperwork, but about midday I decided to take a break and enjoy a pleasurable activity. So I opened up one of the seed catalogs that start arriving in the mail this time of the year.

Seed catalogs are wish books for gardeners who look forward to the planting season. They enjoy poring over the pages of the catalogs, picturing themselves planting some of the seeds in their gardens. Most intriguing are the new types of seeds.

For example, on the inside cover of the new (2025) “Gurney’s Seed and Nursery” catalog is a photo of a bunch of red strawberries with a big white strawberry on top. The strawberry has a slight pink tinge to it, as if it hasn’t ripened yet.

However, according to the description below the photo, it is a new variety of strawberry that is larger the usual one. The “Florida Pearl” strawberry has a flavor similar to a pineapple

Not only that but the catalog features a raspberry plant with yellow golden berries. “Chocolate” is a word that describes a new tomato and pepper. Seeds produce cherry tomatoes that are red but have chocolate shading as they mature. A new hybrid pepper starts out the growing season as a green pepper with white stripes but matures into a red pepper with brown stripes, giving it a candy cane appearance.

There’s a lot more, too. Poring over the pages of a seed catalog can provide hours of enjoyment on a snowy, “sideways” day.