"It's no use," Alice groans to herself as she sits up in bed. The clock on her bedside table reads 4:07AM and she would be lucky to have gotten 3 hours of sleep in at the most. For the second night in a row, last Sunday's crossword puzzle had kept her mind racing when she should have been in a deep slumber. The kind that her 6 year old pit bull, Annie, seemed to be in right now curled up under the covers.
She quickly exits her warm bed and rushes to the bathroom to grab her bathrobe and slippers. If this second week of November is a sign of the winter to come, she was dreading the next 4 or 5 months. Minneapolis winters are not particulary friendly in the first place. In the kitchen Alice starts the coffee brewing and heads to her front door to retrieve the newspaper. 26 minutes later, she is diligently scanning the completed crossword. Nothing.