Happy Friday — we’re back with more Hot Bones and a request for Weird Ice Week to wrap up quickly please.

Feels like everyone’s routine is out of whack right now, and I’m including pets. Our dog, Frannie, has been told multiple times a day for her entire existence that she’s not allowed on the furniture. But this week, we made her pinky promise that just this once, she could get cozy on our favorite oversized, off-white, impossible-to-clean chair.

That looks like the face of a dog who understands what a time-bound legal contract means, right?

Do one long thumb scroll for more Cville-specific updates like local events, cool houses, and pets to adopt.

🐶 Speaking of: Allie! This black lab mix is a charmer with a huge smile and gentle manners. Word is she’s so treat motivated she may do your kid’s math homework for them if a Greenie is involved (2 years, Staunton SPCA).

Every so often I’ll co-opt this sustainability-focused newsletter to talk about my one true love: tennis. I’m doing so today because the Australian Open is happening. It’s known as the Happy Slam — summer down under, school’s out, good Aussie vibes fueled by bright sunshine — and boy do we need that right now.

You could also call the Australian Open the Mathematical Slam, because the time difference makes watching any live match impossible.

“Okay I haven’t looked at scores all day and I haven’t gotten any spoilers,” G told me last week when she got home from work. “And if Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of us, we should be able to watch Coco’s morning match tonight.”

“Correct. I think. Except if football is on ESPN right now. That’ll boot tennis,” I said. “What days does football play?”

G thought for a second and then listed a bunch of football divisions that sounded like the types of batteries you buy for a smoke detector. The NC Double A plays on Thursdays and Sundays and the D-cell division plays on Mondays and … I stopped listening halfway through and just turned on the tv.

The final point of the Coco match was being played.

“Jesus Christ.”

“It’s just a river of tennis!” G yelled. “Where are we?! What match are we on?!”

“Damn. Guess that didn’t math out.”

After a week of spoilers like this, we’ve come to a suitable angle of repose. Now we just let YouTube TV feed us whatever series of matches are “live” according to ESPN. The idea that they could already have happened, but tomorrow, is apparently too much for both network television and this English major household.

So we settle into the couch and let tennis be tennis. And this is when things get magical. Even though we’re 10,000 miles from Melbourne, Australia, I can feel the Happy Slam energy seeping into my frigid toes.

The courts are bright blue, the fans are wearing oversized visors and unbelievably ugly straw hats, and the announcers start every match with something like “the temperatures are just scalding in Melbourne right now.”

Then the players start whacking the hell out of the ball, which somehow shines a brighter yellow than in other tournaments. As I sit on the couch in Charlottesville, feeling the draft of another night in the single digits, I can look up at the tv and watch sunburnt players towel off their sweaty, muscled arms in a way that almost feels forbidden and sexy. This hemisphere isn’t allowed to have sweat and tan lines yet.

Other simple, warm pleasures from the tournament include:

I highly recommend watching the finals this weekend.

The Australian Open is like an early access pass to summer. But what I think most of us need right now is just Basic Economy to March. All we need is an early access pass to early spring. It’s time for it to not be January at the very least.

So I’ve drummed up 5 sustainable ways to get a little closer to warm breezes, green leaves, and the best perfume in the world: fresh mulch in your neighbor’s yard.

Step 1: Find a social solarium

When I lived in DC in my twenties, I spent most weekends in January and Feb at the National Gallery because it was huge, skylight bright, and warm. My studio apartment was none of those things. And after I walked through all the lily-pad rooms, I’d bike to the Botanic Garden and sit on the catwalk among the sweaty, sunlit plants. The warmth and brightness of these “social solariums” kept me going until March rolled in.

So you could go to DC and try that routine. Or you could stay near Charlottesville and find some substitute sun rooms to warm you up before spring is official.

Really all you need for a social solarium is to find a warm, well-insulated spot (your living room doesn’t count, you have to leave the house), and within that room you need to situate yourself in front of the nearest window.

Places around town that I’ve found are best for this include:

Step 2: Eat marmalade

This springtime step is easy and you don’t need to venture further than your kitchen. Get some surrogate sunshine by spreading it on your toast tomorrow morning. “The funkier and chunkier the better,” as New Yorker writer Rachel Syme recommends.

Rachel is a fan of Marmalade Grove’s sunrise pixie tangerine marmalade (which avoids additives and artificial preservatives), and G and I are big fans of her tip to try a Seville orange variety mixed with Laphroaig single-malt whisky.

Jam just won’t do January. There’s something about the zing of marmalade that transports you to warmer, brighter times.

Step 3: Schedule an outside lizard hour

Steps 1 and 2 can be done indoors, but I’ve been told we must get fresh air from time to time. Good for the constitution.

If you’ve been trying to shovel out your car this week, you likely already know that the 12 - 2pm range is ideal for sunlight, warmth, and the occasional loosening of your driveway icepack. In the spring, this is also when the cold-blooded reptiles lounge on your blacktop. But in January, it’s when you can do that. This is our lizard time, when we can soak up as much sunlight as our cold bones will take.

The key for getting hints of springtime here is to go someplace where there are no obstructions to your sunlight access.

Pen Park, Big Meadows if you’re up for a drive, an open tennis court, heck even the Wegmans parking lot. Find your sun spot, put on your hat and sunglasses, and lizard it up for at least a few minutes.

Step 4: Splurge on some spring bulbs

If the discovery, as a kid, of a pool in the Holiday Inn where your family is staying is essentially a gift from god, then the smell of paperwhites and hyacinths when you walk into someone’s living room is the adult parallel.

These indoor bulbs are the perfume the French were never able to fully capture, the elusive single whiff of someone’s hair as you walk into an empty elevator, the first hug you remember from your grandmother, and the deep breath after your last spring semester exam.

And you can buy them at Trader Joe’s for like 4 bucks. Or mini daffodil bulbs at Ivy Nursery for $7.

Put a hyacinth above your kitchen sink and melt into March. The bonus is that once the bulbs have flowered, you can plant them in your yard and let them come back next spring all on their own.

Step 5: Read The Art of Fielding

This book gets me through every winter, in part literally because it takes about two months to finish.

The Art of Fielding is about baseball, Moby-Dick, and Wisconsin, but you do not need to like baseball, Moby-Dick, or Wisconsin to fall in love with this story. You may be more of a racquet sports person, and that’s okay here.

While you read this novel, you’ll dream of emerald green baseball diamonds and the early morning smell of a warming lake, and before you know it, you’ll be opening your windows and smelling spring air yourself.

And if you really need a pick-me-up, here are three photos of spring. We’ll be here in 6 weeks.

❣️ Lock in your Valentine’s vibes early: Cville Community Bikes is putting on a Bake & Bike where bike couriers will deliver chocolate chip and cranberry scones anywhere you want in the city. $25 gets you 6 scones, and proceeds help give bikes to kids and adults in need. You can also volunteer to deliver.

🏠 Historic house of the week: 1800’s farmhouse with a new kitchen, updated electrical and plumbing, heart pine floors, and a writer’s shed (price reduced to $549k, 3 beds, 2.5 baths in downtown Amherst). Never seen so many gray recliners either.

🏡 Cool rental of the week: Robin’s egg farmhouse that’s ready for cocktails on the front porch or the back deck. Fully furnished with boutique hotel-level stuff (the extent of my interior decorating knowledge). $4,195/month for 3 beds, 2.5 baths in downtown Cville.

🏙️ Long listen: Last year, NYC instituted congestion pricing, which was controversial and political. But the results are in from the first 6 months, and it’s literally all good news. Learn more via the Volts podcast.

💼 Cville job: Communications Manager at Gen180 (part-time, $45-$55/hour, open to hybrid or remote too).

💼 Cville job: Administrative Specialist at Clean Virginia ($80k - $100k).

🌆 DC job: Chief of Staff of the Energy and Environment Program at the Aspen Institute ($145k - $155k with occasional travel).

💾 Remote job: Senior Associate for Philanthropic Partnerships at the ClimateWorks Foundation ($85 - $95k).

Have an event or rec you’d like to share? Hiring? Interested in advertising?

Share any and all info here.

Bike shops and groups across the country are hosting memorial rides this weekend for Alex Pretti, who was an avid bikepacker.

Nationwide: Check out where the memorial rides are happening with this map.

In town: Cville Community Bikes and Endeavor are hosting a local ride, with a 1:30pm rollout from the Community Bikes parking lot off Preston.

📍 Slow pace, 5ish miles, roughly an hour ride.

☕ Stay warm with drinks at Cou Cou Rachou before or ramen at the Dairy Market after.

♥️ You can find other ways to contribute and take action here.