Denuded

A chill and fierce wind blew most of the afternoon. Some leaves on my mature cottonwoods are as big as salad plates and they hit the roof with a healthy sound. Low temperatures are forecast and it is snowing those crystals that look like somebody cut a bean-bag chair. Quite a few little chores and starting heat tapes and pumphouse heaters, stuffing insulation in cracks today. I was glad to see so many leaves fall-that will protect the limbs from breaking. Except for the tops, the trees are denuded. I don't mind this bit of winter but mostly because I have an escape plan. It really is January, February, and March that get me down.

The other rats are planning to desert also- Jayne from West Virginia is on her way to North Carolina enroute to Orlando. Ken and Mervi from Thunder Bay got word the condo they bid on was theirs in January. Lew from upstate New York is going down in mid-November, Joyce and Gary from Pittsburgh are not firm with anything other than intent to go sometime.

My last store trip included lots of canned vegetables among the comestibles. Nice pot of soup today. A nice flat loaf of Focaccia Bread- I have felt very peasant-like all afternoon. A nice round of cheese, or better yet, a loaf of welfare cheddar would have been perfection.

I remember the days when I liked getting mail. Not so anymore. It is either stuff I have to do or junk. But I am getting it done.

I got a nice string of digital pictures from niece Alicia who is in New York with her boyfriend Sean and some others. I was quite surprised because sometime between Rich's wedding and now he got kicked to the curb for being a chippying s.o.b- with another full-figured mezzo- soprano to boot! Isn't life interesting? Maybe it was a misunderstanding ~. .~

Top: Sean doesn't look like...he is 35, does he? Bottom: a scene from Central Park.

Honey is a bit of a trial on these cold days. In spite of my beefing up the curtains to keep the cold out, the old-fashioned door has to be employed in the end. This necessitates a lot of jumping up for a high energy dog. If I leave her out too long, she sulks. In for too long, and the destruction starts. She has had a runny eye for the past couple of days. Buster very tenderly licks it when we all bed down. He is such a sweetie boy. She eats up the attention but when she lays her massive head on his haunches preparatory to sleeping he gives a "back-off" growl which she takes as "get off the bed." I can coax her back. It is a large bed. When I move in that direction, the race is on.There is ample room if everybody doesn't want the same piece of real estate. Is that too much to ask?