I had a very nice Christmas trip to RI. Left on Saturday during a horrible ice storm but didn't have any travel problems. I got out before it was too bad, though I couldn't get the car to the house and had to carry load after load down the hill and down the ice-covered stairs. Oh well, I just kept saying "Get me out of here!" and it was fine. We never lost power in Hawkeye, which was very lucky. When I got home the house was in great shape and no pipes had frozen--always a relief.
We had a quiet time, mostly. A couple of trips to the beach with Mark, some trips into town with Liza, visits with friends, all very nice. My car had a problem, though, with a belly pan (shield) that was dragging. Oh my it was noisy. Mark finally cut it off with lopping shears, thank goodness. It was very embarrassing to drive around with the bottom of the car dragging like that.
I had lunch with my friend Linda--we used to share a duplex in RI. She lives in Jamestown and I like driving over the bridge and around the island there. She's in touch with her ex-husband, who also lived in the duplex before they were divorced, and the 3 of us got together for coffee one morning. I hadn't seen him in 30 years, so it was pretty amazing to get together. He told me that my ex-boyfriend, who was a waiter when we lived together for 4 years, is now an attorney in Manhattan. Of course I Googled him when I got home. And there he is, an attorney in Manhattan. Yikes. He looks old, very old in his picture.
I went to a very nice neighborhood party on Sat. night. It was at one of the camps/houses across the lake and there were lots of people I knew from lots of places around the neighborhood there. It was grand and I had fun visiting with people. I came back from RI a day early so I could go to the party. I wanted to see everyone, plus I like being thought of as a member of the neighborhood.
The dogs had a good trip. They seem to like going to Liza's, spend a lot of time sleeping on the couch. They're pretty much immune to Christmas except for the wonderful treats and toys they get. Jenica and Justin sent some yummy chews made of yak cheese and yak milk and boy were those popular. There are mere nubbins left now.
My mother is doing well. She's 87 and is in great shape. She feels old, though, and seems old, which is a real switch for our family. She forgets things and remembers odd things sometimes. We had a nice time together, as we usually do. We had a lovely roast for Christmas dinner--Mark cooked it according to America's Test Kitchen cookbook (which I gave him last year and he now considers the ultimate word on all things cooked). We had lobsters on Christmas Eve, our tradition, and boy were they good. Big Christmas breakfast of lox, bagels, bacon, etc. Yikes we ate a lot while I was there.
Things are returning to normal now. Winter normal, that is. I had my stovepipe cleaned yesterday--it was plugged but not badly, which was a relief. I should be set for a while now. The stove burned better and hotter after that. It's supposed to get cold and snowy. Or just cold. Or just snowy. There are so many versions of weather predictions going around that it's impossible to know. One has us at -17 at night, another has 8" of snow. I'm sure it will be cold, this morning it was -1. Which isn't bad for Hawkeye in winter.
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