Wednesday, February 26, 2014

This could be me...

NY man, 76, rescued from snowbound rural home

February 26, 2014
Associated Press
SUMMIT, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a 76-year-old man is hospitalized after he spent more than a week trapped inside his snowbound, heatless home in a rural upstate New York town.
The Schoharie (skoh-HAYR'-ee) County Sheriff's Office tells The Daily Gazette of Schenectady (http://bit.ly/1fTf7QC ) that a concerned neighbor called the man Tuesday at his home in Summit, 40 miles east of Albany.
The neighbor was talking to him when the line was disconnected. Unable to reach him again, the neighbor called police.
Officials say deputies found him inside his home suffering from hypothermia, frostbite and dehydration. The home's entrance was blocked by mounds of snow. Two storms earlier this month dumped more than two feet of snow on the area.
- See more at: http://lakeplacidnews.com/page/content.detail/id/464953/NY-man--76--rescued-from-snowbound-rural-home.html?isap=1&nav=5068#sthash.YpjsVVBg.dpuf

Monday, February 24, 2014

It's been a while

Well it sure has been a while.  I've been busy, sometimes playing with my home Internet connection, sometimes reading, sometimes visiting friends and sometimes just watching TV with my mouth hanging open.  I watched some of the Olympics but missed most of the downhill skiing, which is what I most enjoy seeing. 

Things are going well for me, as usual.  I have my regular visits with Jim & Pat, got the see the Holts twice over the weekend, and had a special visit to Potsdam to see Jenica and THE BABY yesterday.  That was great fun.  The baby is very, very cute.  Gwyneth is her name, and when my friend Ralph heard that he named the newborn lamb in the barn Gwyneth.  Pretty cute.  Which is cuter?  I don't know, newborn lambs are incredibly precious.

We had a 4-day weekend last week--President's Day on Monday and a snow day on Friday.  That was very exciting--I was thrilled to have 4 days to do whatever I wanted to.  I got some chores done, did some visiting, talked to my mother a lot but mostly just felt lucky.

I went to Burlington last week, to the dermatologist.  I had something strange on my forehead, which she was fascinated by and removed.  Probably a small cyst, not really very interesting.

Friday I left work early and drove to Canada (which is only 20 minutes north of Plattsburgh) to buy some extra-special whiskey that's sold at the Duty Free Shop at the border.  It's flavored with maple syrup and is a big hit in Hawkeye.  I was entertained by my border crossings (but then, I'm easily entertained).  No problems either way but a half hour wait coming home.  Why were so many people coming to the US?  Who knows.  They were checking each car pretty carefully but when I got to the booth he pretty much waved me through.  Being a local has its perks.

Dogs are OK but I found something disturbing on Treasure's chest last night, a large lump.  I don't know if it's a hematoma, a fatty tumor, or something else.  I'll wait a couple of days to see if it shrinks, which would mean it's just a hematoma and nothing to worry about.  Of course I discovered it during the night so thought the worst of it.  The vet will be available Weds. night if I need to take her in.

Tomorrow I'm visiting a dear friend who's just been diagnosed with lymphoma.  Oh this is distressing.  She's got a great attitude and is taking the whole thing really well.  She's done her best at keeping healthy--exercise, activities, diet--so feels confident this will help.  Me?  I've decided the best anti-cancer diet includes gallons of diet soda weekly.

View out my living room window

Just a shot of what I see from the living room. I was sending this to a friend using my HIGH SPEED Internet connection. We have plenty of snow.

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004 by woodsrun
004, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Blurry, but you know what this is. I went to Burlington last week and this is one of the ferries. I love crossing the lake when there's ice like this, it's very dramatic (without being scary). Lots of fun.

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012 by woodsrun
012, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Crossing in the channel--it doesn't quite close up after the ferry goes through, but there are big clunks and swishes as the boat winds its way across the lake.

Thar she blows

Thar she blows by woodsrun
Thar she blows, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

The Big Burn. Every winter there's a ceremonial burning of the huge brush pile that people contribute to in warmer weather. A little kerosene, a good strong wind and BINGO you have a nice fire. Joe comes up from Georgia, Bill comes with the PINS, Rush & Annie joined in, and I brought the maple-flavored whiskey and brownies. It was a beautiful day for a burn.

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019 by woodsrun
019, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

You keep poking it (a lot) as it burns. And you roast hot dogs.

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034 by woodsrun
034, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Eventually it looks like this, and the PINS shovel and shove unburned & burning debris into the center of the fire.

Saranac Lake ice palace (what's left of it)

Stopped in Saranac Lake yesterday, hoping to see the ice palace in all it's glory. Warm weather and rain have not been kind to it. You can't go in it anymore.

Two sets of dimples

Two sets of dimples by woodsrun
Two sets of dimples, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

I'm a great aunt. I had 2 great aunts, one was a peach and I loved her dearly, the other was a stereotype of a dour great aunt. Guess which one I'll model myself after?

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

OH NO: I missed it!

It's dog show time and I missed the first night's judging.  I was trying to watch the Olympics but kept falling asleep.  Would the dogs have kept me awake? Doubtful, as it was the toy group and terriers, with hounds and herding as well.  I like the herding dogs and I love the hounds.  Tonight is the final night and I'll be watching!  Apparently I'm easily entertained because I love to watch dog shows.  I like trying to guess which one will win best in breed or best in show.  Sometimes I'm right.  More often I'm not.  Anyway, it's never the Lab.

Cold morning and cold day but there's some sun.  We had good sunshine yesterday as well.  Sunday was a gorgeous sunny clear February day.  I went to the movies, saw The Monuments Men and enjoyed it.  I didn't get much else done on the weekend, didn't make it to the dump and only saw 1 person on Sat.  It's supposed to be well below zero tonight.  This morning it was -1, which is totally doable.

Friday night was Jim's birthday party and there were a lot of people at P&Js to celebrate.  Very nice time, with good Michigans (sauce by Jim).  Fred & Bill put in appearances, though F spent most of his time sleeping in the recliner.  He's working too hard.

Car goes back the body shop on Thursday for one more round.  The insurance adjuster doesn't want Honda to fix it, and the body shop can't fix it (it has to be a dealer fix).  I'll just get a ride to work and leave it to them to figure out.  I'm pretty sick of the whole thing and have been thinking about buying something else.  Well hell I'm ALWAYS thinking about buying something else.

Dogs are ok but Tess has a mobility problem in her neck.  She won't/can't turn her head to the left and whines when she tries.  Tail still wags a lot, and she hasn't lost her appetite so I'm not too worried.  I've been pumping her full of aspirin which seems to help (marginally).  I think she overdid it on Sunday night when she & Treasure took a long walk without me.

We're supposed to have a big storm on Thursday.  Well, maybe.  Or maybe not.  It's too early to tell.  Do I really care?  There's nothing to be done about it, let's just let it happen.

Friday, February 07, 2014

End of the week

It's been a pretty good week, all in all.  We had high drama on Weds. with our storm, ended up with somewhere between 8-10 inches in Hawkeye.  I had a crappy ride home but nestled right in once I got there.  Good fire, good dogs.  The substitute plowman came pretty early in the evening.  He was very, very conscientious about plowing my driveway and yard--I think he wanted to make sure his plowing was up to Don's standards.  In reality he did a better job than Don does, though it took him forever.  As long as it gets done, what difference does it make?

I went down to the Blue Heron after the plowman's performance to turn off the crock pot.  Duncan was in Burlington to pick up Sue--her plane was due at 4 p.m. but she got re-routed around and around and didn't get in until almost midnight.  I do like electronic communications--Duncan & I did a combination of phone calls & emails to confirm that I would walk down there & attend to the pot roast.  It ended up being a really nice walk and the dogs were thrilled to have me along.  Apparently they run literal circles around the neighborhood--there were lots of tracks down the road and around in the woods.

My car is still not right, and I can't seem to find anyone who's interested in remedying that.  I've called the insurance adjustor twice (he finally did call me back) and the body shop once.  They dispute the dealer's notion that the harness needs to be replaced as a result of the deer collision.  So I'm stuck.  I'll call the insurance company today or this weekend to lodge a complaint.  This really sucks.  And the car isn't behaving well beyond the airbag light issue, so I'm wishing for a new car.  Well, I'm always wishing for a new car.

I had a nice time with Duncan & Sue last night at dinner.  They had the BH warm and cozy and we ate the pot roast.  Very tasty.  They're leaving Hawkeye today for Burlington, where they'll spend the night before heading back to Minneapolis tomorrow.  Thus ends Winterfest 2014.  They skied yesterday and reported that it was very nice.

Not sure what the weekend will bring.  A trip to the dump, no doubt.  Laundry.  Putting clothes away.  How can that take up a whole 2 days?  Will I watch the Olympics?  Debatable.  Tonight I stop at P&J's for Jim's birthday celebration.  Michigans for all.  I have to work until 5 so won't get there very early--the party will start without me.

Sort of fuzzy but this is what it looked like when I got home Weds.  Ah, yes, a Winter Wonderland.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Snowy day

It's snowing in the North Country, but it's not much of an issue this far north.  Southern New England, etc. is a trouble spot so I'm a little concerned about my mother.  She really doesn't like winter much and is already pretty sick of it now.  So far she's had no loss of power but this storm might cause that.  I sure hope not.

Things are moving right along in Hawkeye.  It's February, which I always felt meant that we were well on the downward slope of winter.  Ken would disagree and would say that Feb 2nd only means winter is half over.  He's right, of course, but I like to think that March is a gentler month than Jan. & Feb., which in reality is seldom true.  It's a cruel month, all right.  I like April, there's more than a breath of spring that month, and mud season, though a big inconvenience, is a GOOD thing.

I had a nice dinner with Duncan, David & JK on Sat. night.  They're just wonderful and always make me laugh.  JK left Sunday, David left yesterday and Sue arrives tonight.  Yesterday Duncan & David went out on the lake and shot off rockets with cameras mounted on them.  How cool is that?  Duncan said one of the films turned out well.

It's been a whiny week at work so far.  Everyone seems to have a "special" problem or issue and wants my attention NOW and COMPLETELY.  I figure it must be due to the weather.  I emailed my sister that people were acting like children but expect to be paid like adults.  Her response was that the world is just one big day care center.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that--everyone laughs when I say it.  And yet...

I stopped at P&J's last night.  Pat is making plans for the celebration of Jim's birthday Friday.  So far it's Michigans and cole slaw, with cake & ice cream to follow.  Should be nice.

Had a long talk with Mr. Smith last night, which was lovely as always.  We both had issues to discuss with each other and it was a fruitful conversation.  And nice.  Though he's getting another cold.  It's those pesky college students, they're full of poison I say.

Dogs are being fairly good about wandering, though last night they were gone twice for long periods of time.  Where in the world did they go?  They didn't come home until after 9, which is past their bedtime.  I was concerned, yet there's little I can do at night to find them.  I have tracked dogs in the snow but am not terribly good at it.  Most notable was the tracking of that awful Chesapeake Bay Retriever I had, who was damaged (way damaged) goods when I got him.  He stole the frozen Thanksgiving turkey from the deck and took off with it down the driveway and off into the woods.  I tracked him to Holts, where he joined me sans turkey.  It snowed that night, quite a bit, so that every rock and stump looked like a frozen turkey covered in white.  Oh that was a time.  Jenica and Liza had come to spend the holiday in Hawkeye.  We had chicken legs for Thanksgiving and the dogs kept showing up with turkey parts.  Peavey was especially thrilled, as if the parts had fallen from the sky and were her special reward for being such a good dog.

We're all wearing pedometers  at work today.  Big physical activity push, free pedometers from somewhere.  Get up and walk around at regular intervals.  I was asked to raise my seat so I wouldn't be straining my neck to see the monitor.  Now my feet barely touch the floor, but I am sitting up straighter.  Let's see how long this lasts for.

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Pretty sight

Pretty sight by woodsrun
Pretty sight, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

I went out on the ice yesterday, which was just great. I was nervous but followed the footprints of my various friends who have reported that the ice is fine. It is indeed. My only concern was how thick the ice would be close to shore--I know it's at least a foot thick out on the lake. I had a really nice walk. The dogs were less enthusiastic than I was but they did join me. I do love walking on the lake.