It's been snowing all afternoon. I don't think we'll end up with more than a couple of inches but it sure has snowed a lot today.
I went to the gym alone this morning, proudly did some time on the treadmill (after figuring out how to turn on the television, no small accomplishment). I went to the thrift store, was the bagger for 3 hours because it wasn't too busy and there were 3 people in receiving. I like bagging and I'm VERY good at wrapping and bagging things. or so I've been told.
So far this week has been pretty unremarkable. Monday was a day off. That felt really grand. I cleaned the kitchen, went to the dump and binge-watched some shows I had recorded. What would I do without television???
Tuesday was a fine day at work, a little slow in terms of people visiting the library but I got a lot of editing done. We've done just about 6000 photos; scanned and edited them so now they're searchable on the hard drive. Next step is to get them online.
Tomorrow is a big day in the Archives, we're having a Needs Assessment done by a consultant from Philadelphia. We applied for this grant and YAY! we were awarded with a day-long visit and assessment. Although it will be a long day I'm looking forward to hearing what the consultant has to say about what we're doing and how we're doing it. I'll be tired by the end of the day I'm sure but I'll feel good and happy.
Friday is a Plattsburgh day, I have to have work done on my car (brakes) and I have a few errands to take care. I'll be heading to RI on Tuesday and I want to get some of the groceries we'll need for Thanksgiving before I head out. I do like Thanksgiving, it's sure straight-forward and uncomplicated.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Yes, winter in November
It's 4 this morning with a blazing orange sunrise. Very pretty.
I've been busy but not TOO busy. Work on Thursday was good, we scanned and processed photos, I like that although some of them sure were boring. They can't all be gems.
Yesterday I went to Plattsburgh, had an appointment at last to have snow tires put on. Went for coffee with a friend while they worked on the car. When I picked it up oh boy they told me the car needs brake work but of course they couldn't do it yesterday. Back to Plattsburgh I go next Friday. I wanted to make sure to have the work done before heading to RI next week. Wow, Thanksgiving is next week! I'm heading to RI on Tuesday. Looking forward to being with my mother and Mark, we have good visits.
I over-stoked the stove last night so it was in the 70's in the living room when I got up at midnight. Whew! That's too warm. Now I have a respectable fire going, not too hot but hot enough. The weather these days is fine--for January. Temps are supposed to be in the 40's but today's high is supposed to be barely 20. Yesterday was good, temps in the 30's, boy didn't that feel nice.
I'm hosting book group on Sunday, we're reading a mystery that takes place in France so it's full of lots of French words, some just describing food, some more important to the story. I'll have to dig up something for us to read next. We don't usually meet in December, life is just too complicated, so maybe we'll have until January. By then I'll either have a Christmas tree up or I won't do one this year. I face this decision every year. It's a lot of work but I do like seeing my ornaments and I like the lights on the tree. Life is good, if that's my big decision.
I've been busy but not TOO busy. Work on Thursday was good, we scanned and processed photos, I like that although some of them sure were boring. They can't all be gems.
Yesterday I went to Plattsburgh, had an appointment at last to have snow tires put on. Went for coffee with a friend while they worked on the car. When I picked it up oh boy they told me the car needs brake work but of course they couldn't do it yesterday. Back to Plattsburgh I go next Friday. I wanted to make sure to have the work done before heading to RI next week. Wow, Thanksgiving is next week! I'm heading to RI on Tuesday. Looking forward to being with my mother and Mark, we have good visits.
I over-stoked the stove last night so it was in the 70's in the living room when I got up at midnight. Whew! That's too warm. Now I have a respectable fire going, not too hot but hot enough. The weather these days is fine--for January. Temps are supposed to be in the 40's but today's high is supposed to be barely 20. Yesterday was good, temps in the 30's, boy didn't that feel nice.
I'm hosting book group on Sunday, we're reading a mystery that takes place in France so it's full of lots of French words, some just describing food, some more important to the story. I'll have to dig up something for us to read next. We don't usually meet in December, life is just too complicated, so maybe we'll have until January. By then I'll either have a Christmas tree up or I won't do one this year. I face this decision every year. It's a lot of work but I do like seeing my ornaments and I like the lights on the tree. Life is good, if that's my big decision.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Winter in November, no kidding
We had a storm, oh yes we did. We did NOT have 12 inches of snow, as predicted. Instead we had 7 inches of snow, with a temperature of zero this morning. It can't be winter, we didn't dip below zero.
It was very windy and wintry last night--I had to go to my mailbox to get the UPS items that the driver called me (now how do they get our phone numbers?) to report that he was leaving packages there. No, he's not supposed to do that but I told him he wouldn't have to drive to my driveway or my house in winter months. The hardtop is plowed often and well, my road (OHR) is not. It was plowed once, at 5 a.m. yesterday but not again until today. Oh well. I managed to get out yesterday before my driveway was plowed, that was a relief. I won't have my snow tires on until Friday and boy what an education this has been! Driving AWD without snow tires is NOT the same as driving AWD WITH snow tires. duh. OK, I know this is common knowledge, and that's why we have snow tires, blah blah blah but it was really obvious to me yesterday and again today when the roads were slick.
OK, enough about driving, snow, winter, cold, wind, etc. Today I volunteered at the thrift store. It wasn't terribly busy so we were able to get a lot done and that was nice. I came home, stoked the stove, cut up a bunch of big cardboard boxes (some of which I retrieved from my mailbox last night), packed up the garbage and went to the dump. Now I'm watching Impeachment TV, mostly because there's not much else on. Bear the dog is staring at me--intently because he thinks it surely must be time for DINNER. not. They're lucky they get to eat at 4:00, let's not push it Bear.
Bear and I walked partway down the road yesterday afternoon. It was cold but also lovely. I do like a decent snowfall, in the beginning at least. I don't know how much of this snow will melt but it's supposed to warm up soon (before it gets cold and snows some more). I've always maintained that I like November. Maybe this year will be the exception.
It was very windy and wintry last night--I had to go to my mailbox to get the UPS items that the driver called me (now how do they get our phone numbers?) to report that he was leaving packages there. No, he's not supposed to do that but I told him he wouldn't have to drive to my driveway or my house in winter months. The hardtop is plowed often and well, my road (OHR) is not. It was plowed once, at 5 a.m. yesterday but not again until today. Oh well. I managed to get out yesterday before my driveway was plowed, that was a relief. I won't have my snow tires on until Friday and boy what an education this has been! Driving AWD without snow tires is NOT the same as driving AWD WITH snow tires. duh. OK, I know this is common knowledge, and that's why we have snow tires, blah blah blah but it was really obvious to me yesterday and again today when the roads were slick.
OK, enough about driving, snow, winter, cold, wind, etc. Today I volunteered at the thrift store. It wasn't terribly busy so we were able to get a lot done and that was nice. I came home, stoked the stove, cut up a bunch of big cardboard boxes (some of which I retrieved from my mailbox last night), packed up the garbage and went to the dump. Now I'm watching Impeachment TV, mostly because there's not much else on. Bear the dog is staring at me--intently because he thinks it surely must be time for DINNER. not. They're lucky they get to eat at 4:00, let's not push it Bear.
Bear and I walked partway down the road yesterday afternoon. It was cold but also lovely. I do like a decent snowfall, in the beginning at least. I don't know how much of this snow will melt but it's supposed to warm up soon (before it gets cold and snows some more). I've always maintained that I like November. Maybe this year will be the exception.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
To share or not to share
I've neglected this blog for a month now--I'm not sure why but it does make me question the future of it. I write in a journal every night, I email several people daily (some more than once daily) so I feel my existence is well-documented. When I started this blog, many years ago I think I felt a need to try something new and also to reach out to people I didn't communicate with regularly or often. Now I've got my communication patterns well established and lately those patterns don't include posting to a blog. So what does that mean? Oh hell, I'll keep posting and I'll try to do it regularly. Or I'll leave this blog hanging in the air. No, I'll post.
My life has been good during the past month, as it seems to pretty much always be. I have no astonishing or fascinating news to report. We had a huge wind storm and lots of trees came down, it rained hard and lots of rivers rose. My sump pump has been busy. A section of the boardwalk in the bog was upended in a most dramatic way:
Talk about dramatic! The Nature Conservancy's steward came right out and fixed it so all is well now, though it's been icy there so I haven't walked it lately.
The dogs have been traveling (BAD dogs)--they ran off one morning and ended up on the other side of the lake at a friend's house, nearly 5 miles away. I got a phone call an hour after they disappeared--my friend said "Are you missing something?" Boy am I lucky to have good, responsible and caring friends who keep better track of my dogs than I do.
I'm still an archivist. I'm still a thrift store volunteer. Both activities are still enjoyable and worth doing. In the Archives we've scanned and labeled more than 5700 photos in our collection and only have a few hundred left that haven't been processed. The routine for those images is to decide whether we keep them or "deaccession" them (they've been donated, apparently deemed precious and having redeeming value by the donors). Some are really good, many are pictures of scenes or people unidentified and unremarkable. So we look at each image, sometimes we giggle, sometimes we are impressed (in a good way) and we get them ready to be processed. The keepers will be numbered, scanned and described presumably for future use by someone some time in the future. We keep in mind images we've been asked for in the past, using that as a yardstick. Oh the poor images we don't keep! Like the seedlings I can't bear to pull to thin the pots in the spring... not
We had good weather for the rest of October but then things got ugly. We have about three inches of snow on the ground now. It's 29 in the middle of Saturday night, up from 15 Saturday morning. Sunday is supposed to be a warmer day but later this week temps will drop into single digits at night and refuse to rise above freezing during the days. In November? Really? This has made me reconsider my oft-uttered statement of "Oh, I like November, it's a month with no extremes in weather, it's just cold but not bad." The woods are naked so I have a barest of glimpses of water from my living room (you have to use your imagination to know it's water). I closed the boat house at long last but forgot to shut off the power at camp so need to get down there to do that. There's a threat of six more inches of snow in a couple of days so wouldn't I be wise to do that NOW?
The thrift store was incredibly busy this week. Apparently it's a Canadian holiday Monday, another version of Veterans Day, and apparently the way many Canadians celebrate is by shopping in secondhand stores. Wow there was a lot of French flying around. I still enjoy being there--I like the people, I enjoy the work but I get tired after a couple of hours and the store is open for 5 hours. I've yet to be there more than 3 1/2 hours at a stretch. I admire the other volunteers, they work hard and for long hours there.
The dogs are doing well. Bear's splenectomy became a non-issue once the incision healed. He's a great dog (but a BAD dog) and Treasure seems to appreciate him more without a spleen because they now play with each other. Treasure was never interested in chewing on him or gamboling around (good word, huh, gambol) but lately they do a little companionable gnawing on each other. Treasure is 10 now but doing very well, she's slower than Bear but that's always pretty much been true. Except when they run off, then she seems capable of a faster gait.
I'll go to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, which will be here soon. One thing I am amazed by is how quickly time passes. On a Wednesday I'll say (to myself, thankfully) "How can it be Wednesday, it was just Monday!" I don't like getting older. This morning my mother said to me "So you're 69, right?" Well NO, I'm not, Mother dear, I'm 66 for another month. She's 93 so is excused for many things. We laughed and for the next few days she'll remember how old I am. She writes things down now and has many pieces of paper and notes in her living room and by the telephone. Whether she refers to these notes I don't know but it's a very sweet thing. She is in good shape and has a greater thirst for knowledge than I do. She was curious about impeached presidents so I had a good reference book on the presidents shipped to her. She was thrilled! "It even has information about their wives!" She says she likes to learn things, which I guess we all do, but I'm impressed with her ability to read and remember facts.
Life is good and so am I. I have my winter social life--different from my summer social life but satisfying and lovely. There are 2 couples nearby who like to get together--both around 5 miles away, and both have been visited by my dogs without being transported by me. I guess the dogs make the rounds of summer camps, discover there's no one in residence so keep going until they hit an occupied house. Oh dear.
This week I have an appointment to have snow tires put on the car. Apparently I'm not the only person with that thought, I've had to wait a week for the appointment. I get to Plattsburgh about once a week, have coffee with a good friend (well let's be honest, I don't have any BAD friends, just BAD dogs) and run errands in the Big City. It's very pretty where I live. I have good firewood for my good stove although yesterday I finally did turn on the electric heat in two rooms. rats, I've been putting it off. There aren't many birds at my feeder, just a couple of chickadees and a blue jay. What's up with that? Pass the word, birdies, there's good food at 58OHR.
My life has been good during the past month, as it seems to pretty much always be. I have no astonishing or fascinating news to report. We had a huge wind storm and lots of trees came down, it rained hard and lots of rivers rose. My sump pump has been busy. A section of the boardwalk in the bog was upended in a most dramatic way:
The dogs have been traveling (BAD dogs)--they ran off one morning and ended up on the other side of the lake at a friend's house, nearly 5 miles away. I got a phone call an hour after they disappeared--my friend said "Are you missing something?" Boy am I lucky to have good, responsible and caring friends who keep better track of my dogs than I do.
I'm still an archivist. I'm still a thrift store volunteer. Both activities are still enjoyable and worth doing. In the Archives we've scanned and labeled more than 5700 photos in our collection and only have a few hundred left that haven't been processed. The routine for those images is to decide whether we keep them or "deaccession" them (they've been donated, apparently deemed precious and having redeeming value by the donors). Some are really good, many are pictures of scenes or people unidentified and unremarkable. So we look at each image, sometimes we giggle, sometimes we are impressed (in a good way) and we get them ready to be processed. The keepers will be numbered, scanned and described presumably for future use by someone some time in the future. We keep in mind images we've been asked for in the past, using that as a yardstick. Oh the poor images we don't keep! Like the seedlings I can't bear to pull to thin the pots in the spring... not
We had good weather for the rest of October but then things got ugly. We have about three inches of snow on the ground now. It's 29 in the middle of Saturday night, up from 15 Saturday morning. Sunday is supposed to be a warmer day but later this week temps will drop into single digits at night and refuse to rise above freezing during the days. In November? Really? This has made me reconsider my oft-uttered statement of "Oh, I like November, it's a month with no extremes in weather, it's just cold but not bad." The woods are naked so I have a barest of glimpses of water from my living room (you have to use your imagination to know it's water). I closed the boat house at long last but forgot to shut off the power at camp so need to get down there to do that. There's a threat of six more inches of snow in a couple of days so wouldn't I be wise to do that NOW?
The thrift store was incredibly busy this week. Apparently it's a Canadian holiday Monday, another version of Veterans Day, and apparently the way many Canadians celebrate is by shopping in secondhand stores. Wow there was a lot of French flying around. I still enjoy being there--I like the people, I enjoy the work but I get tired after a couple of hours and the store is open for 5 hours. I've yet to be there more than 3 1/2 hours at a stretch. I admire the other volunteers, they work hard and for long hours there.
The dogs are doing well. Bear's splenectomy became a non-issue once the incision healed. He's a great dog (but a BAD dog) and Treasure seems to appreciate him more without a spleen because they now play with each other. Treasure was never interested in chewing on him or gamboling around (good word, huh, gambol) but lately they do a little companionable gnawing on each other. Treasure is 10 now but doing very well, she's slower than Bear but that's always pretty much been true. Except when they run off, then she seems capable of a faster gait.
I'll go to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, which will be here soon. One thing I am amazed by is how quickly time passes. On a Wednesday I'll say (to myself, thankfully) "How can it be Wednesday, it was just Monday!" I don't like getting older. This morning my mother said to me "So you're 69, right?" Well NO, I'm not, Mother dear, I'm 66 for another month. She's 93 so is excused for many things. We laughed and for the next few days she'll remember how old I am. She writes things down now and has many pieces of paper and notes in her living room and by the telephone. Whether she refers to these notes I don't know but it's a very sweet thing. She is in good shape and has a greater thirst for knowledge than I do. She was curious about impeached presidents so I had a good reference book on the presidents shipped to her. She was thrilled! "It even has information about their wives!" She says she likes to learn things, which I guess we all do, but I'm impressed with her ability to read and remember facts.
Life is good and so am I. I have my winter social life--different from my summer social life but satisfying and lovely. There are 2 couples nearby who like to get together--both around 5 miles away, and both have been visited by my dogs without being transported by me. I guess the dogs make the rounds of summer camps, discover there's no one in residence so keep going until they hit an occupied house. Oh dear.
This week I have an appointment to have snow tires put on the car. Apparently I'm not the only person with that thought, I've had to wait a week for the appointment. I get to Plattsburgh about once a week, have coffee with a good friend (well let's be honest, I don't have any BAD friends, just BAD dogs) and run errands in the Big City. It's very pretty where I live. I have good firewood for my good stove although yesterday I finally did turn on the electric heat in two rooms. rats, I've been putting it off. There aren't many birds at my feeder, just a couple of chickadees and a blue jay. What's up with that? Pass the word, birdies, there's good food at 58OHR.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)