Getting ready for the holiday

Well I can't claim I've been "getting ready" for the past several days/weeks...

It's been a busy time for me, nothing unusual really but some social events (my birthday dinner, holiday gatherings).  It got cold, -11 day before yesterday, -3 yesterday and today but due to warm up.  Just in time for my travels.  I'm heading to RI this morning (why did I pick today to travel? I think there will be 8 million people on the Mass Pike), will be there for nearly a week.  I have to pack my clothes then the car but it's 6:45 in the morning and I'm in good shape for that.  I hate packing in the dark though so I'm just watching the news and having coffee.  Time to function: have to bring in firewood, pack pack pack, close up the house.

I've been going to the gym with friends--one friend comes from DC often and loves to go to the gym in the morning so we did that every day for a week.  I also started going to an aqua-robics class in Plattsburgh at the Y, it's a class for seniors and I'm probably the youngest person in the pool.  It's an hour of constant activity, very good for me but the shallow end of the pool is full FULL of old people all trying to avoid hitting each other with the floating barbells and kicks.  I'll probably keep going once in a while but I don't relish a drive to Plattsburgh very often.

I'll have a good week with my mother, we do enjoy each other's company.  I'll visit with a friend who lives in Jamestown, perhaps see a cousin who says he's going to visit, eat lobsters, read read read and have a nice vacation-type visit.

I didn't put up a Christmas tree this year, it just seemed like a lot of work.  It IS a lot of work when you do it by yourself but I do like having the lights and I like seeing my collection of very nice ornaments.  Maybe next year.

From zero to twenty-eight

Cold morning today, temp was 0 when I got up.  Can it be that I'm getting used to this weather?  It didn't feel too cold when I went out early in the day.  Really?  How good that would be, getting used to weather like that, but of course it was still, not windy.  I do not like cold, windy days but a cold day with some sunshine on bright white snow can be very pleasant.

I worked at the thrift store yesterday, it started out pretty slow with not many shoppers but all of a sudden we got hammered.  I didn't work in receiving, I was a packer.  I like doing that, it's fun to see what people buy and it's very VERY entertaining to see them buy the stuff you price and put out.  What??? Someone is buying that?  I got tired, standing on the cement floor for 3 1/2 hours but the time went by.  I had to leave before the store closed (I always do) and this time I felt bad because it was busy but I had to meet friends for lunch.  We had a nice visit--this is a couple who live in Albany and have a camp down the road from my house.  She works in the State Archives and we always have good archival conversations.  I'm impressed by what she does and by the collection they have (duh, it IS the STATE Archives, after all).

I have to decide whether to put up a Christmas tree.  A friend found a place selling smaller trees--at this point in my life I only do table-top trees but I usually have to buy big trees and cut off the bottom couple of feet.  Maybe I could be convinced to buy one if it were already small enough.  I might check it out tomorrow, it's going to be a Plattsburgh day.  Haircut.  Bank.  Errands.  I went grocery shopping yesterday on my way to the thrift store so at least I don't have to do that.  I should visit the people who used to live down the road and are now living with their son in Plattsburgh.  But maybe not.

Good dog-Bad dog--SUPER Bad dog

I always swear I can't/don't let both dogs out together but of course there are exceptions.  Friends came for coffee yesterday morning, friends who are much loved by my dogs so I let the dogs out to greet them.  They barely acknowledged the people, then ran down the driveway and disappeared.  For FIVE HOURS.  Wow what a bad pair.  I tracked them down to camp (they tried to get in the back door) and along the shoreline for a short way but the woods got too thick so I gave up.  Drove to Plattsburgh to meet a friend (yes, I felt bad but I also thought they deserved to come home to an empty house).  Came home 2 hours later and there were no dogs at my house.  Man oh man.  They finally did come home, 5 hours after leaving.  Treasure could barely walk, sore shoulder but Bear was just fine.  Yes, they did sleep.  for hours.  And they skipped lunch and barely noticed that.

So I had a quiet afternoon watching them sleep and listening to them snore.  Oh they are bad dogs indeed.

It snowed most of the day but it wasn't a convincing snow, only got a few inches.  There's ice on the lake, snow on the ice.  I doubt the ice is more than an inch or so thick.

Today is a thrift store day, then lunch with friends.  I have to decide if I want to put up a tree this Christmas.  I'm feeling slightly (or more) lazy about that.  I have always had a tree, I like the lights and I really like my collection of ornaments but this year it just seems like a lot of work.  We'll see.

Post-Thanksgiving catch-up

I was lucky with my Thanksgiving traveling, avoiding heavy snow and heavy traffic.  I did have to stay an extra day but that's always a nice "have to do" thing.

I drove to RI on Tuesday (skipping work) without incident but with lots of company on the roads.  I went through Worcester, which turned out to be a bad idea because a lot of other people had the same idea.  Oh well, I got there in good time and all was well with my mother in her house.

I did some shopping on Wednesday but pretty much all the food shopping had been done.  We had a nice Thanksgiving day, our celebratory breakfast of lox & bagels then lots of prep for the dinner, which we had at 4.  Boy do we have a lot of food for Thanksgiving.  I made my usual pumpkin pie, using my Martha Stewart recipe of many years.  It was good, as expected.  Secret ingredient=1/4 tsp of chili powder.

We took the dogs to the beach in the morning, poor Treasure on a leash the entire time while Bear got to romp in the water (only a little, he is always surprised to discover that it's SALT water).  We saw juvenile loons but they didn't reveal their original location.  I think our Silver Lake loons winter in New Jersey and Long Island Sound, if I remember correctly.

Friday was a good shopping day, we just went to a couple of places and had a grand time spending money.  It was all good.

We had restful days on Saturday and Sunday, lots of visiting and reading.  I read a few books while I was there, that's always a treat.  We don't watch much television so I read read read.  Very nice.

I had planned to come home on Monday but the snow storm in the Northeast convinced me to stay an extra day.  Tuesday morning it snowed in RI, about 3 inches or so--that's very dramatic for southern New England, especially along the coast.  My trip home was just fine, roads were clear and empty.  My house survived my absence and all was just fine.

The lake froze over during my absence, that was quite a shock.  It was chilly, down to single digits at night.

Now I'm back into my routines, I worked at the thrift store yesterday.  It was busy but not hectic, just the right pace of shoppers and drop-offs with the right number of volunteers.  Today I worked in the Archives, we have many projects to get started on after our Needs Assessment in November.  That was a great experience and I'm really looking forward to the report that will result--we've been promised a 40-page report.  Yikes.

It's been snowing today and we picked up maybe 2 more inches with more expected tomorrow.  Oh it's winter all right.