The computer has died not once, not twice but thrice since I last posted.  We were rescued twice  by our friend Richard, who seems to always leave something behind when he visits.  I'm thinking of instituting a cap swap - one of Alan's for one of Richards for one of Carl's.....  how long will it take before all the caps find their way home again?

( filling in the gaps, at least a little )

Upcoming - Joy's 50th birthday party on Saturday - pot luck BBQ, as she doesn't want to cook or clean up for her birthday. Smart woman!

  In two weeks, Alan's sister and brother-in-law are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  Their kids are throwing a surprise party. Luckily, they don't read blogs.

We're throwing a small shindig here for Mom's 80 birthday on the 22nd.  My sister is coming out from Ohio and one of my aunts is coming from upstate NY.  The rest of Mom's siblings can't really travel anymore, at least not the distance they'd need to get here.  We'll just have to do our best to make things festive.  And I'm crossing my fingers that it won't pour the whole weekend.

Yesterday's drive home was, well, interesting.  I tried taking the interstate down from Tilton, thinking the plows would be out and working hard.    

 NOT.

The usual two lanes were down mostly to one, although the occasional loon did pass me by, stirring up the white stuff like mad.  My top speed in the (almost) clear bits was a whopping 52 mph, although there were some stretches where any enforcement of the posted 45 minimum would have been absurd. 

I was grateful I only had to go two exits south.

The worst bit of the drive home was the last five miiles, starting from the exit ramp (totally unplowed, not even once).  Elm Street had been plowed when the snow was perhaps an inch and a half, so was tough going on the hills.  Our lovely little mostly unpaved dead end road didn't see a plow until around 8 pm last night, so the first 50 feet was god-awful.  I did at least make it up the hill to the upper driveway.

Today, I've shoveled both front and back decks, and done one pass down the stairs to the cellar/lower driveway.  Alan got out the snow-blower and did the driveway after the plow's first pass this morning.  It's still coming down (10 inches and counting), so I'll undoubtedly have to go through it again at least once tonight. 

It's supposed to snow more tomorrow.  And Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on which channel you watch. 

At least I don't have to work Wednesday.

Current Mood: cold

The ice storm that struck southern New Hampshire and Vermont did a number on us these past few days.  Our power went out at 1:30 am Friday (exact timing courtesy of the computer battery backup alarm).  A tree went down across Elm St, and was *still* hanging on the lines when I went off to work this morning - four days later.  Power and internet came back up shortly after 4 this afternoon, though the phone is still dead.

( And the rest is just details... )
Over 300,000 households were said to be without power on Friday.  This morning, the number I heard quoted as still out was 138,000.  Some are expected to be out till the end of the week. 

Ouch.

Current Mood: relieved

from all the Thanksgiving holiday hooplah. 

( Thanksgiving )
I expect to spend the rest of the moring running errands, and the rest of the day making up this year's holiday gift batches of cranberry ketchup and caponata.  Hopefully, the grocery store will not have run out of cranberries....

 but for the moment, the house is blessedly quiet for the first time in 3 days.

Current Mood: satisfied

which I most likely caught from Becky last weekend....

Thanks so much!

(sniffle, sniffle)

Current Mood: lethargic

We're still working on the Halloween candy.  I should be out of town more often....

Current Mood: chipper

...at least for now.  Sununu lost, Jean Shaheen gets his seat.  Although it won't surprise me if he rears his head again in the future.

Both Dems kept their House seats as well.  Pretty much an all-blue election this year.  And this in a generally conservative state....

Tags: election '08
Current Mood: pleased

Mom had chest pains a few days back, not a good sign given that she's already on various medications for her a-fib and hypertension.  She did at least tell the nurnsing staff, and then pretty much napped through it.  Her PA came in to see her while I was there, and wasn't happy about Mom's description of the pain.  Lee (the PA)  scheduled her for an EKG yesterday morning (Mom refused to go into the hospital overnight for observation, since, 2 days later, she felt fine).  I haven't heard the results yet.  I'll call on Monday if I have heard by mid-morning.

She's having more and more memory / brain function problems. 

( Mom's fuzziness )

My sister and hew two boys will be out from Ohio for Thanksgiving this year, so Barb will get to judge Mom's condition for herself.  It's quite a contrast  from a year ago when Barb saw her last.

( Extended family members )
In more cheerful news, Becky and her girls were here for a week (we didn't get to see Alex, as he's saving  uphis time off), presumably their last visit until well after Baby Boy is born.  His due date is October 30, and both girls were born on their dates.  A Halloween baby?  We shall see. 

We mostly spent the week with the girls around the house, but did take a day to go to the Deerfield Fair. 
( A day at the fair )

One of my incoming emails today was a semi-monthly newsletter from singer-songwriter Pat Wictor ('A Few Choice Words", signup on his website, www.patwictor.com), containing a well-crafted plea for thoughtfullness and respectful discourse during the election season.  I'd quote it in full here, but it's copy-righted.  He ends with a short list of his favorite websites that actually discuss issues, rather than merely bopping from one sound bite to the next.  His suggestions were:

( election-related websites )

Again, these are Pat Wictor's selections, not mine, but they seem to me worth checking out.

Tags: election '08
Current Mood: concerned

( Mr. Tom in full glory... )

We found an old roll of film - mostly family shots from last November/December, but we apparently finished up the roll in early spring with a few local wildlife shots.  One of them is a tom turkey in full romance mode.

Tags: turkeys