BUSY TIME OF YEAR.

Christmas is a busy enjoyable time and if I ran the world, I’d stop all those pesky things during the holidays, like funerals, frozen pipes, and a leaking septic system pipe. (Being fixed today… )



I’d also have pesky snow gone, gone, gone by now. Still hanging around in spits and spots. Today, today, snow, be gone!

I took time out from my tasks for a walk. The weather was beautiful and sunny at 63 degrees.
One real treat was spotting a woodpecker I didn’t recognize. Those red-headed pileated woodpeckers are common around here. This one had an orange head, thicker in the neck than his red-headed cousins. The wing feathers were striped black and white like a herring bone suit. Beautiful!!
But, raise the camera, and flit! Gone.

I guess I have to quit complaining about the lingering snow if mother nature also brings me the joy of a beautiful bird.

UNPREPARED FOR SNOW.

That first snow, at 5:00 a.m. surprised me. I'd never seen it that deep in Murphys. I wished my old friend Buster Reidel was still around to confer with. He would know how unique is was or wasn't back to 1920. He used to advise me not to plant my tomatoes until after Frog Jump. He was keen about local weather patterns.

Tree limbs bent over the roof and over the railing.

The small wires that hold my summer shade cloth were totally encased in snow.

It made for some pretty pictures.


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My housemate, Karen's car, isn't garaged. After a lot of melt, she braved the first day, and got out to the store for cigs. you can see where she was parked. Coming back was a different matter.

She was all over the driveway getting back. But, it was a smarter choice because that partly melted snow is now ice.

When the power went completely out, it was still light outside. People up here know to have a good supply of candles and flashlights. I covered the end of the table with an old tablecloth and set up the outage. I placed candles in strategic places in each room. We ate soup and bread for a light supper. People in the east probably chuckle at our unpreparedness for snow, but we do know how to weather a power outage.

CELEBRATING AN EARLY NEW YEAR

Sharon and Bert Sargeant visited yesterday with bottles of wine in hand. We toasted the New Year early since they will most likely be snowed in with a good fire and  plenty of food and water. In fact, they attempted to visit the previous night and were snowed in. Then the melt. So, they came last night
 Bert is also a local prankster who at one time ran a county survey line across the front of our property and convinced husband George that the County was planning to confiscate 20 feet of frontage to expand the road. He enjoyed seeing George turn purple. He also put a very cheap priced for sale sign on a friend's 49 Ford and gave his friend's phone number to field all the phone calls. Well, that's Bert. We've managed a payback or two along the way.

My brother Norman is staying for the rest of the week. He's had some amazing unconventional experiences and we've enjoyed rehashing old stories, about his visit to the Peoples Temple in 1975, and meeting the "False Christ"  Jim Jones. Jones, if you remember, took 900 people to Guyana in 1978 and induced them to commit suicide by drinking cool-aid spiked with poison. He spooked Jones. He attended with his friends, John James and family and declared Jones a fake. Mrs. James was so upset with Norman's declaration that they never resumed their friendship.
Norman's been rich and he's been poor but he likes poor for the challenge better than the ease of the "easy" life.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
If you celebrate, be careful. We will have icy roads and plan to stay safely tucked inside. Yesterday, just going out for my shoulder therapy at 10:00 a.m., I found the roads were slick and treacherous and there were a number of small accidents locally during the day from the slippery ice.