Egg Nog Coffee

Flying out early this morning.  We may meet along the way.  See you when I see you.

Dec 10

Baby Girl Seavey was born on Thursday, two weeks early.  The hiking ladies snowshoed up Plymouth Mountain yesterday.  I rested my knees and feet and watched nature.

Upon driving over the top of Blackberry Hill, a hillside of geese came into view beyond Lake Doll.

The cattails are beginning to unravel for winter.

The geese are enjoying the remnants of the weak autumn sun.
I will enjoy the tropical climate tomorrow, forecasted to rain in Florida during the day but clearing in the afternoon.  I wonder if there will be geese down south or if they all stayed put this year.  I'll be back in time to see the baby before Christmas.  Happy Caroling and Egg Nogging!

Dec 9

In the mood for glitter and glamour, cocktail parties and conversation, petit fours and presents, it is time to pack a suitcase and travel.  To a wedding on the beach, then Christmas parties with more lifelong friends.  The first destination is hot, the second freezing.  Builds character, says one friend.

I have enough character, I answer.

But will I have enough room in the suitcase?

Dec 8

Five weeks after hip joint replacement, Hip man is finally driving!

"Thank God Almighty, free at last!" - MLK

Tim's BDay

Those born on this day are loyal, particular, meticulous, and laugh readily.  They don't venture too far from home, but are always willing for adventure on their own turf.  The writing this morning has nothing to do with this birthday that I know of.

But up came the "Short end of the stick" and drawing the "short straw".  Thinking about something someone said long ago, and how it could have related to height or talent or an event, as in always getting the short end of the stick, the crappy end, the coming-up-short end.  Well, I'll show them!

Dec 6

Abundance

Clarity

Creativity

Love

Vitality

To which I'd also add influence, recognition, and reward, perhaps to be subsumed under the category of abundance. Jim is leaf blowing. There is an Abundance of leaves. It is Clear they need to get off the driveway for clean snowblowing-to-come. But he is being Creative and making a clean lawn too. What a Love he is! Glad to see he has more Strength and Energy to particpate in the household chores. He deserves a really nice pizza lunch. Attaboy! This is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Dec 5

It's time to  write the Christmas letter.  That summation of the year where exaggerated feats abound, like swimming with the dolphins, dining with celebrities, inventing the next thing that changes the world.  Although I did not save any lives this year as in years past, I have seen things, as Rimbaud said, "that men have thought they saw".

Like the hawk at the entrance to Rosebud, a harbinger of things to come.

Or the immature bald eagle that launched from his perch to grab a squirrel drinking at the edge of the water, immerse the squirrel in the water until it drowned, and carry it away, dripping and heavy, into the woods.  Dining with celebrities.

Dec 4

When the woodstove burns for awhile, all the other rooms get colder.  The thermostat is in the room with the woodstove and does not sense the other, cooler rooms.  So we sit next to the fire, drowsy at our books, hibernating on Sunday like bears in winter.  Someone told me recently that black bears in Maine do not really hibernate.  Okay, so we hibernate like woodchucks.

Until something moves me to set up the Christmas tree and admire the festive lights before falling asleep by the stove.  Could this be another day of rest?

Dec 3

The mountain and the six hiking ladies waited patiently, though it was before the appointed time.

They were early, as adventurers often are.  Three of the ladies are over 60, two over 70, and one over 80 years old. A chemist, journalist, therapist, doctor were among the hikers.  It was comfortable being the youngest.  New meat, they called me.

The most adrenaline-producing moment was crossing an icy birch to get to the luncheon spot halfway up Passaconaway.  The ladies were wearing their waterproof winter boots, and rock-hopped even though the rocks were partly under water.  I wore leaky summer boots (sooo last season and out of date!) and did not want to walk in wet feet.

But the birch crossing was successful, and two miles later we bare booted to the tree-shrouded summit marked with an X.

No cairns here.  Jean, the 80 year old, brought some sweet chocolate bar concoction for everyone at the top.  3.5 hours up, 3 hours down, no headlamps, no fractures.

Dec 2

Spotting something rare in these parts, in this neighborhood, is worth mentioning.

Wasn't a pheasant supposed to be a symbol of something?  Like a fox stands for cunning, and a dog is for loyalty?  A pheasant is a symbol for ... *.
Today I am hiking 10 miles, up Mt. Passaconaway, carrying microspikes but no snowshoes, with a 30% chance of snow sometime during the hike.  The ladies' hiking group is meeting this morning at the trailhead.  Although I met two of them on the summit of Mt. Hale this past August, where they invited me to join them, this is the first opportunity that our hiking days have coincided.  There's something odd about hiking with strangers, so we shall have to become friends.
*...nobility, concealment, amour.

Rabbit Rabbit!

The honey-do list today includes inflating the bicycle tires to see if they hold air.  Once I went to the gas station and attempted to use the air compressor there to fill a bicycle tire.  The tire exploded in my face.  So now the idea of filling a bike tire gives me great anxiety.  I can relate to Daisy being gun-shy.
Research today includes evaluating the nutrition required to boost dopamine for men and serotonin for women.  Supposedly, these chemicals help to reduce the stress reaction, which I now have, thinking about exploding tires.

Tibbar Tibbar

Out with the old.

The bottom end of the water filtration system put out some irony water.

Water man took his sweet time changing out the system.  Now we have a new water system, a new smart meter for the electric, a furnace that heats properly, and the adage of things coming in threes satisfied.

In with the new!

Nov 29

Red sky at morning,

Sailors take warning!

I never quite see what the camera sees.  Or the camera never displays the color that my eyes are seeing.

After the first picture, I turned on the flash and was surprised to see big globs that I did not notice without the camera.  Moisture in the air!  What else could it be?  Dust or water spots on the camera lens, zoomies in the air.

The subject of the sentence matters for the meaning.  Do I see or does the camera see?  Do I want breakfast or does breakfast want me?  Is the water man coming today to change out the whole water filtration system or will the system change the water man?
"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

Nov 28

As to the categories of served and servant, one December a few years ago I opted to be a receiver of gifts rather than a giver.  For many years I had given money, and that particular Christmas I did not.  In fact I gave no gifts that year.  You can be sure the people who were the usual recipients of the customary money were not happy.  But what could they say?
Surely not, "Hey, where's my Christmas money?"
But I could tell they wanted to say it.
It was an uncomfortable holiday season until deciding to learn how to receive.  How great is that?  It's a lesson I may have to repeat this year.
"... I am willing to receive."  - Marianne Williamson

Nov 27

Glad it is above freezing outside.
Yesterday morning, in confusion as to the source of the cold temperatures in the house, I bundled up in fleece, wool and the purple down jacket, thinking it was my messed up internal thermometer again, and that a little coffee would warm things right up.  An hour later, I finally looked at the thermostat that said 62 degrees.  Then double checked on the thermostat upstairs.  Same.
Revelation!  It's not me that's f****d up, it's the FURNACE.  Not the internal furnace, but the external one.  And then I realized the furnace fan had been running nonstop, but the burner never kicked on to heat the water that heats the pipes that heats the house (that Jack built).

Furnace man worked all morning, taking apart almost everything, and could not find the problem.  At 12 PM, he says he needs to go find a part, drives off probably to have lunch, and comes back half an hour later with no part.  He says he has to wait until Monday to find a part.  Meanwhile we are still cold.  We watch him put it all back together and leave us without a working furnace.  At least before, the fan worked.  Now, nothing.
Jim fiddles with the switches for a minute and overrides something in the exhaust system.  Then the fan works.  He opens the transformer box with more switches, peers in for a couple seconds, says, "That looks baked," and then sticks a screwdriver in to close a lever that should close by itself.  The burner kicks on.  He limps to the work bench and gets a wood shim to keep the lever closed and the burner on.  We heat the house for half an hour, get it back up above 70 degrees, and remove the shim to turn off the furnace.
This morning, though it's Sunday, I might call another furnace man.  It's 66 degrees inside. Cold for writing or fine finger movement. Who would leave someone without heat?  How dare he abandon us!