Every time I watch this it makes me smile. My kids chose to go to a regional high school in a neighboring town, rather than the high school down the street from where we live. The local schools have an excellent academic reputation and are definitely much closer, but the neighboring school offered more diversity and options and was a better fit with my kids. Fortunately in Massachusetts you can "choice" into another district and your town pays the tuition.

Among the many things I love about this school is the spirit and creativity and how this is nurtured and promoted by the students teachers and administrators, in addition to academic excellence. I have seen this in so many areas and the following video is one of them.

I know of few schools that can involve a third of the student body in a project including the principal and vice principal and many teachers, yet Monument does it again and again.

"This is the Lip Dub that Monument Mountain Regional High School filmed in December 2010. Around 200 students showed school spirit and amazing talent. This is Robert Adler's independent study project. It took him just under 3 months to produce and make it what it became"

Down for the count.....or at least half a count

I use an average of one sick day a year plus maybe a few hours when I just throw in the towel and go home. Today was the "one". I don't count the hour I left work early yesterday because I was there early. Sneezing, coughing cobwebs in the mind. The "cold" has been officially passed
on from my wife to me.

So today I lay on the couch surfing (channel and web) and snoozing on and off with an occasional check in of email. While I called out, I was too lazy to do the mechanical message and auto-replies that I do for a vacation. So for some people who get an email response from me, they think I must be in meetings.

While I moderately feel like crap, I also stayed out so as not to contaminate others. But I am also feeling bored, which means I am actually feeling better and will most likely go in tomorrow and will leave if I sink in the pit. Bored doesn't translate automatically to energized or motivated, so after I finish this post of what seems to be random, I'll probably curl up with an afghan and maybe not snooze but rest. One of the unusual signs of this episode is that while weary I am not tired.

There are predictions of another snow storm on Friday of 6 inches. Enough already, winter go away. I went out for a bit today for some air and it was sunny but cold. We have just about used up the 4 1/2 tons of pellets that we started the winter with so given the pace of what is coming Friday and beyond, I'll be loading up the car with 40 pound bags this weekend. It seems hard to comprehend that from October to now I have moved 9,000 pounds of bags at least once into the house and probably half of those from the yard to the garage. 13,000 pounds. I guess that is how ants do it, one piece at a time.

The emails are all working again along with 5 apologies from the email provider to match my 5 tech tickets.

So that is the not so exciting blog update from this far western corner of Massachusetts and after I sign up the youngest for an SAT prep course, I think I will grab the afghan.

Wind

This morning the sun was bright and I was up early and looking at how sweet it looked out there. After sipping my third cup of coffee and exhausting the online newspapers and seeing my neighbor take off for a run it was enough of a boost to the urge to go for a nice long run in the sun. My schedule has been crazy all week with full days of training where they feed you lunches that are heavier than what I would make for my self. Plus there was not time for any kind of exercise, so I was feeling heavy from the imbalance. All good reasons to get out.

So squinting a little to check out the temperature, which said about 35, I added an extra layer top and bottom, grabbed the gloves and a hat and bounded out the door. Hey, I'd been running when it was 25 and snowing and had a great time. Plus 35 with full sun can feel almost like spring. Yah!

Getting to the street and heading up the hill out of the neighborhood it hit me. CRAP!! there is no way in hell it is 35 out here. While the sun was bright the wind was whipping and cutting through the layers and biting my face. Rounding the corner and heading in a direction I knew there were trees and houses and hoping that perhaps that will be a block.

I get to the corner and start to cruise up a another hill and a blast of wind literally stops me in my tracks. These freakin trees won't give any cover, there are no leaves and the woods behind the houses channel the wind to the street.

Not fun but determined still, I hit the mile and a half mark and another hill and another blast of wind and that's it. Had I worn my winter-wear of thick layers and tight then it would have been different, but now the body heat building up was just keeping it tolerable, but not enough to fend off the wind. Plus while I am ok with the cold, a cold wind is just not pleasant by any stretch. Flipping around I head back, settling for 3 three mile unpleasant run when I was pushing for 6-7 in in the sun. Not sure which was more disappointing, the distance or the cold.........nah no question, the cold.

So back home and warming up I take another look at that thermometer but this time I put on the glasses. 15 degrees - add a wind and it explains it all.

I have had enough of winter.

The last few days have been a techie hell. I have five email accounts plus the one for work and had problems with all of them this week. My ipod, which can retieve mail from all of them, also decided not to work with any of them and one account is sending responses back saying "user doesn't exist".

So, you ask, why the hell so many emails accounts? Actually I have more than that but those are dormant. I use email accounts to sort out the different parts of my life. This blog has it's own, there is the order online one, then there is the home one, and then there is the every day one and the spare. And there is the one that ties in some of my volunteer work.

For some this is too much technology and too much confusion but my ipod can handle at least a half dozen and I can fling the emails back and forth between accounts and send attachments to my Ipod that I can read in meetings in the office and out. It's great until they all go fluey. Usually it is only one at a time and having all of them go haywire is a painful aboration.

It seems like when each of the mail systems goes through an upgrade to "improve reliabiliy and service" it ends up with service being knocked off or interupted and at least for a time, becoming totally unreliable-thus the reason I have the spare. Now it is the spare that has completely stopped working and is sending evil "non-exist " messages and guesss what, it just got a major upgrade and product enhancement....Not.

I have always thought that technology can be wonderful or totally suck. There are times when I would like the option of picking up the phone or doing an online chat rather than file a "ticket" and get the auto response, though at least that is better than hearing nothing at all. So I have filed multiple support tickets, deleted all the accounts off my IPOD and reinstalled them only to have 200 previouly read and filed emails come back through as unread and I openned up a new spare to the spare account, because when I don't hear anything I have doubts about whether I'll ever get the full use back. I'm a glutton with a short attention span.

And then there are the techy problems at work that fortunately there are techs to support but getting them to make things a priority can be a challenge. I feel a twinge of guilt when I rank my problem higher than someone elses and get more immediate attention but I rarely do it so my credibility in that area is fairly high.

I know the full moon has long past but perhaps there is some other phenomenom that is happening that is causing this techy hell. If so I look forward to the normal hum of consistent data coming in without a fight.

Winter, at least around here, is subsiding and the signs of spring becoming more evident. Me running outside with only one layer and no fleece, though still needing the gloves, is one sign.

These geese heading north are another. I recall so vividly being in the same spot in the fall and the gaggles were heading the opposite direction as they left the marshy refuge nearby.


This stack of pellets was 4 across in October, over 4 tons. There are probably 15-20 bags here and another 4-5 still in the garage. Hopefully we will get through to the warmer weather without having to get some more. When we reach this point in the season I am ready for an end in the routine of hauling in 40 pound bags from the pile, especially when its 11:30at night and I am already sleepy and notice the supply won't make it through the night. Fortunately I have someone home from college this week who I hope to recruit to move the rest of this pile inside.

With all the pallets empty comes that yearly event that seems to appeal more to men than women, burning day. The dried out Christmas tree under a pallet or two makes for a roaring fire that is every amateur pyro's dream. A good opportunity of getting rid of additional brush being exposed with the melting snow and to burn off some weed patches in the yard.



This stream is always pretty along the side of the road. The red barn in the background, the highlights of the snow around the edges. The water flow is heavy with the drainage from multiple sources and the higher elevations behind and this stream winds its way down to the river below.


Patches of back yard start to reveal itself and this morning a large flock of robins descended to pick through what could be found in the grass. Seeing one or two is fairly normal even throughout the winter, but 25 seems more like a traveling flock on their way somewhere.

It will easily be another month before the daffodils are up and probably into early May before they bloom. There are some years when winter seem to go on and on, deminishing very gradually until we hit May and early summer appears.

Someone finally bought the $1.5 million farm house I wrote about in the fall. Over Christmas decorations started to appear and cars were parked by the mews (yes this is a 2 house property). I am thinking they are 2nd or third homeowners and definitely from the City as the big trees that they have tapped in the yard for sap are oaks. Opps!

Never underestimate the power of prayer. This isn't a post about religion or evangelizing but more about spirituality. You won't find me quoting scripture, not my thing and I don't make those connection. But I feel I am a deeply spiritual person and that comes though in much of my writing. I have seen the power of prayer in the past, on larger scale of healing to smaller incidents and I witnessed it again this week.

More than a few read into my post a few days ago that either something troubling might be going on or that perhaps I was over-analyzing life. Thank you for your concern and comments and good thoughts.

Something was not right and the potential implications monumental, and while I couldn't say what, I needed to write about it, to get it out to the cosmos.

This morning was the news that all is well, life can return to normal though with a renewed gratitude of life and of good health.

There are times when you just can't put what you are feeling into words, yet still publish those words. It's a struggle to sort fear from the reality, the relativeness of what is going on to the greater happenings, the feeling of helplessness and sorrow and dealing with uncertainty and supporting others through the same; the balancing of what is on your mind the most while living through the days. In this world of 24/7 we want instant answers, instant fixes, instant resolutions, happy endings.

A few weeks ago I put up a quote about looking too far out into the future: "Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road. " and from past experience, I know much of the truth in this. I just have to keep repeating it to remind me of that.

Can it be possible that there are more frost heaves out there at this late stage in winter than last year? I feel like the auto equivalent of a rodeo. Could it have been that warm spell that then turned back to bitter cold?

I thought last year was the pits. But then that is because the constant bouncing on the back roads not only successful demolished the springs and finished off the struts on my old car but then proceeded to destroy the new struts that had cost an obscene amount of money on a car that I wasn't planning on keeping more than 6 months more but had no choice but to replace them.

So as I only fill my morning mug half way because I know otherwise the contents will be in my lap by the end of the driveway I also hold my breath every time I do the bouncy bounce for miles on end hoping that this now also aging car won''t meet the same fate.

This too will pass and we'll be left with cracked pavement and a driveway that, if this keeps up will break up on its own without the help of equipment. Hopefully when we are ready to replace it and not before.

Ok......I am ready for spring.

So, it snowed several inches last night then this morning started to rain then it was back to snow then rain and it is predicted to return to snow later tonight. Will you make up your freakin mind.

Fortunately I got out there with the shovel just as it was turning to rain so I was able to clear our long driveway before it became heavy slush. With the weather being so unpredictable and my opportunity for running or skiing have been limited, I did some pre-workout warm-ups and headed out with the shovel rather than start up the plow. A pretty good 45 minute workout when I pushed the speed a bit and with another series of stretches, my back is fine.

The last day of vacation and actually much of what was reasonable on my big list was accomplished. Items like "clean out the basement" or "sort through the beer can collection (a holdover from the 70s)" didn't make it to the action step but then just looking at a basement can be enough to make you seek out the beer. It really not that bad, it's more that with a half dozen bikes over various sizes and conditions, skateboards and scooters and several pairs of skis and piles and cases of old record albums, figuring out what to do with them is the overwhelming part. More a warm weather project.

I am procrastinating working on a volunteer project tonight but will get to it after I post this. I've been working it for a while and its at a stage where I have to pass off a bit of it to someone else but need to write up explicit instructions on what the next step is. Too much thinking, but I'll do it to get it moving and also because I sense I'll be taking on another project next week.

So, if your eyes have been wandering down the page to the picture you may be wondering what is with this.



It's a picture in the fish department of a large Asian supermarket in Boston. There this past weekend to see my eldest in a college theatrical performance, this market is adjacent to a marketplace of food stalls serving various cuisines: Thai, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Chinese. Based in a pretty ethically diverse neighborhood, down the start from a major university the food was good and cheap. The market was fascinating and provided an opportunity to stock up on herbs and oils and sauces that are unbelievably cheap when compared with the basic Stop and Shop and the quantities are huge by comparison.

The fish in this tank looked interesting and my youngest wanted a picture taken with it, which is why it is cropped. But the water looked a little murky. The whole fish on ice looked more appealing but with a 2 hour drive home I was risking none of it.

Well as I look at the clock, that project needs to be done and it will probably take me much less time than procrastinating.

One thing about unstructured vacations is that they can be time eaters.

In an effort to not throw away vacation too much time that I have earned, that will "expire" next month, I schedule this week off from work.

I really don't have the time to take time off, which seems to be the problem with why I risk loosing what I have earned. But there reaches a state where the work effort seems to have diminishing returns. Working in a job that can jump between a sprint and a marathon in the same day.

On my "to-do" list last week was to "plan out vacation". There are a couple of family things but we will do but not everyone is on the same time off schedule. Of course as I left work Friday with that list at least fractured and final meetings and emails off directing some activities while i am gone so that I can incorporate that work when I return, my own planning somewhat fell off the list.

So, Sunday morning I develop my list. Three columns, a full page of not just tasks, but new projects, working on partially started projects and some planning as well.
I thrown running and skiing and perhaps a massage on the list for some fun and make me feel like vacation.

There is something to be said about idleness though it is not well accepted, always in a negative tone but sometimes I wonder if that is what is necessary. Like many people I have such a big "list" is because of the influence of work and commuting in taking both physical time and draining so much energy that it effect the efficiency of how other time is used. The list of things that need to be done gets so long and involved that just looking at it is enough to drain energy quicker than pulling the plug on a pool.

So, I am a couple days into vacation. A day in the city with family was fun then Sunday and Monday were those kind of unstructured days when there are specific chores and tasks that need to be done but in between time fritters away. The pellet stove got a needed full clean, and the drive and walk cleared of the snow and a movie and a few things off the list, but not much more.

It's 14 degrees outside. Uncomfortable for running or skiing, at lest for me. The snow is hard and icy and cold seems biting. Yesterday was just a little better but the motivation was not there to even try.

So I am re-looking at my list. It is a sure set up for disappointment by week end and I am thinking I need to toss it and start over. There aren't any unnecessary things on the list and if I worked just a bit more I could have made it a small several pages long, but what good would that do.

A friend emailed me a link to a site on zen moments that she thought I might be interested in. The lead paragraph, which she has no reason to know, described almost exactly the same serious incident that occurred in my life almost 20 years ago that changed many things in my life. I came through miraculously better than the writer, and where he has had to deal with the physical recovery, my struggle has been with the recovery of what is not externally evident to others or to most not even known or noticed. But it is there and I work with it every day. Through this process I have I learned that it is sometimes necessary for me to regroup, break things down to component pieces and try not to feel defeated in the process.

Why did I digress and add such a personal note, I don't know. But I'll leave it in for the moment.

As I look out over the backyard, the sun shining through the trees across the white snow. The rolling smoothness of white, the slumps of snow still on the shielded branches. No movement except the slight swaying of branches at the top. The shadows are fixed, the sky is blue.

I just opened up another internet explorer window and do a Google search on running in real cold weather. I think I need to try this, clear my head and then my list and week will have more clarity than it does now.

“Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road. “

I haven't updated my reading list in quite a while. I continue to rack up the audio-books and podcasts on my daily commute as well as the supply from the library but often just forget to add them here and right now I am just not in the mood.

My reading can be somewhat eclectic and I wonder sometimes what impressions it gives off. Not that I will change my choices based on someone's opinion but it also makes me think of my non- verbal responses and impression to what someone else is reading.

Over the summer I was re-reading the last Harry Potter book in anticipation of the movie coming out in the fall. I had it with me at the beach when I accompanied my son fishing and got this confused look from a guy my age who, while curious about what I was reading, but wasn't sure how to respond to what I was. It was more confused than anything and I found that fascinating.

I just finished up an autobiography by Benjamin Franklin and a hardcover book on the designs and building of bridges. I have a book of CS Lewis stories that I am going to start and a book on the Evangelism subculture in America and I am also listening to the Diana Chronicles (yes the royal one) in the car. Sprinkled with a couple of podcasts on the last emperor of Ethiopia and the Origin of Money, and several round it out. Surely the Diana book, by Tina Brown, is light and gives my mind a break and and the others take a little more brain power. Perhaps I am tarnishing my "Man Card" by some of these, as I expect was the case with the Harry Potter book, but I find the poltics and human dynamics facinating and with Harry Potter, its a well written story .

I guess I would continue to confuse some who observeand who have the time to peg people in categories.......but I am someone you'd want on your team in a trivia game.

So, following up on my last post, I grabbed the skis, spent way too long figuring out the various layers of clothing to take and put on (I am out of practice) and headed (literally) for the hills and the woods.

Arriving at the state forest just as a hundred or so high schoolers were leaving after a classical x-c ski meet, the trails were ready with lots of new snow.



Hesitation has been in my skiing as of late. I knew as I approached the trails that struggles over the weeks before would show up in some tentativeness in skiing. More tentative about the downhills, feeling like I am loosing my balance more on the sharp quick declines.It is a balancing medium after all and requires relaxation in the muscles, which I didn't have. Enter more self doubt. Does this come with age or lack of practice.

But I am more inclined to think practice, since I can control that. So I decided that hills were what I needed - up then down then up then down. Up the steeper ones and then down. Adjusting my crouch, using my poles, stepping with my skis to compensate for for the bumps and twists of the trails.


The forest is higher up which makes it ideal snow conditions and hills and for this dopler weather ball.
Somehow this picture and the next don't show the length and angle of these down run. I will say that it takes longer to go up than it does to go down.



Finally, this was my only accidental picture, the face plant of a downhill. Oh well, but it was first and the last and came only after I'd been at it for a a few hours or so and getting more daring on a long steep decline.

Fortunately the trail was empty except for me, though I am not so confident that the expletives I was loudly using didn't escape the stillness of the woods.


So as we prepare for more snow. Perhaps there will be more skiing in my immediate future.

If I were to have to describe myself in a couple of words guess it would be that I am an optimistic spirit.

When I feel down or up against it I may hit the wall hard and hurt but there always has seemed to be a glimmer of resiliency that continues to glow. It may be just an ember however dim and it may take me a while to find it or believe it is there, but it is still; there an opportunity; or is it a piece of hope?

I often see that ember in others even though they may not see it at all and at times I have been able to help them stoke it and help them see it and grow with it.

With age I guess one of the most significant life lessons I have learned is that, at least in me that ember has been there. Even when I totally doubted it and saw no hope, it was there and it has allowed me to readjust course course, expand my horizons in all sorts of ways and to ultimately come back more than once from a heap after a "crash".

So why the morose yet optimistic post?

Part of this feeling of hope is also that other people, if they want to, can change. Working as a manager I have worked with people that many people had written off. Listened to them, nurtured and coached them and seen them bloom in a new way that they and their critics couldn't have imagined. It hasn't worked with everyone and I have been stung, but it has successfully happened more than a half dozen times. Yet sometimes there are a group of detractors who don't want to see that image change, say they believe that people can change but continue to critiques through that old warped lens. I find that hard and I am dealing with that with a couple of people now that I am working with them, while their critics refuse to hit the "refresh button".


I also find that I lately have so much more doubt in myself. I know that the resilience is there and I will continue to remake myself but I question so much.


There have been situations when I feel like a dump truck of snow has dumped on me and the instructions are to find the shovel and dig out. I am weary because of my pushing for plans to "plant shovels" along the way for such an event, went unlistened to brushed off. I am angry because the result is that as I am forced to deal with situations, I must turn down opportunities that nurture the soul and potentially stoke the embers of parts of me that needs it.

I know the analogy is a little obscure for me to expect anyone to get. So this post is about thinking and processing out loud. Remembering that life can change in a moment and opportunities can present themselves at any time.

People also know that I tend to have an optimistic outlook and take naturally to the cheerleader / coach role that it throws them when I feel buried. This is one of those times I wish I had a "me" to coach me.

The snow continues to fall and I sit mulling over whether to grab the skis and head for the forest. Perhaps that is exactly what I need at this moment.

IT'S COLD, BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR..................

Solid fluff easily up to my knee and just overnight.

It was enough to grind most things to a halt, which is very unusual these days. I can't recall when I last had a declared snow day from work and not a delayed opening or taking it off by my choice. It was nice.

I brought some work home just in case and could have easily logged into my virtual desktop at work but it never happened. A little fried from a coupe days of intense trainings and volunteer meetings, it was a welcome respite. Even better, the kids were home to do the plowing and shoveling and my youngest very eager to do it.



So I just chilled, walked around for a bit in my new snowshoes and found that it was too fluffy for them and retreated inside to do some volunteer emails and writing and not much more.



Everyone should get an occasional snow day!

Pick it up?

A couple times a week, when I stop for gas on the way into work, I'll also grab a coffee for the commute. Standing in line yesterday, which was more like a cluster header forward than a line, a person ahead the digs in to his pocket for money and some change drops out. He looks down, sees that it is a couple of pennies and walks away and up to the counter.


I've seen this scene play out over and over. There seems to be this quick mental calculation of value of what has dropped versus the "expense" of bending over and picking it up. This person clearly saw what had dropped and had time to visit with the cashier, so he wasn't rushed.

Me, well I watch this play out and follow behind and in just about one bending swoop movement pick up the coins and drop them in my pocket.

I find this idea of calculating whether an action is "worth it" fascinating. My Dad, who was a child in the depression and had to quit school to go to work to support his family, always picked up change. We use to chuckle as he passed a pay phone and notoriously checked the change slot for something left behind. While I don't go out of my way to check coin slots, I am observant and have no problem bending down to pick up some fallen change that has seemed to insignificant to many who pass it. It's not that I need the change on the floor or the deposit from the can to get by. It's more just a question of not going out of the way to waste.

Throwing things away is too easy and that can include money.

In my world, I make observations as we all do and while I know they are not necessarily a trend, they seem to be a pattern. There are people who tend to waste more than others and that behavior is not routed in just a single action.

What is the value at which someone will plug in and acknowledge that a simple act it is worth their action?

I know someone who over 8 months put any loose change he found on the street in a jar and at the end counted up almost $30. I think most of us would bend over to pick up a 20 and a 10 if it were loose on the street. I was at a casual church event recently that served soda in cans and rather than put the finished cans aside or throw them in the numerous blue recycle cans around they were thrown in the trash. I grabbed a plastic bag at the end and quickly collected 25 cans that I easily took the next time I went to the store and donated the cash. I not only reduced what was going to be trashed, I also got to give some money to a good cause that can use it.

Yes, I am an avid recycler and have no problem packing a soda can in my bag to bring home to cash in for the deposits later or collecting plastic water bottles at game to toss in the recycle bins. I have been told by at least one person that they felt "shamed" because I'll make a point of picking up recyclables at an event and their instinct is to just toss the stuff and be done with it or they think its weird that I'll stop to pick up a coin. My actions made them feel guilty at home when they threw these things in the trash.

As I do this quietly and never call someone else on it and don't get carried away, I really consider it their problem. I figure that if my actions make them think twice about tossing out something that with no additional effort can be recycled or walking by a coin that they could donate or use........o well.

The Christmas / New Years holidays are usually fun but sometimes filled with overload, especially as the family dynamics change with age and distance and schedules.

Since we try to take a good amount of time off, there is the ramp up required to prepare both work and home to be ready. It can get a bit tense and in the days before Christmas I saw that certain look in the eyes of several people I know, and the look was not one of rest and total joy. Even if you don't buy into the commercial chaos there just seems so much to do. Of course I don't know many people who are calm and pleasant getting ready for a vacation alone let alone adding to it company, and visiting and special meals and gifts.


So this year was a mixed bag. Lots of fun with the family, but limited time off for me due to coverage and limited time when the family was all together and not traveling or with one foot out the door to do something.

Over Christmas we live in the area of the east that got 15-18 inches of snow. With plans to travel out of the area the day after Christmas and this storm predicted, our response was interesting. Watching the progress as the storm formed, this was really the only clear days (calendar wise) to travel, and as Christmas day approached and it was clear that it was coming in the next day, we launched off quickly and watched the progress from afar knowing that we may be coming back into a mess. But we've dealt with messes in the past and what is a few feet of snow. It all went well and the most difficult part, and that wasn't that bad, was coming back to a plowed street but 18 inches in the driveway and probably 2 feet near the road. With one pilot manning the car the rest of us bounded out, grabbed the shovels, fired up the snow blower and in a half hour we were all dug our and unpacked.

In the few more days I was off there was time for an afternoon of cross-country skiing and a few short runs to add to the workout log before the end of the year. Then back to work for a couple of days before New Years.

A very quiet New Years eve, except for taxiing a bit, and a quieted New Years Day. (too quiet)

I got to try out a few new recipes over the weekend, which is fun because I love to cook.
For New Years day I made Remi's Ratatouli.

The recipe is based off the dish in the movie Ratatouli and very different from ratatoulies I have made in the past that were more like stews. My biggest challenge was that it needed a short oval baking dish to be able to place the vegetables in a concentric shape. This was the best we had so the edges were not as round. The taste was wonderful served over basmati rice. No leftovers on this one.

Figuring out dinner for tonight as I type and as I look at the clock it is time again to become the taxi drive and do a kid pickup.

A happy, healthy prosperous and meaningful 2011 to all who venture on this page.

It is the night before Christmas and it is quiet in the house. Just finished up a good meal of a new tortilla soup recipe and as I was the cook, everyone else cleaned up the dishes and kitchen. The shopping is done and most of the wrapping is done and everyone is settled into their various activities until we gather for Rudolph or is it Mr. Magoo's Christmas (real heavy stuff).

A sign of the kids getting older is that we'll go to church for the 11PM caroling and service rather than the 5:00 family service we've gone to for years and years. Christmas eve takes on a different feel. Sounds of carols in the other room a strumming of a guitar in another; the closing of a door to shield the eyes of another gift to be wrapped. The pellet stove busily pumps out heat that wafts around the corners and up the stairs.

It is a white Christmas, it's been white for weeks. Perhaps there will be a bit more and the fierce cold will make sure it stays. I am on day 2 of vacation and decelerating well. I was in the grocery store today and the bagger commented on the range of emotions they see, the register was acting up and he was thankful that I was in a cheerful state and not yelling at them, as I guess has been the case. The days around Christmas are either overload then wipe out. Fortunately for us it has been busy but resisting the movement to crazy. I guess a couple good runs in this week have helped as well.

I am blessed in many many ways by family and friends (both in person and those I have only met on-line) and by an the abundance of much.

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Check out this wonderful video

The look of "very cold"

Here in the hills there can be a very distinct look of "very cold", especially in the early morning. Without looking at the thermometer or stepping outside you can get a sense if it is really cold by the look of the clouds, the air, the trees. Unfortunately it doesn't translate well into pictures, at least with my point and shoot.

Out yesterday morning at 7 for a quick 4 mile run, the haze was over the ridgeline, looking hard and not really moving. So unlike the wafting mist in the summer or low clouds of the spring.....still as if frozen in place. It was 15 degrees out and while sunny, the rays didn't seem to do much.

The sky was a powder blue with a certain fuzziness to the clouds. The branches of the trees along the ridge and up the road seemed more vividly clear and distinct. It wasn't until I got up close that I could see the frozen water vapor that encased them with this ever so thin layer that is so unlike ice after a storm. Like an artist's pencil, each one was highlighted and edges sharpened, they seemed to jump out of the scenery.

The smoke coming out of the chimneys moved slowly and stiffly. Straight up in columns like contained in a frozen tube. Not many swirls.

The light snow covering seemed hard on the grass, as if would crunch if I stepped off the path.

The world seemed more contained, more condensed and with a clearness that was precise on that crisp December morn.

If there was questioned whether winter was here, even though the official date has not arrived, the wave of cold easily dispels that. Add to that this thin layer of snow that seems to be added to every night to accommodate what may have melted in the sunlight of the day. It is somewhat like a holding pattern......

though when I travel out of the hills and into the valley, and someone causes me to notice, these is no snow, there it is just cold. The cold that radiates from the walls of my brick office, that hovers on the inside of the big glass windows not sure what to do with itself. The bright sun outside and looks so warm, but then the trips down the unheated stairwells jolts you back into reality.

It seems like the time is not sure whether to speed up or slow down. The cold says slow down, get warm, the approaching the time between Christmas and New Years, says the same and but then it doesn't. The prep for Christmas and wind down of everything that is nearing an end or break, seems to say opposites: school finals, end of the calendar year rush, work projects that are launched to be picked up full swing in January and of course the Christmas rush and swarms.

I have only ventured to the mall once so far and larger stores a few more times, so my perspective on how crazy things really are, is not there. Though I sense it is much crazier than I think. But that is OK, because if I can keep it at bay I will.

I figured out what was happening with the fuel of the pellet stove, so it is firing away as full force, trying to push back the cold and I am no longer concerned that I have 3 tons of defective pellets to struggle with. There is a mouse(is there ever just one?) in the garage, (I say that quietly so that no alarm is raised) hiding amongst the pellets and hoping for scraps of bird seed. I'll decide what to do about that in a while. Living up against the woods it is inevitable and as long as they are outside, it is ok for now.

The Christmas tree is up, harvested from one our local tree farms on an excursion last weekend. The lights are on and soon will come the trimmings and the raising of the little town below. My eldest will be back from college soon and I will be on vacation after working a few days next week. Things are ok and that is fine with me.

Cleaning out the pellet stove today, I grabbed the vacuum to suck up some leftover ashes when I smelt something odd. Smoke was coming from the vacuum and on closer examination, the bag. A stray spark had hidden itself and was sucked in and enjoying the feast of the paper bag. Dumping it out in the snow, it refuses to go out (this thing is only 6 inches long) so I just leave it to do its thing as I go back to doing mine.

I have been fighting with the stove for weeks, it not adjusting well to the new stock of pellets and me continuing to adjust it and dump it out with success seeming to be farther and farther away. So this final event pretty much sums up the experience and for that much my week. Stove fighting pellets, pellets fighting stove, me fighting pellets and stove, staff fighting staff (figuratively) and eventually me......It went on and on.

So now, as I get ready to pack up to leave to chaperone a teen group sleepover ................................................

Sounds

I have read that people with limited vision can experience a greater sensitivity to the sounds around them. I remember that the theory behind it was that the brain and consciousness is focused on other senses when it isn't bombarded visually.

When I run at 5:30 in the morning it is usually dark. As I have written before, there are a few streets and most of them are on the dim side, compared with some residential streets lights I saw a few weekends back when we traveled to another state, that seem to turn night into day.

I have found that I hear sounds more distinctly at that time. Some of that may be the darkness that forces my other senses and because my safety can depend on that awareness; and some of it may be that it is just quieter at that time of day.

Some of the things I hear I don't really care about seeing, I just take it in and move on. I hear the movement of the rabbits in the brush, the trickling sound of water running in a small stream by the side of the road (hidden from sight in thick brush); the sound of the metal pieces on a flag pole gently chiming as they hit the metal pole in the breeze. Sometimes when it begins to snow I can hear the flakes hit the ground.

Running through town that early, there are the sounds and smells of the city that seem out of place in this little town. The sound of the trash truck several blocks away and the sound and whiff of diesel of the delivery trucks at the back of the small shops and cafes brings me back to being in London 20+ years ago and hearing these sound in the early mornings outside the windows. A fond memory whenever it is triggered.

This morning while it was in the 20s there was the sound of a stiff frozen leaf clinging to a branch and clicking in the wind; the different sound of my sneakers on the cold pavement and the crusty pieces of ground pushed up by the frost but not cold enough to freeze. My shoes made an unusual slapping noise as they hit the pavement and my feet could feel that there wasn't the usual give in the material. All very subtle sounds or changes in what is the usual.

I know the sound of running on snow is coming....but that can wait a while while I am still acclimating to the changes from just the cold.

The wind was fierce and rain even fiercer........that was the way it was yesterday. The water pelting against the windows like the spray from the ocean. Umbrellas were useless except for that fleeting moment until the wind kicked up and turned it inside out. Dashing to the car, being soaked takes on a new meaning as the drops cascade into my lap and the handful of napkins takes care of only the top layer of water.

How many times did I chase the lid off the trash can, wishing the trash guys wouldn't be late. First it blows up the street, then repositioning it, it blows down the street. Then it's the recycling bids filled to the rim with light plastic. Not anymore, its all over the yard. The plastic fruit container flies like a Frisbee. At least it wasn't paper week, that would really be a mess.

The wind howls, the temperature drops and then by morning it is all done and gone. A little glaze from the rain but even the wet on the street didn't have a chance against the wind and mostly it is dry.

Tree branches on the roof and in the Christmas lights, but all is well all is calm and I thank my luck stars it wasn't all snow.

The morning is cold, the dawn with its reddish casts......night yielding to day. By now the sky is bright though the clouds mask the sun. A day that seems so much like the look and feel of so many Thanksgiving days gone by.

I am thankful for many many things but I am especially thankful for awareness.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

I am searching through a new awareness and am curious where it will bring me. Some of the time that I am trying to carve is in exploring art. In this form it is more random. Loosing myself in the process and working with the paper and fabric and trying not to think too much about what I am creating as much as letting it create itself.

Sometimes its ok to say no

What will they all think if I say I don't want to do it? Am I letting them down? Can someone else do it as good as I did? If I say no this time then no one will ask again and I miss it? I have put so much time in effort in organizing this and getting it going and now I am going to drop back?

Sound familiar?

I have already written about how I can sometimes get over committed then get tired, irritable (at myself) , resentful .......all sorts of bad shit.

Well I am getting more comfortable with saying no.

I am learning that, sometimes when I say no because I have a lot going on or want a break , that the response I get is, " I completely understand, you have done much and do much in other areas. No problem. Someone else will have to step up"

Am I letting them down? Usually not, because I am still willing to help out in the crunch and I am not saying no to everything. Just don't take me for granted.

Can someone else do it as good as I did? Maybe, maybe not. I am someone who can pull something together quickly and am a good negotiator with people and maybe it won't be done the same way. Maybe it will be done better and quite honestly maybe no one will notice the difference.

If I say no this time then no one will ask again and I miss it? True, but nothing is forever and if I want to get in the throw of things I could probably work my way back in.

I have put so much time in effort in organizing this and getting it going and now I am going to drop back?

My controlling instinct at work here. You can't complain about being tired and fried and over committed yet not turn something over after your organized it. Much better to step back on a high note.

The past few weeks I have backed away from some time consuming commitments. Not completely in some cases but handed off the mantle of leading. While those pang of guilt were there, I am ok with it and have worked my way down my list of questions above. I have also made room to do some art and perhaps add something totally different that feeds the soul and renews.

The sleeping giant

I can see how native Americans and many people who live off the land, can feel a presence, a personality.

The woods and forests have a feel about them but to me it is more collective of all that lives there. You are in it and you don't really get a sense of it all. When you are at the ocean or in the mountains or where there are vast fields, there are times when the light and the sounds are right for that presence to reveal itself.

I went for a late afternoon run yesterday. Able to get home a little early, the sun was quickly setting but I'd been on tight schedules and couped up in offices for days and had a strong motivation to get out.

Being close to dark, the light seemed to be fading as I dressed in the layers but there was still some light around the horizons in several directions. Choosing a 3 mile loop that passes many fields and runs parallel to the ridge line that is often my morning route

It has only a few street lights and there were a few cars at that time and it was still that dark just before night. As I reached the ridge line, the light was behind the hills and the shadows were softened the curves of the terrain.

The individual trees were no longer visible and the curves, highlighted by the backlight looked like a giant reclining for the night. The air was quiet and the wind still and the moon not yet up and I could sense his gentle breaths. My imagination could see this giant sitting up and turning to the side to see me, but instead he lay still. I let those thoughts go, not wanting to scare the crap out of me when I still had a few miles to go.

The image didn't stay long, about five minutes or so to cover the half mile stretch, and then I was into the trees. When I returned on the backloop the lighting was no longer the same and it just looked dark. The giant had either fallen asleep or left for something to eat.

I ran the same route this morning and the feel was not there. The trees and fields were bright and the sounds so very different.

The giant was disguised in the trees that went on for miles and miles only to return again when the light and sounds are just right.

Sometimes life can be a blur as it is in this picture. But the sight of a snow covering on November 1st as I am traversing the hills to work warranted a picture, even if it was taken at 70mph.

If there was ever a question of whether it is really fall, then the repeated nights below freezing and this snow covering end all doubt.

I have just started raking the leaves as most of them seem to be down. But with over an acre it takes a while to do this by hand and many trips with the tarp into the woods. I do feel good repositioning the from the yard to the woods. It seems much more sense than the dozens of bags that friends need to fill up and have them carted away.

I only hope that the snow stays away until I can finish.

Yesterday morning, it's 5:30AM and totally dark and raining. I am in the mood somewhat for a run as it has been several days but it is dark and raining. I have run a little in the rain but usually its when I am just about home. Though I know people who think it is great.

Fortunately I just upgraded my running shoes as when I counted up the miles on my log I'd run well over 600 miles on this pair and even though they looked great there has to be some wear in the support. But I kept them for days like this.

Stepping outside its wonderfully warm (70s) and the rain was a mist, so I take a leap and take off. It was harder with the darkness and the wet leaves and avoiding the streams of water and focusing on the step. As I went along the rain also picked up so as I got into town (the 2 mile mark) it was mild but steady. As I headed home it picked up heavier so that the value of my shirt was only to wipe the rain out of my eyes and wrap around the phone to keep dry.

The feeling was great. Like running through a warm shower and the feeling of sweating in the rain an interesting one. I am hooked.

It's been a full moon the past week. Big and bright and it rises over the ridge to the east and gradually settles into and crosses the sky in the night. Often it has set by the time I get up, leaving the predawn sky bright with stars.

It is also getting cold. The pellet stove on just about every night now and I have started my seasonal ritual of hoisting a 40 bag and hauling it into the house before picking up my book and usually nodding out. Fortunately I get a couple of hours of audio reading during my daily commute to keep the book list under control, but the act of picking up a book at 9:30 having been up a close to 5 in the morning usually isn't a good combination for anything other than a nod-off.

I am in the process of downloading a book "13 things (in science) that don't make sense" and this along with a half a dozen of so podcasts will keep me plugged in to the reading world, at least audio wise, for the next week.

I have been somewhat delinquent in the blog, email social media area. Electronic media can be great, but at least for me, it can be too much at times and while the information comes in, I am sometimes so bombarded that I can't get it out. That is especially true when work issues weigh and even lunch and early morning is consumed by issues and thoughts. Of course I don't do my self any favors by having 6 email accounts and facebook and this blog. All of which I can easily juggle at certain times. I have been festering over a career decision the past couple weeks. At first I wrote the word struggle, but then determined that the activity was not active enough to be considered that. But it weighs and it will be a matter of a decision or a decision by means of inaction, which seems to be the direction it is going.

I am also juggling the question of "volunteer involvement" which I know I am not alone. Sometimes it seems that so many want just a piece of you that it can consume the pieces that are left. Then I feel resentful and even more buried.

So I have been more an more active about saying "no" or defining very clearly how much I can reasonably do and then I have to work on the internal guilt.

Well in the theme of dash and run, I hit the post button and clamor to get dressed and dash for another day.

my morning meditation

It has become a pattern that my time for running is between 5:40AM and 6:20AM usually 4-5 times a week. This gives me almost enough time to somewhat wake up,sipping coffee in the dark gazing out the window at the black sky and brilliant stars. As I start to stretch my legs I work to convince myself to go the next step of getting on the gear and head out.

It is amazing how much of this is done in darkness permeated by only LED lights of the couple of clocks in the kitchen and the very limited minimal light from outside. If I need to I'll open the refrigerator door to get enough light to find something in the room, but that's about it. I have always had good night vision, and this make the transition less jarring.


Out in the driveway and up our street the only light is the one streetlight a down a few houses away so occasionally I do need to click on the cell phone to shoot out a slight beam as a guide and cut the shadows that are in front of me. I assume that the noises I make scares away any animals in the vicinity and I use to be more concerned than I am now.

What always strikes me is the quiet and the total darkness of the sky (at least this week). Even when the moon is out (unless it is full) it may provide some light but doesn't block the darkness and the stars above. A few lights are on in the houses as I pass, the early risers in the neighborhood.

Leaving my street and down the big hill, the canopy of trees makes it darker, so that I move to the middle. The streetlights are dim and don't seem to pierce the darkness of the street. My red flashers attached to my hips reflect off the edges of the road. There is so little traffic that running in the road is preferable with its level surface and lack of obstacles. Rounding the corner at the bottom I start the long upward grade.

Each morning I pass a guy standing in his driveway waiting for a ride to work. I am in the light of the dim street light and he in the shadows under the trees. I sometimes see the glow of his cigarette a short distance before and as I pass we exchange warm greetings of the morning. I would never recognize him in the daylight nor do I expect he would recognize me, but here we are two souls in the dark early morning. Occasionally a car will come a the light is so blinding that I have to drop to a walk to return to the side walk, then back in the road as they pass but mostly it is just me.

At the top of this half mile hill I am walking for a stretch as I approach the highway. Rarely having to wait before dashing across and I am again in the dimly lit darkness on the road into town. A few more houses with light on and those are usually bathrooms and the occasional blue gray glow of a television inside. Occasionally the newspaper deliverer is on his his route, weaving from side to side and cutting in and out of side streets. Annoying because, while I am sure he sees me, his movements are unpredictable and in the dark that does not bring comfort.

Coming up the final grade into town and crossing the brick pavers, it is so absent of tourists. The stores are dark, the offices still and the antique reproduction street lights give off more than enough light. What will be teeming with life in an hour or so is pretty dead and as I round the block past the town hall and library, under more trees I approach my half way point. At 6AM the chimes on the white church on the hill chime and there is someone starting to open the small market. I see them making coffee and bringing in the stacks of newspapers and if they are out side I always say hi. The door to the bagel shop is open and smell of dough waft in the air.

Down "restaurant row" the table and chairs on the decks sit idle and empty, though one of the is always lit up brightly and i can sometimes see the morning cleaning crew repairing the wear of the night before.

Then heading back, the uphill grade gets reversed and it is a quicker return. The light is starting to change over the trees and the ridge lines. Still not much activity and life but there soon will be. The man waiting for his ride is always gone when I return as I pass his spot and make the turn up the final steep hill, hoping and pushing to make it as close to the top before walking to my street and a cool-down walk home.

It is still dark and quiet, occassionally a neighbor is out walking the dog or walking the hill. They are starting as I am finishing.

I come back inside and keep the lights off, stretching and cooling down it keep the calm of the early day.

Over these years I have learned to be much better about speaking my mind to the wrong people and about putting both feet in the mouth at once. Can't say it has always been that way and I have sometimes hard to learn a hard lesson about confidences and restraint in acting out of anger. Like toothpaste out of the tube, its near impossible to get back in.

But before you go thinking I have done something, I haven't. My reflections are of a period quite a while ago and my personal journey toward diplomacy.

I had a birthday last week. Not uncommon, we all seem to have one if we are lucky enough to be alive. I often don't do well with birthdays, they remind me of the past, about time and opportunities that have passed, they remind me of people no longer here and people no longer in my life. I also just don't feel comfortable with the fuss, though it is not that I dislike it. It fact, to the probable surprise of most I actually like it. (Go figure) I can be a rather unpleasant person (though not overtly) in my wallowing reflections and I am unfortunately one of those people who is useless when it comes to thinking up ideas for gifts. I feel rather blessed that I do not want for much and that my needs are relatively modest. The things that I think I want can't be packaged.

My best birthdays are usually when I am distracted doing something for someone else or involved in a family activity.



This past birthday was not without its reflections and I am still in that valley (mostly now because of thoughts related to work and career), but the actual day was pretty good.

Starting off with a good 4 mile run, something I couldn't do 10 years ago and then function for the rest of the day; then volunteering at a church cleaning / maintenance day. Hauling trash and changing ceiling tiles and cleaning light fixtures pumps the blood through that upper body movement and the accomplishment can be seen immediately. Then off to half time show to watch my youngest and her band mates march and play followed by dinner out with most of the family (sans the one who is away at college, :-( , though I got to talk with him that night :-) and of course cake and presents.

By mid day my mood was up quite a bit and my reflections were much more of being grateful what what I had and the experiences and people that enabled me to do what I did that day.


"Perhaps he knew , as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road....." A good quote. Perhaps I shall write about it someday.

Fall is here, the leaves are changing color.

While colorful, it is so dry that the leaves turn yellow then brown and drop off. The grasses are turning red in the fields.

It is always pleasant to have warm and sunny days, except when the absence of any significance rain dries things out.

I recall thinking when the most recent hurricane. whats its name, was coming up the coast that we would get a good soaking and the trees would receive one of those natural prunings that happens whenever then is a strong prolonged wind. But in the end all we got was a little extra windiness.



The levels in the local lakes are low and fortunately tourist season is over so the heavy demand for water is gone for a while. This morning it is darker than usual, the clouds heavier and predictions of rain the next few days.

That should quench the thirst a little for the plants but as the patterns repeat themselves, the rain and winds will knock down many of the weaker brown leaves. The pattern of fall returns.


This past weekend was the Apple Squeeze in town. A big event that draws out many locals who have yielded the town to tourists over the summer. In the neighboring town of Lee it was Founders Day that ends with a Latino Festival. I don't think I have ever been to Founders Day but the Latino Fesitival is always a great opportunity to sample some good food from Central and South America.

I took a 6 1/2 mile run on Saturday through a state forest nearby. The road is goes from paved to packed dirt to rocks and pebbles and is alot of up and down as it follows the river below the ridge line. I took a few pictures with my phone but trying to upload them first to facebook and then to the blog is often a challenge and so far I haven't been successful with this batch. The fungus on the dead trees were this floresent yellow and very cool.

It was great to be out but I realized that many people would be spooked to be in what seems like such a desolate area, though there was an occassional car parked near an outlet to the river. Except for the random voice on the river, it was totally quiet and I was very concious of what was around me. One of those times when your imagination can get a hold of you and one of the reasons I alway run with a charged cell phone.

Came into work today and a great big tree outside my office is lying on the ground cut into chunks. I love trees and this one gave great shade and lots of bird and squirrel activity but looking at it on its side I can see that it was mostly hollow, but still I will miss it.

The day just didn't seem right after that.

Supermarket voices

I started writing this on a 2'' by 4'' Ipod screen, which can be tough because the miniature keyboard in much smaller than my finger and this screen is full size when I work on the desktop. But it has the distinct advantage that I can be lying on the couch with my feet up and still key in the text as long as I am within range of the wireless. Uploading photos is tough so I will have to wait until I am back on the desktop......which happens to be now only a week or so later.

The photo here has nothing really to do with what I thought I'd write about but I am sure I can make a connection. Its the latest pickings from our miniature garden. But it is food and I was struck by something the last couple of times I was at Stop & Shop and I wanted a picture. Now I should say I have nothing against Stop & Shop, though I prefer to smaller stores if I can. Not real small but slightly smaller. They are just easier to maneuver around and get in and get out. But again I digress off the subject. The smaller stores actually have people to scan your food even if they don't bag it.


What I noticed the last few times at Stop & Shop was that the voice had changed on the auto check-out. I usually try to sneak up on it and scan in my card before the sensor notices I am there and the voice asked me and thanks me for my card at the same time, almost jumbling the words. Just the same as when you quickly scan things in and it can't keep up. Hey, so I get small pleasures out of confusing machines.

What struck me this time was that the voice was no longer the slow paced monotone using longer vowels, it was quick, concise and a little clip and almost fast enough to keep up. The slow voice had been fired.

Perhaps the slow voice was causing people to scan slower and they focus group tested that they could get us to do what used to be "their job" of scanning, even quicker and move the line along.

It struck me as how very different it sounded and though I use to make fun of it, I missed the voice that was gone.

So are they going to speed up the conveyor belt to get things to pile up quicker at the end and get us moving even quicker? Perhaps the voice could be programed to encourage us to pack things quicker and move on......not.

The other voice is the one that pages people for phone calls or announces that deli orders are ready for pickup. I always thought I was the only person who did a mock salute whenever General Merchandise was paged. That is until someone I work with joked about doing the same thing, first with his kids and now as just a joke. I was amazed.

I didn't ask him if he also sang along with or danced with the music or mocked some of the other pages. I didn't want to risk coming off as too strange, though I have written here about another friend who also does just that and it gives me hope that there really people out there who find strange humor at the supermarket.

I have been pushing around several topics for a post but none seem to be making it past the draft stage. Coming back from vacation is always a challenge and it comes with the change in the seasons as well.

Labor Day has landed and so has the clear transition to fall. The past few weeks the light has been looking different, more defused, more yellow against the green. The chill of fall is also in the air with it dropping to 40 last night and being in the 50s.




The 4 tons of wood pellets for the season have arrived and a couple of tons are loaded into the garage to be closer for my dreaded 11PM trips to refill the stove for the night. I inevitably get dosy and perhaps fall asleep before remembering to stock up the stove so the short trip to the pellet stacks and hoisting the 40 pound bag into the house becomes an annoyance out of proportion to reality.

With the remaining 2 tons waiting outside until sometime in January when they will take their place on the inside pile.




I am killing time this morning. With a house full of teenage girls for a birthday sleepover, no one is stirring and the challenge is to maneuver around without making noise, and I've been awake for a few hours. They went to sleep who knows when. We discovered ground hornets in the front yard yesterday when my daughter was moving the lawn in preparation for games later on. A hole the size of a golf ball, a tunnel to the nest below. Now I don't really mind bugs, except carpenter ants and mosquitoes that is, and don't like using heavy doses of insecticide. So how do I get these things to relocate their nest so that we don't get stung just going about our business. Just move the hole into the garden where its is out of the way, its only 3 feet away and I am sure a tunnel could be dug quite nicely.


So at first I try water to flush them out, then a little soap along with it. Seemed to discourage them but this morning the swarm is bigger than ever and I look at the more real options of tossing gravel in the hole and filling it so that another hole is the only option. So that is what I've done so far and will see if that does it or just pisses them off even more to the point where they are swarming the yard. The gravel seems to be working a bit, though they are quite annoyed.

I'll just leave them to themselves for now and find some other chore to distract me.

It seems to me that our annual family vacation to Cape Cod gets shorter and shorter as the years go by. We look forward to it all for a year and puff it is gone. They definitely are shorter than the week+ that we would spend when the kids were little. Now it is 3-4 days squeezed in between the end of the kids summer jobs and school and that includes the 4-5 hours of travel which really chops it down to just 2 days there.


And this year it rained........and rained..........and rained. From the point that we left the garage here to the the time we crossed the bridge off the cape, it rained. It slowed some so that we could walk a bit on the beach and could catch a quick picnic with sandwiches from our favorite deli, but the rest was pretty much a wash out

Puddles and rain drops seem to be the norm and on a shopping trip to Christmas Tree shops I replaced all the umbrellas with new one, so that we could stay moderately dry.


But it was, as usual, fun to be away with the family. From "singing in the rain" as we trotted down the lanes in Provincetown twirling our umbrellas or joining in on a chorus of, "the sun will come out tomorrow" with strangers in the streets and word games while waiting, board games in the evening and just ordinary fun. That is what family is about.

We had the chance to connect with new friends and long time friends but not enough to connect with others, and we caught a mid day movie. For me there was little opportunity for a short run in the rain along a flat trail, as the early riser in the pack. What a change to not deal with hills.

Not much time at the beach other than a couple of short walks. The chance to take some pictures including this family photo. ;-)


I still have some more vacation time at home, for starting the fall chores and just chillin' a bit and more family adventures in between getting ready for school next week.