A snowy holiday interlude...

It snowed yesterday. It was the first snow of the season and it was beautiful! This snow was particularly enjoyable for a couple of different reasons. The Rock was home on vacation so he didn’t have to travel in it and he “didn’t have to shovel it himself.” That certainly added to his enjoyment. Watching the big fluffy flakes quietly falling was enormously entertaining and we had our noses glued to the windows like Ralphie and Randy and the gang when watching the Christmas displays in Higbee’s department store windows in “A Christmas Story.”

We moved to a new apartment recently and we now have a view. I joke and say that we moved to the penthouse since we moved from the first floor to the third floor of our same building, which is only three stories high, hardly the height of a building sporting an actual penthouse. Our new apartment is more spacious and brighter too since it is on the corner with windows on two sides. The back of our building faces a picturesque park-like area with lots of trees and a winding path through it. There are a couple of attractive benches placed strategically and even a small picnic table adorns the woodsy setting. It’s a pretty view and I am loving it.

There was still snow clinging to the tall pine tree branches and covering the lawn today. It was a great start to the holiday season. The only thing missing from the picture was a jaunty red cardinal sitting on a branch to set off the display. I am definitely feeling some holiday spirit starting to bubble up.

The snow has brought something else along with it. Skiing! No, not for us personally, but most certainly for a bunch of other folks… The first snowfall of the season in New Hampshire usually heralds a slew of traffic accidents until everyone gets used to negotiating the slippery stuff again. The newspapers and the radio are full of stories about traffic accidents as people go slip-sliding their way into ditches.

This year is just a bit different from ‘the norm’ though. A good many of the traffic mishaps have involved completely overturned cars. It is reported that a much higher than usual number of vehicles have ended up on their roofs. A state policeman was quoted as saying that people have been going too fast for conditions. I figure they’re probably hurrying off to their favorite mountains for some good skiing before the snow melts or is ‘rained away.’ It would seem that they’re getting in a little extra practice on the way.

Tomorrow it’s “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go...” My mother is once again hosting the annual turkey bacchanal and I suspect the ole brother-in-law has commenced marinating already. The Rock is in the kitchen starting to prepare the required dishes for us to gain entrance and by this time tomorrow we ought to be writhing on the floor close to bursting from all the gluttony that we intend to commit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

She's Coming Back

Sometime after the last blog entry Google took over Blogspot. Switching the account caused a glitch and it was impossible to upload to the ftp server for a long time. No one could figure out what the problem was but it eventually went away by itself. Computer issues seldom resolve themselves but the cyber gods must have finally felt satiated. I am glad it is resolved since I am the one who made the switch. Let's face it guys, screwing up anything on your wife's computer is as big a crime as spilling black ink on the new bedspread.

Foxy Mama also experienced serious computer performance issues earlier this year. Switching from McAfee to Norton resolved a lot of issues the worst of which was an incompatability with her Eudora email program. If you use Eudora you should avoid using McAfee. The problem is discussed on the McAfee website but the only fix would have meant switching to Outlook. So far there have been no issues with Norton.

The system performance improved after the switch but it required a significant increase of RAM to get acceptable performance. Somewhere along the line a new wireless mouse and a new ergonomic keyboard were added. So all the tools are in place and everything is working. The next step it to get Foxy Mama’s fingers dancing across the keyboard to talk about all the things that have happened these months she has been gone.