Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Yes, that’s right, it’s 3 degrees outside. I am not sure I can tell the difference between 10 degrees and 3 degrees, or minus 30 degrees for that matter.
I just got back inside. I had to bring the big garbage can in and adjust the recyclable cans, because the garbage guys knocked one of them over. I sure hope it’s recyclable week.
One reason I hate the cold is because I freeze fast. I have a little problem with not dressing for the weather. I tell myself that I will be out there for just a second and then I go outside. Of course, it’s miserable. I have been doing this all my life. Now, I am trying to dress for the occasion. When I went outside this morning, I got all suited up and wore gloves. I felt good…the only thing that got cold were my fingertips because gloves suck in the cold. When I wear my snowboarding mittens, I am nice and toasty. In mittens, you can make a fist to keep warm. I think dressing warmly will make a big difference in the winter.
It’s supposed to warm up for the rest of the week, starting tomorrow. Because of that, my mother doesn’t have to worry anymore. She knows how much I like to run around in the buff. They have colonies for that kind of person, right?
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
I worked quite a bit today. I shoveled for the first part of the day, but was on the computer for most of the rest. I looked out the window and noticed that it was dark out. That is very depressing. I always get depressed from the Winter dark. It seems like it is starting to get dark the minute I go outside in the morning. I guess that’s from the sun being so low in the sky. Whatever the cause, it bugs me.
I think I do the same thing every year…I get on the computer and look for a website that will tell me when the sun is going to rise and set for the next few months. Actually people, the sun doesn’t rise or set. We are revolving around the sun. Please make no mistake.
Anyway, I found a great website today that tells the sunrise times, the sunset times and what altitude the sun will be in the sky in your state. The site is called, “TimeandDate.com.” I found a bunch of information on New York. Did you know that the sunset time in New York gets later and later in longer intervals every day? I always thought it was about thirty seconds a day after the first day of Winter. Shows how much I know.
So, if you are interested, take a visit to this website to see how long it’s going to take to get out of the Winter rut of darkness.
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
As I mentioned in my previous post, it snowed last night. At about 10PM, I started hearing the sleet hitting the windows. I hate sleet, because it is so difficult to clean up in the morning. It turns into a sheet of semi-ice that’s a pain in the butt to get off the cars.
Anyway, I woke up to a nice layer of fluffy snow. Since it was kind of warm last night, a lot of it stuck to the trees. That always makes for a pretty view. I went out to clean off the cars and everything came off pretty easily. The snow was all melting around me. By the time I got to the mailbox, it was all turning to slush. That’s the kind of snow I don’t mind.
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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Well, we got back from the Red Lion Inn just a few hours ago. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night there. It was a pretty nice little getaway. What was especially nice was actually staying at the inn, at last.
We have been there so many times before for dinner or just stopping by, but never for an actual stay, so that was exciting. After we checked in, we went up to our room on the third floor. There are 101 rooms at the inn, so finding it needed some direction. What caught me immediately after entering the room was the fact that the old inn was showing its age. Let’s just say that things have “settled” over the years. It gives the place its character. I think people like that because the place is always very busy.
Back when I called to make the reservations just a few weeks ago, I asked if the dining room and tavern had dress codes for the nights we would be eating there. The front desk informed me that men didn’t have to wear jackets in the dining room on Christmas Eve, because dinner was for guests only, no outsiders. Also, on Christmas night, I didn’t have to wear a jacket because we were eating in the Tavern and there was no dress code in there. As it turns out, I was supposed to wear a jacket for Christmas dinner, no matter where we were eating. This took me by surprise, because I didn’t bring a jacket.
We got in the car and shot up to “Prime Outlets” in Lee, MA. We went in a few store looking for a sport coat. No one had any…until we saw Brooks Brothers. We went in there to find a bunch of sport coats. I picked one out and bought it on the fly. By the way, I had other (nicer) clothes for dinner, not the ones I was wearing. Whoa, that was close.
So, one of the main reasons we went up to the Red Lion Inn for Christmas was to visit Williamstown, MA. We wanted to check out the town as a potential place to live. We are always doing that. It’s part of me being annoying.
We decided to drive North on Rt.7, through Pittsfield, MA to Rt.9 West and onto Rt.8 North. We drove through Adams, MA and into North Adams, MA. This was a good thing, because I always wanted to visit these towns too. I hear a lot about them while listening to NPR. One big famous thing we saw was Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) (Blog) up in North Adams. We didn’t go in, but we did pass by to grab a few good shots of the place. This one was the best one.
It was a good thing we visited these areas, because we were able to cross them off our list of places to live. I am sure there are a bunch of nice people and some good culture, but it wasn’t for us.
We took Rt.2 West into Williamstown, MA. I have to say, this is a very nice town. Everything was really clean and neat. We drove down Spring Street and around a few roads. I did notice that the whole town was empty. It was Christmas, but we only saw one other person in the whole entire town. This creeped us out a little bit. As we were driving down Rt.7 back into Pittsfield, Laura turned to me and said, “We would really have to like one another to live in that town.” Not that it wasn’t very nice, it just seemed lonely when college wasn’t in session. Take a look at the photos of Spring Street.
There was one last thing I wanted to see on the way back to the inn. It was Pontoosuc Lake. On Google Earth, someone posted a really cool photo of the lake through some pine trees on the south side. There is a little park off Hancock Rd. This is a really pretty lake, so I got a nice shot too.
The Berkshires are a nice backdrop.
We made it back to the inn for another dinner. As usual, it was delicious. I did manage to grab a few nice photos throughout the time we were there. Some of them came out blurry, but others didn’t. Here they are.
At the inn, there is a store called, “Country Curtains.” They have a very nice display in one of the hallways.
This is me sitting in a nice chair near the rear entrance. I thought I looked hot, so I made Laura take a picture.
And that’s it. Overall, it was a very nice vacation.
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Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
I went outside last night to chisel out the cars. They were covered with ice. I got on all my old snowboarding gear…jacket, snowpants, mittens, etc… I was as warm as a bedbug on the floor of an overheating pickup truck.
I started up both cars and let them run for a good long time. I didn’t think I was going to get them uncovered. Then, I saw a little speck of water and I had hope. After a while, I had thawed both cars out completely. I had to use a pick ax to move the cars out of their initial parking spots. I was even sweating a little bit.
Today, I went outside to try to fix up the driveway a bit for the tile dude. He is going to need some space to work out there. He needs to cut some boards and mix some thinset. It should be interesting. I got a nice area cleared out down to the gravel. The sidewalk is still about three inches higher than normal, but I threw some driveway gravel on it for traction. It was pretty warm today, so some of the mess melted. The sun does a good job of hitting the dark gravel and melting whatever is around it. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 45 degrees, so the ice should melt even more.
I tried my old driving back and fourth along the driveway trick. It didn’t work out too well. I almost got stuck once and then the car just drove on top of the ice. That didn’t do too much good.
This afternoon, I had to run out to the store. I backed up all the way to the street. I made the mistake of stopping while half way out into the road. I gave it some gas and felt the car sink into the ice/snow. I had to get out of the car and bolt downstairs for that damn pick ax again. I got the car out quickly, but it would’ve been embarrassing to be “that guy” to the cars driving by. Luckily none did.
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Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Yes, the title says it all. Yesterday, we found out that it was going to snow today. These things are always a bit of a surprise.
On the radio this morning, I heard that all the schools were closed. Then, I heard that the snow was supposed to come at noon, starting with light snow and getting heavier towards tonight. Then, I heard that perhaps it would start snowing at 10AM. Well, it started snowing at 8:30AM and hasn’t even given any sign of letting up.
They are talking 6″-12″. There is already about 3″ out there.
I think one of the most peaceful things to do is to go outside and listen to the snow hit the ground. I used to do that when I was a kid. I would lay down in the wheelbarrow, face up, and get snowed on.
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Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
I took some pretty cool photos this morning of all the ice on the trees. I heard that the midwest got hit hard. We didn’t get hit nearly as hard. Things are icy, but it is actually really nice outside. It is warming up fast, so you can hear all the ice falling from the trees out in the woods. It’s a really neat sound and very beautiful.
I was walking around outside this morning with my coffee. Just what I always wanted. About halfway through my little walk, I realized what I was doing…
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Monday, December 10th, 2007
We woke up this morning to a little bit of ice hugging the tree branches. Not too much in the way of bad roads, but a bunch of schools were closed, none the less. The cars were covered with a coating of ice that could’ve made this morning a real pain in the butt, but we didn’t have to go anywhere until around 10:30AM. It was all melting by that point.
In the late morning, Laura and I had to go move some furniture for a friend. That wasn’t too hard, because the stuff was pretty light. Also, I am quite strong. If you saw me with no shirt, you would know what I am talking about.
I am taking a few days off from the kitchen while the joint compound dries. I feel guilty.
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Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
As I said in the title of this post, hey, it snowed today. This is the most snow we have had all season. I would say it was about an inch.
I was laying in bed this morning, going through (in my mind) what had to be done today. Hmmm…let’s see. Get up, pour a cup of coffee and sit on the couch near the pellet stove. Sounds good to me. I heard Laura put Holly the dog outside. She came back in and told me that Holly was out in the snow. I took a look out the window and sure enough, the snow was falling. I like the early snow. The late snow gets ugly and annoying, but the early snow is nice. I grabbed the camera and took some photos. They really are for your viewing enjoyment. Here, have a gander…
This is the backyard from the bedroom window. Notice the beautiful screened in porch and the not so beautiful redneck meat smoking shed down the hill.
This is Holly the snow dog. Notice how she blends like in like a chameleon. Actually, she is a Norwegian Elkhound. She is very pretty, but she has bad breath, so don’t try to give her a kiss.
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
This is getting pretty bad. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I noticed there was snow on the ground and immediately thought about writing a blog post about it. Yes, I probably should pursue therapy.
In any event, yes, it did snow last night. It was the first snow of the season for us in this part of New York. It actually hasn’t been cold really and there are still leaves on the trees…green ones on some. That strikes me as weird. Laura keeps telling me they are on the trees until after Thanksgiving. It’s nice to have a little brain so closeby.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, there was more snow on the ground. I guess some of it melted. I have to say, the sight of snow does give you a nice feeling. With all the Christmas commercials on TV these days, it is starting to feel like the season. Also, just a word of warning, these are the days that I start dreaming. These are the days of reflection on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I probably think this way because snow calms me down and gives me some breathing room.
We have had the pellet stove burning for most of the month of November and some of October. I am so happy we got this stove. It’s clean and very easy to operate. Gone are the days of splitting wood, dust and a mess in the house. I don’t think I will ever forget all the bark in the living room when I was a kid. I did like burning it though.
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