Aidan kept busy in the snow and sunshine yesterday while the schools reeled with closures...

The end all of snow forts!

Architectural detail.

If I'd known there was a fort in progress earlier in the day I'd have gone over and made lots of snowball ammo for the armory.

I did get out for a walk...

The street looked like this from the entrance to the court.

Shoutout to Marge: I wonder if this will melt by mid-March!

Actually, dump trucks a block away were being filled, one by one, with the snow mounds made with the plows; then, piled into the trucks by a front-end loader. Each time a truck was filled, another pulled up. I think the trucks were two in number rotating between the loader and where they dumped the loads. I didn't discover that location because my walk was shortened by my unwillingness to slog through salted slush that was everywhere but Marge's street. The sidewalks were cleared by residents--sort of. Very slippery. I'm avoiding that after the poor soul was taken to the hospital on Sunday after his fall. I think I'll invest in one of those pointy walking sticks--maybe two!




I'm avoiding going out since the roads are still being cleared. Nothing pressing today. Aidan's school resumed after a late start so no snowball ammo is needed.

The snow predicted to fall until this morning didn't happen. It had mostly stopped by around 7 p.m., or thereabouts. The wind continued; over its sound, I could hear snow plows working on the streets. Eventually, there was moonlight and a pretty dawn and sunrise.

First looks...

Back patio.

Out the front door.

Sun's up.

Koi pond looks like a sink hole in the back. Drifts too high to get back there to check them.

R2D2 nearly hidden again. Good thing I cleared some yesterday, or he'd been covered this morning.

The side filled up again. Turned out it was not very powdery as I'd hoped.

Neighbor George's RV covered.

Neighboring people are appearing. Quite something seeing so many out there with snow-blowers and shovels.

My iPhone got too cold in my jacket pocket and stopped working about this time. I was sorry because it caused me to miss a lot of the action. Goodwill was definitely happening as people helped each other.

Next door neighbor George with his snow-blower made a path around my pony and up to the fence gate. Got the camera warmed up in time to grab a quick shot of him. Then, it quit again for a while.

The neighbor on the other side and I helped each other with some of our common driveway's shoveling.

The street began to look different with so many people working away at the snow.

One of the neighbors fell down on his newly replaced knee and smashed it. He is being taken to Grand View Hospital here.

After awhile I was able to move my car and finish shoveling out the rest of the driveway.

Looking out the driveway.

While I was brushing off the snow piled on my pony I looked up for a moment and there zooming over me was a bald eagle! That made all the snow struggles and winter garment hassles worth it. I was glad I was out there that instant.

The front porch and driveway are cleared and the side of the house up to the chimney area. The snow had somehow got a crust on it between the chimney and front gate so I couldn't do that last portion. Later, I chopped away at it making some progress, but the three hours I'd already put in proved to be my day's max on shoveling. Still, I'm happy in a grateful, satisfying way that I could do it.

This morning's first pass along the side of the house.

Remembered to take another picture of the second pass when the iPhone warmed up.

Finding a place to sling the snow was a challenge.

R2D2 is freed up a bit. It's venting for the furnace just fine it seems.

Time to call it a day.

Weather Report: Snowed

This blizzard gives new meaning to the expression, "I'm snowed!"

Not that big a deal last night a couple hours after its 6:30 p.m. beginning.

Drifting. Piled chairs out of drift zone.

More drifting.

About 4 p.m.

So far, the predictions are materializing. I am hoping the one about the electric going off doesn't come true.

The drifting along one side of the house needs clearing. After three clearings today, I am letting it accumulate until tomorrow. Church has been cancelled so I'll stay out of trouble by snow shovelling.

Here's how to stay out of trouble...

Get rid of drift next to side of house. Melting, later, leaks into foundation/floors.

Couple hours later...did that again.

One more time.

Front door.

My pony.

And then I found R2D2.

Well, there are around 14 or 15 more hours to go. Most of all I want the electric to stay on.

The Play That Hasn't Happened Yet

Wendy, Aidan and I drove into Philadelphia to see a play my sister Jeanenne had given us Christmas present tickets for at Arden Theater for a noon performance. Alas, Wendy took a bad fall on an uneven sidewalk just minutes before we were going inside the theater. She landed so hard on her face that she was badly scraped and bruised, and possibly had damaged a front tooth. We headed home, of course. The Will Call was gracious and has tickets ready for us next Saturday though Wendy said today that she can't juggle next Saturday for a return. Though the swelling is down she has lots of healing yet to do and the dentist is Friday. Perhaps John will go with us.

We'd had a little time before the performance and had taken in a blown glass show across the street from the theater. I captured a picture of Wendy and Aidan about 30 seconds before she went down.

There are some perks to elder years. Ones I'm thinking of are that my daughters are grown women with their own families giving me the wonderful grands and great-grands to enjoy, and the years have given me reacquaintance with family and friends--and new friends, too. Cousin Jim and his wife Nancy are coming by next month to see us via a trip to Boston to see their grandkids, take the train here and meet mine before flying back to Texas. Plus, we'll take in a small bit of the myriad historical attractions.

Winter was dilly-dallying somewhere west of here when all of a sudden she blew back into town...




Yesterday at Marge's around 11 a.m.

This time, the ice on the Koi pond was glassy. I could see the fish through it lying quietly on the bottom.
The heater is keeping the ice melted on the side.

Martin Luther King Day

I found this link today among various emails I receive, and read its 16 pages. There are a couple intro pages and at the very end is the letter from the eight clergymen to which Rev. Dr. King responded from jail.

Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Weather Report: Not Enough for a Snow Man

According to a quick text from Aidan over at his school, and my observation snow flurries turned into the real thing Tuesday afternoon. Out Marge's back patio, it looked like this early yesterday morning...

"Not enough for a snowman," Aidan replied.

The Health Desk reports that Monday's visit to the eye doctor (the second one is now my physician for eye care) showed that the old lens piece left in my eye is definitely diminishing. Two more months of drops and see if all gone. He doesn't want to do the other eye's cataracts until this is resolved. I'm okay with that.

A gray squirrel just ran across the patio with an object as big as his (her?) head and disappeared beyond the shed. And, here she comes back without it. Looking for more? Soon she might find the remainder of last night's popcorn in the yard. The Koi Pond continues its winter functioning mode.

I love watching morning slide over the night's mysterious, soft darkness whether from Marge's patio door, Wendy and John's back screen porch in summer, or their dining room winter windows, on a highway somewhere--watching the light transform this moment on our great planet, whirling through space and time, turning night into day.

It is quiet here at Marge's after today's wee hours began with heavy rain. The morning's travels to church and errands crossed ditches, creeks and streams topping the capacity of their banks. At midday, I overheard someone saying they'd had over an inch of rain. Just checking with Wendy this evening, I learned there was an inch at Rhapsody Ridge by her goat milking time this morning. More heavy showers came throughout the day, but by late afternoon, the sun came out long enough before it set for me to get in a rainless walk over to the little park a few blocks away.

By the time I returned to the house, the sky completely changed back to dark clouds and the wind was picking up as I set out the big garbage can with the one bag in it and the tiny bag of recycles in the blue box. Now in the darkness, the wind is howling through the big trees behind the house.

Mornings finds me with coffee and this laptop sitting comfortably looking through the patio doors out to the back of the property here. The neighbor, skirting the open space behind, daily walks his dog with his cat bounding along in her catlike ways; sometimes detouring up and down a tree trunk, or once right up to the patio doors where I sit. During our crisp, clear mornings this past week, I was entertained for longer periods by five-squirrel cartwheels back and forth, up and down, across the view, their gray, agile bodies spiraling the tree trunks; even running right up to the patio door.

Youth is returning to college's and universities, and that includes Keoni who traveled to Mercer today.     These days, Aidan and his dad work most nights on math. Sometimes early in the morning, too, while Aidan eats his cereal. Soon he will board his 6:41 a.m. bus in daylight.

In Tucson, Carol and Janie have each sent some very recent weather pictures of the views that my nearby property shared pretty closely years ago. It still entrances me.

From Janie. The Catalinas to the East.

From Carol. The Tucson Mountains to the West.

Thanks.

Weather Report: El Niño Rules

Single digits, high winds, and sweater weather; all in a few days.

Shoutout to Marge: Your Koi pond did freeze over in a sort of nubbley way (wind churned freezing water maybe), and a 1.5 x 2.5 foot area stayed ice-free. Koi were discernible on bottom as melting took place.

By midday yesterday it was warm. Toby was basking in the sun down by the barn when I picked up Keoni. I had a nice visit with Toby for a few minutes and gave him some warm goat milk. His coat is so thick I can't get to his skin.

Yesterday, was extra nice for me. Keoni and I spent some time over a lunch at Jesse's BBQ joint in Telford. I enjoyed hearing about his NYC adventures with three of his good friends. He had pictures to illustrate their exuberant doings and enjoyments. Makes me smile just thinking about what fun youth can be. He came to Marge's with me so he could see the results of The Last Supper effort I've been wrapped up in for too long. A great boost to me since I've been agonizing more than a little on the subject as you already know.

Shoutout to Carol: Thanks. It wouldn't be completed, nor as happily so without your input.

For 30,000 years

people have pounded

grain into flour.

Leavened and unleavened

bread is known over

our populated earth.

Gospel stories say

Jesus broke a loaf of bread

and gave it to his disciples.

He said,“This is my body

given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.”

For 2,000 years

we have been doing this

and we still remember.

Ay-yi-yi-yi

Some actual freezing has taken place to remind us it really is winter and not just a hoax perpetrated by over-eager, excitable, mid-western, Rocky Mountain, Texas, Alabama, etc., TV anchors on the major channels. Aidan is hoping for NO snow days this winter so school lets out early this year; especially since he is already back to school after attending right up to Christmas Eve. Keoni is out there somewhere, presumably New York right now. He might come home and rest a day or two before zooming back to Mercer. How does a Freshman student afford all this, you and I ask. Answer: He was well-paid for a gig before he came home for the holidays.

This is getting awfully grown up.

Marge's Koi pond had a bit of slushy ice over about a fourth of it. The backyard surfaces crunched when I  walked on them. The monthly pond treatment went into it. I can see the Koi resting quietly on the pond bottom. All else seems to be operating well in the household.

In pursuit of some presentable rendering of The Last Supper for Lenten season, I began a charcoal drawing since the other wasn't working out so well. A friend has a highly functional workshop in his garage and expertly trimmed the backboard for the drawing (Lowe's sort of mutilated the edge they cut to the wrong size) that I'll be using to display. It isn't finished, but I took some snaps as it is going along. Maybe that last is so I'll feel like it is progressing. Overall, the project has taken a very large chunk of time, and has given me a little perspective on people who've done work for their patrons.

This is where it got to today. Needs lots of fine-tuning, but tomorrow's another day.

Jesus is looking a little larger than the disciples. Ay-yi-yi-yi. How did that happen...now what.

Michelangelo's David has hands that are too big. Great for throwing rocks though.