A Sunny Balmy Sunday

Here is proof of the really warm day in Maine. It was 55 degrees in Kennybunk Port. This is where Tim and Donna lived for about a year as their house in Berwick was being built. The Bush's also live there.

Friday is Donna's last day in the Maine. Tim is moving her down Friday and he will join her after their house is closed. Here is the link to the 360 tour of their house. http://www.circlepix.com/home/E6GHP5

Doubters beware!!

If I ever doubted, which I really never did, that global warming was a real phenomenon and a real problem, today has erased that doubt for ever. Tom and I just took down the Christmas lights from outside the house. We did this in jeans and light cotton shirts. It is 65 degrees with partly sunny skies. That would be a pleasant early spring day in northern California. However, it is an absolutely absurd day in New Hampshire in the dead of winter, in the middle of January!!!

To date, according to my count, we have had exactly one winter day. There has been one inch and 1/2 of snow and one day when the temperature was in the teens. Some of the locals are thrilled. They are tired of years of slipping and sliding, shoveling and skimming in and of the snow. Yet, most of the locals, and now count myself among this group since I have lived here for more than a year, are sick hearted that there is no snow on the ground, that you can't skiing or go ice skating, and that the snow is not piled up on the evergreens.

You can't argue with the fact that warm weather is easier to live with and it is cheaper than either heating in an extreme winter or cooling in an extreme summer. But, that not with standing, pleasant spring days, in January, in New Hampshire is just not right! It's global warming and it requires action. I hope that I can get myself into action, but I am so set in my creature comfort ways. I am interested to know what other people have and are doing to reduce their footprints on the planet. I am looking forward to reading your belief and ideas

My Last Blog for 2006

It seems fitting that I should end 2006 making a blog entry. This year and last have meant incredible change for Tom and I . And, I hope the process has not ended yet. I have two more personal goals that I hope to accomplish in the year 2007 (these two were part of the original goals Tom and I set up for ourselves before we left Santa Rosa). Blogging, though not a goal, was certainly one of this year's most unanticipated and unknown changes I've made. I hadn't even heard of the word blog until earlier this year and I didn't bother to find out what it meant. It was just another term associated with the Internet and since I don't really navigate the Internet with competency, I just let that word pass me by. Progress, fortunately, has a way of infiltrating one's life when least expected. This form of communication, I hope, will allow me to stay in touch with old friends more and allow me to make many new friends.

Tom is now a blogger as well and we have agreed that we have to have broadband. Since we live in the backwoods of New Hampshire we will have to go with the more expensive satellite Internet service. Oh well, just one of the prices you pay, literally, for the peace and quiet of the country side.

To all of you, friends and family alike, I wish you a new year filled with love, joy, surprises, peace, contentment, learning, health security and just enough difficulties to make you appreciate all that you have. May we come together and stay connected by person, by electronics, and by spirit.
Best Wishes and a Happy New Year.

Just a quick note...

To say Tom has joined the blogosphere! You can check out his blog here. Let's all make him feel welcome!

Christmas by myself

It is a strange set of circumstances that I should have spent the last two Christmases completely by myself. Actually, it is totally logical, but more on that later. As I sit here, looking out my den window at the cold snow flurries drifting slantwise against the bare trees, I feel quiet alone. But, that is a good thing. Being alone when one absolutely does not want to be alone and would have done anything to prevent being alone on the holidays, makes me truly appreciate the value of my family. My dogs are here, snuggled up like Ying and Yang in their dog bed, down by my feet, but they're not much as conversationalists go and they can't sing the Twelve Days of Christmas, or at least, not all they way through. Tasha is too old to remember all the verses.

I have had very severe colds, that turned to bronchitis and asthma which has prevented me from being around my loved ones at the holidays. Unfortunately, it is the job I have, teaching special ed for kindergartners and 1st graders, otherwise know as little germ dispensers, that has relentlessly exposed me to cold virus, etc. It is a job, I fear, that I will not be able to keep, in the long run, due to my somewhat compromised lungs.

This year, more than most, Christmas snuck (this is a real word, even if this spellchecker does not recognize it, I looked it up in the dictionary, ) up on me when I wasn't prepared. Every year, I plan to have a wonderful Christmas with my cards sent early, my Christmas cooking done leisurely, my decorating done with precision and care, my shopping done thoughtfully, finding just the right gift with meaning for each individual and still have time to ride around just to see all the Christmas lights. Then, as should be expected, end the whole experience in the fellowship of my family and friends. Life, however, is not like that and I guess that is another good thing. Christmas seems to be a time that when we least expect it, and when we want it to be a time of all things old and familiar, presents us with a special challenge. The challenge is how to enjoy the spirit of Christmas, both sacred and secular, no matter the circumstances. For, no matter what one's circumstances are, there is always someone who is worse off. I am warm and secure, loved and appreciated, needed and wanted, reasonably healthy and certainly happy. I will admit that it feels like Alexander the Great marched his elephants across my lungs instead of the Alps, but that is a minor inconvenience all things considered. I live in an age where technology has kept me connected across three thousand miles and three time zones, sharing important discussions about our parents, our siblings and our off springs, only interrupted by my hacking cough, which could probably be heard without the cell phone. And here I am, writing my thoughts for others to see and comment upon, even if I have to use the spell checker. Life is good - most of the time and certainly good enough to help us through rough times when life is can not be as good as we want. Christmas this year was good for me and I hope it was good for all of you.

And, with another good shove...

Mom has made it to Beta! After several phone calls and many changed passwords, but I think it was worth it. Let's make her feel welcome :0)

Lights in New Hampshire and, oh yes, that other thing that happened.

Well, here are our Christmas Lights. This will be the last year for the big colored lights from days of yore. They are very nostalgic and I love them for they remind me of my childhood, but they use up a lot of electricity. I took this picture tonight as I took the dogs out to pee. It was a might nippy out there, 14 degrees at 5:30 PM. Oh well, that's what Parkas are for. I was warm and toasty. We have a dusting of snow as you can see, so things are starting to look somewhat picturesque. A warming trend starts tomorrow and we should reach the low 40's this weekend.

The big lights were never on our house as a child, that I can remember. But when I was a small child, before we had the fake white tree with the rotating colored light wheel, the big colored bulbs (not exactly the same size as the outdoor lights, but the same color and same shape) were on the tree. And of course there were the wonderful bubble lights, - talk about using electricity. Those beautiful dream makers with bubbles circulating to the top were hot and dangerous. But no one cared, because they looked so magical. But progress can not be stopped and next year we will get LED lights and help reduce our footprint on the planet.

Now, on to that other thing. Let see, today is Friday, Thursday was the parents out of the hospital call, Wednesday was the 2nd part of the disaster and yes, it was Tuesday when all the fun began. Tuesday night we went to bed about 9:00 PM, we get up awfully early. I fell asleep fairly quickly, of course not in the 20 seconds it takes Tom to crash and snore. Nonetheless, I was asleep shortly and it felt good. At 11:00 I was awake. Have no idea, but there I was awake. Finally, I turned on the TV to occupy my brain and eventually I fell asleep again. This time, soundly. The next thing I know, I'm awake and Tom is wandering around the bedroom. It's 2:00 AM. Tom, Mr.-a-bomb-could-go-off-under-the-bed-and-he-would-not-even-stir was looking for a sound source.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Trying to find out where that noise is coming from." Now normally I'm the one who has to investigate any noise of which I do not know the origin. Unknown sounds drive me to distraction. However, on this night, I was still coming out of some cozy rem sleep and I just said, "O.K." I hear him go down stairs and then down into the basement. The next thing I think I hear is him racing (that was my first clue, because Tom doesn't race anywhere) up the stairs and then silence. He has just pressed the Emergency Shut down switch to our Boiler. Now he has my attention.
"What in the world is going on?" I yell down as I am climbing over our bed and racing down the stairs.
"One of the pipes into our boiler has broken, or melted, (they're plastic) water is all over the basement floor, steam has filled the basement and the boiler is starting to over heat!
O.K. The situation is not good, but under control. The emergency switch worked, the boiler is off and all is safe. We will go back to bed and call the contractor (the boiler is still under warranty) first thing in the morning. However, there is one small problem, more like two small problems. First our hearts are still racing and we are not falling back to sleep and second the shut down means no heat, hot water or flusing toilets. We manage nonetheless and go to work that morning after our somewhat less than cordial call to the contractor at 6:00 AM. They were there at 7:00 fixing it while we were at work.

I got home around 5:00 PM. The mud room was at the set temperature , but the house felt cold, the up stairs bathroom was warm, but the rest of the upstairs was cold. The house was 58 degrees. Now we keep the house cool, so as not to use a lot of fuel. However this was ridiculus. I called the contractor again. " Please calll me and let me know why my house is so cold!"

Tom comes home, hears and feels the bad news, and waits to hear from the contractor. We start dinner. Suddenly, the smoke detectors go off throughout the house. Tom thinks they've come on erroneously, maybe the batteries are dead. He tries frantically to unhook them with no success. The pearcing, pearcing sound is driving me crazy, when it occurs to me that there might be a real problem. I open the door to the basement and I can't see the basement floor for the steam. The boiler is gone berswerk again!. Turn off the emergency switch again, Call the contractor again after we assured ourselves that everything was safe.

This time, the call was not even close to cordial. The last thing I remember is yelling "I AM UPSET!!!" Within 15 minutes the contractor and the plumber were here, worked for about two hours and solved all the problems. All is well now. We had a perfectly quiet night Wednesday and there have been no more problems. The good news was that the boiler did not actually overheat, all the safety system had kicked in, hence the release of steam and water into the basement. We were never in any real danger but we didn't know it at the time. Our cardboard boxes on the basement floor, however, were very nervous.

The last thing on Thursday was a call from Dayle (tom's sister) telling us that Roy (Tom's father) had been in the hospital and that Pat ("Tom's mother) is not able to remember and cope with the situation. After a long conversation it was decided that we need to be researching assisted living for them. It was a sad night for Dayle and Tom to know that their parents are now their dependent adults.

To say the least, We're hoping we can get through tonight without any unusual occurances. We're exhausted.