Gotta Love It

The Devil is Among Us. I have proof.

I spend an awful lots of time trolling the internet for inspiration and quotes to use in my work associated writing. Since the turn of the calendar to the new decade, and the rising fever around 2012 and the end of the Mayan Calendar (did it occur to anyone that the Mayans might have just run out of room?), I've been looking for thoughts on the end of all time, and the Millenial and doomsday movements of past . . . well um. . . Millenia. There have been prognostications of doom and gloom before now and one of the 19th century ones - the Millerite movement - spawned the Seventh Day Adventist religion. Another case of making lemonade. Miller was wrong not only once, but twice, but managed to turn the "Great Disappointment" into a religion. I gotta try that the next time I'm wrong in a big way. Now, given the fine line between quotes and inspiration and plagiarism, I declined to put this bloggy quote from Willow Manor to any work related use, but it was just too good to not share. .

Here's the account, according to the History of Carroll County,
Indiana by Thomas Helms, Chicago: Kingman Brothers, 1882.

One morning in April, 1848, John Payton rode by Hanna's farm
and saw him setting out an orchard. The inconsistency of his
preceding at once struck Payton, who elected that a number of
years must elapse, in any event, before he could expect any
return of his labor, and if the final destruction of the world were
so nearly at hand, was not his an unnecessary outlay of labor?

With this in mind, Payton addressed him:

"How is this, Brother Hanna? This is April, and if your
account is correct, the end of the world will come in
June next. It scarcely looks consistent to be doing
such work so nearly the borders of eternity."

"Oh well", replied Hanna, "we can't tell exactly; there
may have been an error in the calculation."

Melt

After several sub zero days the temperatures are rising, the trees have shed their burden of snow and are standing upright again and the driveway is clear enough for cars to be parked at the bottom. The icicles are lengthening with the drip/freeze/drip/freeze rhythm of daytime, and the melt has begun. It won't last of course, any more than these glorious tree bowers did, but it's only January. We'll make more snow. We'll make more cold. We'll make more hot chocolate. Southeast Asia is very appealing right now. And hot I bet. Really hot.

P.S. It was 29 degrees in New Orleans this morning.

Scenes from Winter

This big fellow is an Elks memorial at Winnikinni Castle. He looks like he has something to say about winter, doesn't he?

Today my bliss of the past snowy days came to abrupt end. I had an early morning thyroid ultrasound and biopsy (not to worry, I've had this thing for years, and the deal is if I submit to this particular form of torture once a year, and no malignancy is found I get to keep my thyroid - which I prefer to a lifetime of synthroid) and hit incredible traffic. Once or twice a year, something -usually a horrific accident on 93 - backs up 495 and 93 at the same time and then the surface roads as desperate commuters get onto the secondary routes. Today was one of those days. I took over an hour to make a 15 minute trip and that was on the back roads. I would probably still be on the highway. Then to add insult to injury or rather injury to insult - when I got back to the house, I took a header on the ice at the top of the driveway and boogered my neck and shoulder. It hurts. Muscle pull or sprain or something. Back to cursing winter and the driveway.

But I redeemed my day somewhat when went out to dinner with James and Jon before James heads back to LA. Great little southeast Asian place in Lowell. Short on ambience and very, very, very short on waiter compentence but the food was magnificent. It's always nice having James here and I'll be as sorry as anyone to see him go. Steve and I are making noise about paying him a visit in February if travel isn't prohibitive. Although from his tales of Hades aka the airport and flight delays, I'm having a second thought or two.

Water Weight

My arms are sore from moving. . .water. In it's frozen form. We finally ended our thump of snow with an accumulation of 5 or 6 inches overnight. I got up, shoveled out the car, got dressed for work and slid on down route 93. THAT was special. Between 9 and 11 it snowed like crazy and by 12 the sun was peeking out. Go. Figure. And then home to a shoveled out driveway. That's one of the nice things about working on a day when everyone else is home. Shoveling happens without me. But I needed to jump in and do something because I'm competitive. I shoveled the deck and raked the roof line where the ice dams form. And now my arms are sore and I feel good about myself. Guilt free calories! Bring them on!

Dreams of Snow

These silver beech leaves, so unremarkable during the rest of the year - somehow "pop" in winter. They glow against the backdrop of white, grey and pine. Today, we had one of those snow days you only dream of. No need to go out in cars, forecast to continue through the night which lifted the pressure to clear the driveway and a whole day in which to luxuriate. We went cross country skiing this morning, Shawsheen River loop - worth about 600 calories an hour (guilt free eating the rest of the day - hoooraaaaaay!!!!) and then settled in with our various parallel play activities of reading and collaging and (in Steve's case) hoop watching. I'm loving the new year so far!

The New Year Begins

Hike Ku for Winnekinni Woods

Tufted snow on pines
Woodlands mimic Asian art
Zen New England scene

And the year is here, ripe with promise, just like these berries. Steve and I slept off last nights late hours and red wine, and after NOT ENOUGH SLEEP, got up, got dressed and went hiking. Wouldn't you? It was beautiful, these berries are one of the small wonders that awaited on the trail. We are still making our way through the 60/60 book - jobs and winter weather have slowed down our hiking considerably, but with the promise of snow ahead for the weekend, work to do, and a bedroom to paint, we carpe diemed and took advantage of this mild first day. 34 degrees or so. Downright balmy, but I digress. With the exception of about a mile of shoreline which was ice, ice and more ice (Steve went down a couple of times, I did not - yay me) it was pretty easy going, although a thigh burner workout up and down Winnekinni Hill. After three hours of that we came home and ate. I do NOT understand why I continue to gain weight. Sigh. The rest of the day has passed pleasantly enough with the sort of puttering that makes this day so mellow. No where to go, nothing to do, so we hunkered down and cherished it. That's what days like these are for. To entering the New Year with a gentle day - huzzah!