Saturday, January 20, 2007

Weather Again

This morning I plowed our driveway to push aside three or four inches of new, unexpected snow.

I don't mind plowing, although my plow's hydraulics still need some work. But the work is kind of interesting, and actually more of an intellectual challenge than my day job. But working in the snow isn't quite so much fun when the temperature never gets above 20 and the wind gusts around 50 mph.

The boys didn't really get a chance to play outside today because of the wind chill and the extremely dry air, and even ended up watching a DVD in the car while I was at storage, combining two units into one to save money now that we are moving back into the house. That was also not a lot of fun, what with my freezing fingers (even through insulated gloves) and the fine snow blowing into the storage unit and the car.

But we are managing to stay warm inside tonight. Tomorrow will be similar, although we will be going out late in the day (for indoor activities, thank you very much). And we are not expecting any measurable snow.

Oh, wait, we weren't expecting any last night either. Hmm. I think I'd better make sure the truck with the plow is first out.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Okay, Now It's COLD

It was so cold today that, through over two hours of driving, the heat from my engine was not enough to melt the layer of icy snow off my hood.

On the way to work, I saw an old used car lot, which has been out of business for many months, with a single car in the middle of a huge sheet of smooth ice.

When the sun came up, the grass outside our window, which is still green, sparkled with blobs of ice, as if someone had covered it with clear glass beads.

Wish I was allowed to take a camera to work!

Tonight's performance went well, and we all had a lot of fun. But it's tiring and I have jury service tomorrow, so I need to get off to bed.

At least I get to sleep in for a bit, though.

Monday, January 15, 2007

The Arrival

Well, winter has finally arrived in New Hampshire. Not a lot of snow, but cold and icy and about what we'd expect at this time of year. The middle of the week is actually going to be colder than normal.

Speaking of the middle of the week, I'll be on stage at the Village Players Theater on Wednesday, playing the role of Ambrose J. Weems in a reading of an episode from Raymond Knight's Radio KUKU. We've added a few bits of business to make it a bit more interesting visually. Just a little bit of something to entertain the Chamber of Commerce when they rent the theater for a meeting.

I actually took the truck up to the top of the road and plowed today. Not a perfect job, because I still haven't figured out how to hook up the plow's hydraulics yet, and so the blade tends to have a mind of its own as far as angle is concerned. But it did clear off the driveway enough for us to get by, and we're not expecting any more snow for a few days.

Meanwhile, we've laid in some wood and a tank full of propane. And some warm blankets. We're hoping that the late winter means a short winter. Instead of just, well, a late winter.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Just an Update

Various members of the family have been a bit under the weather. Although I have to admit that the weather they are under is much milder than is normal for this time of year. Today started rainy, ended sunny, and had me shedding my coat on the way out to the car as I left work.

Karen is among the ill, and the timing is not so good; her store is undergoing mass receiving this week and half of next. It sound like some terrible disease (or something you might do in the state to our immediate south), but it's actually the process of taking a completely empty store and stocking it for the grand opening later this month. Yesterday Karen was actually putting up cabinets (since she's in the kitchen department). I'm not sure what she was doing today.

You'll be able to catch a glimpse of Karen's new store during its construction phase in the next gallery I'm assembling. And I'm going to put together some of the stills from my theatrical exploits from 2006. Those should both be up before the weekend is over.

Karen and Thomas now have blogs, but they don't show up on the menu yet because they have no entries. I don't know if Karen will get the chance at all until the 18th, but I'll twist Tom's arm and get him to start his blogging within the next day or two.

Meanwhile, I'm off to bed in just a few minutes here. Work, alas, still calls at an early hour.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

What Month Is This?

Today would be a typical day for New Hampshire--if the date were in April. When I took Thomas to work this morning at 7:00, the temperature outside was 56 degrees, and it was raining. By the afternoon, WIll and Danny were playing in the sun wearing only light jackets, and then only because it was windy. The sun was shining, and the temperature had climbed to 65 degrees.

As I'm writing this, we just had a quick downpour roll through. It's the kind of weather pattern we see here in the summer!

On my weather.com home page, in addition to the weather in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, I also check the weather in Burbank and Oakhurst, California; Roseburg, Oregon; Stewartsville, New Jersey; and Kailua, Hawaii. RIght now the only place with a higher temperature than ours is Kailua at 77 degrees.

We have had snow only twice this season so far, both times less than three inches, and both times followed quickly by warm weather and rain that removed the snow.

I'm not complaining; my heating bill and my commute are only two of the many aspects of daily life benefitting from the mild weather. But it feels very strange, and makes us all wonder what might be coming our way in the months ahead. Can anyone say Colorado and Kansas?

With warm regards . . . .

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Duck, Here Comes Another Year!

I have a rare extra day off from work, which I owe to Gerald Ford, who is being honored in death by the closure of federal facilities, including the National Passport Center.

But I have to admit that I have not been spending much time today thinking about the late President; the beginning of the year always seems to bring a lot of extra little jobs with it. Today they include mounting the plow on the pickup truck (finally), and trying to replace to bathroom heater that I installed nine years ago. That's right, nine years. I can't believe it either.

The heater is a Nutone that mounts on the ceiling. A big coil around the perimeter glows bright orange while a fan circulates the heat throughout the bathroom. At least it used to, but it stopped working several weeks ago. Which is something of a problem because, as I have recently found out, Nutone doesn't make this type of heater anymore. Oh, they make heaters with fans, but they all mount in the ceiling instead of on it. Which means that I have to pull the wiring out the the existing box, cut a hole in the ceiling, get up into the attic and wire a new, recessed heater. In my copious free time.

This is going to be an interesting and unpredictable year. Karen will be in her brand-new Lowe's store in Concord by the end of the month. Thomas turns 17 and will be getting his driver's license. I will be back on the Village Players stage a couple of time, and trying to come up with some kind of career move to get me out of NPC, which isn't a horrible job--most of the time--but it is a textbook dead-end.

Karen and Tom should be adding their voice to the site soon; I have set up a blog for Karen, and will be setting one up for Tom sometime today. So if their blogs are devoid of entries, email them. Not me.

And aside from that, I don't know. We seem to be destined to hang onto our house for while, so we'll stay put and make the best of it. But the year will unfold as it does, and as it does I hope you will follow it on TheBrooksBunch.com.