Sunday, March 19, 2006

Blogger On Ice

Yesterday I took Thomas to the Dover Ice Arena, about forty minutes away, so that he could break in his new skates before the show on Tuesday. Thomas had a relaxing hour or so gliding around on his new skates. And Dad? He put on Tom's old skates (we're the same shoe size now--frightening, huh?) and got onto the ice himself.

And lived to tell about it! In fact, I didn't fall at all. At first my feet hurt terribly, but that was because I was wearing the wrong socks. Back on the ice with thinner socks, my feet felt much better, and by the time we were done, I was getting around pretty well. Not bad for an old guy!

This weekend we are cleaning up the house so that next weekend we can host a hoard of hungry teenagers for Thomas' birthday party. He's turning 16! Yikes! His actual birthday is Tuesday, which is also the day of the skating show, so we'll have a little family party at the local pizza house. And then we get invaded. If we survive, I will report.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Still Around . . .

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged much lately. I try to report good news, and there isn't a lot lately.

Not that anything really horrible has happened. It's just that day-to-day life continues to be, well, quite annoying.

It's snowing tonight. The prediction was for from 2 to 4 inches of accumulation. We already have at least 9. Snow is, of course, a normal part of February in New Hampshire, and this snow, falling on an exceptionally cold day and night, is dry and fluffy and will be fairly easy to remove. But in two important ways, these signs of Winter cause us problems right now.

First, we still live in a very drafty, poorly-heated house, originally designed to be a summer home and never quite properly adapted to year-round use. And the price of propane and wood have both shot up considerably since last year.

Second, my all-wheel-drive Chevy Astro is not, currently, operating as all-wheel-drive. In fact, with the AWD engaged, it is actually fighting me, making it more dangerous to drive. I found myself, during the last snow, just two days ago and only an inch deep, driving sideways down a rather long portion of MIddleton Road. Which made me jittery and extremely out of sorts for the rest of the night.

As you might expect, I have not tried to take the van out in this storm. I also am not quite sure how I'm getting to work on Monday.

And we won't be able to take the van on a planned trip to Connecticut and New Jersey at the end of the week, which means we get to squeeze into Karen's wagon for the long trip.

But I complain too much. You don't need to hear this. And that's why I haven't written too much lately.