It is certainly a cold winter day.  The sun is shining brightly on me as I sit at my desk, shining right in my eyes actually which can make it just a bit difficult to see properly.  My fault for waiting until afternoon to write this instead of doing it in the morning like I had planned in the first place, but no, I had to go and do something else first which I only finished just a few minutes ago, as usual it took much longer than I anticipated to finish that little job which should have gone much quicker but for me nothing is quick anymore it seems as everything seems to go along in slow motion and sometimes I have to spend a lot of time thinking about things as I do them because things just don’t work out the way I had planned and so an alternate plan then needs to come into play and sometimes that also does not work out as planned so I have to try a third option and if that doesn’t work then it is time for me to pull my hair, jump up and down, bang my head against the wall, roll on the floor and and….AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I’m calm.  This was one of those days.  Sigh.  It is cold.  Very cold.  We have now finished two months of winter.  And it is cold.  Time for the long underwear, and two sweaters, thick warm socks, and slippers.  But when I go outside, then I dress warmly.  In this kind of weather it takes so long to dress for going out that I really don’t feel like going out once I have gotten dressed to go out and I have so many clothes on that it is hard to even move around. If I ever fall out there dressed like that I will never be able to get up again.  So I get dressed to go out  and feed the birds and it is hard to bend my legs to step up onto the box and then try to stretch out to put food on the feeder, it’s just not easy.  Then I come back inside and get all those heavy clothes off and it’s time to do it all over again.  Sigh.  It is just too cold.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to put that bird feeder ten feet off the ground.  I mean really, what town would have such a bylaw as that?  This one.  Amazing.  It’s just too cold.  Good weather to stay indoors, wrapped in a blanket, and drink COFFEE!  Muffin agrees.  Except for the COFFEE part.  So she is wrapped up and sleeping, as close to the heater as she can get.  That’s where I put her chair.  Yes, she has her own chair.  Wasn’t really meant to be that way, but she decided it was going to be that way.  Just fed the birds again, they will be leaving soon, heading off to their nightly perch, wherever that is.  It is just way too cold.  Much like that day dad and I were out looking for insulators on that frozen pond.  Still can’t believe dad suggested that.  I left off right when that loud crack occurred.  The look on dad’s face was priceless.  He used to get that look a lot when we were out together.  Not sure why.  The water came up quite fast and turned the snow to slush which isn’t really a nice picture when out on the pond so far from shore.  And the snow was actually fairly deep along the path I took out to the crossarms, and dad followed my path. I was actually quite amazed at how fast dad managed to turn around and run through that deep snow back to the safety of shore.  I decided to take a wide circle around that spot and got safely back to shore.  Dad hands me the axe and says, “take this back with you”.  Back where, said I. When you go back out to get those crossarms, said dad.  Forget it, said I, I will go to the next bunch instead.  Fine, said dad.  Off I went.  The snow wasn’t quite so deep out to the next bunch of crossarms.  There was five of them sticking out of the ice.  Still not sure why they were out there like that in the first place.  Oh well.  Frozen solid, I yelled back.  Chop them out with the axe, yelled dad.  Right.  Out in the middle of the pond.  Sigh.  So I started chopping.  I thought I heard something so turned back toward shore.  Dad was up to his chest in the snow waving to me.  Odd, I thought, but I waved back, then went back to my chopping.  Suddenly, splash, the axe went through to the water, and I almost dropped it.  But the crossarms were free so I hauled them out onto the ice.  Heard dad yelling so I looked back to where he was standing.  At least I thought he was standing.  He was now waving both arms frantically and yelling to me to come help him.  I brought a couple of the crossarms with me.  Are you stuck?, I asked.  No, said dad, I just decided to jump in this hole to keep warm.  Dad could be quite sarcastic at times.  Dig me out, said dad.  How?  We have no shovel, I said.  Maybe I could use the axe, I said, and started digging.  You should have seen the look on dad’s face.  BONEHEAD, don’t use the axe, he yelled.  Odd that he would be enjoying this.  Finally got down to his stomach.  That’s why you can’t get out, I said, pointing to his stomach. HA. HA. Said dad.  Here, I will put this crossarm across the hole and maybe you can help pull yourself out, said I.  Good idea, said dad.  So I slid it across the snow.  THWOCK!  Oops, sorry about that.  Got dad right on the side of the head.  The look on his face, amazing.  I moved the crossarm in front of him.  Wait, said dad, my glasses fell off in the snow.  You lose those glasses a lot, said I, good thing I’m here to help you.  Yeah, said dad, I might not get hurt otherwise.  Not sure what he meant by that.  It is just sooo cold! Think I better stop and continue next time.  I hope you all had a great Christmas!  I probably won’t be back until next year so enjoy your New Year’s and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

It was still dark when I got up this morning and it was rather cold for this time of year. There was a new covering of snow though not so much, only about 2 inches, and it was a light fluffy type of snow.  And it was clear, the stars were still shining brightly.  And it was cold.  But at least there was no wind, so the day shouldn’t be too bad.  I could hardly believe we would be going out on a day like this.  Even harder to believe that I would agree to such a thing, a brief lapse in sanity I suppose.  But it was what it was, and it certainly was cold.  Or did I mention that already?  Hmm, the fire was crackling nicely in the antique cook stove in the kitchen.  Sounded so nice.  Felt even nicer.  Maybe we should wait for a warmer day, I suggested.  Nonsense, it’s a perfect day, said dad.  Not too cold, no wind, and that pond should be nicely frozen by now, he continued.  If the pond is frozen so well, how do we get at the insulators?, I asked.  Those cross arms were sticking up high enough that we should be able to pull them out quite easily, said dad.  And, of course, I will bring the axe just in case we need to chop a bit of ice, he added.  With us standing on that same ice?, I asked again.  Nothing to worry about, said dad.  Odd.  Whenever I said something like that, dad always said it made him worry even more.  Oh well, at least we were warm when we left.  And it was now light, though the sun had not yet risen.  It did look like a nice day.  It would have looked even nicer from indoors by that roaring fire and drinking a nice hot cup of COFFEE.  Sigh.  We had a bit of a drive to get to this fantastic spot, which is why we left so early.  Of course the little road we wanted to go on had not been plowed since winter arrived and the snow was just too deep to drive through, so… Oh well, a little extra walking isn’t so bad.  The snow had drifted on that first part of the road so it was a bit more than knee deep, not exactly easy walking.  Dad went first on this part since he was the bigger of the two of us.  Snowshoes would have been easier for this part, I said.  Actually, I had mentioned this before we left home.  Forget it, said dad, this isn’t so bad and it will get better soon.  Right, I thought.  Dad was remembering the last time out on snowshoes.  He didn’t fare so well and ended up tripping because he stepped on one of the snowshoes and found himself face down in the snow.  And he couldn’t get up.  It was one of those moments I wish I had a camera with me.  Poor dad.  I just stood there laughing so hard I could barely stand up.  And trying to help dad get up just made things so much more humorous.  Strangely, dad couldn’t see the humor in it at all. BONEHEAD!, was all he could say.  Several times in fact.  Very odd that he could be enjoying himself and yet not laugh about it.  Oh well.  Anyway, once we made it to the trees the snow was not so deep so walking was much easier, and faster.  Finally, after what seemed like hours, we made it to the pond along the railway tracks.  Hmm, looks smaller now for some reason.  And there they were, sticking out of the ice and snow, three groups of crossarms, and full of insulators in a rainbow of colors!  Well, okay, various shades of green and aqua.  But it’s what may lay hidden under the ice that makes it more interesting.  You go out first, said dad.  Me?!  Why me?  Because you’re the lightest, said dad, and I went first through all that deep snow.  Naturally.  I knew there had to be a reason why he volunteered to go first through the snow.  So…out I went.  Slowly.  Carefully. And cowardly.  Sigh.  I made it to the first group of crossarms.  It was easy to remove the insulators, but they were frozen solidly into the ice.  Can’t budge them, I called back.  Lean right against them and push with your whole body, yelled dad.  Sure.  Easy for him to say from the safety of dry land.  They still wouldn’t move.  Still can’t budge them, I called back again.  Dad just shook his head and started out across the ice.  Suddenly there was a very loud crack!  Dad and I both froze.  He was only about 4 feet from me by this time.  This was not looking good.  It is dark.  And there is some light snow falling.  I should go check and see if my newspaper has arrived yet.  It’s late again this week.  Not to worry, I will finish this story next week.  Providing my computer is still working.  Definitely having some problems today.  Sigh.  I will also be adding some new pics to my gallery tomorrow.  So please check them out.  Strange things happen to me sometimes, but that will have to wait for another time, my computer is acting up again and I want to finish this while I can.  Enjoy your weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin (who is sleeping and snoring at the moment).