I decided it would be a good time to take a break from political commentary for one day and cover some of the more mundane day-to-day doings here around The Manse. Not that anything of great import takes place here, but I think more than one of you will be able to relate to more than one of the activities with which I am about regale you, to whit:
We had yet another snowstorm yesterday which dumped about 10 inches of snow here. Schools canceled and ski areas prepared themselves for a somewhat larger crowd than they would usually expect on this particular Friday (schools in Massachusetts were closed for February vacation this past week, so we've had lots of skiers up from there spending time on the slopes).
BeezleBub managed to clear a good portion of the driveway before I got home from work, making it a little easier to pull the trusty F150 into the garage. Then we spent the last of the late afternoon clearing the rest of the snow before calling it a day. I was out again early this morning to clean up the last of the snow that fell overnight.
After our little tasks dealing with snow were done, Deb took the trusty F150 to one of our neighboring towns to open our business. I took Deb's car to take BeezleBub and Twirl Girl to meet up with the WP Mother-In-Law at a place we call The Golden Donut, a donut shop that is just about half way between the Manse and the WP In-Laws place. (That's not its real name, but we call it that because of another establishment that used to occupy that site in the past, which is a story for another time.)
He and Twirl Girl will be spending the next few days there during their school vacation collecting sap and boiling it down to make maple syrup. (Most of New Hampshire's schools are closed for vacation this coming week). It will be Twirl Girl's first experience sugaring, meaning she's in for an education.
I took stock of our supply of firewood and, assuming we don't have a lengthy blast of sub-zero weather between now and spring, we'll have enough to make it to the end of heating season.
There's something else I did today that most folks would consider neighborly, but up here in northern New England it's considered a prank: I took the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and snowblowed a neighbor's driveway while they've been away on vacation. While I didn't clear everything (I'm not sure where the borders of their driveway happen to be), I did manage to clear about 90% which will allow them to get into their garage without having to trudge through the snow first.
Another guilty pleasure in which I've been indulging is reading, in this case Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. Though written in the late 1830's, his observations still ring true and give us a foreigner's perspective of our country and our government at all levels, from small town New England to Washington, DC. Though the book is a bit dry, I've found a number of gems that remind me that our nation is unique among all others.
We had yet another snowstorm yesterday which dumped about 10 inches of snow here. Schools canceled and ski areas prepared themselves for a somewhat larger crowd than they would usually expect on this particular Friday (schools in Massachusetts were closed for February vacation this past week, so we've had lots of skiers up from there spending time on the slopes).
BeezleBub managed to clear a good portion of the driveway before I got home from work, making it a little easier to pull the trusty F150 into the garage. Then we spent the last of the late afternoon clearing the rest of the snow before calling it a day. I was out again early this morning to clean up the last of the snow that fell overnight.
After our little tasks dealing with snow were done, Deb took the trusty F150 to one of our neighboring towns to open our business. I took Deb's car to take BeezleBub and Twirl Girl to meet up with the WP Mother-In-Law at a place we call The Golden Donut, a donut shop that is just about half way between the Manse and the WP In-Laws place. (That's not its real name, but we call it that because of another establishment that used to occupy that site in the past, which is a story for another time.)
He and Twirl Girl will be spending the next few days there during their school vacation collecting sap and boiling it down to make maple syrup. (Most of New Hampshire's schools are closed for vacation this coming week). It will be Twirl Girl's first experience sugaring, meaning she's in for an education.
I took stock of our supply of firewood and, assuming we don't have a lengthy blast of sub-zero weather between now and spring, we'll have enough to make it to the end of heating season.
There's something else I did today that most folks would consider neighborly, but up here in northern New England it's considered a prank: I took the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower and snowblowed a neighbor's driveway while they've been away on vacation. While I didn't clear everything (I'm not sure where the borders of their driveway happen to be), I did manage to clear about 90% which will allow them to get into their garage without having to trudge through the snow first.
Another guilty pleasure in which I've been indulging is reading, in this case Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. Though written in the late 1830's, his observations still ring true and give us a foreigner's perspective of our country and our government at all levels, from small town New England to Washington, DC. Though the book is a bit dry, I've found a number of gems that remind me that our nation is unique among all others.
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