We had our first real snow on West Island yesterday. I waited until the afternoon to shovel and clean off the car...big mistake. It was icy and hard as rock by the time I got out there. The good part about its being so hard is that it's still pretty out there, not slushy and muddy. The bad part is that it's so hard to do clean-up. I hope it warms up enough to clear it all out so next time I'll be smarter about it.
I hate it when the old snow is hard as cement under the new snow, it creates a nightmare for shoveling. Been there a few times, a few years, not looking forward to it again.
Guess I was just playing "on vacation." I don't usually get to sleep half the day away, putter around the house, and not do anything. Not for long, though. Tomorrow I cover the Polar Plunge at Fort Pheonix in Fairhaven (10 a.m. sharp), and then it's back to the grind getting next week's issue ready.
I hope you all had a great Christmas, or other holiday if you celebrate something else. I also hope you were able to be around young children. I feel so blessed to have spent some time with a bunch of young cousins of all ages, from newborn to college aged.
One of my cousins, who has four children from 1 year to 10 years, moved into a new apartment just a few days before Christmas. What fun to be part of that chaos!
A bunch of my other cousins showed up at my sister's on Christmas Eve for a very short, but very intense party: kids back from college, the working young'uns off for the holiday, the rest of us just having a blast (that's a 70s word for a really good time). All in all, it was a great Christmas, hope you can all say the same.
Now, it's onto the new year. I hope 2013 is prosperous and fun for all my readers.
Stay positive, people, there are enough grouches out there.
I start the new year without the big fir tree that has been in my front yard since I moved here 18 years ago. We had to take it down in September. It was pretty much dead and a danger to the house and other trees. What a shock it was when it was gone. Wow. So much light. So foreign.
Some people tell me it looks better, the yard is bigger, and we all have more light. I don't know. I've decided to go through one whole year, four seasons, before deciding if I should replace it. It provided a lot of privacy, and it was where my fairies stay when they visit. I felt terrible destroying their little inn, but I had no choice. The gnome trees are still intact, though, and look pretty healthy.
The fir tree was pretty old, although we didn't count rings....hmm....the trunk it still out there. Now, if I were a really GOOD writer, I'd run out there, scrape off the snow and count rings. But, it's too cold out there. I'll wait for the thaw.
The tree was old when I moved here, I've been here for 18 years, and it took about 20 minutes to take it down. Twenty minutes to destroy years and years of growth.
Before and after pics...
Big difference, huh? Still not sure I like it. Have to decide what to put there, though. I can see right inside Isobel's house now! And when Gail's mother was hanging out on the porch yelling into her cellphone at 6 a.m., I could hear every word. I even went flying out the door to see what the problem was. Never heard her when the tree was there. Ah well.
Also said "good-bye" to Dusty, the old CB350 I had. He served me well. We (my sister and I) got him when my cousin's husband died in the 90s. The bike had been sitting in the basement collecting dust for about 8 years, my cousin told us (hence the name). And it didn't have a mark on it, except that one little dent "that you put on it, Beth," she told me.
"In 1978?" I responded with surprise.
"Yup."
Oh....figures.
Here's a picture of old Dusty, leaving my house for the last time.
The 1971 Honda CB350 was a toy for Jess, my cousin's husband. We're not sure, but we think he got it new and we think he got it just so he could take it apart to see how it worked. Those Hondas were very cheap in the day.
So, when I visited them on Bainbridge Island (which isn't really an island) in Washington state in 1978, Jess let me ride it. It was before the casino on the island. It was sparsely populated, very rural, and everyone knew everyone. I didn't have a motorcycle license, but Jess just balked at that.
So, I took the bike out for a bit, reveling in every second. What a feeling! I didn't have a bike back home, but I had ridden dirt bikes before.
I pulled away from their house, accelerated up the road a piece, took a right, up a hill, to a very quiet intersection. I slowed a bit too much on the turn, and...yup, you guessed it. I dropped the bike. I was a skinny little thing back then, about 100 lbs (don't ask how much I weigh now). I was only 21, no need to work out or anything. Just a skinny kid. I watched that bike go down, ever-so-slowly, not able to stop it. It was just too heavy.
Shoot...now what?
No cell phones in 1978.
Not a human in sight on Bainbridge Island in 1978 in the middle of the morning.
Not a house in sight.
Can't walk back, too far.
Will just have to pick that sucker up.
Somehow, I managed it. Got back to the house and there was Jess, with a pile of cigarette butts at his feet on the side of the road where he watched for me.
He said he was trying to decide if he should go look for me, but was more afraid we'd miss each other. Then he was trying to figure out how to tell his wife that he lost her cousin.
When we got custody of Dusty in the 90s, he went to my sister first. Then she upgraded and I got him. I only sold him recently to someone who is going to try to restore him. I hope so. He was a great little bike and I had a lot of fun with him. I only took him off the road a few years ago.
So, I start 2013 with a new motorcycle, a boat, and a few new pounds.
I still have some stories to tell about my first season with the boat, though, so stay tuned. Oh yeah, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary boating safety course. Now I know why they laughed so much at my boat posts.
Until next year, then...
Happy New Year to you and yours!
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