A Quiet Friday

Last night, the temps had gotten warm enough for me to scrape all of the ice off the back deck.

This made me so happy, as it is really hard to trounce outside on a slippery deck to grab firewood from the woodshed. I have fallen a couple of times when bounding out the door without thinking (or checking!) that the deck might be icy.

After cleaning the deck off, I loaded the little wood rack next to the stove and filled the wood bag with some more wood....thinking I wouldn't need any more firewood until late today.

I stayed up late last night, as Mark had recorded the Sabres game and he wanted to show me a terrible brawl that erupted early in the game. Chris Drury, of the Sabres, had let go of the puck, and an Ottawa Senator came up from behind, and smashed into his head....Chris looked as though he was a victim of whiplash....his helmet flew off his head and onto the ice, and he went head down next to it. Immediately, blood began to flow. The Senator that did this (my personal opinion? He ought to be taken out back and SHOT!) was attacked by a Sabres player, then ALL the players on the ice were brawling. It was horrible....and the bottom line is that Chris is suffering all the symptoms of a concussion, meaning he cannot play for a time. (he is a leading goal scorer) The coach for the Senators said the hit was a legal one, and he was terribly upset with the Buffalo coach for sending out the Sabres "roughnecks" to get even. Hello? Does this guy have *no* concept of team LOYALTY? Ugh....Anyway, after seeing this, I could not sleep...I was just too stirred up! The last time I gazed at my clock, it said 11:39.

Murphy insisted that it was time to get up at 5:30am! I felt like crying, but just kept my eyes closed, thinking he would perhaps go back to sleep. No such luck!

When I turned on the light outside the back door, guess what I saw? Yup, snow. And, LOTS of it! There were also pretty icicle decorations, too!

Well, after my six hours of sleep, I was just too tired to deal with the snow, so I shoveled just a little path so the boys and I could go outside without getting all wet in the snow!


As I was looking at weather sites online today, I came across a question someone wrote in that I had also wondered about....HOW can ice and icicles melt when the temperatures have been so bitterly cold? Well, there is this "thing" known as sublimation! Sublimation means that ice can change from a solid to a gas without going through a liquid phase. This happens when the air is extremely dry. Now, you know! Isn't that grand?

I took this picture this afternoon....all of the tracks in the snow are from deer. At this point, the snow is well above my knees, and I am not necessarily prone to shoveling little paths in the woods to stroll on a winter's day! But, wouldn't a snowmobile be fun? Perhaps next year, *IF* we get *real* snow again!

As the sun began to head over the western mountain, I just couldn't resist the pattern in the snow....the trees casting their shadows was so pretty.

I did spend a couple of hours outside today, shoveling snow and cleaning off the truck and Explorer....grrr.....yes, the Explorer was left outside. Somehow, I was clueless to the latest bout of snow! It wasn't too bad, although it looked like we got about 5 inches. Mark said there wasn't that much, as when he plowed, the driveway had more like maybe 3 inches on it. It doesn't matter, as my poor little shovel and I worked our way through about 8 or 10 inches where the snow all drifted in the yard and around the buildings. Ah well, that is how I am working out this winter!

Most of today was spent inside the house looking out. The weather station at the ski mountain is saying that our current wind speed is about 8 MPH. I would like to beg to differ, as it is bitter, BITTER out there! The wind keeps whistling around the house, and it sounds like more than 8 MPH! The current temperature is all of 8 degrees, so with that wind, it is unbearable!

I have decided that I really need to work on some kind of a bird feeder so I can resume feeding the birds. Last winter, I used a window mounted feeder on the second story bedroom window, but in the spring, it took some serious scrubbing to wash all the pooh off the siding. I don't want to do that again, but need to think of something that will discourage squirrels. (and bears!)