BAD WEATHER SUNDAYS

When you don't have to go out in the snow, sleet or rain, bad weather can be fun. Today is one of those days . A kind of cliff hanger football game with the Patriot's going for their 13th straight win of the year; an automobile accident involving two cars right in front of our house as a result of the slippery conditions; bringing one car's occupants into the house to keep them warm and calm them down was rewarding in a vicarious way; finding time to write a few Christmas cards and ready them for mailing; and deciding that I will no longer send Christmas letters after 41 years of doing so, made the day really special. A weekend guest, my daughter and a neighbor took care of the shoveling and snow moving. I decided there are, indeed, a few perks to getting old...not many, but a few. I, at least, even though I was prevented from going out, could cook a warm and filling breakfast for the shovelers when they finally got back into the house.

My daughter insisted on perfecting a pizzelle recipe so my guest and I had the opportunity to gobble up all her several test batches. It made her striving for perfection great for us, though we thought each batch was delicious!

My guest helped me with some maintenance on my computers though I thought they had been working pretty well. I had the time and nudging to get to some things taken care of which I would have liked to have done a long time ago but just never got to do by myself. It is like a Murphy's Law that a techie can see more things than you ever knew were there.

My squirreling habits also work in favor of a day like this one. There is always too much in this house but, on days when you can't really go out safely, having a variable stock is quite reassuring. As long as we have power, we can eat for weeks.

WATCHING THE LEAVES FALL

Once someone told me he was bored, just sitting, watching the grass grow. Today, sitting at the computer, I'm watching the yellowish maple leaves fall, trying to decide if it is snow or rain falling. I think it is sleet, pushing me into hunker-down mode, wishing it was spring. Neighbors have piled leaves all along the sidewalks, which the town is supposed to vacuum up. One year it rained and froze the piles for the entire winter. My mind goes back and pictures the annoyance it was then, assuming it the same this year.

There is a black roof top on a garage, two houses behind me, speckled with yellow leaves, gradually filling like a puzzle. Every once and a while a breeze blows more leaves down, covering more of the roof. Ah, that white stuff is beginning to accumulate. The temperature is 38 degrees. I tell the white stuff to melt! Like our current Administration, it ignores me and keeps piling up until the roof is now all white. The color of the leaves has gone just as our Autumn is fading.

The TV tells me that this is one of the busiest travel days, listing all the negatives of travel. I hunker down more and wrap myself in warm clothing, grateful that I don't have to fight the world outside right now. As I watch the talking heads on TV, misleading us all with their biases and misinformation, I revel that this is just the first snow, on fairly warm ground, rather than cyclone, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, wildfire or blizzard.