First Snow

         We had our first snow this week. It was fun to watch Raini run and jump and snap at the fluffy fat flakes as they fell. (Say fluffy fat flakes three times fast!)    

     

          Once it started to accumulate, Raini raced through the yard, kicking up snow behind her. I laughed but by then it was too dark for me to get any pictures.

          The forecast was for it to turn to rain overnight so on my last trip out with the girls for the evening, I took a flashlight. Between that and the porch light, I tried to get a picture of the snow for you. I didn’t want you to miss it.

          I need not have worried. The forecasters were wrong. We never got any rain and the snow was still there in the morning, but it didn’t last long. 

          Since I have more Riani pictures in the file this week, let’s keep going with her.

          With the weather turning cooler, the boys, Spitfire, Blackie, and Tiger, have been spending more time in the house. Spitfire has developed a love of Raini’s bed under my desk and lays in it whenever it’s empty.

Raini wasn’t and isn’t happy about this arrangement. At first, she tried barking at him to get him to move. 

He just looked at her. When she nipped his leg, he hissed and swatted at her.

          She went around to the other side and I was almost certain she was going to pull the bed out from under him, but she only thought about it.

          It’s Raini’s bed so I picked Spitfire up. Once Raini was settled, I put him down. He still wanted to lay in the bed and Raini let him lay with her. 

I’ve even seen Raini climb in next to Spitfire if he was there first, but not often. Most of the time she’ll just go find someplace else to lay. Her second favorite spot is a chair at the table.

To give Raini a place to lay, I went into the other room and brought out another bed for her to lay in. I put this one under the table where it would be out of the way.

          But under my desk is her favorite place to be.

          The bed under the table makes for a good hiding spot when she has a yummy she doesn’t want to share with Bondi. Like say, for instance, a strawberry jam jar.

          “Peg! What’s that white stuff all over the floor‽” you wanna know.

          Yeah. Another stuffed animal bites the dust! 

          But don’t fret. I’ve found a way to give the stuffing new life.

          “How’s that?” you ask.

          I’ll use it to pad a box I send to my beautiful West Virginia gal. She’ll use it in the things she makes.

          We had a bunch of running this week.

          Bondi had a vet appointment to get a shot so that was one trip to Towanda.

          The next day Mike had an appointment in Towanda with the Area Agency on Aging. They’ll compare your Medicare plans and see if there’s a better deal for you out there.

          Mike always tries to compare plans on his own but he gets so confused. He saw a commercial on TV about a place to call to get help (this was before we made the appointment with AAA). He called. That was a M-I-S-T-A-K-E mis—take! He’s been getting a dozen or more calls a day.

          “He could block them,” you say.

          He’s been doing that. He’s blocked about two hundred numbers but they just keep calling on a different number. Mike even tried telling them to take him off the list and don’t call anymore but who knows how many companies have his number.

          On our way to Towanda we got behind a long line of trucks carrying equipment for the gas wells.

“Why are they going so slow?” Mike wondered.

          I didn’t care why. “Better to go slow and be safe,” I told him. The slow ride down the mountain gave me a chance to see all the places Bittersweet can grow. 

          The collision repair places are full to overflowing this time of year and right here is the reason why. No telling how many times he got run over but there isn’t much left of this poor guy.

          “Eww, Peg! We didn’t need to see that!” you say.

          I know, right! But everyone who drove past here got to see this, unless you’re like my beautiful old friend, Carolyn.

          We were going someplace and I always try to identify what’s been hit on the road. “What was that?” I asked her.

          “I don’t know,” she said. “I always look the other way.”

          We had to wait when we got to AAA because Mike believes that if we’re not at least a half hour early then we’re late. We ended up waiting about forty minutes but since I had a book I was reading I didn’t mind too much.

          “What are you reading now?” you wanna know.

          I’m so glad you asked! I’m reading The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. It’s a novel with Harry Bosch in it. He’s not the main character but LAPD detective Renee Ballard has enlisted his aid in helping her solve a murder. You might not know that name but Bosch was a detective show that Mike and I got hooked on, despite the strong language. At any rate, this book has kept me turning pages until the wee hours of the morning.

          When it was our turn to see Janice, the lady we had an appointment with at Area Agency on Aging, we discussed options and she found a plan for Mike that would save us seven hundred dollars a year on his prescriptions.

          “I always get so confused about this stuff,” Mike told Janice.

          I laughed. Mike looked at me. “Tell her about the mistake you made.”

          Mike told her about calling a phone number he saw advertised on TV. “Hopefully they’ll stop calling after the December deadline.”

          “Not necessarily,” she told him. I don’t remember why she said, but Googling it I see you have until January fifteenth.  The December deadline is if you want to have the coverage go into effect by January first. 

          On the way home I spot a hawk sitting in a tree beside the road. “That’s how they get killed,” I told Mike. “They dive for prey and get killed diving in front of vehicles.”

           We hit snow flurries as we were getting into Wyalusing.

A flock of birds took flight from a tree right in front of us.

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge, climbing to our mountain home. 

For as hard as the flurries were coming down, we didn’t get any accumulation out of it.

          We drove past our house and down to see the tower they put up on the gas pad for the new wells they’re drilling.

          “Are they drilling closer to us?” Sally asked on our morning love call.

          “No, why?” I asked.

          “Because I don’t remember ever looking out my window and being able to see the tower before.”

          “Nope. It’s right on the same pad. Maybe it’s a taller tower?” I suggested. I didn’t pay any attention to it when they put the first well in but I noticed too that you could see this one over the tree line.

          Friday was our third trip out. Three days in a row is exhausting for a homebody like me. This time we went through Towanda and on up to Sayre. Mike had a post-op checkup with Dr. Barrett, the surgeon who repaired his hernia.

          Close to where I saw the hawk the day before, I see a dead hawk beside the road. Too sad.

          Party balloons on the loose.     

  

Again, we were early and had to wait. Getting lost in a good book makes the time pass quickly.

Mike is doing great and just has a weight limit of lifting no more than twenty-five pounds for another month or so until he’s completely healed.

          On the way home I took a few more pictures.

          A yellow tabby like our Tiger. “Cats that hunt beside the road don’t live long either,” I stated the obvious. I sure hope I didn’t jinx him!

          The sun’s rays over the valley. 

          A hawk taking flight.

          Our beautiful Susquehanna. “Some days the surface is just like glass,” I told Mike.

          “Some days there’s no wind,” he said.

          After a whole day of rain our pond is full to almost overflowing.

          Fruit of the ornamental Bradford Pear.

          And those are the only other pictures I took around our house.

          I did take more than four hundred pictures at our church’s Harvest Dinner. A large part of those were portraits for our church directory.  

          Here’s what handsome, wonderful, generous, kind, caring, and all-around fabulous neighbors look like. I love the Kipps.

          And Shawn, after I took his and his wife’s photo, made sure I wasn’t escaping without having my picture taken, too!

“What, no crafting this week?” you ask.

I did! But with all the running, not as much as I would’ve liked. I made two distressed WELCOME signs. The lady, a cousin to one of my church sisters, ordered two the same.

          “Why didn’t you make them the same?” Mike questioned when I finished.

          “I couldn’t match the stain because the pigments settled in my old can of stain. If she’s not happy with them, she doesn’t have to buy them and I’ll try again.” That would mean starting from scratch and staining both boards at the same time, out of a new can of stain, but I could try to sell these elsewhere.

          I delivered them on Sunday. “They’re even nicer than in the picture,” she said.

          I was so glad to hear that!

          “What’s next?” you ask.

          I’m so glad you asked!

          I don’t have any confirmed porch sign orders but I do have two ladies who’re thinking about it. In the meantime, I think I’d like to gift my family and friends with my time and talent by making Christmas cards this year.

          Not much of a gift, you say.

          Yeah, well, that’s all you’re getting this year.

          I’ve been spending hours at my computer being overwhelmed by the vast quantity of ideas that popped up in my search. I hardly know where to begin, but I’m excited to try.

          Speaking of Christmas cards, I love what one of my Facebook friends is doing. “In lieu of gifts,” she wrote, “send me a card with your favorite recipe and I’ll send you one back with my favorite recipe.”

          I like being on this end of that deal. I only have to do one card. Judging by the responses she got she’ll be writing recipes out from now until Valentine’s Day!

>>>*<<<

          I want to end this week by telling you two things about last week’s letter blog.

          First, I missed posting two pictures of Raini playing with my shirt and added them after a bunch of you had already read it.

          Second, my Miss Rosie. “Do you know how much you look like your mother in that picture?” she asked. “Everyone’s going to ask who that strange man is that Peg’s kissing!”

          I laughed. I’d be proud to look like my beautiful mother.     

 

          Let’s call this one done!