Inauguration Day

There are lots of ways today is a momentous day for America. It brings to an end an administration with complete disregard for the U.S. constitution, that wallowed in the arrogance of power and anti-intellectualism. And it ushers in a new chapter in U.S. history. President Obama even included people like me, for what I believe is the first time, i.e. non-believers. But there is another personal marker for me with our new president. Barak Obama (b. 1961) is the first president younger than I am (b. 1952). So "the touch has been passed to a new generation ..."

Now that's cold ...

Yes, that's the thermometer I keep on the screen porch.

A week or so ago, I snowshoed the trail to Connery Pond. This trail starts near the road to Lake Placid, goes past Connery Pond, touches Lake Placid, and eventually leads to the TOP of Whiteface Mountain. But the first 3 or so miles are actually flat. Flat as in South Jersey flat. I really mean it this time, it is pretty flat and easy.

The trail is an old logging road, so it's wide (8'-10') as well. Lots of people cross country ski this trail. I met only one person while I was on the trail and one starting out as I was finishing. This was on a Saturday so it isn't a heavily use trail.

The views of Whiteface were spectacular. We had gotten a few inches of new snow the day before and it was cold overnight, single digits, so there was lots of frost on the trees. This combined with the new snow made the mountains completely white. Whiteface looked like Mt. Fuji.

Last night it was supposed to be -22F.

Be well!

Overnight we got 4" and waiting for another 8" by tomorrow!

Happy New Year

I had a quiet Christmas and New Years. Deb's colleague Kris visited for a few days between the holidays. We had the chance to go snowshoeing and do some site seeing. It was a really enjoyable visit.

New Years Eve was spent with Deb and her sister Dana, in Saranac Lake's for their First Night celebration. For a $10 pass, they had a number of venues featuring a wide variety of music. We saw a local madrigal group and a local Celtic band. Denise and I had see the Celtic band at McDougal's pub (only 5 miles away from Bleak House, at the Hungry Trout Restaurant). By 9:00 pm it was -2º so we made it an early night.

I listen to WUMB radio a lot. It's an (almost) 24/7 "folk music" station operated by U. Mass. -Boston. I get it through streaming audio on the web and run it into my stereo. Last sunday some one mentioned this quote from President and Five Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children....
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense.
Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross."

Be well my friends.