Scattered Thoughts . . .

P arts of downtown Waterbury are under water again.  There are photos of this all over Facebook but I don't want to share other people's photos on my blog so you'll need to find the photos on Facebook.  In addition to extensive property damage to homes that were damaged just last July, there are significant road closures mostly due to the roads being washed out.  Some of the road closures are to keep people out of the areas that are still under water. Below is a map of northern Vermont showing the road closures.  As you can see, there is a big concentration of road closures in Waterbury.   At the moment, the status of our barbeque scheduled for Saturday is unknown.  Liza and Whitney are both trapped with no way to get out of there immediate area.  This may change by later today or tomorrow but, for now, they cannot go anywhere. We had some water in the house at a known roof leak.  Actually, it is a leak around the furnace flue.  Every fe...

The day after our cruise on Lake Champlain, we did some typical tourist sightseeing around Waterbury with Lukey and Kenzie.  It was a quiet weekday morning so we beat the tourist crowd.   We started at Cold Hollow Cider Mill... Tasting the apple cider...   I found it to be a little bitter on this day but the taste does vary from season to season. After tasting the apple cider, we roamed around the store looking for things to purchase.  (We found plenty and went home with plenty.) Making the cider donuts... The kids and Gee had planned on getting some apple cider slushies but the slushie machine was being cleaned so they had no slushies available.  We did, however, get a dozen freshly made apple cider donuts instead of the slushies...  oh...  and quite a few other products that would have been purchased regardless of whether we got slushies or not. This is a view from out behind the cider mill looking toward the Worcester Range (and our house)...

We've had a few new regular visitors to our backyard lately but this morning was the first time I had any luck in capturing a photo of these new visitors.   We have a couple of rabbits who now visit regularly but I haven't been able to get any photos of them.  We also have a large pileated woodpecker who visits the yard daily but he has been very skittish whenever I have tried to get close with my camera.   Our other regular visitor is a ground hog and I managed to capture a photo of him this morning through one of our windows.  I tried to step outdoors to get the photo but he was about to run off due to the tiny bit of noise I made with the door so I opted to shoot through a closed window and window screen.  This made for a rather blurry image but the image is still decent.   When I first noticed him in the yard this morning as I was walking past our living room window, I thought he was one of the neighborhood cats.  When I went to the ...

This past Saturday morning, Kenzie and Gee ran a 5K run together.  This was their second year running in this particular event and it was obvious that they enjoyed themselves again this year!  I enjoyed being there too! I had heard on the news that 1200 people ran in this year's Girls on the Run 5K event.  Just like last year, Kenzie and Gee were in the first of four groups for the staggered start.  They were near the front of the pack at the start as well as at the finish.   We arrived at the fairgrounds at 7:30 in the morning as the gates opened.  This allowed us to get a front row parking spot as well as allowed us to beat the traffic getting into the fairgrounds.  It also allowed Kenzie and Gee to get prepared and focused for their run.   As you can see in the photo, below, Kenzie was wound up and ready to go when we arrived...  she got some good air for this photo... Below, Kenzie's coach is pinning Kenzie's name and number ont...

Sometime after midnight last night, I got up out of bed and wandered to the bathroom.  On my way to the bathroom, I passed by one of our windows and instantly noticed that the ground was covered in white stuff! This morning, I awoke to a little snow squall outside our windows and everything was blanketed in clean, soft white...   It is not yet after Memorial Day weekend so this snowy weather should come as no surprise.  After all, we are almost as far north as southern Alaska (54° latitude vs 45° latitude) .  Sheila, however, is in a bit of a lousy mood over the snow.  She's usually done with snow falling from the sky by mid-January.  Personally, I like when the muddy brown spring landscape is covered in fresh snow.  The snow hides the lack of vegetation and all the mud while it blankets everything in a clean soft look.  Plus, spring snow always melts on its own requiring absolutely no shoveling (almost always anyway). On the pos...

Sheila and I started our weekend (last weekend) by doing some Christmas shopping on Saturday morning.  Then we headed to lunch at The Longhorn restaurant.  We sat at the bar, had a few drinks and appetizers, and then ate lunch while we watched a Florida Gators basketball game.  It was a nice morning and afternoon!   We headed back to Waterbury in mid-afternoon because Lukey and Kenzie were marching in a parade after dark.   This parade was Waterbury's 10th annual "River of Light" parade.  The parade started 10 years ago as a one-time art project for the local primary school.  The community loved the idea so, over the years, this parade of light has grown and become a large annual community event.  As a matter of fact, we overheard surprised and excited tourists who were staying in Waterbury express their delight at learning of this rather unusual annual community event so I'd say this is a successful tourist event as well as a commu...