What happened to winter?

The hot question of the year, is what exactly did the groundhog see to cancel out winter altogether.  It's not that I mind the miniscule heating bills, or even the fact that there are daffodils and birds chirping in February, but C'MON MAN!  So watch for a big snowstorm this week as I drive up north for a couple of days - just my luck.

 

The big news of the year was just made official.  David is going to retire!  Congratulations.  We just got off the phone with David and Paula and they sound very excited!  Of course.  Who wouldn't be?  You earned it.

 

Earlier today, Mary and I went to visit Margaret's new apartment, which is very nice, and backs up to a small park, in a neighborhood called Bloomingdale.  Very nice.  We also talked to Annie and Joe today - a hat trick.  Annie has her first customer for her new small business, and she is involved with some exciting work projects.  Joe called to talk about his job hunt, and he's coming down in a few weeks to meet with folks in a couple of different government offices. 

 

We had a real nice trip up to Ottawa, staying in our old house.  We did not do much of the planned winter sports activities, since the canal was closed to skating and our skiing outing was interrupted by our host falling and dislocating his shoulder.  My standard line in starting out these kinds of activities is "My goal is to stay out of the hospital."  And, that;s what I said, but for the first time, we actually ended up going to the hospital.  Not sure I'm going to ever kid around like that again.

 

Still it was nice to see the place, walk around and go to our familiar haunts, like the French cafe and our local pub.  And it was especially nice to hang out with our firends in our old house.  And that Margaret and her friend Andrew were able to be there too!

 

Big news from Dundee area this week as well, with Daniel's birthday.  Way to go!!  Andrew got a nice recognition at work, aand Claire is tearing up the volleyball court.

 

Mary and I spent yesterday helping out a Habitat for Humanity house-building activity, through church.  It was our first time ever doing that (even though our house in Pittsfield was along the same lines.)  We did use a table saw and a power hammer for the first time.  Wish I had done that before we were working on our house.  We met the homeowner who was working as well.  He's an Ethiopian guy.  I tried to imagine him explaining to his family back home that he came to this country with his wifer and two daughters, applied to buy a house and a bunch of Americans spent nine months volunteering and helping him renovate his new house.  I seem to remember Jeffrey doing Habitat projects with his Boy Scout troop.

 

It's been work, work, work pretty much for the last month.  We did watch the Oscars and our favorites didn't win, just like the Super Bowl.

 

But spring training has started.  Hope springs eternal. 

 

Love from down here.