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Got up early and went with the birders to help out with the Christmas bird count. I stuck with the group through the morning, and it was snowing at least lightly the entire time. We saw lots of common "bird feeder" birds, a few geese on the wing, and several hawks. By the time I split to go home at 12:30, the only really interesting things were a great blue heron (and it's true what the zen koan says, when the heron stands in the snow, his color is different) and a tufted titmouse.
They dropped me at Starbucks on the Square because that's where Gary was going to pick me up. I called him and he said fifteen minutes, so I went into the Read Between the Lynes bookstore next door. It should be called Read Between the Lions, though. They always have at least a few plushies, but right now the shop is loaded with big cats: lions and tigers mostly, with a few life sized retriever dogs. They are lined up under the display tables peering up at you, each one is about four feet long. One of the proprietors asked if she could help me find anything, and I explained that I was just browsing and waiting for a ride but that the plushies were spectacular. She agreed and said how much they liked having them there. The big cats are only $50, which is tempting. I got a birthday gift in the form of a check that would buy one. They're made by "Melissa and Doug", a name I don't recognize, but each is a little different. The shop has named each, putting a collar with a handwritten tag around their neck: George, Fred, Amy, Harrison, and so forth.
The reason I cut out from the bird count wasn't just that I was cold (though I was,) but that we were supposed to go to the annual Sagittarian birthday celebration in Elgin, about 28 miles from home. Well, it kept snowing, and kept snowing. Gary had made food to take to the pot luck, and wrapped gifts, and we put the animals to bed a bit early and loaded up the car, though I was getting dubious. The snow was getting heavier, the weather forecast had changed to a Winter Snow Advisory, and just a county away they were issuing Heavy Snow Warning instead. Our expected accumulation was raised from under an inch, to one to two inches, to three to five inches in the course of the day. Gary really wanted to go, though, and he'd put a lot of energy into getting ready for it this week, so we started out. The roads were far from clear. People were driving like brainless idiots of course. About two miles from home, one of them made a turn in front of us, lost control, and slid off the roadway into a guardrail. We passed him and continued, and I felt our car slide. Gary was driving, and I said "Did we just skid?" and he said yes. A minute later he said "I've changed my mind." It took us 20 minutes to get home. We couldn't turn around because the traffic was too heavy and they were all tailgating like idiots, so we made a big circle on rural roads that were getting snowier even as we drove. That was about 5:30.
It's 9:30 now, and the snow hasn't stopped falling. In fact, it's coming down harder. The accumulation since we got back home is certainly moer than three inches. The total since last night is more than five inches. The Snow Advisory continues until noon tomorrow... I'm glad we cancelled the trip. When he called to tell the hostess we wouldn't be coming, she said calls were coming in one after another for the same reason.
Had a nice supper on some of the ill-fated pot luck dishes. Then we fired up the woodstove and watched Muppet Christmas Carol. Probably going to bed soon, we're both beat.
They dropped me at Starbucks on the Square because that's where Gary was going to pick me up. I called him and he said fifteen minutes, so I went into the Read Between the Lynes bookstore next door. It should be called Read Between the Lions, though. They always have at least a few plushies, but right now the shop is loaded with big cats: lions and tigers mostly, with a few life sized retriever dogs. They are lined up under the display tables peering up at you, each one is about four feet long. One of the proprietors asked if she could help me find anything, and I explained that I was just browsing and waiting for a ride but that the plushies were spectacular. She agreed and said how much they liked having them there. The big cats are only $50, which is tempting. I got a birthday gift in the form of a check that would buy one. They're made by "Melissa and Doug", a name I don't recognize, but each is a little different. The shop has named each, putting a collar with a handwritten tag around their neck: George, Fred, Amy, Harrison, and so forth.
The reason I cut out from the bird count wasn't just that I was cold (though I was,) but that we were supposed to go to the annual Sagittarian birthday celebration in Elgin, about 28 miles from home. Well, it kept snowing, and kept snowing. Gary had made food to take to the pot luck, and wrapped gifts, and we put the animals to bed a bit early and loaded up the car, though I was getting dubious. The snow was getting heavier, the weather forecast had changed to a Winter Snow Advisory, and just a county away they were issuing Heavy Snow Warning instead. Our expected accumulation was raised from under an inch, to one to two inches, to three to five inches in the course of the day. Gary really wanted to go, though, and he'd put a lot of energy into getting ready for it this week, so we started out. The roads were far from clear. People were driving like brainless idiots of course. About two miles from home, one of them made a turn in front of us, lost control, and slid off the roadway into a guardrail. We passed him and continued, and I felt our car slide. Gary was driving, and I said "Did we just skid?" and he said yes. A minute later he said "I've changed my mind." It took us 20 minutes to get home. We couldn't turn around because the traffic was too heavy and they were all tailgating like idiots, so we made a big circle on rural roads that were getting snowier even as we drove. That was about 5:30.
It's 9:30 now, and the snow hasn't stopped falling. In fact, it's coming down harder. The accumulation since we got back home is certainly moer than three inches. The total since last night is more than five inches. The Snow Advisory continues until noon tomorrow... I'm glad we cancelled the trip. When he called to tell the hostess we wouldn't be coming, she said calls were coming in one after another for the same reason.
Had a nice supper on some of the ill-fated pot luck dishes. Then we fired up the woodstove and watched Muppet Christmas Carol. Probably going to bed soon, we're both beat.
