Tim upped his game to get out of work. He heard there was a storm coming so went cross country skiing, had a freak accident and broke 3 vertebrae, fractured his skull and paralyzed one vocal cord. End result, he can’t snow blow or shout. Lucky me. In all seriousness, I am happy and lucky he is alive and up and about.
But enough of that. Another storm came through. As the snow lightened, I fired up the snow blower. I cleared the driveway, the mountain the snow plow created at the end of the driveway, and the path to the cabin. When I was as far as I could be from home, the drive train stopped working. At least I was finished but I fretted. I went to bed watching videos of snow blower repairs. I had to rebuild the drive train a few years ago after someone who won’t be mentioned replaced a shear pin with a bolt. But I forgot everything I had learned for that repair.
So after lunch, when the temperature rose to the low 20’s, I headed back to the cabin with tools and shear pins in a bag. It’s not easy doing small engine repair in the cold and I have the gloves to prove it.
Anyhow, when I finally got the cover off all looked well and I couldn’t find a shear pin. Then I started doubting my repair. Nothing in the Snapper manual described a shear pin as a cause for no power, they only mentioned belts, cables and discs. But then, while spinning the axle, I saw it, an empty hole on the shaft just begging for a shear pin. The repair was easier than putting the plate back over the gears with gloves and the wrong tools but I started her up and drove off into the sunshine.
When I got home, all Tim could say was that I looked a mess and had grease on my face. Reminds me of my granddaughter’s favorite book, The Paper Bag Princess. Needless to say, I did not call him a bum.
The birds are fed, the wood box is full and I finally could get back to knitting. I made two pairs of socks and a sweet earflap hat. Topped it off with a delicious one pot stroganoff in my instant pot. All is well.
Not to be daunted by frigid temperatures, people in northern climates make the best of the long, cold winter. Yesterday was the last day of Winter Carnival in Saranac Lake which had its grand finale with the annual parade. As always, my favorite group was The Lawn Chair Ladies and you can see why.
2022 Lawn Chair Ladies
Their average age is creeping up, along with me, and they have ditched the webbed aluminum chairs for the newer, lighter variety. Always a hoot. I wrote about it in 2014 here.
Gym bear
This guy greets us at the pool where we swim a few times a week. With a little more snow, he may hibernate.
Wondering just how strong the roof is
But the big news in the rural Adirondacks is we finally have decent internet, no thanks to the NY Broadband initiative, which can’t even seem to map out who does and does not have internet, despite our multiple letters and emails.
I named our new Starlink network, “ThanksElon”. It really is a game changer. Now the question is, how will we spend all that time we gain instead of having to wait for web pages or movies to buffer and load.
Hopefully we won’t waste it by simply surfing more. I have to improve my installation because options were limited when there was two feet of snow on the ground and roofs. Even so, it’s still at least triple the speed of our old setup.
Our family winter gathering has come and gone; we tested, we laughed, we cried and, generally had a great time. We had planned a VRBO trip until the landlord tried to screw us. VRBO did nothing, but AMEX came in and saved the day. Amex refunded my first trip and through Air BNB we found a mansion to stay in with a heating system that sang and clanged us to sleep. Unlike our first rental, when a storm was predicted, the Air BNB landlord offered us another night for free! Enough said.
Storm King sculpture park
We spent a frigid day walking around the sculptures in Storm King, played Go Fish countless times and marveled at how funny 3-8 year old could be playing charades.
We returned home to a foot of snow that had to be cleared to pull into the driveway. Sub zero temperatures have settled in.
Always scary when the ice starts to creep inside.
But we have been able to ski out our door and the snow is beautiful.
It’s winter in the north country. So naturally, we headed further north, for our first trip to Canada, in two years.
Are we moving?
After completing paperwork and Covid testing, we arrived in Lévis, a ferry ride away from Quebec City. The St. Lawrence River still had plenty of commercial and ice traffic to watch and we took a few ferry rides back and forth.
Most of our activities took place outdoors and when we had to venture inside, proof of vaccination was required.
So real
But there was plenty to do outdoors and we were prepared for cold weather. We spent hours walking around the city, visiting the outdoor German Christmas Market and tucking in to warm up periodically.
We visited an interesting exhibit in the Musée de Civilisation about merde, more commonly known as shit! It actually was very informative although we skipped the aroma exhibit. Too much of the world lacks access to clean water and sanitation.
Musée de civilisation
Back in Lévis, there was a light show in a park just next to our AirBNB, complete with ice sculptures.
On our way home we skated in the magical Domain du Foret Perdu, or the lost forest, where there were 15 km of ice skating trails through the woods. They even have a Zamboni, so the ice was smooth.
Not smooth enough for me however. I took a face plant where I truly landed flat on my face, luckily in a snow back. No broken bones.
Once home, we enjoyed a quiet holiday. The evergreens were decorated, inside and out, and the geraniums are blooming, despite the snow outside.
Just as the Omicron variant arrived, I was packing my bags for a once in a lifetime trip to Iceland, with my daughter. My first real trip since 2019!
Covid tests were scheduled for home and in Iceland. Then the CDC classified Iceland as very high risk for Covid. But I live in a place at very high risk. Our adventures would be focused on outdoor activities, during the six hours of daylight (10:45 to 4:45). We were both fully vaccinated and boosted so there was no time like the present. Off we went. As I wait for my post travel final Covid test, it was totally worth it.
First of all, just to spend this time with my adult daughter was a gift. In my opinion, we are excellent travel companions. She may think otherwise because I do spend an inordinate amount of time searching my pockets for keys, masks, credit cards, etc. But, in my defense, there were too many pockets because we always wore two layers of pants, and a few jackets to be able to enjoy the outdoors.
We took a red eye and our first stop upon arrival was the Blue Lagoon, thermal pools fed with warm water from the nearby geothermal plant. Although this is a popular tourist destination, it was a fun introduction to Iceland. We applied various concoctions to our faces and enjoyed a glass of Prosecco while soaking.
We stayed nearby for a couple of nights and took day trips to lighthouses, volcanoes, waterfalls, and hot springs while we slept beneath the glow and steam (and sulphuric odor) of the geothermal plant. We soaked in hot springs, including one fed by a geysir behind a fence, nearly every day and had the raisin fingers to show for it.
There were plenty of working lighthouses scattered around the country. This one was on a huge massif with a beautiful view of a stretch of black sand beach. The one below was open and we climbed to the top where a fresnel lens turned.
There is frequent seismic activity in the land of fire and ice, hence the volcanoes and hot springs. This volcano erupted in March 2021 and the lava field has fissures that are still steaming.
We explored a few waterfalls including one we were able to walk under. We also crossed a bridge between two continental plates that are moving apart. We tried to see what would happen to the bridge as that occurs but looks like they will have to dismantle part of it. The movement is a few centimeters a year!
Every village had a church. Sometimes, we couldn’t tell where the congregation would possibly come from.
The real goal of the trip, besides spending time with my daughter and soaking our cares away, was to try to glimpse the northern lights. We had apps with predictions the lights and clear skies. One night, conditions looked good, but not where we were at the moment. So we hopped in the car and drove south to clear skies without ambient light. We saw a faint streak of green in the sky and couldn’t believe our luck. There were the northern lights on our second night. The trip was complete. Hotels offer northern light wakeup calls. We were called once at about 1:30 am but they were gone by the time I got outside and I couldn’t find my glasses anyway. Then we slept in. Easy to do when sunrise is 10:45.
The plot thickened when US international guidelines were tightened mid-week. Luckily we had our departure test within a day anyway. Free, painless with rapid results. And done in a circle of 10 strangers.
The worst weather came on our last day as we explored Reykavik, as much as we could with 70 mph wind gusts and walkways of sheer ice. We checked out the flea market and one of the most unusual museums in the world. Nuf said.
It was such a beautiful country and an easy place to visit even though I never learned a word of the language other than thank you. Takk fryir Iceland for reintroducing me to adventure.
I do best on country roads where I may see another car every five minutes or so.
This thought came to me as I drove downstate in increasingly heavy traffic. I knew I had to get off the Cross Island Parkway onto the Long Island Expressway. I used to commute here in my earlier days and was accustomed to the road and its traffic patterns.
Like a good doobie, I got into the right lane early so I would be well positioned for the exit. Then I became annoyed, and even a little angry, as more and more cars pulled into the right lane at the last minute. This made me look up queue theory and traffic patterns.
Apparently it is predictable and even preferred that you wait until close to the last minute to merge. If everyone got into the right lane early, there would be a crawling lane of traffic for miles. By pulling in late, traffic is allowed to flow more smoothly. And here I was chalking it up to entitlement and all sorts of negative things.
So please don’t honk at me the next time I cut you off in a merge. I’m just keeping traffic flowing. Or as Tim likes to say, zapping you.
In the meantime, I will stick to the country, where the biggest problems are deer, turkeys, and even bears crossing the road.
This could relate to many things, including me, but today I am talking about deciduous trees.
Fall in the Adirondacks is glorious and brief. Catch it while you can. Cold fronts with high winds blow the remaining leaves off the trees, which happened again this year.
There’s often a rainbow after rainy weather and stormy skies.
And sunsets from the cabin are stunning. It’s nice to be home to enjoy these views.
We returned home and were greeted by the trees just starting to change color. We peep while going about our regular activities, often at high speed.
Used to be an iconic red barn here herePretty even at 55 mphHeaded downhill to Cascade MountainMy “fishing hole” where I have never caught a fishFire Island Lighthouse
And finally, a lighthouse. I joined my daughter on Long Island and we walked the barrier beach to this beauty. Tim and I spent one winter on Fire Island (heaven) and this was our backyard view!
Today was moving day. When I came up the hill after bringing a bag to the cove, I was greeted by this. The magic of Seguin. I guess I must come back. It’s a sign.
Island and North Country Life 