Category: Uncategorized

Saturday morning. Jay was off early to meet Mike who is going to do some work on the building at Laurens for us. There’s a light snow falling. Charlie, Hazel Tov and I are on the couch in front of the pellet stove and the great, west facing window. It’s a beautiful place to sit…
Read more

The Oneonta celebration of MLK’s birthday had been postponed because of stormy weather. It was held this past Sunday at Temple Beth El at the start of a few warm days following the visit of the polar vortex (which was as bad as it sounds). The beautiful sanctuary was packed and sun streamed in the…
Read more

Jay turned seventy yesterday. The evening before, he got a lovely birthday blessing from Rabbi Molly at our tiny congregation in Oneonta. There were 10 of us, including the rabbi, for Shabbat services and a pot-luck dinner. The contrast with our huge congregation at Beth Am is still a little stunning. I do miss the…
Read more

The talk in town as early as Thursday was all about the coming storm; what would be closed, what was canceled or postponed, how folks were preparing. We had a dusting Friday and another Saturday morning, but the main event was scheduled for last night. This morning it was clear that the wind we heard…
Read more

Everything seems a little brittle in the cold. The forecast calls for a low of -2 tomorrow and nothing above 30 degrees all week. We had about six inches of snow on Thursday, but it has compacted down in the cold. There are cold weather chores. We have to scrape ice from the windshield, and…
Read more

The new year roared in on wind. I woke to it in the night, and again in the dark morning. The wind bowed the big, west facing window so that the reflections danced on it. When it was light enough I could see the wind tearing at shingles over the garage (where we had just…
Read more

I met Desmond Fitzgerald in high school. We went to Mamaroneck High, a conventional, large, suburban school. In a sea of girls who seemed to care mostly about clothes and football players, Desmond was unique. It is almost certainly unfair to characterize most of the girls that way, but I’m sure it’s a fair characterization…
Read more

A longer day. Only by 30 seconds or so, but still. We had a couple of warm, clear days last week and it was a treat to see the sun, but for me, the bigger treat was seeing the clear sky at night and in the early morning. Venus is still spectacular, and there below…
Read more

Warm slippers, PJs and robe A pellet stove and two tons of pellets in the barn Coffee and oatmeal Shearling coat (thank you Jay), double knit hat (thank you Tamar), gloves (thank you Peter), good boots (thank you Keen’s) A car that starts every morning A sweet husband who plows the driveway Snow tires Friendly…
Read more

In the shortening days leading up to the solstice it’s dark when I wake, and on these cloudy mornings it’s darker still.  But as I sat down at the table with my coffee this morning, there was brilliant Venus in a break in the dark clouds, and below it to the left an odd smudge…
Read more