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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The familiar road signs each come into focus along 88: Schoharie, Cobleskill, Richmondville, Worchester, Schenevus, Colliersville and Cooperstown, Oneonta. Between the signs there are long stretches of country dark. The headlights reflect on the snow alongside the road, but the road itself is clear. And dark. In the Bay Area it’s hard to remember such…
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Venus is brilliant in the early morning sky, clearly the disc of a planet, not a far off star. It’s so lovely against the pale blue of the eastern sky, peeking between deep grey clouds. To the southwest the stars of Orion are already starting to fade. I think about the stars and planets that…
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Late autumn seems more beautiful to me than the earlier part of the season this year. We didn’t have the cold nights in early October that produce brilliant reds and yellows. The colors were muted, and not all that interesting. But now, with a lot of leaves blown down by several days of high winds,…
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The grass grows more slowly. There’s plenty of rain, but the shorter, colder days inhibit growth. The plants all seem to know it’s time to start conserving resources, to drastically reduce the energy output that goes into growth. For the maples, oaks, poplars and their deciduous kin there will be no more photosynthesis for months. …
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