Memories, Wildlife & Weather

I mentioned previously that our long-time friend, Don Mullally, had passed away.  His obituary is in today's Caledonian-Record.
I also found an especially nice piece written about Don on the Seven Days site.  This photo came from that site, too - notice any resemblance to a young Frank Sinatra?  This picture was in the 1950's, about the time I first met Don.  

At the station over the years Dean Finney owned it, were fun and interesting people like Tom and Shirley Kibbe, Ken Green, Jim Edgerton, Stan Douglas, Doug Drown, Bob Hardy and Wayne Griffin.  There were lots of others - the turnover, except for Don, was frequent as announcers gained experience and moved on to larger stations -and of course some of them, like Dean Finney and Ken Green, have passed on.  We all like to remember those years from time to time.

Today reminds us that winter is nearly here.  I measured 4.5 inches of snow around 9:30 a.m. - I was a bit late because we had about 30 turkeys dining under our ornamental apple trees all morning, and I didn't want to interrupt their meal.  They were obviously very hungry - in fact, they returned for second helpings.  Those tiny little "apples" in the trees and on the ground seem to appeal to them.  They finally marched down our driveway and scampered across the road to an apple tree there, but the traffic finally discouraged them and I think they headed up towards Jamie and Marie's.   After they left, I went out on the deck to read the measurements in the snow tube for CoCoRaHS.  Since then, it has been snowing quite continuously, so I expect there's another inch or so now, at around noon.  The wind has died down, so it's just really a nice light snow falling - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Here is an interesting story that Andy Rudin sent the link for yesterday that I didn't get a chance to post.  Thanks, Andy.  We've been hearing more about this in the past few days, especially with the forecast of snow and the scheduled World Cup Ski Races this weekend at Killington.  The folks at the mountain must be dancing-on-the-slopes happy to see all this snow.  

There's a lot at stake at ski resorts every year here in Vermont, and the anxiety regarding changes in weather patterns increases as we see lighter snowfall and warmer temperatures.  Our snow today is a good start - if it holds.  Time will tell; but in the meantime, it looks like there will be plenty of natural and man-made snow for the skiers this weekend.