Remember I told you about the new lunch counter in Harry's True Value Hardware in Cabot? Here's the story. Julie Ackermann, who owns Harry's with her husband, Walt, has opened space at the back of the store, open seven days a week: Monday - Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sundays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Julie says she serves regular breakfast items like bacon and eggs, and keeps things simple with burgers, hotdogs and sandwiches at lunch. She said
there's usually a daily "special" such as soup or meat and potatoes on the lunch menu. Julie said people seem to want to name the place, but so far she's just calling it their lunch counter.

We'll be heading down soon to sample Julie's cooking and check their supply of Ice-Out tickets. Last year Walt and Julie sold quite a number of tickets for us. I've said before, Harry's is a fun place to stop. It's one of those "if we don't have it you probably don't need it," sort of places. There's really a lot of interesting stuff in the store, and now with the lunch counter, it's an even better place to stop for a bit, have a cup of coffee and find out what's happening in town, and pick up the nails, paint, plumbing supplies or work gloves you've been looking for.

We may be getting some spring weather this week - finally. After a fashion, the weather is supposed to be getting substantially warmer. Of course, we will need to pay our dues by getting through some snow, sleet and freezing rain first, but by the end of the week we might get our first real sign of spring with warmer temperatures and just plain rain. We'll see how that goes.

Here at home, we're exhibiting signs of cabin fever. After all the fuss about finding a printer to work with my computer, I've relented and will be getting a new computer setup to go with my new all-in-one printer, fax, copier, scanner. That isn't what I'd expected, but it's a relief to have made the decision. Also, after almost two months of playing "hunting for the vacuum" with our local Sears store, the misplaced machine is back on duty with us.

With these on-going problems solved, we had nothing to divert us from the snow and cold, so I picked up on a long-standing campaign to have Fred move his computer upstairs, out of the too cool, too dark, too isolated (my opinions, not his) basement area. Whether as a result of cabin fever or some other reasoning, this weekend Fred announced, "perhaps it would be a good idea."

Ah-ha! A project!! We measured wires and cables, discussed placement, drilled a hole in the floor of the spare bedroom, and by Sunday afternoon, he was sitting in his new computer room, toasty warm and comfortable. The biggest problem is that now our cat, Woody, is torn as to which of us he's going to spend his long sleepy day with. Decisions, decisions. He rarely visited Fred downstairs - too cold - so he would often lounge on my desk when he got too warm from being in front of the fire. Now, it's almost as if he makes a conscious decision to split his time between the two of us.

We're hoping to make it easier on him soon, though. Come spring, the boxes of material belonging to the Cabot Historical Society will go to them and that will clear space in my office for another desk and Fred can move here. We'll then have a "computer room." That will be really convenient for me to have my technical support close at hand; whether it will be a happy landing for him remains to be discovered, but at least that will get all the computer stuff in one place instead of scattered throughout the house. This space is going to need some major spring cleaning, though, as you can see by this picture - and this shows only about half of the space. There are more files and boxes that will be moved. I'm going to have to store lots of books and papers someplace else, and toss some along with about a ton of other junk.

All the plans for the future arrangement of our computer room will keep us both working steadfastly in that direction so that by the time it's ready to happen, the snow will be gone and it will all become part of the spring cleaning mind set, so we'll have beaten the cabin fever thing . . .

Fred and Bill Rossi are going to St. Johnsbury to do errands and have lunch. There may be pictures of that excursion later today.

I just had a call from JPA member Virginia Johnson to tell me Kay Powell had a nasty fall at her home in St. Johnsbury and is presently with her daughter, Ginger Erdman, in Connecticut. I'm sure Kay would appreciate hearing from friends and Joe's Pond neighbors. The address at Ginger's is 7B Linden Pl, Hartford CT 06106.

We wish Kay a speedy recovery.