We trundled off to St. J. early this morning for my appointment with Dr. Phipps. My eye is doing fine and I'm all set to get the other one done after Thanksgiving. Then I'm going to have to get a different pair of computer glasses - what I'm using now are a tad too strong, fine for the eye that still has the contact, but not for my "new eye."

I had told the technician who checked my eye when I first got there that I'd felt logy a few days after the surgery, and thought it might have been due to the onslaught of eye drops required. She noted that on my chart and when I saw Dr. Phipps, he said the only other person he'd ever heard use the word "logy" was David Letterman one night on his show. I guess it isn't a common word - but I've used it many times when I've been feeling a bit off; other times I've used it to describe a car that isn't very peppy or the sailboat when there's not much wind.

I like words. I boarded with an aunt and uncle one winter when I was in high school and kept a notebook of my uncle's expressions. It was a treasure trove and I would dearly love to have it now, but unfortunately, it was in a some pocket that didn't get emptied and went through the wash. He was a great story teller and I'm sure my notes would have brought back lots of those tales he told over dinner on winter evenings.

When I worked for author, Bill Lederer, in Peacham, I was fascinated by his set of the Oxford English Dictionary. After I'd worked there for some time, he told me how impressed he'd been to find me looking up a word soon after he'd hired me, and that nobody else had, to his knowledge, ever utilized the dictionary. I didn't confess, but when I pulled one of those big volumes off the shelf, I didn't have a clue what I was in for. All I wanted was to check a spelling or something as I was transcribing what he'd written - or maybe it was some unfamiliar word he'd used and I wanted to know what he was writing about - that happened a lot! - and needed a dictionary. Once I'd seen all those books had to offer, I was hooked, and I used them often.

I saw my friend, Dot Desrocher and her daughter, Susan, when we were in town this morning. I don't see Dot often any more, but it's always a joy to chat with her. She and Susan were remembering when we all lived in the same neighborhood and the Dimick boys and Susan and her brothers, Jim and Tom, were all in school together. It's nice that Jim and his wife, Karen, have a cottage here at the pond. Susan said she and her family get a kick out of being part of the Ice-Out Contest, too.

I picked up lots of Ice-Out tickets from Hastings Store today, and I'm beginning to have requests for tickets people want to buy to include as gifts in Christmas cards or for stocking stuffers. It's amazing how much fun folks get out of filling out an Ice-Out ticket and then following our Ice Reports at the end of winter when everyone is looking for a break from snow and cold weather.

Speaking of weather, ours has changed considerably today. We had lots of white frost on the ground early in the day, but it was sunny here this morning. In St. Johnsbury there seemed to have been no frost, but there was a layer of foggy haze that never really went away. (See pictures of Burke Mountain and the intersection with Route 5 and Hospital Dirve.) Here at the pond we had a few sunny breaks this afternoon, but around four o'clock I noticed it was beginning to sprinkle. The good news is that the temperature is still around 50 degrees, so perhaps the rain won't turn to snow overnight. Sorry, deer hunters, but I don't want to shovel the white stuff just yet.

Going through Danville was a breeze today, and paving through town is progressing nicely. I expect they are wrapping things up so when the weather turns really sour, they can fold up their tents and leave until spring. It's no surprise if a bunch of folks in Danville Village are hoping for snow, the sooner the better. Snow will not only mean construction will cease, but for a few months at least, some of the scars on the village green and along Route 2 will be covered up and perhaps folks will be able to forget for a while all the noise, mess and inconvenience this project has brought.