We're waiting for the weather to change - radically. Forecast is for a temperature drop with rain and then snow amounting to maybe 6 inches. Right now it's foggy and dark outside, but the thermometer seems to be pretty steady. The overnight low was 31.5 degrees, but with the dampness and fog, people downtown were calling it downright raw and cold. We need to get prepared - it's December, after all, and there will be worse ahead. This picture was taken in West Danville at about 11 o'clock this morning. We stopped at Hastings Store for the mail. We saw Curtis and Jane, and Diane was at the counter - Garey was in the post office; all was normal there. There were some wind chimes on the writing desk by the post office - this fish and another one with a loon on it. There was a third, but we had to get going as people were coming into the store and we didn't want to be in the way as they entered. Nice chimes, though.

I guess lots of people are thinking about this being the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. So far today I haven't heard much on the TV newscasts, but there is so much current news to report, I guess what happened to us 70 years ago lacks drama and importance. Yesterday I was looking through some of the newsletters Rev. Nickerson sent during WWII to all the men and women from Cabot who were serving in the military. The newsletter was called "Contact" - I'm sure I've mentioned it here before - and he began producing it with volunteer help from mostly high school students soon after the war began and continued it until the end of the war, I think the final issue went out in June, 1945. He included local news and letters from those serving, which not only kept those serving in touch with what was happening at home, it also served as a clearing house for information about their friends serving in various parts of the world.

As I scanned the faded mimeographed pages - large, 8 1/2 x 14 sheets of construction paper - I noticed one in 1944 that explained why the men and women (yes, there were a handful of women serving in the WACs/WAACs and WAVEs, no SPARs as far as I know) why they would receive two Christmas packages instead of one. It was because the government set a limit of 5 lbs. per service man or women, and only one to each from any one organization. Because the people in Cabot were very generous, there were two packages sent to each person in the military that year, one from "Contact" and the other from "E.H.Nickerson" - all were actually from the efforts of the Contact volunteers, of course.

As is the case today, those soldiers away from home were very, very appreciative of the gifts they received. I used many references from those newsletters in the section of the Cabot oral history book about WWII, and there are copies of them in the Cabot Historical Society library.

We went to St. Johnsbury again today - my post-cataract surgery appointment for the left eye. I asked Dr. Phipps if he trimmed my eyelashes, and he said he definitely did not. Darn. I was sure my stubby eyelashes were a result of the operations, and I was looking forward to them growing back. I know I never had gorgeous eyelashes, but now I have to adjust to realizing I'm seeing them, like lots of other things, clearly for the first time in many years. It's a real shocker. I'm finding the adjustment a little difficult - unnerving and sometimes unbelievable - and while I wouldn't want the veil of cataracts back, I'm seriously staying away from mirrors and bright lights in public. I guess I'll get used to the "new me," but in the meantime I keep reminding myself that people who are used to seeing me I'm pretty sure see the same Jane as always, and I'm the only one who sees these sudden wrinkles and facial hair in all the wrong places. I'll remember 2011 as the year I aged a decade in one month.

Just as we were ready to sit down for lunch, this partridge caught my eye. It roamed about under the ornamental apple trees for a while, competing for a while with a red squirrel, but then headed for the burning bush shrub closer to the house. The burning bush has lots of little red berries this time of year and I've never seen the squirrels raiding it, but the partridge seemed to enjoy them a lot, first picking them up on the ground and finally hopping up into the bush. Nice bird, and I'm happy they find the berries appetizing.

I heard from Laura Mills this afternoon. Her cottage is next door to the Anderson's on Route 2. She said her cottage and the Greaves cottage next to her were both broken into. She had only a small amount of damage, but she said she's talked to the police and they have a pretty good idea who is behind the break-ins. Marge said a window was broken and a chair, but nothing was taken. Laura said she never leaves anything of real value at the cottage, and I expect Marge wouldn't, either. It does make us sad, though, that these things are going on.