Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a lovely and safe welcome for the New Year last night.  

We were fairly quiet, as usual - we were reminiscing about New Years past; the many years we were wherever Bob was playing (a few years with TANK, and many more going solo as "BB and the Phantom Band."), sometimes a school gymnasium, but more often a crowded, smoke-filled rowdy bar.  The whole family would be there, plus any friends who happened to be around for the holidays.  We always had a great time.

One year - I guess Bob was playing a private party - Fred and I got reservations at the "Hillwinds," in Franconia, NH.  We still laugh about that - it was an interesting evening, shared with lots of others at a banquet-sized table where a couple from either NYC or Boston sat across from us and were not happy with ANYTHING. We were  impressed at the variety and duration of the young woman's whining complaints and the guy's obvious displeasure with his date (or maybe his wife) as well as the inability of the serving staff to accommodate their excessive needs.  They clearly should have stayed in the city.

One year, we toasted the New Year in with water from our newly drilled well at camp.  More recently, we've gone to bed before the ball fell, but this year we lowered our own "ball" of lights from the top of our flag pole.  It was son Jamie's idea on Christmas Day when someone mentioned they'd seen our white ball of light atop the flag pole and wondered about it.  I  thought it would be fun, so cajoled Fred into staying up to video lowering the "ball" with me.  I was ready for bed, but I stuffed my bare feet into my boots and wrapped up in my nearly full-length "horse blanket" wool coat that I only wear if "dressing up" in winter, or if I'm going to be walking when it's super cold, or like last night, when the unusual happens and I'm in my nightgown.  With earmuffs and gloves, I was toasty warm, and was able to untie the frozen rope while Fred manned the camera.  I'm not going to post the video.  We were trying to check the time and neither of us could see in the dark, so we couldn't really count down the seconds, and then I got the giggles; but I'm pretty sure Fred was not enjoying the lark as much as I was.  We didn't plan it very well, and should have at least sung a bit of "Auld Lang Syne," but instead, I chattered on about what a  really pretty night it was and remarked that it was not awfully cold, to which Fred finally responded, "Speak for yourself."  (Unfortunately, he didn't have a long "horse blanket" coat.) We got the ball of lights down successfully, welcoming 2014 at exactly midnight, but the resulting video is definitely not publishing quality!

This morning I  took  everything inside and it's all in the sink downstairs in the basement, melting and thawing out.  We won't do that again another year, but I bet this will go down with some of the other memorable New Years we've had, and we'll keep the video for our own private laughs.

Today is cold and fairly dreary, and there's another snow storm headed our way tonight and tomorrow.  I measured 1.5 in. of new snow this morning; we're expecting at least 2-3 more in this storm, and there could be more.  The problem is, it's still going to be cold.  We haven't been out of the single numbers at all today, as far as I can tell.  I'm sure there are skiers, boarders and snowmobilers out enjoying the new snow and holiday as best they can, but the weather has been a bit extreme, so we hope they stay safe.

WELCOME, 2014!