IMPORTANT NEWS!

This morning I received this message from Tom Dente, president of our Joe's Pond Association about George Anderson, our treasurer:

While visiting Judy's daughter and family in Texas, George experienced dizziness and issues requiring further medical evaluation. Following testing, the medical team determined George had a faulty aortic valve that needed repair or replacement and three coronary arteries that required replacement. He never had a heart attack. He had an aortic valve replacement on December 10th and a triple bypass. He is recovering from the surgery and the prognosis appears, at this early time, to be good.
If folks would like to send a card his temporary address in Texas (through Christmas) follows:

George Anderson
c/o J. Lukes
304 King Elder LN
Leander, TX 78641

Another snowy day in the north country!

We were in St. Johnsbury again today - and Fred took lots of pictures while I was busy getting my hip and shoulder fit again. You might think my complaining was in order to avoid helping Fred stack all that wood, but that isn't it at all. I've actually been quite uncomfortable, especially walking, and turns out I have bursitis going on. Anyway, I'm doing great now, thanks to Dan Wyand and his physical therapy associates. They are all very nice folks there, and I've had great results every time I've had to have P.T. I've gone there for therapy on everything from a stiff neck to a shattered ankle - and some kinks in between - and always had a good experience. It's not quite like having a relaxing massage with incense and mood music, but close enough when you're hurting.

We went into town early, before the salt had really made much of a mark on the hill leading up to the hospital, and we wondered if we'd make it. We overtook a slow moving tractor of some sort half way to the top, and we couldn't see over the brow of the hill to pass, so we had no choice but to slow down and hope for the best. We made it just fine. That's some hill approaching the hospital from the interstate.

On the way home, I drove and Fred took pictures. Lots of you will recognize Dole Hill and that's the south side of Danville Village pictured above. I really like that photo of the village - looks like a Christmas card scene.

In West Danville, we made our usual stop at Hastings Store and the post office. Garey and Mary were on hand. There was no tempting aroma of freshly baked banana bread like when I was there on Saturday, but the store was warm and friendly with nice decorations. There was a petition on the counter about the bath house at the public beach. Perhaps you know there's some concern as to whether it should be taken down or renovated. We couldn't sign it because we aren't voters in the Town of Danville.

By the way, I noticed on the outside of the store there's a sign for wreaths - plain or decorated, and they'll ship them - contact Jane Larrabee.

As we came to Point Comfort, we couldn't resist Santa and his Reindeer scampering across the ice from their dock. Merry Christmas to all, and to all, Good Night!

It's a bit nippy this morning here! Temperatures were in the single numbers above zero last night (as far as we know it didn't dip below the zero mark) and the sun can only be described as "weak" this morning. It's another "off and on" day, I guess, with periods of dim sunshine and clouds with a few flakes floating down on us. More good news by tonight, according to the forecast.

I don't know about you, but Fred and I have been using those curly CFL light bulbs for years now. We started using them when we lived at camp year around. We had an audit done by Washington Electric, and at the time they gave them out free with the audit. We put them in all the fixtures that we left on for long periods. The advice then was that if you turned your light on for only a short time, leave the incandescent bulbs in place because the CFL apparently wasn't made to use for short durations.

Back then the CFL bulbs had to warm up - they'd come on dim and within a few seconds, would brighten. We got used to that quickly when we realized the really noticeable difference in our electric bills. Now the CFL bulbs come on instantly and bright, and they are configured better to fit in more fixtures. We use them throughout the house, even in fixtures we turn on and off frequently, and we're inclined to leave lights on instead of being quite so aware of the turn the lights off when you leave a room mind frame. As one gets older, it's nice to have plenty of light! The CFLs rarely need to be replaced - I may have replaced two or three in the past 15 years or so that we've used them.

This offer below seems like a pretty good deal. The darned things can be expensive when you buy them in most stores, and I imagine that has kept some folks from trying them. If you stock up with six at 99 cents each, you'll have a good start and I bet your electric bill will reflect that. If you're already well stocked, some to someone you know who hasn't tried them yet. It's the "green" thing to do! May all their Christmases be Bright.

*****

Light Up & Save!!

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) Campaign

(4 CFL bulbs use the same energy as 1 incandescent bulb)

Plainfield Hardware

and

Harry’s – Cabot True Value Hardware

December 2007 – April 2008

$0.99 each – Limited to six per household

CFLs use 66-75% less energy than incandescent bulbs.

Annual electrical costs (at rate of $0.13 per KWH):

1 - 75 watt incandescent bulb………………….$12

1 - 18 watt CFL (comparable to above)………$ 9

Average home savings per year is greater than $100!!

CFLs last 6-10 times longer than incandescent lamps and

help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In-store recycling & information available.

Sponsored by: Cabot Conservation Committee, Marshfield Energy Committee, Plainfield Conservation Commission, and Efficiency Vermont

The 3-town goal is to sell 5,000 CFLs

CFLs are practical and welcome gifts!

AUTHOR READING by J. David Book

David will discuss his recently published book,

“It is Sweet and Honorable to Die for the Fatherland”

about Civil War soldiers from Cabot, Vermont.

Cabot Public Library

7:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 18

Free and open to the public. 563-2721.

An "Off and On" Morning -
meaning, we're getting snow off and on, as predicted. There's a bit of wind, too, making it feel a bit colder than the 30 degrees my thermometers are reading here at mid-day. There wasn't much going on in the village this morning. I'm still getting requests for Ice-Out tickets for stocking stuffers - and some folks are enclosing them in their Christmas cards. Which reminds me, I'd better get going and send mine out.

I've been busy with lots of things - I'll have an interesting bit of Joe's Pond history for you soon. I'm still putting the pieces together, but will let you know as soon as it's posted.

Fred is finishing up stacking our wood for next year and also has been working with Kevin Johnson on a web site. Designing a site other than our own is a new venture for Fred, but I think it's looking pretty good. Check it out at www.stjfire.com - that's a branch of Kevin's Reed Supply Company in St. Johnsbury, and I'm sure all of you will be glad to know about the products and service he has available. The site is a work in progress, so you'll see it change. He also has a business card with us under "Services."

I took a few pictures while I was out to go to the post office this morning. I would have stopped to take others along Rt. 2, but there was more traffic than usual and the going was a little slippery and I didn't want to create any problems by stopping where I shouldn't. It works better when there are two of us - one to drive, one to take pictures out the window!

A sign of the season - the Payne's sign at the corner of Rt. 2 and W. Shore Rd. for Christmas trees. They have very nice trees - they're just past the Cabot Plain Cemetery on the right as you make the bend to go past Chef Wood's place.

Hope your day is a good one. Got your tree yet?

Keeping up with the mail!

Here are a couple of messages I received today:

From Liz (Pearl) Sargent - on a recent blog story about the cottage on the Randy/Marlynn Rouleau property that was recently demolished. That little cottage had originally been on the small island, now known as "Pearl Island" - but also known to old timers around here as "Joe's Island" or "Sim's Island." Liz wrote:

"Brother John and I closed up the island way too late this year and had to break some shore ice to get the rowboat in the water!

We noticed that Sim's camp was gone and were sad. John's comment was "the only thing left of Sim is on the island, his wood shed and his outhouse (only he used another word!) Both of those buildings are now part of our camp. I dreamed about the old cottage going back to the island but that would have taken a huge lottery win, not to mention the fact the island grounds would have needed lots of work before that happened!

John remarked that he thought Sim's camp had an "up" staircase to the second floor and a "down" staircase from the second floor? I wish I had known it was coming down, I would have loved to have seen the inside.

I printed out the blog with pictures you posted so Dad [Bud Pearl] could read and see it. He was quite interested, but sad also that "Sim is gone."

Merry Christmas, Liz

For those of you who may not know, the story of Sim Whittier can be found under "Joe's Pond History" on the home page.

I also had an e-mail from Don and Diane Sherwood:

Dear Jane,

We've loved the pictures and especially your blog. It sounds as if Burke will have a great opening tomorrow. Wouldn't you know it- we're off to Aruba early Sunday for a week (friends invited us to come with them to use their time share). I guess we "can't have our cake and eat it too"! We are looking forward to some R&R on the beach, but will be up to Joe's Pond on the 26th. Please keep the snow for us!

Have a very Merry Christmas.

Diane and Don

I've told Don and Diane I am pretty confident there will be plenty of snow for them when they arrive. For the last couple of years they have had less than perfect conditions when they came north, but this is shaping up to be a great ski season - unless there's a "January thaw" that could ruin everything. At the other extreme, we sometimes get temperatures well below zero around the holidays - but Don and Diane are hardy souls and will still ski, no matter what the weather. It's anyone's guess what conditions will actually be, but we'll be happy to have them back at the pond for a ski vacation. Anyone checked the "Old Farmers' Almanac" lately?

More snow, cold night. Not much news from Joe's Pond!

Fred came in from working at stacking the seven cords, more or less, of wood we had delivered, and says he thinks he's got about six done and one more to go. That's good news. It's a lot easier when you don't have to dig through too much snow to get to t he wood, and better, too, if it isn't too cold when you're stacking. Those sticks of wood are darned cold and it doesn't take long for your fingers to get numb, even in good work gloves.

Walter Ruf sent this picture a while ago. I guess the baby's parents have a sense of humor! Yuck! Do you suppose this kid will grow up to be a politician?