Skate-date with a great mate (second straight)

Someone in our family can't get enough of rollerskating. After a skate-date with a schoolfriend yesterday, he was eager for the Man to take him again today. This time his best buddy went too.

I have not been to Guptill's, but evidently it's the best skating arena around, and the biggest in the world! Though it wasn't too busy yesterday, the Man reports that today it was packed out. So that's where Albany goes on a cold Sunday afternoon... Crowded or not, our guys stayed and skated for a good two hours.




Meanwhile I was at home, where the Girl had her own play date going on. I turned out a few more Hearts for Haiti (our school sale goes on - we topped $400 this past week). This time round I've been adding a little peacenik twist to my efforts.

Freeze a jolly good fellow

The Man writes...as predicted it was a cold, sunny morning - in fact it was just below the magic zero degrees Fahrenheit at 7am.

I went along to the local Five Rivers Preserve to try to photograph cold. This was the best I could do. (My hands were frozen).



Meanwhile, both children had a great time skating - ice for the Girl, roller for the Boy.

Zero tolerance

It has been bright and beautiful and, as promised, very cold today. It didn't get above 16F (around -9C). A gusty wind made it feel even colder, and I didn't spend too much time outdoors. Cross-country skiing was cancelled for lack of snow (we've had a little snowfall since Monday's rain, but it hasn't amounted to much), so I went shopping instead and bought myself a snug down jacket.

Tonight the weather forecaster is issuing dire warnings of frostbite for anyone foolish enough to venture outside with exposed skin. We'll likely be down to 0F (approaching -18C) overnight. Even with a new jacket, I'm not planning on going anywhere.

Hot and cold

I spent the third day in a row at the keyboard, pulling together fair trade campaign affairs. It's quite satisfying to review all the FT activities and events we were involved in last year, and all the endorsements we've managed to attract from various quarters of our town. Nearly there now...

I went into school mid-afternoon to help out in the library. At home-time the Boy was a sorry sight. He'd had a headache all day and was starting to feel shivery. I knew he wasn't kidding when he chose to wear his coat in the car and actually asked for medicine (which he cannot stand). Sure enough he was running a slight temperature. However, a small dose of acetaminophen (that's paracetamol to UK readers) had a magical effect, and he was soon bouncing round the furniture again and throwing off his socks and sweater.

The wind is getting up tonight as the temperature outside starts to plummet. Tomorrow we're due for extreme cold plus biting wind chill factor. There's always something.

Local politics

In the interests of research I attended a Town Meeting tonight. It was an educational experience - reassuringly dull for the most part but with revealing interludes of contentious, even somewhat heated, debate.

However, disagreements notwithstanding it was all over in less time than many a Linton playgroup committee meeting, so that was a mercy. I was home in time for tea.

Compost mentis

The other day I received an email from a friend here. She had been sorting out food scraps into what was compostable and what was only fit for the garbage. She had the sudden realisation that what went in the compost was all "real food", as opposed to processed stuff and/or what can be termed "edible non-food substances". And she admitted, with dismay, "I feed my compost pile better than I feed my family."

That could probably be said in our household, too...if we even had a compost heap. How are you doing on the green and healthy lifestyle front?

Anti-freeze

My young friend E5N1 came round to keep me company this morning, so that was very enjoyable. Then I had to attend to some Fair Trade matters before pulling my sack of sewing gear together and driving through the pouring rain to school.

It has rained and rained today. Coupled with temperatures in the 50sF it has felt, in the midst of winter, like a monsoon. Steam was rising off the remains of the snow. The not insubstantial homemade ice-rink in our neighbour's backyard has been melting all day into our backyard, which now looks like a swamp.

I was rather sad to watch so much snow disappear over the course of the day. We could well see more before the season's out, though. There will certainly be low temperatures again - we should be back below freezing by the end of the week.