more dairy products!

at a leap day lunch with a friend, the waitress brought me this bowl chock full of half-and-half for my single cup of decaf. i wonder what she might have brought if i'd mentioned that i like my coffee light. sadly, i did not check to see when this stuff expires. but i shudder to think...

set to expire

this milk has been sitting in my fridge since saturday. seven weeks from today it promises to sour and go bad. in seven weeks easter will be over and spring will be here. the red sox will have played the yankees five times. daffodils might be in bloom and robins may have returned. so perhaps when i'm sitting at an open window in the warm evening air listening to peepers, i'll have a glass of milk. because this milk will still be good even then. and that's a pretty disturbing thought.

black snow

one of the curses of any winter is dirty snow. but this winter, old snow is particularly revolting, perhaps because it's at eye level. it follows you as you drive down the street. it's on either side as you as you slide down a walkway. it mocks you when you open the door. and this pile, arrived upon at the end of a slick trip down a back road, is hands down the most unsightly of all black snow piles. in the town's defense, it looks as if it was collected somewhere else and dumped here, perhaps to make way for more snow from the forecasted storm. the one that will cover all this black snow and make it lovely and white - for about fifteen hours before it invariably reverts back to black.

at the mall

here's a new style for the spring. little short jacket, little tiny sleeves. now i admit i'm hardly a good judge of fashion, but to me these look a bit like elf clothes. perhaps they were made in a hollow tree along with all those cookies.

more of the same

peering from a downtown doorway out at the swirling flakes, this husky must think he's at home in nome. because this place sure does look like alaska these days.

stall street journal

some clever someone on campus has a really good sense of humor and knows just where to put information to have it read. but judging by the font size of the publication it's meant for those with twenty-twenty vision only who can read from the toilet. and that would not be me.

eclipse!

the feet are frozen and fingertips numb, but it was worth it. tonight's lunar eclipse at totality with saturn to the lower left and regulus just above. be sure to click on the picture to see it in a larger form.

lighter earlier

leaving the house this morning i paused to notice sunlight touching the tops of trees and to listen to a little birdsong in the woods. at 14° i even detected a bit of warmth. maybe the days are finally getting longer after all.

from the roof

this afternoon's roof clearing extravaganza gives whole new meaning to the term snowed in.

for shame

saving the environment and polluting it, all in one shopping trip. it's high time to find a substitute for that bottled water - the worst of my eco-unfriendly vices.

cry uncle

the view from the kitchen window
as it snows - and rains - and ices over.
we may still have snow on the ground for memorial day.
enough already.

coping with weather

if its going to snow tomorrow, which it is, and i have to stay home again, which i might, at least im going to have this sign of whats-to-come to focus on instead of just dwelling on yet another snowstorm.

a bit of progress and a bit of a stretch

although this may appear black to some, it actually shows the bottom three stars of the handle of the big dipper. look closely. squint. click to make it bigger. maybe another night i can see enough to capture the upper part of the asterism.

clock wise

as the world continues its slow conversion to all things digital, i wonder what will happen when we no longer use analog clocks. could things still "run like clockwork" if there are no "works" in a clock? will terms like "clockwise" and "counterclockwise" become archaic or obsolete and, if they do, what will we use to describe those circular directions? will we still be able to work or play "round the clock" if clocks no longer have faces, round or otherwise? no doubt some analog clocks will always be with us - the four-sided one on the Customs House in Boston, Big Ben in London, the black-faced clocks on white steeples in New England villages and towns. but digital is so quickly becoming the norm, i wonder if we'll ever wish we could turn back the hands of time on that.

late morning commute

how is it that i can be so sick of winter yet so enchanted with scenery like this on my ride to work?

below the feeder

scuttling back and forth on the path under the bird feeders, this mole had to be pretty hungry to be out in plain view in the middle of the day. it must be hard for wee critters to find food with all this snow covering the ground. i just hope they all stay outside and stick to a diet of bird seed.

super fat tuesday

as candidates tally their delegates,
as party goers parade at mardi gras
as christians indulge in donuts before lent
i drink an extra coffee
and read
and hope for change.

dark in the morning, dark at night

if the days are getting longer, you can't prove it by me. i go to sleep by starlight and arise by starlight. most days i leave in this darkness in the morning and come home in darker darkness at night. i miss sunlight and think maybe seasonal affective disorder might really be real. people in far northern climes endure a period of darkness more prolonged. good thing i don't live there.

aftermath

ahead of me down the slush covered road i see early morning sunlight emerge from thick clouds and suddenly light up the fringes of hills and trees. the sight takes my breath away and i stop short to try to capture it before the light changes. a magical start to the weekend.

ice storm II

the lilac outside the door now covered in ice from tonight's storm and illuminated by doorway light. a wild night with wind and rain and sleet and ice. earlier this evening i slept deeply under puffy quilts as sleet and ice pelted windows and doors, the rhythmic staccato sound a soothing lullaby to my tired mind.