scifiknitter

The past 24+ hours have been interesting. Yesterday morning I was on the way to drop the car off for its annual inspection when I actually listened to the weather forecast. 6-10 inches of snow starting in the afternoon. Holy crud. When I pulled into the shop, I added "install snow tires" to the to-do list. (Our auto shop stores our snow tires for us at no charge, one reason why you would have to drag me over hot coals before I took my car anywhere else when it needs repairs.) That was the best call of the day. During the afternoon, the snow began to fall. I'd had a late start, so I worked late to make up my time. Not the best decision. By the time I headed home, there was about 4 inches of heavy, wet snow on the roads, and more snow was coming down fast. It was 19 miles of 25 miles per hour in third gear. As I drove past an oncoming car, the slush it threw up sounded like rocks as it hit the side of my car. Once I got across the bridge in Russell, I had to pick which hill...

Fall in these northern parts really starts mid- to late-August. Sometimes I am so busy, though, that I miss the signals. And sometimes I close my eyes to the changes, hoping to stretch out the glories of summer just a little bit longer. I plead guilty to both this year. Much of my blindness to the change came from my wish for another weekend or two of sailing. But then my boss, who lives on the river, remarked that water levels had gone down. I relayed the news to Robert, and we realized that we had to get down to the boat. We remembered last year, when Robert had to winch the boat out of the muck at the end of the season. We got down too late in the day Saturday to go out on the water. There was little or no wind, the clouds were dark gray, and the water levels were on their way down. As we sat in the cockpit, we talked about our schedules, and realized this was it. It was time to take down the sails. We aired them, then lowered them down and stuffed them into their bags before the ra...