I'd Be Outside, If I Could

Our attempts to stay warm involve electric heat, two fires, and quilts covering all the windows.

That's because it got to 14 degrees below zero last night, people. Negative 14!

Alright, so it's not the worst temperature I've ever lived through, but it is really cold for Vermont.

A house with two-story floor-to-ceiling picture windows is not built for this kind of cold.

I'm gonna freeze my toes off.

I also wish it wasn't so damn cold because when the weather is a balmy 35, the winter sports rock, as evidenced by the following pictures.

Don't I make a picturesque postcard with a hockey goal and a
five-year-old on a snowmobile zooming through the background?

Yours truly went ice skating on a genuine frozen pond.

It's right out of a holiday movie. Including all of the lumps, bumps, and face-plants.

I was told that the neighbors had fun watching me and reminiscing about when they used to be young enough to skate the pond in the winter.

Or watching me face-plant.

Either or.

Slightly closer up!

Once I activated some muscle memory and could manage to call myself a decent skater, I took my little housemate around the pond.

 Later, there was hiking deep into the national forest and across frozen swamps.

I couldn't resist throwing in a little G.

But for this weekend, I'm housebound by the bad weather.

Now there's nothing to do but hunker down and prepare for the impending ice storm.

This includes hauling fire wood, hoping the power doesn't go out, baking cookies, writing letters, and dancing around the living room like a goofball.

A pretty typical couple of days, when all is said and done.