Whew! All my (major) running around is done!

Hoo-boy! Almost 1000 miles on the road between Saturday 10AM and this afternoon at 4 PM. I did 250 into NJ Saturday (Christmas Eve at my sister's and Christmas Morn at my MIL's), another 250 back to the Aerie after Sunday dinner. Then today I gobbled up a little over 800 miles as I traveled north to Fonda, NY to pick up a 1/4 cow from the farmer who raised and had it butchered. (Beeped my horn as I went through your neck of the woods Marianne. Did you hear me? Heck of a mess down by the river!)

At least the weather was gorgeous, traffic light--and when it wasn't it was still moving, and I've now got a freezer full of steaks, roasts and chop meat--LOTS of chop meat. I see a good many bowls of chili, loaves of meatloaf, lasagnas and spaghetti with meat sauce in the future! It's all good.

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I was sitting here listening to the circulating pumps in the heating system run and run and run some more while my ears got progressively colder. Finally got up and checked the indoor temperatures: 57 degrees on the wall, 54 degrees on the counter! What the hey?! Down stairs I went and found the furnace's digital readout blinking an error code. Something about the return water temperature sensor. It's happened before. I pressed "reset" and the thing tried to fire up. No go and the error message was repeated. Turned the power off. Slowly counted to ten. Turned the power on. Hit the "reset" button again and--BINGO!--the furnace kicked on and the temperature of the water in the system started to climb. I'll be checking it every half hour or so to make sure it's still functioning but it's been chugging away for a while now and things are going A-OK. It will take some time for the air in the house to warm back to the usual 64 degrees but the floor certainly feels nice and toasty!

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Terry's taking her Mom to Newark so she can catch a flight to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow. That's where Mom catches the ship for the cruise through the Caribbean and half way through the Panama Canal. Terry's sister (Lucille), BIL (Doug), and nephew (Brian) will be accompanying her. Knowing Brian, Grandma will have a blast!

After dropping her Mom off, Terry will be returning to the Aerie.

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I'm glad the Bears were not able to do anything with Green Bay last night. I might have been "forced" to watch. And, with today's long drive in the offing, I needed my sleep.

Back to Bowl games today with the Independence Bowl out of Shreveport, LA. It features Missouri (7-5) vs. North Carolina (7-5) and, at the half, isn't much of a contest. The Missouri Tigers are beating the snot out of the Tarheels, 31-10. North Carolina scored first (TD) but then Missouri got 31 unanswered points before the Tarheels ended the half with a FG. Debating whether I want to even turn on the TV for the second half.

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Friday, Terry and I will drive down to Lewisburg for a meeting of the Rutgers Alumni Club and to watch the Pinstripe Bowl (Rutgers (8-4) vs Idaho State (6-6)). The game starts at 3:20 in the afternoon and will be aired by ESPN. If RU had been playing in any other locale (except Hawaii) we probably would have gone to the game. I have this thing about going to Yankee Stadium. (And flying, but that's another story.) This is a new chapter of the RAC located here in central PA. The previous "close" chapters are in Pittsburgh, Philly or Rochester. Far enough away that an afternoon/evening out is not going to happen. This is a straight shot--about 75 miles--down Route 15. We go that far to go to the Lycoming Mall. And more than that to go watch the Binghamton Mets.

BTW, did anyone watch the Hawaii Bowl Christmas Eve? Catch a glimpse of the stands? Yeah, it was tough to do since the cameras were trying very, very hard not to show the "crowd." Southern Miss and Nevada played a decent--if unusually low scoring game (USM 24: NEV 17), but you got the feeling that not even the players' families made the trip. I think there may have been more people around the Duggar Family's Christmas Dinner table on Sunday than at the game Saturday night.

I'm not blaming people for not showing up. Air fare alone would be astronomical. Then there would be the expensive hotel and everything else. Hell, who can afford to spend a week or more in Hawaii during the Christmas Season? (Besides THEM, I mean. THEY can go because we're footing the bill.)