Aerie Report, January 7, 2011

We received 3-4 inches of snow last night and this morning. I cleared the deck once this morning during what looked like the end of the snow, while Terry went out to Curves and Wal-Mart. After I had finished and just before Terry returned home, the snow ramped up again and dropped two more inches on the ground and newly cleared deck.

When we were sure it had finally stopped for real--sometime after our noon day meal--Terry cleared the deck while I went to shovel the driveway of the total amount from this "storm." It took me close to two hours to get everything cleared. All that was done while temperatures remained in the 20s. Still, bright sunshine made it warm enough to cause me to perspire profusely.

Shoveling also caused my back to start aching and the Ibuprofen I've taken have helped only a little. I know I said I wanted to up my exercise level some, but, given my druthers, I'd sooner walk behind the snow thrower for an hour. Can't really utilize that tool, however, unless we get 6+ inches of the white stuff. And even then, I'd still have to use the shovel to clean up the 3/4 to 1 inch of snow that would the blower would skim over. (Gotta keep the lower edge of the thing up that high or it will scoop rocks out of the gravel driveway and toss them all over. One careless turn or mismanagement of the discharge chute and I could have to contend with a broken window.)

I believe I'll grab a hot shower and call it an early night.

Aerie Report, January 6, 2011

I've been a bit quiet lately. Some of that's due to the annual feeling of ennui that envelopes me after the holidays have past but a good part of it has to due with an assignment I've been given by our local Audubon Chapter.

Terry and I have been tagged with making a presentation on our Alaskan trip. While many locals and members of our group have made trips to Alaska, most have done so either by flying to their appointed destination or by taking a cruise that has limited their access to the largest state in the union. Very few (and none of our acquaintance) have made the trip via the overland route. That makes us and our experience a little unique. (Gary, our webmaster, has called our presentation: "Mainesburg to the Arctic Circle or Bust!" I would have preferred, "There And Back Again!" but that's just me.)

In preparation for our big night, I've been going through all the blog posts and pictures from that 78 day Road Trip and it's been keeping me busy as I select and resize my photos. So far I've not even reached the half way point in our trek and I've already got more than enough material for a monumental travelogue let alone one that's to last a mere hour. We're going to have to do a good deal of pruning to fit our time slot but I just can't think of where that's going to happen!

On the plus side, this is the first time someone has actually asked to be bored to slumber by viewing my home slide shows.

On the negative (?) side, viewing all those pictures and thinking about the great time Terry and I had has me wanting to hit the road and do it all over again. We experienced and saw so much that we would want to do again...and there's so much we had to skip due to forest fires and road washouts, not too mention and so much we would want to explore in greater depth...that, given sufficient time and money, we could spend several summers (and maybe a winter or two) on the roads of British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska.

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Watching the bowl games on TV I've come to dislike the Pacific Life commercials. You know the ones. They have great footage of breaching whales. Every time I see one of those ads, I'm reminded of the many short cruises we took in Alaskan waters and the excitement of viewing humpback whales rolling alongside the vessel. Or groups of sea otters, Stellar's sea lions, puffins, murrelets and more swimming in the water nearby. Like the photos I'm editing, those ads make me want to hit the road to the (far) northwest
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Winter has returned to the Aerie. After experiencing a couple of days of well above average warmth to ring out the old year and welcome the new, we're again in the deep freeze. This morning it dropped to just 10 degrees on the porch. It was a few degrees lower in the valley. The winds out of the west northwest have brought some lake effect snow as far south as our mountain home but that's only been an inch or two. Just enough to turn the ground white again without requiring any shovel work except on the deck. I can live with that. The snow that AccuHunch is forecasting for Friday and Saturday will--according to them--miss us as the heavy accumulations will be to our east and northeast.

The Bolt Hole hasn't been as lucky. The lake effect off of Lake Ontario has stretched as far east as that little section of the southwest Adirondack Park and this weekend's storm may bring several more inches to the area. Mark's not been around to give a first hand report, but I'm assuming there's a foot or more on the ground as I write and another six inches or so on the immediate horizon.

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Taking a clue from Wyatt at Support Your Local Gunfighter, I'm going to attempt to shed some of the weight I've been carrying around. While I was pretty good while we were on the road and gained only a pound or two, since the leaves fell my weight has gone up to 233 as of last Monday morning versus a pretrip total of around 215. Just too much inactivity and good holiday food. Now, 233 isn't a bad weight if you're a 6'2" middle linebacker ot a running back in the NFL, but for a 5'10" 61-year old retiree? Not so much. My goal is to at least return to the 215 pound level by April 1st. Then, as springtime arrives and outdoor activity can increase further, I'd like to get down to around 200 by my birthday in mid September.

I'll not be following any formal diet program but will instead just try to cut back on the snacks and portions and attempt to incorporate a bit more walking into my weekly schedule. If I was to follow a plan, it would be Weight Watchers as theirs makes the most sense.

As a start, I've eliminated ice cream from the freezer. (It never stayed there too long anyway as the 1.75 quart containers made just 3 or 4 servings.) Meal portions will be reduced. (Which makes Terry happy as the left overs will mean less cooking.) We will also move our "main meal" to the noon hour the better to not have it in our stomach as we sleep.

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Well, time to go back to the photos and get some more ready to use in our slide show.

Later.

A bad bowl year for the Big 10

And today was the worst of all.

Wisconsin, Penn State, Northwestern, Michigan, and Michigan State all lost. The last two were routs.

Heck, even incoming Nebraska got their a$$ kicked earlier in the week.

That leaves just Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas to put one in the W column for the Big 10.

No pressure in the Buckeyes, however. No pressure at all.

[UPDATE: Anonymous reminds me that the Iowa Hawkeyes did post a W on December 28th in a 27-24 victory over Missouri in the Insight Bowl. Second consecutive year Iowa came through for the Big 10.]