Mucho Splitting

With the winter weather right on the horizon, both literally and figuratively, I wanted to get as much splitting done with the splitter before the snow hit the ground. AM is very cool about not only letting me borrow her splitter, but not putting any time pressure on when to get it back. She said she'd done with all her wood for the year, so I could take my time. I did, however, want to get it back to her before it snowed, though I'm not sure why.

So with that in mind, I decided to get as much splitting done before the snow came, which was this week. For the record, it was only a dusting and as always I overreacted, but what else is new? Either way, I have a pretty major pile of logs that needs to be done, including a pretty significant pile that I'd determined were too difficult to split by hand. Or should I say would require too much time and effort. I sort of believe that given unlimited time, eventually I could split most pieces, but who's got the time and energy for that?

I also have a massive pile of logs that I haven't sorted through, so it includes splittable and non-splittable pieces. With time an issue, I decided I didn't have time to be picky. The plan was to split the un-splittable pile, then just start splitting everything in sight. It actually worked out pretty well. I managed to get the first pile done, and then I got started on the second massive pile. During the latter process I was able to separate out pieces that were clearly splittable, and just focused on big knotty pieces. By the end of last week I had a massive pile of split wood. Best of all, I was able to conveniently arrange transport of the splitter with none other than the other owner of the splitter. It's complicated and I won't bore you with the details.

All in all, a pretty smooth process because I split a ton of wood and borrowed and returned the splitter with minimal complications. Don't you just love when that happens?

I will say this - I think a splitter is in our future, maybe like the one in this pic... yeah, right. As much as I love to swing that maul, I'm getting old and my body can't always handle it. Total bummer, but such is life.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Dave Dugdale for the pic.

Oh Deer!

I don't know if this is a rite of passage when you live in rural New England, but I recently hit a deer while driving. From what I can gather, this is a pretty common experience, except that most of my friends were driving big manly trucks and I was in our little tiny Honda Fit. For all it's worth, despite the fact that the deer was pretty big, our tiny fit sent it flying. We had body damage to the car, but the frame and lights are fine, and the impact didn't seem to have much of an effect on the forward momentum of the car.

It was a crazy weekend, to boot. N had a game down in Concord and was visiting with friends down there, so we went down early. We met up at the arena and his friend stayed to watch him play, which I thought was cool. We grabbed a bite to eat then headed home. The drive is actually not as painful as I thought it would be, and if anything, is a shorter trek than games up in Burlington or St. Albans. Plus, I wasn't as exhausted (thankfully) as I thought I'd be. Either way, we got home around 5:00PM (after being out since 9:00AM) and N immediately informed me that his buddy SMA wanted him to sleep over. A was heading over to her pals house for her own sleepover, so I dragged my sorry and tired butt off the couch and drove N over to his friend's house, which is sort of in the middle of nowhere and a fair distance away. I took the highway over there but chose the roads on the way back, and that was a mistake.

While heading home, I was doing about 45 mph when a deer ran across about 1/4 mile ahead. I turned on my brights and eased off the accelerator when another deer darted out right in front of me. I had no time to react, and I slammed into it, sending it flying. There was literally nothing I could do. I pulled over to see how bad things were - the deer was clearly gone, and the front of the Fit was a bit dented. Total bummer all around, though on a bright note, the car drives fine, and everything else is working, including the lights. Nothing is leaking, and no mysterious smells, liquids, or gasses are being emitted. Interestingly enough, when I dropped N off, SMA's dad was talking about a buck they shot while hunting, so deer were on my mind.

The front end is a bit thrashed, so that's going to cost some money, but nobody got hurt, with the exception of the deer. I feel bad for the animal, but I get a sense he or she didn't even look before jumping out onto the road, and there were cars that preceded me, which you'd think would have warned the animal that it wasn't a good time cross the road. Then again, what do I know?

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to frankrichter1951 for the pic.

Preparing for Winter

I don't always remember how the seasons go about changing around here, but it seems like the cold temps have been late in coming this year. I recall having snow on the ground with freezing temps on Halloween, but this year it was downright balmy. In fact, until yesterday, we had spring-like conditions, not to mention a lot of rain. Most people are stoked about the warm weather but I have to confess that I'm sort of glad that it's becoming more seasonal. At the very least I welcome a break in the rain. It's either feast or famine up here because right before the deluge of rain we had drought conditions. Can't we just get something in-between?

Either way, looking at the bright side, I was able to get more winter prep done (like a squirrel or mouse gathering nuts) with the warmer conditions, though the rain made it a bit harder. There's the perennial task of firewood, which goes on and on, but as I mentioned before, I got more painting done, and we're in good shape for kindling. I also prepped the blueberry grove (8 plants, enough for me to call it our “grove”) for the winter, which means fertilizing and replacing the mulch. The grass could probably use one more cutting, not to mention raking, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Once the snow comes we won't even see it, though I will pay the price in the spring. The main things I need to do is empty the power tools and store them for the winter. I'm not sure what to do with the surfboards and may end up putting them in the basement.

Our deck is in dire need of attention, but that's going to be a spring/summer project, and of course, I have to finish that darn barn (where are you Amazing PR Man?). One pie-in the sky project is to work on the insulation in the attic of the main house, and I need to seal the windows up there because the wasps are invading. I'm not really looking forward to that one, but stay tuned for more.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to codregor for the pic.

Shadowing

Next year N will probably be taking a class or two (or three) at the local school, and part of that process is visiting the various schools to make an informed choice. They call this process “shadowing,” whereby the prospective student follows another student around at the school, thus “shadowing” him or her. A did it when she was just starting out, and N is following suit. Now he has several friends who go to the big city school, so when it came time to shadow there, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to shadow with one of the girls he knows, mainly because she's cute and hip and has cute and hip friends. It's not a bad thing for a guy to surround himself with girls, especially ones he feels comfortable with, and maybe finds attractive, though I can't comment on that part.

A few of his hockey teammates also go there, as well as his best friend, though I didn't want him to hole up in a corner with said friend and talk about drones all day. I was hoping for a broader and more expansive experience, maybe even a little outside of his comfort zone. N was game for whatever came his way. So, being the neurotic and overbearing parent that I am, I texted (I'm so hip and high-tech) his female friend and asked if she'd be willing to be N's host. I did this about two weeks before the shadow day, and she never responded. I waited and even asked A and N to follow up, but got zero cooperation. With only a few days to go, I finally told the school to just assign a person for him. I didn't want to be the annoying parent who embarrasses his kids, even if I excel at it.

On the morning of the shadow day, A&N and myself headed into school. I have to say, it was an enjoyable ride, and we joked around the whole way and had fun. I even said that if he had morning classes our commute was going to be a blast, though it might not include me at that point. We left early to have some extra time because I had to check him in, and it's a good thing we did because there was a major accident on the highway, slowing traffic to a crawl. We weren't horribly late, but they did request that we get there early to meet with the host student, and of course we screwed that up. Everyone seemed to know about the accident (life in a small town), so they cut us some slack. Interestingly enough, while we were walking to school, we saw the girl in question arriving, as well. I don't think she realized that this day was N's shadow day, despite my entreaties.

We got to the office and met up with his host, and off they went. My plan was to meet up after school, so I spent the day in the big city doing poster boy work and taking care of life's necessities. When I returned to the school, I learned that N's female friend commandeered him from his assigned host and took him around with her buddy, instead. How cool is that? I was stoked to learn that the scenario that I failed to set up actually fell into place, anyway. Plus, these girls are friends with N's best buddy, so they got to hang out, as well, so a good time was had by all. I love when that happens.

I asked N how his day went and he tried to play it off with a cool detached ambivalence, but I for one was happy with the way things transpired. Then again, nobody cares what I think.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to snapawayyoungman for the pic.

Learning a New State

Now that we're involved with the big city program, our focus has shifted to New Hampshire and a whole new set of ice rinks in various NH cities, many of which I have never visited. Interestingly enough, a fair number of these teams reside in the south of the state, down around where we surfed at Hampton Beach. Our NH EZ Pass, which I got for going to Hampton Beach to surf, will definitely come in handy for hockey season... don't you just love when that happens?

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Smaddy for the pic.

No Halloween

Just a quick reflection on Halloween this year, or in this instance, lack thereof. We didn't do much for one of my favorite holidays because the kids were all gone and it was just me and mom. I shouldn't say we didn't do much, because with just the two of us we went out to dinner and had a nice evening out, but we didn't do much in the true Halloween spirit. In years past it was a big to-do getting the kids all costumed up and hitting the streets to trick-or-treat. This year, however, N was away at camp, and A was hanging with her crew from school. Both options were much more fun for the kids, and it meant mom and dad didn't have to do much in the way of preparation, which is A-okay by me. We usually end up in the neighboring town where our old lame hockey program resides, so it meant seeing all the people we know from said lame program. Not this year.

We are definitely at that age where the kids don't want to do the same-old, same-old, and they most definitely don't want to be around their boring and embarrassing parents. I can't say I blame them.

Mom and I ended up in the big city and we tried out the local Indian restaurant, Jewel of India, that's been around for over 20 years. They promote themselves at the most popular restaurant in town, which is a bit of a stretch. I like Indian food but it always seems to me to be one step above fast good. When you're dining in NYC, this means it's cheap, but this being the heart of New England and such, it cost a lot more. Somehow I can't wrap my head around expensive Indian food that isn't any different than the cheap stuff you get in NYC or maybe Boston. Sure, if it's gourmet and they do something different with it, great, but this was not the case here. This was more like over-priced food that is a novelty so they can get away with it. It sort of gives you a sense of how provincial it actually is up here.

You see that a lot in this town, mainly because ethnically diverse food is such an anomaly that you pay for the novelty. As ironic as it may seem, eating out up here is so much more expensive than dining out in NYC. Anyway, the food was good but not life altering, and the service wasn't that great. Somehow the guys were abrupt and gave me the impression that I was cramping their style. Plus, while we were eating, the two guys working the front spent the entire time trying to swat a fly that was buzzing around, which didn't do much to fuel my appetite. I guess that's why a lot of people we saw were getting take-out.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Flor for the pic.

First Game Back

Now that N's playing for the big city program, we spend a lot more time in the big city... funny how that works. My point is that we don't really have a need to go to the old arena, the home of the old lame program. However, since the big city program's ice rink caters to so many different teams, they have a big shortage of ice. To accommodate this enormous need, the big city program gets ice all over this area, including at the ice rink of our old lame program. This of course meant that it was just a matter of time before we found ourselves back there. This actually happened this past weekend.

First, some background. Our old lame program plays at an ice rink that doesn't get as much usage as it could. Youth hockey has a girls and a boys program, and there are girls and boys high school teams. There are also a few adult leagues that play at night, but that's about it. Consequently, they have huge amounts of ice that go unused, which is not only a waste, but it's not the most ideal financial situation for an arena. Ice rinks are enormously expensive to run, and you hope to fund these costs by selling as many sheets of ice as you can. When we were with our old lame program, there were hours upon hours of unused ice, which doesn't seem economically viable, but what do I know?

On the other hand, the big city program has one ice rink, and there is a huge demand for ice. They are home to much bigger boys and girls youth hockey programs, and they cater to two different high schools, both with a girls and a boys team. AND, in addition to numerous adult leagues, the big city high school has a JV team, unlike the other high school. I've been told some of the adult leagues play from 9:00PM until well past midnight. Is that crazy, or what? They are trying to build a second rink, which is completely justified, but until that happens, it's just the one rink. Personally, I don't know how they manage to accommodate everyone... other than sending people to other ice rinks.

And that's what happened to us. N's team had a game over “there” and I knew it was going to be a little weird seeing some of the people I loathe. Actually, just one person, but he seems to live there. Sure enough, as soon as I walked into the arena, a bunch of the guys were standing there. I said hi to most of them, but when I came to said individual, I said, “Why don't you lie down in front of the Zamboni when they're making ice?” I didn't actually say that, but I sure as heck wanted to.

Truth be told, I did see several people who are still good friends, which means most everyone, and it was nice catching up. Plus, I got to hang out with N's old head coach, AL, who is a very cool guy. We chatted about the state of our old lame program and it reminded me of another good reason why we're not there anymore. I'll leave it at that.

All in all it was fairly uneventful, and N's team won, which is always a good thing. I'm sure we'll end up back at our old rink more than a few times this season, but that's beyond my control and if anything, more fodder for this blog.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Sanghyun Lee for the pic.