Last Day of 2025 Dec.31.

 Dear Reader!

Well, here it is.... and Lib and I have surpassed many odds to have arrived at this moment in time.We quietly celebrated 69 years of marriage, welcomed children, grandchildren and great grandchildren into our family, and have watched as human intellect has changed the world enormously since we entered on the stage to play our parts. Our greatest disappointment is that with all the technological advances we still waste sinful amounts of our resources on wars of conquest. The lines of states and countries change at whim it seems as rulers we have installed, or have seized power change them. Without war there would be resources that would allow all to live decently which I have not described.

At 88.5 there have been noticeable changes in our lives. We are measurably weaker which is to be expected. This observation for those approaching our age. Several faculties that still functioned well this time last year are perhaps 10-15% less efficient now. My mind still works well enough to use our electronic devices and spell checkers now even guess at next words! In normal conversation there are embarrassing  halts as a name, concept, or thought suddenly goes blank. I have succumbed to the now popular notion that substituting honey for sweetening may reverse this malady.

I plan to blog here at least monthly.... it's a good place to save my thoughts. And dear reader you are more than welcome to follow along another pilgrim's journey on this adventure called " life". There were 5 siblings in our family. I am the oldest. Now I and my youngest brother, Mike, are left. He just turned 80 and is in much better condition than I was at that age. 

So, goodbye 2025. You were kind to us.

WELCOME 2026 !!

 

2cnd snow on heels of first....

 Monday morning while it was dark I checked to see if it had started to snow.... nothing. Around 7:30 I checked again and it was a mixture of rain and flakes.Lib and I settled in, curious as to how the day would develop. Later in the morning it changed to all snow. By noon it was beginning to coat the limbs.

The temps dropped into the freezing area and serious precipitation began. We had called our heat repair because the heat pump was running continuously. They didn't answer until yesterday, but reassured us that we were probably ok as the house was where we had set the thermostat. Forcast said the night temps would be in the mid teens!

Then the excitement began around 4:45 when the power blinked once and then went off! When that happens one wonders whether a squirr

el got suddenly fricasseed or something more serious.  Dark arrives around 5:30 this time of year. Supper plans might have to change, phones and iPads checked for remaining power. (Lib and I still have the old service as a backup), other light sources located and fresh batteries installed if needed. About an hour later Cathy let us know that our power company said 20,000 were out in our area and that it could return between  6 and 11 pm. The house was beginning to feel chilly and we had cold cereal for supper. Beginning to think about donning some heavy jackets and thinking about where in our closets they might be.

A little past 6:30 pm the power returned and we breathed a huge sigh of relief.

First Snow of the Season

 Last night the weathermen were pretty sure we could expect about 3" on the ground by this afternoon. Before we went to bed last night around 11:45 pm I looked out a window that has just the right lighting to dramatically catch any snow flakes. Nothing showed. 

At about 6 am I waked and decided to check out the same window. Sure enough big wet flakes were drifting lazily down and were busy covering whatever they touched. It was beautiful and the temperature was just a tad below freezing. Lib and I got up around 8 am to start our day and we estimated there was a little more than 3" on the ground and exposed surfaces. l hope to add a short video taken through our kitchen window.

When I was a child of 8 years in Salem, Virginia snow was often on the ground by the end of November. For our adult years Lib and I expected some significant snows during each winter when I taught Strings at Patrick Henry high school in Roanoke. A few winters we had debilitating DEEP  ones!  Then after we retired in the early 2000's the weather slowly began to change. There was talk about an incremental rise in temperatures. The expectations of a "White Christmas' began to fade expecially after moving to Midlothian, Va near Richmond.

Snows often occurred in mid to late January. Temperatures could sometimes get cold, one winter I recorded a low of 2 degrees! but that was sort of an anomaly. We had a cold snap in November this year and I sort of suspect we may have an unusually cold winter this 2026, Not sure the weather scientists have a strong grip on what our sun is capable of, especially its cyclical behavior.