Tidbits

It was fun to wake up Saturday morning to the first snowfall of the season. Seeing everything covered in a gentle blanket of white was pleasing. Since then, we have had temperatures hit -10c (-20c with wind chill), which I do not find anywhere near as nice. These temperatures sneak up on me because I look outside and I see a sunny, cloudless sky and my brain automatically thinks "Nice day." While that may be true, it has not built up a knowledge base that, while pretty or nice, the day may be cold as hell. Needless to say, my hands got pretty cold before I remembered to put on my gloves. I need to get better about that, but I think only experience and time will teach me that lesson.

Saturday morning we decided to try for Calais for mail and some Thanxgiving shopping. However, even after getting an all-wheel drive vehicle from Alex, we only made it about five miles out of town before we decided to turn around. The better part of valor said that, with the slow speeds we would have to average on the trip, the later start we got due to weather considerations, and the time limit we had on reaching an open Calais post office to pick up our packages, it just wasn't in the dice.

Saturday night we went to watch Chicago at the SJ Theater. Even though I helped my mother with nearly every one of her productions, and had friends in many of them, I find it strange to see many of my new friends up on a very professional stage singing, dancing, acting. Our friend T-L absolutely belted her songs as Mama Morton. She didn't really need the microphone at all and I could tell she had to reign it in a bit when she had the duet with the woman playing Velma; Velma had a good voice, but nowhere near the power or clarity of our friend! Another surprise (to me, as I don't know everyone well yet and do not know where their strengths lie) was our friend Matt. While the role of Amos doesn't require a lot of singing or dancing, I was pleasantly surprised by the job Matt did in covering both aspects. And our friend Jenn did the choreography for the entire show. I asked and she confirmed that it is exceptionally difficult to come up with choreography that is engaging to the audience, showcases each individual's talents, and accommodates those in the cast who have no training and little skill at dancing. That's one headache I leave in her capable hands. Neither of us liked the minimilist stage presentation, but my guess is that the crew wanted to cut down on the size of the stage and keep the focus on the singing and dancing. In those regardless, the minimilist approach worked.

Today I drove down on my own to Calais and got everything. The trip today was easy, I averaged great mileage for the tank down and back (1/4 tank for the whole trip), and had my first experience paying duty on items brought over the border ($18.50). There was virtually no wait on either side (to America there were about 8 cars ahead of me turning onto the bridge (plus a full bridge), but moved fast. Coming back, I was behind two cars when they opened the second window and all of us cruised through. If I hadn't needed to pay duty, I almost could have blinked and missed it!

The trip would not have been as good had I not used the portal XM we own. I put it on the 90s channel and cruised the entire way. For someone who hates talking (talk radio, DJs talking, phone requests, even commercials that talk) as much as I do, you would think I would have succumbed to the XM/Sirius use long before moving in with my wife. I do love it now, though.

Back to the trip: during one stretch of almost 30 minutes I quite literally did not see a car on the same side of the road I was driving. During that same stretch, I only saw 11 cars on the other side. It was fun to see the big-rigs filled with Christmas trees leaving Canada one after another; I'm sure at least some of those trees are bound for Southern California.

I think we're set for Thanxgiving now. We have a turkey, we have some home-baked bread to bake that day, and the rest of the ingredients we'll get here. I'm looking forward, with some horror and trepidation, to seeing the Lions play on TV. This is the only scheduled game of the season on TV, but they are an aweful 0-11 and have little chance of winning a game this year. Which is too bad, as Marinelli is a good coach and had turned things around so much last season. Just goes to show you that pre-season doesn't count for much (the Lions were 4-0).