Temperatures in the mid-50s (13C) have melted the snow on the ground and the ice on the ponds.
It's orange season again. Although we can get oranges from Chile throughout our summer, it's not quite the same. The oranges from Florida are showing up now and from California around the first of the year. Grandson Michael has been selling oranges to raise money for the high school band. We bought two boxes.

Tomorrow we'll go to the Cape to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Sandra's family. Mike's family won't be going. Matt is in the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Leominster. We're sorry to miss the game.

So today is a day of errands. We'll see my father this afternoon. We'll learn if he was able to fix the hydraulic line on the snow plow.

Some 20 years ago we were visiting an aunt and uncle. We wanted to take them out for dinner. "Why should we go out? We have plenty of food here." Then, we offered to take them out for dessert. "Why should we go out? We have plenty of dessert here."

We remember that encounter often, first as a gentle mocking and then as a realization that we're becoming them. We have plenty of food, plenty of dessert. We try to break the routine, but the Newton's first law of motion is strong.

This morning we received the first of four cords of wood. The price is very good. It's green, but will be good by the spring.

I didn't quite make my work deadline yesterday. I was slow getting back to full stride and didn't get done all that I'd hoped. I expect to have this stage of the work completed by Monday afternoon.

Speaking of which, it's time to go there.

There's a skim coat of ice on the pond near our house. According to lore, early ice portends a mild winter. "If there be ice in November that will bear a duck, there will be nothing thereafter but sleet and muck." (http://www.almanac.com/holidays/winter/)

Although my nom de blog is Roaster Boy, a name drawn from a coffee blend at local shop, we generally buy our coffee from Equal Exchange. We started buying from them years ago because they were among the first to offer Nicaraguan coffee. ("A light nutty aroma with good body, refined acidity, and a mild finish.") The current issue of Fast Company has a good profile of the company- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/88/trade-secrets.html. The Equal Exchange web site is http://www.equalexchange.com/.

Yesterday I worked my first full day in several. I spent a good bit of time working with other writers on Javascript and shell script issues.

The company where I work has started blocking POP and IMAP connections, meaning that I can no longer get direct access to my personal email while at work. I've been using my Gmail (Google mail) account more. The interface is interesting and a bit better than the webmail service that we get through our ISP. The account is free and the ads are quite unobtrusive. I can give away a few Gmail accounts, so let me know if you're interested. More about it here: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html.

Yesterday morning the MacGregors sought a new home for their dog, Molly. A yellow Lab, Molly is just a year old and full of energy, too much energy for an adult household. She'll be great in a family with kids. We're a bit subdued around here, including Marley (our nearly nine-year-old black Lab).

Sandra's mother drove the car for the first time in a couple of months. It was a short trip, about a half a mile, and she felt quite good.

My mother often quoted William Blake, "Energy is an eternal delight." This cold of mine has dragged on far longer than necessary. I came home early from work yesterday and slept for several hours. I'm getting concerned about a project that has a deadline on Thursday. So I'll keep this short and go along to work.