Bouncing around zero

This is one of the coldest mornings of the season, if not the coldest. The temperature touched zero before bouncing back up. It shot up to .5 and now sits at -.1. I received a digital thermometer as a gift last year, so this is its first winter with us. The outside sensor is about a meter off the ground on our fence. We didn't receive the snow that was predicted for Saturday, but the few inches that fell have made everything look fresh and clean.

Yesterday afternoon was full and, for the most part, fun. We went to Mike and Lynn's to celebrate Lynn's birthday. Several folks asked if it was going to be a big party. As we've noted before, what we might call a big party Mike and Lynn call lunch. A splendid time was had by all.

Afterwards, we went to my father's. He'd been having trouble with his garage door opener. The Jeep with the plow was on one side of the door and the driveway with the snow was on the other. He was finally able to get the door open, the driveway plowed, and the path to the wood pile cleared. He was tired, but doing well.

He was also subdued. His long-time friend, Arne, died yesterday morning. Arne was the last of my father's friend of the same age. Arne used to come to my father's house for coffee on Sunday mornings. He was a nice guy - soft-spoken with a good sense of humor.

The more I drive it, the more impressed I am with my Subaru. It has about 130,000 miles on it; there are dog hairs all over the inside and more than a few scratches on the outside. There are some rattles, but none that can't be overpowered with the radio. Yesterday we drove to the camp. The car walked up the hill through the fresh snow as though it was springtime.

We walked around the lake some. It was windy and very cold. In many places, the wind had blown the ice free of snow. On the southwest corner of our property we have a small pond, perhaps 40' square. We often forget that it's there, as we did yesterday, until we stepped onto the ice and slipped and nearly fell. Marley came running, slipped and tumbled, reminding us of how my mother would say that Marley enters a room like Kramer.

According to the folks at the Pew Research Center, I'd be happier if I was a Republican. Sometimes, as we know, the price of happiness is too high. (Here's more about the study.)

OK, I don't dispute that this trial program might be working. Nevertheless, the idea that you'd treat homeless alcoholics with maintenance doses of wine seems, well, seems loony to the eighth power. I'll grant that science sometimes proves that the obvious isn't true, proving, for example, that the Earth revolves around the sun when our eyes would tell us otherwise. But, still, I mean, c'mon.

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