And then there is this friend of ours who has decided to open up a sports bar/restaurant in the Spring in our ever popular downtown district (all one street and two blocks of it) who needed to install into his new office a desktop computer system. Easy yes?

Well, the obtaining and installation of said desktop was easy enough but trying to get my friend’s head screwed around in such a way so that he actually understood how to turn the thing on without blowing it up was not so easy. If a man and computer were so mutually exclusive as they shouldn’t be allowed in the same building with each other lest horrendous tragedy occur, my friend and his new office computer are the ones.

And  now I have to teach him how to use it. I think I’ll charge him…a lot. Just for the aggravation.

So between the snow and future sports bar follies I’ve been rather busy of late. I finally came to the realization that I had completely missed the passing of the new decade when I sat down to write up the checks for our monthly bills and my computer told me it was January 3rd, 2010.

2010??!! Already? When did this occur for heavens sake?

Oh well, nothing for it then but to wish a belated Happy New Year to all the usual folks, the slightly unusual folks and the definitely unusual folks who have graced this blog with their presence over the past year. I would like to say over the past decade as it sounds more inline with a post concerning 2010 but unfortunately, the site hasn’t been around that long.

So here’s to another very interesting year in this helter skelter world of ours. May we all survive it intact.

Now I’d love to stay here,
and just be mel-low.
But I’m headed outside,
to shovel the snow.

One of the comments left on the post was from Kate S. wanting pictures of the snow. Unfortunately I was preoccupied at the time and hadn’t taken any. She’s all done up for the holidays and needed some snow to make her feel more Christmasy or something.

So just for you Kate, I took out my old digital camera, shook the dust off it, gave it a good washing, stuck in some semi-fresh batteries, went outside and took a short video clip of the snow shower that came by today.

Okay, so it’s not that great and pics maybe would have been better but hey, the video actually shows the snow falling now doesn’t it?

Happy Holidays and hope you enjoyed it.

And this particular week went from Wednesday to Wednesday no less. Not from Sunday to Sunday like any normal, self respecting week would. Nooo, it had to start somewhere in the middle.

The first thing that we had to get through was preparing for the local arts (and crafts although they try not to admit it in public) guild’s annual Christmas show. M’Lady just happens to be a somewhat reluctant member of this rather ridiculous society of local artists and had been dreading doing this show for weeks because, like all the shows that came before,  they always turn out to be disasters.

And this one was no exception. It could even be said that it was worse.

The show was 3 days long at a “not open for the season yet” ski resort located out in the boondocks of the Northeast Kingdom. So easy to find, just like all the other shows they did. One of the first ones was held in an empty general store in a “off the beaten track” town that no one ever wanted to go because it was patrolled by a rabid town constable.

And it rained all weekend.

Yup. Perks the old holiday spirit right up I can tell you. Nothing gets people out and about during the holiday season like leaden skies and a cold hard rain.

So while she was suffering away at the base of a local mountain that happens to be tall enough for a ski slope or two, I was minding the shop for three days and waiting on all those customers who came out in the cold hard rain to do some shopping for Christmas.

All three of them.

One was looking for a piece of scrap fabric to cover a donations box she was making and another was lost. The third and final one was a harried looking young mother who obviously had two out three kids back in the car who were not happy about it. But she just had to come in and look around don’t ya’ know.

And she did. Took her 20 seconds flat. She said she’d be back before Christmas without the kids.

On Monday it finally started to snow.

And today brought a fast but furious snowstorm I ended up having to clear out of the driveway.

Now it looks all white and Christmasy.

Figures.

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s hoping that 2009 offers up some better times than 2008 ended with. Even if it means that the human race as a whole has to work together to make it happen. Something we, as a people, have always had the greatest trouble in doing.

One can always hope though.