Whew!

Once again, we have survived the Christmas season.

We seem to do this more and more easily each year. Don't get me wrong. There is still, and I suspect always will be, a certain amount of holiday hysteria. But each year it becomes less and less as we and our extended family understand more and more about the real importance of the season. It's not that we didn't before, but now we seem more able to enjoy each other as a Christmas present (instead of racing around after last minute gifts that mean little). The more that happens, the more I look forward to and enjoy the whole experience.

My oldest son, his wife and 2 children, my brother and his wife, and my youngest nephew, his wife and baby were all here for Christmas day. We did sit around and do a gift giving thing, but way more important was everyone just having a really good time. (Of course, the grand kids did have their new iPod touch gizmos to play with, but they did so in the same room as all of us and even occasionally conversed with us old fogies.)

It was a wonderful day. We had a ham dinner with way too much food and it was well after dark before anyone started to leave.

The tree is still up and will be till new year's day. We have one more party to have, that being the new year's eve card party we've been having for a number of years. I'll fry a turkey, which will disappear like magic and we'll all sit around playing pitch until the wee hours. The hours are actually not quite as wee as they used to be, but 1:30 AM won't be a surprise.

Mother nature does seem to have her own little sense of humor. It snowed this AM and when things started to clear off and warm up, I went out and cleaned off driveways and walkways, and salted the hilly drive that needs it constantly all winter. Half way home, it commenced snowing again. Oh HA HA!! Very funny mommy N.

Tonight is the last Meg's Kitchen rehearsal before our First Night gig, at the Bethany church, in Montpelier, on 12/31, at 5:00 PM.... The song list has come together nicely, with two songs that actually require singing. We don't do that too often, so it will be an interesting experience. It will be nice if I can get through my song without the yodeling that sometimes appears unexpectedly.

Time to cook supper. Split pea soup and grilled "last of the ham" and cheese sandwiches. Good warmth food.

It's been a long November and December (so far) without snow, until today.

Today's is a mixed blessing.

We really do need the snow. It supports us in the winter months when a major part of Vermont's livelihood depends on snow related activities. Skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross country-- it all depends on a good ground cover of white gold.

At the same time, it is a serious life adjustment, with which some seem to have trouble.

Yesterday was a little squally, with intermittent snow showers occurring around the state. One such dumping involved a heavy 10 minutes of white out just outside Richmond, about 15 miles north of Montpelier. It also involved route 89. The result was icy conditions on the highway and a 16 car pile up beginning with a tractor trailer and a car. There was little foresight involved with this mess. A small helping of caution could likely have avoided it, but when you're on the interstate going 65 or 70 mph, slowing down isn't always the first thing to come to mind.

This seems particularly true to those of the driving public who travel in all wheel drive vehicles. Apparently the prevailing opinion is that if you have this marvel, you can go as you please and do anything you want. It's kind of like a moving version of the "You can park anywhere if you turn on your 4 way flashers." rule.

Just a few years ago, it was possible to drive the 35 miles to Burlington and see pristine snow banks by the roadside all the way. Not so any more. After a storm like today's, there will be several dozen places where the banks have been pushed back by surprise plowing incidents. Sometimes they keep going long enough to get back on to the road, but mostly they just go further than necessary into the median. It's interesting that as the winter progresses, this phenomenon continues. Experience doesn't seem to make a difference.

However, even though I'll spend the next several hours plowing and shoveling, the snowfall is a welcome occasion. It looks as it should, it feels as it should, and with any luck I'll keep out of the gutter myself now that I've complained so perfectly about all those other all wheelers.

Charlotte went for her final resection check up today and got a clean bill of health.

We've been talking about this whole episode and about how quickly everything has happened. In hindsight, it's nearly as if it hasn't happened at all. They discovered the polyp and removed it, did a colon resection a few days later and now she's back at work. The biggest memory of all this is having to drink the damned electrolytes to flush her out. It was the worst part of the whole thing.

We haven't really had a chance to think about any of this. Cancer is discovered; fffft, it is removed, and on we go. There's no call for follow up treatment and Charlotte is free to do anything she feels can be done. In a weird sort of way, I almost feel like saying "Wait a minute. Is that it? Isn't something else supposed to happen?"

The specter of cancer is such an ugly thing. All my life I've been conditioned to be terrified of a cancer diagnosis and yet, when it actually happens, it's all over so fast that I don't have a chance to give it any thought. How can anything this disastrous and important be resolved so quickly? Do we now have to wait for the other shoe?

The doctor at today's appointment, who did the surgery, is very happy with her condition. He foresees no problems, and other than regular checkups and colonoscopies everything is headed to normality. Obviously this is what we want to hear and it makes our lives much easier hearing it.

But, we can't carry on as if none of this ever happened, even though that's what we would like. Each one of these occurrences gets added to life's portfolio and there it permanently changes the future in some way.

It did finally snow yesterday. Not much, but enough to make white scenery. So, time continues to pass at high speed and events continue to unfold. This blip hasn't slowed the progression down, and we're thinking it shouldn't slow us either.