Thursday, December 23, 2010

Purple Rain

It's just a couple days before Christmas and I am pretty well prepared for the coming holiday. I only have a few things left to pick up but am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I'm not sure why specifically but 2010 is a year I could happily put behind me. It hasn't been a bad year as such, it just hasn't been a great year. I think it was a bit of a let down because 2009 was so monumental that 2010 had a lot to live up to. Also, I didn't have a Year Plan for 2010, as I have had in previous years, so I sort of wandered through the last 357 days without much direction. I have decided that my new Year's resolution will be to make sure I have a plan for the coming year!

The weather of late has been the least winter wonderland-like of all my Christmases of memory. It has been almost like a hurricane but because of the direction of the wind they call it a Nor'Easter. The winds come out of the north and the east (but mostly east in my short experience) and blow the crap out of your entire life. And then drown it. Everything is under water, the woods are now full of downed trees, broken branches, and garbage blown from yards. Part of my fence is now lying on the ground and the dogs carefully step from stone to stone when walking in the yard so they don't sink into the quagmire of the lawn.

Driving is a fight against the howling winds and the storm surge on Tuesday night was definitely a bit harrowing on the drive home - the water level was so high up the Causeway that the wind was blowing seawater onto my truck. The pilings where the cormorants make their home normally show at least 8 feet of the poles but that night you could only see about a foot above the water - fortunately the cormorants made tracks for their winter residences weeks ago. It's a bit disconcerting driving across a half kilometer land bridge when the ocean is trying to remove the road from under you.

Despite it all we still make tracks for our walks every morning. The dogs don't understand that it is seriously unpleasant to walk in this crazy weather, all they know is that when we get up we go for a walk and they are serious creatures of habit. Try to break that routine and there is no end to the pining. We walk in the forest to avoid the worst of the wind and Leeloo is in her glory staring up at the branches, rushing from tree to tree in the eternal hope that a squirrel will drop into her mouth. Raimi likes his walk but he mostly uses it for pooping since he doesn't like to poop in the backyard. Esme needs that walk to burn off at least a little of her Energizer energy otherwise who knows what she'd get up to in the course of the day.  

Hopefully the weather will improve in the next day or two although I am really happy that the temperature has remained above zero, if it had been a little colder we'd all have been socked in for the holidays and there'd be about 10 feet of snow out there!

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