A Week Not To Remember!

I was able to head back to NI, NH last nite. It was a very easy and uneventful ride from Enfield, CT. That's more than I can say for the passed week. As everyone can attest within the Brouse extended family, "Eventful", is the key word describer for the week. Dad, Grandpa, Uncle, Brother & Friend Brouse was upper most in everyones' hearts and minds. When I left, "Bobby B.", (as his neighborhood hareem calls him), was recuperating just fine and his eldest daughter was a happier camper than when this camping trip to CT began. Besides being, "Janey and Johnny on the spot", with the Brouse Watch, both Karen and I had to be on the phones for more than half of the time during our unending commutes from Enfield to Hartford.

Karen plans to return to NI on Sunday. I left last nite to get some everyday stuff arranged and to prepare our driveway for normal egress for our car & truck. You see... our week started out with an Ice Storm. Our driveway was less than perfect when Karen 1st headed out to CT. We have a good 1/2 inch to an inch of ice on Faria Lane, (400+ feet long). The week started with the ice storm and the temps here in NH have now returned to our normal winter weather, 5 to 30 degrees F. Consequently, the ice has not receded since we left. We also got about 1 & 1/2" of snow last nite. Here are a few pix of trees from our front yard:

My Ski Lift the next day & other pix

The Spruce Triple Lift was open on 1/12/07. This is it at the end of the day. You may notice that there is a lot less snow on the right side of the lift as compared to the pic from last year. There was a huge 1/2 pipe formed and groomed on it last year and it took a tremendous amount of snow. (The 1/2 pipe was used by the skilled snowboarders.) It won't be happening this year.

Here is a picture of Norman at Tim & Donna's on Thanksgiving from this Fall. He got thirsty and we hadn't provided him with any water, so he inovated on his own.

When Tim & Donna drove us to Kennebunk Port, we saw this house and it was really intriguing. It is called the, "Wedding Cake House". Kinda fits, doesn't it?

Well, it is getting late and I need to hit the sack. Bye for now. Oh yes.... I'll be providing some candid shots of the great town of, "New Ipswich, NH", very soon.

It's next morning, 1/14/07. I needed to edit a few things, so here I am again. The editing is done and I'm now trying to think of another pic that I can add here. The Faria children w/ Santa at my sister's house this Xmas.

My Ski Lift Will Be Open Tomorrow!

We had single digit cold weather this morning and the "Spruce Triple Lift" should be open when I punch in tomorrow. Sunapee Resort was making snow all day yesterday and today and all lifts most likely will be running by the weekend. I've been running the main lift, "The Sunapee Express" for 2 weeks now and I can't wait to be at the "Spruce". Here's what it looks like:

These are last year's pix and here I am working the post:

I hope to get a good picture of it tomorrow! Hopefully, we'll have enough snow.

While browsing through my pictures last year, I found a great snow scene of our front yard. Here it is with about 5 inches of snow:

Snow in January at New Ipswich, NH & other pix

Here is the whole 1/2" dusting that we had in the 1st week of Jan.

Here is an Xmas tree that KA, Tim, Donna & I saw at Kennebunkport Maine. It was in the center of town. We saw it when we visited Tim & Donna this last weekend, 1/7/07.

This is the last picture of Tim & Donna at there old house in Berwick, Maine. This was taken on the same Sunday as the Xmas tree above.

Sick Day Ramblings

I started my morning by trying to view my own blog for the 1st time on my home computer. I got on and started to view some comments and all of a sudden... the stupid computer decided to "hybernate". I found that I had no way to get the blankety-blank computer to get out of hybernation. Needless to say, I was slightly frustrated. It wasn't until KA arrived in the evening that she pointed out to me that the computer started to hybernate because the computer battery was dying. My wife had neglected to tell me that the other end of the power cable was not connected to the wall outlet.

Anywho, I am now blogging and I've actually been able to comment on Missy's blog. Since I tend to be better at picture attachments than actual writing, here are some pix...

Left to right:

1) The RIGHT Coast gang during Christmas at Dad's place, (The week before Xmas, actually).

2) The reason that Monadnock State Park exists and my reason for being a Park Ranger this passed summer

3) Our front porch in October

A Holiday Season NOT to Remember

Here I am in Humboldt County, contemplating the last 5 days of my trip out to the LEFT Coast. It has definitely been memorable if not catastrophic. Dealing with handicapped wife, children, parents and my sister and her extended family has been draining. In contrast, the last day and 1/2 have been actually serene, staying in Jack-Jack's cozy little house by the Mad River with pasture land all around and the ocean within a short walk from here. Although Ryan has a full blown cold, JR and I have been able to stave off the effects by taking some rather amazing herbal immune builders.

(KA is on the phone with JR and so I'm trying to get more of this posting done.)

When KA gets off the phone, JR and I need to get some bottled H2O-(4, 5 gal. bottles), so we can make another immune boosting elixir. I can't believe how well it works. Here's a picture of most of our family, (at least the ones on the LEFT coast).

to be continued...

EARLY EVENING:
JR & I did some car trips around Arcata and then came back to the house for a well deserved nap. We woke up just before sundown and headed for the beach at the ocean which was only down the country road from her house, (0.6 mi.). The beach stretches some 3 miles from just north of Eureka to McKinleyville and there are vast amounts of dunes. Many more than I've ever seen at Bodega or at McKerriker State Beach.
Here is an example==>

We ended our visit with a beautiful sunset as noted below. Tomorrow, I head back to Glen Ellen and then Vallejo. Unfortunately, I have another encounter with my parents. Here comes the stress again. I think that I'll just watch the picture below and meditate on it.

Beginnings

With the help of my daughter, I'm going high-tech into the etherland. I've never used a blog in my life, but I've watched my wife use hers. So now, my daughter's starting one for me, because I'd like to communicate in a more Californian way to my friends and family on the Left Coast. Emails sometimes just aren't enough. This way, people can comment, add pictures, etc, etc.

So now it begins...