Life in Antrim

Fuel and a steeple

I know, I know...I said more Halloween pictures. Well, I still may have some...

But, for now here's what I saw after getting a fill-up at a Sunoco in Hillsborough (a town north of Antrim).

If you click on the picture you'll get a larger version...

Ghost fisherman

I really have to start working this morning (just got back from dropping Mikey off at Antrim Elementary after picking up chips and dip for a class party). In the picture to the left you can see him with mom, who is responsible for putting together his ghost fisherman costume (touching the picture will pop up a bigger version).

There is a parade with the kids just after 1PM that I hope to watch, so it is likely that more pictures will be coming...

Boooooooo......

(Very) hot pocket

Sorry folks for getting behind on my web log. If it is any consolation, I've gotten quite a bit done "elsewhere" :-)

Not that anything amazing happened while I was "gone" -- we had a great visit from my brother and his family, we attended a local church, went shopping at Sam's Club...well, excitement abounded! :-)

And, based on another incident this past weekend, let me suggest the following is not a good combination in one's pocket:
1) change
2) screwdriver
3) keys
4) two fully-charged metal hydroxide AA batteries

The title of this blog explains it all...

P.S. I'm in Wallingford, Connecticut through Thursday, so if I do post more, it won't be quite "Life in Antrim."
P.P.S. Michelle reports some new birds at our feeder. Hopefully pictures to follow when I return to Antrim.

Got one!

Nuking a breakfast for Mikey, I saw one of our "Three Blue Jay Musketeers" trying to get the last bit of bird-seed out of the feeder they seem most able to access. I go upstairs and grab my digital camera.

Of course, he's gone. However, patience won this time (although I did not go for the ice popsicle method this time, and took it from the kitchen window -- thus the fuzziness).

If you touch the picture to the left, you'll get a pop-up of a fuller scene.

Thanks to Mikey's "Beginner's Guide to Birds, Eastern Region" by Donald and Lillian Stokes, we did figure out our mystery bird from yesterday. It's a female downy woodpecker. (It could be a hairy woodpecker, but I don't think it's beak is big enough and it doesn't have a tuft of hair at the base of it. But, as you can see to the right, we don't have the greatest picture of it -- so I'm mostly going on the fact that the downy woodpecker is much more common.)

I know it's female because the male has a patch of red at the back of it's head.

Well, now to get to what I really should be working on this morning :-)

Darn blue jays...

Actually, I like blue jays :-)

The reason I titled this "Darn blue jays" is because they won't pose for the camera, and I froze my tail off this morning trying to get a picture.

I did get a couple shots...one of a bird yet to be identified, and another of the same basic scene as shown in yesterday's snow picture.

If you touch the one of the bird, you'll see the entire sceen (and you can play "find the bird"). If you touch the one of the woods, you'll see what late-foliage fall looks like to one side of our house...

And it is accumulating...

As you can see, My-Cast.com was absolutely right...we have snow in Antrim. The dogs and Mikey are happy (and I have to admit mom and dad are too). April isn't alive yet, so I can't ask her what she thinks :-)

The dots in the picture are actual fluffy snowflakes falling near the camera lens. It wasn't as dark as the picture implies...I was fighting with dead batteries and a cold lens (that fogged up when I went back inside to get more batteries). No time to play to get it "just right"...

If you click on the picture you'll get a larger version in a pop-up window.

I write this listening to "Doin' the Sugart Too" by Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson. I learned, during a visit to Antrim's James A. Tuttle Library Tuesday night with Mikey, that he lives in our humble town. If I remember what I read about him, he's probably the best "West Side Style" guitarist around. Not knowing one guitar style from another, I'll have to trust the judgment of others. What I can tell you is that this standard rock-and-roll guy really enjoys this "blues" CD...

If you are interested in learning more about him, here is his -> bio <- from his present record company.

It's snowing...

It's 5:00PM on Tuesday, October 22, 2003, and it is snowing in Antrim, New Hampshire.

Well, more like really, really light flurries in mixed precipitation...

Snow in the forecast...

A quick glance at my My-Cast forecast e-mail says at 8AM tomorrow it'll be 30°F and snowing...

I guess it was good that I paid for my snowblower this week :-)

Thunderstorms?

Yesterday it was 26 degrees when I brought Mikey to school. Today (at 10:13AM) we are in the midst of a thunderstorm. Go figure...

You know it's dark when...

It's 9:24AM, but it's dark enough that I had to turn on a second light in my office. I'm not sure the sun came up in Antrim today :-)

Forecast says rain (at least the chance of it)...

Balmy 26°F

I brought Mikey to school this morning (a late start for mom and dad meant him missing the bus -- although I probably was going to do it anyway since I wanted to go to the post office and bank)...

There was ice to scrape off my '92 Saab 9000 CD...and when I fired it up, the internal thermometer said it was 26°.

By the time I got home from my morning errands, it had shot up to 29° :-)

Comfortable inside though...I can't wait to see the propane bill...

A Yankee Trebuchet

Michelle, Mikey and I went to have brunch at our favorite breakfast restaurant (quite a distance away), and alas, it was closed with the sign, "Thanks Milford, it's been fun."

So much for plate-sized pancakes and huge servings of home fries :-(

We grabbed a quick lunch at a pizza place instead, and headed home, making a quick stop at a farm stand in Greenfield. Across the street was a strange huge device (56' to tip of its arm). It turned out to be a trebuchet (catapult) to launch pumpkins at a fake castle up the hill. And you know what? That it did :-)

We are going to try to visit again next weekend, so hopefully I'll have pictures to post.

And people all the fun is in the cities :-)

To nap or not to nap...

Although I got up late (about 9:30), at 2:43 I am sensing a great desire for a nap. However, lawnmowing beckons this cloudy and cool day...

I'm hoping that the mower will also pick up a lot of the leaves...actually, I'm just hoping I'll be able to get the mower to start :-)

No Starbucks

I had to drop Mikey off at school this morning (he has a field trip to Fort Number 4 today that required he be their before his bus would arrive). I followed it by a quick stop at the post office (sadly, no mail) and then figured I'd grab a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin Donuts.

I know there are people who don't think a town/city is civilized if it doesn't have a Starbucks (or two, or three, or a million). Alas, using that litmus test Antrimites are savages.

However, you'll be glad to know that you can still get your cappuccino, latte, or espresso at Dunkin Donuts, and I'm sure they'll gladly charge you a month's salary for it too :-)

One more note, Antrim doesn't have a "full" Dunkin Donuts...it's baked goods are shipped in from a "real" one in the big town of Hillsborough (ours is one edge of a T-Bird convenience store). And although I think Dunkin Donuts trumps Krispy Kreme any day, these darn local ones don't carry the best donut out there -- vanilla creme filled :-(

What a slimy day...

Although I can see a tiny bit of blue sky through the clouds outside my office window, it is a slimy day here in Antrim. It's been raining at various degrees since last night (or early this morning)...which, of course, made taking out the trash a less than comfortable proposition.

Bear is resting near me, still wet from his time outdoors.

If this was the weekend, it would definitely would be a good day to spend snoozing...but alas, I must start working...