Sunday snow day

It dumped something like six to eight inches of snow last night. I was up for a lot of it. It's nice to sit in a big old house with a storm raging outside.

We had gone to bed early and when I got up Sue woke and said, "Can't sleep? Same old same old?" And I responded, saying, "Nah, I just don't need twelve hours of sleep anymore."

I surfed the 'net, read a lot of the news, and read on The Daily Beast about the continuing adventures of Alexandra Penney, who lost everything in Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme. She's a pretty good writer, articulate, and best of all honest. She just throws her heart out there. But just as interesting were the reader comments. I love letters to the editor and other ways that people weigh in with their opinion. They're like unsolicited opinion polls, and you can get a good read on the country if you keep up on them. It's why I like talk radio. (Surprise, surprise, huh?) It's not the hosts I like. I like to hear what the listeners have to say, and every so often I think, "I never thought of that before."

Anyway, I was amazed by how brutal the comments were. A lot of people have absolutely no sympathy for the women now that she can't stay at the Four Seasons and has to stay at a Hampton Court when she travels, and writes about it. Dollars to donuts if any of those people had the money she used to have (and who actually earned it, btw, writing) they wouldn't be staying in Hampton Courts either.

Pretty much stayed in today, too, as much as my brain is saying, Get out. Go snowshoeing. Rent some skis and get out in the woods. Instead we stayed in; Sue cleaned while I made some homemade pasta and a pot of sauce. We talked to Al for awhile, always a nice treat. She's loving Spain and Spanish and European ways. She's amazed by how her hostess--her senora, she calls her--conserves, ticking off a list like the hot water heater they have and how they turn off their lights. I said to Sue afterwards, You tell a kid a thousand times to turn off the lights, but a European says it one time and it's eye-opening. But that's why we travel, to learn new ways, and she seems to be off to a good start.

I didn't want to, but Bob needed a good walking. He's old, but the snow turns him into a puppy again. I pulled on my parka and boots and we headed out, and when we turned up a hill, he chugged along and I related to him how he and I used to hike in the Whites, and he used to run thirty yards ahead of me down the trail. He's a good little conversationalist, meaning he's a good listener. He looks like a little bear, and I finally trained him to stay behind me because more than once he started people coming down the trail the other way, who actually thought they had run into a real bear. I wondered if he and I have one good mountain hike left in us, but he didn't answer.

It was so pretty out, though, in the neighborhood in the fading light, so we went back to the apartment to get the camera, and Sue decided to join us. I know, it's not the most exciting life, but we like it.