Oh, bliss -- warmth! I don't know the temperature, but it feels like summer. Went walking out in the field, across the ice of frozen stream and wetland, Cruiser at my side, Tsu's dog. Tsu is in the hospital sick with a suddenly revealed cancer. And Roger has just turned into our driveway. Is that Roger or someone else? Country life, new friends, warm sunny day. Ha!

Posted originally at www.toddp.com with photos.

Last night Todd, Ashley, a bunch of NCS students, my husband John and I all convened at the Saranac Lake Ice Palace. What a magical place! Magical is a trite word to describe a three-storey glimmering translucent witty frozen artistic sculptural architectural community marvel. I can speak only for myself, and I was suffused with joy. John gloried over discovering a tiny fish frozen in a block of ice the size of a Coleman cooler, and we all guffawed when someone pointed out the large words and arrow, writ in ice: FISH ---->

The ice could have been resin, it was so perfectly clear in spots, but the humid cold was proof of ice. Ah, how lovely.

You can check it out at http://www.saranaclake.com/carny.shtml Scroll down mid-page to see a slide show of construction.

Our solid H20 experience was preceded by a cozy hour in front of Mark's fireplace drinking hot cocoa and telling tall tales, and earlier in the afternoon a feast of kitchen-sink lasagna at John and my house, and the afternoon kicked off with Todd performing exploratory surgery on John and my computer network. As it turns out, shoelaces are not such effective UBS connectors.

I should probably post the above story in my own weblog but Todd has more readers and he hasn't told his own ice palace story yet, so let this be his introduction.

And today is a glorious, sunny Sunday!

Last night I fell down the basement stairs. John was down there fixing a window and from his point of view it happened in slow motion. I slipped, went "whoop!" then bump bump bump, he cried out, I said I'm ok! I'm ok! bump bump bump I'm ok! bump bump I'm ok! The whole way down I was crying out, "I'm ok!" He said he had three urges to go to my aid--but each time I said I was ok he paused. It happened in a flurry from my point of view. At the bottom I glimpsed a sturdy post and grabbed for it, thus ending my tumble and possibly saving me from serious injury. All the same, I sat there stunned, my butt, wrist and calf throbbing. John came to me and hugged me. I rested my head on his shoulder for a long moment.

This morning I am so sore.

The other night he woke me from a shrieking nightmare--I was dreaming that he decided he had never loved me, and I was enraged as well as grief-stricken. John woke me, pulled me into his arms, and said, "I have always loved you, I love you now and I will always love you."

What could be better than this relationship?

Transitioning into my office job this morning

By Martha Spear



Hay bales are heavy
Heavy bales hoisting
Makes me sweat, which is good, but—
Hay bales fall hard, I fall hard when tripping
Over hay bales
And cows are large, too large for tipping
But they sense weakness,
Trip me when they want the hay
So the bale and I flail in the stall
Amongst straw and frozen balls of poop
And the cows are happy munchers
Meaning no harm, even supplying
Sloppy kisses—they’d never hurt me.
Chores done, sweat drying, itches multiplying
There is hay in my bra.