last week (or so) i treated myself to a trip to winter. i live in the south. it rarely snows, much less accumulates. i wanted winter. and i have a couple of old school friends (of 20 years) that live up in catskill, ny. they come down south to visit often enough ... but because they have so many friends and family, it's hard to get some quality
hang out time.
corbett said, "come in the winter ... for the snow". i said, "of course!"
and snow i got. i got so much snow that my 2nd flight out of newark was cancelled. i was already concerned that i was going to miss my connecting flight as we'd departed almost 40 minutes late. when i arrived at newark, i was kinda disoriented in a sea of
what to do now ....
fortunately, i hooked up with some very friendly faces in the same predicament. i met jen and dave. they too were scheduled for my next flight. we contemplated renting a car ... but eventually realized that we could take amtrak to our destination. i tell you what, there is safety
and assurance in numbers. we made our reservations, got our tickets, and took new jersey transit to penn station, nyc ... to wait for our connecting train to hudson (me) and albany (them). in the meantime, we enjoyed a couple rounds of beer at a "sidewalk" bar in penn station.
once i was fetched, corbett and i slowly made our way to their
shangri la on the edge of the hudson river. we (jim&corbett&i) went out later to a delicious dinner in town, with a puerto rican theme. a good two hours of grazing. every course outstanding!
this is where i slept. i slept like a rock. it was so quiet (compared to my neighbor
hood). i woke with the morning light (and sometimes the moonlight). sometimes there was the racket of the geese.
the night before my departure, jim cooked up a fabulous dinner! he made gnocchi from scratch, with meyer lemons. that was the main course. we also had roasted veggies, a beet salad, (sausages?), and desert was a polenta cake.
we ate by candle light. and then ...
the power went out .....it had been snowing all day. a big heavy wet snow. the kind of snow that will bring down the lines.
i had a fun time taking pictures of the candle light. it's good we already had candles burning when the power went out.
they have a wood stove too ... so it wasn't long before we were back in the saddle, regarding heat. it was a perfect night. no worries. no stress. the power went out. big deal. we had full bellies, red wine, and friendship.
we tried to make popcorn on the woodstove, but mostly burned it.
corbett&jim played scrabble ... i knitted.
some might think visiting a snowy place (w/o skiing, winter sports, etc) is kinda ridiculous ... but for me, it was the most relaxing time i've had in too long.
the weather right now is awesome. it's in that transitional phase of perfection ... days that are true 'carolina blue', sunny and comfortable, and simply perfect. on days like that, i like my windows open for fresh air and a breeze, not for an obnoxious musical selection. i think these guys think a lot of themselves .....
