Wednesday, January 4th

Conditions at 5:15 am: -11' and a few flurries falling, heading for -6' and a few more flurries throughout the day

I  read online last night that there was to be a meteor shower in the early hours of this morning  and the best time to see it was 2:30 EST, making it 3:30 our time. They should still be visible until sunrise but being as we were expecting snow flurries I didn't see any point in setting the alarm for the middle of the night to look at a cloudy sky. Sure enough, when I got up at 5:00 there's a heavy cloud cover. A good nights sleep was definitely a better choice.

After all the activity of the past couple of weeks, it seems very quiet now, and that's not a bad thing, unless you're trying to think of something to write about in a blog. I suppose the weather is always a topic people talk about when they have nothing else to say. In spite of the cold weather warnings in Ontario yesterday, we enjoyed a lovely sunny mild day. It was just around freezing when I went out at lunch but the sun and dry ground made it feel much nicer. It's great for driving around and heating houses, but not so great for skiing. I just took a peek back to last year and on January 4th of last year, I posted a comment that it was the 5th Monday in a row that we had snow. I don't remember that much before Christmas but it must have been. I know we had some rain right around Christmas but we had seen frequent snow before this date. This has truly been an extraordinary December. Last night on the news they were talking to some farmers who were out harvesting red cabbages that didn't get picked earlier in the fall. Now that's unusual for this time of year. I checked back and it looks like our first time out on skis last year was January 10th when we attempted the trails in Dromore.
But enough about the weather - Lloyd's favorite saying is "It is what it is" and he's right.

I moved my piece of exercise equipment (or rather Lloyd did) upstairs on the landing right outside the bedroom door. My hope is I will use it first thing in the morning when I get up. I haven't been really diligent about it. So this morning was day one. It's not high impact but it does give you a good stretch. However, if I used it every day for 8 hours a day, I would never get THIS flexible. Check it out.....

http://www.jokeroo.com/bin/player.swf?5f9f_f369