Early Snow

I see that at this very moment the Radio City Rockettes are kicking around downtown Pittsburgh -- we've got some parade going on. It's COLD here, too, so it's sad they don't have many clothes on. They're smiling, though, cause they are professionals. Oh, here we are -- it's the 25th Anniversary Annual Kaufman's Holiday Parade, apparently. Too bad there won't be any more; Kaufman's will be gone next year, Macy's having taken its place. Then we can have the 1st Anniversary Macy's Holiday Parade, I suppose.

Now we are having harlequin-outfitted dancers on stilts. Oh, the excitement.

It's going to be getting a bit warmer by Monday, I understand, but we've had early snow here, and bitter cold for the Thanksgiving holiday. This was fine with the Bears' House residents. We stayed home the entire week. I painted the meditation room and sewed curtains, and watched the snow. It's the first chance I've had since we bought the place to spend a few days just being here.

And Bear's Retreat turns out to do well in the snow. The child sleds down the hills around the house. The adults stay in, where it's warm.

And the house IS warm -- those foot thick chestnut logs work very well as insulation.

However.

We don't yet know how much this is going to cost us -- we're the first owners to pay for gas. (There was originally a deal with the gas company, when they first put in the gas, and the owners got gas for free, in exchange for turning over the gas wells on the property to the company.) So we're waiting for the bill.

At which point we'll perhaps be once again doing our impoverished landed gentry impersonation.