Hotspur.us

 

It was with all that hype that I went to bed last night, rather disappointed that there was only a dusting of snow to be seen at 11:15 p.m. Great, another blunder in the world of meteorology where being wrong half the time won’t cost you your job.

Imagine my utter surprise when I awoke to find four inches of snow blanketing town and more on the way. Now THAT’s more like it Mother Nature!

Now alot of folks would freak out and stay inside (or worse, be stupid and try to get their convertible pontiac whatever off the side of a hill with the top down) but not me. I had cards to be mailed. And plus, come on, I own tons of winter gear! Chad and I bundled up and headed down to the post office (and liquor store because it never hurts to have a bottle of port on a snowy day).

It sure is fun to play in the snow when you’ve got nothing to do. Lots of fun.

After a quick snack and a rest, it occurred to me (thanks to her loving husband -ed) that we owned snowshoes that had never been used. So back we bundled and off we went, going up and around neighborhood (and seeing the aforementioned folks in the convertible – kids, if you aren’t driving a snow worthy car, just walk) enjoying the 6+ inches of snow (while being pelted with yet more snow).

I love snow days, even if they are just Saturdays in disguise.

ps. our siamese Kimi REALLY wanted outside. She started out the back door a few times but then thought better of it. When we went out to put on the snowshoes she snuck out onto the front porch.

She gave it the old college try but retreated to the porch by the time we’d gotten into our snowshoes and were heading up the hill. I dare say, I doubt Kimi is going to be making any more breaks for freedom any time soon.

 

So my Nun-Nun’s house is an organized archaeological dig. Flinders Petrie would be thrilled – no need to grid out and sift pot shards since most of the important stuff (like photos) have been neatly organized and labeled.

From the depth of some box was unearthed the following photographs, which nearly ended up in a dust heap, if not for my step-dad snagging them and handing them over. My mom is not much of a keeper of things.

 

The Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Prior trip left me with this impression: CREEPYTOWN. Or perhaps more appropriately: CREEPYTOWN!!!!!

And so Mom and I thought hey…let’s take the four floor tour! Yes, yes we did. Surprisingly this time around, despite the upper floor portion of our tour consisting of only four other folks including the tour guide, it wasn’t creepy. Not creepy at all. Which was strange.

In fact the only scary part was hanging out waiting and waiting and waiting among the rather irritable and cranky folks who were also waiting for a tour.  Honestly. I thought one lady was going to break out a whooping stick or some other implement of damage. And I thought I had anger management issues. Ha!

Anyway, while milling about and wasting Mom and I checked out the entertainment….not a lot of channels in this neck of the woods.

Once the tour got started though, anger management lady seemed to calm down. But just in case Mom and I checked out the phone service. You know, in the event we had to make an emergency call for help.

It was a grand time indeed. Cold, sad and strange. But not creepy. Perhaps it was because it was such a nice sunny day. Maybe it was because there was a carnival on the front lawn. Who knows.

Mom unearthed some photos of my Nun-Nun modeling the dress she wore to Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. After returning from DC, the dress went into its original box without being cleaned – and according to Nun-Nun it was quite muddy that night.  I was quite happy to have some sense of how well the dress managed to weather the 46 years between wears. Wish I’d have had the killer opera gloves Nun-Nun wore, although having tried on some of her other gloves, I doubt they would have fit. (and of course Mom ran across those almost 2 years later darn it)

I wore the same dress in December 2007 to the company holiday party.  Although it required some minor alterations before I could squeeze into it. I had to take out the zipper in the back and add a set of eyelets so it could be laced up the back. And my minks (yes, poor little critters) were found in a second hand store. [For the record, I didn't wear the fur out of the house. Not really my style.]

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