Crime update

I was reading the Amherst Bulletin again while doing laundry and I read two very funny crime reports. Once again there were only two reports for Sunderland for the week. The first was a DUI, the other:

"Police received a complaint Nov. 23 at 8 am from a North Plain Road resident regarding a neighbor doing yard work too early in the morning."

8 AM? That is too early? Oh boy, busy week again. :)

Other surrounding "crimes" I found funny or at least entertaining:

Monday, Nov. 19th, 10:41pm: People arguing at a Hallock street home were determined to just be having a friendly rivalry while playing a video game. (We'll have none of that fun going on here!)

Wednesday Nov. 21, 10:04am: A woman walking her dog in the middle of Belchertown Road causing vehicles to swerve around her was not located by police. The woman also allegedly made obscene gestures at passing vehicles when they honked at her. (I better watch what I do when cars come close to me, people might accuse me of riding in the middle of the road waving obscene gestures!)

Thursday Nov. 22, 6:09pm: people walking around and beneath a house that will be moved from Kendrick Park were determined to be the people who will own the house. (Beneath the house?)

Nov. 22 Amherst, 3pm: a COW was reported loose on North East Street :) (In Vermont the buses look like cows, and it is called the MOOver, maybe it was just a bus?)

Finally:
Nov. 22, 6:10pm: Loud noise caused by objects dropping on the floor at a Kellogg Avenue home was quiet when police got there. (Well, now I'm surprised no one called on me when I fell off my bike, talk about objects dropping on the floor! :)!)

May your days only be filled with meaningless crimes to fill your nights with laughter!

Today was a good day!

A bad day skiing beats any great day at school. And today was good day skiing. I will only say it was GREAT! because I was skiing! There were only three lifts open, but the snow was good. Most of it was "man-made" but Mt Snow has new, fancy fan guns, so the snow was light and fluffy...NO REALLY it was! So after one day of skiing here in the East, not much different from Deer Valley. Nice long, open, groomers! Mt Snow is a bit over an hour from my house on a good weather day, YES! This is a google earth map of my "commute" to work. Oh didn't I tell you, I'm working there part time as a ski instructor...he he he. Like I'm going to pay to ski, HA! :) The quiet freeway drive with very few cars and the narrow, curvy road through a few tiny towns to work, that ain't half bad! (I know it is kind of hard to see, but follow the purple line.)

Check out what it says on the first tower after you clear the bull wheel (see picture). I think there should be such a law in Utah. Can you imagine getting the ticket? Failure to lower the bar. HA HA HA
The next pole had a sign that I really liked: (sorry no picture)
Mount Snow Motto: Make it easy. Make it fun. Make some hot chocolate!
Sounds like a great ski day to me...in fact, I'm off to make some right now.

And for my Sundance friends who may be afraid of how much I might miss sundance, one of the three base lodges (and a lift and run) are named "sundance." So, I will be reminded every day I'm at work of my wonderful friends and how I got where I am as a ski instructor. :)

We also....

...built and decorated a Gingerbread house. My mom brought a ready-made kit will all the trimmings and fixings. Well, you all know me, I'm not going to follow the "instructions", I'm going to decorate it the way I want to. So, I made it look like a cabin should in my mind...snow draped off the peak of the roof, icicles hanging precariously from the eves, and snow billows pilling up outside the house. Well, considering all I to work with was icing, I think you get the image I was trying to portray. Oh, and I did think it looked a bit bland without evergreens flanking the house or a light on inside signaling to the onlooker that someone is home, so I put a red robin on the top (see red speck on the roof?)...so what it was a small ball of sugar...if I want it to be a robin, that is what it is. :)! Me and my imagination...I am a little wacky.




By the way, the chimney is gone...so is the snowman, and I'm thinking about making my way with the roof tonight! YUMMY!

Thanksgiving in New England

My mom came out to visit for Thanksgiving and we went to Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good. Everything one would expect for a "typical" meal and MUCH MUCH more. Unfortunately we weren't able to take leftovers home, but it was buffet style so we could eat as much as we wanted to. OSV is a museum village that has buildings and other original "things" from all over New England, brought together to show what it was like in a small town. There were town homes, churches, mills, stores, etc. It was pretty cool to see what it may have looked like long long ago. And it was neat to be in the area where the idea of the Thanksgiving feast first happened.

When one starts off in the main museum area, there are a few smaller exhibits about food and living habits. There was a room that had so many clocks I couldn't count them. I was just glad they all didn't tick...wow that would have been a seriously disturbing room if they had all been ticking.

In the room, it tried to explain why "clocks" were so important to New Englanders and there was a plaque that explained why:

Early New Englanders thought of time primarily as an earthly period between birth and death to be lived in such a way as to reflect the glory of God in each individual. Men and women responded to daily and seasonal rhythms, but they paid relatively little attention to smaller time segments...An hourglass symbolized the relentless and continuous passage of one's entire time on earth, although Father Time with his scythe could cut life short at any moment.

I thought this was an interesting way to think about life.


There were actually two churches in the "village." I'm not sure what denomination the congregation was of the church on the left, but it seemed like a typical New England look. The picture on the right is the inside of the Society of Friends congregation...yep, the Quakers. I loved their simplicity, although it was much colder in there than it was outside. :)

This are views of the village. Which is interesting...add more trees and a bit more room in between the buildings and New England hasn't changed much.

This was an interesting view from the store, but then there was a guy who got in the picture...
These are two pictures of the same bridge by a cute pond. It did make me think, where is Ichabod Crane when you need him? Can't you hear the headless horseman...I can.


"About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape-vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate Andre was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him. This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the school-boy who has to pass it alone after dark." (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving)

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving...now, let's all pray for snow!!!

More pics

Just wanted to say:

MY FIRST SNOWBALL!

This doesn't look too wet and yucky (YET)! :)

Just waiting on the side of the road for my bus (which happened to slide to a stop when it was stopping at my stop, a bit scary!)

A few pictures around campus...


The campus pond is starting to freeze up a bit today...

...and if you don't believe me or can't see it, check out the trails the ducks made in the "water." They were blazing trails.