The snow (not the frost) is on the pumpkin!

I woke up this morning to a strange, ethereal light bathing the room. There is nothing quite like the light on a morning when it’s snowing. Looking out I saw fat, sticky, wet, flakes drifting ever so gently past the window. Ah ... SNOW ... and a couple of inches at that.

It stuck to everything.

Trees.

Railings and fence pickets.

The windchime.

Even the clothesline, which isn’t easy to do!

Dogs.

Cats. (I must have the only indoor cat that can’t wait to sneak outside when it snows. eBay is one silly cat!)

As I stood outside in my house slippers taking photos I couldn’t resist lifting my face to the sky, letting the cold, moist,  flakes settle on my cheeks like a healing balm. Of course I stuck out my tongue and caught some flakes—why do you even need to ask?!  This Jersey Girl is a snow lover!

Now here is some snow for you. At the end, be sure and lift your face into the flakes coming right at you! Can you feel their wetness?

While the husband is away, the wife will play. Look out Rick when you get home; you’ve been replaced. I’ve fallen hard for a short, blue-eyed, Italian plumber. He arrived on Thursday and hasn’t left yet. Actually, I knew he was coming and have been anticipating his arrival with bated breath. I had it all planned. Hey, I have to have some entertainment while he’s away, don’t I? Serves him right for being gone all week. ... hmpf ...

My plumber-man and I spend hours at a time together. That’s about all I can take and I then get kind of tired. I’m not as young as I used to be and I get muscle sore. Some of the positions aren’t easy! It’s non-stop excitement with him. He makes me see stars! He takes me beyond the stars—heck, he transports me to new planets; new galaxies! I’m not sure what I’m going to do about him when Rick comes home. I can’t just send him away; our time together is not finished yet. The affair can’t go on forever though because the longer we are together the sooner we will part. It’s just the way it is.

We’ve been together several times before over the years and I always regret finally letting him go. But, I know there will be more for us to come in the future. It’s inevitable. Years can go by and we don’t see each other, but our bond strengthens over time. Funny how even though it’s been years we can pick right up where we left off. I still know how to make him do all the right moves.  ooh baby, come on, a little more to the right ... YES! YES! YES!

I’m fixing tortellini tonight in his honor. Spinach and ricotta with a nice béchamel sauce. momma mia!

But for now I have to get back and pay him some more attention. We’re just coming to a climax and then I think I just might have had enough for today. Well ... maybe we’ll “play” a little more after dinner ...

So take a good look at my face
You see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer it’s easy to trace
The tracks of my tears*

Warm, salty, tears slid down my cheeks and blurred my vision as I pulled out of the driveway at my Mom’s house. Several miles down the Northway I had to remove my sunglasses because my wet lashes were fogging up the lenses. The tears stopped, only to begin again of their own accord over and over again until I reached Albany. After that I put myself on auto-pilot and concentrated instead on the vehicle in front of me: our Suburban pulling a small U-Haul trailer with my Mom’s belongings. My Mom finally rested on the seat beside me making the journey to Jersey like she should have done in August.

My sister and I had a very busy and emotionally charged week. We sorted. We packed. We donated things. We gave things away. We laughed. We cried. We shared family secrets. We swapped old boyfriend stories. We found a few things we had forgotten about. We found some things we never knew existed. We bartered with each other for items we both wanted. By the time our husbands got there on Friday we had made a great deal of progress in clearing out the house. I can’t say I enjoyed the week but I did enjoy getting to know my sister on a different level.

Looking around my Mom’s house just before we left my sister and I noticed how sad and lonely it looked. We had removed everything that had made that house Mom & Dad’s. Gone were the family photographs and my Dad’s paintings that used to hang on the walls; gone were all the knick-knacks collected over the years; gone were her crossword puzzle books and in-progress crochet projects. All gone—it was just a house now and not my Mom’s home. But Mom is gone now too, so I guess that is fitting.

On that last night in her house I couldn’t sleep so I crept outside to the porch. It was crisp and cold. The sky was filled with crystalline stars and even the Milky Way was visible; it was a beautiful night. Not a sound could I hear. I talked to Mom and told her I hoped we were doing the right thing by selling the house. I told her lots of other things too. I hope she heard me because it made me feel better.

It was all so final. It hurts. It’s all about letting go ...

*—THE TRACKS OF MY TEARS (W. Robinson / M. Tarplin / W. Moore)

I’m back. Maybe not so much in mind, but my body is now here in New Jersey instead of the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

My husband just left in a stretch limo bound for Newark airport. Normally his limo service arrives in a battered car which we are never sure is going to reach our destination. When we came back from Las Vegas the limo driver explained to us that one windshield wiper was not working and it was raining heavily on his drive down. Great. I think maybe Rick is really being spirited away to the next Bachelorette interviews without my knowledge. A stretch limo to the airport? Really, come on.

Looking back on the past week, everything about it has been a stretch which I will write more in depth on when my brain decides to let my words wrap around it enough to write. It was wrought with memories, regrets, emotions and so much more. Like I said; I am here in body but my brain is in another place. I feel so strange right now and Rick will gone for a week. Not the best of timing, but it has to be.

While we were gone we had our first snow fall of the season: one inch. We didn’t even have that in upstate New York; just a few brief flurry showers. Last year our first sign of snow was well into the second week of January. What’s to come?

Just a note to the few who comment: I had to turn on the approval feature for comments since the spammers have been hitting my blog really hard over the past week and leaving junk for comments. So sorry, but your comment won’t appear until I approve it. I am tired of 15 or more junk comments. Hey, at least they are comments!

Look for more from me in the next few days.

Okay, I admit I’m stretching the words a bit, but truly, isn’t orange beautiful?

My sister arrived yesterday to join me this week in going up to my Mom’s house (which has recently been sold) to sort and pack her belongings. Not a fun task to be sure. One filled with all kinds of memories, regrets and so much more.

Today we took her on what will probably be our last canoe trip around Green Turtle Pond before Winter arrives.

My sister was very skeptical because she doesn’t like “boats,” but she was a good sport about it as she sat in the middle like Cleopatra as Rick and I paddled her around. I think even she will admit that she enjoyed it a great deal. The wind kicked up midway around and we had a pretty good workout just paddling back. A beautiful day though!

I won’t be blogging until next week since I don’t have access to a computer at my Mom’s house. Until then, I wish you all a great week!