February 22, 2026

There were several people with birthdays in the last couple of days.  Another one from yesterday was my friend Karen Adams who passed away in January of 2024.  I'm not sure why I really started thinking about her today, other than I could use some acupuncture, but I was remembering our last real conversation.  She knew she was dying and was turning 70 in a month so she wanted me to help her plan a party.  She died that week.  Karen was a kind and generous friend who I laughed with a lot.  I miss her.

I hurt a lot today, between a lingering minor cold and arthritis I'm fairly immobile.  But I decided I wanted to help EJ get to the gym today and to go out in my safe car and spread my wings a little.  I went and picked him up and we came back to Greenfield where I sat in my car and wrote for 45 minutes.  Got a little cold, didn't write anything worth sharing, but I did it.  It felt good to just sit and write.  

I brought EJ home and then I drove back through the farmland.  Bernardston isn't completely plowed, but there was no traffic either.  There were all these beautiful views in my mirror.  Snow showers and fog over fresh snow on farmland.  Pretty nice. 

I went through the covered bridge and then on up to Green River Road.  The car sits up high enough so that I cannot see over the road's edge to the river driving North.  And I have to say more gray and more lack of contrast doesn't make for wonderful picture taking.  But I found it soothing.  I'm not sure when the last time I did this ride was.  Didn't go far, turned around and came on home.  And once again, it was so clear that there were no birds around.   

So the blizzard is on its way up the coast.  Little worried about some of my friends, I mean, not really, but kind of.  Maybe I'll call Patrick in a bit and get him to send me photos.  Plus, how's the deer going to make out?  Do we know?  Did I tell you all about Patrick's deer?  Again, I'll get him to send me photos.   

And what is going on in Mexico?  Who started that and why can't we just rein in our macho disgusting government?  I have a friend who has been in Mexico for the past couple of weeks and went to fly home from Mexico City this morning, but her flight was cancelled due to the weather on the east coast.  She was told she couldn't leave for 3 days.  Now they are reporting that US travelers are being grabbed by drug cartels?  My fingers are crossed that she is safe.  This is really scary stuff.