Dear Jean,
I've been meaning to drop you a note for the last few days, and finding a package from you in the mail tonight finally got me off my can.
A few nights ago, I was walking on the frozen lake under the moonlight … that's when I first thought to write to you. We had warm weather and rain last week, so the surface had refrozen as a smooth sheet that was fine for ice skating, but very treacherous for walking. It snowed over the weekend, so the lake was covered with a few inches of soft powder. I wished that I had my cross country skis, so I thought I'd ask if you still had them and could send them to me.
I love walking on the lake under the full moon - it's very quiet and peaceful. This winter, there is a family of three geese that stayed because one of them is injured and can't fly. Some friends down the road have been feeding them, and every once in a while I see them in front of my house. I thought that they would seek shelter for the night, but apparently they feel safer out in the middle of the lake. I was about twenty yards away from them before I noticed them, so I made a detour around them.
Since we had a blizzard on Saturday, I did not pick up my mail, but they predict snow for tomorrow, so I decided to go get it tonight at around 23:00. As I was driving down the expressway to Concord, the moon was shining through the moon-roof of the Adm. Gracie, which made me think of you again, because of the moon-roof you bought for the Millennium Canary. Little did I know that there was mail from you waiting for me.
My normal routine is to go someplace and have a meal while sorting through the mail, but there are few places open after midnight around here. As of the first of the year, literally all of them are non-smoking. There's one convenience store that has a few tables and allows smoking, so I stopped by, only to find that they are only open after midnight on weekends. I'd spent New Year's Eve there this year, and the muslim clerk was doing the floors, so he opened the door to chat for a minute.
As I was leaving, a pedestrian I'd passed on the way approached with a tale of Woe and Dispair, trying to barter some new gloves for a meal. Well, you know I never give money, but will always buy a meal, and since I knew there was no food close by except a Dunkin' Donuts, we went to the drive through at the McDonald's about a mile away. We both had chicken sandwich meals, and chewed the fat for a while.
He said he was a trucker, and had lost his wallet with $500 in it, but that he could contact the dispatcher in the morning and have them wire him some money. We got lost for a minute trying to get back to his rig, and I was really impressed with how far he had walked looking for food, especially given how cold it was tonight. But we located the lot where he was parked, and he unlocked it and climbed back in. I gave him one of my cards so he could call me the next time he was in town. Buying him a meal takes care of one of the fasting days during Ramadan that I have to make up. :-)
In other news, I finally got the "old" computer hooked up to the third phone line, and moved all of my Web pages from my old Internet service provider onto it. You can access my machine at "http://www.waterholes.com", and I'll be selling Web storage on it Real Soon Now.
I'm glad to hear that Pugwhumpus is doing well. FurFace was sleeping on top of the dirty laundry in the bedroom when I got home tonight, just where she'd been when I left a few hours before. There was a reminder in the mail from the House of Pain that it's time for her annual shots, which is also a reminder that I have to get my teeth cleaned. :-(
The last piece of news is that with the flap about the Cuban's last week, I heard that Col. Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, the first black man in space, is now a General in the Cuban Air Force, so I finally got around to writing him a letter to ask for a photograph of him. Using the Web, I discovered that I could send it to him care of the Swiss Embassy in DC, so I hope to hear from him in a few weeks. See the URL "http://www.waterholes.com/~dennette/salyut6.htm" for the only picture I have of him now … I sent him hard copy of the page in the letter, along with the page containing a snapshot my mother took of Col. Guion Bluford, the first African-American astronaut.
Well that's all I have to say for now. Take care. -=DAH=-
Last update: 05-Mar-96 by dennette@wiz-worx.com <Who is this "Dennette" person?>