Friday Guitar Playing at Orion Art Gallery

Me at Orion Art Gallery January 16, 2025. This photo shows alarming hair loss.

This photo is me playing guitar at Orion Art Gallery in Watertown NY yesterday (Friday January 16, 2025). The event was an opening for an exhibit by local photographer Tom Murray. Photo taken by Alice Elisabeth. The foreground shows parts of Murray's photos.

The day started out cold, the temperature at minus 3 degrees in the morning.   iPhone shows I walked 3,777 steps on this day. 

Snow and Cold Today in Northern NY

Awoke to snow falling this morning and cooler temperatures. There was about 4 inches of snow when I went out at 10:30. Temperatures today were a high of 19 and currently at 7:30 it's a low of 9 degrees. 

The photo here is my neighbor being neighborly as he uses his snowblower on my driveway. 

Other things today: I added some magnetic cabinet door catches to the antique oak dresser we got for Christmas. Had meatloaf for dinner. I phone app shows I took 4,503 steps today. 

My neighbor is very kind helping with the snow, but a snowblower seems like overkill to me with the small amount of snow we had and how light it was. 

We Take Down Our Christmas Tree

Our 2025 Christmas tree Monday, January 12

On Monday, January 12, 2025 we took down our Christmas tree. It was dried out and ready to be gone. 

Reflection in an ornament caught my eye as we were taking
down the Christmas tree.

Dried out Christmas tree on our front porch.

Pine needles litter the floor where the Christmas tree was.

Jigsaw Puzzle and Low Key Day

It's about mid January on a Sunday here in Northern NY.  There was an event at The Strand in Watertown today that I decided not to attend. It was to remember local musician and music store owner Chuck Martuzas. He actually passed away back in the mid 1980's. But he still has musician family members and many, many local musicians are still with us and remember him fondly. I bought my first guitar from Chuck. It was a Guild Mark 3 classical guitar. Anyhow, I would love to be there but I was up exceptionally late last night resulting in a late rising this morning. The flu is running rampant this season all over the country. The Strand is a small venue and with a lot of people in there I started to think it could be a flu festival, so, I decided to stay away. 

Weather today was  mild, sunshine off and on, high temp of 39. I brought in some firewood and did a couple miscellaneous chores. We started a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the 6th. Today, the 11th, we are still picking away at it. It's a pleasant diversion. It's slow going but  we are in no hurry. We had a chuck roast cooking slowly all day in a crockpot. We had that for dinner with some roasted carrots and onions, and mashed potatoes.

Jigsaw puzzle January 6.

Jigsaw puzzle January 6.

Jigsaw puzzle January 11.

Cool Photo of My Daughter on a Keychain

 

Lately I have been on a cleaning and re-organization binge. Too much clutter and memorabilia that I don't have room to properly store. During this process I came upon this keyring with a photo of my Daughter S when she was a kid. I forgot it ever existed. I don't remember what door or lock the key goes to. I love the photo. It reveals her personalty: full of spit and vinegar and mischief! It was a great and nostalgic joy coming upon this. So we used it as an ornament on our Christmas tree which we will continue on future Christmases. 

Sun and Moon Art- a Late Christmas Gift From Ukraine

I ordered this p1ece of Sun Moon wooden wall art back in November for a Christmas gift for our household. It arrived December 29th. I didn't realize at the time I ordered it on Etsy that it was coming all the way from the war torn country of Ukraine. The piece is beautiful. We love it. It's from a wood shop called Wood Core Elegance. 

New Years Eve Chaumont NY

Wintery weather on New Years Eve in Chaumont, NY. 

New Years Eve at our house in Chaumont, NY. We didn't do a lot which is the norm for us. After having a green Christmas it was windy, cold, snowy day here. The high temp was about 25 degrees, the low temp ws 9. In the early evening I made a spinach artichoke dip and had some TGI Friday's potato skins. Watched the ball drop in Times Square at midnight. 

I Visit Son Troy, Getting Closer To Christmas

Troy's place, Watson, NY

Yesterday, which was Sunday December 21, 2025, I drove out to Son Troy's hide away cabin in the woods in Watson, NY, (Lowville area).  Grandson Aiden was on hand too. It was a lovely afternoon and found great pleasure in their company. Aiden is a good looking, soft spoken interesting, young man. Chitmas is but a few days away and so I delivered a couple of token Christmas gifts with instructions not to open them until the 25th.  I headed back home bout 3:30, arriving there at 5:00 at which point I lit a charcoal fire and grilled some hoffman hot dogs. It was quite chilly, I'm going to say maybe only 20 degrees. 

Today awoke to a picturesque snow fallIt was pretty but didn't result in any serious accumulation. was spent doing domestic chores ( house cleaning). Picked up a bottle of pineapple flavored Jim Beam whiskey. Quite delicious. 

My iPhone app recorded 3,898 steps for yesterday. Today recorded 5,398 steps. 

Troy's place, Watson, NY

Troy's place, Watson, NY

Troy's place, Watson, NY

Troy's place, Watson, NY

Icy Trees Photo and an MRI

 

Icy covered trees on Chaumont Bay, NY, back on November11, 2025

The photos presented here were snapped by me on November 11, 2025 after a day or two of mild freezing rain. I was too busy or lazy to post them here that day.

Today is Friday December 19th. I accompanied the BH to an MRI appointment she had at 9:00 this morning. Nothing serious, (we think and hope), the mri was to take a look at her bile duct. During a recent ER visit to look for kidney stones the duct showed up in a scan. The doctor there thought it should be looked at in case it might be enalrged or something of that nature. We believe there's nothing to it. It looks like it does (we think) because she had her gall bladder removed a number of years ago. 

Weather today was windy, rainy (heavy at times) and 50 degrees. By late afternoon temp dropped to 30 degrees. 

Ice storm, Chaumont, NY, November 11, 2025

Ice storm, Chaumont, NY, November 11, 2025

Grilled Jerk Wings Todaay

 

A nice winter day for grilling wings in Chaumont. NY.

Got out of bed about7:00 this morning. The weather was cloudy, short period of very light snow. By the afternoon the Sun came out. Beth and Abby stopped by for a couple of hours. I made some guacamole this afternoon and then about 4:00 started a charcoal fire in the grill and cooked some Jamaican Jerked chicken wings.  High temp today was 30 degrees. Was down to16 degrees when I lit the charcoal. Currently at 11:00pm it is 8 degrees. Health app on the iPhone recorded 10,448 steps. A lot of those came from me shoveling the layer of snow off our walk and driveway. 

Backyard in state of disarray. Grilled wings in 14 degrees weather. It was quite pleasant.

Our 2025 Christmas Tree

Our 2025 Christmas Tree, before and after

 Monday, December 8, 2025 we got our Christmas tree. It was a sunny, cold day. The low temp overnight was 0 degrees, the high was 19.  We took a drive to Garden and Grove (formerly Hemlock Haven) in Sandy Creek to see what they had for trees. We immediately found one with a nice shape and size. Price was $65.00.  On way home we stopped for lunch at Nu Pier Restaurant on RT 3, Sackets Harbor. It has been there for a long time but we had never been there before. The establishment is somewhat small, food was good and looked to have a small but pleasant bar room off the dining room. The BH had a turkey club sandwich and french fries. I had an Italian sausage sandwich with macaroni salad and a Sierra Nevada IPA beer. We got home and set the tree up in the stand and waited until the next day to decorate it.

Interior view of Garden and Grove, Sandy Creek, NY

Exterior view of Garden and Grove, Sandy Creek, NY

Dining room of Nu Pier restaurant, Sackets Harbor, NY

Broke a Couple Favorite Bowls

This morning the Better Half was clearing the dishwasher and putting dishes away when a couple of our favorite bowls slipped out of her hands and broke on the counter. No one was injured but we were a little bummed out. These were nice, heavy duty bowls from Italy that we have had for many years. 

It snowed lightly most of the day with temperatures reaching a high of 34 and a low of 27 degrees. I shoveled the driveway and walk. My iPhone recorded I took 8,040 steps today. 

Broke a couple of favorite bowls todays.