I am writing this on Sunday, Jan 5. There are no pics this week.

We continued a relaxed holiday season, celebrating “New Years at Noon” with a dinner for circle at our house. Danita prepared an amazing meal, including mushroom strudel and short ribs. We enjoyed a reprise last night. It was just as good the second time around.

I got a couple of bike rides in. The temperature was OK Dec 31, but the winds were high and the air was damp, so I took a short ride to end the year. On New Year’s day, I joined an organized ride called “I’ve ridden every day so far this year”. This is run by a bike shop out in Mt. Airey. The temperature was around 40, the sun was shining, and the winds were low. I chose the longest course, 42 miles. I did well for me, but ended up being the last person to finish the ride. My conditioning has fallen off — this was not an easy ride. Since then, the weather has deteriorated. It looks like there will be no outdoor riding for at least a week.

Danita went back to work Thursday and I was busy running chores. Friday, we were both back at home. It started snowing Thursday evening. By Friday, we had about 6″ of snow, single-digit temperatures, and high winds. UMBC tried to open at Noon, but they couldn’t get the parking lots and walkways cleared. They were closed all day. Of course we had our snow party Thursday night, but this time Danita had her world-class spaghetti waiting in the wings. We decided that eating very good spaghetti was a better option than walking to a restaurant in the snow and bitter cold.

I signed up for a class. It’s a class in using a lathe in metal working. I was idly looking around one day and found some instructions about making a simple steam engine. I realized I know so little that I couldn’t even read the simple directions. I thought it would be nice to know more. The class is offered at Catonsville Community College. We are no longer living in Baltimore County, so the tuition would be quite expensive. But Maryland has a program where any resident can take any class at any state college tuition-free. That doesn’t make the class free. There are lab fees, student fees, … there’s even a fee for any student who registers and is out-of-county. But the class is still very inexpensive, and I should learn something about an area where I currently know absolutely nothing.

Danita’s brother Rick came from Texas for a visit. The Schmaus men (Bud, Ed, and Rick) came to our house for dinner Saturday night. Lynne didn’t come because she had a conflict. We had meatballs in red wine sauce and very fancy whipped potatoes (with spinach and cheese). It was an excellent dinner and a nice end to the holiday season.

This afternoon we have a BSO concert – Vienna waltzes. The concert got a good review in the paper. We are looking forward to it. The forecast was for freezing rain. Fortunately, temperatures were a a little higher than forecasted and there wasn’t much ice. The only trouble we had was getting ourselves from the breakfast restaurant to the car across a very slippery sidewalk this morning.

We party when it snows. We party for Super Bowl. What would we do if it snowed during the Super Bowl? We won’t find out this year, because it doesn’t snow in West Palm Beach. We’re looking forward to seeing Mom and Glen next month. I’m going to especially enjoy being out of town for the Super Bowl because the neighborhood wants to show the Super Bowl in the clubhouse. They tried this last year, and it was a disaster. The picture kept on freezing, nobody could hear the game … it was a mess. They might be headed for another disaster this year, and I won’t be here to take the blame.

Bud has good news. He has a contract to sell his house. We all think he got a good price. He’s been through the initial negotiation, house inspection, termite inspection, and just about every other requirement. The only thing left is for the buyer to get an official assessment. Closing is scheduled for January 31.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.