18 below

Greetings from the Northeast Kingdom! We were toasty warm last night (almost-but not quite too warm) as the temperature dipped. Foreshadowing of a cold night to come as it slipped below zero in the early afternoon. Definitely big quilt night with cold air seeping in from the Nupro window. I made it til 9 p.m. after a hard day of traveling 110 miles to and from a test center for the content knowledge portion of a pre-professional test.

We were up before 4 a.m. with very heavy snow falling (no wind thankfully). I checked to be sure there were no VT cancellations online. Although there were cancels for a lot of other states, there were none for us. We were on the road before the plows had come through and at 9 degrees it was slick and hard going with the snow flying into the windshield.

There is about a ten-mile treacherous stretch of the road where the elevation falls about 900 feet (and the rivers start to flow south again) that we went very carefully through. It was hard not to imagine sliding right off the road into the blackness over the edge and I felt bad for the Irish lad who was very tired from feeding the stove every three hours or so since December.

23 miles later we reached the highway with almost bare pavement and at least a foot less snow. Driving was easier from that point although it was unfamiliar area and still dark. We arrived at the test center 1/2 hour early.

There was a man there I had met at an earlier conference which was nice and I had been to this school before where a statewide conference was held earlier in the year which was also nice. The test rules were not relaxed in any way but the atmosphere was much less formal and that was really helpful for easing nerves.

I have no feeling one way or the other about how I did but I definitely was able to concentrate on each and every question in a way I wasn't able to during the previous test. Again, it was almost completely unlike the practice tests with many more questions on analyzing, technology, and progressions, unused, in the great interim between, areas.

Two hours later I woke the Irish lad up and we were on our way home. We stopped for basic groceries and I spent the afternoon reading my first non textbook in months (Anne Perry's Ashworth Hall), making sausage and peppers with roasted red peppers and garlic. The furnace still had coals 10 hours later so that was really good!!

Today because of the cold, we are having an Irish-lad-style-early-Sunday-dinner at around 2:30 after he's done plowing, then maybe part 2 of Ivanhoe and early to bed. It is good to have a rest day. I am going to resume yoga, snowshoeing, and as many social activities as I can to ease this dark time of the year. I feel a little bit housebound.

My new speaker came; it is a much hardier unit than the last one which lasted 3 1/2 months. The connections failed at both ends, probably from hard wear and tear by students who get the job of playing Deejay during class and the constant carting, even though they are in a leather "pocketbook'. This Altec Lansing little circle of a speaker has its own little case and a much easier way of replacing batteries; I hope it lasts longer. It is certainly useful in school as it hooks up to the MP3 player, uses rechargeable batteries, and is just in time for all of the new units tomorrow.

No pictures today; it just looks cloudy, snowy, and cold out there.