Life Beyond Boating  l  Marblehead, Massachusetts

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Our Thanksgiving Day turkey, a 20-pounder so we'll have lots of leftovers.  As usual, I was up before dawn preparing my late-mother's special stuffing recipe.  Dinner with all the fixings was at 2:00 pm.  (Nov. 27, 2008)
Barbara at the dinner table waiting to dine.
Yours truly, ready to chow down at my favorite meal of the year.

Sunrise from my second floor office deck in the back of the house.  (Dec. 4, 2008)

Today I drove to the town cemetery overlooking Salem Harbor to take some photos of my buddy, John Graichen, and his last sail of the season before trailering out his C22, "Malacass."  He was determined to sail on his birthday before calling it a season.  What I expected would be a short time out in the cold (as indicated in my self-portrait with temperature and heading in the photo on the left) turned into hours, from 9:30 am when this shot was taken until 3:00 pm giving him a hand across the harbor at Winter Island in Salem.  [See the photo journal here]  (Dec. 6, 2008)

John got "Malacass" home to Nashua, NH, just in time.  This morning we have our first taste of snow in Winter 2008-09.  It's just a light dusting, and relatively late for the first sight of the white stuff, but it's the start.  Later today the wind is supposed to pick up to a steady 30-40 mph gusting to over 45, accompanied by an arctic cold front that's supposed to drop down overnight.  (Dec. 7, 2008)

Already my three cords of stacked and racked firewood is dwindling.  I hope there's enough to get me through to the other end of winter.  It has in past winters, but I usually get nervous when I notice the racks beginning to empty with so many months still ahead to keep the wood stove heating the house.

The neighbor's snowplow fleet was ready to roll, but wasn't needed for this light dusting.  We let him use the extra parking space in our lot and, in exchange, he keeps it plowed in the winter.  (Dec. 8, 2008)

The first real snowstorm of 2008-09 arrived on Friday, December 19th at just after noon.  At 11:00 pm Saturday it's still snowing; non-stop flurries since the worst let up just after noon today.  (Dec. 20, 2008)

-- More Dec. 19-20 2008 Snowstorm Photos --

Preparing for my coming spleen surgery, I picked up a 'new' Dell Latitude 620 laptop on eBay and set it up for WiFi networking with my office PC.  After opening an account with LogMeIn to remotely work from the office computer I needed too insure that the signal will reach across the yard to Barbara's house, where I'll be spending some time recuperating. I moved up my schedule for Sailing Season 2009 and sprung for the 5MileWiFi antenna/booster system, which received high reviews in this month's issue of Practical Sailor.  In this photo it's hooked up to the laptop; the improvement in signal is impressive.  (Jan. 14, 2009)

The 5MileWiFi antenna with its 25 feet of coax cable, temporarily clamped to the kitchen table, its signal booster's power and signal cables plugged into two of the the laptop's four USB ports.

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