Friday, 9:25 am: The weather over the past few days has been, well, alternating sunny and cloudy. Whatever I write in this blog is bound to change shortly. Currently we have variable high cloudiness. I keep crossing my fingers with the hope of something dramatic to report. Failing that I’ll try some keyboard wizardry. My snow stake from the past few years took a header into the ground. Being more than a bit rotten, it fell apart and disintegrated like a pre-Columbian artifact. Off to the hardware store for a replacement stake!

Last night my wife, Ruth, started back taking a conversational French class in Madawaska. She speaks American English with a German accent, and now Acadian French with a German accent; that ought to confuse everyone, including me. German idioms don’t necessarily translate well into French. I’m already functioning at maximum capacity, anyway, just speaking English. There is no need to complicate my life or vocabulary. Laziness I suspect.

Yesterday we drove into town for lunch at “the” Chinese restaurant. We also have a diner, an American [non-ethnic] restaurant, a fast-food burger place, a tea shop and coffee shop; the last two with limited food menus. We can drive a bit farther north or south on US Route One and increase our selection. Or we can across into Edmundston, New Brunswick. It depends on what kind of fare we want to sample. There’s a place in Van Buren that advertises its daily special on a marquee outside its door. Once a week they advertise “Beans and Bread”. It has really piqued my interest, and now I am really curious about, perhaps, trying it. I am sure it is delightful. Why am I thinking about food again, and so early in the day? It isn’t weather-related, so on to my weather:

Current values from our wireless Vantage–Pro weather station:

Temperature: 31.9° (F.)

Barometer: 29.924 & rising slowly

Humidity: 68%

Wind: WNW at 3 mph light & variable

Precipitation: None

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: scattered cloudiness ca. 30-40% cover

Since midnight:

Low temp: 24.1° (F.) at 5:55 am

High wind: 8 mph at 9:17 am