End of 2007

Happy News Year!

My brother and I spent New Years Eve with my mom at Manor Care. Our neighbors came up to celebrate with us. Each year we have gotten together to play Skip-Bo, eat snacks, drink some wine, and ring in the New Year.

This year we did all except drink wine and stay up to midnight. The neighbors decided to call it a night and leave before 11 pm. It is hard to stay up late when you are around 80 and now on oxygen. Ten or so years ago we would stay up all night until almost dawn.

My brother and I stayed until midnight and rang in the new year with mom before returning home on a cold night. The wind was blowing and the temperature was minus one.

What a year. One for the history books. It was a very good year.

• My uncles came to visit.
• My friend Brian came to visit.
• Theresa (Ruby) discovered my blog, and she and her husband stopped by for a visit when they visited Montana and Glacier Park.
  
• I re-did fences and fixed the sign and pole over my driveway's entrance.
  
• sprayed more weeds than ever.
• caught enough gophers that it looks like they are (finally) on the decline.
• my cattle only made two minor jailbreaks.
  
• had a summer romance, and even though she ended it suddenly and on a puzzling note, was fun while it lasted.
• hiked more than ever in a year, and many new and great places, with lots of people including Brian, Colleen, and my hiking group. In October Joyce added up the miles she had hiked and it came to over 200 miles. I hiked most of the same hikes she had done plus many more. Some day I will sit down and add up the miles I had hiked, but I am sure it is well over 200 miles and may be around 300 miles for the year.
• I made my (revised) goal of riding 1500 miles on my bicycle. Usually I ride 2000 or more miles, but all the hiking I did this year cut into my bicycle riding. I ended up riding 1520 miles.
  

I also noticed that this is my 366th blog entry for 2007. That meant I averaged at least one entry a day. For my friends who have blogs of their own they know the accomplishment that is; the others of you who get email copies of each of my blog entries, you may feel I write too much. And here I didn't even get all my hiking adventures written up in 2007.

I hope 2007 treated you well and 2008 is even better. And that you come and visit me. I promise you don't have to go on a hike, though I strongly encourage it.

More poker play

Sunday I went for another bicycle ride. It was a chillier day so I was happy to stop in at the poker tournament again on my way home.

Sunday was like Saturday. Lots of cars outside; the motel was relatively deserted except for a few kids swimming in the swimming pool; a few women watching the poker action from the sidelines and a balcony, and two rooms packed with (mostly male) poker players.

Even though the top 100 players from Saturday's tournament play go on to Monday's final play, it appeared as if all the seats at all the tables were taken.

This time I brought my camera, and once the camera's lens un-fogged from the temperature difference between the single digit temperature outside and the warm temperature inside, I took some photos.

Poker tournament

This weekend the annual North Dakota State Texas Hold'em poker tournament is being held in Minot. This is the fourth year the tournament has been held and the first year I stopped by to see what it was all about.

I was riding my bicycle by the Vegas Motel around 1 pm Saturday and saw all the cars. The motel's parking was full, and cars were parked in the businesses on each side of the motel. The highway's frontage road outside the motel was lined with cars on the side of the road and in the ditch. That almost never happens in the decades the motel existed. I have memories of the motel going back to the early 1970s. Initial reports say the number of players were about a thousand people.

The tournament had started at noon. As I walked through the motel it looked to be deserted until I went back to the rooms where the tournament was held. The two large rooms were packed wall to wall with people. Table after table were surrounded by players and a dealer. There were only enough room between the tables for the servers to bring drinks.

Each table had 11 players and 1 dealer. 98% or more of the people were men. Women playing were few and far between. I saw a few women holding young kids/babies in the viewing areas outside the playing area.

The men all looked like North Dakota good ol' boys. Very casual and not fancy or showy. With the Air Force base in Minot I expected to see more young men with military haircuts. Perhaps, as the tournament is three days straight, many airmen couldn't get three days off in a row?

Even though the rooms were wall to wall with people it was fairly quiet. The main sound were the chips being placed all over the room. People were concentrating on their game and not doing much talking. The only excitement came at one nearby table when a player won and he high-fived a women player a few seats from him. Then another player at that table got up, took his coat, and left. About an hour into the game and he was gone. Only a few players here and they were out already.

I didn't stay long as it wasn't all that exciting to watch as a spectator sport.

"As If" video

While working on my blog I had country music TV on with videos playing in the background. Sara Evan's latest song/video recently played and is now playing yet again. It must be on heavy rotation.

In the video Sara goes to a "Man store" (as she calls it in her "Behind the scenes" video) and selects a "robotic" man (Sara's words again) to apparently do household chores around the house. She ends up selecting three men (apparently based on looks) since she takes each one back because she is unhappy with him.

Some thoughts...

In the video Sara is really glammed up and wears sexy clothes (including a "little black dress") that shows off her figure. Apparently she is doing this because:

• she is going through a nasty divorce with bad press and she wants the world to know she can still be pretty and sexy,
• she wants the video to appeal to men even though the song and video theme is more appealing to women than men,
• she wants women watching the video to identify with her by imagining them in her place.

In the video Sara stands and lip syncs (badly). She "moves" while singing but she is so stiff and awkward Sarah shows why she did badly and quit on "Dancing with the Stars".

Even though she is on a set filming the video fans blow air to move her hair. This is because:

• some movement is needed to distract one from the awkwardness of her own movement,
• she thinks guys like this because this is done in movies and soft porn when showing off the "hot chick" in slow motion.

Sara in the video has the appearance of being airbrushed. The way she is made up, lit, hair blowing and the clothes made me think of a Playboy pinup. They are so airbrushed in an effort to show the "perfect" image, they look fake and not good in my opinion. Sara looked fake in this video.

I have a feeling Sara did the video this way because she is feeling insecure from her divorce and her "Dancing with the Stars" fiasco.

If you haven't guessed it, I don't care for the video. In addition to Sara's awkwardness and fake look, the video seems sexist. If the roles were reversed and it was a man doing the selecting I think it wouldn't be acceptable. Oh wait... that concept was done. It is a movie called "The Stepford Wives" which had the storyline of men wanting "robotic" women to do household chores. So perhaps this video was a spoof of the "Stepford Wives" movie. If so, I missed the humor. The person doing the selecting - Sara in this case - should have her comeuppance by the end of the video. Instead Sara returned "man" number 3 then went on a date with the deliveryman. When the video ended I thought "Well, she is going to change her mind yet again and dump him after a short time. There is no satisfying her."

Here is the video on YouTube if you want to see for yourself: "As If"

GE appliances

I replaced my mother's food waste disposal. It was a 3/4 hp Sears Kenmore unit that she had for 10-15 years. It started leaking last week. The connection between the disposal's exit hole and the plumbing pipe had corroded.

My brother and I shopped around town. We ended up buying a 1/2 hp GE GFC530F food waste disposal. The price was right as it was on sale for $58.99 at Menards. We felt a 1/2 hp model should be sufficient as Mom doesn't send a lot of waste through the disposal. Also this 1/2 hp model has stainless steel parts to better resist corrosion.

We looked at buying a Sears Kenmore model, but the 1/2 hp and one 3/4 hp model had galvanized steel parts. Supposedly they were treated to resist corrosion, but I didn't want to test them to find out. The 3/4 hp Kenmore model that had stainless steel parts was priced at $129. Hmm... which one would you buy?

The 1/2 hp model we bought was an inch and a half shorter and an inch and a half narrower -- so much the better. That would give mom more room under the sink to store stuff.

However the smaller size turned out to be a problem to overcome. While the pipe connecting the dishwasher to the disposal was a flexible plastic hose, the connection to the other sink drain of the dual sinks was metal. Can you guess by how much the metal pipe was short in reaching the new disposal? Yup.

Back to Menards to buy a new pipe. We bought a longer plastic pipe the same diameter. The advantage of the plastic pipe was that it was easier to cut shorter to get to be the correct length we needed.

Another difference between the Sears Kenmore and other disposals, and this GE disposal, was the GE disposal had its own style of mounting to the sink. The other, and apparently the more common, method had a metal three screw twist mount. I had to remove the other mounting connection in the sink and install GE's mounting connection. Not hard to do, but more work. It would have been nice to just be able to screw in my new disposal into the old mount. Also the old mounting unit was metal and the GE unit is plastic. It works, but for some things I prefer metal over plastic.

Another thing I learned about food waste disposals is they do not come with an electric cord. That's odd. Either you buy a new cord or use the old one. I guess I can't argue from a recycling standpoint. I hate tossing out parts that work. I removed the old cord which took a little effort as I had to remove a metal plate in order to remove the cord. The screws were corroded and took a bit of effort to get loose. One screw I had to chisel the screw's head off.

In adding the cord to the new disposal the odd thing was the grounding wire kept squeezing out of the screw to hold it in place. With a tiny area to work in it was tricky to keep the wire in place. Eventually I got it done.

But everything is installed and the disposal sounds fine. I haven't put anything through it yet. As my place in Montana has a septic system I do not have a food waste disposal. (I toss my food scraps in the pasture or hayfield.) So I am not use to using a disposal. I am sure I'll find something to run through the disposal while here.

I got the disposal replaced just in time as mom had a service repair today for her dishwasher. Since the dishwasher's drain is connected to the disposal I needed the disposal in order to test the dishwasher's repair. The dishwasher repair was minor but it is a good thing the repairman was here. He told me this model (also a GE unit -- GE Profile brand) had been recalled. Apparently they can catch on fire due to a problem in the control panel. The repairman said a GE dishwasher locally caught on fire recently due to this problem.

GE has set up a special phone number for their dishwasher recall (1-877-607-6395). The automated prompts had me pressing different buttons based on the brand, and then on parts of the model and serial numbers ("If the second letter of the serial number is ..., press ..."). Having made it through all these prompts the automated voice told me I would be transfered to a live person and that I need my brand, and my model and serial numbers ready for this person to help me.

"What a minute... I just went through 10 or so prompts based on that information. Why wouldn't I have it ready?"

Finally I got to a live person. The first thing she asked me was the brand, model, and serial numbers. Once she validated my mother's dishwasher had been recalled the GE operator gave me two options:

• take $150 or $300 rebate money (the amount depends on what model mom buys to replace her current one), or
  
• have the unit fixed

I'll let mom decide.

Whitefish

Here is an aerial photo of the town of Whitefish and of Whitefish Lake.

The mountains are the Whitefish Range.

Big Mountain ski resort (now called Whitefish Resort) can be seen on Big Mountain.

The railroad tracks cross through town passing right & left across the photo, then below the foot of the lake. The railroad tracks are part of the reason one can only drive around 2/3 of the lake, around the right side and far end.

Christmas lights

I know it is a little late for Christmas lights photos as it is the day after Christmas, but I only remembered to bring a camera this night.

Here are photos of some neighborhood Christmas lights. The ones with the white spots were taken when the camera's flash was on. The white spots are light snow falling. It is interesting that the photo without the flash is clearer than the ones with the flash.

Christmas meals in rehab

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a nice relaxing day today with friends, family, food, and gifts.

With mom in the Manor Care rehab facility, my brother and I spent Christmas here with her. We even ate the Christmas Eve supper and Christmas Day dinner meals here.

The Christmas Eve meal was different and interesting. Maybe the food wasn't all that different for Norwegians, but as my brother and I are not full blooded Norwegians, it was different for us. The meal was:

• meatballs,
• mashed potatoes,
• mixed vegetables,
• ice cream,
• lefse, and
• lutefisk.

Yup, the lefse and lutefisk made this meal a traditional Christmas Eve meal for Norwegian-Americans. My mother's roommate just loved the meal. For me... it was different. I have eaten lefse many times before. Lutefisk... this was the first time for me. I decide to try the lutefisk even though I heard jokes about how bad lutefisk was. I'll try most things once.

I survived eating the lutefisk. I even ate half of the piece my brother got as he wasn't too thrilled with it after eating one bite. I was only able to eat half of the second piece of Lutefisk before I reached my limit.

The lutefisk wasn't bad. It didn't have the smell it supposedly could have had from being soaked in lye. The lutefisk did have the gelatinous bubble-wrap white appearance.

A bit of trivia from the Wikepedia site on lutefisk is:

The Wisconsin Employees' right to know law regarding toxic substances specifically exempts Lutefisk (Wisc. Stat. 101.58(2)(j)(2)(f))

My mother ate her lutefisk and was happy I had my first taste of lutefisk, even if it wasn't that big of a deal to me. She informed the world and told most everyone I was having my first taste of lutefisk.

The Christmas meal was more traditional:

• scalloped potatoes
• cream corn,
• bread,
• pumpkin pie with whipped topping and cranberries, and
  
• ham.

The ham was a problem as I don't eat ham; so I gave my slice to my brother and got a turkey pot pie from the meal server, which was good.

This afternoon the facility had fruit punch and cookies. Yum!, but I am slowly and steadily gaining weight.

Today the facility is relatively quiet as many residents are out on a day pass to spend the day with their family. A few families got use of a conference room to hold their Christmas celebration. Grandmas to grandkids. The grandkids looked somber and 'putting in time' with the family. Probably not their idea of a fun Christmas.

Wanda's family had their celebration last night and we chatted with them for a while. They brought pizzas in for their celebration and I ended up having one slice. I didn't need it but I have a hard time saying no to offers of food.

Laptop, cards, and a cat

Mom continues to improve at Manor Care. Earlier this week we had a (Medicare mandated?) status meeting. The staff holds this type of meeting for every resident two weeks into their stay. The next time the staff will hold a meeting with the resident is in about 90 days. Gee.. that matches the time period Medicare pays for a resident's stay.

No definitive date was set for mom's release. I did get them to articulate some benchmarks they plan to use, those being her physical capacity to do stuff.

Some residents like staying here and don't want to go home. Mom's previous and current roommate both had this feeling. It seems as if the women like it here. The few men in the facility don't seem to share this like of the place. Yesterday one old man tried to open the door at the end of the hall and leave.

The facility did lend mom a laptop computer for her to use. They have a wireless router and most often we get the router's signal though a few times I have had my brother move the laptop around the room to initially pick up the signal.

Mom, Wanda (Mom's friend also at Manor Care) and I played the card game, Skipbo, this afternoon. Naturally Mom won.

The facility has a dog and cat that roam the halls to keep the residents company. Today I was told the cat is a "death cat". She apparently spends time with residents about to die. Hmm... I wonder if they are exaggerating this and are confusing it with the cat in the New England nursing home in the news this Fall who knew when people were about to die. I hope so else I don't have much time left on this Earth as the cat has been spending time with me lately and sitting on my lap.

Heaven's Gate

Friday I bought a DVD of the movie, "Heaven's Gate". Who would have thought a DVD would be released of one of the largest box office failures in history?! I was surprised to come across it.

Even though I had seen the movie the very short time it was in the movie theaters back in 1980, I had to buy the DVD. While it may be a bad and muddled movie, and one that brought down the United Artists movie studio, I have a connection to the movie. Parts of the movie were filmed in Kalispell, Montana back in 1979 when I was there.

Here is a link to a listing of the locations where the movie was filmed.

The roller rink and "town" set was built north of Kalispell a few miles from where I live. The set was built at the edge of the ridge that runs north/south west of where I live. The background was the Swan Mountain range. A beautiful view, but ironically mountains from Wyoming were added to the movie replacing views of the Swan Mountain range. I say ironically because the movie is set in Wyoming.

I have memories of riding my bicycle by the set close enough to see it but not close enough to be on it. The location of the set is now a housing development.

I also passed by the Conrad Mansion when filming was done there. All I saw were the large lights on the lawn outside the windows shining light into the mansion's interior. Impressive. Strangely though, my memory when watching the movie is that all the interior scenes are too dimly lit and I had trouble seeing much.

I tried to get a part as an extra in the movie. However I was young and dumb. I never got a part. I had long shoulder length hair and glasses with black plastic frames... the glasses were a "birth control device". It makes sense now that the movie wouldn't hire a person with these kind of glasses for a western set in the 1890s. I still have a copy of one of the Polaroid pictures taken of me and submitted with my application for a movie part. I'd include it but the photo is back in Montana.

I remember that when I dropped off my application and photo at the Outlaw Inn hotel where the movie production were staying, the hotel staff confused me as being a member of a rock 'n rock band scheduled to play and stay at the hotel. Umm... no...

Later a friend of my dad's got me the phone number of a casting crew member and I had a phone interview.

No, I could not:

• ride a horse,
• drive a buckwagon,
• sing,
• play a musical instrument, or
• roller skate.

Roller skate?! Well, this was 1979 and roller skating to disco music was all the rage at the time. So... the movie had a roller skating scene. Mercifully not to disco music.

Needless to say I didn't get a part as an extra. I know, modus operandi for getting a part in a movie is to lie and say you can do it, but I couldn't do that. It didn't feel right. I guess that is why I am not an actor.

So, sometime when I have a spare 3 hours 39 minutes, I will watch the movie again and see if it is as bad as I remember it being.

Here is a link to trivia about the movie if you are interested. For example, due to the abuse of animals when filming this movie, the American Humane Society now monitors all animals in filmed media.

Another bit of trivia not on the previous web site. In 2002 or 2003 another movie was filmed near Kalispell (I didn't get a part as an extra for a wedding scene in that movie either - I was too old as they wanted 20-somethings). Ironically the initial title of that movie was "Heaven's Pond". After the disaster of "Heaven's Gate", having the word "Heaven" in the title of a movie filmed near Kalispell was not a good idea. The movie was instead released as "Devil's Pond". The movie went straight to video and was not released in the theaters. I have not seen this movie.

Choir watching

All this week I watched the TV series, "Clash of the Choirs". A hokey, sappy show, but one I couldn't resist watching.

Thankfully they kept the auditions to a minimum. I don't mind seeing some of the auditions, it is just that watching too many terrible singers is annoying. That is part of the reason I don't watch American Idol - too much emphasis on the terrible singers auditioning.

I am getting soft as many of the choir members' back stories and enthusiasm were tearing me up. However by the end of the two hour finale, it was too much as the show squeezed in too many songs, and too many back stories. Too many and they lost their effect.

I think part of the show's appeal was that the people were realistic: not too polished, kind of awkward at times, mainly average looking, and very appreciated at being there.

And hearing a group of people enthusiastically singing together is appealing to watch.

The host, Maria Menounos, wasn't the perfect polished host, but she grew on me. She was a combination of saying the typical trite things and sometimes saying something unexpected. Even though Blake Shelton's girlfriend was in the audience, I had the impression that Maria had a crush on Blake. Women say they like a guy who can make them laugh, and Blake was a funny guy. Who knew?

Patti Labelle's choir seemed to be the best one, but Nick Lachey's choir won. I think it was because of their rendition of the song "The Flight of the Bumblebee".

Dusting off a bicycle

I haven't ridden a bicycle since coming to North Dakota. That's a long time for me. Today that changed. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the temperature in the mid 30s F. I needed to get out on a bicycle as I've noticed I have been gaining a few pounds since coming to North Dakota.

First I had to pump air into the tires. The bicycle I am using is my brother's spare bicycle and over the summer the tires lost air. Then I had to replace one the bicycle's inner tubes as it had a leak.

That done I headed out onto the road. I ending up riding ten miles - twice as far as I planned. Riding was a breeze and for a while I doubted I had set the bicycle computer correctly when I moved it from my brother's bicycle (which he doesn't ride in the winter) to the bicycle I was using. However I found the computer was set correctly and the mileage was correct.

I only have 5 more miles to ride by the end of the year to reach 1500 miles ridden for the year. Out of 31 years of riding, this year is my fourth lowest mileage year. This year I have ridden far less than half of my annual mileage total. That is pretty sad. I guess I've been hiking more than biking this year.

Man, it felt good to be out on a bicycle today. I even saw another guy on a bicycle going the other direction on the highway with a smile on his face so I wasn't the only who felt this way.

Christmas lights in mom's room

To brighten up mom's room at Manor Care my brother brought from home a few of mom's Christmas decorations.

The snowman is owned by mom's roommate; the rest of the decorations are mom's.

On Monday mom had a visit with her cardiologist. He modified a few of her meds; otherwise it is a waiting game for mom to improve her strength with a goal of eventually having surgery to replace a clogged heart valve.

As usual with a situation where one has a few different doctors, one needs to try to tie all the doctors into an overall picture as each doctor sees only their small segment.

As what seems to be typical when one is in a nursing home or rehab facility, one is looked after by a doctor assigned to the facility and not one's primary health care physician. This is yet another person to speak with and who only sees a part of the picture as they got involved only after one enters the facility.

I spent Monday tracking down doctors and a nurse practitioner to discuss status and goals.

Mom wanted to return home before Christmas but it now seems as this won't occur until after Christmas.

Christmas holiday train

Sunday night the annual holiday train came to Minot. This is the first year I have gone to see it. The train is run by the Canadian Pacific Railroad and when people come to see the train they are encouraged to bring food to donate to the local food bank. I planned to do so also but unfortunately I forgot the food at home.

I notice the train is being called a "holiday" train now and not a Christmas train as I believe it used to be called years past. Christmas decorations and Santa and his reindeer lights were on the train, and the schedule runs before Christmas, so it seems dumb to avoid using the word "Christmas". Their web site avoids any mention of "Christmas". It seems as if Canadian Pacific is politically correct and afraid of offending someone by using the word: Christmas.

My brother and I went to see the train directly after visiting mom. We arrived just as the lit up train pulled next to the old Soo Line train station at the end of Main Street. The audience - while a decent size - wasn't as large as I expected and have experienced in other cities I have lived where I attended free outdoor musical events. Might be because of the weather; might be because of a more reserved attitude in Minot.

The timing for the train was great: 7:15 pm to 8:15 pm. That meant it was dark and all the better to see the Christmas lights on the train.

The music was great! I didn't realize until I later read their bios that this was not a single band. They pretty much all played as a group, but the "band" was made up of:

• Colin Linden, who played blues guitar and played excellent slide guitar.
• Tracey Brown, on vocals, and
• Ennis - two sisters, one on acoustic guitar and the other on vocals. They had a Irish feel to their music.

The weather was decent: 20s F with a minor breeze. I forgot (notice a pattern here?) my hat and gloves so I got chilly before the night was over. When the musicians played I was in among the crowd so I didn't feel too cold then. And I was distracted by the great music. I did note that everyone in the band wore coats except the drummer. Several guitarists also wore fingerless gloves. It's not easy playing outside in the winter time.



Did I mention that all the women in the band looked hot?

The band played a mixture of traditional Christmas music (i.e. Jingle Bells with the audience singing along including the kids) done in a upbeat rocking style, a religious song, the old Elvis song, "Mystery Train", and an Irish folk song by the Ennis sisters.

The folk song was really good: funny and sharp with the lyrics as Irish songs can be when sang with a twinkle in the eye. The guitar playing sister sang the folk song. I never heard heard her speak, so I don't know if she was affecting or playing up an Irish accent while singing. But the accent added to the song.

The younger Ennis sister told a joke. It was so bad and corny that it was funny, especially as the group worked the punch line into the between song chitchat several times later. When the sister threatened to tell another joke later the audience was quick to dissuade her.

The hour went by really quick. I missed the first few songs by the band as I was walking the length of the train looking at the decorations and taking photos. For part of the train platform near the depot a small wrought iron fence blocked passage. No problem for a guy with long legs to climb over in order to get a better view and better photos.

As I walked back to my brother's pickup after the show, in the shadows, I stepped on a patch of ice created by snow that melted earlier and ran from a drainpipe of the old train depot. Zing! I fell down faster than you could blink. The SUV behind me stopped so as not to run me over. That was nice of them.

Poor showing at Trivia night

Monday night and another night of trivia. Alan is having health problems and wasn't there. Seven years ago he had a pancreas transplant. All was fine until a month ago when it appears his body had decided to start rejecting his pancreas.

Austin didn't show and Rod showed up late. For the first eight questions I was a team of one. And not doing too well as I had more odd guesses than answers. Once Rod showed up we did better.

Examples of how bad I was playing was that I couldn't remember Bruce Wayne's aunt's name (Harriet -- why did I think it was Mildred?), or that Pearl S. Buck wrote "The Good Earth". I remembered everything else about the book and movie but the author's name.

There were only half the number of people competing tonight. The problem was the better teams were there and the bad teams were missing. For the first game we only got 11 of 20 correct. Good enough to tie for last place. The winning team had 18 correct. I've never been in last place before.

We did better in the second game if you call 12 of 20 correct. At least we were not last even though a different winning team had 18 of 20 correct.

I knew the answer to only one of the "quarters/bucket" trivia questions but one of the lawyers got the chance first to answer correctly that Wyoming's state nickname is the "Equality State". It was annoying as he correctly answered over half the "quarters/bucket" trivia questions. Oh well, t-shirts were the prizes and I certainly don't need any more t-shirts.

While there were half the number of people, it only takes a few smokers to make one's clothes stink.

At least I got some free food to munch on while I made wild guesses.

Frosted trees

Another sunny day today. I woke up to frosted trees in my mother's yard.