6AM…..TARNATION!……fine-powdered leprosy swirls around the eves in the dawn wind…..the drifted disease sculpts the back steps almost 1/2″ deep…. how can this be?….Yesterday, I waded across the almost completely puddled-out Megunticook, and salivated at the ice feast sure to be served up this morning……now….Why would the Higher Power do this?….why carry on a personal vendetta with an essentially innocent old fart in an obscure Maine village?….Why would he/she hold a g……that’s it!…….”she”!….. the HP’s feminine aspect!

I can so easily confess with the Episcopalians, ” I have left undone those things which I aught to have done. I have done those things…”…. the recycling overflowing its container and even the additional “overflow” container…..the compost bucket secretly emptied into the kitchen trash instead of trudged out through the deep snow….this is surely a well-deserved pay-back….

bundled in the familiar gear, I stepped out onto the lumpy white lake…..squish!….the unhealed sandwich–3/4″ of snow ice over 1.5″ of water–hadn’t had any chance of jelling with only 5 hours of 20 degree temperatures…..what will another day of cold bring?…..I can’t speculate now…..I’m emptying the compost ….