Snow! Snow!

It is really hard to believe that we returned to the US one year ago today! The time has gone by as fast or faster than the two years we stayed in India! Today, Jim drove Ziggy and Zoe to Cape Cod and was surprised to find himself driving in a snow storm! It was raining heavily for quite awhile- big slushy droplets, but as he drove through the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts it turned to snow that was sticking on the highway. A few people apparently did not slow down enough as there were 3 or more accidents seen- none looked serious. It is very unusual to have snow in October here.
Ziggy and Zoe are healthy and pretty active. They are not too pleased being closed off into small parts of the house as renovations are being done.

Rain! Rain!

Hurricane Irene came to New York as a tropical storm. By the time it reach our house the winds were minor, but the rain was heavy. Friends said they measured about 9 inches over the day of Aug 28. Jim spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday before that putting together some small dams and channels to try to divert some water away from the house and garage. This turned out to have been worthwhile as a lot of water was drained away to places where it would do less harm. We lost electricity about 8:30 AM on the 28th and it returned the next day about noon, so it was not too bad for us. Some friends did not lose electricity or phone or internet. Areas to the west of us and to the north seem to have been harder hit.
About 10 days later we had heavy rains again from remnants of "lee". Unfortunately, the guy who mowed our lawn while in India felt the urge to be diligent and he removed the dams built for irene, so Jim had to put some of it back. It helped some, but not quite as well as for Irene.
Today we have more heavy rain. The streams and creeks still have high water from the other storms and the ground is pretty well saturated with water at present, so this will not help, but it is not expected to be so much water. Temperatures are also dropping over night. Fall has started!
Janet spent 2 weeks on Cape Cod with Ziggy and Zoe and their "Aunt Linn" came to visit over Labor day weekend. Linn lived downstairs from us in India. She return in July of last year.
Contractors have been making slow progress on our house, but progress at least. the main delay has been particular light fixtures chosen by a decorator friend which never came in. The contractor warned us that places are not stocking as much and they are also being less than honest about delivery times.
Ziggy and Zoe are well and seem to have lost interest in writing... unless they have created a new blog somewhere else?

Earthquake

Among many other things we had an earthquake today. No damage or injuries noted in our area. We have learned that it was a 5.8 magnitude quake centered in Virginia. Later this week we are expecting a visit from hurricane Irene.
Temperatures in later spring were cooler than normal while temperatures in early summer were hotter than usual, but now that its late summer it has been cooler. Overall, not bad.
Zoe and Ziggy have been well.
We have kept very busy with maintenance work around the house. delayed work from 2008 plus 2 years delayed while in India are now getting done. It is a big effort and takes lots of time and energy. One of our goals is to create an "India Room" . We'll see what happens

Spring! Finally!

The past month and longer have passed by quickly. After the ice storm in early March we had only a few light snowfalls and some rain. We ended the winter wit a total of about 80 inches of snow. What made it miserable is that nearly all of it came between about Christmas and the middle of Feb., so that period was difficult while it was not so bad after the ice storm.
Janet stayed in India from mid Jan. until Mid April- nearly 3 months and managed to enjoy warm weather while Jim struggled with winter at home. Temperatures are quite pleasant now , but the insects are starting to come out along with all the leaves on the trees.
When we returned home just over 6 months ago we were surprised and disappointed to find the front of the house and garage stained a sort black sooty color. We concluded it was some sort of mold that formed while we were away and were not looking forward to painting over it or cleaning it away. However, over the intervening time we learned of some detergents that are not supposed to harm plants that remove mold and mildew without scrubbing- so we tried one. We are happy to report that it only took a few hours to spray the stuff on and wash of the surfaces to find they look quite nice again- not freshly painted, but quite adequate!
Also while away for 2 years we did not have the house air conditioning/ dehumidification running and were even more displeased to find mold in our basement when we returned. At first we did not think this would be a big problem, but realized that sheetrock put on the walls by the previous owners was intended to hide a dampness problem and some mold, so we concluded that we needed to have this fixed. Thus we could not move anything to our basement from the India delivery and it all sits in the garage and attic while we had workers spend what seemed to be an endless 3 week period in late Jan. and early Feb. tearing up the basement. They were not so busy in the dead of winter, but the frequent snows made their stay seem like forever... and the basement was completely unuseable. We had the air tested at a ridiculously high cost after they finished, but unfortunately it showed mold spore counts that were considered too high. Since the contractors were busy by then it took awhile to have them come back and they cleaned a little more and Jim was cleaning his office too, which is adjoining the basement. When we had the air tested again we were relieved to hear that the levels were now considered in the normal range. This was all unplanned for time and expense that was unexpected upon our return. The particular mold appears not to be one of special danger, but good to be rid of it anyway.
the basement now needs to be put back together at added expense, but we are thinking of making an "India room".
Meanwhile, our house on Cape cod is getting new windows put in and some siding replaced. In this case this is something we had planned to do in 2008, but we delayed because we were going to India.
Altogether, it has been 6 months of catching up on "delayed maintenance" of essentially 3 years- 2008 plus the 2 years we were gone. We are starting to feel like we have passed to worst part at least.
Ziggy and Zoe seem well. Zoe has gained weight after her thyroid radiation treatments, but she seems active and otherwise healthy.

The Ice Storm

On Sunday Mar. 6 the weather forecast was for rain all day- heavy at night and ending early Monday morning with some light snow. It did rain all day- mostly light until evening when it did rain hard at times. The rain melted a lot of the snow. For a long time we had about 2 feet of snow on the deck, but by Sunday night it was down to about 6 inches.
About 8PM on Sunday Jim checked the rain outside and was surprised to find ice on all the trees and bushes. Since this was not expected he thought it would switch to snow earlier than expected. He went to sleep about 11PM but was awakened at 1AM when the electricity went off. He went back to sleep, but kept being awakened during the night by the sound of large tree branches going CRACK!
In the morning it was obvious that a lot of ice had formed- probably about 3/16 inch. All the bushes and trees had drooping branches and many were broken.
It took about 2 hours work to clear the larger branches from or driveway. There is one large tree near the driveway which broke into 2 parts about 15 feet above the ground. One part blocked the driveway and the other part has fallen across the driveway up high and lodged in other trees. That will be a project to handle when weather is better. The electricity came back on about 6PM. It is a real inconvenience not to have electricity. Now heat, not much water, no lights, no internet.
Other areas north and east of us are reported to have been harder hit with many more trees destroyed or heavily damaged. Today, Jim drove a few miles south of our house and just 2 miles away there was no ice.

Jury Duty

Janet remains in India- enjoying the warm weather and lack of too much snow and longer days. She went to Jaipur and Udaipur recently. Meanwhile it has continued to snow in New York. At our house we are close to about 6 feet of snow for the season. We did get a little melting last Sunday after some additional snow on Saturday.
One of the concerns with a lot of snow and cold weather is that snow on the roof melts and runs down the roof to the gutter where it freezes again due to lack of heat from the roof. The ice can build up and work its way under the shingles where it can then get into the house and damage walls and ceilings. We have a lot of ice in our gutters and Jim spent several hours standing on a ladder to chip some of it away, though much was back just a week later, so it is still a concern.
This week Jim got a summons for jury duty. Here that means calling a phone number to get a message on whether or not you need to report each day. The first 3 days they only had about half the people report, so it seems likely he would not have to report, but on Wed. the message said to report on Thurs. So, Jim reported and waited around a lot and filled out forms. Finally they started questioning potential jurors. In the first few minutes they said that if you knew the people involved then you could not serve. However, they could not excuse such people until they questioned them. Of course, Jim knew the defendants, but the attorneys did not get around to questioning Jim until 5 hours later. A number of people were in the same position, but had to sit a listen and wait for hours only to be dismissed! What a waste of time!
Even though we left India more than 3 months ago, it almost seems like a dream that we were away and were there. The time went so fast!

The Little Man Arrives

On Friday Jan. 7 our sea shipment arrived during a snowstorm. The movers arrived a little later than we thought they would have done and it was snowing some by then. We decided not to have anything put in the basement, but the snow made that difficult anyway. So, everything had to go in the attic or garage- with some things going directly into places around the house. One thing we placed in the living room is the statue of standing Buddha which, Renuka, in India, referred to as "the little man". He stands in a corner of our living room here, while he stood near the center in Bangalore. We also have the stone Buddha head we got in Mahabilpuram placed on his stand in the sunroom. Most things are in boxes where they are likely to remain for awhile.
It snowed about 3 inches while the movers where here and they managed to get away without any difficulty. they only had to unpack about 20 percent of what we shipped, since we have to decide where other things go. It snowed about 5 more inches after they left.
On Wed. the 11th we got about 12 inches of new snow, so that is the 3rd large snowstorm of the season.
On Thursday the 13th Janet left to go back to Bangalore and India for a visit. She arrived safely and apparently had an uneventful flight and reports the weather is just fine!
Zoe seems to have recovered from her treatments and is behaving quite normally.