It is all relative in a way—3.2 de­grees here with howling winds—too cold to go outside without all armor. A relative phoned form Florida Sun­day morning with complaints of 40 degrees, winds screaming through between the condos and far to cold to go outside—even had the fur­nace running. Well, folks, I’d rather be here, at least we know how to dress for the weather—some of ev­erything we own and be ready for anything!

Please remember for a minute our past couple of winters when we almost had to snowshoe out the up­per windows of the house, and be sympathetic to the poor souls in Germany and Eastern Europe strug­gling with snow and snow and more snow this year.

We enjoyed a brief visit from Bud and Sue Harlow last week as we took a short walk “up yonder” to my brother Mike’s cabin. Even though the wind was blowing as always, it was sunny and lovely out.

Maverick Farm started their tap­ping last Wednesday with Blaine, Leslie, and Kenny Moore, along with Mark Savidge and friend Pat­rick from Washington. They enjoyed a hike through the woods, tapping for the beginning of a new sugar season. Others have worried that there isn’t enough snow, and the “season” will come and go too fast.

There seems to be a lot of con­cern about our schools locally and afar lately. I remember not so long ago, when the big thing was to put a gifted and talented program in place.

We didn’t have volunteers or money enough to really do much, so those who wanted to progress faster than average were really not served in town. When we wondered about building a high school, a big factor was that an independent school would not be mandated to offer all the frills expected, there­fore could concentrate on the stu­dents and individual needs. As you remember, we couldn’t afford the high school of this caliber.

Send along your news, folks—ac­tivities, successes, and concerns— maybe I’ll stop rambling along with what I hear and read of town folks’ concerns.