Knock down, stay up

If I don’t get out there with the shovel right quick, my dear wife Karen will have to bob and weave when she walks out to her car a few minutes from now. Yes, this time I’m talking using the shovel reaching up. On the roof of our side porch right this 7:53 a.m. second…

Nothing quite like the sound of a snowmobile on a city night

Once, twice, three times my dear wife Karen and I heard the unmistakeable sound outside our living room window tonight. A snowmobile, going fast, with that trademark engine whine, around our Syracuse city neighborhood. We had almost a foot of snow today. The enthusiast who lives anonymously among us would not let the opportunity slide.…

Icing on the cake for fellow blogger’s birthday?

While commenting with my fellow Syracuse blogger Christopher S. Malone yesterday, the subject of snow came up. No surprise. I did mention Syracuse, right? In any case, Chris said it always snows here on March 12. And he would know that because … drum roll, please … it’s his birthday. Happy birthday, interesting fellow. If…

So be it, but I will say a quick hello to the green

When the morning newspaper puts a forecast for a foot of snow the next day on the top of the front page, I have to take notice. Especially on the second straight day when the temperatures in Syracuse have cracked 40 degrees, spurring a good melt and a measurable rise in my spirits. I’m about…

A screen gems production

With the sun shining, I can’t walk through the kitchen without taking a peek out the window. And what should I spy but a bird on a wire. Are you a late winter bird? Are you an early spring bird? Let’s take your picture, satisfied sitting against the blue sky. Through the screen I shoot…

There is an across-the-street, I know it

As snow-experienced as I am from 31 years of living in Central New York, it still takes my breath away when the view from the window is snow and only snow. It had lightened up a bit by the time I went out on the side porch to snap a shot with my iPad Air…

When life gives you so much winter, why not make a fest?

It’s become a tradition for my dear wife Karen and I to make sure we head to the Syracuse, N.Y., downtown space called Hanover Square at this time of year. Since 1985, hardy and hearty Central New Yorkers have been given the opportunity to make the most of this cold, snowy season here in the…

They’re noisy birds, but I don’t mind

Every so often sitting in my living room here in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood these past couple of days, I hear a thump against the picture window. Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, jumps on top of me on my recliner to peer out, and I hunch over to protect the family … iPad…

The sun shines in Syracuse, put out the flag

Oh, so pleasant was my walk with Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, through our Syracuse city neighborhood this morning. No hat. No gloves. Winter jacket zipper pulled down to three-quarters. After a winter of steady 20s, teens, and polar-vortex really-now temperatures, a break into the 40s with a shining sun is very welcome my man…

A new house awaits the snow plow

My stepson Daryl is in the midst of moving from Syracuse into a house he just bought on the eastern outskirts. My, oh, my they got a lot of snow Thursday to Friday out there. My dear wife Karen and I drove out to give Daryl a lift because his car got stuck in a…