Vacation_

Four more days and we will be winging our way south to sunny St. John. It appears the the winter is finally catching up with us however- snow's expected most of this week. For the last 2 years, when Ellen & I have gone south to visit Tim, we have had snow on Thursday night before our flight. We go to our friends, John & Annie's house , to watch Survivor and it has started to snow. Last year we stayed home because the snow had stopped by 9pm, but the previous year we drove to Providence and spent the night in a motel. Yesterday when I looked at the weather the prediction was for a sunny Thursday with some light snow/rain Friday evening. This morning they are predicting snow on Thursday extending into Friday morning. We will all be taking a limo from John & Paula's house in Bridgewater to Logan Friday morning. It is 84 in Cruz Bay, clear skies and the weather looks great for the rest of the week. Friday the temperature will be down to 81 under sunny skies. Can't wait!!

We got measurable snow today for the first time this winter. I was remembering on the ride into work this morning, as the snow was coming down and the visibility was lowering, the drives I used to make in my Healey from Woods Hole to Youngstown and back. (This is my - I remember when story- "When I was a kid we trudged thru snow 20" inches deep to get to school", story.), out in the snow belt on Interstate 90- The New York Thruway. I was driving A "59" Austin Healey 3000, which I had purchased shortly after I arrived on the USCGC Hornbeam in Woods Hole. It was a 2 + 2, bucket seats in the front and 2 hard seat cutouts on the back deck, convertible with sliding plexiglass windows. There were no roll up windows. The plexi frame was either on the door or in the trunk. Extremely drafty in the winter, heater barely worked, and the windshield wipers were maybe all of 8" long. But it hugged the road and I don't remember ever spinning out, being more concerned about the 6" of ground clearance between the muffler and the road.

The snow was always bad,( as it still is today) from around Erie, PA to the other side of Buffalo. The trick was to find a truck and keep in his slipstream letting him do the snow plowing and hoping that he wouldn't stop. Then after Buffalo the snow would ease off but the temperature would drop. I would put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator trying to keep the temperature up. Rolling along with gloves on, my wool peacoat with the collar up and long underwear. The Healey did not like running cold and would stall out if I didn't keep the throttle up when we went through the toll booths. Don't ever remember getting stuck with the Healey anywhere. The only other bad experience, other than those long cold late night drives across I-90, was the time during a January thaw, when I had driven to Norton to visit my mother with the top down. She was doing PR at that time for Wheaton College and had an apartment in Norton. The weather was warm so I had the top down and the tonneau cover in place. I was heading back to the ship on Sunday evening and around Taunton the temperature dropped and it started to snow. I had snow on the windshield, both inside and out. The wipers were useless, and hoping that it was just a short squall, I sat up and tried to see over the windshield. But it didn't let up and I finally had to stop to put up the top. It wasn't a push button, but canvas stretched over a frame and and then snapped onto the car body. Enough of that.

If I can find a computer, internet cafe maybe?, in St. John I will update, but if not you will have to wait until our return.