'Our Year at The Fahm' - After 4.5 *Actual Years* - is Drawing to a Close

As all good things must do, our time here at The Fahm as full time residents is slowly drawing to a close. I am fresh off a month-long employment and housing exploration in my favorite hometown ever, Santa Cruz, CA, where we will be relocating - at least part-time - sooner rather than later.

The Stone Church

The Man in the Window

...as seen Monday in Holden, MA 

There Have Been Some Shortages - Reprise

Last week, hardware stores began running low on snow removal supplies and by the time the last storm was over, they were pretty much out.  There wasn't a roof rake, snow shovel, or box of hockey puck salt tabs to be found anywhere, not to mention snow blowers. When Home Depot is sold out of a big ticket seasonal staple like a snow blower, you know you're having a serious winter.


The good news is, I have found a way to reuse our sock singles! In a fit of DIY, I asked Raj to rummage through his sock drawer for singles and worn out socks while I bustled off to the hardware store for a bag of calcium chloride.  Raj managed to produce 19 socks and I filled them each with a fist-sized portion of the stuff.  We raked the roofs and flung the sock bombs strategically which means aiming for just behind the bigger icicles. The sock bombs are so much better than the hockey pucks in terms of placement; the downside is, in the spring we will have 19 filthy socks sitting on our roofs like dead things the cats might drag in to our bedroom.


Everyone, at this point, except those who have the great good fortune to live in a perfectly insulated home David & Monique has ice dams, ice cycles, and way too much snow on their roof.  Roofs are collapsing all over New England, while I know of at least one poor man in Worcester who had a heart attack and died while clearing snow from his roof. Even stoic New Englanders are shaking their heads over this hard Wintah - though I still note latent pride beneath their complaints. This Wintah will go down in the record books in terms of snow fall if nothing else, and a legendary winter spawns legendary ...well... legends.

Jason Brown Skates, Alright!

I'm sure there is a language for writing about figure skating although I don't know it; my only language to express skating is that of dance and music. I'm a music fan of Irish American ancestry, finding the Riverdance music particularly moving; I am culturally encoded to find the rhythms and expressions moving, sometimes enough so to bring tears to my eyes or me to my feet.

Jason Brown's performance at the recent U.S. Nationals held in Boston blended dance, music and skating with such breathtaking results that I find myself uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Indeed, his performance must be experienced to be understood.

No matter my previous awful schadenfreudeish new word inclinations, this is one skater I want to see execute without falling. The sheer joie de vivre of his performance deserves nothing less. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonbskates and stay tuned for his performance(s) in Sochi. #NotIrishAMERICANButDidUsJusticeNevertheless

Refugees from The Island of Misfit Glass Bricks - Reprise

What is This, Boot Camp?  Hell Week? It's easy to get confused, what with the twice a day workouts and all, getting snow and ice off the roof(s) before the next cold snap and/or snow surge.  We've had a couple of days 'warm' enough for the ice icicles to start some serious melting, although we still ended up on a ladder just outside the kitchen window armed with a mini sledge hammer and protective eye-ware, literally beating back the ice.

A Fahm Guest Just Blew My Mind

...when she said, "Reading is an interior sport."

What Beastie Left This Behind?

It was about as big as a hockey puck.

"Fahmtastic Story!" Notes from a New Reader

Amazon.com Review by Harry Hart-Browne:

Our Year at The Fahm: or, Blessed are the Cracked for They Shall Let in the Light (Paperback)

"What a delightful book! Sara Parker gives us an unvarnished tour of her new life with her tongue in her cheek and her heart on her sleeve. It reminded me a little of "George Washington Slept Here" where city folk get countrified the hard way.

Sara shares her woes and triumphs with such humor - both extra dry and fairily whimsical - that I become involved immediately, and stayed that way. A real page-turner. She treats language like a lovely lump of Play-Dough, sometimes creating words, phrases and names for inanimate objects that convey their essence far more effectively than conventional wordery can. (It's catching!)

Although this true account is often a romp worthy of Lucy, it also ventures fearlessly to lonely places, human frailties, political insights, world woes, love of animals, as well as rampant mouse poo and homemade applesauce. It shows us how hard hard work can be, the shock of sudden crises, and helps us, by example, to go with the flow. It honors the beauty of Nature. It celebrates good people and laughs at the meanies. Like the official who railed against local beavers building dams without permits. No kidding.

It connected with me on many levels. Sara's every response to her new life is informed by her big sensitive heart, which in turn warmed mine. My inner child smiles. Her subtitle suits her - she lets in the light. Recommended."

I am humbled. 

Unattended Death Still Under Investigation ... is it ... MURDER?

In December of 2011, a mysterious death occurred right here in Princeton, not half a mile from the Town Center and the town has been abuzz since, mostly because no one who knew anything could say anything. Here are headlines with latest developments:

UPDATE ----------------------------

Desilets pleads not guilty in death of wife; pretrial conference set for Feb. 5

Manslaughter and assault and battery charges read against him; bail set at $5,000 cash

Roger P. Desilets Jr. was arraigned Jan. 2 in Worcester Superior Court on charges relating to the 2011 death of his wife at the couple’s home in Princeton. For more on the story, go to The Landmark.

UPDATE ----------------------------

Desilets went through window, husband tells police

Couple argued about infidelity, court documents say

Roger Desilets was indicted yesterday, Friday, December 13, 2013, for manslaughter and assault and battery, nearly two years to the day since his wife died after going through a third story window of their Princeton, MA home. He will be arraigned January 2, 2014, in Worcester Superior Court.

So...not murder exactly, but something very like it, no? Assault and battery and manslaughter sounds an awful lot like murder to me but of course I do not know the intricacies of the law well enough to distinguish between the two, although there are degrees of each, and the defendant's state of mind at the time of the crime is very important. For more on the indictment, see The Landmark's breaking news.

Original post after the jump.

In Anticipation of the Approaching Solstice, We Present Sun Man!

Winter Storm Falco

8 Degrees F, many inches of snow

We are longing for Solstice...our countdown began days ago.  Soon...

Zero, Zilch, Nada, Nothing, Nil

From Weather.com

Waiting for Electra

Via Weather.com

Winter is Coming

...rather, Winter is already here!

Via Weather.com

Fall Ends in New England

Here We Go...FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS, IT COULD BE A BUMPY RIDE

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA

424 PM EST MON NOV 11 2013

...SNOW SHOWERS WILL IMPACT THE TUESDAY MORNING COMMUTE...

A STRONG ARCTIC FRONT WILL QUICKLY MOVE ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW
ENGLAND EARLY TUESDAY MORNING. BEHIND THIS FRONT EXPECT RAIN
SHOWERS TO QUICKLY TRANSITION TO SNOW SHOWERS DUE TO FALLING
TEMPERATURES. THIS TRANSITION WILL OCCUR DURING THE MORNING
COMMUTE...BETWEEN 5AM TO 9AM. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SNOW SQUALLS IS
ALSO A POSSIBILITY WHICH MAY RESULT AN INCH OF SNOW IN A SHORT
TIME. THIS MAY CREATE SOME SLIPPERY TRAVEL ALONG WITH POOR
VISIBILITY DURING THE TUESDAY MORNING COMMUTE. 

                              - From The National Weather Service

Fall Sunset in New England

It rained all day and at sunset this was the view from my office. Taken with my cell phone camera just moments apart.

Fall Sunset in Ruralville

...over the Quinapoxet Reservoir, part of the City of Worcester's Public Water Supply, hence the barbed wire:

The Tree on the Common, Fall New England Style