Changes

Things have changed this week. First of all, Ellen's back pain has almost miraculously gone away. She is feeling sufficiently better to be able to go to Swarthmore this weekend. That involves a round-trip of pretty close to 14 hours of driving which she would not have been able to do last week. Unlike last time, however, I don't feel I can go with her and be dropped off at Princeton to use the library there. So I am going to go to Katie and Savanna's and spend the weekend there. One reason is that I need to get my taxes done and if I waited until we got back I would feel a little pressured. I am also preaching on one of the seven last words at the Good Friday service, and I would like to spend some time thinking about that. My word is, "I Thirst."

The other change this week is that Vermont Public television which broadcasts over channel 41, has shifted their transmission and we no longer receive it. This is a blow because we have TV reception through a roof antenna, and we only receive Vermont Public television and New Hampshire Public television. So we have lost half of our reception. I talked with the people at Vermont Public television, and they tell me that their new transmission is a weak signal coming from the Brattleboro fire station. The problem with that is that there is a very big mountain between us and that fire station. We are on the north side of Black Mountain, and Brattleboro is to the south. 

The little silver lining is that my neighbor Zac has said that he thinks Southern Vermont cable company may be willing to extend cable television/broadband to us. The problem of course is that up to now, our TV has been free. And it wouldn't be free anymore if we had cable. But maybe it's time to join the 21st-century.

The other change is not as rapid as I would like. The weather has warmed and the snow is beginning to melt. But we still have a lot of snow around the house and we don't see any little green shoots yet. And we're still running the woodstove full-time.