November Sweeps - Day 665

This was an early start day.  After my father died, my brother (traditionally) would go to the cabin at the end of the season and winterize everything by himself.  But three years back (I think), when I started staying there on my own, I volunteered to go with him to learn how it was done and see if I could help.

So I've gone every year since then, and he told me on Thursday that today, Saturday, would be that day.  My nephew really wanted to go, because he thought he would see a badger, and I told him to bundle up, because it would be between sixteen and twenty degrees up there (hence me not going back the last two weeks).  But to my surprise, it was forty degrees out, above freezing, and the road had almost no snow on it.  In other words, I could've gone another two times this year, if I'd been brave enough.*

We went to the cabin one last time this morning, to do the end of the season winterizing.  My brother had seen evidence of another badger, so he'd baited some traps near the hole it had dug, but instead, it had a crow in it.

I thought the crow was really fascinating to look at up close.  It was not a very large bird, but its beak sure was, with a hook at the tip, and it had these big black eyes with grey eyelids that closed from the side rather than the top--that was super interesting.  It had pretty much torn its tail feathers all off scraping them against the bars of the trap, and when my brother finally opened the trap so it could fly away, it was only capable of hopping around.  The first thing it did was run over to where there was snow and scoop some up in its mouth--thirsty, I suppose.

My brother and I went up to the top deck and stapled thick plastic all around the balcony, hoping that it would keep (most of) the snow out, and we wouldn't have to re-stain the wood again for a while.  He admitted, though, that the wind would probably tear the plastic out (despite the dozens of staples we held it down with) by the next time we go up there in the spring.

Meanwhile, my nephew was outside, hacking the life out of a few trees, which my brother (rightly) took him to task over.

We drove home about lunchtime, and I took the boy to Del Taco, where he ate his weight in tostadas and habanero tacos.

Sit-ups Today: 100

Sit-ups In November: 2766

As it stood, I had no time to go to both the post office and to the library after lunch.  So I chose the library first.  I hate that it closes so early, but what can you do?

Push-ups Today: 100

Push-ups In November: 3017

Last week, I watched an Amicus production with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing called MADHOUSE.  It was fairly good, really, until the end (and I don't think I'd ever seen those two together before, except in HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS, which I haven't seen in more than thirty-five years), but made me want to watch more Cushing stuff.

So, I found a Hammer film called THE GORGON (with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee) from 1964.  I really love the Hammer horror flicks, mostly because they were on permanent rotation on television when I was a boy.  This is one I've never seen, and technically, I still haven't, as I fell asleep relatively early on, had to rewind it, then fell asleep again.

Words Today: 354
Words In November: 17,826

*I could totally have gathered firewood during the day, so I'd have some at night when it got below freezing.  But I've been there when it's in the teens outside, and the cabin never gets warm--heck, I think it was that way in the twenties (could be my fire-making skills just suck, though).