The count down starts on March 1st and continues until the grand re-opening. Tomorrow (April 1st) is an unofficial town holiday as our local favorite ice cream place opens for the season. Regardless of the weather, getting some ice cream at Swirls & Scoops on April Fool’s Day is a tradition for many locals. Yup, we will see you there:-)
Molly the Giraffe is big news in our small town. Molly was born at nearby Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts on February 23, 2009. Molly’s mother Mauzy was not producing enough milk, so Molly was transferred to Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s Hospital for Large Animals here in Grafton, where she was nursed back to health. Our small town’s tall tale made it all the way to national television when Molly appeared on NBC’s Today Show.
On March, Molly returned home to Southwick Zoo. She has grown about a foot and is now over 5 feet tall and has gained 20 lbs! She is doing great and is very active. She practices walking and galloping. I’m looking forward to meeting Molly when the zoo reopens this spring.
Lake Ripple is one of Eric’s favorite places in Grafton. For years I’ve been meaning to get him out onto the frozen lake, but I never seemed to get around to it. Part of the reason is because I’m paranoid about water. Not for myself, but for Eric. Putting a kid in a wheelchair on water is like attaching an anchor around his waist. If anything bad happens it would be just about impossible to save him. We took him out on a schooner last summer. He loved it, but I was just glad to get him back on land!
Yesterday was the annual Grafton Community Ice skating Party on the lake. Since it has been extremely cold recently, I thought this would be a good and safe time to take Eric out on the ice. The biggest challenge was the rather big, steep hill we had to climb down to get onto the lake. Aaron and I made it down OK, but halfway down I was thinking, this is really dumb, how will I ever get him back to the van! But there was no turning back at that point… Luckily, there where plenty of people around and when I was ready to leave, I asked three strong guys who were hanging around the bonfire if they would help me out and they did. I had Eric in his jogger, which made it easier. Each one took a wheel and dragged him up the hill. It was worth it though as Eric was so excited to go “on” Lake Ripple and he will be talking about this for days.
Here is a photo of the twins. Aaron calls that hat his “Fargo” hat! Of course, Aaron has his video camera with him in order to get some “stock footage”.
Eric could not believe that he was out in the middle of the lake!
A nice bonfire provided by the Grafton Recreation Department. OK, this fire did make me nervous. Why doesn’t it burn through the ice? I went over and asked one of the guys tending the fire and he said, “I have no idea!” That was not very reassuring. However, I knew that they did this bonfire thing every year, so I could only assume that we were safe… I tried googling it when we got home, but couldn’t find an answer. If anyone knows why it’s OK to light a fire on ice, please leave a comment.
Getting dark and cold! Aaron warming up by the fire.
Here’s a bit of a vent, but really I’m just testing this new version of WordPress at this new address…
This morning I got up at my usual week-day time of 4:30am, before the birds and even before the sun. I’m not a morning person and I hate getting up that early. But it takes me over two hours to get my boys up, dressed, fed and ready for school.
When I looked out the window, it was poring rain. The third straight day of rain, but as we say in New England, at least it’s not snow. I felt like crawling back into bed, but it’s Friday, one more day and I can sleep in for two mornings. It was raining hard and very windy, so the first thing I did after turning on my coffee and computer was check the school status on the web; there it was in green “school is open.” It wasn’t until my work was finished that I got the automated call that school was canceled. Five minutes later the van pulled up to pick up the twins. The van had already picked up one student! The driver – and apparently the child’s mother – also had no idea there was no school. It took me another 45 minutes to get the boys out of their chairs and braces and back to bed. grrrrr!
I understand that sometimes it’s a tough call deciding whether or not to cancel school. But Grafton is notoriously late canceling. I just wish they would cancel earlier like other districts, for the poor unfortunate soles like myself, who’s day starts very early.
As it turned out, the temperature was hovering around freezing and many cities and towns around us had bad ice storms. There are lots of trees down and thousands without power throughout the state. It actually turned out to be a fairly nice day here in Grafton. Once the rain stopped, the sun came out and we still had power. But many of our friends were not so lucky. We have 3 of them spending the night tonight because they have no power and worse, no heat.
I love our local newspaper, The Grafton News, it’s so much fun to read. Here is a typical letter to the Editor:
‘Swirls & Scoops’ is a popular ice cream place in town that closes down for the winters and re-opens April 1st. The opening is a big event and a sure sign of spring in our small New England town. I’ll let you all know if Blue Goo makes a comeback. I know you all *need* to know!
