Into The New Year Boldly

Had about a foot of snow on Wednesday and seemed to have accumulated more since then. So far this week we've celebrated New Years Eve with friends, visited with my Father in the nursing home in Erie, paid bills for my folks, picked up a furnace repair part and actually fixed the furnace ourselves. The zone valve motor for the first floor had worn out and wouldn't engage regularly. Nothing like waking up to a cold house to get one motivated. Next we need to fix the pellet stove. It's not a good time of year to have both heating units on the fritz. Finished up the venison hamburg soup tonight. Ummmm good ! Rode around the lake about noon. Found contractors working on two of the new houses that are being built. It's reassuring, given the state of the housing market and all the "Henny Penny" predictions that in one small community, we have at least three new houses being built. The weather has been cold (below 20 degrees much of the time) but we are to have a warming trend, possibly up to 40 degrees. Some adventurous weatherman has even suggested we'd see 50 degrees. I think that is overly optimistic but I can deal with it. Read an interesting post on the Internet. Leaving commentary aside, the writer suggested that each town the in the US host a refugee family. That would mean providing shelter, jobs, education as necessary, and other support systems until the family could be self supporting. Just looking at Mina, French Creek, Clymer and Sherman, that could be four families taken in. Every time I think about it, I hear in my mind the chorus version of the poem on the Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free". What a wonderful way to share our freedom.