Hibernating

My dear sister-in-law, Kristin, seems to feel that fall in New England is invigorating (this is probably because she is living in a desert). I am finding just the opposite - the cold weather makes me want to crawl under a (preferably down) blanket and stay on the sofa. In front of a roaring fire. Which is pretty much what I did on Sunday afternoon, while also watching football (dull, as we rarely get the games we want to watch here) and PBR (much more exciting).


OK, OK, we did do some other stuff that did not involve staying on the couch wrapped in a comforter. Joe and Devon came for a visit, which was really great. Devon ran the Breakers Marathon in Newport, which is about 25.2 miles more than I could do. We went to the Wheeler School Fall Family Fest, at the Wheeler Farm. We did our part and bought food from the Class of 2009, but the rest of the stuff was really more geared towards younger students; Lewis only saw one other 7th grader there. He did run into a couple of friends from 6th grade, and he was able to do the inflatable maze with them a few times. So after about an hour of freezing our butts off (it was not only cold, but also windy), we decided to move on. Above is a photo of Terry and Joe hunkered down behind a stone wall (it was much more comfortable out of the wind). After we left the farm, we walked around Wickendon Street and spent quite a bit of time in "junktique" stores and a used record/CD store (remember, we were with Joe), which enabled us to tolerate the cold much better. We decided to spare poor Devon from walking to dinner that night and brunch Sunday morning, and instead drove to restaurants. We also went back to Newport on Sunday to drive around a bit and show Joe the sights, since he'd never been there. Devon found a fabulous new coat at a great price, and Joe had his photo taken in a very historic place (although he was very disappointed that we didn't have time to actually have a drink there). We were sad to send Joe and Devon on their way back to Maryland on Sunday afternoon, but we tried to cope by building a fire and cocooning on the sofa. Have I mentioned that already?