Avoiding the Cold and Snow

      I start every day by reviewing some of the northern papers - The New York Times, Times Union, The Bennington Banner, Berkshire Eagle, and even the Eastwick Press.  It keeps me abreast of the happenings in the old home area.  This past week it has made it very clear what a tough winter y,all have been having.  Between the snow storms, storms with a "wintry mix", and bitter cold; it's been a tough week up north.  The weather here is like mid-to-late March.  It's very tolerable.  Walking the dogs is not a bone chilling experience.
      Last weekend was a busy one.  We had the pleasure of dining with Nan's friend Joanne and her family.  We had a nice time at a Thai restaurant.  Turns out that one of Joanne's daughters is married to Linda Lavin's step-son.  They shared some great stories about her and her still very active career.  The next night I went to a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game at the RBC center.  Joanne's other daughter's son plays junior hockey in Canada.  As result the boy's father got some tickets to the Hurricanes game against the Tampa Bay Lightening.  It was my first trip to the RBC center and was very enjoyable.  Hurricanes won 6 - 3.

      As you can see we had pretty good seats and a lot of the action was right in front of us.  The arena is state-of-the-art with a very impressive video scoreboard.

      Got in a couple of runs and a trip to the gym before Nan suffered a leg injury late in the week.  I had to take over walking not only our dogs, but Melanie's as well.  Melanie is a friend of ours who adopted our first foster dog.  Unfortunately, Melanie's sister suffered a serious stroke and Melanie has been at her side for almost a month now.  Remember Melanie's sister in your prayers if you can.  Although she has hired some dog walkers, the dogs are otherwise alone all day.  Nan went over before her injury and just spent some time with the dogs as they were showing stress.  Well since the injury, I've been over a couple of times.  On top of those dogs today I did my first session of training to be a dog walker volunteer at The Animal Protective Society of Durham.  Phil Lance: B.A., M.A., J.D., and APS dog walker.