The Arctic News

It’s cold. I don’t have to tell you, it’s cold everywhere! Cold, I’ve found since moving from the gulf coast of Texas to the mountains of North Carolina, is relative. We had a high of 21 degrees yesterday at 7 am. Our mailman, Mike from Boston, wore shorts and a…

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Walking Into Twenty Twenty Four

Guest author: Shelly Mozlin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I keep a log of my mileage. In 2023, I walked/hiked 360 miles. This number is from a technology-dependent manual accounting system. Every time I go out walking, I record the mileage using either my iPhone or the AllTrails app to determine the mileage accrued….

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Online Everything

============================= o ============================= This is not a rant about having to do everything online. Well, maybe it is a little. I’ll start off by listing all the ways in which the ability to conduct one’s business online is great–revolutionary even! Shopping online is so convenient, if you know what you…

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Winter in the Mountains

)))))))))))))))))))))))) **** ((((((((((((((((((((((( Now that it’s January, I am industriously into the stay-at-home activities I had lined up to keep me from dipping too deeply into weather-driven incarceration lunacy. Be assured, if the temperature rises above 45 degrees and the wind is not howling, I will go forth into the…

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Epilogue 2023

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >*< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With 2023 ebbing away as I type, I deeply wanted to write something poetic and ending-like. If I reflect back on the year, I remember the good and the not so good. I’ll say that we at the Hobbit House are well, busy and still don’t have…

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Oh Joy

Peace on earth, good will to men. What do we want? Peace on earth. When do we want it? Always. Never. I don’t exactly know. We are an unconscionable bunch of bickering earth dwellers. Christmas is a religious holiday and then again it’s not. We’ve made it into a spending…

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Light the Way

Guest writer: Gina Ginsburg ““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ Thanksgiving is a lovely time of year. Food, family, and football, what’s not to like? (Actually, I don’t like football, but the alliteration worked well in that sentence.) But once the sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie have been put away, either gastronomically or via…

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November

Guest Writer: Shelly Mozlin .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.././././././././.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.. I have a love-hate relationship with November. Perhaps love and hate are excessive as descriptors; maybe like-dislike is more accurate (that way I can save hate for December, but that’s another story). My dislike for November revolves around 3 axes: changing the clocks, knowing that…

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Three Okras and a Celery Stick

===================== # ===================== It’s November 1st and 27 degrees. The morning found me asleep in my bed, nestled up against my most consistent heat source–my guy. I listened for a while to the raging wind whipping through the mountains, making a howling sound against the stone walls of the Hobbit…

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