Dear Ferret Folks-
 
Well, I finally got around to hanging up my Ferrets of the FML calendar
for 2006, and it is, as we say here in New England, "Awwwwwwesome!"
 
I've got this fabulous picture of Tonks, head thrown back, eyes squeezed
tightly shut, apparently lost in the throws of War Dance abandon.  You
can see his fangs as he head-bops, even his little back toes are spread
in bliss!
 
I stop and admire this picture every time I pass by and see it hanging
on my kitchen wall.  Now, I could look the other way instead, out the
kitchen window, and see the delicate fall of snow....tiny white flakes
that have blanketed my world.  Every branch, every twig, is highlighted
in white.  Every tree is a work of art.  Every stone wall just says "New
England." The gray squirrels are all puffed up like down parkas, and the
birds at the feeders are practically spherical, feathers all puffed up
against the cold, too.  The air smells of cold and snow and woodsmoke.
Tourists fall over themselves for this stuff.  It has snowed, literally
without cease, for three days.  It's hypnotic.  Peaceful.  It's the
opposite of Tonks.
 
Now, if this appeals to you, download the "snowfall living desktop
screensaver." ( http://www.topshareware.com/003013-4-11.htm
scroll halfway down the choices on page.)
It's better than the real thing.  You won't get a coronary shoveling,
you won't fall and break your arm because of slippery footing, you won't
have to get the lovely scenery off of your CAR, your won't have to pry
the frozen wipers from off of your windshield, you won't track a mixture
of sand and slush and assorted filth into your house on the bottom of
your boots, onto your car upholstry, you won't NEED boots, mittens,
scarf, heavy coat, hat, new, every year, because they always DISAPPEAR
over the summer.  You won't feed part of your hand to the snowblower when
it (invariably) clogs.  You won't wind up driving with your HEAD out the
driver's window because you ran out of that blue pee-pee that cleans the
windshield, and you can't see anything out the front of your car, not
even tractor trailers.
 
Nope. Stick to the screensaver, and Tonks.
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 5114]