Happy Easter!

For many in this world, Easter is THE primary religious celebration, marking the Resurrection of Christ after a three-day (so that say, I count 36 hours or so) entombment. In fact, this year Orthodox Easter and western Easter.

Christ is Risen, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

Today also marks the primary celebration of another very different religion - the Celebration of the Half=price Chocolate Easter Bunny Sale. Yes, folks this is when it happens. Thousands of unloved, chocolate bunnies will be freed from their supermarket prison as the masses, with their credits card arrive to snatch of everything shaped like a rabbit, bunny, chicks, ducklings, eggs (don't forget the eggs!) or lambs. All will then be sacrificed, being eaten, part by part, in slow and painful bites. Actually, there is one humane act - the head is bitten off first. Poor things!

Anyway, amusement put aside, we are spending Easter in Jamestown, NY. The original plan was to visit my Mom for a day, stay the night, and then leave the following morning to drive our way to Washington, DC.

Well, after we arrived, we found that Mom was actually in pretty bad shape. To make a long story short, we admitted her to the hospital yesterday. She was just feeling rather crummy and having a hard time breathing. As a result, we will spend another day here to visit, observe, fix up the house and generally hang out.

When we left Rochester yesterday, everything was green, and the temperature was around 0 (we are having a really cold spell at the moment). Usually when you drive south, things get warmer, with less snow. Not in our region. Rochester is very near Lake Ontario, and is warmed by it. And my Mom lives near the east shore of Lake Erie (another great lake) - and the wind blows over the length of this lake and produces snow near her.

So, as we drove (about 240 km), it started getting colder and colder, and the ground gradually turned white. After a bit there was 3 cm of snow, then 5 cm, and eventually up to 10 cm. At one point on a country road I pulled over the car to look at a head of Bison (!!!) The problem is, when I pulled over, I didn't realize that there was a small ditch that was covered in snow, and down we went. We were stuck until a truck came by and pulled us out.

Other than that, not much has happened. So to be continued...