battening down the hatches and a celebration

We've been getting ready for winter. We don't go through enouagh wood every year to warrant an annual delivery. Somehow with all the construction, we went through very little wood last year, despite the cold weather. So we haven't had to worry this year about carting and stacking firewood. But I did my next-to-last mow two weeks ago, followed by a fair amount of snow that stuck and eventually melted, and I did my last mow of the season yesterday. About mid-October, we turned on the heat, and all the windows were closed. The new storm doors are up; the garage door openers are in (so no more morning scraping!). And this weekend, I changed from percale to flannel sheets on the bed. Except for getting the snow blower tuned, I think we're ready for what comes at us over the next few months.

I must say that unlike my sistern and brethern, I *loved* watching the snow come down last week. It was stunning.

Now for the celebration. Robert received an invitation to GLAD's (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders -- glad.org) one-year anniversary celebration of the legalization of same-sex marriage. We went. It was in a big fancy Boston hotel with hundreds of people there. (The paper said 300; I think there were more.) The first part was a panel discussion with three advocates, including Mary Bonauto, lead attorney for the case, and one of the married couples, Julie and Hillary Goodridge.

Bonauto got a standing ovation (that lasted forever) just for being introduced; she deserved it. As the panelists spoke, the message I heard was that this will be a long struggle, but there's a lot of hope, and we need to keep fighting not only for our own rights, but for rights across the states. We heard that the nation is shifting its attitude, and that the loss in the eleven states (eleven states voted to amend their states' consititions to ban gay marriage) was expected, difficult, and still, we shouldn't lose heart. Discussion ranged from suicide among gay youth, to whether this issue cost the election to the Democrats (general feeling is it didn't) to what the experience of the Goodridge family has been like (they've received far more support than they expected). Lovely.

And of course, we ran into many friends, including some we'd lost touch with. We saw Mary and Bonnie from down the street -- I was at their commitment ceremony in 1990 and they just got married. They're retired now, and living a happy life. And we talked for a long time to a man we met in Wakefield a year ago -- he was the main speaker after a celebration for the SJC ruling, itself. He also wrote one of the friends-of-the-court briefs, and earlier, had clerked for Margaret Marshall, our state supreme court chief justice. Lovely man. I hope we cross paths again.