Today, I am setting boots to snow.  In my hands I hold a pair of shiny new binoculars.  They’re my first new pair since the very first I bought, at age 12, with my $100 of babysitting money.  For twenty years I carried those, and the trusty little things never failed me. These new ones cost a little more, yet even with their bright lenses, I’m thwarted by a golden-crowned kinglet. The tiny bird nips from one branch to the next, too quick to view for more than an instant as it seeks some minuscule source of nourishment among the needles.