It’s a gorgeous sunny day today. It’s so beautiful, in fact, that during a particularly good song on the radio, I randomly started chair dancing at my desk. So in honor of the brilliant day and my good mood (which I doubted would exist the way my morning started), here are some pictures that make me happy. Please to enjoy…behind the cut.
Tag: Outdoors
Foggy Trees
Here’s a little experimental photography for you. Something tells me the sky will look a lot like this a little later today (read: on my drive home). *sigh*
Stupid weather. I’m supposed to go to the park for a play date! Go rain elsewhere!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the picture. Let me know what you think below!
(c) 2013. All rights reserved.
Winter in Iowa
Snow Cat (Photo credit: clickclique)
I’ve had it with winter. Specifically, I’ve had it with all the white crap Mother Nature keeps dumping on us. I nearly got stuck at work yesterday because the city does such a lousy job clearing the streets, and the same thing happened again today. After narrowly avoiding the embarrassment of having to ask my boss to give me a push, what happened? I came home and promptly got stuck in the mouth of my driveway, with the back end of my van sticking out into our very narrow street.
I was stuck so tight that after the kids and I tried to get out for about ten minutes, I went across the street and asked the neighbor for help (Seymour wasn’t home yet). It took the two of us a good half hour and maybe a little more to get my van free. The city I live in (yes, I know, it’s a small town, but that’s how we refer to our municipal government) doesn’t do any better when it comes to cleaning streets than the city I work in. So in short, I’ve had it with winter.
Now, don’t get me wrong. When the sun shines on newly fallen snow and it sparkles like a thousand diamonds, I love it as much as the next person. I appreciate the beauty of snow. However, I hate dealing with it. I hate driving in it. I hate shoveling it. I hate cleaning it off of my car.
But at times like these, I often think of a joke my dad shared with me once. It’s about winter in Iowa and, given the trials I’ve had with the snow today and the fact that it was three years ago today that I lost him, this seems like a good time to share it again. I’ve posted it before, but here it is again in all its snowy glory:
Top 10 Reasons You Should Be at Home Instead of on the Road
Well, the Class 3 Kill Storm arrived in the night and is even now shrieking outside my window with a passion even a banshee would envy (or possibly admire). Since I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades of getting to work today, I am snuggled up under my favorite down blanket while the boys play games and Seymour bakes Christmas cookies (I’m still sick – I have no business baking).
I’ve seen worse winter storms, but this one is truly nothing to sniff at. I braved the weather to make a quick trip to the grocery store for chili supplies and go juice with a side trip to the gas station to procure some go juice for the snow blower as well, and it’s fierce out there. I’m glad I decided to stay home today and not brave the weather all the way to work and back. I’m even more glad that Seymour was able to turn around safely and make it back home after the snow plow he was following got stuck. For the record, that was the third one this morning – two others went in the ditch just outside of town early this morning and the accident shut down the highway for a while.
Fall thoughts
leflore marching band (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fall, despite being the herald of winter, is easily my favorite season. And why not? There’s so much to love: hot apple cider, marching band season, beautiful scenery, not to mention all things pumpkin. I could go on and on.
There’s always a day in September when it begins. The air is a little cooler, the walk to school a little more brisk. Mornings like this hold a special kind of beauty. The sky seems just a little more blue when the leaves are changing, and the brightness of the sky intensifies the crimson and gold of the leaves.
Remember
The sky is a beautiful blue today. Here and there I can see a wisp of cloud stretched out like gauze. The sun is shining, there is a bit of a breeze, and the humidity is down, keeping the 90° temperatures bearable and keeping my kids in school all day.
My kids, now there’s a thought. Today is so much like another September Tuesday that it’s really quite eerie, only I was the kid then. I was the one getting ready to head off to school that Tuesday morning, under skies that were just as blue, with clouds that were just as gauzy and sun that shone just as brightly.
Phlog along, folks!
The beautiful, if shallow, Upper Iowa River
Photo by Kay Kauffman
Once again, it’s Friday. Once again, it’s been a crazy week. Did I say crazy? I think maybe cray-zay might suit a little better. It all started Sunday. Sunday began the first-ever Kauffman Family Camping Extravaganza. Our adventure did not exactly get off to an auspicious start. For one thing, Seymour wanted to leave our house by 10:00 a.m. as the campground we were heading to was three hours away. His parents were going to go with us, but they live a good hour and a half south of us, so we couldn’t leave till they arrived at our house, and they were late. Seymour’s mama wasn’t feeling well, so his papa let her sleep in a little late and it was nearly noon by the time they made it to our house. I think we pulled out of our driveway somewhere around 12:30 p.m.
About an hour or so into the trip, possibly a little more, one of the tires on our camper blew out in spectacular fashion. There was no fixing this tire – it was in pieces all over the road. I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn’t think of it at the time. And apparently campers don’t come with spares standard the way cars do, but Seymour is a smart one and bought one when he picked up the camper, so he got the tire changed and we were soon back on the road.
I’m baa-aack…
…and I think I need a vacation from my vacation. Please excuse me while I go collapse into bed and sleep for a week.
(c) 2012. All rights reserved.
A short farewell, but not really
Are you confused yet? Worry not. What I mean is, I’ll be gone for a few days. After the week we’ve had, the fam and I need some time away from it all, so we’ve loaded up the trailer and we’re heading for the hills. It’s our first-ever family camping trip, something we’ve been planning for months and looking forward to since last fall. It will be four glorious days and three marvelous nights with no electronics, no diapers, no formula, no baby food, and somewhat less whining than normal as Cricket and Thumper will be staying with the world’s best ex-wife. Once they’re potty-trained, they can start coming with us but until then, I’m looking forward to a few days without diaper duty.
I plan to do a little fishing, a little writing, a little marshmallow-roasting, and have an all-around awesome time with my family. This week’s events served as a reminder of just how important family is. I love my family so very much and I am really looking forward to this time with them.
In the meantime, I’ve scheduled a few posts to tide you all over till I get back. Have a great week!
(c) 2012. All rights reserved.
Summer lovin’
Ah, summer. It is June, after all. How the heck that happened, I’ll never know. I could swear that only yesterday it was January. Anyway, Kristen Lamb shared summertime memories of her youth in a post this afternoon and it made me smile. I remembered some of the same years she described, but I remembered them through the eyes of a child instead of the eyes of a young woman. Sure, by the time I was five, the Russians were no longer our enemies, but I still remember slip ‘n’ slides, spending more time outside than in, and never locking our doors. Ever.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 