I’ve spent the weekend trying to kick a terrible cold to the curb. It doesn’t help that it’s been terribly cold outside as well. We had our first snow of the season on Friday, and I really could have done without it. The kitties seem to agree with me:
George is not amused. Mr. Fluffy demands a return to warmer times.
On the other hand, it was very pretty to look at from my blanket cocoon…
Have you encountered any of the vile whiteness yet? Are you ready for it?
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Winter, in all its monochrome glory, is now firmly entrenched in my backyard. Since my current view is something like the image to the left, I find myself longing for a bit of color.
What? There’s color in that there picture? Well of course there is! It’s just that it’s the color cast upon an ocean of snow by a setting sun, and it’s mostly blue. And white. And some sort of odd mixture of the two. It’s monochrome. And while it’s beautiful in its own way, it’s also boring.
I want color! Color that pops off the page, or better yet, color that pops out of the dreary winter landscape. I want color that makes my eyes sing and my heart soar, color that is so deep and rich and vibrant that it’s practically alive.
I’ve been trying to organize the scads of pictures that live on my computer and in so doing, I ran across these pretty, pretty pictures that I took last summer:
…It doesn’t show signs of stopping…
This week was full of weather, among other things. From the much-discussed polar vortex to today’s (tonight’s) ice storm, it’s been a frosty week.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
And, joy of joys, we’re supposed to get two inches of snow on top of all the ice. And I have to brave the weather tomorrow so that someone can come and look at my house. Here’s hoping they put in a reasonable offer.
(c) 2014. All rights reserved.
It snowed here yesterday. October is far too early for snow, in my opinion. If you ask me, the first – and last – snowfall should occur on December 24. It should hang around for Christmas, but then it needs to vamoose on December 26 so as not to interfere with my travel plans.
Clearly I live in the wrong state. Sadly, my dreams of wintering somewhere more tropical are not likely to come true any time soon.
This little burst of winter got me thinking, though, about winters past. I didn’t always hate the snow and the cold. When I was a kid, I used to relish them. I loved sledding and ice skating and building snow forts. I loved walking atop the frozen snow in my neighbors’ yards on my way to and from school, my stomach quivering as I wondered how long it would be before I plunged ankle-deep into a frosty hole.
Tonight on my drive home, I was able to see the lines on the road for the first time in 48 hours. It was an amazing feeling, knowing where I was at and where I was going. If only I could feel that kind of certainty all the time.
(c) 2013. All rights reserved.
Today has been a day of dashed expectations and…interesting results. If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ll know that today’s forecasted 30% chance of a trace to an inch of snow turned into yet another raging blizzard. We’re supposed to get five to nine inches now, we’re in a winter storm warning till noon tomorrow, and the wind has once again been blowing like a banshee. This time the speeds have been around 20-30 mph with gusts a little higher. I left work early after hearing how treacherous the roads were; it was a nightmare of a drive that necessitated some cookie therapy.
Once I got the boys up from their much-delayed naps, I started on supper. Since both the older kids are with their other parents today, I had to leave Cricket and Thumper to their own devices in the living room where they could be contained while I threw some chicken in a pot with some rice and cream of mushroom soup (delish, by the way). When I came back, I found them sneaking out of my book collection, phone and books in hand, and Thumper pantsless.
Hi there, folks! How’s it going? I hope you’re all keeping warm. Iowa is currently back in the deep freeze after a lovely thaw. I have to admit, that week of 40-degree days was lovely. I really do live in the wrong state when it comes to winter.
But that’s not what I meant to write about tonight. In the space of a couple hours earlier today, I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award twice! I was nominated for this award back in August and if you’d like to see what I had to say then, you can find the post here. I’ve spent the last hour or so trying to decide if I should do it again, but since two people were nice enough to nominate me, I decided, what the heck? Why not?
So, without further ado, many thanks to the lovely Tricia Drammeh and Maegan Provan, who were kind enough to nominate me. Tricia is a wonderful writer and it is a privilege to know her – if you’re not already following her, you should be! And Maegan is a new follower here, one I’m sure I will enjoy getting to know. Thank you for the love, ladies!
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.
I started this nice little post about this article I read this morning after following a link someone posted on Facebook and it was really very touching, so it made me want to write my very own little post on the same subject but then I got busy at work and didn’t have a chance to get back to it and now I have the time to work on it, but since I have neither the inclination nor the capacity to do so (although I suppose it could be argued that the coherence of this incredibly long run-on sentence means that I very well could write the dang post – I’m just too lazy to make my brain cells actually work), you’ll just have to wait till tomorrow to read it when hopefully the kids will won’t have a snow day and I can get some rest and kick the crap out of this stupid bug that has me in a choke-hold.
(c) 2012. All rights reserved.
Yay, I’m at home! I love being at home because it’s not work. I love my job, it’s just that I’m really loving my home-with-the-family time lately. Also, I’m tired tonight, so it’s a good thing I don’t have to be working right now. Not that I got much done earlier…
But since I’m feeling particularly whiny about the state of tax season this year, I thought I’d write a little more about my lovely ordeal with the Social Security Administration yesterday. I know I already said that I was thoroughly irritated with them by the time I got a real live person on the phone, and here’s why:
• 1:46 p.m. Between my kids, my dad, and the government, it’s been a headache-inducing sort of day, and mine’s a doozy.
• 1:55 p.m. It’s official: I really, REALLY hate calling numbers where you have to talk to a recording. Yes, that means you, U.S. Government.
• 1:56 p.m. “Our automated system can handle many tasks quickly.” No, no it can’t. Shut up and put me on the phone with an actual person already!
• 1:56 p.m. And shut up so I can complain aloud to my coworkers!
• 1:57 p.m. AAARRRGGHH! IT WON’T SHUT UP!!! SHOOT ME NOW!
• 2:02 p.m. “Please say and spell your mother’s maiden name. If you don’t know what it is, just say none.” Seriously? Who doesn’t know that?
• 2:02 p.m. Yay! Hold music! THANK GOD!
• 2:05 p.m. Okay, so this hold music really, really sucks, but at least it’s less annoying than the stupid recording I was talking to a few minutes ago.
• 2:06 p.m. I nearly screamed at the stupid recording when it didn’t understand my name. It’s a freaking letter! It’s not that complicated!
• 2:23 p.m. But I don’t want to paper file my return! I think I’ll try to e-file it again (for the fourth time). Maybe this time it won’t be rejected.
• 2:42 p.m. I can hope, anyway. I really, really hope it won’t be rejected this time. *crosses fingers*
Yeah, my return was rejected. Again. But at least this time I think I know why, and it has something to do with the info I dug up last night that I didn’t know about before, so maybe tomorrow when Randy goes over things again, he’ll be able to fix it and then we can e-file our return and it won’t be rejected and we can get our refund so that we can start doing things around the house again and perhaps I can stop writing in hugely long run-on sentences or maybe not but perhaps.
Also, it’s really cold in here. Again. Like it’s been all the rest of this God-forsaken winter. I can’t wait till June. On the other hand, I saw this really great Heart of the City strip tonight:
Aunt Melissa sent it home with me for Greg. He got a real bang out of it.
And now, off to bed!
(c) 2010. All rights reserved.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 