Time Marches on

I am amazed that it is March already. The snow is melting, and everyone is talking about what to do for Easter. The backyard is rising from the snow. We took the mower in for a spring tune up and sharpening. I have filled a 35 gallon can with pine cones which gathered in the yard over the winter. Bloomsday is coming soon. Where does the time go? I guess some of it still goes skiing, which the kids will be doing until the end of the month. Track has started at the high school. At the elementary school, they wait until the Bloomsday Training Club is done, and sensibly start at the beginning of May. The school district has decided what to do about that extra week of vacation in May. They have taken away our Good Friday holiday and added three days at the end of school in June. I have yet to hear if the finals schedule has been amended to reflect the new last day of school. If the high school kids have finals before those last three days, the teachers will be spending ceremonial time in the classroom facing very few students. My children, for example will be off visiting their cousins to celebrate a graduation or two and watch a dance recital. (I hear someone will be moving up to middle school, as well as the one going off to the big world of adulthood.)

It is good to see the sun spending more time in the sky each day, although that does not always translate to warmer days. At least this one snowbank is melting in the warm sunshine.Last night we dipped into the twenties again, just to remind us that it is still winter for two more weeks.

I'm off to California

I am not taking the banjo on my knee. Southwest frowns on such behavior. I might take tunes in the form of an iPod instead.

Tomorrow morning early, I set off for the airport, to fly to another airport to meet my sister. From there we fly to yet another airport close to where we grew up. Somehow, we will wend our way to our family home to spend the weekend grouping and boxing and if we are lucky removing things from the premesis.

Personally, I am looking forward to what my brothers reported to be warm sunny days with windows open. We have not had any of those here for a long while. I drove with the window open in the car today, only because the heater was blasting at the same time. Spring is on the way, but it will be a while before all the piles of snow melt and the air really feels warm again.

An uneventful week, the way I like them

Another week of school slipped by without much notice. I like weeks of school like that. They did not seem to be of sufficient significance to mention until we had a week without the benefit of formal education. These weeks are much better than the ones where children hang on radio announcements and internet postings to see if they even need to think of the place. It was warmer, so things started to melt out a bit. We had a refresher of the snow on Friday night, but not enough to make driving difficult. That which landed on the road is gone already. That which fell on existing snow will be with us for a while, but not long. Spring is on the way.

We did celebrate a birthday on Tuesday by going out to dinner and on Friday by hitting the mall on a day off from school. A good time was had by all. I did not take pictures at dinner. The celebrating child was happy that candles were not in evidence when her dessert arrived. That was not my fault, they forgot what I told them when I arrived.

Wednesday morning found me ice skating with a large congregation of fourth graders. It was not enough to take the four classes from my son's school. We were joined by a similar number of fourth graders from one of the other schools in our district. I am better on ice skates than snow. I managed to keep my feet under me the whole time, and assist some of the kids in making turns around the rink.

Next weekend I head for California to finish some of what my brothers are starting this weekend. Of couse, I might not be out watching men in tights, but I might find time to move a box or two while I am there. For the moment, I am still looking at snow out my window. Not the falling kind, but the still melting away kind.

Why is there snow?

Early Saturday morning, I hiked up the hill to work as a gate judge at the local ski race. They must be desperate for volunteers if they let me do it. This is the view down the hill when I started. The boys gates are on the right and the girls are on the left of the ribbon. At times this ribbon blew all the way over to the red gate. It went pretty far the other way too. This is the view up the hill. Significant in the picture are the two ski poles. Note that they are both the same size. That is no longer the case. They and I had an accident on Sunday, and one of them bent and broke when I sat on it as I slid down the hill.
The hill is steep here. I get to stand on it and not fall off.
It is windy as well as foggy. The weather makes pretty formations on the orange netting which keeps skiers from falling off the course. That is bright orange netting.
For about 3 minutes, I could see more than a few feet in front of me. I did not realize how far up the hill I had hiked.
Then it all closed in again.

Bill Cosby once asked, "Why is there air?" The answer was to fill up basketballs and footballs and such. Skiing is only one of the available uses for snow. The brief presentation below documents just what a Mom gets when she spends the day up on the ski hill waiting for her son to go by in the fog. And the wind. And the snow. Of course there was snow. We could not do this without snow.

Snow is to remove from the roof.

Snow is to make trees pretty. Like something out of Dr. Seuss.

Some of my neighbors use snow to keep people from stealing their cars. There is a bit of a downside to using snow as a theft deterrent. The owner loses some of the value of the vehicle at the same time. Of course, some of these do not move over the summer either. Maybe they should donate them.

School is a good thing

We have experienced varying amounts of snow over the past week. Some days, the entire deck is gone, and some days we just received a dusting. Travel in and out of the neighborhood was greatly facilitated when the plows showed up Thursday, and even more so on Saturday when they removed the slush created by deicing work on Saturday. The bus drivers were brave enough to come back out today.Some neighbors have undertaken the ever so fun job of clearing snow from the roof, in the interest of preventing a collapse. Most of our neighbors are taking a wait and see attitude toward the multitude of flakes up there.We feel that so long as these formations keep showing up at the edge of the roof, we are probably losing more than we are gaining most days. There are advantages to heat loss due to poor insulation. We have discussed whether insulating is worth the extra work it would cause in snow removal. Lost heat costs a little here and there, but the risk of falling off the roof can cost even more. We are waiting to make that decision until warmer weather arrives. Maybe around August. This transplant from the golden state seems to have collected his share of icicles.All the good smells and squirrels to chase and cats to warn away are out by the back fence. We have a good trail going that way now, so my Shadow is able to do her job, even with snow on the ground. Webbed feet and fur between the toes help with navigation and comfort.Saturday night, we went to a symphony concert. Up there on the balcony, my son found a likeness of his cousin. We were busy burning off extra steam during intermission, which enabled us to sit relatively still during the second half, which was very entertaining.School is so good, in fact, I let both children attend classes today. It was nice of the district to run busses and open the buildings for the first time in a week. I am hoping to send them back tomorrow as well. Maybe even without taking any more siginficant breaks for the next couple of months.