...somebody call me when spring arrives, will you?
We have a Winter Storm Warning from the weatherman. The city officials here have declared a Level 2 Snow Emergency on the road conditions. (LEVEL 2: Roadways are hazardous with blowing and drifting snow. Roads may also be very icy. Only those who feel it is necessary to drive should be out on the roads. Contact your employer to see if you should report to work. Motorists should use extreme caution.) Schools are closed, and I'm off of work for today.
I haven't ventured outside yet, and have no plans on doing so today. The picture below shows the view from my front door.
The worst thing is that my older son starts his spring break from college today and is planning on driving home in this weather this afternoon. As you can imagine, I am concerned.
Our street is out there somewhere. The plows haven't been through here yet to make a path.
A warm-up is predicted for the beginning of next week (along with a lot of rain and the usual seasonal flooding as all of this snow melts.)
My neighbor from across the street is out clearing our driveway. I can hear the noise of the Bobcat running out there. Bless his heart.
I think I'll wrap up in an afghan with a cup of tea and look at my Gurney's Seed Catalog that came in the mail this week. After all spring is just twenty-three days away, right?
The diamonds rained down and stuck to the trees. The people stayed inside, afraid of the freeze,
but the very next day when the diamond rains were done, the people marveled at the trees, sparkling in the sun.
It's true what they say, "All that glitters is not gold," but it appears to me, everything that is glittering here is very, very cold!!
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The day after the freezing rain we had, it looked like our town had been magically transformed. The sun was shining and making everything sparkle and shine. The tree branches, coated with a thick layer of ice, were amazingly beautiful. I tried to take pictures, but these photos don't do the way it looked justice--not even close. So the white and reflecting light you see on the tree branches and limbs here is all ice.
Apologies to anyone reading this who is tired of seeing icicles. Believe me, you can't be nearly as tired of them as I am. I'd gladly take pictures of flowers for you if there were any flowers to be seen. I hope you all have a good weekend. The weather man is predicting another round of ice and snow, perhaps in significant amounts, for us here in the next few days.
It was kind of strange at work this past week. The warmer temperatures melted ice and snow rapidly on the roof of our building which caused several leaks in the ceiling of my office and out in the hallway. I worked to the sound of constantly dripping water hitting buckets and wastebaskets around me (which for a while advanced to a steady stream as if a faucet were running).
On another day, I put a new ink cartridge in the printer in my office, but the printer refused to recognize that it was there. It just kept telling me to install a new cartridge even though I already had. I did all the troubleshooting I knew to do, but nothing worked. I called in the computer tech guy for the library who tried all the same things that I had tried--none of which worked for him either. After doing some research and checking things out thoroughly, he decided that a new printer was in order. He shopped around to find the best deals and ended up ordering me not one new printer, but two! He ordered one that is designed to handle the heavier card stock weight paper that I use for bookmarks, business cards, and name tags and another that is a laser printer for higher quality printing jobs like brochures and such.
The next day at work, the hard drive on my computer failed--crashed for no reason at all that we knew about. All of my work on that computer is backed up by another drive, fortunately. Still, it meant I would be unable to use my computer to do anything until a new hard drive could be purchased and installed. I spent the rest of that day going through and cleaning out some old files (of the paper variety) in the file cabinet. However, almost all of the work I do with my job involves using the computer, so I was rapidly running out of things to keep me busy. The director, knowing how much of my job requires the use of a computer and knowing the new hard drive would probably not be installed until Monday, generously gave me the day off on Friday telling me that I deserved it anyway! Well, he didn't have to tell me twice!
So Friday morning greeted me with this pretty sunrise filled with yellows and golds, blues and purples and pinks.
In the morning I got lots of chores done around the house and ran some errands around town. In the afternoon it had warmed up to 49 degrees and the sun was shining. I couldn't resist going for a walk in the park even if it was a little on the chilly side. Actually, the temperature by itself didn't feel too bad, but the wind was biting and relentless, so it turned out to be a very cold walk in spite of the sun. I was glad that I went, though. The fresh air and sunlight did me good.
As you can see looking down our street, much of the snow has melted except for the places where it was left in big piles from the plow going through.
Perhaps you can tell a little bit about how much the wind was blowing by this picture I took of a flag in one of my neighbor's yards. It was really noisy, flapping away at the top of the pole.
Because of the melting snow, and because the ground is still mostly frozen, there were lots of puddles around where the water couldn't soak into the earth below. I liked the way this picture came out with the flag and stop sign both reflected in the puddle by the side of the road. Can you see them there?
I liked the reflections of the tree branches and the blue sky in this one.
The quality of this picture isn't great, but I still liked the way the sun managed to toss those red and purple streaks into it to surprise me. I didn't see those colors when I snapped the shot. It was a nice change from the black and grey and white and brown.
There were many broken tree branches lying on the ground under the trees in the park along with the puddles and mud.
A tree had been cut down in the park recently. The remnants of the trunk were lying neatly on the ground. I don't know what the orange numbers painted on the ends mean.
It's a little early for the softball and baseball fields to be put to use yet. There is still snow on part of this softball field.
In just a few short weeks, the trees lined up along this street will burst forth in pinks and whites in a flowery shout to spring.
Then they will look something like this,
and these trees which are now hiding behind this huge pile of dirty snow...
will soon look like this!! I can't wait!
On the walk home, I am always amused by this particular stretch of the sidewalk. Someone went to all the work of putting in some new sidewalk blocks, but apparently no one told the cat that they weren't to be walked upon until they were dry and hardened. I just love these little paw prints nonchalantly stepping along, etched into the sidewalk, and greeting me and all others who pass here. In my mind, I can almost feel a little furry head rubbing against my leg and hear a contented purring when I walk by here.
The weather man is predicting a wintry mix of snow and freezing rain and a possible chance of an ice storm for us here tonight and tomorrow. I'm so glad circumstances fell into place so that I was able to take that walk in the park yesterday.
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Lord, for a helpful coworker and generous boss, for the much-needed reprieve from winter and cabin fever, (even if it turns out to be short-lived), for colors and reflections, for the promise of spring, and for the little cat tracks left behind from the past that make me smile whenever I see them, please let me be truly grateful.
On Sunday this past weekend, we traveled to the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio to hear my son and his girlfriend play with the Toledo Youth Orchestra. There is a lovely theater within the museum known as the Peristyle where they play. My husband’s mother and stepfather joined us there for the concert.
Before the concert started, we had some time to spare, so we wandered around the museum to look at some of the exhibits. No signs were posted saying that taking photographs was prohibited. I know some museums don’t allow this while others have no rules against it. I thought I’d take a few pictures and see if anyone tried to stop me. (Sometimes it is easier to just apologize later rather than to ask permission beforehand.) :-D
I took three or four pictures of some pieces that I particularly liked, then we came to this painting which is one of my husband’s favorites at the museum.
It is huge. It covers a whole wall, and you need to stand a good distance away from it to be able to really appreciate the portrait. Up close, it just looks like a mish mash of circles and dots and lines. Anyway, because it is my husband’s favorite, I wanted to take a picture of it, and I did.
Then a little old man in a suit, one of the museum guards, came and told me that taking pictures was not allowed in the museum and that I had to stop. I put my camera away, because I was afraid he might confiscate it if I didn’t!!
I don’t know the name of this painting or the artist who created it. I was going to go up and look at the sign next to it to find out, but the little old man scowled at me as I headed in that direction, so I decided it would be best if I move along instead.
I don’t really understand why they have that no photography rule, anyway. Experiencing the art in person is nothing like seeing a photo of it, in my opinion. If you search the images on the internet for the museum, you will find lots of others who have taken pictures of the artwork there besides me. The museum’s website also has numerous photos of the art on display there.
Oh well, back to the concert. I WAS allowed to use my camera to make videos of the musical performance, at least. (Well, no one stopped me from doing it, in any case!).
The students did a wonderful job. The music was lovely and was played very well. You can listen to "Danse Bacchanale" below if you like classical music and you’d like to hear how the concert went.
My son is playing the bass on the right side as you look at the stage, but he’s in the back and hard to see. His girlfriend who plays violin is clear over on the far left side corner in front, so you can see her if you look for her (although not very clearly due to the poor quality of both my camera and my lack of skills with the camera). Her parents came to the concert and sat with us too, along with my in-laws.
After the concert, my son, my husband, my in-laws, and I went out to eat. On the ride between the concert and the restaurant, I thought the sky looked pretty, so I snapped a picture.
We went to a sports bar restaurant called Ralphie’s. I was amused by what my son ordered from the menu. Sometimes he is a bottomless pit, and it amazes me how much he can eat.
My mother would have said, “Let him eat. He’s a growing boy.” This is indeed true. He seems taller nearly every day that I look at him.
He had a big plate of ribs that came with a huge serving of French fries and baked beans on the side. Then while the rest of us were full from the dinner and declined ordering dessert, he ordered up the biggest ice cream dessert I had seen for quite a while. It had layers of crushed Oreo cookies, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and whipped cream with a cherry on top. It was a real masterpiece.
On the car ride home, my son stretched out in the back seat of the van and said, “I worked up quite an appetite doing all that performing. Now, I’m just going to sit back here and do some digesting.” I guess he must have finally felt full!
Not that this will come as a big surprise to anyone, but we have had more snow here since last time I posted. I'm waving a white flag and crying, "UNCLE!!" but no one seems to be hearing me. Wrap up in an afghan and sip some hot cocoa or tea while you read this post, because you're going to need it to keep you warm.
We are running out of places to pile the snow...
in the back yard,
in the front yard,
next to the driveway,
off the sidewalk out front,
and along our street.
This interesting mix of snow and ice is in the process of sliding off the awning above our side door.
Oh, did someone say, "ice"? Yes, we still have our icicles. They are getting bigger every day. They are along the front of the house,
and, of course, they are still along the back of our house and in front of my kitchen windows as if they are bars on the windows of an ice jail.
Under that pile of snow below is our air conditioner. I don't think we'll be needing it for a while yet.
I took pictures of the ice on the back of the house at different times of the day and from different angles. No matter which way you look at it, it is still cold!
I tried to show how long some of the icicles were along the back of the house, but they didn't show up very well against the white siding in the pictures. When my son and his girlfriend came home, they couldn't resist the temptation to knock down some of the icicles. They managed to get a couple of the longer icicles down, mostly intact. These pictures show a little better just how big the icicles had gotten before the kids broke them off the gutter.
My son thought they ought to have a sword fight with them, but his girlfriend and I nixed the idea.
This picture above I took accidentally. I didn't know the camera was still on, and I must have bumped the shutter button. When I saw it on the camera later, it made me laugh. Yes, my son is out there wearing shorts with the temperature in the teens. Please don't report me to child services as a bad mother. The boy does own pants, several pairs, as a matter of fact. He had shorts on because he just got home from running at the Y. Did I tell him to put on pants? Well, yes, of course, I did. You can see how well he listened. What can I say? He is sixteen years old. He was only outside in the shorts long enough to knock some icicles down and pose for these pictures, fortunately. At least he has on a hoodie and some gloves. The way he is smiling, I don't think he is suffering too much from the cold.
I, however, could use a little sunshine, some warmth, some light, and some bright colors. If you have any of those things to spare, could you please send some my way?
Are You My Mother?
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I would say this is a VERY patient dog. Just the term "milk pants" made me
laugh, but to see a dog wearing a pair and to see why, well...you can watch
and...
