The lamb's demise

So much for March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb. It appears the lion that came in must have eaten the lamb with the weather we've received on the last day of the month. More of a day that Eeyore would be comfortable in and a Monday as well. So the weather turned out to be some snow and some rain, then some more snow none of which accumulated to anything. So I went abouts my day at work and doing a few things on the computer this evening. We received a nice email from Taylor catching us up with what she's been doing in Austria and little about her and friend's trip to London, that helped cheer up a dreary evening. Carol made chili for supper a great choice on a day like this.

This blog is Patches certified
to be PC (Particular to Cats)

Pretty good weekend

Did a lot of the digital stuff this weekend. E-mails, blogs, a newsletter, a little computer art, burn some year old or older photo files to CD, updated my family website and looked into helping someone set up a simple website for their business. Swapped some emails with Ian. Even setup and uploaded a couple of slides for the library to be run on our town's cable station event announcements which run between meeting videos. Read some world news stuff online and even tried to read and understand one of our Presidential candidate's plans for health care (I need treatment after that!). Did a 3-mile walk each day, today's with Carol. Last night we watched our weekend Netfilx movie, No Country for Old Men. We liked it, rather violent, the dialogue was interesting but we were confused by what we considered loose ends and during our walk today we discussed those parts quite a bit. We did our regular Sunday visit over to Lois and Jim's. Came home and watched some of the NASCAR race before and after our walk. If I can get a little reading in before bedtime I'll consider it a pretty good weekend.

Today's blog is Patches certified for
sustainable sniffing.

All over the map

So getting back to the past week in general, it began with working my way through the newsletter daze of which I still have a few edits to make to the second of the two publications I do for the month. Easter Sunday I was able to escape long enough for Carol and I to enjoy a family get together at my sister Kathy's place for dinner. Jay and Lindsey were there as were Jimmy and Suzy. Jay had done most of the cooking, My brother David, wife Carolyn and their kids Jen, Missy and Danny. Yes, the Bunnycake made it's yearly appearance thanks to my Mom... after dinner it was promptly dispatched as dessert - one tasty bunny there. After getting home from Kathy's Carol and I very happy to be greeted by an email from Ian detailing his trip to the South Island of New Zealand. He and the other students had traveled to study the ecology there and take a short spring break. Internet access wasn't very handy for him so there was over two weeks without hearing from him. He made up for it with this email - for those of you privy I've posted it on the webpage you may have a link to, check it out, he had quite a time there. We haven't heard from Taylor since her group went on their trip and spring break, Carol will be sending her an email.

Starting to get into the the book I've been reading, Look to Windward by Iain Banks. Far into the future and the galaxy for that matter with beings of many types including humans. Lots of background story building so far. I have my ups and downs about how I like the story or not but in general it's a good read.

Lately I seem to be taking a fancy to an occasional glass of wine. If this continues I may have to figure out what's a good wine and what to avoid. It's definitely a contrast to my feelings about my two favorite beverages, coffee and beer in that I don't enjoy a hint of fruit in either. This just in, wine is... grapes. At this point I'll take it slow.

Work at the office began on the slow side this week but by Wednesday I was busier than a one-armed paper hanger. I sometimes marvel that as basic as my job should be, over the length of time I've been a graphic designer at the place I work new things that someone needs me to do pop up and I have to take a different twist to get the job done. There were several things that fell into that category, some will carry over into next week.

Right now I'm looking forward to a possible upturn in temperatures for the coming week, I'll try not to get my hopes up, still have more than a month to go for the arrival of May.

Weather, Weather, go away...

... darken my door on a December day.

We received another 6 inches of snow today. I'm tried of taking pictures of our snow ladened yard so here's a picture of the parking lot at the office from near my cozy cubical, about 10 in the morning. Sort of reflects my mood this time of the year. Other than today's weather I've had a pretty good week. Tomorrow I'll write a upbeat blog about the week past.

Two years of online rambling

Got to thinking that I began blogging in March of 2006 so I checked back for the date of my first blog, lo and behold... today is the exact 2nd Anniversary of just a little is enough! Feel free to click on the comments links to offer congratulations and what you like or don't like about the blog's 196 postings. Suggestions welcomed. In reviewing the blogs of the past two Marches I see I missed mentioning my Dad's birthday but it's good enough to repeat so click here to visit it again as well as last St. Patrick's Day greeting and to view a wonderful photo of a pint of Guinness. Speaking of which, Carol made a traditional Irish meal for the holiday dinner. Corned beef and cabbage. I added a bottle of Guinness to go with it. The entire meal was worth every calorie.

Reading enough?

Hardly... Finally finished reading the Oct/Nov 2007 issue of Asimov's. I don't mean to make it sound like a chore but I hate being so many issues behind while I have several books I'd like to be reading. I enjoyed all eleven stories in this issue which included one written by Isaac Asimov, Nightfall, which followed a story, Night Calls by Robert Read, that shared a common element. A populated world in a solar system of several Suns which were about to go into eclipse so that the planet's population would experience night darkness that only their ancestors had encountered centuries before and the unknown psychological effects they were trying to deal with. Dark Integers by Greg Egan told of a few individuals who had been spending years of their lives keeping a civilization in a parallel universe from attacking our world (ignorant to this threat) thorough extremely advanced mathematics. The featured story is actually the first of a four part serial, Galaxy Blues by Allen M. Steel which is off to good start and will lure me to the next issue of Asimov's. It will have to wait, I'm going to read a book.

In the dark again during the dog days of winter

Seemed like extending Daylight Saving Time was an OK idea at the time - it being in the fall with the shortening daylight hours. Temperatures still on the mild side giving the daylight a reprieve I was apt to linger outside a little longer. Now we're in the dog days of winter and I feel like I'm grinding out each day until the month of May with it's green grass and leaves budding out on the trees. As the daylight was lengthening it was still dark after supper when I'd take the dogs out for exercise and on a clear night the stars were bright. Thorough the last couple of months I'd been tracking Mars as it's orbit this winter has brought it closer to Earth than it will be for the next twenty years. With DST upon us the dogs and I are out in daylight surrounded by old snow and not much appealing to look at. I can live with that part, what's really affected me negatively turns out to be the shift back to morning darkness. On work days we leave the house about 6 am. The morning daylight which gradually gained ground was a welcome improvement as we headed out for the day. Then DST arrived and plunged us into midwinter darkness for morning commute all over again. It's like a returning illness we can't shake. Who's bright idea was this anyway?

A here and there kind of weekend

Mixed bag for the weekend weather around these parts. Lots of rain yesterday with temps in the 50s and lots of sunshine today with temps around 20. Well it is March so it may be typical for this time of the year. Yesterday Carol and I visited my Mom, spent time talking during which my youngest sister Doreen and her daughter Deanna stopped by on Girl Scout Cookie delivery business. Which brought to mind that I had somehow managed not to have bought any GS cookies this year. Must have broken a streak of at least 20 years buying (and eating) those tasty things. After Doreen and Deanna left we headed out for a nice lunch at a local diner then returned to Mom's where I helped her cleanup her e-mail and we talked some more. Though I try to call regularly it's more pleasant to visit and catch up on things.

Deanna in Grammy's lap

Today it was hanging out at home broken up by our regular Sunday visit to Lois and Jim's for brunch. This week Lois prepared a cauliflower and shrimp chowder with fresh baked biscuits. Also, today was the first day of the new Daylight Savings Time which now begins two weeks earlier then it use to. Of course this slightly messes up my formula for keeping track of what time it is with Ian in New Zealand. Fortunately the mess up only lasts three weeks until NZ ends their DST on April 6th. Until then, briefly - subtract 7 hours from our time (EST) and that's what time it is in NZ...tomorrow, except we're on the same day from midnight to 7am our time here. Well, it's important to us. Speaking of Ian, he is presently on the South Island of NZ where they are conducting 3weeks of field studies and then they'll be on spring break for a few days where he'll be going to stay in St. Arnaud and do the Angelus Hut Loop in the Nelson Lakes National Park before going up to city of Nelson. We think internet access hasn't convenient so we're anxiously awaiting for his return to the Studies Centre to hear from him. Meanwhile Taylor is traveling around several Europe cities for her studies after which she and her friend will visit some other cities for their spring break. An additional little twist that ties into things here on Ledge Hill is that I recently found out our two neighbors we share this side of the hill with, their daughters who are each a year ahead in college of Ian have been in studies abroad. One is in Tanzania and the other recently returned from Australia. Makes my head spill thinking about all the experiences these young folk are going through.

No thunder to be heard, this time...

Another day, another storm. This one was the definition of wintry mix, some snow, some rain, some sleet, some freezing rain. The only thing we were missing was some thunder. Have you ever heard thunder in winter? If you live in northern snow accosted regions you may have experienced this. Though it's not that unusual I always think it a strange mix to have a pounding snow storm and amongst the howling winds and the snow whipping up against the windows to have the rumble of thunder and perhaps a dash of lightning. Quite the effect. During one of our recent snowstorms, in the morning no less, E'owyn started trying to squeeze her 60 lb terrier body under my desk while I was working with the computer. It being winter I didn't make an immediate connection to her behavior though concerned as to her distress until my ear picked up the rumble in the background of the storm. Obviously she's not much fun during a regular summer thunderstorm. Weird when against a perceived adversary she is a fierce representative of the the Airedale breed, throw out a little thunder and she'll try to crawl into shoebox. Now Patches is a different story (in too many ways to count). During such weather events he'll pretty much chill out watching the going ons around him. Imagine the fun we'd have living near an active volcano.

E'owyn and Patches in the back yard sitting
atop a frozen five foot snowdrift late this
afternoon after this morning's storm.

Blogging catch up

Been awhile since I last blogged. For me, writing a good blog isn't something I can do anytime. Many are just posting what might be happening, movies which is all well and good but my best usually happen during a run of regularly posted blogs and I have time to develop what I'm going on about. I don't expect this one to like that, just clearing the shelves of random and semi-recent things before the expiration date runs out.

Two weeks ago Carol and I went up north where she and her sisters organized a open-house 80th birthday celebration for their mother, Margaret. Coldest weekend I've experienced this winter, 20 below when we got up Saturday morning. Later in the day I helped Carol's brother, Greg, shovel off the roof of the camp, Sunday morning, Margaret's treat, we went out for breakfast at the local restaurant and in the afternoon was the birthday event which went very well. The surprise of the weekend was Greg coming from Texas for the festivities.

The open-house was held in the local school
gymnasium as family, friends and neighbors
gathered to wish Margaret a happy birthday
and visit with each other.

The family together (L-R):
Lois, Margaret, Carol, Elaine and Greg.

Back on the home front, Ian has been checking in regularly with e-mails about his activities in New Zealand. He is definitely making the most of his time there. We've heard from Taylor a couple of times as well while she's been in studying in Austria. She has been uploading pictures to a web photo site of what's she's been seeing. We enjoy looking at those.

For me work has been quite hectic and add that to keeping up with all the snow we are regularly getting has been keeping me very occupied. Also during this recent week to 10 days I've been in my newsletter daze which I finished up Wednesday night. Our most recent Netflix DVD was the Corpse Bride, a Tim Burton directed animated film. We liked it, definitely different. Tonight we have Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage. I finished reading the scifi book Crossover which I had the cover displayed here in the "What I'm reading" column. It was OK, a little light on action and substance. It's about a synthetic person, Cassandra, created to fight in wars. She's an experimental version who was developed with more intelligence that her predecessors and she eventually leaves for a life of her own on another planet but ends up involved with the situations there. It is the first of a series with two other books available. I may check the next one out some other time as the character and stories may filled out a little more to my liking but I have plenty more other books to read and I continue to be 4 issues behind reading the Asimov's. The next book I'll have to choose among authors Neal Asher, Orsen Scott Card, Larry Nevin or Iain Banks. I don't think I can go wrong with any of them.

Today we are waiting out another snowstorm which when all is said and done may leave us with another foot of snow. Once it lets up I'll get out the snowthrower and have at it. Since it's Saturday and we don't have to go anywhere we are just hunkering down until it's over with then clean it up. At least it's now March and we're down to almost 2 months of possible further snow. No surprise I've had enough winter and longing for mowing grass instead of blowing snow.