Green tootsies

I stepped outside to refill the hummingbird feeder and decide to quick mow the front lawn…barefoot.  So now, my tootsies are green and black even after being washed.  Oh well, it will wear off.

I am surprised at how dry parts of the yard were in spite of the nasty t-storm we had this morning and all the rain that we've had this spring.  It's been a really, really wet spring so far.  The ground squishes when you walk on it.  *lol* 

I eventually did put some shoes on when walking on the stupid tree saplings started to hurt too much.  I swear the 5 trees in my yard could reforest the Sahara.  *lol*

Poem

MINNESOTA  POEM


IT'S WINTER IN MINNESOTA

AND THE GENTLE BREEZES BLOW

SEVENTY MILES AN HOUR

AT THIRTY-FIVE BELOW



OH HOW I LOVE  MINNESOTA

WHEN THE SNOW'S UP TO YOUR BUTT

YOU TAKE A BREATH OF WINTER AIR

AND YOUR NOSE GETS FROZEN SHUT



YES, THE WEATHER HERE IS WONDERFUL

SO I GUESS I'LL HANG AROUND

I COULD NEVER LEAVE  MINNESOTA

CAUSE I'M FROZEN TO THE GROUND!!

Going to the Post Office.... I don't think so!

Here is the bottom of the steps


Looking out toward the van...there was a path yesterday.





Just for kicks a pic of the backyard


With a hurt back and hip, I decided that I would just go back inside and wait until tomorrow to shovel. I only had 30 minutes before the Post Office closed. That is not enough time to shovel, shower and finish up the packages that I need to mail.

My porch and yard today

YIPPEE!!!!





Timeline:

9 am - no snow
2 pm - snow
4 pm - melting

I'm guessing it will be gone by morning. I just hope it's a preview of more to come :)

I hate Spring!!

I know many people love it, but not me. My normal reason is because of the way the wet weather makes me feel. Wet weather is AWFUL for my arthritis and fibro. I have another reason which this season stands out worse than others.

• mud
• water puddles
• dog doo doo
  
• white carpet
• dogs
• towels
• laundry

Care to guess why I don't like this time of year? I have to wipe the dogs feet to avoid getting all sorts of unpleasant things on the white carpet, which was put in by the previous residents who obviously did NOT have dogs. I wish I could teach my dogs how to wipe their own feet :) They aren't that smart.

Oh, I have similar feelings about Fall as well. I don't like wet weather EVER.

The rivers are thawing and rising. No serious flooding in the area close to me yet, but it won't be long before the fields are under water again. I was noticing some pretty big junks of ice on the Red River as we crossed today. Since the silly thing runs north, we may be in for some flooding, but I'm hopeful that our lack of snow will help us avoid it. Looks like my hopefulness is going to win out. Just found an article from an area paper that agrees with me. Yippie!!!! Unfortunately, some people are dealing with flash floods due to ice jams.

It's been 10 years this spring since the last major flood in this area. That was one awful Spring. I remember the devestation that cause. Looks like Uncle Sam has finally come through with the final funding to finish the dike. The thing is 97% complete. With this funding, it will be finished by Sept.

Well time to close with a quote or two :)

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
~~~Abraham Lincoln

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.
~~~Albert Einstein

Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
~~~Albert Schweitzer: Civilization and Ethics, 1949

Tina made me do it :)

Okay, my friend Tina told me to blog so here it is. If you are bored, blame Tina :)

Actually, I keep meaning to blog, but get distracted. I truly didn't mean for it to be so long between posts. I also have to update my other blog with the book study. I am very BAD about maintaining my blogs :(

Weather:
I hate the up & down of the temps. We go between 0° and 40°. We had maybe a week's worth of subzero night temps which is waaaayyyy less than normal for this time of year. Usually during Hunting Season we are in the teens with subzero's at night. This has made for a very wet fall. Which for me makes it a painful fall. Arthritis and Fibromyalgia don't like wet weather. I wish it would hurry up and get cold and stay there until Summer. *lol*

Holidays:
After listening to my friends fuss about:

• what they are buying or not buying
• what relative they are visiting or not
• to keep this tradition or start a new one
• going into debt
• to celebrate religiously or not
• gaining weight because they can't refuse holiday food
• the traffic and malls
• interfering in-laws or other relatives
  

I'm so glad that we are very low key around here these days. We have decided upon having ham and may actually have it on the 25th this year. We've never been big on celebrating on the 25th. It has depended on travel plans, ours and other family members. We aren't doing much in the way of gifts. I told kiddo I would spend about $100 on him and he's told me what he wants. He'll probably be buying me a new CD. Although the latest Smallville has dropped in price so he may get me that. Or I may help him buy me that :) I believe my sister and I are going in on a gift for mom. I have to check back with her on that one.

Truthfully, I'm more concerned about what I'm going to get my son for his 16th birthday next month (Jan 25th). I want to do something special. He's not getting his driver's license until he's 18 so I would like to do something special. I'm stumped and would welcome any suggestions. I can't believe my baby is going to be 16. It's just hit me lately how soon he's going to be an adult. WOW!!! Where did time go!?!?

Quotes for today:

"I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane."
- Ray Bradbury

"What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books."
- Thomas Carlyle

"The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others."
- Bertrand Russell

My books need to learn to be quiet so I can sleep at night.

They keep calling me to pick them up. I read a while to quiet them, but as soon as I put them down they start calling my name again. I stayed up until 5am reading...again. It's becoming a habit that I am even doing on nights where I work the next day. I really need to learn to stop at a decent hour. Luck for me that today was just a day fun. I was blessed with the opportunity to meet my family for lunch (sisters and nieces) and to go shopping.

I've read about 30 or so books this year alone. Since I went back to work last August I have been reading like crazy. I used to read constantly, but lost the habit for a few years. I seemed to have picked it up again with a vengenace. I am finding myself craving time to read and ignoring food, sleep and people just to read. Can you read too much in one day? lol

I'm linking the latest on the floods.
NWS expects crest today

Something I learned back in '97 was that the Red River and many smaller rivers run north up here. That was so foreign to me as they never mentioned that could happen in school.
Floodwaters push north

I agree with Mike Jacobs opinion article linked here.
2006 brings a different kind of flood
He's so right about the atmosphere and the gov't. It's nice to see that something was learned from the previuos disaster. I can't help but hope that those rebuilding New Orleans are as affective.

Spring flooding is here

Spring is here...and so are the flood waters. I work in Grand Forks and had a fun time finding a road I could travel to get to work todaybacktracking. . Roads and bridges are closed all around me. I finally did find one route I could take after a lot of backtracking. My hour commute turned into an hour and a HALF commute. What a headache! The job is almost not worth it, but I transfer at the end of the week so I'm trying to finish out my last couple of shifts. Thank goodness coming home was easier since I knew the route and didn't have to backtrack.

I'm linking a website about the flooding. Maybe take a look at the photos.

Water over the bridge