More nuisance snow

Another bad blog post title, but these bothersome little snows just won't stop! We got a few more inches last weekend, another inch last night, and right now we are getting what is supposed to be 2-4 more inches tonight. Little dribby drabby snows, but they keep coming. I don't think you can see in this photo that the snow is actually coming down, but it is, and it's 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, if we end up getting huge dumps of snow in March, I will be really sorry I complained about the little snows, but there have been so many! Where is our Colorado sunshine?

So today is February 22nd, and a Friday -- a fact which makes me very happy. The first two weeks of February went by quickly, what with parent/teacher conferences, various meetings, and Valentine's Day, which was pleasantly low-key. The kids celebrated at school (their last time), Rocket Boy and I had cards for each other (his loud, mine subtle, but both on kind of the same theme), he also produced two boxes of chocolate which were gone in a few days, and we had Chinese takeout for dinner with lots of leftovers. The kids had both February 15th (Friday) and February 18th (Monday) off, so I took those days off too. And on February 17th, Rocket Boy flew to Tucson for a job interview with Raytheon. He flew back late on February 20th, but before he left he'd already received an email saying they weren't going to hire him. Honestly, so rude. However, he got to visit Tucson, eat at his favorite restaurant there (Caruso's), and drive up Mt Lemmon, all on Raytheon's dime (which of course is my dime and yours, since Raytheon is basically entirely government-funded). Oh, whatever. He has another interview (in south Denver) on Tuesday.

Anyway, it was stressful having him gone, though I keep reminding myself that he may end up getting one of these jobs -- we still can't figure out what's going on with the job in St Louis -- and then he'll be gone all the time and I'll have to cope. It would be easier if I didn't have to (a) work, (b) drive Kid A back and forth to his special school, AND (c) keep the household running (OK, it would be even easier if I didn't have to do ANY of those things, but...). Next year Kid A will just go to regular school, so I might be able to handle (a) and (c) if there's no (b).

Whine, kvetch, complain. What else is going on? I am still reading happily, though not at the frantic pace of January. I've decided to take part in the Back to the Classics Challenge, and try to read 12 "classics," loosely defined, over the course of the year. I used to read classic novels, but don't do it much anymore, so I thought a little push would be good. I'm not actually registered in the challenge (because I don't want to fill my blog up with book reviews), so I won't win the prize, but I'm following all the rules. My January "classic" was The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, which I actually read to the kids (Rocket Boy's choice). That fits into category #8: Classic Novella (Any work of narrative fiction shorter than 250 pages).

In February I like to re-read books by Barbara Pym, which would in fact count as classics according to this site's definition, but I decided that my "classic" would instead be The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, which fits into category #1: 19th Century Classic (Any classic book originally published between 1800 and 1899). In fact, both books are novellas and both were published in the 19th century, but it doesn't matter. I enjoyed the experience of reading Pym, which is not to say that I really enjoyed the book itself, but it was memorable -- and surprisingly hard to get through (The Time Machine was easier). Both books, though, were thought-provoking, and have stayed in my mind more than most modern books I read. This is perhaps why they are considered classics. In fact, The Time Machine really bothered me -- the idea that we are not going to keep progressing, but rather that society will gradually degenerate and collapse. There are so many examples of it happening now, such as the demise of the free press, and the increasingly poor quality of manufactured items.

I don't know what March's classic is going to be. Possibly something from category #2: 20th Century Classic (Any classic book originally published between 1900 and 1969). I'm also planning to read a Presidential biography, so must allow time for that too. March is a long month, though, plenty of time for reading. Especially if we have a lot more snow.

Nuisance snow (and sledding)

I look at that post title and I feel ashamed of myself. We NEED snow; I shouldn't criticize it by calling it a nuisance. Is it just because I've gotten so old? Do I need to move to Tucson (at least for the winter)? I don't know if I'm that far gone, but it is true that I do not enjoy snow as much as I used to. It's attractive when it's falling, assuming one is snug at home with no need to go out to work, take children to school, pick up children from school, visit the grocery store, etc. And then it stops. When I was 30 and lived in an apartment, that meant it was time to go for a lovely walk in the new-fallen snow. And now that I am 58 and live in a house, it means that it is time to go out and shovel the walks so as not to be fined by the city. And then the ice forms, and the slush (technically I guess it's slush first and then ice). And unless you have a major extended warm-up soon after, the slush/ice problem goes on for days and days.

There are, however, benefits to snow, and I feel that it is important to make the most of those benefits. For me, there is the brief acknowledgement that snow is pretty, perhaps when I happen to look up and notice the mountains on my way home from walking the kids to school (the problem is that I am mostly looking at my feet, so as not to slip on the ice, so I do not see the beauty). For the children, the benefits include (1) cold wet stuff to throw at one's brother, (2) huge piles of cold wet stuff created by snowplows to climb on, (3) slippery stuff to slide on while walking to/from school (yes, they think ice is FUN), and of course (4) the transformation of a grassy hill into a sledding slope.

We had a decent (5-6 inches) snowfall on Wednesday, and it hasn't gotten above the 30s since then (in fact, for a few days it barely reached the 10s) which meant that today, Saturday, was Sledding Day! Of course, first it was Library Day, followed by a quick trip to the grocery store, and after lunch we watched a movie we'd gotten at the library. But around about 2:30 we made it to Scott Carpenter Park, which has a good sledding hill, and although the crowds had thinned, the snow was still good. It was actually very slick, but Kids A and B assured me it was better that way, faster. I wouldn't know -- I don't sled. I usually don't even go along these days, but I thought it would be fun to go today, and it was. (Though cold -- it's always freezing cold on top of that hill, and I didn't have a hat.)

Rocket Boy found our old inflatable sled in the basement and brought it along, and once it was blown up the kids wanted to play on it pretty much exclusively. In fact, they fought quite angrily over it. First Kid B grabbed it and rode it down the hill by himself, then they rode it together, then Kid A wanted a turn alone but Kid B grabbed it for himself again. They can get quite violent with each other, not to mention profane, and RB and I were a little embarrassed, particularly since most of the other kids on the hill were a lot younger than them. RB and I reminisced about when the boos were babies (see http://welcometoridgecrest.blogspot.com/2010/02/sledding.html for details). Nine years ago we got that sled! Nine years ago they wore little coats with hoods that made them look like elves! and now they're so big and not cute at all. Fortunately we still love them.

Made it to February

It always feels like such an accomplishment to reach February -- January lasts SOOO long and is so boring and so dreary. I actually know quite a few people who were born in January, and I always think that must have been nice for their parents, to have this gloomy month cheered up by a darling newborn baby to care for. This was kind of an odd January for me, in that I read almost constantly during it. In fact, my book list for 2019 already has 19 books on it (18 in January and one so far in February). I looked back at my book lists, which I started keeping in 1980, and I've never come anywhere close to reading 18 books in ANY month. Some of these were kids' books, and some were books I started reading in December or even November, but still. I mentioned this achievement to Rocket Boy and he said, "Must be escapism," which I thought was unfair. On the other hand, perhaps it was escapism. I had a great wish to escape January and I succeeded through books. Good books, though -- nonfiction, memoirs, serious fiction -- not just mysteries. I enjoyed myself.

It was a fairly warm month, although we did have a few little snows. Nuisance snows, as a meteorologist described them in a news article I read. Truly they were nuisances -- just enough snow to make it hard to get to work, and then by the next day enough was gone to leave wide swathes of ice everywhere, making it REALLY hard to get to work. I worked at home on some of the icy days, but I have a hard time getting anything done at home unless I have a very clear, do-able assignment. I realized the other day that I hadn't taken any photographs of any of the snows, possibly because of what a nuisance they were. So I hurried out before it got too dark and took a couple of pictures. See? Enough snow to cover the lawn and make a mess of everything else.

I'm trying to think of what else to say about January, now that it is over and can't hurt me. We didn't do much, just amused ourselves with simple pleasures like reading, watching videos from the library, and the occasional chess game. Every January my insurance company sends me some big bills (one due in January and one due in February), and every January I am surprised by these bills and wonder how on earth I will ever pay them. And then the property tax bills arrive. So one of our traditional January activities is called "Making do with less," i.e., not eating out and not buying anything except at the grocery store and the pet store/vet. It always reminds me of how much I hate cooking, but we also make do with a lot of cheap packaged stuff. I used to be so good about making soup from scratch on the weekends, but this past year we've embraced the world of Progresso canned soup. In fact, almost every Monday that's our dinner. Sometimes we fix two different cans of soup -- maybe chicken pot pie soup for the boys and split pea soup for Rocket Boy and me. Sometimes we have something we all like, such as clam chowder (that's on the menu for tomorrow). RB makes his special garlic bread (olive oil, various spices, and slices of garlic), and we're all happy. I always take a moment to feel bad when I take my first spoonful, thinking of the delicious homemade soup dinners of my childhood. It's sort of like saying grace. And then I think, well, you're clearly a dreadful mother, but here we all are around the dinner table enjoying our canned soup, and it's going to be OK.

And now it's February, which always seems like it's over before it really gets going. We have lots of things on the calendar already: the kids' last ever elementary school conferences, various school-related activities that I've signed up to help with, Valentine's Day, two days off school (the 15th and the 18th) which I will take as vacation, and Rocket Boy is scheduled to go to Tucson for a job interview (he'll be gone the 17th through the 20th). He made the arrangements for this trip in early January, assuming at the time that he would have heard from his St Louis job prospect by then and would have to cancel this trip. But as the trip draws closer, the other organization has been silent, so it looks like he's going to Tucson. We have no particular hopes for this: the company has flown him out for job interviews before and then never contacted him again. But he's looking forward to having them pay for a trip to Tucson, where he went to graduate school. So it'll be a busy month, as well as a short one. This photo shows what our front yard looks like today, as the nuisance snow slowly melts into mud. Happy February!