Spring Storm

It was snowing this morning—tiny moist flakes that stick to the grass but not to the sidewalks or the roads.

It's now turned into a chilly rain/snow mix, so different from yesterday when I took this photo at the end of a walk...

Both of my men were depressed upon waking this morning.

“Who would expect snow in May?” the teenager demanded as I admonished him for leaving his jackets in his locker and wearing only a t-shirt to walk to school.

“We live in Wyoming!!!” I retorted.

Gees!

One would “think” that they would have finally realized by now what living at 72,000 plus feet means: We get weather that is totally out of sync with the seasons!

(Then again, maybe it’s us, and not the weather, that are out of sync given that this is 72,000 plus feet after all.)

Yeees…snow in May can be “ugh” mumbling inducing I will admit.

Living here, however, at this juncture—at least for me—is still very much an adventure.

And if it weren’t, I might be right there with my men—whining. 

Despite my "adventurous" outlook, I think I'll keep this going while working here at home this afternoon... 

Hope your weather is not inclement...

Down with the flu—and bronchitis

That was me, all last week.

And it was Spring Break—bummer!

I had plans for all kind of fun and to tackle all the things I’ve let slide since the beginning of the semester.

Oh well—even the best laid plans…

It was only late Sunday evening that I finally began to feel all human again.

Good thing—cause a classmate from grade school passed on through.

That’s right—from “grade school!” 

Anyway, now that Spring Break has come and gone, I’m on the mend.

Talk about the “imp of perversity!”

There’s this saying...

If you don’t like the weather in Wyoming, give it ten minutes because it’s sure to change.

When I finished my blog post this morning, the flakes had stopped and the sun was shining.

It’s been shining ever since, making it an overall very nice day except for the strong Wyoming winds.

Same shot, different time of day and weather...

  
The Legal Dude is back in the Mountain West and will soon be home, after a quick stop into Whole Foods in Ft Collins.

As I sit at my laptop looking eastward, I see an Albany County school bus pull into the school parking lot.

Don’t know if it’s the teenagers, or the 7^th grade bus.  

Being so late, nearly 4 p.m., one can only hope their team did well in the championship.

  

Here’s to sunshine in your neck of the woods….may it be so sunny and bright!

♫♪ It’s a beautiful morning ♫♪

It is suppose to be near 80º today—awesome!

The wind is slight, by Laramie standards.

The sun is shinning, although through cloud cover.

The grass has been green for sometime, but today, most of the trees are covered with what looks like green felt.

Oh happy day!

Yep. It is truly a beautiful morn...

Tweet - Go Cowgirls!

Busy with school work.

But for the moment I'm taking a break to watch the Cowgirls, my favorite UWYO team.

They're playing BYU, a higher ranked, national team...and winning 56-46!!!!

The Legal Dude and I both had too much work, so we decided to watch it on the tube.

They don't usually broadcast the Cowgirl (or any UWYO) games but BYU is a national team and so lucky for us, we get to watch while we work.

GO Cowgirls!

Ordinance 8.16.050

Didn't know there was an ordinance for trash can size...but then again, Arlington Country provided our trash cans.

Here, most people put plastic bags out front...during the morning, not the night before.

Otherwise, we might find leftovers strewn about the neighborhood due to the local wildlife...or tossed about by the wind.

Always something new to learn...

Happy Friday...

Happy to report that the wind chill for today is only -17...and the wind chill warning is only in effect until 11 am this morning.

The Sun is also big, bright and strong today!

Chicago peeps...hope you're staying safe and warm.

My friends on the WC say that an Arctic blast is now following the snow of yesterday. Stay warm my friends...folks.

Washington, D.C....so the kids got only a partial respite from school.

Got a text at 3:02 am telling me that schools were opening 2 hours late. I just can't seem to get myself off the APS text alert. Have to work more seriously on that.

We have family in Atlanta...have you seen the news report on their weather?! The streets are all sheets of ice!!!

Happy I'm here and don't have to travel far today...just to campus, the food store and then downtown to meet a (new) friend for lunch.

Have a wonderful Friday!

Who knew…

We didn’t...



that we had this access panel in the ceiling of our garage.

It’s up in the ceiling of the middle bay, which hasn’t gotten much use.



Has someone been living up there?!?



Nah…we had some workers at our house this morning…more on that later.



Am I becoming camera happy?!

Saying “Unlce”…

I gave in and hired the plowing company to come shovel our driveway.



Don’t know how often the winds will blow in from the North, but that’s the side the garage is on and the drifts just pile up against the doors.

Too much for little ‘ole me to handle while the boys are at school…and by the time they come home, well, it’s too late to tackle it all.

And this is the second time it’s happened in 2 weeks…and winter just started.

So we hired the guys who have shoveled before…nice guys.

One more bill to pay…

Yesterday’s Tweet…

(...which I didn’t get to post).

Grady Kirkpatrick, of WPR’s Morning Music program, played batches of themed related songs yesterday morning.

Christmas tunes, both old and new…

A fun and funky “Hanukkah Blessing” from Barenaked Ladies’ new holiday album, “Barenaked for the Holidays”…

Several warm weather songs, including this gem…“Love is like a (Heat Wave)” by Martha and the Vandellas

The latter was due to the “heat wave” of high 20s temps that hit Laramie yesterday.

Made me dance around like a crazy, silly old goose.

Funny how little things like that can really make one smile and act silly…

Hope you're having a great weekend and not going too crazy at the malls, etc.

Balmy Weather…

56° F 29° C

Last Thursday…a mere six days ago…the weather folks declared it to be -2 with the wind chill.

I knew it was cold.

My fingers froze while shoveling…despite my new North Face mountain gloves.

I took several breaks between shoveling to let my fingers thaw and stop from aching. [Hope mom doesn’t see this.]

Yesterday the temps hovered around 45 degrees.

The guy hanging on to the side of the trash truck wore a long-sleeve polo-like shirt, nothing else.

Well...he wore pants too.

I heard this morning on WPR that the temps could get as high as 60 degrees this afternoon.

In Thermopolis…approximately 300+ miles in North Central Wyoming…I heard it could get up to 70 degrees!!

The wonders of Wyoming’s ever-changing weather…

Enjoy your day…

WPR Morning Music Program...

with Grady Kirkpatrick...TOTALLY ROCKS!

Best 3 hour music program...ever!

Even better…the house has an intercom system so I get music a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e in the house, including the garage. Awesome!

Music and news all day long whenever I’m home. Double awesome!

BTW: WPR completed its "beg" week in less than 39 hours, so "beg" week ended early Tuesday morning...3 & 1/2 days early!!

How cool it that!

Just thought I'd share...

Photo Metaphor…

My NPR thermos I got a year or two ago for making my annual donation.



I love this thermos.

Sadly, it now leaks.

My re-purposed thermos, which will now sit in my craft room.


Life means…making adjustments.

BTW: Apologies to the English majors (or writers) out there: I have no idea whether one can have a “photo metaphor” for one’s life…but I like the concept.

Frontier Woman

This little tidbit was shared at the book club last evening…

By some standards, Wyoming is not considered a rural area but rather, the “Frontier.”

“Many frontier counties are located in the West, a part of the country where individual counties tend to cover a large geographic area. Even counties that have a town with a hospital, grocery store, and other services may also encompass areas that are much more rural and isolated, making them frontier counties.” Definition from the Rural Assistance Center

Hmm…no wonder I feel an affinity with Ms. Elinore Pruitt Stewart.

Tweet: NPR Pledge Week…Wyoming Style

WPR has 3 (sometimes just 2) pledge hours per day…that’s it.

Pledge request ends whenever the stated goal is reached…then it ends.

WPR seeks 5 to 6 new members per pledge hour…that’s all.

WPR broadcasts from the UWYO campus; just three blocks form J’s school…not far.

(Makes it easy for me to personally deliver my new membership contribution).

Interesting Factoids:

From WPR Website

Approximate representation of WPR signal coverage

Red, yellow and green indicate a strong signal.
Blue and purple indicate a weaker but stable signal.

WPR broadcasts to over 80% of Wyoming, with 26 broadcast sites throughout the state.

WPR broadcasts its signal to its remote transmitter sites via Satellite from the studio in Laramie.

From time to time, there can be problems with reception due to Satellite signal interruption caused by heavy snow or rain or, other weather related interruptions.

Just thought I’d share…

Tweet for the day…but DON’T tell my mom!

Has the proverbial shoe fallen for the 3rd time?

I heated the last little teeny tiny bit of half-and-half for my morning coffee.

I had the milk on the stove, on low, in this cute little tin cup (with a handle) made for scalding milk that I bought quite some time ago from Lebanese Taverna Market back home.

I was on the phone trying to find a new Doctor, and to make an appointment, for S who is still sick…poor baby…and walked away.

I was asked a LOT of questions about the patient, etc., etc.

When I was done…

Well. Let’s just say it wasn’t’ pretty.

On the bright side, I created a new food group…deep, dark brown caramelized milk chips (once you scrape it off the pan)!

Plus, I think I can salvage my little red tin heating cup…with lots of soaking and the aforementioned scraping.

Phew...

I'm counting this as my "3rd." As in, things happen in 3s...

Tweet Update…

Note: Just heard on WPR that there is a “high wind advisory” in Southeastern Wyoming…that’s us!

And the teenager (and his dad) rode their bikes to school today!

Remember the recycling bin?

Well, I had to put that baby on our front porch, snug-like-a-bug in the corner near the front door…or so I thought.

Soon afterwards, I heard a bang. The bin had toppled over.

And that’s when I saw them….all these plastic bottles hurtling down the street.

We live one house off of a fairly well traveled road (mostly during morning and evening rush) and I didn’t want any of the bottles hurtling into the path of oncoming traffic (or any kid-lets biking to school).

So…even though they weren’t our bottles--- good citizen that I am, thanks to mom and dad---I went out and chased after them to put in our recycle bin.

I’ve now placed our somewhat substantial pumpkin in front to (hopefully) brace the bin.

We’ll see what happens. Guess I’ll be hanging close to the front door this morning.

Oh yeah. When I went to close the front door…it felt like I was pushing against the entire UWYO football team!!!

Gees…

If you remember from the photos, we have this expanse of open land in front of our lot, which is the Junior High’s football and track fields.

So…lots of open space in front of our house, which is the direction where the usual westerly winds seem to come from.

Sigh…

Not that we had much of a choice, but wish I had realized this before we purchased this house.

Although I’m not sure that too many homes here are immune to wind and snow.

The other house we considered may be situated on a cul du sac with lots of other homes to block it, but it too faces west.

And I bet when the wind blows, since it is situated in that snug circle, the snow lands on its front door, which I hear is also a problem for many of the homes here.

Oh well…

I guess I’ll have to reconsider putting up my many usual Halloween decorations.

I’m afraid they’d end up strewn all over the neighborhood.

Double sigh…

Just one of the adjustments of a young (it sounds better) Easterner making her way in this land some call the wild…wild…West!

Thanks for taking a peek.

They call(ed) the wind Mariah…

or at least her baby sister!

I think I’m finally starting to “get”…in more ways than one…the infamous Wyoming winds.

I tried to put our recycling bin in its usual place this morning…at the end of the driveway, which is on the NW (really Western) corner of our lot.

So let me count how many times I had to go running after the fly-away lid…1, 2, 3, 4, 5!

You’d think I would have learned after the first 2 times.

I’m sure the neighbors driving by got a good chuckle as they watched me sprint down the street chasing this tumble weed of a lid, all the while shaking their heads and thinking “Easterners…”

Yep…that’s me (at least for the time being)!

“Tweet” 2

Just got back from taking the “teenager” for his first Laramie haircut. For the record, he asked for one.

Afterwards, we stopped in at the Big Hallow Food Co-op to pick-up a gallon of the local, all natural milk S likes.

As I was backing out (of the angled parking space next to the railroad tracks) I looked around and mused…what a quaint small town!

My next immediate thought…”I can’t believe I actually live in this small western town.”

Sometimes it jus takes my breath away…that we actually made the move and that this is our life.

I’m not saying that it’s bad…or that I’m unhappy…or that I don’t like it here.

On the contrary, my initial musing after all did include the word “quaint.”

Sometimes, though, I feel like I need to pinch myself that…it’s real.

Just for the record…this is a “peak” day.

My "tweet" of the day...

I'm shelving the many many boxes of books the "teenager" no longer wants in his room.

You know. The little board books (i.e., Good Night Moon, Jamberry, The Going to Bed Book, Brown Bear), colorful and only slightly scary Halloween books, and those fabulous picture books by the likes of Chris Van Allsburg.

I have a hard time getting rid of (or giving away) books, especially children's books. We did give quite a few to the local charities back home, but so many of these books hold special memories for me.

Besides, I can always use them in the classroom...whenever I land in a classroom again.

But...my heart is sad as I place these books on the book shelves in the lower level (read: basement) where they've been relegated---nay, banned---by the "teenager."

Each book evokes a memory for me of those many hours we spent looking, reading, touching and talking about the stories and illustrations.

And once again, I'm reminded that my little boy...is no longer little.

I'm hoping that one day he will re-discover the wonder of these books, and the memories they may hold for him.

Sigh...