Thirty-two days until spring.
The first daffodiles are out here already (photo taken last week):
We just had the most fun ever!!!
There is still a lot of snow on the ground, but the sun is out and it really warmed up. (We'd been having those -20 windchill days until very recently.) We just went out and played in the snow for a couple of hours. It was so great.
That styrofoam effect turns out to be fabulous for making bricks in an igloo. We made a complete igloo that sozlet can stand up in, roofed even!!! I took a bunch of pics, hope some turned out, will post if so.
Basically, the snow right now looks like this:
top layer -- newer, wet snow, good for making snowmen (about an inch)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
styrofoam layer -- result of rain/ sleet and then freezing on prior snowfall. Solid ice, about 2-3 inches thick
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
powder -- what remains of the initial big snowfall, rain/sleet didn't permeate that far, about 4-5 inches
We would stomp around and create "flagstones" of ice, and then started prying them out and stacking 'em.
Plus sledding! I have a real hill in my backyard.
It was great.
:-D
What a great day!
Why do I have this sudden urge for hot chocolate and marshmallows?
Igloo!
Inside:
It was about five feet tall (hard to tell the scale from the pictures). Sozlet could stand up in it comfortably, she's about 50 inches tall.
Sledding hill:
An igloo which will be the stuff of magnificent memories.
Fabtastic igloo (typo was a mistake, but it's staying)! All my nephew did was make a 'tractor' by laying 6 pieces of similar styrosnow against a sidewalk-side cement garden border.
Damn it, now I feel stupid.
I woke up this morning to find that someone made an excellent snow giraffe in front of the zoo across the street. Now it's gone, and I didn't take a picture of it. Had the damn camera phone right in my pocket, too.
And I've missed another chance to photo the big metal bird sculptures with the power-plant smokestacks billowing behind it in sub-zero weather.
Sloth thy name is patiodog.
I have a postcard with those smokestacks, "Madison at -20 degrees" or something.
I used to be able to see them from my armchair, they were kind of mesmerizing in cold weather.
The igloo is kaput by the way. It's been warm and I hoped it would kind of settle and solidify but it listed further and further and then kerblammy.
I know the postcard. It's what made me think, "I've got to get the big birds in front of those stacks."
The flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak.
Supposedly we've got a decent storm rolling in around Saturday-Sunday. Good times. The mud's been coming back. I hate mud.
Mud sucks.
Slush too.
The snow has been amazingly tenacious. I haven't shoveled the driveway because the snow has that horrible ice crust (good for making igloos, bad for shoveling) and I keep expecting it will melt. I hate the idea of working my ass off and then everything melting the next day anyway. Temps nosed up into the upper 30's a few days ago, with rain forecast, thought that would be it. But no. Still there. Today it was also upper 30's, into 40's even, so I tackled the damn driveway. OUCH. That was brutal. I did maybe 10% and it took an hour and a half and was frustrating as hell.
Supposed to get cold again tomorrow and then t-storms by Monday. We'll see.
Brutal was getting our gas and electric bill for last month. I let the wife get control of the thermostat a while when our temps were single digits and below for a week or two.
Ouch.
We've got some weird neighbor dude with a snow-blower who does our driveway when it snows (and his neighbors on the other side, too). It seems to be important to him, and it saves me the effort, but it's a little weird. I mean, he's a young guy, doesn't really seem to work any sort of regular hours, has a brand-new Jeep. Not sure what's up with him, except that he seems excessively decent and has a soft way of talking and always addresses me by name and kind of creeps me out a little bit. Which I feel guilty aboiut, because he's such a nice guy, but if I had to pick someone on my block who's got 15 people cut into filets and stored in big freezers in the basement, this would be the guy.......
Sorry, what was I on about? Right. Snow coming. Gas expensive. Really frighteningly expensive. Really makes me wish this old house had some insulation, weather stripping, modern windows, and whatnot...
This morning I slipped on black ice and fell. No broken bones, but I've got a spectacular bruise on my left flank.
Oh, Noddy, girl, I am so glad it's a bruise alone. Keep your grip....
Osso--
Thanks for the kind thoughts. Believe me, I was frightened.
Noddy! Phew!
Pdawg, my b-in-law snow-blows the widows' (there are two, one across the street and one next door) driveways when it snows. He also mows the next door woman's lawn. He even went across a major road to mow another neighbor's lawn once after it became a field for most of last summer. I asked if he asken them first. He said no. What if they'd wanted it that way?
Anyway. This is all to say that even just plain nice guys who aren't serial killers do things like that.
