The Vanishing Poster

Just when I think I've finally decided to end this blog once and for all (because if you are only posting once a month -- or less -- you really aren't blogging!), I think about the 600+ previous posts that document the last eights years of my life and I just can't delete Milly's Muse.  All those posts about Hubby,the boys, employment, teaching, holidays with family and all of life's intervening events -- and I just can't let go.

So I made a new resolution.  These posts don't have to be long and I really can take pictures of my life -- I have two notebooks, a lap top, and a wonderful Canon camera, as well as the tower.  Like all the new phone applications I'm not all that quick at taking a decent shot, finding out where it's filed, editing it, and finally posting it -- but I CAN do this.  I can make posts out of pictures of my life and maybe that will teach me more about using the new media (which I seem to be resisting like crazy). 

Here's what has occupied me this week:

 

Funny how in this photo it doesn't look as bad as it has felt.  Saturday night I walked into the metal step stool that I have to use in the kitchen to retrieve objects from the kitchen cabinets that the crazy ladies who built this house put in at eight feet height.  The bruising goes right down the top of my foot (it's still green and very swollen) and covers the back side, too.  Walking has been quite problematic.  I missed water aerobics on Monday, went on Wednesday but had to hop around on one foot instead of really exercising.  I probably won't go on Friday.  The pain was been pretty incredible -- and that seems to make me very tired, so I take naps and then pain pills at night so I've slept a lot.

Oh, yes - Monday was our 36th wedding anniversary (41 years together).  Dear friends treated us on Sunday to a wonderful dinner of heaps of meat from here:

Jess and Jim's Steakhouse in Martin City

 

 And this is what we devoured:

Hubby had pork chops, I had steak and lobster tail, Nancy had prime rib, Debby and Lou each had steak!

Most of my informal posts are now on Facebook which I really enjoy.  Lots of my Paseo High School kids have become "friends" and it's fun to see how well they are doing.  I like the immediate feedback of the Facebook postings (however, I have no use for Twitter, yet) and feeling connected.  Here on the blog I just see that 40 people accessed this blog but only two left comments and I feel isolated.

Weather here in KC -- quite cool for the end of July.  School starts next week.  Gee, I'm pleased to be retired!  Here's to blogging tomorrow and meeting my newest resolution.  

The snow lay on the ground . . ,

Our biggest snowfall this season and this year (2014) was yesterday.  It came down pretty heavily all day and into the night -- the weather person says about 2 - 3 inches an hour.  The temps, not to be outdone, turned hideously cold -- wind chill this morning was -20 degrees. 

We already had ice on our sidewalks, streets, and lawns from the weekend weather "event" and now we had a foot of snow covering everything, including the ice.  I actually worries yesterday morning when I had to drag the two trash bags to the curb for pickup and the driveway was a sheet of slippery ice -- I could just see myself toppling over and being unable to get up. 

Temps for tonight are supposed to reach -15 or lower -- and that's not wind chill, folks -- that's actual temperature.

Hubby had one of his "workers" delivered to our doorsteps early this morning, since we couldn't get out -- and that included the dogs.  The poor man shoveled into the early afternoon just to get our driveway and front walk cleared -- and the car heated and snow removed. 

While he worked away, hubby and I had a nice warm breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs with English muffins and hot tea.  Lunch was chicken nuggets and fresh corn-on-the-cob from our last Costco trip -- along with a pretty decent honey dew melon, sliced and sugared.  Fresh food on a cold, snowy day is a real treat!

Now we're warmly ensconced in our little house, thermostat set at a consist 75 degrees; tea kettle on very low heat at the back of the stove; boys, finally able to navigate the walk outside, have managed to pee and poop and are happily settled next to Pops in our cozy bed; and the car is unearthed and ready for travel if the need arises. 

This is when I feel so blessed.  We are safe, we are warm, we have plenty of food and drink, the TV has lots of shows for viewing and the Kindles are charged.  And we are only token prisoners of the storms -- we can get out if we want.  Life is damned good.

Easter Week?

 Last night as Hubby and I struggled to stay warm in our exercise pool at the Research Brookside Health Center, we watched frozen pellets of snow and ice float down outside the huge pool glass windows.  We managed all 45 minutes of the class but came home glad to be back by the home hearth and out of the nasty, freezing weather.

This morning when I went out to warm up the car for the morning dog walk, the walkway was slushy, the hood and roof of the Lincoln were covered in frozen nuggets, and the windows were iced over.  It took 15 minutes to get the car warm enough to roll over to the park.

In the park, I was bundled in my heavy dog walking coat, a fleece headscarf for my forehead over which I layered a fleece bonnet, heavy fleece gloves, and a fleece neck scarf to keep my neck and mouth warm. Still I shivered in the frigid morning air.  We plodded over frozen ground iced over with a powdering of snow.  The wind kept the temperatures at under 30 degrees and the windchill hovered in the teens.

My soul says that since this is the Easter season and we are going pellmell into Holy Week we should see buds on the still barren trees.  The grass should be greening.  The jonquils getting ready to bloom and the tulip trees ready to pop. The pansies should be planted by now and getting ready to color the lawns with their purples and yellow glory. The sun should be shining at least once a week and the sky should be a spectrum of blues with white scudding clouds, not a continuous gun-metal gray. 

My frig should be loaded with ripe, rosy strawberries, succulent pink ham, and colorfully dyed boiled eggs ready to turn into deviled goodness.  My pantry should contain shortcake for the strawberries and pineapple for the ham.  There should be fresh, golden corn on the cob and new potatoes with pearl onions.  Instead, we still eating stew and pot roast and hearty winter food that keeps us stoked for the cold weather. 

Tomorrow we are told we have 100% chance of snow.  Most likely, we will have lots and lots of snow.  The light predictions are five inches -- and they total goes up from there into the double digits. 

Meanwhile dreams of spring float in my head and heart.  I've had enough of snow shovels and heavy coats and fleece scarves.  Easter reminds me of new life.  This should be a time of nature awakening the chirping birds, the boys frolicking in the sunshine on the spongy grass, and the kites soaring through the skies at the park.