Today's picks
Mud season. The tracks are on my road--someone apparently had the same thought that I did in my driveway. If you drive on the side it won't be as bad as if you drive in the middle. They too were wrong. The mud will dry and those tracks will stay there until next year.
The wallow is right in front of my house, where I got stuck last weekend. I'm not sure when I will be able to drive to my house again. One week? I'm off to Rhode Island next Friday and will most likely have to pack the car from afar, although it's supposed to be dry for the next several days. Right now my car is full of things I can't stand the thought of transporting up the (albeit small) hill to the house from the end of the driveway: potting soil, soda, dog food, stuff that's bulky or heavy. I'll have to face this before I leave, there's no room for the dogs in the back seat. Today I will take the car to the car wash to try for removal of the caked-on mud on the undercarriage. It still shakes with palsy at speeds over 50. Plus there's still mud on the window on the passenger's side. How the mud got all over the dashboard is sort of a mystery to me, but at some point I'd like to clean out the inside as well.

Gray day. Like, totally gray. But it will get above freezing and the last of the snow should melt. Later today and tomorrow it's supposed to rain. This is good for snow removal but extends mud season. Generally mud season lasts for most of the month of April. Before the town fixed my road I had to walk half a mile to my car in the morning and half a mile to my house in the evening, packing in all my stuff (including 20 lb. bags of dog food). I was 10 years younger then and though it romantic. Now I would think of it as exercise and be resentful but would force myself to enjoy it in an asthmatic way.

This afternoon I go to Keene Valley for a celebration of National Library Week with the bookmobile. We've done this twice so far this week at other libraries with incredibly dismal results. I'll be there from 4-7 and I bet we'll be lucky to have 10 people show up. Keene Valley has a very small winter population, about 500 people I think. My friend Karen, the director there is a storyteller and she'll be the entertainment. I like listening to her tell stories, she's really good.

Tomorrow I will do something really cool: I will plant seeds in the mini-greenhouse planter things I bought at Lowes. I'm looking forward to this because I love playing in the dirt and playing with seeds. Last night I looked at the forlorn window boxes I put up under my living room windows last summer. That experiment was a dismal failure. The petunias did not thrive and looked awful almost from the beginning. Maybe I'll try nasturtiums this year. It'll have to be something that can bake in the sun. I think I could bake bread in those windowboxes.

Chances continues her rebellion. Maybe she pays closer attention to the news than I realize and is upset by what Scooter Libby is revealing. Apparently yesterday I didn't latch the bedroom door tightly, and as some of you know one of her favorite acts of revenge is peeing on the bed. She must have done it early in the morning because it was the smallest puddle she's ever come up with. Of course it soaked through the bedding but it didn't hit the mattress pad. What a rat. Luckily I noticed it right when I got home so I could wash the sheets, duvet cover and comforter before going to bed. I told her she was bad but I didn't tell her I wasn't speaking to her--I just didn't speak to her. She went in the other room and sat by herself. Lucky thing the weekend is coming and I can spend some time with her, apparently she doesn't like it that I work outside of the home. Well parrrrdon me for earning a paycheck!

And now it's on to catalog some storytelling and meditation CD's. zzzzzz.