Snowy day

It's snowing in the North Country, but it's not much of an issue this far north.  Southern New England, etc. is a trouble spot so I'm a little concerned about my mother.  She really doesn't like winter much and is already pretty sick of it now.  So far she's had no loss of power but this storm might cause that.  I sure hope not.

Things are moving right along in Hawkeye.  It's February, which I always felt meant that we were well on the downward slope of winter.  Ken would disagree and would say that Feb 2nd only means winter is half over.  He's right, of course, but I like to think that March is a gentler month than Jan. & Feb., which in reality is seldom true.  It's a cruel month, all right.  I like April, there's more than a breath of spring that month, and mud season, though a big inconvenience, is a GOOD thing.

I had a nice dinner with Duncan, David & JK on Sat. night.  They're just wonderful and always make me laugh.  JK left Sunday, David left yesterday and Sue arrives tonight.  Yesterday Duncan & David went out on the lake and shot off rockets with cameras mounted on them.  How cool is that?  Duncan said one of the films turned out well.

It's been a whiny week at work so far.  Everyone seems to have a "special" problem or issue and wants my attention NOW and COMPLETELY.  I figure it must be due to the weather.  I emailed my sister that people were acting like children but expect to be paid like adults.  Her response was that the world is just one big day care center.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that--everyone laughs when I say it.  And yet...

I stopped at P&J's last night.  Pat is making plans for the celebration of Jim's birthday Friday.  So far it's Michigans and cole slaw, with cake & ice cream to follow.  Should be nice.

Had a long talk with Mr. Smith last night, which was lovely as always.  We both had issues to discuss with each other and it was a fruitful conversation.  And nice.  Though he's getting another cold.  It's those pesky college students, they're full of poison I say.

Dogs are being fairly good about wandering, though last night they were gone twice for long periods of time.  Where in the world did they go?  They didn't come home until after 9, which is past their bedtime.  I was concerned, yet there's little I can do at night to find them.  I have tracked dogs in the snow but am not terribly good at it.  Most notable was the tracking of that awful Chesapeake Bay Retriever I had, who was damaged (way damaged) goods when I got him.  He stole the frozen Thanksgiving turkey from the deck and took off with it down the driveway and off into the woods.  I tracked him to Holts, where he joined me sans turkey.  It snowed that night, quite a bit, so that every rock and stump looked like a frozen turkey covered in white.  Oh that was a time.  Jenica and Liza had come to spend the holiday in Hawkeye.  We had chicken legs for Thanksgiving and the dogs kept showing up with turkey parts.  Peavey was especially thrilled, as if the parts had fallen from the sky and were her special reward for being such a good dog.

We're all wearing pedometers  at work today.  Big physical activity push, free pedometers from somewhere.  Get up and walk around at regular intervals.  I was asked to raise my seat so I wouldn't be straining my neck to see the monitor.  Now my feet barely touch the floor, but I am sitting up straighter.  Let's see how long this lasts for.