Nightmare Before Springtime

What's this? What's this?

Steve came into town for lunch today. He was attending a speech on religion and politics at UW, "Just to get out of the house," he said. He came by afterwards, around 1:15, and almost the moment he arrived, snow started falling.

This storm was forecast, but it wasn't certain whether it would be snow, rain or a mix of the two. The air temperature is well above 32º, so the snow is wet, though the flakes are small. So it started falling, we went out to lunch, and by the time we finished, the car was covered in snow.

Spring came a month ago; where's my back yard?

The roads were slushy (no plows out yet), and Steve dropped me off at home and headed out to pick up Pam at Western and drive back to Ettrick. The snow should be ending by 9 this evening, and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 40s, so the snow should be gone by the end of the week when highs are forecast in the upper 50s and lower 60s.

This is the third snowstorm we've gotten in April. At lunch, Steve said he didn't remember a time in the past when there were three in April.

The standard shot of the German Lutheran church

One of the things cold weather has done is exacerbate my hip, which has been sore for the past week or so. I think I'm developing arthritis in the right hip joint, but moving around and being active seems to work it out. Still I think warmer weather will help mitigate.

But I follow Steve's advice on the end of winter: Spring's not here until the nighttime lows are always above freezing. Also, watch the old trees, as they don't bud until they know winter is finally over. And they haven't really started budding yet.

This afternoon I would have normally gone in to the Center to man the desk, but not today. And we were supposed to have the volunteer appreciation dinner this evening, but that has been postponed until May. Everyone shares the sentiment of being sick of snow.

Cheese shop in Nelson

I'm sure roads will be passable tomorrow, when we have a fundraiser for the Center at Fiesta Mexicana, one of the better Mexican restaurants in town. They kick back 10% of their take from folks who mention the Center when ordering. Seems like a good way to pack the place on a slushy Wednesday evening.

"The White Crow" reading went very well, with nearly 100 people attending. The performance went  really well, and the post-show discussion was insightful and compelling as the show itself. We performed, unfortunately, on the same day as the local community theater's annual gala, so many folks I was hoping would attend were rubbing elbows at the Webster Center instead.

The eagle center

Since October, I've been adjusting my eating habits, since the doctor labeled me as "pre-diabetic," which to me means "you're eating a crap diet and not getting enough exercise." So I've been cutting out sugar and refined carbs as I can.

Jessie at Robin's

The upside of this "new" diet is I've lost four inches off my waist (I haven't been weighing myself, as how I'm feeling is more important than the actual number of pounds dropped), and, aside from my hip, I'm feeling more energy and have a more positive outlook.

Still, like Steve, this late winter weather is getting me down. I'm getting tired of being shut in the house when my expectations were to be outside in warmer weather. In Alaska, we called it cabin fever. And even though I live in town and my street is one of the first to be cleared when snow falls, I still want to see some sun and warmer temperatures. Even several days of rain would be preferable to this.

Vintage robots at Lake Toys

But I am looking forward and staying positive. One of the things happening in May is the arrival of my friend, Jessie. She's lives in North Carolina and is taking a road trip. I'm very honored to be one of her stops. I'm just hoping there will be a couple days of good weather for her visit.

Vintage Toy kitchens

I'm planning on taking her on the "River Circuit," which is north on the Wisconsin side of the river to Nelson (and the cheese shop there), then across the river to the Wabasha Eagle Center, down the Minnesota side with a stop at Lake Toys (gotta get fudge), then back to La Crosse.

Right about now I was expecting to be talking to my yard guy about getting the lawn back in shape for spring. Instead, I'm writing him out another check for snow removal. (I leave it on the back porch for him so he'll get paid even if I'm not around.)

For now, I'm waiting for my tax refund to show up, and I'm mulling over what I'm going to do with it. I do know that I need to put a new roof on the garage, as the shingles on there are peeling off with any kind of weather. I find chunks on the ground in the back yard when it's not covered with snow. Nick, my yard guy, also does roofing, so I'm going to get a quote from him before I start calling roofing companies. I mean, it's only the garage, after all.

April Blizzards Bring May Wizards?

The snow was almost gone…

For the last week or so, I was sure that global warming had won out and winter was completely over.
Just about the time I was going to contact Nick, my snow/lawn guy, to look into getting the lawn fed and seeded now that spring was here, the weatherman on TV said more snow coming our way.

Shit.

…and then it started up again.

Well, it wasn't really a blizzard, but it was a good seven inches of snow. It started late Monday evening and lasted into Tuesday afternoon. By sundown, everything was white once again and things were cold. I headed to bed and, like some nights, I had trouble getting to sleep until late.

Around 4:45 Wednesday morning there was lots of grinding and scraping outside my bedroom window. Nick had shown up early to do the plowing. He's got a big ol' snow plow on the front of his truck and the biggest snow shovel I've ever seen and a very loud, gas-powered snow blower. I'm sure the neighbors loved it.

Dan Schneider

Nick has a full-time job and does the maintenance work on his own time, so I would rather have him show up before heading off to work than arriving after work, leaving me stranded all day. Sure, I can get in and out of the garage through piles of snow, but control and accuracy suffer. I also had a couple people coming over later in the day, and giving them a clear driveway in which to park was a nice touch.

Diane Breese

At noon, Dan Schneider (who is reading the part of Adolph Eichmann) and Diane Breeser (reading his interrogator) came by the house for the final rehearsal before this week's reading on Saturday. I think we have things lined up nicely.

Diane had a mock-up of the play bill, and we ran over entrances and exits (about as far as blocking goes in a reading). Via e-mail, we have finally located someone to lead the post-play discussion. I started by contacting the rabbi at the local synagogue. From there we went through about a half dozen people who were interested in it but, for one reason or another, weren't able to do it.

Yours truly

Even for a reading, there are things that have to be coordinated, so I arranged for someone else to lead the semimonthly adult group at the Center. That way, I have all afternoon to coordinate with the folks at the Unitarian church next door, where we're having the reading.

This post card is over 100 years old.

One of the reasons I bought this house for my home was because it was plopped in the middle of a very holy neighborhood. We've got the Unitarian Universalists next door, the catholic high school across the street, The Evangelical Lutherans catty-cornered to the south (with a catholic church down the block) and the Presbyterians just north across Cass Street.

The Evangelical Lutheran church has its original bells, and they clang on Sundays at 8 and 10:15 a.m., as well as other days at 2 and 5:30 p.m. It gives the neighborhood an urbane quality I wasn't suspecting in La Crosse.

This is what I see from my back yard.

One of the other reasons I chose this place was the beautiful old homes that make up this area of town. The timber barons of the area built their mansions on Cass Street in the late 1800s-early 1900s. A stroll down the street and around the park reveals some of the loveliest midwestern architecture I've seen. I will have to make a photo-pilgrimage and snap some shots of them when all the green returns.

When I went into the Center this afternoon to do my 4-8 p.m. shift, things were just hopping. We had three walk-ins (unheard of; we normally get 0-0.2 people on average in the evenings). There were also a couple of new volunteers ready for their orientation session.

And the back yard with fat snowflakes falling.

Deb was there for the new recruits, and Aleisha, our director of outreach, was there with her teen-aged daughter. I wisely retreated to the lounge and puttered on the computer, nodding off several times because that's what old farts do when they're bored.

Andrew (the wonderful young fellow who's revamping the Center's computer network) was there helping to train a new volunteer (we're up to 30!) whose name I've already forgotten. Since they had the desk covered quite effectively, I took off about 15 minutes early and came home.

Tomorrow, honest to God, I've got to do some laundry. It's very deceptive having a laundry chute on each floor. Dirty towel: toss it in the chute. Dirty clothes: toss 'em in the chute. One day I open up the closet and there's no more pants; open the underwear drawer to find it empty. And when one wanders into the laundry room in the basement, there is a small mount of fetid fiber and tainted textiles.

Where the hell did that come from? I just did laundry four day a-… no, a week a-…no two weeks ago. Hm. Maybe three. No wonder all the underwear's dirty! So I plan a day of puttering around the house between calls to the basement to fill-empty-fill-empty the washer and dryer. Four, five, six loads.

The biggest effort of the chore is shlepping all the cleaned clothes up two flights of stairs to return everything to the closet and dresser. If they could plan an easy way to get the grimy garments to the laundry room, why didn't they rig up something to take the fresh laundry back up to the second floor?

I want my flying car. I want my robot maid. I want my monorail. I was promised these things as a child, proffered to us all by Mr. Disney and his Land. Okay, forget the car. And the monorail. They don't do laundry. But robot maid, that's something to reach for!