Annoyingly Beautiful

I think that "annoyingly beautiful" is the best way to describe this winter.  If you follow my blog you know that last spring (Sprinter is what I call it.) we had several BIG snow storms, the last of which was the first part of May.  Yes, May.  I thought we had it bad.  I thought it was the worst we could see.  I was wrong.

Lets see, this year it started snowing at the end of November, then we had a big storm the first of December.  After that it pretty much snowed several inches every few days.  I believe the number was 21 days of snow during the month of December.  Then the cold settled in from the arctic, and just decided to stay.  They call it the "Polar Vortex".  That's funny, we deal with it every winter, but because it affected the East Coast and some Southern states, it got a name.

This winter has the distinction of being:

 1. The winter with the most consecutive days below zero. (ever)
 2. The winter with the most total days below zero. (and we are still adding to that)
3. THE coldest winter EVER.  We are currently at #2.

In short, it has been miserable.  Even people who are snow lovers have had it, because it's too cold to enjoy the five feet we have.  No, I'm not exaggerating.  There are spots in the back yard where it is that deep.  I can not safely go down to the valley to the bonfire area.  We were going to have an outing last Saturday to blaze a trail, but it was just too damn cold. Fed the birds Sunday and because of the cold the trail I blazed last week is at least solid now.........so there's that.........

Top of one of the Adirondack chairs by the fire pit, in the valley.

Two weeks ago we had two days that got up to 40 degrees, and that was the first melt we had.  Felt great until I noticed water running down the furnace pipe onto the furnace.  We spent two hours outside that evening. (it was a gorgeous starry night, and I did spend time laying in the snow looking up at them.........maybe I fell there.......but only the dog knows for sure)  I was support staff while The Brown Eyed Man used the brand new roof rake and cleared off that area of the roof.  He took the next afternoon off and worked on more of it.  Then two days later we had a huge storm with almost two feet of snow.  The roof filled in, and the furnace went out because the chimney became clogged.

We don't own a long ladder.  The Brown Eyed Man has lived out here for twenty years, ten of them in this house, and has NEVER had to shovel off the roof.  We always have periods of slightly warmer days to handle the snow, but that has only happened the one time. (see above paragraph)  So at 7:30 in the morning, after the storm subsided, he put a piece of cardboard on a snowdrift, put a ladder on top, and up he went.

He shoveled for two hours straight, and when he dropped the shovel (twice) I just grabbed it and climbed up the five foot snowbank in the front and handed it back. 

Tonight as I head home from work it will be my last "death drive in the dark".  I have had some interesting things happen, but haven't had an accident (knock on wood) yet.  The time change comes on Sat night and we can all spring forward into the first week of Sprinter, cause we ain't gonna see Spring round these parts til June.

P.S. I got my first pair of Wellies (rain boots) this week, in preparation for the coming floods!  They are red, and they are fabulous!

One Hour

I have been struggling to find a blog idea.   Usually I have an opinion on something, or something crosses my path to stir up a memory, but lately......nada.

I saw this picture on facebook last week (thanks Ronda) and although it makes me emotional, it also makes me think.  It took me over a week to come up with my answer.  Who would have thought a bench could make you dig so deep!

I have been going over all the possibilities, and that did eliminate most folk.  Why would I choose to spend that time with someone living, whom I know?  I should spend enough time with my "peeps" that I wouldn't yearn for one hour on a bench.  Although if I did chose from this category it would either be a group (Vicki, Mary, Kelli.......but an hour wouldn't be nearly enough time.), or Grandma Ann.  I miss spending a few hours every day with that feisty 97 year old.  I still see her from time to time, but it isn't enough.

I have also eliminated people I know who have passed away because honestly just thinking about it makes me tear up.  How would an hour ever be enough??  I know myself, and I would be devastated when the time was up.......again.  I don't have things left unsaid with most of them, and the few I do have an issue or two with, well, it wouldn't be solved in that amount of time.  They were who they were, and I've worked through all of that.

The answer was narrowing down to someone from the past I hadn't met, or the present that I have not had the chance to meet.  I have only one answer from the present.  Oh, you all know it's Hillary!!! :)  If I go with someone from the past it would probably be Laura Ingalls Wilder.  They are just interesting women who fascinate me. 

However: (after more than a week of chewing on it) The answer is............

My gut reaction to this question was my Great Grandmother, Emma Meys.  I have always regretted that she was gone years before my time, because her story fascinates me.  It is a very tragic tale, although I must believe that she found a lot of joy in life too.  I would love to hear her tell her life story.  Maybe an hour on this bench could help me put together the parts that I don't know.  I know the hardships, but I would love to know her joys.  To hear the reasons she made the choices she did, and to know her personality first hand, would be more of a gift than I could ever describe.  If she hadn't been brave enough to leave her "class", her family, and her country behind none of "us" would be here.  It would be incredible to be able to thank her for that, and to be sure she knew that through her tragedy a strong, loving family was built.

The Floor is STILL lava!

Last March I came across a picture on facebook, and it spun this blog.

http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-floor-is-lava.html

Tonight we were watching the show "Community" ( I just don't get that show....) and it brought up the whole lava game again.  On the show they were playing some sort of giant "lava" game with teams.  The Brown Eyed Man and I talked about playing Lava as kids, and I grinned and said, "The floor is lava."

Before the show started I had been about to get up and go to the kitchen for another cheddar wurst. (Don't judge, I work long ass hours and they're easy.  I'm trying so hard to get less processed food into our diet, but this happened on cheddar wurst night.......)  I was distracted and confused by what I was seeing on the television, but my tummy was reminding me it was still dinner time.  My seven year old self now quickly assessed the situation, and I said aloud "Yes, I believe I could make it."

There was a skeptical look from the other side of the couch. (Yes, we eat dinner on the couch. I swear, if we had kids I would eat at the table.  I swear!) "You could make it where?"he asked with a tone in his voice.  My answer?  "I could make it from here to the cheddar wurst in the kitchen without touching the "lava"! All I have to do it hop to the glider, step over to the chair you set by my desk, then to the rocker.  From there it's over to the footstool, up on the dining room table, step across to the island, and voila!"  More skeptical looks, "I wouldn't try it."

Well, I really meant that my seven year old self could have made it.  She really could have!  In that moment I wished to be her again and give it a shot.  When I came back from the kitchen I set my plate down on the coffee table and put one foot up on the glider.

Snicker from the couch: "That has emergency room written all over it."

Dirty look from the chair: "Don't steal my lines."

So I didn't do it, because I'm not my seven year old self.  My forty-four year old self had another incident yesterday.  Flew right up in the air, arms and legs akimbo, and landed in a snow bank.  Again, the only one who saw it was the dog.  I got up quickly because said LARGE dog thought it was fun time!  The Brown Eyed Man came out from behind the plow truck and said, "What's going on?  All I heard was WaaaaAAAAA, and then  BA-hahahahahaha."  I told him what happened, and he just shook his head and walked away.

So what.  I could do it, I know I could.

The floor is lava.........

Mara's Smile

In first grade I met a girl named Heather, who didn't have a Mom.  She was raised by her Grandma, who loved her as well as anyone, but I always felt bad, because Heather's Mom had died.  That's a scary thing for a little one to try and grasp.

Even though we were in different grades it was a small catholic school (St. Francis) so you got to know the other kids pretty well.  One year Heather and I had taken an after school macrame class, that I am assuming was through 4H.  We both had entries in the fair that summer, and for whatever reason the instructor picked both of us up and we went there together.  I only remember riding in the car, and I remember listening to Heather talk about something, and thinking that she was so tough it was kind of scary.  I don't know why I even remember that.  Heather does make an impression. :)

Life separated us for awhile, but then we met up again in adulthood when she came to work at the Y, and her son "Bubba" was in my preschool class.  It was great to see where life had brought her.  She was married and had two kids, Mara, and Collin (Bubba).

What I didn't know when I was a child was that Heather's Mom died from a heart condition, a condition that I can't pronounce, but that Heather, and in turn Mara, inherited.  This past year they both had heart transplants, but Mara's body rejected hers.  She was put on a machine that acted as a heart for her, but developed kidney problems also.  She was waiting for another heart, and probably would need a kidney transplant too, but she developed an infection, and Monday morning her 21 year old body lost the battle that her strong, strong soul was determined to fight.

Those are the facts, but between the lines is the important stuff.  In all the pictures you see of Mara she is smiling.  She squeezed every drop of life out of the years she was given, and she never gave up, ever.  Her fight inspired, and will continue to inspire so many people.  The turn out at her benefit this past weekend was nothing short of amazing!  I know two people who just today signed up to be organ donors, because of Mara.

I myself have been a donor for years, it just seemed like the thing to do.  It didn't really mean much to me.  I certainly wouldn't need them, so why not?  Well, it means something now.  If you haven't done it, DO IT.  As Heather said this weekend at the benefit, "God doesn't want your organs."  He doesn't, of that I'm sure.

I didn't have a close relationship with Mara, she was just one of the passel of kids in my life.  She was always happy, always smiling, always on to the next adventure.  From time to time I would hear things that she was up to, and then I started following her last adventure on facebook, through her Mom's page, and then through the page Team Mara.  Let me tell you, I will never forget her.

Heather, you are an amazing, strong woman, who raised an amazing, strong woman.  The support for you, Kraig, and Collin, is overwhelming to see.  I hope you all can feel how much Mara was loved, and the support that is there for all of you now.  There isn't much anyone can do or say, but we're here.

I debated writing about this, it isn't easy, that's for sure,  but it's something that I can do, and if I can use my voice to encourage one more person to become an organ donor, then it's time and tears well spent.

Mara's Smile is the lesson we are all meant to learn.  Live the life you were given to it's absolute fullest, no matter what gets thrown at you.  This is the message I left on the Team Mara page.

"Though it was short, this was a life well lived."  What more could any of us aspire to?

http://www.superiortelegram.com/content/mara-kaye-krysiak

Happy Accidents

First off, I didn't give up blogging for the new year!  Wow.... I have thought about a few blogs, but evidently failed to get them "down on paper".  I will try to be better about that.  I can't even say that life has been busy.  It has been freezing, (20 below for days) and now that we've come out of that it rained.  We have pretty much been stuck at home, inside. 

Last night Vicki (my friend of 40 years) and I had a conversation about adventures, and incidents.  Apparently I'm boring now, and these odd little things that happen to me are not adventures, they are just incidents that happen to most people. (though we agree probably more to me than most) I am sliding into domesticated bliss, and she will have to live vicariously through some other nut. 

There's never a dull moment around here.  Today I was going to to do "poop patrol" and then take a hot bath and read a book.  (about summer)  While I was scooping poop the Brown Eyed Man was plowing up snow in the front to make room for the trailer to turn around.  Ice racing is just around the corner.  Winter came in fast, and  hard, so hopefully with everything else he can make that a reality this year.  Yes, he ice races, he also used to dirt track race.  He asked me to move my car, which I did, and then I heard a big BANG, BANG, BANG.  Plow truck shuts off.  The pin that holds the plow came off, and the welds busted.  So now instead of hot bath and a book, I am combing through five foot hills of plowed snow to see if I can find the dang thing.  (We didn't, but he found another one in the garage.)

If I had gone inside like I had planned I would never have learned the answer to a two year mystery around here!  We have this crazy big bird that makes the weirdest call, but neither of us ever saw it close enough to figure out what it was. We hear it all the time, every season.  I was actually on the steps, heading in and we heard it.  The Brown Eyed Man called to me that it was a woodpecker, and it was right back there in the trees.  I could kind of see something from the steps, but I had to know, so I trudged back through the yard, into the track on the side yard, and then finally out into the deep snow, just to get as close a look as possible. (Why I didn't grab my phone, or the binoculars..........)  It is HUGE!  Apparently we have a Pileated Woodpecker.  Just beautiful!  The Brown Eyed Man stopped working on the plow and came over, and we watched it until Jake got close and it flew off.  So there we stood, knee deep in snow, mystery solved because the plow truck tossed a pin.  A happy accident (serendipity.......which is one of my favorite words), and the only kind of adventure that holds interest for me these days!