Obligatory chili and cornbread blizzard day photo

It's kinda cold, and kinda windy. And we have some snow. *










* gross understatements

Poor Ames...

Fresh rhubarb, April 2010

Fresh rhubarb, April 2010
Originally uploaded by sweetgaldecals

The rhubarb is going crazy this year. It got an early start and has been very happy with the weather. (Catherine, do you recognize the apron? I bought it from you!)

I woke up in a cranky, self-pitying mood this morning, but when I stepped outside to pick the rhubarb, the air in town was scented with lilacs. How could I stay in a rotten attitude with all the lilacs in town working against it?

Signs of Spring

We're having a lovely (but probably false) early spring here, with misty temps in the 30s and 40s, !rain! all Saturday night rather than slow or sleet, and lots of semimelted snow piles. This morning while I walked with my little neighbor to school, we heard our first mourning dove of the season, and she told me she had seen "big birds all lined up" flying overhead yesterday. I don't guess I can count that as my first water birds of spring since I didn't see nor hear them, but I'm watching much more closely now.

UPDATE: I saw them and heard them! I'm counting this as Migrators Return Day.

The end of a pretty nice weekend

photo courtesy Ricki Lee G.

It's 10:00-something on a Sunday evening, the end of a very good weekend. Britta was home, and yesterday we girls went to Decorah to watch the Kee High speech team perform at the state competition (which is really the regional competition if you ask me, as there are 4 of them in Iowa). It was great fun, as usual, but we were very disappointed in K's improv team's score. Not their performance, as it was wonderful, but their rating was not high enough to advance them to the All-State Festival in Ames. We are still waiting to hear the scoring on the Choral Reading performance in which K also took part.
After church this morning, we got to go eat a lovely Thanksgiving-esque turkey dinner at our friends the Fruechtes' home. I brought pies.
And this evening I drove Britta back up to Viterbo in light snow. On the way back, just after I turned onto the 26 south of La Crescent, a strange thing happened. The snow came down very heavy and fast for maybe 5 miles, and there was no traffic but me. The road was completely covered, so I could not see any of the painted lane markers on the highway. Normally when you're driving in snow, there are at least other people's tracks to follow, but not this evening. Plus I was listening to Simply Folk on Wisconsin Public Radio. Suddenly it seemed like the car was just floating in this sea of fluffy white critters. The inside of the car was warm, there was Irish music playing on the radio, and there I was gliding on this white, trackless, smooth expanse of nothingness. Hard to describe, but rather special. By the time I got to Brownsville, the snow had cleared and I could see the road markings again, and the effect was over, but for that 5 miles, I felt like I'd been lifted away from my usual life. It was like being underwater, or something. Weird, and kinda neat.
I just finished a 2-week pay period which may have been the best single pay period since I started working for Webmedx. I'm tired, but triumphant.

The first New Albin Days with a 30% chance of snow.

Okay, that's an exaggeration, but this has been a very weird July. We had one blazingly, sickeningly, oppressively hot week in June and since then it's been cool. Most of the time it's been in the high 70s during the day and very pleasant, but sometimes it's been a little too cool. And today it's downright chilly. Just in time for New Albin Days. It's 57 degrees F right now with a high expected of only 65 degrees! In JULY! IN IOWA!

So weird. Where is the global warming I was promised, hmmm?

Graduation Day Forecast

"Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 60s."

Thank you Lord!

Mourning Dove Spotted

March 18th: See, I'm writing this down. First it was robins, then I started hearing lots of red-winged blackbirds (though I have yet to see one), and just now there was a tired-looking mourning dove picking around looking for flower seeds in one of the beds. Isn't that a little early?

The ground is still so cold. It's going to take a long time to thaw out this year. Rochester, Minnesota, just a few miles to the north of us, was reporting the frost line at 3 feet deep in some places. That's DEEP. It was a hard winter!

AROBINAROBINAROBINISAWONEISAWAROBIN!!

I did! He's out there. Can't get a picture of him but he is definitely there. Yay!

And this is us today:

Will these children ever get an education?

School is canceled for tomorrow already. The superintendent said it was because temperatures are supposed to be around -20 F at 9:00 a.m., and it is just too much of a risk to have possible exposures.

It is also kind of risky to leave bored children at home with a mom who is attempting to work full time from home, but I guess that's another matter entirely.

This is us:

A walk in the snow

This morning Miss B drove "my" car to school for the day, and I had to pick up our weekly egg order at the elementary school, so Lil Miss A walked together to school. It's about 7 blocks away. We have about 3 inches of fresh stuff on top of the un-fresh stuff, and it's still snowing. We walked together through town, kicking through the snow, making tracks together and talking. It was lovely. She is perfectly fine walking to school alone, and I usually have her walk (or ride her bike) if it's over about 15 degrees, but even though it was a little cooler than that this morning, we were bundled enough that we could just enjoy it. There's something about walking hand in hand in the fresh snow with your child that makes memories.

I stopped at the bank and the post office on my way back, so all told it was probably about a half-mile walk. My thigh and butt muscles were saying, "What are you doing up there, anyway?" They have had it pretty easy for the past couple of weeks. After they realized what we were doing was walking, something they dimly remembered, they quit complaining and just got to work. The plows are out. Plows are big, scary, rather dangerous vehicles; you have to watch out for them, since the drivers are high up in their cabs and usually concentrating on what they are doing and not watching for pedestrians. Still, there's something reassuring in the sight of a big yellow snowplow with flashing lights rumbling down the street. It means someone else is out there, civilization has not broken down completely, and we are not cut off from our loved ones. (Besides, Lenny has taken to plowing out our parking space in front of the house for us. He sure doesn't have to. He's just nice.)

Once home, I let Bo loose in the yard while I did the most minimal job of shoveling a path from the back door to the street (that's the door everybody but traveling salesmen and the county assessor uses anyway) while he bounced around in the drifts. Then we fed the chickens and refilled the bird feeders. I couldn't find the bird seed. Maybe we have run out. Anyway I filled the feeders with cracked corn, which, if they will eat it, will be good high-energy keep-warm food.

Now we are inside in a warm, cozy house and I need to get to work. Coffee is on, cats are sleepy, candles are lit, snow is falling outside. I do love my life!

First Winter Storm

And it happened while Barry was driving our two remaining guests -- college students -- back to college in the Twin Cities.

It's a long drive in the best of road conditions, 3-1/2 hours each way. It was quite a bit longer than that because of black ice, blowing snow and slippery roads. And also because Barry had his EMT gear in the car and could not help stopping to assist a couple of times. Once he was first on scene. He said it was a new and wonderful experience for him to see the relief in people's eyes when he walked up with his EMT bag with its luminescent strips and offered to help. Nobody was hurt bad, but he was able to sort out what was what, secure the scene and then hand off to the firemen who eventually answered the 911 call he encouraged one of the women involved to make.

Miss B was with him, for which I was thankful. It's always good not to be alone on a scary drive. And one of the two college students, at least (not the one who is actually related to us but the other one) was very appreciative of the ride home and the risks Barry and Miss B took to return him to school.

Barry's job is extremely tenuous right now, but he is not as worried as one might think, as he is hoping to use it as an opportunity to go back to school and become a nurse. He'd really rather become a paramedic, but their wage tops out quite a bit lower than that of a nurse. Maybe someday he can be both.

And just like that... autumn is here.

Sticky steamy heat on Sunday... on Monday... and on Tuesday. And then sometime Tuesday evening, autumn arrived. I was at the church, working on the treasurer's reports, and when I walked out the door, the air had chilled down about 25 degrees and was dry and breezy.

This morning the sunrise showed what is definitely an autumn sky, not a summer sky. High, wispy mare's tails of clouds lit up like fireworks before the sun ever appeared. If I hadn't been so bleary, I would have taken a photo for you, or tried to. Now it's officially 59 degrees, the wind is blowing hard, and the air is dry and crisp. Makes one want to make a pumpkin pie, or something.

I always have the urge to hunker and hoard at this time of year. I find myself wanting to buy food in bulk, to put things by for the winter, to make sure my family has lots of clothes, to make quilts, et cetera. I have to watch it because I tend to spend more money than our budget will allow on food against what some deep, primitive part of me must think will be the coming ice age.

As I was writing this, I heard voices outside. It was Matt Troendle and the Well Guy! Well Guy evidently didn't get all those messages that Matt was ready to have some wells dug. He says his lead time is about 4 weeks at the moment. They are outside talking right now in the street, standing at right angles, staring off at a point in the distance, the way men do in the Midwest when there is something important to discuss. I am hoping Matt can get him to shave a couple or three weeks off that time estimate. Having them working on the heating/air system only encourages my hunker/hoard proclivities, as I imagine a toasty-warm house as the gales and blizzards scream outside the walls. (Funny. Just yesterday I was wishing the system was running so I could turn on the central air.)

Storming now

Huge windstorm with horizontal rain. Very interesting.

Guess what happens when you leave a Ho-Chunk basket out by the garden because you were weeding and forgot to finish the job?

Rioting and Looting in the Iowa Floods

A Sitemeter check revealed that someone found my blog by searching "iowa looting." Intrigued, I followed the link to see what came up. It turned out to be mostly discussion of how there wasn't any looting, or very little, and why that might be. (I did see a news report of a couple of teens that were arrested for looting empty apartments. Glad they were caught.)

One message board * posted this informational poster on the subject:

Rioting is scheduled following the covered dish dinner on the church grounds.

Casual attire is recommended for the Rioting Event.
Rioting Event Participants are encouraged to register
no later than noon, and to pick up their
free packet on Rioting Safety from the
Local Chamber of Commerce.
It includes a 4 oz sample of sunscreen and
"I Rioted the Iowa Flood" bumper sticker.

First Aid stations will be located every 50 ft within the
Rioting Event area, manned by local Explorer Scouts.

Help make the Iowa Flood Riots a memorable event.

For those Iowans unfamiliar with Rioting Events,
suggested activities include:

• Noisemaking
• Waving Things in the Air
• Throwing Things
• The Stringing of Toilet Paper from Trees
• Spray-Painting of Slogans
• Chanting of Slogans
  

Suggested slogans:

• God Bless America!
• We Support Our Troops!
• Thank You, National Guard!

Remember, a successful riot is a spontaneous riot,
so do come prepared for this event

-- The Iowa Interfaith Council on Safe Rioting
a non-taxpayer funded community volunteer group

* The views expressed on that message board are those of the posters, and this quote implies no blanket endorsement of everything said there. I am not a member of the NRA, for example.

Still Here

And feeling more and more blessed the more we watch the news. We have power, we have clean water, we can get to our jobs and we know where our children are. Not all Midwesterners can say the same. I'm praying!

Oh, and one more thing: I am officially a Bad Daughter. For some reason I got mixed up on my weekends and didn't mail Father's Day gifts in time! My dad's might still make it if I get it out tomorrow but it's not for certain. My father-in-law's has no chance whatsoever in getting to him. Well, unless I overnight it. I'll have to check how that could be done. Trouble is, it's something HEAVY. And I was going to send some books along for my mother-in-law who is at home recovering from major surgery and could use some distraction.

Grrr. Bad daughter. Bad, bad, bad!

And it begins again

Storms are rolling across upper Iowa, and the first tornadoes have now been reported. And a lot of hail. And a lot more water. Lots of evacuations in cities to the west and southwest of us today (nearly all of Iowa is to the west and/or southwest of us). It looks fine here so far, but a Facebook group has formed to post photos, and it's pretty grim in places like Waterloo and Coralville.

A Reprieve

We woke up to the strange sight of a sky that didn't have water falling out of it. The forecast for the day is a very nice day, partly cloudy and in the 70s. Tomorrow the storms are to start again, but we get a breather today.

I understand the Governor is heading up to our county (he'll probably go to Postville, not here, because Postville makes all the news, for various reasons). I hope he authorizes a whacking pile of aid because a lot of our farmers have had their crops washed right away this weekend. We had a late planting this spring anyway, because of the Winter that Wouldn't End, and they were already nervous about this growing season. And now this.

Barry saw a dead deer tumbling down Winnebago Creek yesterday, and hundreds of moles, bunnies, snakes and mice racing ahead of the flood. I'm sure it has been hard on a lot of animals, both domestic and wild. I worry about the baby birds in the nests; how their parents kept them from drowning in such a sustained onslaught of rain, I don't know.

My plans for the day are to get a lot of laundry dried out on the clothesline (everything got wet, it seems, what with an EMT running into the house for quick dry-clothes changes and the fact that we were using a lot of towels to soak up puddles in the basement), to make sure Master K makes it to his trombone lesson, and to do about 1200 lines (Mondays and Fridays are now my big-push days, as I can get paid more for work done on those two days if I meet certain requirements).