Random

I love having random days off. Especially when going into work would have meant building an ark!

Signs of New England Spring

This morning I saw a beautiful robin on my lawn. It was running around trying to dodge the falling ice pellets.

Sigh.

When I Count My Blessings...

at this time of year, I always count Clariton twice. This is a bad year for allergies and I'm almost thankful when it rains hard or gets cold because I get a break from the itching and sniffling.

Yesterday was especially fun with the pollen, Easter lilies and the perfumy people at church.

Another blessing? I wasn't in Halifax for the Easter Blizzard of '07. That really sucks.

Had a nice relaxing afternoon with friends eating Easter Dinner (and Easter dessert - no more Lent - yay). After dinner I got to see a whole new side of my friend Bert as he put the smack-down (literally) on my friend Jen's huge teddybear Snuggles. It was like a WWF show. Poor Snuggles just laid there and took it.

Got more books and resources for the justice study. It's going to be a spring of reading for me. I have to head out tomorrow and look at buying another bookcase. Or, buy a table cloth to drape over the piles of books and start using them as furniture.

Melodrama

Is it just me, or are weather forecasters put on this earth to cause me stress? Do they have to pass some kind of test to prove that they can over react to anything? Do they feel their worth is proven by their power to make us cower on command?

I ask because weather.com seems to be having some kind of a fit. Yesterday I checked and there was something yellow across the top of my screen. And it was blinking. In effect the message is "hey idiot - if you haven't been paying attention something's going to happen soon." This I find useful. This tells me to be careful what I plan and make sure I'm wearing suitable shoes (that could be my mantra for every morning).

This morning the banner is flashing orange and tells me something major is about to happen. So, I go and read the warning. 3 inches of snow. Okay, I'll bring my laptop home tonight and be prepared. Not exactly what I would call major. And why must everything flash?

Now I went on and there's a red blinking banner telling me there's a SEVERE WEATHER ALERT. Same storm as this morning, upgraded to 5 inches.

While I appreciate that I should take some precautions, is this really SEVER WEATHER? Seriously? Where does that leave us to go with say tornadoes, hurricanes, major flooding or anything else that might be severe? How do you make it more attention getting than red and blinking?

I appreciate that the kind folks at weather.com are trying to warn me, but given the state of my nerves this week, flashing something that indicates that the world is going to end is a little too much drama for 5 inches of snow.

Or maybe it's just that I'm Canadian.

Hibernation

Every year I vow that this winter will be different. This year I won't drop all my hobbies after Christmas and slowly retreat to my house - not to be seen again until April. Every year it happens again. I walk past my photography equipment and sigh. I'm sure there are nice things out there to photograph, a) I'm lazy, b) it's cold out there, c) I'm lazy. This year I'm not even cooking or baking that much. Yet, none of my hobby stuff comes out.

The first big storm of the season is supposed to hit tomorrow night. I'm guessing that won't help curb my instinct to crawl under the covers and not emerge until spring!

Frigid

It should tell you something about the weather here today that everything I own either says "Figure Skating" or "Canada" on it. Today is not a day for mere mortals or fashionable attire.

Leaving my house this morning I was wearing an LL Bean turtleneck (from Maine where people know how to make clothes for the cold), a figure skating fleece vest, a Roots Canada fleece sweater and my winter jacket. That's layering people! The problem came when I got in the car and a) had a hard time getting behind the steering wheel, and then b) had a hard time driving due to my bulkiness. Shoulder checks had the interference of scarves, collars and hats. It generally is hard to maneuver when you're twice your normal width. Added to that, when I was zipping up my jacket I accidently caught my nose in the zipper. How do you do that?? Seriously? It takes an unprecidented level of clumsiness!

For those not here, the temperature when I left my house this morning was 2 (that's -17 for those playing along at home in Canada) with a windchill of -10 (-23 in Canada). Too cold! Of course, I should be thankful I was going to work as I really can't afford to heat my house on days like this!

Hope everyone's safely inside and warm!