Who Woulda Thunk This Would Happen on the 24th of May

Tax Day 2009 - 4:40 p.m.

Winter Redux

And in less than two days, it's April...

The only way to look at it is as water -- we need it!

Or really great spring skiing.

Just Wait a Few Hours...

or: This One's For You, Elrond Hubbard (and svetx)


Yes, my last blog post showed the first tender crocus of spring and it was 74 degrees Sunday.

This is Utah, this is spring, this is inevitable.

Good Thing I Like Snow

As always, sure am glad I'm not a bird.

Snowphoid Wunxie

Seems like where ever I go lately, it snows. I left Utah on Friday, December 19th. It was snowing. I arrived at the Detroit Airport at the end of a snowstorm which had deposited a foot of snow.

Such fun driving in the dark to my cousin's house. The trip which usually takes about 45 minutes took two hours. I saw 15 or 16 wrecks and slide-offs on my way. Thank goodness the Engineer had loaned me his BitchInABox (Garmin nüvi®), so all I had to do was listen to her boss me around instead of looking for street signs.

It was cold, single digits in the mornings, so the snow didn't go away. And it kept snowing intermittently throughout the week.

On Christmas Eve the temperature briefly went above freezing and the snow started melting. Then, of course, the cold descended again along with more snow. But first came rain, and me out in my EldestNiece's driveway shoveling a couple feet of accumulated snow along with her 13 year old son. I figured I needed to be shoveling too in order to lend my lecture on responsibility some credence. He and I both ended up with blisters. I hope the lecture made at least a little bit of an impression. If it did, the blisters were well worth it.

Slippin' and slidin', I was the designated driver with a car full of well lubricated relatives. The Twin had rented a big, rear wheel drive, boat of a Lincoln Town Car that flashed a dashboard icon of a little yellow car with slippy tracks when the tires lost traction. Like I couldn't already tell the car was going sideways.

By the time we left on the 26th, the snow berms along the sides of the roads were three to four feet high, darn impressive.

The Engineer drove back to the Detroit Airport in the front wheel drive Chevy Cobalt I'd rented. Since the road was an ice skating rink for about half the drive, I think he was glad I had rented a more modest car than his brother's Town Car.

We arrived home at midnight at the tail end of a major snow storm.

Since the Engineer had thoroughly fortified himself with wine during the flight and layover, I got to drive home. I was fearfully anticipating trying to navigate the dread, car-eating, driveway with a foot of new snow on it, but sometime miracles do occur...

The driveway had been cleaned! I have the best across the street neighbor in the world.

It's Snowing Again

I think it's serious about it. Sachi went out to see if there was any activity at the bird feeder. She's a brave and sturdy kitty. Here's what I think is necessary on a day like today. This ain't no sissy hot cocoa, it's

Wake you up,
Heat you through,
Grow hair on your chest,
Hot Mocha.

1 cup of left over coffee
A dash of salt
1 spoonfull of instant expresso
1.5 spoonsfull of sugar
0.5 spoonfull of cocoa powder
canned milk

Pour the coffee into a small saucepan on high heat, lightly salt it (really), add the instant expresso powder. When it starts to boil, sprinkle in the sugar, then add the cocoa powder. Keep stirring until it works itself into a roiling boil and almost froths over, then pour in canned milk until it's as light as you like. Cool enough to not burn your tongue and enjoy (once you get over the jolt.)

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

At least the snow part.

All this between noon and 4:30 today.

Sunday Morning Snow

This is the earliest I've ever made a Picnic Table Report, and I didn't take these photos until almost noon, so substantial melting had already taken place. Darn impressive for not quite the middle of October.

I wonder if any of my veggies have survived under their dual blankets of spunbond polyester and snow...

This must be what's called "the last rose of summer."

Snowy June In the High Uintas

And supposed to get more over the next couple of days...

It's Supposed To Be Springtime

It was 80 degrees yesterday and now it's snowing again.This is getting to be a little redundant.

P.S. May 1st there was three inches of snow on the picnic table.

Out Like a Lion

March 31, 2008

It keeps on coming. We got five or six inches here last night, but I'll bet Kate of High Altitude Gardening has it up to her belly button again.

Still Schizophrenic

Ah March!

Yesterday it was in the 60's, this morning, 30's and snow.

But already melting.

Midnight Snow

Schizophrenic March

This morning dawned sunny and balmy. It actually got up to 61, the warmest it's been in months. The snow was all gone from the picnic table.

Then the wind started to blow. The temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in one hour. Rain began to fall and quickly turned to snow. There's about 4 inches on the picnic table now.

That's March.

Thar She Blows!

The snow, that is.

My neighbor's poor snow dude is up to his belly button in the drifted snow that shut down I15 for hours last night.

Evidence

'Twas a lively in my yard last night. I can tell by the tracks in the snow. I dragged the trash bucket down to the curb at 7:00 this morning before it was all the way light (in my opinion, anyway) then came back out with the camera.

Kitsu wanted to help me outside until I started dragging the can. I don't mind if the mule deer prune my shrubs. I sympathize with any critter hungry enough to eat juniper.I suspect the little leaping critter is a squirrel and it lives in my shed. That would explain the holes in the bird seed bags.I like tree rats, they're welcome to some bird seed, even if the Engineer does gripe about sunflower seed shells on the shed floor.

But My Pants Stayed Dry

Last night the wind came in and rattled the house. For several hours it rained, pitting and melting last week's big snow. It was 37° at 11:00 am. Then the wind went dead and pellets of snow started to fall straight down like little white balls of lead. I could hear them whacking on the roof. The wind whipped up again and the snow danced like a mad dervish. It completely covered the wet ground within a couple of minutes.

I had a noon hair cut appointment. As I was leaving at 11:45 the temperature had fallen to 21° and there was about two inches of snow on the ground. I pulled out of the dread car-eating driveway and headed down the hill.

Two-thirds of the way to my destination, I took a corner at a crawl. My tires decided not to grip and the car went into free fall.

I chanted my mantra, "Expletive Deleted! Oh Evil Language! Oh Holy Expletive Deleted!" as I tried to get my car sideways enough to the curb to bounce off of it instead of over and down the embankment into the yard of the trampoline house.

Whump-bump. I was up over the curb. My mind's eye and viscera saw my car tumbling down the embankment, landing on its crushed top by the trampoline frame.

The car slid across the sidewalk and a tire caught on something at the edge of the lawn that gave enough purchase to send the car back towards the street.

Adrenaline continued to pump through my blood like a flash flood, but my pants stayed dry.

Deciding my haircut could wait for another day, I took the shortest route home.

I am not going out again today. And maybe not tomorrow.

Winter Skylight

My bathroom has no window, instead it has a skylight. There are three smaller ones running the length of the hall as well.

I love the natural light they bring into the house. My favorite part, though, is when visitors try to turn off the bathroom light and can't figure out why the switch doesn't work.

It doesn't happen as often in the winter as during the rest of the year because the snow puts a bit of a cramp on the skylight's style.

It's Snowing Again

It's been snowing since before dawn. Sachi wants to know if I can do anything about it.

'Fraid not.