Spring Is Trying to Sproing

Ho man the weather yesterday was so nice that I almost had to do one of those hippy welcome dances in the front yard.  But seeing as I am not a hippy, and that the weather guys are saying that we are in for some rather nasty weather starting tomorrow, I refrained.  (Plus the fact that I would feel like a super tool as I am not the long skirt/corn rowed/Maria Von Trapp twirling kind of girl.)  It was warm, +15, and sunny, with blue skies and birds tweeting.  Exactly the kind of February that I never, ever experienced when I was a kid. 

In fact I remember vividly one February day as a twelve year old a friend and I had been bush whacking and found a huge rock which took some effort to climb, we finally managed to get to the top just when the sun came out and shone upon our heads.  We were out of the wind, and warm for the first time since going outside.  It felt like heaven.  It almost felt a little bit like summer.  But then the wind picked up, the clouds moved in, and the temperature dropped to -20.  I remember this feeling of vast disappointment in the world and just knowing that winter was never going to end. 

Which brings me to my point.  Its February!  It was plus 15 yesterday, and plus nine today.  How freakin cool is that?  I love that it isn't a hundred below zero.  I can feel that spring is just hiding around the corner.  I am loving that.  Plus I am no longer a kid so a few weeks no longer feels like FOREVER.  (Unless you happen to be waiting for the last day of work.) 

I even managed to go for a rather decent run yesterday.  Perhaps that is why the universe seemed to be so benign.  Ah the small joys of life.  Peace out man. 

Yawn

There is nothing that makes a person more exhausted then being around little people.  Yes you guessed correctly, I had a prolonged visit from the Poop Brigade.  They go and go, and go, and go, all the lib long day.  Which really isn't the issue at all.  I recall being exactly like that when I was a kid, in fact, I had a kid that was exactly like that.  No the issue is that they go all day but they are at that stage where they spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to kill themselves, or at the very least do serious bodily injury to themselves.  That is what I find to be exhausting, the whole having to be on guard all day long.  I may have mentioned that years ago I used to watch David Letterman, he used to have people on a segment called "Stupid Human Tricks" one of them was Velcro Man, this guy used to have a wall made out of one side of velcro, and a suit made from the other side.  He then used to jump on a small minitramp and stick himself to the wall.  That is what you need when you have tiny people around.  That way when you have to do something you can just stick them to the wall for awhile and know that they won't be able to self-harm. 

So the following is an ongoing discussion between me and the hubby for the last couple of weeks. 

Hubby: My arm still hurts. 

Me: You should rest it. 

Hubby: I've been resting it forever and it still hurts. 

Me: It hasn't been forever, its only been the last couple of weeks and you keep using it and reinjuring it. 

Hubby: I'm pretty sure its been three months since I hurt it.  And I haven't done anything with it since then I've been resting it all the time. 

Me: What about all the insulation you've been adding to the Wookie Cave?

Hubby:  Well obviously that doesn't count because it isn't work. 

Me: Hmmm.

Hubby: I'm bored.  The weather is just perfect to cut down some trees.  If I cut down trees that wouldn't be using it would it? 

Me: Actually that would be the opposite of not using it. 

Hubby:  You don't know that for sure. 

Me: Um? 

Wind and then Some

Holy Hannah but it was blowing all night.  For awhile there I thought that perhaps I was living on the east coast but in fact had not made it past Alberta.  It was blowing pretty good last night and for some reason it kept me awake.  I'd sleep for a bit then wake with a start when a good gust rattled the shack.  Happily it is no longer like that, but it took most of the day to settle down.

And just to change the subject completely, here's something that no one tells you when you are a dog person, cat's are useless.  Yes indeedy they are.  Well actually they aren't useless, they are the negative of useless, meaning that not only are they useless, but they also damage the place they live in and make you want to BBQ their little asses.

You can't run with them.  You can barely train them to do stuff because they aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the case, if you know what I mean.  They shed all over the place.  And they try to wreck stuff by kneading, and sharpening their claws.  So like I said, worse than useless.  Which means that I am now stuck with black fur ball of uselessness.  Okay I do have to admit that she does have one quality which is positive, she makes me laugh every once in awhile because she is such a dipshit. 

I am hoping that I will at least be able to get a story, or two, out of her.  She really does have to somehow start earning her keep.  (Okay bring on the "how dare you say that about cats" rants, I'm ready.)

Pitter, Patter

Boy-za, today started out very, very, very wet.  The rain came down in sheets, and buckets, and other metaphor like comparisons to a lot of water pouring out of the sky.  I decided to go for a run while it was raining, I had the sliding door wide open and was running inside while it was raining outside, but I am not sure if it was raining more outside, or more inside from the buckets o sweat coming off my body.  Yuppers I was soaked by the end. 

The good news is that I am still running, and my body is not completely falling apart in the process, which means that I must still be doing the correct thing.  Easing into to without going hog wild.  I am starting with a brisk 15 minute walk, followed up by a less than brisk 21 minute run (yeah I already added another six minutes on since I started) and then followed by a pretty brisk-brisker-briskest-brisk 18 minute walk afterwards.  So good news is that my knees and hips are still okay.  Yippee. 

The best thing about my foray back into the world of running is that I am starting to feel pretty pumped afterwards.  Its not like a runner's high or anything like that yet, but my endorphins are definitely starting to kick in and I am feeling better about life, the universe, and everything.  I also am okay with the answer being 42 so it's all good. 

Good news is that I have my homework done for tomorrow, and I also am a story ahead of the game for Friday...I think.  I will have to go over it again just to make sure.  Anyway that is my day in a nutshell...if the nutshell happens to be this fidgety, spring loaded woman with short hair and many jiggly parts! 

Dark Have Been My Dreams of Late

I've just had the most craziest ideas swirling around in my brain as of late...but more on that later.  Right now I am seriously shnarkered.  That is a state where you allow the hubby to mix you a drink before supper, and then decide that one drink isn't enough so you mix yourself another drink.  Add to that the fact that I don't drink very often and that means I have a pretty good glow on. 

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny, glorious kind of day.  And seeing as we have had a couple of weeks of cloudy, snow stormy weather it was frikkin awesome!!!  Like frakkin awesome...like totally rad man.  So nice in fact that I put on the ole walkin shoes and took the hellhoundicus out for a walk.  It was muddy, and sweet.  Of course as I was walking my brain was engaged in the story making process and it was coming up with some pretty scary shit.  It's weird, that is all I seem to be coming up with lately, dark, creepy, and bizarre.  I'd blame it on the meds I'm taking but I'm not taking any.  I'd blame it on the creepy movies I've been watching, but I haven't been watching anything creepy.  I'd blame it on the bizarro-land books I've been reading, but I haven't been reading anything.  (Oh, maybe that's the problem, I'm never not reading anything lately I've only been perusing the news.  Wait a minute....)

Cool news...today I received a copy of the magazine I have an article published in.  My first hard copy.  I've been contributing a lot of stories to a really cool on-line zine called Life As A Human, you should check it out.  It is wayyyyyyy cool with a lot of really good articles.  The only thing that would have made this particular one better is if my mom was still alive, it is all about how her and dad escaped from Hungary in 1957 and decided that Canada was the place for them.  I think she would have been seriously stoked.  I should have done it sooner.  Coulda-shoulda...I guess it's too late to beat myself up over that though. 

Well I had better go and eat something before I really get silly...like have another drink.  See Iron Bess drink....see Iron Bess throw up all over the floor! 

Burgle, murgle, gwap...

The dog is sleeping on her bed beside me and all I can hear is, "burgle, murgle, gwap, glurk, glurk."  Not the typical sounds you expect to hear coming from an animal of the canine persuasion.  It is her stomach making those noises, so I don't have to get the camera out and record it for Youtube.  She hasn't been eating very much these days (we thought perhaps she had gotten into something over at the neighbour's place) and this just makes me think that we are right).  You see normally we do not allow the hellhound to wander around willy, nilly on her own, because - a) she is a complete dork.  b) she has a knack for getting herself into mischief.  c) did I mention she is a dork?  But lately I have been giving her a tiny bit of freedom with the hopes that she will stay in the yard.  I guess her nose just isn't going to allow that plan to come into being. 

One of the problems is that our neighbour throws their bones and scrapes out onto the front yard with the idea that the ravens will take it away.  (Yeah, I thought so too.)  They said that since we got the dog they stopped doing it, but I think they must have restarted because they saw that the dog was always tied up unless hanging out with either me or the hubby.  So she has been going over and partaking of the feast methinks.  Either that or she's swallowed a few little gremlins whole and they are making some serious noises to try and get out.  Which I guess brings me back to the conclusion that it is still too early to allow her freedom on her own.  Even though we only have one neighbour, and we live deep in the sticks, dogs will find shit to get into which will make their owners lose sleep.  Kind of like tiny, little humans...their main focus in life is to try and figure out ways of either maiming themselves, or each other. 

We are in the middle of another winter blizzard.  It looks craptastic out there.  When I opened the door to throw the hellhound out, just in case she decided to puke in the house, the front door had a perfect replica of itself all in white.  The wind has been blowing snow directly against the back of the house so consequently a big wind drift has lodged itself against the door.  I figured if I didn't want to get snowed in for a day or two I had better go out and dig out the front step and door.  Yes it looks craptastic, yes the wind is blowing the shit horizontally, yes it is all things yucky...sigh...at least it isn't cold.  It will be so much fun to take the hound for her walk.  Maybe I will bring the GPS so I can find my way home. 

Sloooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I have no idea what is going on with my internet connections it is beyond slow.  In fact it is so slow I am thinking that perhaps they have decided to use the Pony Express method of getting these electrons hooked into the WWW thing. 

I went for a run today and made the poor dog even more miserable than she has been.  I think she is going to start hating my treadmill pretty darned soon. My legs are a tich sore but nothing to write home about...or nothing to write about at home...as the case may be.  

I'd better see if I can publish this before the internet bombs for reals. 

Holy smoking bejeebers is it ever hot in here.  Now it could be a hot flash, because lets face it I am known to have one or hundred of them a day, but it could also be the fact that we have a fire on and it is now in the +5 or 6 range already so consequently the shack is smokin. 

Today is one of those beautiful, sunny, warm days that a person can only really appreciate after three or four days of brutal cold and shit weather.  In fact last night it actually dropped into the -20's, but once the morning rolled around it quickly went up into the plus zone.  Unfortunately I can't take advantage of the weather right this second because we have to make another trip to the bank to sign some more papers.  Honestly, in the past year I have been to the bank more times than I have been prior to this in my entire life.  And...I do pretty much all my normal day to day banking on line. 

This is Karson taking advantage of the fact that it is a million degrees in the house and I have the windows open to allow some of the lifesaving cool air in so I do not die of hyperthermia while I am finishing up my blog.  

To finish off the day I will be getting my hair chopped off because it is driving me insane by hanging all over my face and neck, then we are off the the kidlet's place to help snowblow the windrows from her garage.  Digging out after a storm is half the fun eh. 

Snow eh.

Well it looks like it has finally stopped the whole blowing, and bit of snowing stuff (at least for awhile).  I hauled out the treadmill, opened the sliding door in front of it, and went for a bit of a run while watching the snow devils skip and swoosh around the lake.  The temperatures are once again at a place where they are tolerable.  Only -2 while I write this. 

The odd thing is that I did not really get the impression that it snowed a lot because there are large swaths of land where I can actually see the grass through the stuff, but when I took a closer look at the stuff I realized that we actually did get some snow...and the wind blew all of it into these big honking wind drifts.  Hubby suggested that I go and take some pictures off the deck, but I wasn't sure if the full impact would come through so I ended up slogging through the stuff so I could get a closer look at it. 

The following are pictures of the neighbour's small cabin next to Kitpu Estates, or more accurately surrounded by Kitpu Estates.  See that white wall next to it...that was not there two days ago. 

This is me getting a bit closer so you I can get a better shot of exactly how deep this stuff really is.  It's freaking deep.  Oh and from where I am standing I am up to my butt in the stuff. 

This wind drift must be over ten feet high as I couldn't even jump and touch the top of it.  This is me standing beneath and taking a picture upwards. 

This last picture is of the little weeny wind drift behind Kitpu Estates.  Shh, don't tell anyone because everyone will want one. 

Beware the Storms of February

Beware the storms of February!  Not exactly beware the ides of March, but still has a nice ring to it.  Last night the mercury dropped to -25 at the coldest, this morning it was hovering at the -20 mark when I left for my meeting.  That is probably the coldest it has been since I moved to this land.  And even though it was a tad bit chilly it did not seem as cold as it was yesterday.  What a difference a bit of wind makes.

The hubby, bless his pointy little head, has fixed the heater in my car, and put some stuff in the front grill to make it a lot less susceptible to being cold as all get out...cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey...colder than a well digger's ass...cold enough to freeze hell over...and the cliches are done...in my car.  So I was actually quite toasty on my drive today.  Yay me.

Well poetry critiquing went as it usually does...blech.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't hate it as much if I actually wrote the stuff, or was somehow invested in it, but unfortunately at this stage of my life I just can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for it.  Maybe when the spring springs around here I will be all glorying in the burgeoning of life, the universe, and everything, and I will become motivated to write poetry, maybe...but I doubt it.  Sigh. 

Anyway such is life, and such is the life of a wanna be writer.  But in the mean time we have prepared for the impending storm of doom which is predicted to hit us sometime this evening, and snow a little, then work itself up into a real howler and then drop a ton of snow on us tomorrow.  I did my part by hacking up a couple of pieces of wood as kindling, buying milk, eggs, bread, and then coming home and settling in for a day of hanging in the house until such time as we need to go out and shovel ourselves out.  Happy storm day all.  

Class

I had a great class today.  My writing was less than stellar, but there was something about the class that just resonated with me today.  I really, really heart taking classes that you actually get something from.  It's also just nice to be around like minded people.  I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even though outside it is currently -19 and getting colder. 

By the way, I just started watching How I Met Your Mother, and I must say it is a pretty great series.  So far the writing has been excellent, quirky, and has given me some pretty good belly laughs.  I recommend season one and two...season three is also starting out pretty good.  I love Slaps-Giving Day. 

I want ta bop with ya baby all night long....

Second run down, millions to go.  My running discs are MIA so I dug through some old ones and put them into the machine-thing and ran to the oldies.  Dan Seal, Gordon Lightfoot, Boney M, Lynerd Skynerd, and many more.  I was sweating to the oldies, but not with Richard Simmons (yig).  I even did so much as sing along to the oldies.  Wow too bad you weren't here because I was rocking on baby. 

So this run was a tich bit faster than the last.  The knees were a tich bit more twingey, but not enough to be ouchie.  Water poured off my body, as per usual, even though I had the window open to the brisk outside air.  Once again the critters were locked out of the room because they have decided that the treadmill is the MOST exciting thing they have ever seen.  Even though they have probably seen it every day of their short little lives.  The whole moving thing seems to be what is facinating about it. 

Today I finished two stories, rewrote my five starts, and got my poetry critiquing done without having an aneurysm.  Oh Google, how I love you.  Just type in, Best methods for critiquing poetry, then pick your choice.  I worked like a hot dam.  So off to class tomorrow, here's hoping that the roads are nice. 

Behind...as Usual

I am behind in my homework.  Grrrrr.  This is getting to be a real habit with me as of late.  And what with everything I have to do it shouldn't come as a surprise.  Yes...ha...ha.  I know I've heard this from other people who are in the same situation as me, but how in the hell did I ever manage to get anything done while I was still working full time? 

Yesterday I was feeling all woo-hoo over the fact that I actually managed to go for a run then finish my next article and actually get is slightly polished before sending if off to my editor.  In fact I was feeling down right smug about the whole process.  But then today dawned bright and early and when I popped my eyes open I had two things go through my head.  1) I really have to call Geri cause its been ages since we spoke.  (Geri has been dead for almost ten years.)  2) I still haven't received this week's submission from my writers group. 

Obviously it didn't take me a long time to figure out thought number one, that was brought on by a dream I had about me, Geri, Glen, Colin, and Don getting together for a BBQ.  That was the group of us who used to meet every Thursday for lunch and we called ourselves the Haha Club.  The rule was you had to arrive with at least one joke to tell the assembly.  Colin, who was the mayor of our small hamlet, and a minister, (which I did not hold against him) was the best joker of us all.  Don, who was the editor of our local paper, had the longest jokes of all.  Geri and Glen, who worked together in Glen's law office, told jokes as a unit, one would start a joke, and the other would finish it.  I don't remember how I was at the joke telling, but based on present day ability, I expect I was pretty bad. 

My second thought of the morning turned out to be unnecessary because as I was making supper at 8am my iPad binged at me and I received an email with this weeks submission to critique.  It was POETRY!  OMG, I suck royal bee pollen at critiquing poetry.  I like poetry, usually the rhyming kind, I have even on occasion memorized poetry, Kubla Khan for example, but I suck...SUCK...at critiquing it. 

So I took the dog and went for a walk to clear my head, blow out the cobwebs, and of course let the pup smell the doggy newspaper to her heart's content.  Now it is getting to be later on in the afternoon (my witching hour) I still don't have my critiquing done.  And to top it all off I have decided that I do not like my Five Starts for my homework from last week and I want to redo it.  Which means that I am reeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy behind.  Sigh. 

On a happier note my legs don't feel too, too bad today.  A little twingy in the glutes and the adductors, but nothing to write home about.  Which means that I did just the right amount of distance and speed on my run yesterday.  It also means that the bit of stretching I did after the fact also paid off.  I haven't decided if I am going to run tomorrow, or wait one more day after that.  The one thing I have learned in the many, many, many years of self abuse through exercise is not to overdo it right from the beginning because down that road lies injury. 

You may also be asking if I have so much work to do what the hell am I doing sitting here blogging.  Your right, I should be doing my homework.  Quit nagging already.  ;p

Cowabunga!

Hey great news!  I finally got off my lazy butt and decided to go for a run today.  I was just setting up the treadmill and all my water and stuff and started to have these "Ah maybe I don't feel like it," thoughts.  Then I thought, "WTF?"  It has been months, and months since my last run and here I am having the perfect opportunity and then I start being all lazy about it.  Yikes, that is not like me at all.  Happily I powered through those negative thoughts and got on with it.  So yay me. 

Granted I only ran 20 minutes, and probably slower then the speed of a glacier, but at least I managed to get it done.  And the best part about the whole thing was that I was not a hurtin unit through it all.  This last spring, before mom got sick, when I started running again I was having some serious issues with the hips and knees.  I was a tad bit worried after the first five minutes when my left knee started to twinge, but that went away and I felt fine through out.  So one run down, 4,572,862 more runs to go.

Well the dire weather warnings have come to naught here in the south shore, but I hear tell that up in Cape Breton it is a whole other story.  Bad winds, lots of snow, and blizzardy kind of conditions.  It is snowing here, and it is windy, but so far it is just normal everyday kind of winter weather. Truth be told I really don't care what kind of weather we get as long as it is nice on Thursday and Friday, I have to drive to Lunenburg and Mahone Bay to class. 

This is my interpretation of a Partridge in a Pear Tree.  It is called, some Snowballs in a Plum Tree.  

Batten Down the Hatches...maybe

Yesterday I enjoyed a nice little walk sans snow, in fact there was not a bank, flake, nor ball of the stuff to be found anywhere.  This morning...serious flakage.  In fact it looks kind of purdy out there.  And as par for the course here on the very edge of the world the weather wizards are predicting dire warnings of snow, wind, and blizzard conditions.  It may, or may not, happen.  This is winter number three of me living here and so far I have discovered that the weather people are even more out to lunch on this end of the country than they were on the far west side.

Just thought I would put a picture in to contrast the one from the day before where I took the picture of the tree which was blown down.  (Tree has been cleaned up and dragged away.  But you can still see the broken stump on the right where it had come from.)  

Typically they predict severe winter conditions, and the sun comes out, the temperatures warm up, and the birds sing a happy tune.  Then they predict sunshine and happiness, the clouds move in, the rain begins to fall, and the birds sit in the trees with frowny beaks.  In no other profession then perhaps politics can you be so fracked up and still keep your job.

Which brings me to my point.  They are predicting storms of the apocalyptic magnitude for this area in the next couple of days.  There is a pretty good chance we may end up going out sunbathing, but in the mean time we will be battening down the hatches, filling the feeder with birdseed, pulling out our winter garments, and looking for the sunblock.

Wish us luck, we may, or may not, need it. 

Thar She Blows...Again

Yup here we are just recovering from another three and a half days of gale force winds.  She huffed and she puffed and she blew a whole shit-bucket full of trees down.  Have a gander at one of the trees that ended up horizontal...not a good position for a tree, in our yard.

Now some of you more observant people may have noticed that said tree is lying directly under the wires which run from the pole to our house.  Now you might think that said horizontal tree was shorter than the power lines and therefore posed no threat.  You would be wrong.  This particular tree had been the topic of discussion here at Kitpu Estates, off and on, for the past year, because it was rotten and not looking so well.  But because it wasn't actually on our property it wasn't handled with the typical alacrity things like this are dealt with by the hubby.  So it stood waiting for the next big wind.  It broke about a third of the way up and came a whacking down with authority.

How it missed the actual power lines is something of a mystery.  I for one think that it may have actually been a dimension hopping tree so during the actual falling part of the scenario it flickered out of existence for a brief moment thus missing the lines.  The hubby's theory, and I quote, "Fucked if I know." 

As you may also have deduced from the picture the wind/rain/warm spell also managed to melt all the snow away.  The lake even had a brief spell of having water on the ice, but as of last night it has frozen back over again.

I took the dog for a walk this afternoon and finished with a little jaunt up to the back forty to do some woodpile inspection, and yeah, you guessed it the wind blew a tiny bit of stack number one over, almost all of stack number two, and stack number three.  So guess what we get to do yet again?  Oh joy.  Lucky for me I don't really mind stacking wood all that much, it kind of reminds me of doing puzzles but on a much larger scale.