Grounded

We woke up this morning to another monumental dump of snow. We are becoming quite blase about it. Ginger pokes her nose between the blind and the sill and takes in the view, then she asks to be let on the bed. That means that I must get out, make my side of the bed, and pull up her dog blanket, which she has mistaken for her royal robe. She won't get up on the bed without it being in place. Unless of course the royal robe isn't on the bed and we are not home, or we are in another room or its the middle of the night and she is cold. Well, you know, she has her rules and we have ours. Ours don't count.

About 8 inches it looks like. If this was November, I would panic. By late fall I have forgotten how to drive and I would have worried all night long about how I was going to manage on slippery streets and I wouldn't have had a wink of sleep.

It is March, more than half way through it actually and we are so blase, I can't find the ecute mark so you will have to fogive me. I could drive a zamboni now or a tundra buggy. I have no fear. If I have made it this far, I feel that I can keep on going.

But then, if I had to drive over the mountains I would be in cardiac arrest.

Yesterday I spent another couple of hours in the new ride. Sitting in the car in the garage. The car has so much stuff in it that needs to be learned.

She talks...she tells me stuff and I can tell her stuff. I can tell her about the weather and interest rates, I tell her how I am worried about the little sores on the end of my nose from my 'nose cancer' treatment . I tell her about my Dad in hospital with pneumonia. I can tell her about what I made for dinner and how good the salad dressing was.

She tells me to repeat myself, and I do. She offers suggestions, for instance a radio station I might like, or she tries to make a phone call. Like any good friend would do. Then, just when she knows the conversation is getting boring, she says goodbye. Just like that...'Goodbye".

She needs a name...Gen? Sissy? I will need help with this.

I found the flux capacitor. But, I couldn't figure out how to open the trunk.

I remember my little Datsun. Orange like a pumpkin, shaped like a cardboard box and just about as aerodynamic. 4 on the floor. Manual everything. Boy, that little thing could fly, it was invincible in snow, you could pop wheelies and spin 360's.

It never failed me until the day that his highness jammed so much snow into the front end that it just stopped. We had to wait until spring, or a chinook to get it going again.


I am not going anywhere today that shank's pony can't take me. Don't want to splash my new car or get into a collision. Better off home learning to speak 'car'.

First Day of Spring...Yippee. The dog poo is still frozen to the ground and unmoveable for probably another 2 weeks. Oh well it will just have to stay there while we are whizzing around town in our new car. Now! that is a learning curve. Gotta figure out how to work the GPS and the the blue tooth and how to open the back doors.

Is Winter Stuck Here?

Yesterday Ginger agreed with me that a trip out to the country would be fun. The day was warm, I think it got to 9 degrees, that is celcius of course.
Warm enough for a hoodie. If there had been no snow on the ground we could probably have gone out in short sleeves. The clouds were building up in the west and the weather man said that we should expect flurries after dinner. But, for now the sun was shining and the warm breeze felt soft on my cheeks.
I thought that since Bryan was busy inundating John C, the bass trombone guru, with 'you sent it' files that he would never miss us.
What a glorious day, the wind was strong but relatively warm, and we got out to Linda's place by 2:30 pm. Travis was cooking a late brunch or a brinner, or lunbreakner. Anyway it was cheesy eggs and bacon and muffins. Delicious. I felt like a glutton because I had eaten lunch, it smelled so good though I didn't confess to not really being hungry and ate it with relish.
We went out to play with the girls. They both have heavy winter coats and they had spent most of the morning flirting with the boys next door. Whinnying over the fence and when they saw us they came right over expecting scratches and treats. We obliged them. Jewel checked out all my pockets and gently investigated my pant legs.
No cookies left, we asked them if they wanted to go for a walk. They both walked toward the gate and we put halters on them and started down the icy drive. I had to leash Ginger because it is nearly impossible to manage a horse on a halter and dog who thinks for herself. Not much traffic ever goes down that road, but when you least need to deal with a skittish animal that is when the cars and trucks come out.
We walked them down to the creek, Maggie was unsure of her footing, there were some icy patches, and she slipped once or twice.
We had to negotiate a steep enbankment and then a pile of dead fall from last year's flood so tall that see neither Maggie or Jewel could see over.
Suddenly she stopped and refused to go on. I tugged at her halter and she eventually decided to try a little bit further down the path. Not ten feet along she stopped again and then lay down in the snow and rolled. She twisted around and rolled and rolled. What horse joy. You could see the smile on her face. When she stood up the ground was covered with horse hair.
Finally we got them down to the creek and we began to walk along the thick ice and snowy surface when Jewel decided that there was probably something scary in the trees along the edge of the hill. She bucked and reared and snorted and kicked up her back legs. Now, that might also have been just spring fever, but with her ears spinning around and her imagination in over drive we thought that we should turn back. Maggie picked up a scent as well, Ginger was too involved in staying out of the way of flying horse hooves so she was unaware of being watched.
It may have been a moose, or worse still, the horses sworn enemy, a cougar. We didn't wait to find out and everyone headed for home.
The wind was blowing, but gently, and we watched Linda do a training session with Jewel in the round pen. Ginger went over and investigated Angel's grave, she sniffed around the rocks on top and then trotted off to eat horse buns.
On the way homeI stopped at the general store for country brown eggs, Ginger was snoring in the back and we got home in time to change the clocks ahead and put dinner on. The sun was orange behind the clouds and it set further up the horizon, creeping northward everyday.
The sky was still light when the blizzard blew in. Sideways. Icy pellets that tear the skin off your face. Drifts built up and the driving snow obliterated the houses across the fairway. We were in a vicious blizzard. The temperature sank to -18 and the wind chill took it down to -28.
When will winter end?