The snow has stopped, and the cold has come. Bleh. It’s not really that cold, relatively speaking, but when we were dealing with +20C days less than a month ago, dropping to -15C at night is a little shocking. And my fear has come true: trick or treating in the biting cold, and how to fit the costumes over the snowsuits.
Fun times.
….and it snowed last night.
That’s right.
SNOW. The dreaded “s” word.
Gack.
Admittedly, it’s a dusting, and far less than we had on May 11th of this year. But still.
Snow?!
Snow on Friday.
25C by Monday.
I can’t keep up with all these mood swings. Perhaps Mother Nature’s in menopause? Bah. I’m still having trouble reconciling the crazy-ass snowstorm on Friday with the weather I returned home to. Instead of layering, I’m sweating. I like a more gradual transition to sweaty weather. Ick.
After a nice weekend with my family (and some of D’s), it was great to get back home. I got far too little sleep on Sunday night, woke up at 7, and was on the road by 7:45. Funny how Mondays are good for traffic on the open road. And, the weather was gorgeous, which always helps my mood!
D is pissed right now, because he’s downloaded something with spyware to the laptop. Sigh. I can probably get rid of it. Wonder how long I’ll have to wait until he asks me?
In kitten news: Yoshi has been adopted! Sadie & Houdini are going to the local pet store to strut their stuff in KittyLand, and I can’t see them lasting very damn long. I swear, they grew when I was gone - I mean noticeably! We were *this close* to getting 4 new kittens, but they’re going to another foster. Soon, I’m sure. As they say, cats can’t add, but they sure can multiply. Especially when the locals tend to avoid spaying & neutering. /end rant
I realized today that school is almost over. Gah. Austin will be heading into Grade 3 before I know it. And that means we’re only 1 year away from Kindergarten for the Jackabean. Unreal.
Other signs:
mosquitoes are out in abundance
the flying ants have invaded (it’s brief, so I’ll live)
our grass needs mowing
the bare trees out back have teeny little green buds
my rhubarb is looking great!
Well. How boring of me. I don’t have anything else tonight. Too sweaty.
Ha ha. Funny stuff, isn’t it?? May the 12th. Five weeks to “summer” and we’re still getting snow.
This sucks.
Mother Nature is off her damn rocker. We need to replace her or something.
10 minutes & 20 km from my house, it’s sunny & gorgeous. Here, however, it’s cloudy, and snowing. In May. I will freely admit that “higher elevations” in this area do, on rare occasions, receive snow in almost any month of the year. However. We do not reside in these “higher elevations” and I am quite sick of cold fingers and children who are stuck inside the house. I’ll be honest, it’s not doing a very good job of snowing out there. It’s just cold in general, and the wind has been evil the past two days.
Reason #998 I had kids: they are excellent handwarmers. Jack asked for “one more hug & kiss!!” (it was his 3rd or 4th go-round) and he was the lucky recipient of my very cold hand on his bare tummy. Silly children. Sleeping in underwear only means a lot of skin exposure. Bwhaha!
I have the Monster of all Zits forming on my chin right now. Mt. Vesuvipus has been brewing for two full days, and I’ve managed to keep my hands off it. I’m so bad with them, usually popping them and making a mess of things. Not this one. Maybe it’ll actually go away. Har.
Even with all the craziness at work today - less? perhaps my crazy threshold is just lower today - I managed to email all day long with K & my sister. As a result, the kittens have been named. At last!
Sadie (calico), Yoshi (orange tabby) & Houdini (black/white) have no clue they have names, but the kids will set them straight. These kittens are going to be so well socialized! Dogs? Pshaw. Cats? Whatev. Kids? Bring ‘em on!
Snow. On May 1st? Surely the nice weatherman on Sunday evening’s news was joking.
Turns out the guy was right. For once.
I really should have taken a photo of the fucking lovely snow that blanketed our yard this morning. There was enough to make the burn pile start steaming again. Gah. I suppose that Murphy bastard had a hand in this. Two-hour drive ahead? Let’s send snow!
Luckily, it wasn’t sticking to the roads, and our drive south was mostly uneventful. Aside from the sharp bang that scared us shitless - and caused me to stop the van to investigate what was wrong - we had a good trip down. (the bang in question was a balloon, by the way. Damn kids.) And, best of all, L got a proper diagnosis from the neuro, and he told her (nicely) to get on with her life and do what she wants. That did much to improve her mood, so we managed to fit in some retail therapy for the rest of the day in the (comparatively) Big City. It’s not really a Big City, but hey, most places seem Big when compared to our little town of Backwoods.
I bought some more mouse killer, but we may not need it. The mice are eating the poison I put out yesterday. Muahahahahaha. As my sister said to me on MSN tonight, I am evil. But they moved in & started this little war. The stuff yesterday is a seed product that has been laced with poison. It comes in little boxes, and it’s supposed to be kept in tamper-proof containers, so I cut holes in some old margarine containers and set them up. The one in my cupboard (canned food, not sure why the dumb shit keeps coming back there) has a smattering of seed outside the hole. I did not put it there. Therefore, dumb mice will die.
Again, muahahahahahaha. No more mice!
I hope.
I also picked up some super-strength nail clippers for Goldie the 100-lb chicken dog. I was paying $10 to get a woman down the road to do it, but the cow up & moved 20 minutes away, and hell, the clippers were only $20. They really do pay for themselves. I did Wiley’s nails first, and he was angelic about it. Goldie? Not so much. She hates having her nails clipped. I hate seeing her do this weird hobbly walk that starts when her nails get a bit longish - I know, it’s terrible that she has to do the hobbly walk before I realize she needs them clipped, but I’m busy, and she doesn’t talk much - so I held her down and cut the damn things.
The kids got dollar-store “light sabers”, one of which doesn’t fucking work. Can’t really complain about something that cost me a dollar, and I’m sure as shit not driving 4 hours round-trip to exchange the damn things. Perhaps I’ll be nice & buy another when we’re in Vancouver next this month.
How the fuck is it MAY already?!
(oooh, look how politically freaking correct I’m being….weatherman just didn’t seem right!)
The past few days have been interesting, weather-wise, even for our little area of BC.
On Saturday, it was -25C in the morning, and we got up to -5C midday.
Sunday: -10C in the morning, up to about -1C midday.
Today: 10 ABOVE, windy, sunny, and melting like mad. Until 3 pm.
Then the snow started. By the time we drove home at 5, it was practically a whiteout.
In true Murphy’s Law fashion, I realized I hadn’t returned the DVDs to the rental place when we were almost home.
Gahhh. I just adore driving in the snow.
The opening ceremonies for the sporting event being held here were last night. I took our three billets because, well, I had to. The athletes are key to the whole thing, and a little snowstorm wasn’t going to keep us away.
Unfortunately, the fates conspired against me. Things I have now Learned The Hard Way:
1. If the athletes are to arrive BY 6:30, and the doors open AT 6:45, one should show up at 6 pm sharp.
2. When waiting to enter an arena, in February, outside, it will snow.
3. Said snow will then stop when you’re within sight of the door, and can almost feel the warmth within.
4. If one has arrived AT 6:25, one should realize that there is no chance in hell of actually getting inside the arena. The line is long for a reason.
5. The snow? It will start up again while one is walking to the rear of the arena, where they have helpfully set up a big-screen and hay bales.
6. Jeans are NOT acceptable winter wear. Nor are runners, for that matter. Gloves would have been nice, but damn, the van was too far away.
7. Hay bales do manage to keep one’s ass warmish.
8. The bonfires will be too far from the seating area to make one damn bit of difference.
9. The vendor will run out of hot chocolate. WTF?!
10. The snow will stop for good, but the wind will pick up. Wind chill factor is pure evil.
11. After freezing for two hours, one will discover that standing up and walking around is somewhat warmer. Har.
Honestly, the event was well done. Our local arena has a 2200 person capacity. Unfortunately, almost 1500 of those spaces were taken up by the athletes, coaches, officials and dignitaries. So, a mere 700 (or so) people made it into the stands. What. Ever. The emcee was amusing (weather guy from Vancouver), an Olympic gold medallist was in attendance and gave a great speech (Daniel Igali), and most of the speakers kept their blathering to a brief minimum.
Plus, we had the added bonus of booing the mayor (old hag who only gets re-elected because the retirees here love her) without her knowledge, AND booing the event director who deigned to mention the hardy souls who braved the cold and stuck around outside. Petty? Probably. Fun, and a nice distraction from our impending frostbite? Absofuckinglutely.
My only real complaint? (the cold doesn’t count, because I know what month it is, and that I live in the north of BC. And I’m not even complaining about the slightly painful defrosting that occurred in my nose and forehead. Really, I’m not) No, my complaint is this: after all the careful planning to ensure that athletes and billeting families were matched up (the insanity I survived on Thursday evening), that billeting families followed the rules, that kids got to venues, and that the athletes were corralled/supervised prior to the opening ceremonies (nobody but the athletes were allowed in the building), the IDIOTS released them all, en masse, into the snowy & cold night when the whole thing was over.
WTF?! I’ve known these kids and had them in my care for all of 24 hours, and I’m expected to find them in that crowd? Thankfully I’d told them to meet me at the van, should things get nuts after the ceremonies. They’re such amazing boys. I found them within 100 feet of the van, heading in that direction. I fear I wasn’t making much sense, and only cared about getting into the van where it might be warm.
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