December Blooms

We have had a very mild fall here. That, combined with the fact that I never got around to cleaning up the garden, has allowed some of my flowers to continue blooming into December! It does pay to be a lazy gardener (I'll pay in the spring, I'm sure!) These pictures were taken on Thursday.

Blanket Flower.
There are many blooms left.

I can't remember the name of this one.
It does look kind of Christmas-y, doesn't it?

Delphinium, bent over from the rain.
I think of these as delicate!

Yarrow

Also blooming are a few pansies, lamium, verbena and a couple of annuals I don't remember the names of. They aren't gorgeous blooms but I'll take whatever I can get!

Today it is snowing in Snowville. As of yesterday Dallas had had more snow than we had. It is supposed to warm up later so hopefully it will all melt and the few flowers that are left can shine for a few more days.

Late Blight

Summer has finally arrived in Snowville. It's always a short season here but this year has been ridiculous. It looks like we'll have temperatures in the 80's all week - along with more rain.

The weather men have been saying that July was a bit below average for rainfall. Hunh? I went out and bought a rain gauge because I'm certain they are wrong.

This was our first year planting a vegetable garden. Granted it's a tiny garden but it's a start. We're off to a discouraging start as the constant rain brought late blight to our garden. We had tons of tomatoes on the plants but we had yet to harvest one. :(

Everything I've read said that we needed to pull our plants and destroy them so that is what we did today.

One of the many toads in the garden this year.

Garden Path

I won't go into details of the week past. Instead I'll just say that I was busy all week and felt like I got nothing done. There are three more weeks of school left but the kids and I are all ready for vacation to begin. Some of my older elementary kids that know they'll be on a different bus next year are really testing my patience.

John did manage to get the screen room put back together. The weather was just perfect yesterday and I could have spent the entire day there reading a good book.


We haven't had much nice weather when I've had free time lately so instead of relaxing with a book I decided to take on my "Nightmare Bed." It doesn't look very scary in this picture, does it? I love the mass of ox-eyed daisies and the lupines have really done well out here while the ones by the house are looking sad. The lemon lilies look happy but there's a ton of grass to be pulled in with them.


Here's a longer view from the far side. I had originally laid out a nice path that the weeds and some of the self-sown plants obliterated. Even in this picture you can see that I'm winning the latest battle but with the type of weeds out there I imagine the war will rage on for years.


I had chores in other parts of the garden but the majority of the day was spent digging weeds and putting in a new path on the left side and under the new arch. Maybe I can work on the path to the right during the week. Right now it's mostly grass but there area few plants that will need to be moved.


We decided to try a vegetable garden this year. We've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers and watermelon so far plus we have a row of strawberries. We're killing the grass on both ends to have more room next year. We covered the plants when there was frost expected but we must have had a bit of frost on other nights as there is some damage but the plants look like they'll recover.


Despite the frost it won't be long until we have our first berries!

Blow the House Down!

Yesterday was cool but sunny and I spent all day working in the garden. Today was not so nice. I was out early pulling plants to take to a plant swap this afternoon. It was cold and windy.

The swap was great and I was in a good mood until I got home. The wind continued to increase all afternoon. I pulled in the driveway and just about cried at the sight of my brand new screen room.
I thought the wind had ripped it down and it probably would have if John hadn't taken the canvas down. The wind blew so hard it knocked the flower heads off of these iris.


Even here in Snowville it is supposed to be safe to plant after Memorial Day. Our new vegetable garden was planted yesterday. We should have waited until next weekend I guess. We're under a frost warning and a FREEZE advisory tonight!!! So here's what the vegetable garden looks like tonight.


Four weeks of school to go. I'm really counting on summer to be here by then!

Hurry Up and Wait

It's been a couple of boring days. Tuesday I had my annual physical and I was assigned a mid morning time which meant time to kill. I went and checked out the new Hobby Lobby store that opened down in Clay. They have very nice stuff - hopefully they'll have very nice sales too. I found lots of things I'd like for the garden and some pretty fabrics. I showed up for my physical right on time and the four ahead of me were still there. So I waited........

We've had several days of heavy rain that have washed away some of the snow. The temperature is supposed to drop until the weekend and we may get some fresh flakes so I'm still waiting for the snow to be gone.




I've enjoyed following the Iditarod but we're at the 24 hour layover, the first of three mandatory rests at a checkpoint. Everyone seems to be stopping at either Takotna or McGrath so more waiting. *Except for Martin Buser! Buser blew through Takotna about three hours ago. Bold move!? Time will tell. During this layover the times will be adjusted to make everyone even from the staggered start, so all but the last musher will spend more than 24 hours.

All at Takotna

• 6th - Jeff King

• 12th - Aliy Zirkle

• 22nd - Ryan Redington

• 23rd - Robert Bundtzen

• 27th - Allen Moore

Best Friends

It's Monday and that means Mom in the morning and kids night. I took Mom to the doctor and that went fine.

PJ had a tire blow out when he was bringing the girls over so John went and got them. I thought this picture was adorable. Mike had to stay late at school for Battle of the Books practice and the girls were watching a movie until the boys could get here.

It was a cold, rainy, miserable day. The warm weather over the weekend melted about 3/4 of the driveway ice so we are moving on to mud. I don't really like mud season much but it does mean the nice weather is coming.

I have another couple of long days coming up. My annual physical for work is tomorrow and I put my name of the list for some OT on Wednesday.

Brrrrrrr

We're having yet another beautifully sunny day, but it is cold! The windchill at work this morning was well below zero. The nor'easter missed us - yeah! The lake effect it left in it's wake missed us too - yeah!

Despite the snow I am seeing some signs of spring. Almost all of the snow is gone now at Mom's. I walked along her front bed and the tips of her daffodils are just starting to poke through. I never would have even looked for them if Kerri hadn't left a comment that hers were just starting too. The snow here has compacted and shrunk and there was probably even a little bit of melting last week.

Another sign of spring is the two high school girls I picked up this morning wearing flip flops and the middle-schooler who decided a tee-shirt was all that was needed with sub-zero windchill. It is March now after all!

The kids were good yesterday on the bus but I had a co-worker blow up at me and I'm still at a loss as to why. It's not the first time they've blown up at me and probably won't be the last. I guess I need to learn to give what I get rather than just letting myself be upset for the rest of the day week.

Mom was in good spirits yesterday and had completed a rather difficult puzzle and quite pleased with herself. John didn't go with me because his sister, Ann, has been quite ill and he had to take her to the doctor. The doctor sent her to the emergency room and she ended up being admitted for further tests. They don't seem to know yet what is wrong with her and she is having more tests today.

So I had the four eldest grandkids for dinner last night by myself. We've been having some trouble with the oven off and on over the last few months and of course last night it wasn't in the mood to work right so I didn't get dinner on the table until after 6:00. The kids were disappointed that John wasn't here so that they could play on his computers. I could have gotten them out for them but the whole point of kids night is to have them get together and play with each other so I "made" them play UNO with me. It took the younger two a couple of hands to figure out what they needed to do but we all ended up having a good time and we finished up with a game of LCR.

This morning one of the elementary kids was quite upset that another student was "eavesdropping." I guess we need individual compartments on the bus so one pair of 8 year olds can't hear what the pair of 9 year olds is talking about! A first grade boy was hurt when an older student laughed at him for wearing purple gloves. I pointed out that he was smart enough to wear gloves, unlike the older kid and that my son often wears pink which Nikki and Liz agreed with so he was back to his happy self. If that's the worst I have to deal with today it will be a good day!

Snowy Day

The storm that has been marching across the country arrived here today. The news forecasters really did a great job getting everyone worried about it! None of the schools in my county closed but all the rest of the area closed. It was an unpleasant day but certainly nothing we couldn't handle. This is Regents week in New York and all of the kids that had plans to take their tests today will now have to wait until June. Yesterday was Part 1 of one of the English tests so I feel doubly bad for the kids that took that yesterday and will now have to take it again.

As much as I hate snow I am very glad we didn't get the sleet and ice that so much of the country got. With the technology we have now why don't we require the electric companies to switch to underground lines? It's going to be days if not weeks until power is restored in some places. Maybe the government could use some of the billions it is throwing away around to create jobs that will benefit an entire region. I guess that would make too much sense.

There really hasn't been much going on here. We went to Mom's on Friday and Monday and she seemed OK. The kids were here Monday evening as usual. Liz has missed riding with me in the afternoon so this week she did and we went together to pick up Pizza. They gave her a little bag of cookies for being so cute and I felt really bad that I had to take them away from her because they had a nut warning on them.

In the GOOD NEWS department we're planning to go to Florida over February break. We weren't sure that things would work out but things have all fallen into place and I'm really looking forward to leaving the snow behind!

Blues

Mom seemed to be in much better spirits on Tuesday. She made herself a cup of coffee even though we were there and could easily have done it for her. County Girl visited last night and she seemed fine when she first got there but after dinner she complained of being very tired and seemed depressed. She has an appointment with the doctor next week so I'll add that to the list of things to talk about. We'll see how she seems when we get there in the morning.

I took my written test today so all my testing is done until next November. I didn't stay to find out what I scored but I must have passed as they let me drive this afternoon ;-) I don't know what is going on with both groups of kids this week but they have been LOUD! Today was just an all around bad day. One of those days where I think about buying a stack of lottery tickets and glance at the help wanted ads. Everyone is laying off here so I guess I just need to be happy I have a job.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day but I'm already looking to the weekend.

Catching Up

I was spoiled by the guys at work last week, they started my bus for me three days in a row. The temperatures never did get as cold as they were calling for but it was still plenty cold! I'm hoping we don't see temperatures that cold again for the rest of the winter.

They were calling for us to get 1-2' of snow Thursday into Friday but it stayed north of us. Starting just 5 short miles to the north they got hammered. The dentist had rescheduled my appointment from Wednesday to Friday. I started for Oswego after work, got about half way there and turned around and rescheduled again! I'm not a winter driving wimp but when the truck in front of me and the car behind me both disappeared I figured it a wise decision.

Friday turned out to be my lucky day! I won the raffle for this throw. If you look carefully you can see how far the snow is piled outside the window - we don't need anymore but there are two more months to go. (A lot of what you see is what has been raked off of the roof.)



We've decided to try and get to Mom's on Monday's and Friday's but with the dentist appt. (that I didn't get to!) we ended up going on Saturday. We got her take out from an Italian restaurant she likes. She was a bit more relaxed and seemed more "herself" than she had the last few weeks. We didn't get there today because of the holiday so we will go tomorrow. This is what the deer have done to her shrub.


Because there was no school we had the kids in the afternoon today. The idea is that they have a chance to play together. John's been working on fixing up some old computers so he had one for each of them and they were thrilled. Maybe we'll play a board game next week.


I was beat at the end of last week but the foot is finally not hurting much at all. I pulled a chest muscle on Sunday but it is a lot better today. How do you pull a chest muscle!? I have no idea what I did. Hopefully there won't be much snow to clear in the morning.

Only One Test Left

Yesterday we had our January refresher, in the cold garage. (The garage does have heat but you can only warm it up just so much.) The good news was the announcement that we'll be moving to the new garage over vacation next month. It looks like they still have lots to do on the outside of the building but word is that the interior is looking great. The new building will have a large meeting room in the office end of the building. And we'll have our own fueling station so no more trips to the truckstop!

Immediately after the meeting I had my behind the wheel test. We have to take it every other year and it is the same test you take to get your license, including a full pre-trip, railroad crossing, highway travel, backing and parallel parking. I passed but the pretrip portion wasn't pretty. I kept thinking I'd turned switches on only to get outside and discover I hadn't. I don't know what my problem was, I do an excellent pretrip twice a day! (I have never tested well but if an examiner observes me without her clipboard I never have a problem. Maybe they just need to stop telling me it's the offical test!)

This morning I had my defensive driving test and that went well. We take that test annually and it is just the examiner riding with you on your regular route.

I took my physical performance test back in November so all I have left for this year is the written test which I'll take (and hopefully ace!) next week.

I am not loving my new bus since my return. It does not like cold weather any more than I do. It is so darn big that I'm having trouble reaching things. I can barely reach the lights to clear them of snow and grime with the broom. I can't reach high enough to scrape the side windows or upper portions of the door. I can't reach the handhold and even if I could I doubt I could get my leg up high enough to use the toe-step. My window keeps freezing shut as does the fuel door. Today the temperatures were the coldest we've seen so far this year. I am extra grateful for the mechanics this week for helping me out without complaint!

2 Down, 3 To Go

We used our second snow day yesterday and I was quite relieved as we had an ice storm. We waited until it switched to all rain and went and picked up my car at the shop. Lately I feel like the mechanic has it just as much as I do :-( Hopefully we are done with this round of repairs.

This morning started out ok. The drive to work was tricky because the plows were behind but it wasn't snowing, at least not here. On the radar you could see it coming down very heavily less than ten miles north. I had trouble scraping the ice off of the bus windows and after getting one of the guys to help me open the side windows I left and had to drive with the window open so I could use my mirror and see traffic. It was a very cold morning for me! (It finally melted enough that I have it all scraped off now.)

Just as I got my first group to school the snow started to move in. It came down at about 2" per hour. I had to take the long way home because the plows were still behind. Then we had a break for a while, so John raked the roof. It's now coming down again so I'll be leaving early for work.

The district the boys go to took their high school kids in and then closed the elementary when it started coming down really hard. Angie has to work so I'm guessing that John will have the boys for the afternoon.

Hopefully this won't degenerate into a snow-blog over the next three months!

Back to work and off again

My return to work was tough. Friday they closed early because of snow. The snow continued over the weekend and then we closed on Monday when I was supposed to return. When I got there Tuesday morning the guys had it unlocked and started it for me but they hadn't gotten back to clear the snow, which was half way up the windshield. I waded through thigh high snow and grabbed my broom and started trying to clear it. I didn't get much cleared before one of the guys came along with a much larger broom and started helping me. He got called away to help another driver get theirs out of the drift. He came back and we finished and I seriously thought about asking him to pull mine out for me too! But I managed to pull free and I missed the bus next to me by at least 1/2 an inch. I had been nervous about returning when it had been so long since I had any bad weather driving so that was a confidence booster. I had a student spot for me as I backed into the sea of white in the woods. I don't know where the town guys moved all of the snow to but they did a great job of clearing it out for me.

On my secondary route I got one "welcome back!" and one "oh, crap", otherwise it was as if I hadn't been out for six weeks. There was some rude talk that I wasn't happy with but with just the one day I decided to let it go until after vacation.

My elementary kids are the best! Several of them gave me hugs as they got on and told me how much they'd missed me. And I assured them that I'd missed them too. It was a wonderful surprise, hugs are rare and usually happen at school.

My car-pooler forgot that the motor in the car window is broken and I forgot to remind her. Hopefully it won't be snowing in the morning when I take it in to be fixed.

We went to my sister's Christmas Eve to visit, play steal bingo and visit. Mom will be staying there through the weekend. There kerosene company let them run out so it was a cold morning there. They had a service truck out there quickly but it took them three hours to get the furnace going again. brrrr! Yesterday John and I had a quiet day by ourselves and checked in with everyone by phone.

John got me a new external hard drive so I backed up a few things and then did a few other things. When I went to use my computer again I got the blue screen of death :( We'll play with it some more tomorrow but I think the motherboard is gone. It's still under warranty but I hate the idea of starting all over - again. Why can't they make a motherboard that I can't kill in less than two years?

1st Snow Day

I've been sleeping in until 7:00 the last few weeks so I set the alarm for 5:00 but it wasn't need as I woke up just a few minutes early. We went from a 2 hour delay to closed. John has spent several hours working on the driveway with the snow still coming down and subzero windchills. The lake effect is widespread and even Mom is getting it down in Syracuse today, so we didn't get down there either. It's supposed to stop here very early tomorrow morning so I guess my return to work will be then. I'm not looking forward to pulling more than a foot of snow off of the hood or backing into my 1st turn around - in the dark, in the woods and undoubtedly narrowed snow. I am looking forward to seeing the kids and I have candy canes for them. I'm still planning to babysit tonight, if I can get there!

Busy Again

I got out of the habit of writing here because for weeks the only thing happening was me sitting around working on my genealogy or transcribing letters. The weather did not cooperate and while I was on crutches or walking with the boot I was hesitant to venture out much. I've been back in sneakers for a little over a week and it's great to be mobile again.

The tree is up and the boys helped me decorate it. Alex likes to group them all on just a couple of branches.

A week ago today we went to Mike's band and chorus concert. I forgot the camera and Angie still hadn't sent me any pictures but the kids were great. I wasn't crazy about the program selection, especially for the chorus. Mike is still in the percusiion section so during the band portion we didn't get to see much of him. The band as a group as come a long way since the spring concert! The choral selections seemed to be yelled more than sung but the kids were enthusiastic in their presentation.

On Wednesday we went to Alex's holiday musical, called Moosical.

He had a speaking part and was tickled to run over to the microphone every time it was his turn.

It was a cute production and the kids had fun with it. Afterward we had to go down to his classroom so traffic backed up behind me as I had to take the steps one at a time. He came right out and back up the stairs we went. If I'd known I would have just gone to the cafeteria and waited for them. I did get a nice little workout and the foot was fine.

I finished Christmas shopping and now I just have a few gifts to wrap and I'll be all set!

Snowy Friday

I'm the guest author today at Shades of the Departed! I was very flattered to be asked. The focus there is on photography and is also home of the monthly photography carnival, Smile for the Camera. Be sure to check it out.

I had an appointment to get my stitches out this morning so snow did not fit in well with my plans! John had go to out and shovel so I could get to the car. He had cleaned the steps up well but they were still a little slick. The ramp at the doctors office hadn't been cleared at all. There was only about an inch of snow there. Of course I slipped but manged to grab the railing rather than fall.

The appointment went well. The stitches are out and I now have no bandage, just a compression stocking. Of course If I'd known that I would have taken a sock to the appointment. A walking boot is a poor substitute for a winter boot being open at the toe and all. I can now start walking on the heel and I'm getting around much better. John no longer will have to wait on me whenever I want something. He wasn't taking any chances on my hurting myself so when we left the office he took me to the car in a wheelchair. Both embarrassing and a relief. I did say something to my doctor and the office staff was trying to hunt up a shovel as we were leaving.

The district I work for closed early today but I'm not really sure why. They are predicting that the storm will intensify and we may have thunder snow near the lake but when we went through town this morning they hadn't gotten all that much yet. John has to get the boys off the bus this afternoon so I'm keeping an eye on the closing list for their district, so far it it doesn't look like they're going to close early and Angie said the sun was out there at noon.

Not much has been happening here. I've been transcribing letters and driving John nuts. I'm looking forward to being able to do more over the next couple of weeks. I suspect that my bulbs aren't going to get planted after all.

Winter Wind

Taking it down was on the to-do list for this coming weekend.

The dryer died.

Crap

Goodbye Summer

September is passing by in a blur. Things are just starting to settle a little bit.

Monday after the big birthday weekend, the remnants of Ike arrived and crashed into a cold front. We did get some rain but it was the 50 mph winds that did us in. We lost power about 2:30 am Monday and got it back in the early evening. We spent the day cleaning up debris in the yard. My garden arch is now a twisted mess and we had to replace our printer but I guess we were lucky that that was all the damage we had. When I left for class the power was still out but it was back by the time I got home. PJ & Bean were both without power until Tuesday evening. Between the power outages and downed trees and wires we used our 1st snow day of the year already.

Tuesday I had the first safety meeting of the year. Several people forgot about the meeting because the snow day threw off the week. We have two big events coming up in October so I have spent much of what little free time I've had the last week writing letters and talking to coworkers to line up the help and supplies we'll need. I started working with a new driver in the afternoon.

I don't know where Wednesday went. The evening was spent at class again. By Thursday I was really dragging and we went to Mom's. I had picked her up a couple of plants and got them in the garden. Friday I was busy all day but have nothing to show for it.

Saturday's class was in a different location about 40 minutes away. After an hour we got back in our cars and travels to the seat check site. Not one of the seats I saw that day was anything like the ones I'd worked with in class. One was on the recall list. At one point I was told I was working too slowly - after being told in class to take the time to make sure I did it right. I won't go into specifics but Saturday was hell for me and I don't see me doing a lot of these checks. We are having one next month but beyond that we'll have to see.

Sunday I just kind of crashed. I collected some seeds and puttered in the garden without really getting anything done. I did get some letters transcribed and caught up with some online reading. Yesterday we were back to Mom's and there was a School Board meeting in the evening. I don't usually go to board meetings but our department received a safety award for our accident free record and 99.1% inspection pass rate. Being recognized was nice :-)

Today I was writing more letters for our safety event. The letters I wrote over the last week were what I call begging letters and I'm not very good at them. Could you donate this? We really need that, can you help? Today's letters were much easier as I was asking the local fire, ambulance and DPW depts to come and bring their trucks again. I think I finally have set all of the wheels in motion that I need to. The next couple of weeks will be spent following up and twisting arms lining up volunteers.

Will it Ever Stop?!

I am so incredibly sick and tired of rain. I got up this morning, saw the sun and put my shorts on thinking to get out while the getting was good. Right about the time I finished dressing it started raining - even though the sun was still out. Then the sun went away and it poured. It rained off and on all morning. I finally got out and cut a few things in the garden and staked a couple of others but it felt both muggy and cold at the same time. It's mid August and dang it, it should be hot! I have two weeks off and I want summer weather!

So I spent the day on the computer. I transcribed some more letters and spent a couple of hours hunting down census records.

Yesterday was our NYS mandated refresher at work and it was not the most interesting one I have ever attended. The topic was pre-trip and post-trip inspections which most of our drivers do very well. We did spend some time going over accidents that had made the news around the country. A good exercise to get us thinking for the start of the year. I have to get in and set up my bus and photocopy the stack of paper I'll need the first week. I may put it off until after Labor Day but then I'll be competing with everyone else for copier time.

John took Mike to the last session at the museum. Nikki was camping and didn't go. All the kids seemed to enjoy the program so I hope I can sign them up for it again next year. Alex and Liz made good use of the dress up box and they really loved the old switchboard and phones.

Count Down

Writing here is a habit that I've gotten away from. Things have been very busy here between work, gardening and Mom.

Last Saturday Country Girl and I went plant shopping. She also brought me plants and then I went to a plant swap on Sunday. I also have been potting plants up for the plant sale I am doing for Relay for Life next weekend.

On Monday I took a group of third graders to Beaver Lake Nature Center. I love going there and walking the trails. My favorites are the Woodland Trail where I saw several Jack-in-the-pulpit and the Bog Trail.

I went to Mom's two days this week and she is doing OK. She didn't use the oxygen on Thursday night and she really noticed a difference. She was having trouble thinking clearly on Friday. So now we know it is helping. I moved the machine into her bedroom where the air conditioner is and she should still be able to use it in the living room but maybe not in the kitchen. She started again with the oxygen building up in the house and I explained again that the oxygen would just dissipate. Knowing that she was befuddled she agreed to try not to worry too much about it.

In my spare moments I have started transcribing some of the letters that I got on my trip to Michigan. It's interesting learning a little about the day to day life of my ancestors.

Summer is finally here. I like it warm but yesterday was too warm to be at work. The outside temperature hit 90 + so on my bus it was well over 100 when I was parked and due to a group getting back from a trip late, all my schools were late and I spent too much time parked, waiting for students to board.

Schools across the country are already on summer vacation or finishing up for the year. We go until June 26th :( The next three weeks will drag. I have to decide by next Friday if I am going to clean buses again this year. Right now I'm leaning towards not but that changes day to day and hour by hour. The pay is OK but I know that the weeks that I work I'll be too tired to get much done at home.

I have decided to keep my route next year. I have had some frustrations with a group of students over the last few months and had considered bidding on something new but overall I really like my route. Several elementary routes have been changed so that we could eliminate a couple to save fuel. I will still have 70% of the kids I have this year and the new route will suit me I think.

I made the decision to keep my route before I found out what bus will go with it next year. Really, I did! I will be driving a 2007 IC next year !!!! After getting the bus I had this year I really thought I'd be keeping it three or four years - and would have happily. When the head driver told me what I'd be getting I was shocked. Several other drivers aren't happy that I'm getting something so new with my lack of seniority but I understand that this is the only way they can reward me for the extra things I do. I can't wait to take it out for a spin!