Branches, cages, cars, and coffee

It seems like I blog on weekends. The weeks go by quickly.

In the late afternoon today, I worked more on clearing up the back yard. The branches I've been cutting off have been lying around, and I'm trying to pile them near the creek. There's so much brush and so many thick blackberry stalks that it's all quite a lot of work. I got some aerobic exercise out there.

This morning I went to the DOL (in Washington, we have a DOL: Department of Licensing; when I lived in California, it was the DMV: Department of Motor Vehicles) to renew my driver's license. Before I left, I imprisoned my dog in a cage.

Is this the saddest picture ever?

I have to lock him up because if he has free range of the house when he's alone, he wreaks havoc (or "reeks havoc," as a student of mine once wrote in an essay). Solitude makes him insane.

In between the DOL and the yard work, I visited with my folks. We had coffee, looked at pictures, and spoke on the phone with both of my out-of-state siblings.

Automation

Today I did manage to accomplish that great deed, the taking out of garbage.

Yesterday was a good but a long busy day. I knew my afternoon would be free today, so I planned to do some yard work, weather permitting. In the morning, when I walked the dog, the weather was beautiful. Through the morning hours taken up by church and some family tasks, it clouded over, but by the time I had eaten a little lunch it was sunny and beautiful. Perfect weather for yard work.

But I felt so, so tired. I tried to whip up my energy to get out there and work, but I couldn't. So I said to myself, Why not take Sunday as a day of rest? What a concept. So I sat in my recliner and I slept for close to three hours.

I woke up slowly. I was tempted to have a cup of coffee, but I thought that would give me such a boost I might not get to sleep at a normal hour tonight, setting myself up for a difficult Monday morning. So I resisted that urge and am doing the fairly non-demanding task of sticking a few loads of laundry in the wash. I hope to have a good night's rest.

I am so glad that washing clothes is so simple and no longer involves boiling water, standing and rubbing everything up and down a washboard, dipping, twisting, wringing, and the like. It used to be one of the worst household tasks. I read that when pre-industrial women had any household money to command, the first job they would hire out was always washing clothes. Now, throw it in the washing machine, twist a dial, push a button, and go away and do something else for while. Come back, throw it in the dryer, twist a dial, push a button, and go away again. Yay for modern civilization and the comforts of a mechanized society!

Tea

Saturday morning. Today, my sister-in-law and I are going to help my mom host a "sisters-in-law tea" in honor of my mom's birthday, which was last week. It will be her sisters-in-law mainly. I need to put some things in my car and go pick a few things up from the store, but first I am having a leisurely morning.

It is chilly and overcast, but not raining, this morning. I have already walked the dog, so he is settled down. I have a lovely cup of coffee. Too cold yet to sit outside on the deck.

Since the time change, when I get home from work, I take the dog on a little walk around the back yard, and almost every afternoon I pause in the walk and saw one or two of the lower branches off trees. That is how I am getting my pruning done.

Aaoooo

Monday. Maandag. Montag. Måndag. Lundi. Lunes. Lunedi. Dé Luain.

At 22:10:25 PDT on Monday, 17 March 2014 the waning moon's phase was 97.72% full.

I went and found a video of wolves howling, but my dog didn't like it.

Like spring

We've had a couple of spring-like days. I'm glad. I feel sorry for people in the Midwest and East who are still getting winter weather.

Spring is the Period
by Emily Dickinson

Spring is the Period
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,

But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God.

His bow

Last week Thursday when I was driving home I saw a rainbow. I tried to drive correctly while digging out my phone to take a picture. By the time I got the phone situated over the driving wheel, the rainbow was fading.

But if you look closely, perhaps you can see it in this picture looking across the fields:



And when I got to the stoplight at Hannegan and Pole Road, I took this picture that has the non-picturesque SeaMar Clinic in the foreground:



It's a wee little rainbow, but I'll take it.

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13

Yay me

Because the evenings are longer now with Daylight Savings Time, I determined to do something constructive after I got home from work. That is why I ... drum roll ... took out the garbage! Not just insignificant garbage, but garbage that had been piling up a tad. A bit. Okay, a lot. But it's all in the garage now, waiting for garbage day.

Like Whitman, I celebrate myself. The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of the wind .... I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself .... The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer.

Maybe not.

Well, at least I don't have too much garbage in my kitchen.

Toil

I worked in the back yard for several hours this afternoon, ruthlessly cutting back blackberry bushes and trimming branches off some trees. I hope to work my way around the yard trimming trees and bushes. One of my goals is to drive the lawn mower this summer without getting slapped in the face by any low-hanging branches.

Yesterday and today

In February, I mentioned it had been a dry winter. It has rained since then, and it rained a lot last night, so that there is a noticeable difference in the creek level between yesterday and today.

Yesterday:



Today:



Movie of yesterday:



Movie of today:

Loss

Today I lost a cousin to the same dreadful disease that took my brother.

I know that my Redeemer lives.

Silver thaw

This evening, all the branches, twigs, and every surface were coated with ice as it rained and froze. This is a "silver thaw," which is a prettier name than "crud." I do hope the roads are drivable tomorrow.

Crud

Today we are having a recrudescence of winter. Don't you love the word "recrudescence"? It's great for the reappearance of something you don't like because it has the word "crud" in it.



Freezing rain is a type of crud.



My footprints are in the crud from when I walked the dog. His footprints are lighter because he is lighter. Still, here are some bird footprints.



The irises that have poked their leaves out of the ground may rue the day.



Even with the snow and freezing rain, if you look closely, you can see green leaf buds on the bushes by the creek.



The honeysuckle has got baby leaves, and in the bottom third of the picture, just to the left of the contorted filbert, there is a robin.



While I was out on the deck taking pictures, this guy had to climb into the chair to keep an eye on me through the window.



It's a good day to spend indoors with him.

Tuesday

Well, I was back to work today. I did get my car hung up on a snow drift in my driveway, but a co-worker gave me a ride to and from work. The snow is now going through all the messy stages of melting.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of my dog.



Because he's cute.

And more

Today...

More and more

Saturday it snowed, so I went outside to take a picture before it disappeared.



But overnight it snowed some more.



And Sunday it snowed some more.

Tech savvy

Today at work, our e-mail program went down. I called our tech guys in Seattle and one of them called me back to tell me to unplug then plug back in a certain box among all the boxes and wires in a certain area of our workplace. He has dealt with me before so he described the box carefully: green with the name of a certain company on it. I asked if anything else would go off too, and he said the internet would go down while it was unplugged. It was late afternoon, so I warned those who were still there about the internet going down.

The boxes and wires have a large metal cabinet in front of them, and they sit jumbled together on a bookcase with the power cords going behind the bookcase and then coming out to the front to a power strip. First I was heaving the cabinet out of the way and one of my coworkers said, "Maybe we should have our own tech guy in this office." "What, you don't think I know what I'm doing?" I jested (for of course I didn't).

I found the box I needed and groped around in back and uplugged a cord from an outlet. Oh, wait, that was from a different box. I made sure I had the right box and I tried to follow the cord with my hands, but it wound down too far behind the bookcase. I pulled it up to make the part in front move, so I'd know which to unplug from the power strip and lifted all kinds of intertwined cords along with the power strip. I unplugged something. Still wrong.

A coworker who had been attending a teleconference meeting came out of the conference room and said, "Everything just froze up." "Oh. Sorry."

Finally I unplugged the correct cord. I counted to twenty then re-plugged. I went to my computer. No e-mail program and no internet. I called the tech guy back. He was confused. He said, "I'm on your server right now from here." I looked back at the jumbled boxes and wires and saw one plug still unplugged. "Oh, wait a minute," said I. "I'll be right back." I put the phone down and went over and plugged in the cord. I came back to my computer and, voila, everything was working. "Okay, never mind," I told the tech guy.

And that's how I solved our technical issue today at work. Hooray for me.

Tweet

Well, I did clean the floor Monday. It was kind of gross job, but I did it.

Now I've been back to work for two days.

This morning, as the dog and I started our walk, I thought, "No ice. No rain. No wind. What a beautiful morning!" And it was.

Now a vision test. Do you see the robin in this picture?



Finally, a random thought sequence. Writing about a robin made me remember the old pop hit "Rockin' Robin," in which background singers sing, "Tweet, tweet," etc.



And thinking "tweet, tweet" made me remember a joke e-mail my aunt forwarded the other day about older people adjusting to new technology: "Someone asked me, 'Do you tweet?' I said, "No, but I fart a lot.'" Ha, ha! I love a good fart joke.

And with that, I wish you a lovely good night.

Procrastination

There is a dirty job I need to do -- cleaning up the gunky floor where a washer and dryer stood for decades -- and I don't want to do it. I keep putting it off, but today I have off from work and I am determined to do it.

That's why I'm sitting here at my desk, blogging.

So, yesterday, my dad asked me if the pussy willow was blooming yet, and I could not remember seeing any buds, so I said no. He seemed surprised, so I double-checked this morning. I walked the dog by the tree and did not see any buds on the branches.

But when I was across the yard from the tree, I saw some at the very top.



The tree from across the yard (above).



The top branches (above). See the little knobbies?

Meanwhile, another sign of spring: iris leaves are coming up (below, along the left side of the leafy path).



I hope I get more blooms than in previous years. I probably should transplant them to someplace more congenial.

Water, water

Here is a picture of the creek last year in February:



And here is a picture of the creek this year in February:



It's slightly lower this year. It has been a dry winter, at least until now. As I mentioned in the previous post, it's raining now and forecast to rain for the foreseeable future.

Another reason to be glad for the change in the weather is that during the dry, cold weather: (a) my naturally dry, itchy skin itched like fury, and (b) I was getting enough static electricity shocks to cause cardiac arrhythmia.

Messy snowstorms in the Pacific Northwest have been in the news, but they did not reach as far north as where I live.

I was hoping it might also be raining in California, where a drought is predicted, but I just looked at weather forecasts for down there, and the most is musters is a "chance of rain" way at the far end of the long-term forecast.

Normalcy

A couple days ago I was complaining about the freezing weather, but now things are starting to return to normal, i.e., rainy. Right now I can hear it raining, but I also hear the wind blowing. The forecast is windy and rainy for a few days yet, then the rest of the 10-day forecast is basically "Rain likely," accompanied by high temperatures in the 40s during the day and low temperatures in the 40s at night.

I know there will come a day when I'm sick of rain, but for now I'm glad enough for the milder temperatures to welcome the rain.