February Fridays

02-01-13   Mr Sun, I see you!

02-08-13  Snow.  Yay.  *sigh*

02-15-13 The sun was so bright, and shining right into the window so that I could only see the glow of it on the picture.  So I waited for a couple hours and then took a shot.  As you can see, it was a nice sunny day, such a nice change from the week before!

02-22-13 Back to bleak!  Which is pretty typical for Winter around here.  You try to find some measure of beauty in it.  Snow is white and clean and pure and pretty.  When I’m looking at it through the window, I can pretend that it is not also icy cold.  Snow is best in snow globes, pictures, and postcards.

 

One day, though, the weather was semi-decent and the kids got to go outside to play in the snow for a bit.  They didn’t know I was taking pictures of them through the blinds as we talked on walkie-talkies.  🙂

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Sunday’s Coming!

When the lights all died on our little Christmas tree this past season, and we decided to grab the trees that were on sale for dirt cheap at a dept. store, I hadn’t thought further than Christmas.  I know, I know, what do purple and pink have to do with Christmas?  I have no freaking clue, but I love pink and purple, so I grabbed one of each color tree, in addition to the traditional green one.  Did I mention dirt cheap?  I think I paid less for all 3 than I did for the original one that died. 

Flash forward to this spring, when once again Darc and I talked about putting up an Easter tree.  It’s something we’ve wanted to do for YEARS but other things always seemed to get in the way of that.  For one thing, finding a tree to decorate for Easter isn’t anything like picking up a Christmas tree.  No one sells “Easter trees.”  It just isn’t done.  Oh sure, some folks will string up plastic eggs on the trees in their yard, but we wanted something indoors, like a Christmas tree, but … not.   After lots of searches online, I could find little more than leafless branches stuck in a pot, or super expensive metal affairs.  Neither one suited my purpose. 

But then I remembered I had pastel colored Christmas trees!  They were still in the boxes, I’d never even unpacked them, since I didn’t even get them until the post-Christmas sales. 

Okay, now to hunt down Easter ornaments.  Well, a little easier than Easter trees.    Whew!  And I also found some religious ones, to boot.  Lastly, on to the hardware store to pick up some nails. 

The kids and I put it all together yesterday and I think it looks pretty decent.  Now my daughter wants a tree for every holiday!  I confess, the idea is really growing on me. 

Wow

So, this is what it looked like around 5ish on Tuesday.  It’s hard to see the gusts, but they were horizontal.  Darc made it home early and safely, thank the Lord.  They’re saying we’ll probably end up with around a foot and a half of snow here, and gusts right now are at least 50 mph.  It’s a bad ‘un. 

That flag in the picture is pretty much my beacon.  I can tell what the wind is like depending on how it’s waving.  There were times earlier in the day when the gusts were so fierce that I couldn’t see the flag.  I can usually see it at night because that building it’s in front of is the management office complex and they always have some kind of light on, as you can see the row they have lit there.  Tonight, I can barely see those lights and the flag is not visible at all. 

Yes, they should have it lit at night, with a special spotlight dedicated to it.  But they don’t.  *sigh* 

The power started flickering in the early evening hours so we shut down the computers and lit some candles, just in case.  The power did seem to stabilize after a while so I decided to turn on the old Flintstones computer, to see what was going on in the world.  I was using my phone to check the weather reports but after a while of looking at that tiny screen, my eyes start to feel old.  (Don’t say it!)

The Internet connection in here is pretty poor, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to get this posted. 

The drifts are already about a foot up on my patio door, and the blowing snow has stuck to the screens so we can’t see out on that side of any of our windows.  The poor crew keeps going out every couple of hours to plow the parking lot here and run the snow blower down the sidewalk.  I always want to take them a cup of coffee or something.  Whenever it snows, they’re out there at 4 and 5 am, plowing so people can get to work.  They have a really great team here.  That is one of the perks to apartment life. 

The drifts are so high, I tried to take a picture of my neighbor’s car but it came out too dark.  The drifts are up to the windows on their car, it’s a little SUV type of thing.  They’re up to the hood on our car. 

I might try to get another picture tomorrow and update this, just to see the difference.  We always have snow here and freezing temps in the winter.  For at least 5 months of the year.  Over 150 days of cold and snow and cold.  We just usually don’t get a months worth of snow all at once.  This is why I say all snow should be confined to snow-globes.  🙂

Oh, happy Groundhog day!

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Wednesday Winter

I don’t actually know how many days it is until Spring, and around here, it doesn’t really matter what the calendar says.  Have you seen the pictures I’ve posted taken on the 1st day of Spring?  There’s a reason I call it “Sprinter.”  While we had a fantastic New Years Eve, weather wise for us, now it’s in the single digits tonight, likely to stay that way the next few nights to come at least, and that means that whatever the thermometer is, it’s really colder because we have that stupid thing called “wind chill,” which is what the air really feels like.

I used to have a friend in high school who often wistfully said, “Oh, I hope it’s a white Christmas this year.”  Yeah, she needed a good smackin’!  I didn’t even know what a “White Christmas” was, other than a song, until I was in my teens.  Once I saw it, I realized that snow belongs in only 3 places – snow globes, postcards and Lake Tahoe. 

Ahhhh, okay!  I got my annual snow-b#tch out of my system.  😀

We watched these awesome DVD’s I got at the library – a set of clips from the Ed Sullivan show.  Remember that?  It was all music clips, so really, almost like MTV before there was MTV.  I watched the years from ‘65-‘70 and boy did it bring back some memories!  I was cracking up at Herman’s Hermits – “2nd verse, same as the 1st!” and they way they bopped around on stage.  They really should have bottled all that energy!  So much music from when I was a tiny thing, with older teen siblings who listened to the rock stations of the day.  I remember seeing the album for the Chambers Brothers and wondering how they could all be brothers.  “How did all those black men get a white brother?” I asked my sister.  I think she told me he was adopted. 

I had to look up Mama Cass after seeing the Mamas and Papas, to find out just when she died.  She didn’t really die from eating a ham sandwich.  I knew that, you knew that, but can you believe that rumor still persists?  The Jackson 5, the Supremes, Tom Jones – oh my goodness, I had “Delilah” going through my head all the next day!  LOL 

It was so much fun walking down memory lane.  I know if I ever get the money, I’m going to be a sucker for those Time-Life video things that are like 986 disk sets of “all your favorite music!”

 

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Monday Summer Meme

I did a bit of looking – I thought today, being the 1st day of Summer, deserved a little something special to commemorate it.  :)  Do you have any idea how hard it was to find a Summer meme?  You’re welcome.  ;)   

A Summer Meme

 

1.) What first tells you that summer is here?
The trees fully leafing out.

2.) Name five of your favorite distinctively summer habits or customs.
Independence Day with fireworks.
Turning on the A/C.
Jell-O desserts.
Grilling out.
Watering the garden.

3.) What is your favorite smell of summer?
Steak on the grill!  And a freshly watered garden at twilight.

4.) What is your favorite taste of summer?
Steak from the grill!  And ice cream.  😀

5.) Favorite summer memory?
Hmm, this is a tough one.  Perhaps Beach Boys in ‘82.  My birthday in ‘77. 

6.) Extreme heat or extreme cold? Which would you choose and why?
I hate them both but if I have to choose one, I’ll go with cold, for the simple fact that I can always toss on another blanket when it’s cold, but there are only so many clothes I can take off when it’s hot. 

7.) What books do you plan to read for the season?
For the season?  I don’t read “for the season”, I just read what seems interesting, in every season.

8.) How does the summer affect your faith? Is it a hindrance?
LOL  My faith cannot be impacted by summer, silly meme!

Okay, now it’s your turn.  😀

Summer Fun Bingo Game

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Tuesday Tootsies

I thought I’d do a post on the Spring collection, and my goodness, it’s amazing what’s out there now!  Looks like things are going to be colorful this year.

Aren’t these wild?  They grow on me after a while and I like how unique they are. 

Kinda modern, contemporary. 

These had a bit of a gladiator feel to them to me. 

I really like these!  Sort of a 1940’s vibe with a modern twist.  I hear The Andrews Sisters in my head when I see these.  🙂

These are very … plaid. 

I’m not sure what these remind me of, but I like them.

Lucite seems to be “in” now too, and I love these.  So flirty and girly.

Ohhhh!  The sparkle!  WANT!  *sigh*   

Okay.  Like the plaid ones, these are colorful. 

This looks like a Mardi Gras party gone wild!

I see these and the only thing that goes through my mind is “Pennies from heaven!”  So coppery and round, lol. 

So there’s a taste of what was in the Spring collection, as far as shoes are concerned.  See anything you want?  🙂

As always, click the pics for links. 

Monday Mayhem

Love this little guy!  He’s so cute!  So full of joy and happy!  And look, it’s sunny where he is, the grass is green, the trees have leaves, it’s beautiful!

Meanwhile, this is what I get.  :roll:  This is how Chicago does Spring.  It was 32° on Saturday.  It snowed.  It rained freezing rain.  It snowed and rained freezing rain at the same time.  And don’t think it’s some kind of weird fluke either, because it did the same thing 2 years ago and I blogged about it then too.  Think Sprinter.  Oh how I long for some sunshine and warmth! 

 

I hope your beginning to Spring has been lovely, at least!  Someone out there has to be enjoying the weather, right?  😉

Have a great, warm, sunshiny day!