Spring is SPRING-Y

I know we are not the only ones who are sick of winter. It's been colder than cold. Even when it warms up for a while, it dips back down. This hasn't been easy on me, since I drive a bus for a living, and the building where we have always been able to park has been closed down for the whole effing year, doing major upgrading. Not that it will make any difference to anyone. 
So, where I and eighteen other people who drive buses park, it's a looooong frigging walk just to pee.
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I've been waiting to see snow melt. And I don't mean a few inches. I mean FEET! Snow drifts, and snow piles all around our yard has taken up until this week to actually diminish. We stayed in 50's last night and finally, any snow that snuggled up to the house is gone, save for a few bravely clinging ice patches on the sidewalks.



Our resident deer have come to the backyard to rest and chew their cud. They stay out there because it's away from the park, and we're not in the yard. But, one visitor came along. A hungry 'possum. I watched as it roamed the yard, heading straight for a large female. The deer, who didn't git up, but bent it's head as if to say, "Hey! Jerk, stay out of my personal space!"
The 'possum suddenly saw what was in front of her, and she made a quick detour, only to nearly head into two more deer laying on the ground under the white pines. I had to laugh. Animal drama is funny, some times.


Well, this has been "spring break" for NIU, that's why I'm home. Thank you!!!
I'm working on writing, which is normal for me, and why I'm avoiding a lot of other stuff. Although, I'll stop and watch "House" on Tuesdays, and "Monk" on Thursdays, which is today, so, we'll see what Monk is up to. While "House" is intriguing, one who doesn't know when to look away from the screen at the right moments, would do well not to watch that show while eating. EVER!

There was no Spring...

This was the view out our door on Thursday morning. 

We're talking APRIL 19th, 

Not March or February.

We should be getting warm temps in the 60's & 70's.

We had temps as low as 26 on the above date.

And then, that day it warmed up...

to 53

Here are my miniature daffodils boldly showing they don't care what happens, damn it!

It was only last Wednesday and Thursday we saw a 60+ and 71 degree day. I remember raking and getting some sun, thinking about getting a hammock (if only I had one), and lying out in the calm, warm air.

Well, yesterday we did see 62 degrees, and I got into my flower beds and pulled out dead stuff, preparing it for the eventual Spring.

But it probably will go from this to  80's in a matter of days, once Mr. Deadbeat (Winter) wakes up and moves along.

Snot isn't Sexy

Hey, guys. I've been sick. Actually last week I was down with the mother-of-all colds. My husband got it and gave it to me. His work mates had it, and I've traced it back to one of their wives who goes to a gym regularly (and knew she'd gotten it from the sick people coughing all over the equipment). The worst breeding grounds for germs are a gym and a day care. After that it's other schools, and should you think you'd like to enjoy a buffet, may I remind you that EVERYONE just touched those spoons, etc.

This cold goes like this. You get a sore throat, and it might last 1-2 days. You have an accompanying cough which has a signiture of a long, drawn out first cough and then just coughing. You may split a gut coughing. Fortunate for me, I was doing core and ab tightening training, so I had no adverse reactions.

The second week, you are not out of the woods, yet. You are still coughing. I'm at the end of my second week, and have the lovely snot thing going on. You know, where you think you've got it all and it's like somewhere a mile deep. (sorry if that grosses some people out).

My husband had it start about 3 weeks ago, and still has a cough, as do the other guys and the man's wife had it for a month, went to a doctor and still had the cough. There's nothing you can do. It is the COLD FROM HELL.

And I've got this voice that sounds like I've been a chain smoker for life. I said to my driving pal, "Thanks, you mean I sound like a bar fly?" har har har.

And, in the mean time, spring is here and I've only begun working on the transplanting and so forth. We saw some asparagus plants in containers about 3 weeks ago, and decided to get them. Little did we know both the sickness and the stupid rain (and frigging cold!), would keep us from doing any digging out there. This week we began on the bed, which I want raised and get the soil just right. These new plants, I've read, don't tolerate any sort of weeds, so we've gotta get this just right if we want asparagus in the spring, after next year. I had to transplant these into larger pots, meanwhile. But they are putting up little thin sprouts all the time, so they don't mind being on the porch for now.

When time, I'll post a little bit more and maybe with some pictures of what I'm up to.

All for now.

SPRING FEVER

Yep. I've got Spring Fever. You know when you can't wait until you feel a warm breeze, instead of an icy cold one, or the thought of not having to wear a winter coat, or maybe looking out your window and NOT SEEING ANY FRIGGING SNOW!

Yesterday we did have a 50 degree reading. That was nice. And my husband and I went and climbed on top of one of the remaining snow drifts in the yard. It is still at least 3 feet deep, I kid you not! There are still piles of it in our driveway, and in parking lots in town and along the ditches. I've pinpointed the date on which we will no longer see any bit of snow and that will be April 8th. We'll see if I'm correct. I've said all winter long it won't be until April when you won't see this snow on the ground. We've got some cold days still, with 30's for highs and lows down under the freezing point. But it will happen. We've been seeing all sorts of spring heralding birds in our yard or flying overhead. The sandhill cranes came through a few days ago, and they like to head back to Kansas or Nebraska to the larger birding/wildlife areas where no one is allowed inside--not even "dog walkers" or people who would disturb the nesting areas.

I'm still trying to finish this huge granny square afghan. I need to finish it because the yard work will take me outside and I won't have time for much else. I needn't tell you that this winter was extremely hard on all of us. And a body wanted "comfort food" in excess. Even my husband tells me he knows he will have a hard time getting back into shape. Me, I'm thinking of going back on the Adtkin's diet. I lost a lot of weight fast the last time I did this. I saw the pounds just drop off in a matter of over-night. That was years ago, before they had the snack bars and frozen foods.

And my edits are just sitting there waiting for me to get back to them. I'm blaming Spring Fever on not being able to attend to this. I've got the crochet bug bad, I guess. Every new pattern (well, every other) I see I want to try. It's crazy.

This one was something I found and wanted the pattern. Well they didn't offer it. Instead the crafter offered a lucky winner to win a free pattern. Screw that. I've crocheted since I was a teenager, I could see how this pattern went together. It's pretty straight forward.

It begins with your magic circle (chain 4, slip stitch in first chain, and chain 3-counts as first double crochet in the first row). You make 16 dc's in the magic circle (remember that the first ch-3 is one dc). Row 2 is ch 3, then 3 dcs after this, chain 5. you make four dc's chain 5 around, and join with a slip stitch. Row 3: ch 3, dc in each dc, then in the chain 5 you made on last row, make 2 dc's, chain 4 this time, 2 dcs in the chain, dc in each dc--around. You're going to do this through the fifth row, same pattern, only you reduce the chains until you get to row 5, and you have only 2 chains at the corner. Easy. I worked on this with a really thin green yarn and used a size F hook. I'm actually going to keep going on the square, as there wasn't that much yarn left on this ball, and thought I'd just make it as however large as I can.

Since I'm going to make this a quick post I'll direct any of you who are into crocheting to this page. If you have not signed up to Laying It All Out, and you'd like to, go for it. You will find lots of free patterns, some you can down load as ebooks and such. It's what had had me going cross-eyed lately, with all the great patterns. More than I'll have time to work on in whatever's left of my lifetime.

Well, I should go to work on those edits. I'll have to try and get something done today on that!

The Facts, Ma'am

With March comes change... or so it is supposed to be that way. At least the temperatures are starting to go up, instead of down!

My week:
On Sunday night I woke with a bunch of ideas for two books--one was actually for the 8th book of the Sabrina Strong series (don't hate me). I had to get up and make notes, and since we weren't scheduled to work Monday, I sat at the kitchen table, made myself a cup of hot chocolate (with milk), and made some verbal notes (it was around 2:30 am).

The next day I wasn't able to work on much. Oh... yeah. Time (effing) change.

Monday was a go-to-town day. We did a bunch of things, including take check to pay on the truck, and then got the oil changed in it. We went to a few other places. At the end of the day I kept thinking it was like a preview of what it would be like when I retire from having to go to a job. I would know how to fill my day up with things I want to do. So, I sat and crocheted that afternoon thinking about it. It didn't help that we ran into my husband's brother and his wife and learned that she had quit working in her job for the school district (she is my age), I was quite jealous. Wish I could just up and quit like that. She's too young to take retirement, but probably had enough of a pension. Or something else is going on that wasn't mentioned. She has no real hobbies. Not even gardening. I think she doesn't like to get dirty, and she definitely isn't a camper at all. What she does to fill up her time, I haven't a clue. Maybe she's taking time to be with her aging mother. That's a possibility. Boy, the wrong people get all the breaks. If I were to retire today, I'd have lots to do.

On Wednesday it snowed. We didn't drive that day. NIU has been in Spring Break. So, we only took 3 runs, and put Wednesday up because we knew it would snow and just didn't want to deal with it. After the thaw on Monday, the ground was too soft to plow, and then the sun melted most of it, anyhow.

Thursday we drove. Six hours driving a bus is no picnic. And My husband has decided he can't do it any more. He has back issues. The run he had to do is not forgiving in giving you breaks. You have to keep on driving it until you get back to the student center (an hour run).

Today we didn't work again. We had to run to town, came back and I go my computer back into my office. It's been warmer in here and so it only takes a couple of heaters to get it up to 60+ in here.

I'm not putting pressure on myself this year. I've got the two books I'm working on. One is in edits, and the other one I'm still writing. Now that I've got my office back, I should be able to get something done, eventually. No noise, and I'm closed off from the world in here.

I'm still trying to get my speakers to work. I have no idea how I did it last time. Too many things to plug in and it says "speaker out" but I have no idea why it doesn't work. I got it to work last time by reconfiguring it. Maybe by luck I'll do it again. *shrugs*

Last year was different. I was super busy.  My publisher kept pushing back the release of my third book, I got the "edits" which may have been done by his 5-year old, and when the actual book came out I found errors in it.  Thank goodness he quit the business! I had to quickly go through each book, and especially the third one, make corrections and put them out as an Indie, and I was working on book 4, plus 2 other books!

This year I'm not pushing myself at all. I've got two books I'm working on. Edits on # 4 SS book is mid-way, and now I've got the privacy of my office, I'll settle in and work again on that.

Dhampir Legacy is still in works. I work on it as I can. The last two weeks I've been trying to write one scene where snakes are involved, but for some reason it just wasn't coming, and so during my wakefulness back on Sunday night, I realized I needed to interrupt this scene with a new one, and so that one came and I wrote it. It involves a minor character, but I need to tie up those loose ends on that.

I need a year off from doing very much writing. That might be why I've  turned to crocheting. I hope to do a little more gardening too. Need to loose some winter fat BAD!

Those are the facts. Hope your week went well.

Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control...

I was without Internet for a few days, and so, I wasn't around... in case anyone wondered, asked, or even missed me?

It actually made it easy for me to get something done for a change.

Edits on Vampire Caprice is still in progress. I will be sending a section of chapters to my second beta reader to go over them. Meanwhile I have been using the saved PDF's from Grammarly. I'm finding that in some cases it's not fool proof, and it doesn't know French at all. But when it catches something, it's a good thing I had it. I will go through it using these various editing devices, and then my last editing will be me doing a find & replace, or whatever, when I'm ready. After that, I read through it TWICE. So, that being said, it might be April when I've got this bad boy out. It is a long book. 343 pages, as a matter of fact.

Meanwhile work on Dhampir Legacy is suspended until I have finished with Caprice, or, I'm letting the manuscript sit a while between readings.

Work on my large afghan (granny square), is coming along. I have placed a number of the squares out on a sheet on the floor to see how I want it, and where I want the colors. It also lets me see what colors I still need to make before I go ahead with stitching them together. And a friend is having a June baby, and I want to crochet a baby blanket for the bundle for her shower. So, I'm busy.

Despite the fact that it is March, we still have snow--piles that have been here since January, in fact--and are expecting more. But the weather prediction is for 40's coming in soon. Could we actually see some melting and thawing soon? We were discussing that perhaps we should bet on our last snow event, or the last day we see snow on the ground. I'm going with April 8th--on the snow sticking around. March 25th for the last snow flying.

So, there you have my updates. I'll be posting irregularly until further notice.

COME ON SPRING!

Coffee Klatch Monday ~ Tick Tock

Oh, it's Monday once again. I'm off to the races (work), and I know some of you are too.

Still on edits, and so I won't keep you.

I hope you all had a good weekend. The weather on Sunday turned out to be gorgeous again. Spring has come very early here. Did the ground hog see his shadow? Or didn't? I don't know.

Speaking of which, we do have our own resident--well, she prefers the name Woodchuck. Mrs. Woodchuck comes out every afternoon to graze on whatever she eats. We enjoy watching her out our kitchen window, as well as our squirrels, and all the birds that visit or stay.

I had to get out for a little while and enjoy the weather. No bugs, low humidity--what more can I ask for?

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?Stay home? Watch a movie????

Let me know, I'd love to hear from you!

Milestones

Yeay! We made it to March!
Baseball has begun spring training in those warmer regions, birds are winging their way back to the northern states, and I've seen joggers in shorts (still too cold for shorts, I don't care!)

And today marks twenty-five years ago Dennis and I went out on our first date. Yesterday I went and secretly bought him a card and was able to place it somewhere he would find it when he got up after making the coffee. Tee-hee, that was fun. He liked it. The card on the out side said "Hello, I love you" on the inside it said "Hi, I still love you". Well, I bought it in the student center, but hey, it worked. Had a bright flower on it and everything.

We went and got a pizza so that we can just enjoy the evening.

I'm still working on the second book, which I'm nearly through again, but will put aside and wait and read through again. Want to make sure I've got anything that bothers me out, anything that seems I've repeated, or is wrong out of this one. Hard to write a sequel, because you know what went on in the last one, but you don't want to keep on repeating yourself.

Because of winter's grip on us, I've had to just come home and crash. Yesterday was no fun to drive in, but we do it. It takes a lot of focus to drive a bus in that kind of weather. Being a tad older than I was it just takes a toll on me.

So, gonna go and get in the tub and wash the bus grime off and just veg out a little.