Spring?

After 6 months of fall, we seem to have gone right into Spring. It has been in the upper 80's today, only windy in the early morning, and completely beautiful. I am almost adapted to my new job and should be on pond detail any day now. Captain Bird (or, the bittern on the boat) has been here for several days and there are ducks on the water in the early mornings.

These Two Things are Not the Same - But Similar

Friday

Overcast and humid for most of yesterday. I was about 50 miles South of here yesterday and it almost rained. I love the smell of days like these. The gophers seem to have moved, maybe. I will never again think they are dead - which seems to make them angry. Spring is getting closer and I can hardly wait.

A Catastrophic Life Event

And I have gone through it relatively unscathed (except for the major injuries to my mind and body). Nothing the Dixie Chicks and Joan Osborne can't fix. I wonder why I stopped listening to them. I also wonder why do people collect junked cars? I sometimes ask my brother and brother-in-law but they don't seem to think it's a real question - they just look at me like, why would you not.

It was in the 30's and 40's for the past 4 days, and today it is almost 80. Even though this weather pattern has been present for my whole life, it still freaks me out. There were 4 ducks on the pond every morning for the past several days but they are too fast for me to photograph and Buddy has been here for a week (I'm dog-sitting him right now) so sneaking up on anything would be out of the question.

"Too Much Ain't Enough"

A friend called the other night and said, "enough with the clouds already". Okay then. Just to please you and because there weren't any clouds yesterday or today. It's significantly colder today, but a few sprigs of green are already starting to break through. The chives are starting, the Italian parsley never really left, but is greener now, and some kind of local flower that my mom semi-domesticated has green leaves at its base. I haven't seen a fish in months and the pond is congested with a dark soupy algae. My last attack on gopherville might have taken, but they are tricky devils. The last time must have just made them sick for a few days, then they got mad.

Camron was wandering around the pond by himself and asked me to play frisbee. A video would have been so great - he learned to throw and catch in one setting. I showed him how to hold the frisbee and explained how to snap the wrist for spin. He got both instantly, then he caught one for the first time. After a few minutes we had a fairly nice game (as opposed to neither of us ever catching a single toss).

Thursday

Fairly warm day. Actuallly sort of neutral - not warm or cold. Completely overcast when I woke up but that broke up into some really nice cloud formations.

Cloud Reflections

Thursday's Clouds

Midnights

I don't dislike working midnights, but I dislike trying to sleep during the day. It's still early, but I can't sleep with all of the light outside so I started a new assault on the gophers. They are trashing out the SW and SE parts of the pond berm, and so far nothing has even slowed them down. (What is advertised as "Death to gophers" seems to invigorate them.) My sister told me to saturate cotton balls with pure peppermint oil and put them in the holes. Okay, but if that doesn't work it's hand to hand combat.

Almost 80 degrees and no wind. This is just like the Bill Murray groundhog day movie except no snow.

Because Every Child Deserves -

Immortality via pixel? Cashmere's husband and new child. The main thing I notice is that she is two days old and has already had two different bows stuck to her forehead (I'm not wanting to know how). This is a well dressed girl.

Spring-like Winter

72 degrees and the winds are gusting to 50 mph. I sort of dread work on days like this. The winds incite frenzy in people in general, and especially in the frenzy inclined (meth freaks and witch winds are a nasty combination), and we have to deal with that while waiting for the worst call of all - prairie fire. Otherwise, the clouds are interesting.

9:30 and Still Wide Awake

I drank at least 4 pots of coffee last night and it would be wasteful to sleep. The morning sky was very nice. I can't really capture the total array of colors or their intensities, but sometimes get close.

Summertime - and Living is Easy

Janis Joplin, live in Amsterdam. One of the greatest recordings ever made. I'm only thinking about it because it almost got cold last night. Will the traditional Easter freeze still happen?

The bittern is back, and is twice the size it was last year. How do I know it is the same one? What kind of person wouldn't recognize their own bittern?