winter | Change Is Hard

February 22, 2009
by dawnkinster 5 Comments

Blizardless Librarian

For a couple of days we’ve been warned that another big snowfall was headed our way this weekend. Four to eight inches they said. Supposedly it would start snowing Saturday morning at 10 a.m. and would continue, intensifying throughout the day, ending around 6 p.m. Great. I was working all day at the library, 9-5, and figured I’d have a doozy of a drive home.

As I was getting ready in the morning I glanced toward my front door and saw this:
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Hmmm, I thought. “Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.” So Katie and I went out to investigate, and to put a letter to my sister in the mailbox:

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When we got back in the house the glass storm door had steamed over. Look how pretty!

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I headed off to work with extra gloves, a hat, and boots, prepared for the terrible ride home I anticipated. But though it did snow, all day in fact, starting at 10:00 just like they predicted, we got 2 or 3 inches at most. And the ride home, while slow, wasn’t nearly as awful as I expected.

The other librarian and I thought maybe we’d have a slow day, maybe with the weather people would stay home. We were so wrong! My favorite story of the day involved a grandmother who had a granddaughter doing an internship in Poland. She came in to find out how to get into her email. Since we were still slow, first thing in the morning, I taught her how to use her email. She got to read a note from her granddaughter, view the photos that had been sent, and write the granddaughter a long note back. She was thrilled, and even better, was proud of her new skill.

Another interesting experience I had at the library during the day included the shy young girl and her dad who came into the library “looking for poetry.” After I showed them where most of the poetry was, at the far back of the library, she pulled out a piece of paper folded up into a small square. After unfolding it all she informed me she needed “these five books of poems,” which turned out to be in the kids area, near the front door. Which taught me (once again) to ask more questions at the start rather than taking the first sentence at face value.

We were busy all day; I helped a middle-aged woman figure out that the horror author she wanted was Dean Kootz, a high school student find information about steroid use, a recent graduate of law school fax her information out for numerous employment opportunities, found another student a biography about Harriet Tubman, commiserated with a woman about how we both get “click happy” when we’re reserving books from our home computers late at night. All the books we’ve ordered tend to show up at the same time and it’s nearly impossible to get them all read. Another family wanted help finding a book about polygamous cults as well as something to help them diet by reducing carbs. Someone else wanted a book to help diagnose an unspecified medical condition. And a teenage girl needed help learning Latin “so I can write vampire stories.” And those are just the ones I remember!

The day flew by, I had lots of fun, the snow wasn’t too bad, and this morning, after another dusting of snow, we have sun! What a wonderful weekend!

And it’s only Sunday morning! 🙂

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I don’t have to work again until Thursday. Katie and I are going out to play in the new (not so deep) snow!

February 11, 2009
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

Snow snow go away

katie-12601 Yesterday we had a day of weather almost like spring. 59 degrees and sun! And it’s been several days since we’ve been below zero. Though I know it’s foolish to think this is the beginning of spring, I can’t help myself from hoping. I do this every year. You’d think I’d learn. But we really deserve this to be an early spring. It’s been snowing and cold since mid-November, steadily getting worse and worse. We are so tired of cold, snow, bad roads, shoveling driveways. We so much want to believe all that is over.

katie-12631 We still have snow in the yard, though with today’s rain most of it should be gone by the end of the day. Katie tried to get her last licks of fresh snow.
It was windy but sunny out. She just wanted to be outside, and I finally put her out in her kennel, the first time she’s been out there this year. The yard was wet, and I didn’t think she’d like getting her feet wet, but she sat out there quite happily for quite a long time, barking at trucks on the road, and birds at the feeder.

Today almost all the snow is gone, and look, just peaking up through the ground are the tips of tulips, yellow green with youth, pushing hopefully up toward the sun. I can’t wait for spring, looks like my tulips can’t wait either!

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February 7, 2009
by dawnkinster 3 Comments

Bluebirds…and other things

This week I had multiple sightings of bluebirds as I drove through the countryside near my home. At first I wasn’t sure I had actually glimpsed a male bluebird, but when I saw it and what I thought might be his female partner near the same location the next day I started paying more attention. Turns out I saw bluebirds nearly every day and in several locations. Yesterday I got a really good look at a pair on the road just up from my house. So I think they are here for good! For more information about the Eastern bluebird go to: http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/ which is the North American Blue Bird Society page. Yesterday afternoon I went to my library and checked out a book about bird behavior and read more about bluebirds. I’m hoping the fact that they are around means we are almost to spring! I’ve known to be wrong about the spring thing before though, so don’t count on me…I’m about as reliable as the Ground Hog. But more optimistic!

As for the other things: Katie and I went to agility today. But turns out there isn’t another class starting! I was so confused, came home and looked at their webpage and it says there’s agility today. Will have to find out what the story is. Anyway, all that worry and decision making about whether or not to go…big waste of time. Which in general is what I find worrying often is…really. So Katie and I are going to go out and romp around in the wet snow. It’s much warmer today and the predicted rain hasn’t started. She can’t wait.

February 3, 2009
by dawnkinster 3 Comments

Dreaming

I woke up this morning from a very long detailed full color dream that combined places I’ve lived and people I’ve known for the past 30+ yeas. It was set mostly in a small town in the Upper Peninsula where I lived 28 years ago. I was on some sort of city bus tour (not that they actually HAD city buses up there then..nor probably now!) and we were driving around the steep streets of the town looking at all the 150 year old homes falling into disrepair. The other women on my tour seemed to be from my current life, runners I know, or people I knew at my previous banking job. Eventually we were at a stop sign headed up a steep mountain road, and somehow I knew the bus was a stick shift and was going to have to shift into first gear which was a near impossibility. I told the others I used to just fly up this hill and through the stop sign and hope no one was coming the other way. Which actually is not true; in those days I just avoided that particular corner because I did drive a stick shift!

Then in the dream we were on some sort of boat, looking at the lift bridge, but it looked more like a combination of Mackinaw Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge (which I walked over this past spring). Later we wandered down one of the neighborhood streets, walking a runner friend of mine (who happened to email me last night though I didn’t read it till this morning, so maybe she was telepathing to me overnight or something!) past the house she grew up in and where her mother still lived (though in fact she never lived up there!). We shopped our way through town, buying stupid little trinkets, and then we went on a tour of the building I used to work in, first attending a meeting there, where some people were upset that we hadn’t told anyone we were coming to visit. The tour itself was aboard some sort of floating silent circular air machine, which went really fast down hallways, and around corners, as if we were part of a video game. Then we were outside again on this machine, and I was wearing an inflatable life jacket that I couldn’t figure out how to get off, and flip flops which didn’t work well on the stamp sand beaches we were walking on.

After all that Katie woke me up with her cold nose and asked to go out. I bundled up in my heavy coat and mittens and we went out into the fourteen degree cold. I felt distracted, still in the dream, and not sure I wanted to be here, more interested in all the people that had come and gone in the night. It made me realize how many lifetimes I have had already, so many years gone by, so many people I’ve known. This morning, for the first time in a long time, after experiencing time collapse in on itself, I feel old.

January 30, 2009
by dawnkinster 3 Comments

Contemplative Friday

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I have today off. From work, not from thoughts. It’s good to have some quiet time, though Katie girl is making it difficult; she’s all rambunctious wanting to play, or eat or something. It’s snowing again. No surprise there, but I’m so tired of snow. When I get like this I appease myself by looking online at real estate in the southwest. Where it’s warmer and dryer.

But I’m also sitting in my reading chair in the corner of my living room watching the birds at the feeder and the snow coming down as if I lived inside a snow globe, reading a book entitled “Fresh Water; Women Writing on the Great Lakes.” It reminds me how much I love the Great Lakes and I wonder if I could be happy living further away from the water than I already do.

So I put the book down and contemplate. The lakes are alive and make me feel the same way. The desert is alive in another small, hard to see way. In all the little crevices there is life in the desert…but the desert truly comes alive when it rains. Water makes it bloom. Water makes my soul bloom too.

As I sit and wonder what the future will bring Katie calms down, then jumps up in the chair with me. This is unprecedented. As she tucks herself down between me and the arm of the chair I realize this moment won’t last long, she’s an impatient dog, so I stroke her lovely back and study the beautiful colors of her fur and enjoy the heat from her doggie body. She turns and begins to lick my face and neck and I have to laugh out loud. “Sure Mom,” she says “Sure, think about the warm southwest. You know you can’t leave your lakes! And it’s too hot out there for a Sheltie!”

My contemplation is over; she jumps to the floor and tells me it’s time to go outside to play ‘grab the glove off Mom’s hand.’ Life is so simple when you’re a Sheltie.

January 19, 2009
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

It seemed like a lot going on this weekend, and yet not so much. Katie and I did agility on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon I drove through snow to Ann Arbor to attend a concert at the University of Michigan, Sunday morning I drove back home, again in snow, so that I could work at the library Sunday afternoon, and now Monday I’m enjoying a day off thanks to Martin Luther King, watching inauguration doings on television and cooking stew.

During agility Katie and I practiced a lot on all the different equipment. She got over her fear of the dogwalk, and loved leaping up and over the A-frame. She still had problems with the chute, and had to have it held open for her to run through, but she ran through the tunnel no problem and even went over a very high jump that had been left high after a German Shepard had jumped before her. No problem! Then we got to the teeter totter which she decided she hated. The instructor and I worked with her for quite a long time, but only succeeded in making her afraid of the dogwalk and the A-frame again! Just doesn’t like that yellow paint. Oh well, we’ll try again next Saturday.

The concert in Ann Arbor was lovely. It was called a Collage concert, all the departments in the University’s music, dance and drama departments participated. The stage had either the band or the orchestra in the center, and smaller groups along the edge, the chorus on risers along the back. What was really cool is that while the spotlight was on a particular group and they were preforming, other groups were coming and going, and as one group ended, the next began, the spotlight moving to them. It was snippets of music, dance and drama, one right after the other, each piece totally different from the one before. It moved really fast and was fascinating and wonderful. At one point lights reflected off the cymbals and threw patterns of moving light on the wall. For an instant I panicked thinking Katie would start barking at the moving light! And later I noted that concerts are sort of like agility, except it’s the musicians and dancers all taking cues from the conductor rather than dogs taking cues from their handlers. This particular concert probably felt more like that because there was such a sense of quick movement between the groups of performers. It just felt so similar to what I had been doing with Katie earlier in the day, in an odd sort of way. I have to say I loved the four cellos playing Fandango by Jeremy Crosmer, and the group of five saxophones who played The Girl with the Flaxen Hair by Claude Debussy, the dozen or so drummers doing Samba Batucada arranged by Sissauyhoat; but my favorite turned out to be the full orchestra playing Nimrod from Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. It just made my heart swell and float away it was so beautiful.

Working at the library Sunday was fun as well, I was at a different location than I had ever worked before, so there was the usual questions from me as to where stuff was. But this particular library had patrons that checked out books! Real books! Of course there were also the movies and music going out the door, but a big percentage of the stuff heading out were books! I was elated and the time flew by. Once home I realized I was tired, I’d been on my feet nearly the whole time because it was such a busy branch.

And today, Katie is wound up, needing attention as I try to watch news from Washington. We went outside a bunch of times, but Katie wasn’t happy to be in her plowed out walkway. The snow is up to her shoulders now, we got 5 or 6 more inches of snow over the weekend. She wanted to go PLAY in the snow.

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So we did. I put the long leash on her and the high boots on me and we went out in the back yard to play. She loved running and leaping in the snow, and we only came in because my fingers were freezing. Hard to try taking pictures of her while running and trying not to fall in the knee deep snow yourself!

It’s a wonderful, optimistic time for all of us. Katie is grateful for the run. I’m grateful for the hope I see coming from Washington. Maybe we’ve hit the bottom; the bottom of the winter, the bottom of the economic downturn…maybe we’re headed back up into the light.

January 16, 2009
by dawnkinster 9 Comments

Winter can be over now. For sure.

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It’s record breaking cold around here, and a lot of other places too. This morning I layered up with sweaters, scarves, hat, coat, gloves and boots, and picked Katie up to carry her out to her favorite place. I thought the -6 was too cold for her to be walking on the snow. As soon as I put her down she turned and hightailed it back to the front door. Mission not accomplished. She didn’t ask to go out again until much later in the day, when I again carried her out, she did her stuff and we trotted back to the house at high speed. At least by then it was merely zero degrees, a definite improvement.

There are several good things about today though, even with the cold temperatures. I have the entire day off! And there is very little wind, so we are appreciating the bright blue sky, the sunshine and the pretty white snow. Of course we’re enjoying it mostly from inside the warmth of our house. I’m experimenting with a new recipe for soup, with carrots and peanut butter plus a touch of lime juice… and later on I’m trying a new chicken dish for dinner. There are gentle, softly aromatic smells coming from the kitchen. It’s been a good day, even with the chill.

Here’s a photo I took of Katie today, as she watched me from inside the house, through the frosty storm door. Shelties are SOOOO smart!

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She and I hope you are enjoying your day too! Even if it’s darn cold out. Remember, we’re halfway through January…and February is a short month, so we’re not so far away from spring! Right? And more proof of that are the seed catalogs I’ve been receiving in the mail. Seed catalogs in mail = hope for spring. At least where I come from!

January 15, 2009
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

What's the definition of "cold?"

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It’s been cold here. A couple of nights ago as I was driving home from work, a trip of about 40 miles, the temperature dropped from 5 degrees when we left the library to -5 when I pulled into my driveway. This morning as Katie and I ventured out for our morning walk it was zero degrees out; the kind of cold that makes your fingers ache even in their heavy gloves. The sun was just coming up, and everything was lit with that special rosy early morning glow.

We could see where the deer had crossed our yard, looking for food, digging in the snow to find even the tiniest bits of grass.

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Now, a bit over an hour later our temperature is -6 degrees, the sun shining on the brilliant white snow. I went outside to put more birdseed on the feeder, and it was so cold that the snow didn’t even stick to my boots. I think it’s the kind of cold that is best experienced from inside. Perhaps on our comfy and warm blanket!

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Hope all of you are warm and safe!

January 12, 2009
by dawnkinster 3 Comments

A lazy Sunday

We got snow this weekend. The good news is neither of us (or Katie) had to go much of anywhere, and snow is always more fun when you can stay inside and look at it rather than try to go outside and drive in it. We all spent much of Sunday napping.

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For those of you that have moved permanently or temporarily to warmer climates, and are doubtless missing your snow quota, Katie and I ventured out this morning to see what there was to see. We’ll share a few pictures with you!

katie-1172 Katie wanted to explore under every tree to find something truly remarkable to share with all of you…but found that most of the good stuff was deep under the snow!

katie-1169 After much snuffling around she’d give up and look fairly confused, complete with snow all over her face.

katie-1170 In the end we found a few interesting places, but nothing really special to share with you. Like frozen food…or mice or rabbits to chase. Just a lot of snow piled up on everything.

Here’s an extra layer of insulation on the birdhouse roof…

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..and the new deck is all covered in snow…

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..our rocking chair waits patiently for summer to come back…

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…and Dad keeps blowing that snow out of the driveway!

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Now, all of your living in the south and west…aren’t you missing snow? (hee hee!)

January 9, 2009
by dawnkinster 10 Comments

Winter day with a sheltie

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Blue sky like we haven’t seen in a long while. Fresh snow on the ground from the night before. Sunshine.

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Katie and I spent a good amount of time outside exploring. She loves the snow, and I do too, when I’m wearing my heavy coat and boots. Here we are, me trying to get her to look at me, and her being…well…her.

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After awhile, with me calling her and asking her to sit…she did.

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We had lots of fun playng in the snow. I saw this tree with it’s great shadow; looked perfect to try a water color painting technique. So I took the picture and hope someday I’ll make the time to try to paint it.

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