Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: winter


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Was going to

Was going to blog about any number of things today.  Had them all lined up.  But I have to tell you a couple of things not related to any of that.

Even though my yard looks like this today, which doesn’t seem all that spring-like…

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1.  I SAW a pair of sandhill cranes flying over Katie’s park when I was driving to Ann Arbor to go to the symphony yesterday evening!  Their flight is so distinctive.  I got to watch them for quite awhile, and I smiled every second of it.

2.  This morning there was a red winged blackbird on my feeder, more proof they are really here.  Now this sort of makes me smile, and sort of makes me not smile.  They are such pigs.  They eat so much food they can eat me out of house and birdseed over a weekend.  But I know they’re hungry, just like all the rest of the birds, so for now I’m opting to smile.  Because they are truly signs that spring is not only on it’s way, it’s already here.

3.  I was just giving Katie a little shoulder massage while looking out the window and I saw a bird in my little redbud tree.  Then it flew to the ground and back up again.  I ran for the camera, but by the time I got back it had moved to the top of a small spruce hidden behind some bare branches of a shrub.  But you can tell it’s a bluebird!!   There were actually two males be bopping around the yard.  I couldn’t get a good photo of either of them, the light was bad, so you’ll have to settle for this one.

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I’m so happy I could sing….and I was…singing along with a clip of Jimmy Fallon’s show, but that’s another blog.

Happy happy dance.

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Enough already! It’s March for pete’s sake!

One more time.

One more time.

When I was a kid I always felt like winter was half way over at Christmas.  I know.  It is not.  But that’s the way I felt back then, a million years ago and light years away from this winter.  Oh yes, by Christmas you were half way home, you only had to get through January, then it was February and February was short, right?  And then it was March and everyone knows that March is spring!  Sure it might snow a couple of times, but the sun shone and the snow melted and you got days and days of warmth creeping back into your bones.

Right.

The record snowfall in our area of Michigan is 93.6 inches set in 1881.   No one around today would remember that snowy winter, and no one back then would be commuting to work in bumper to bumper traffic on a freeway in all that snow.  No, this winter, though it will probably end up being the second snowiest winter, is plenty winter enough for me.  People seem to hope  we break the record – we’re only ten inches away now at 83.7 inches (that’s 212.60 centimeters for those of you outside the US).  Wouldn’t that be cool, people say.

It's pretty though.

It’s pretty though.

What I say is that 83.7 inches is plenty enough of a record for me.  It’s the most snow we’ve had here in my lifetime and  I don’t need to experience ten more inches of snow this winter.  In fact I’d be fine if this last snowfall, this last four or five inches received on Saturday night was it.  Done.  Finished.  No more.  No way.  No how.  I’m hoping that I’ve put the snowblower away for the last time this year, felt the last of the cold wet stuff fall down my neck in the middle of the night when I’m out with Katie, shoveled my last chunk of ice away from the mailbox.  That’s what I’m hoping.

Even Katie thinks this is enough snow.  It’s higher than she is tall.  She can’t play in it, won’t squat in it, can’t chase a squirrel across it.  There is no reason that either of us can think of to keep it around.  So if it’s OK with all of you, we’d like to request that it begin to melt, slowly, starting tomorrow.

The only spot to play is the driveway!

The only spot to play is the driveway!

Cause somewhere under all this are little buds of green things just waiting to show us their stuff, there are little peepers waiting to sing and fish waiting to be caught.  Somewhere under all of this is spring, and it can’t get here soon enough to satisfy me.

How about you?

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I didn’t get to go!

IMG_5654Katie here.  I gather my Mama went on a big adventure.  Yep she smells different and she smiles more and I don’t think it’s because of me.  In fact I think she tricked me!  Last Friday she was walking around just like she does every day before she goes to work.  Yep, she was in the shower and packing her lunch and stuff.  But she made a few more trips to the car than normal.  And then she picked me up!  What?  She never does that.  Usually she just pats me on the head and tells me she loves me and then she goes off to work and I go back to sleep!

Well.  You know what she did next?  She put me in the car!  That’s not so bad.  I thought I must have my days mixed up and it’s a school morning.  I like school, so I was just hanging out back there bobbing my head and thinking about the treats I was going to get and then she stopped and came around the back and I was all happy and stuff and she opened the door and it was not school!  I totally freaked out, but she carried me inside and the nice lady behind the desk told me I was beautiful and asked if she could hold me and I liked her a bunch so I just relaxed in her arms while Mama and she talked.  And then another nice lady came out and carried me into the back.  I sighed because I knew right then that I wouldn’t see my Mama for a very very very long time.

So anyway, camp was OK, they’re nice there and all, but I’d rather be home with my Mama.  She came and sprang me from the joint this afternoon.  I was very happy to see her but I didn’t want her to know that.  Wasn’t going to let her off the guilt hook you know.  So I howled all the way home.  At the top of my lungs…which wasn’t very loud because I’d been barking for five straight days and my voice was pretty hoarse.  And now I follow her everywhere.   I even howled when she went out to shovel the driveway.  Because I couldn’t see her you know.  She said something about settling down, but I know she knows that’s not going to happen.

Not until I decide it will.

Cause I’m a princess.

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PS:  I got a present from my boyfriend Reilly and Mama took pictures, but she can’t figure out how to download the pictures to the computer so you’ll have to wait to see what I got.  But Reilly honey…thank you very much.  You’re too good to me.  Well.  Not too good for a princess I guess.  Love you lots Reilly!


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Wordless Wednesday

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Shhhhhh……Katie here, don’t tell Mama I’m talking to you.  This is supposed to be wordless.  Yea.  Right.  Like a Sheltie is ever quiet, you know what I mean?  Anywho…  I think my Mama has been feeling a little down and I’ve done my best to remind her she has me, me me ME!  And what more could she want, right?  So guess what?  I, me, myself and I, arranged for the sun to come out today!  Just for her!  (Well, if any of the rest of you see it too that’s OK, I can share.)  I am, after all, nothing less than a Princess…and a Princess gets whatever she wants, right?  And I wanted sunshine.  So I asked, and I got it and I sure hope she appreciates it.

Now I need to go take a nap.  This has all been exhausting.

You can thank me later.

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Feeling blue

Sun sinks on another day.

Sun sinks on another day.

It’s only mid-winter…and it’s been a long cruel season already.  First there was the massive layoff at work causing the loss of several really good people from my life.  Then there was the permanent loss of a friend.  And just tonight I learned that Casper de Ghost crossed the rainbow bridge.  And yes I know the loss of a dog I’ve never met is not the same as the loss of a human friend in real life.

But still.  I’m feeling blue.

Tracks across my heart

Tracks across my heart

And I’m looking at the tracks across the back yard with my dog Katie and wishing there were flowers blooming and sun shining and that time could stand still during the good stuff and that we didn’t all have to go through loss after loss after loss and just generally feeling blue.

And somewhere on the television a doorbell dings and Katie flies off the chair we share charging the front door in order to announce danger, in order to protect her house, and, I know, me.

And I have to smile and acknowledge that not everything is lost and even much of what seems lost is not really gone, just somewhere different.

And I go and collect my crazy dog and we sit down to watch some silly sit-coms so that we both can laugh for a little bit and forget about the danger just outside the front door.

And it is good.

Always watching

Always watching


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Weekly photo challenge – selfie

WordPress challenged us all to post a selfie in this week’s photo challenge.  Given the kind of weather we’ve had up here this winter I thought this was appropriate.

Baby it's cold outside.

Baby it’s cold outside.

As usual you can go to the original post in the link above and see what others are posting in this challenge.  I hope that they are warmer!  Here and here and here are a few of my favorites that have posted so far.  If you go to the original link there are likely to be even more that you like.