The End Of The Long, Dark Months

Well, I don't really have anything specific to say or any news to report but I figured just the fact I'd pretty much made it thru February was enough of a reason to at least give out a shout in here. It's been a cold, snowy, wintery month, like it's suppose to be I guess and I've been ticking the days off by just working, sleeping and eating.

The one thing that is news and that I failed to mention last entry is that Jennette is pregnant once again and our 3rd grandchild will be born sometime in early August. At this point Wanda is planning on flying down there to be there for the birth of #3 while I'll be staying here to hold down the fort. I may take a bike trip out there this coming summer but it'll have to be a wait and see thing. I have no idea if there'll be money for anything more than day trips this year. Also out on the Kansas front I've been informed that Eric has been promoted up to the next level (not sure what it's called, sorry....) and that means more income for their household and a possible move into a better housing situation too, so hopefully by the time #3 arrives there'll be a bigger place for the bigger family to live in. The two grandkids already here are getting bigger by the day. Everytime I see new pics they look like different kids, especially Jason in the last batch of pics that I received this past week. He's starting to crawl from what I hear and Ryan is up and moving on two feet. Jennette....now is the time to start growing those eyes in the back of your head, you're gonna need 'em in the months (and years) ahead.

When I'm not working, sleeping or eating I've been spending time working on the Websites, particulary the Album one and adding more tunes to the Ipod. I'm up to just about 8 days worth of music, alittle bit over 2,300 tunes. Now that I've got all the stuff off the CD's loaded up and I'm working on the vinyl it's going a bit slower cuz of the fact I have to record the album to CD first before I load it into the computer. Right Now I'm just picking some of my favorites to record but as time goes on I'll be going thru everything to pick out those tunes that I want to carry with me until the end.

I've wanted to go up to the campsite the last couple weekends but haven't made it between a lack of gas money and crappy weather. Once the white stuff melts away and I can start doing some grounds work I plan to be up there at least one day every weekend and overnight when it gets to the point that it's bearable. I've got firewood to cut, areas I want to mow and rake before the ferns pop up and I'd like to get some grass seed down in the yard area so it can look like it did last summer before the utility people tore things up with their big trucks and heavy equipment. Also in the campsite news, Wanda spent some of her bonus money on a little electric fridge that we're going to install, for now at least, in the storage shed so that we can keep stuff cold and leave stuff up there during the week. No more hassling with buying ice and dragging supplies back and forth with us every trip. The way I figure with what I spend on ice for a weekend the fridge should pay for itself by the end of the first summer.

Guess that's about it for now, it's late and tomorrow is gonna be a messy, snowy day by the way it looks right now. It's that heavy, wet stuff that is slippery to boot. The snow has already killed off the cable TV for this evening. Weather makes for good photographs but it plays hell with travel and utilities. Fortunately the electricity is still on here, hope it stays on all night.

TC

The Winter Wonderland.....

Wasn't it just last week that I was saying what a mild winter we were having??? Well, this week things have changed, the last several days in particular and we are now officially in the middle of a major blizzard. The last couple days we've had 6+ inches of snow dropped on us each day and the wind has picked up and gotten rather intense to the point it's sending the wind chill numbers down into the -20° realm. The weather image is a classic pic of Lake effect snow. You'll notice that all the blue is on the windward side of water. The darker the blue, the heavier the snowfall. The temp pic is from late Saturday night and it doesn't factor in windchill. In layman's terms.....it's damn cold out there!

Yesterday I never left the house and today just a hike down to Oasis for breakfast fixings was an ordeal. By the time I got back to the house my face hurt from the cold. The last couple days about every social function in West Michigan has been cancelled, including most Sunday morning Church Services and Wanda's Sunday night bingo. It's ugly. They've already called off school for tomorrow and I wouldn't be surprised to hear the same news for Tuesday. According to the weather service we're not suppose to get out of the single digits until at least Wednesday. This is the kind of winter I recall as a kid. Once the wind dies down there'll be enough snow out there to play in no matter what you like to do.......

To make matters worse the snowblower died on me the other day and I haven't shoveled all weekend so it's gonna be a challenge just to get out of the driveway in the morning to go to work. I think the fuel line is frozen so I need to bring it in the house to warm it up and dump some dry gas down her throat. If that don't do the trick then I'm pretty much screwed. I'm sure the line to get snowblowers repaired is on the long side right now.

While I'm writing I should mention that myself, Ri and Adam went to the new car show at the DeVos place in G.R. Thursday night. We spent about 3 hours there looking at the blah new stuff and some of the concept cars. The only one that really caught my eye was the new Chevy Nomad wagon. It's cool but I doubt I'd ever buy one....just not practical for my lifestyle. I need a new pickup truck sometime in the next year or two.......

Time for bed now....gonna be a cold ride to work in the morning.

TC