Vocabulary Lesson

Posted on 03/11/2015 by chick

Livia spent much of yesterday sleeping, which was good, because when she wasn’t sleeping she was throwing up. She’d never been sick like that before, so she didn’t initially have the vocabulary to describe her condition. She’s been learning, though. Last night she told me, “Daddy said I have a stomach beetle.”

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A Sunday Afternoon Walk

Posted on 03/01/2015 by chick

I went walking again today. This time I had tracks to walk in, and that made the going so much easier. I went a little farther than I had on Friday, but of course I stopped at the Icefalls to see if they had changed. They hadn’t, really, but I took some more photographs anyway.

Icefalls 1

Fresh snow gave the ice a “frothiness” that made it almost look like moving water.

Icefalls 4

Still Big and Beautiful

Icefalls 3

Behind the Icefalls

I would have liked to crawl into that cave and look out through the different colored sections of ice. I’m no chicken, but even as I was taking these pictures, I was extremely conscious of the huge icicles mere inches from my shoulder. There was ice everywhere on the ground. I was wearing snowshoes and backpack, which made me bigger and klutzier. I neither wanted to fall nor dislodge large pieces of ice onto my head. So I contented myself with standing halfway inside and taking pictures.

I headed back home. I was about ten feet from my back door when I got careless. I didn’t watch where I was putting my snowshoe, it slid deep into a hole in the snow, and down I went. It was a reminder of how deep the snow is. It would be impossible to walk more than a few feet without the snowshoes.

The funny thing is that I almost returned the snowshoes shortly after buying them. That was a few years ago, before we got all this snow, and I doubted I’d ever use them. Now I think I’ve probably gotten my money’s worth. Hooray for snowshoes!

Snowshoesy

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Day Off

Posted on 02/28/2015 by chick

On Friday I decided to take the day off from work. Livia was at her Vovó’s and Marshall was at school. Five days had been magically added to my work deadline, and I had a full complement of paid days off. So there was no one demanding my attention, no reason why I couldn’t take a break.

My plan was to play my piano, eat some lunch, and then go for a hike in my snowshoes. And that’s exactly what I did.

The hike was strenuous. Snowshoes make it possible to walk when the snow is deep. They do not, however, make it easy. Also, I was carrying a lot of extra weight. In addition to the snowshoes and my extra-warm, bulky clothing, I had a ski pole and a backpack containing some emergency supplies (a bottle of water, a light, and a thermal blanket).

Fortunately, I had decided to go to the Icefalls, and they’re not far. I chose them as my destination because I figured the excessive snow and freezing temps would have made them grow large. And I was right!

Walk1 Walk2 Walk3

At least the snow, which has been so problematic in other ways, makes beautiful icefalls. It’s also a fine backdrop for shadows.

Walk5

Shadow Tree

Walk4

Shadow Me

The only sour note to the day was the news that actor Leonard Nimoy had died. I spent the evening watching a 3-movie “Star Trek” marathon in his honor. I’m sad that he’s gone, but he lived long and prospered, and that’s the most that any of us, human or Vulcan, can hope for.

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The Cruel Month

Posted on 02/21/2015 by chick

It used to be, by the time February was half over, you could feel that the winter was retreating and even catch a glimpse of spring arriving. But this year, things are different. February has buried us under layer after layer of snow. It has frozen us half to death with its subzero temperatures. We huddle in houses with roofs already overburdened with snow and listen to the weather forecast in despair. More snow, they say, followed by enough rain to really weigh it down, topped with more snow, and then an arctic blast to freeze it. Spring, assuming she still exists, is nowhere in sight. There is nothing ahead for us but more snow and cold.

My husband told me that he had heard someone say that this winter proves that global warming is a sham. People are such idiots. A warmer globe doesn’t mean that winter will cease to exist, or even necessarily become milder. Rather, it changes everything we know (or think we know) about climate, including how much snow a particular area might get during the winter.

This is not the first snowy winter we’ve had recently. We could be witnessing the start of a trend. Maybe the snowy end of the climate-change stick is going to give us an annual beating from now on, something to consider if we want to continue living in the northeast.

If nothing else, this winter has changed the way I think about February. No longer just The Snow Month, February is now The Cruel Month, or The Month That Keeps Kicking You When You’re Down. It’s almost over now, but I wonder if its weather will chase us into March. I hope not. We really need to see that light at the end of the snow tunnel!

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Bugger All and Never Mind “The”

Posted on 02/21/2015 by chick

Recently I watched two seasons of a British TV show called “Last Tango in Halifax.” It’s about two septuagenarians who had crushes on one another as teenagers, but who ultimately ending up marrying other people, and later being widowed. They are reunited via Facebook some 60 years later and immediately decide to get married. This brings their two crazy families together, and all sorts of interesting (and often unsavory) things happen. One character slowly reveals the truth about her husband’s death, another comes out as a lesbian, and they’re all drunk half the time. “Last Tango in Halifax” is a soap opera, to be sure, but it’s so much fun!

It was Derek Jacobi in the lead role that made me want to watch this show. He is every bit as wonderful as I had hoped. The other actors are also excellent. Their characters are all believably human, if not always likable. But Jacobi’s character holds the whole thing together. I could watch him all day.

Another thing that consistently delights me is the language. Not just the accents, but the enjoyable mix of dialect and slang. They say “owt” and “nowt” for “anything” and “nothing,” and “summat” for “something.” When they’re imagining possibilities, they say “happen” instead of “perhaps.” When they’re behaving stupidly, they call each other “dozy pillocks.” When they’re feeling lazy, they do “bugger all.” When a woman gets pregnant, she’s “in the pudding club.”

They also seem to be waging war on the word “the.” Sometimes they leave it out completely, saying things like, “That’s plan.” Other times (maybe ahead of vowels?) they just reduce it to a quick and dirty “t.” It’s strangely mesmerizing, this speech made rough by all the holes where the most common word in English ought to be.

I also love the backdrop of the northern English countryside. It’s lovely, both brilliantly green and dismally gray at the same time. One character, who manages a sheep farm up on a hill, says that the winter wind there is strong enough to knock a person over. I’d like to give that a try some time.

In the meantime, I look forward to the next season. I hope Netflix brings it soon!

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The Good Parent

Posted on 02/14/2015 by chick

Me: I’m going to take the kids outside to play in the snow after lunch.
Husband: I’m not going outside.
Me: No one said you have to go outside. I’m just trying to be a good mom. The kids are stir-crazy, and they need to get out of the house.
Husband: I have no objection to your being a good mother as long as you’re not going to force me to be a good father!

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It’s Back! (Sort Of)

Posted on 02/06/2015 by chick

I received a camera from Canon today, but not my old one. It’s a refurbished model which they sent as a replacement. Getting a replacement is probably a good thing. I didn’t take the best care of my old camera. I dropped it repeatedly and subjected it to all kinds of bad weather. So this one is probably in better shape.

My only complaint is that it’s black, not silver like the one it replaced. The silver was prettier. But my hubby ordered me a hot-pink camera bag, and the bright color of the bag ought to make up for the dark color of the camera.

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Snow Month

Posted on 02/05/2015 by chick

It’s snowing again today. I love watching the snow fall, and in other circumstances I’d be outside walking in it. But there’s already so much snow on the ground that walking would be difficult. Snow wading is what it would be.

This particular storm is only supposed to drop 1-3 inches. However, we’re supposed to get another 6-10 inches early next week. That storm might spoil the party we have planned for Sunday. I hope it won’t, but most people prefer to huddle at home when it snows, not travel to parties. C’est la vie.

We had been blaming Marshall for our excess snow, because he won’t stop wishing for more. But now my husband claims that I’m the cause. According to him, I jinxed us. You see, toward the end of January my husband commented about how we’d had so little snow this winter, and I replied, “Wait until February. February is the snow month.”

I can’t see how that could have jinxed anything. If I’d said that we never get snow in February, then maybe. That would have been a jinxy thing to say. But all I did was state a fact that anyone living in this area of New England ought to know by now. February is the snow month!

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Six Steps to Happiness

Posted on 02/04/2015 by chick

Livia says there are six things we must do every day to keep her happy.

  1. We have to hug and kiss each other.
  2. We have to say how much we love each other.
  3. We have to sneak up on Daddy.
  4. We have to make something together.
  5. We have to try to write some words.
  6. We have to give each other backward hugs. (A backward hug is when someone hugs you from behind and you reach your arms back to hug them around their neck.)
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Martian Still

Posted on 02/03/2015 by chick

It’s been a good week for the Martian language so far. Just when I thought Marshall had given it up completely, he hit me with “monarf” (monarch butterly) and “blisterd” (blizzard).

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