Snow...

quiet, softly falling
cover the earth in calm

and peace

see the star light, star bright
moonlight

and in the morning
the world, full of silver and gold

awakes
to a shiney new day

Another "thing" about Christmas...

I've rehung the Christmas lights on the window. The first set was "eaten" by the cat. Well, she didn't actually eat it, she just chewed the plug end of the cord off so they couldn't be used. Our little, tiny Christmas tree is lit and decorated. We keep having to shoo away the cat who is bound and determined to get that lighted star one of the these days. I've placed the angel that used to top my Mother's tree in front of our little tree. She proudly stands holding out her lighted candles. I remember going with my Dad to buy that angel when the old star we used to have finally gave up on us. We've had this angel for at least 25 years now. I hope she'll stay lit forever.

I love Christmas. It's no surprise to those around me to hear that. I love this season more than any other. There is some magic in those twinkling lights, ours and those shining in the windows of our neighbors and people we don't know. They send a warm, hopeful glow out into the cold, dark winter night. They actually change a season. I don't know of any other event throughout the year that has that power.

I know, for some, the holiday season is very hard. There are lost and lonely people out there and also those who feel lost and lonely because they cannot see the warmth that exists around them. I've seen how a smile, a small candy cane and a "Happy Holidays!" can work miracles by showing people that, for even just that one moment, someone does care. I've seen incredible acts of graciousness and kindness. People can really be unselfish sometimes and it's always a wonder to see. This is why I love Christmas.

On a more personal note, I love giving gifts. Don't get me wrong! I love getting them too but giving them gives me a whole different feeling. I love taking time to try to figure out what each person in my life would love to have. I don't think of it in practical terms. We can all use warm gloves, and socks, and whatnot but we can all get those at another time. I love giving the gift of fun! I want people to remember the joy they felt at Christmas when they were little. Sometimes that means giving them something just for the fun of it - toys, games, art stuff, whatever it is! Giving someone a good memory to hold onto is a very good thing!

So, tonight, as the frigid deadly cold of Wisconsin is warmed just a little bit by the glow of my holiday lights, I'm enjoying a lovely cup of hot tea, remembering my Dad as the angel blinks, and hoping that everyone, everywhere is warm and loved and happy. If even for a moment.

Winter is here!

Though today started out a bit crappy what with me getting a flat tire before I even left the curb outside my home, the day did hold a bit of a welcome surprise for me! It snowed! Almost all afternoon we had beautiful large white flakes slowly wafting down. Yes, I'm one of those crazy fools who love the snow. It just makes it seem like the holiday season when there is snow.

Of course, most of my co-workers were grumbling. They aren't big snow fans. But, as for me, I couldn't have been happier!

The funny thing about snow...

Living in Wisconsin, you get pretty used to having a lot of snow around in the winter time. Still, the #1 thing to do here in the winter is complain about the snow. It's funny though because the snow anxiety begins sometime in November when we start to look to the dark skies of a blustery day and say "You think it will snow?" over and over again. Sometime in December, it actually does snow.

The first snowfall of the year is always a big event. Usually, the first snowfall doesn't amount to more than a flurry or two that doesn't have the staying power needed to really make a mess of things. Still, Cheeseheads everywhere look to the roads and start to wonder if the ride home from work will be bad. It generally isn't but we do get a good chuckle the next day around the water cooler about some "idjit" or other that didn't remember to slow down and ended up in a ditch "off of 31". It's at this time each year the love/hate relationship with snow begins. Those who love it (like me) start wishing out loud for more which always leads those who hate it (almost everyone else) to say "Oh SURE! It's nice...if you don't have to go anywhere!" This statement always struck me as completely silly because, of course, we have to go somewhere. We have to work, eat and live so becoming a hermit is not exactly an option for everyone.

Eventually the "big one" does hit. Despite the bitching, people dig in, shovel out and barrel through and get where they need to go. They might get there late but that's a given so no one complains about it. For the next several days Cheeseheads do something I call "The Great Snowbank Story Swap". Everyone gets great pleasure one upping each other about the height, depth and girth of whatever snowbank they themselves had to shovel out of. Then, after a few days of cold winter sun, the snow starts turning "city brown" and the novelty wears off. We all seem to forget about it even though it's still there. We shuffle more when we walk so as not to slip and fall. We drive slower - which in Wisconsin is pretty damn slow since we already drive slower than almost any other state! But we get on with life.

Then it snows again... and again. Somehow, after the first rush of snow activity all subsequent snowfalls become ho-hum. We don't worry as much about the roads. We don't wonder if we'll get out of our drive ways. We have the morning routine of starting the car, heating it up, and scraping off the windows down pat. Last night it snowed a little on the way home from work and this morning my street was blanketed in white. It was silent at 6:30am as I scraped off my windshield and waited for the heat to kick in. I could hear the crunch of old snow covered by the new under my feet as I made my way around the car. Everything was cold, crisp and clean. That's what I love about the snow. It's that initial clean white feeling...the smell of it...the coldness...the occasional crystal shine in the streetlight. It's the part that doesn't last long because as the day and traffic start up the snow begins to melt and turns grey and loses its virginity.

If you've never walked in the new snow in the light of the full moon, you have no idea what I'm talking about. And part of me feels bad that you don't. I wish everyone could experience that once in their lifetime.

Ho ho ho...

Getting ready for Christmas this year has been a wangdoodle of a time. I was lucky in that I got much of it done before Alex arrived. Now there's just some wrapping and decorating that has to take place. I am very glad I don't have any more shopping to do because the weather here has reached Arctic temperatures and having to run around too much in that stuff is painful!

We got a good deal of snow dumped on us late last week and we're due to get some more tomorrow. I don't have to work until after the New Year so I don't really care but I wish it wasn't so blasted cold. I would love to go out and make a snowman but I would freeze my tuckus off!! Actually, with a tuckus this size freezing some of it off might not be a bad idea....

Here are some shots of the recent snow. Enjoy! (These shots are best enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate!)





Stay warm every one!

Winding down the week and other fun things...

Today we're having our holiday party at work. There is a general feeling of "I don't want to do anything" throughout the office today. I have successfully staved off any work for the last three hours.

I spent last night wrapping gifts, fighting the cats for the ribbons and tape, and filling little gift bags with goodies for all of my staff. So much for having cleaned up the place because now it looks like a bomb went off in my place. Actually, with the tree listing to the right showing the huge hole where branches used to be and unlit at the bottom third and with my Santa collection having been ravaged by marauding felines, my apartment could be a post card for a Depression era Christmas. Ah well, it will all work out in the end. I'll just light some candles and put on some carols and make some strong hot toddy's and all will be fine.

Tomorrow Alex arrives from Sweden. Oh, what I meant to say was...TOMORROW ALEX ARRIVES FROM SWEDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *ahem*
The National Weather Service is predicting the biggest snow storm of the year for this region and it will produce nearly a foot of snow all the way to O'Hare airport. I hope his plane is able to land. I have visions of him sitting in the International Terminal at Newark waiting for another flight. I'll keep my fingers crossed that O'Hare stays cleared and all planes land, if not land on time. I'm so excited about him coming here. I haven't seen him in the flesh since August. Have I mentioned...TOMORROW ALEX ARRIVES FROM SWEDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, there is much holiday food to be enjoyed here right now and more work to avoid at all costs. It's a good thing too. I'm too excited to think.

Yup...It's winter!

Darkness as wet,cold snow blankets the neighborhood.







There's a fleeting glint of sun at sunrise.

The day begins with an angry winter sky.
And it's all of 17 degrees here right now.

Driving an igloo to work....

We got some snow here last night and it's still snowing. Frankly, I'm glad to see it though I have to admit getting out while it's still dark and scraping the windshield is not high on my list of fun things to do. Actually today I had to scrape the entire car. The snow started last night as freezing rain which makes for a nice force field of icy stealth to clean off the car the next day. I tend to leave some on the non-glass parts of the car so I look like a 2001 Dodge Igloo driving down the road in the morning. I figure sooner or later the sun will come out and Mother Nature can clear off the rest.

Living in Wisconsin, you'd think we would all be used to this kind of weather. But the weather is complaint Numero Uno around here at all times. People either complains it's too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry. Not a day goes by when someone doesn't mention it. The phrase "Cold enough for ya?" is a common greeting as is "You ask for this snow?" as if someone has to be to blame. I tend to like weather so living here isn't a problem for me. I love that the seasons change so drastically here. It can be 100 degrees in the summer with 98% humidity or it can get to 15 degrees in the winter with a 20 below wind chill factor. There's something about all that change that keeps it interesting. I get a lot of groans from people when I say things like "Isn't the snow great!?" But it is great. It's beautiful. I can't wait until we have enough to go outside and make a big snowman!

I'll take one Easter bonnet with ear flaps, please.

It's spring right? I mean, the first day of spring was just one day ago, wasn't it? Then why is there a winter snow warning here and why is it a complete white out situation outside and why do we now have 7 inches of snow with a prediction of 15 inches? Aaarghhh!

I had to go out in this stuff this morning to move my car off the street so the plow could get through. It's miserable. It looks more like Christmas than Easter around here right now. Even my chocolate bunny has goose bumps!

By way of something different....

We're getting more snow this weekend. I swear I don't know how much more of this I can take.


But, since it looks like sometime after noon tomorrow I will be homebound I have stocked up on good reads. My failure though is that I completely finished one the them tonight. I should have waited...but I'm like that. I just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this one since it's pretty dark and fairly disheartening but, I have to admit, it was a good read. Made me think and really got me in the end. I recommend it. Tomorrow, while the snow flies, I shall be taking on "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. This was recommended to me by Jessica, Alex's sister. I just read the blurb on the author and, crap, if this book is half as interesting as his life it will be well worth it. He was born in Australia, convicted for perpetrating several armed robberies, spent some years in prison, broke out, ended up in Bombay, India for ten years working as a smuggler, counterfeiter and gunrunner for a branch of the Bombay mafia, got caught, was sent back to prison to do the rest of his time plus some and wrote this book while he was in prison. Whew! Now that's a life! I have no idea what the book is about yet but it's big with lots of good words and it will be the perfect thing to curl up with protected from the snowy blast.

On a completely unrelated note...I was channel surfing tonight and came across this tele-evangelist named Pastor Melissa Scott. I listend for a while, not because I thought what she was saying was all that interesting, but because she just had this strange thing about her that was compelling to watch. Not like any evangelist I've ever heard...so, after a few minutes, I Google her name... turns out not only is she the Pastor of a ginormous congragation in Los Angeles, she is also the wife of a very eccentric (now deceased) evangelist named Gene Scott who was about 90 years old. She is 30 or so AND....she is also a porn star known as Barbi Bridges. How this all ties together or why I even find this so interesting is beyond me but, man, doesn't that sound like a made for Lifetime movies waiting to be made? Haha!

The end of the world...

As I ranted about in the last post, it snowed today. 18 inches...final total. A tree just fell over from the weight of the snow in my front yard and landed on my neighbors car. Five hundred cars are stranded on the interstate and they just called out the National Guard to bring them food and water and to check on them. They've been there for over three hours now. There hasn't been a snow plow on my street yet. I have no idea how I'm getting to work tomorrow. Or if I'm getting to work tomorrow.



This sucks.

Oh, enough already....

Don't get me wrong. I love snow. I really do. I wait for it each year and feel like a kid when it finally gets here. But, seriously, enough already. We're having something called thundersnow tonight and they're predicting almost 20 inches of the stuff. This just after 8 inches two days ago and preceding an entire week of snow. If I ever meet that friggan' ground hog I'm going to cook and eat him.

My mood is grey and I am surly. I don't even like myself right now so it's hard for me to like anyone else. I am in need of serious sunshine. If it ever shines again, I will run naked through it's warming rays alarming the neighbors and scaring the children with gay abandon.

I know why bears hibernate. I am becoming one. If I could I would live off my stores of fat until spring only aiding my hunger with the occasional vodka goody. I do not wish to shovel anything, anymore. I don't want to hear the dulcet tones of snow blowers at 4 am. I hate, loathe and despise all snow plows and the white film of salt they leave on my car. I'm tired of wearing boots. And long underwear. And gloves. There is nothing even remotely quaint or nostalgic about the crunch, crunch, crunch of snow beneath my feet. I am conspiring against all weathermen because, while I know they did not create it, I am holding them fully responsible. I want this to stop...NOW.

The beat goes on...

Something about January...just after the holidays, all the hubbub dead in the water, back to work...and on and on and on. Just seems to drag, long days, short weekends...

This is the time of year that being in the rat race just gets to me. It's all just more of the same. Even the weather is the same. We have low temps and, last night, more snow. I love the snow, don't get me wrong, but it does lose it's charm right about now.

I've been offered two song projects for collaboration. Both cover versions and I think they should be fun to do. I just haven't sung anything in so long that it will take me a while to get the confidence back. I was listening to the song files last night and sort of humming along. Wasn't pretty. I think the truth is I haven't sung in so long is that I just haven't come across a project that has truly excited me. Doing these collabs are fun, for sure, but I haven't felt that I have done anything in the last while that was worth anything. There are a couple of Wilhemina Murray's Revenge songs out there in cyberland awaiting someone or other to mix and those come close to something of which I can be proud.

Suddenly life got in the way of art and it's all kerfluffled. Everything just sits on the back burner waiting and hoping that one day I'll have the time and inspiration to do it. The way it stands now, and this is only exacerbated by the long ass January days, it will be waiting forever.

The frigid white north...

The sun was deceptive today. From inside, it looked warm and inviting, almost luring me outdoors. I had to go out to run a few errands and, trust me on this, the sun is a big, fat, stinking liar! Today was the coldest day of the year here. 1 degrees with a windchill of -15. Gassing up my car never felt so painful! Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly better. Maybe only 5 degrees but the windchill is not expected to dip below zero.

Tomorrow is also the next big game day! The Pack takes on NY at Lambeau. For this I cannot wait. The last game, with its snowy wonder, was a sight to behold. Tomorrow the winner will be determined purely by who can survive the temperature. Green Bay at this time of year is hell - a beautiful frozen hell - and I have a feeling the Giants will not know what hit them. I, of course, will be watching the game, snug as a bug, from the comfort of my sister's couch with the rest of the Packer Prayer Circle. I even got a new Pack shirt to wear for the occasion and a snugly turtle neck to go underneath it!

Even though the ride to her house will be horrible ( the car won't even be warm by the time we get there) I'm looking forward to it. Call me over confident, but I'm pretty sure that Prayer Circle will be getting together on Superbowl Sunday!

Snow Day!

Today was one of those deeply goodiddley days! I was up last night watching the weather channel. That's something we do regularly here in Wisconsin just so's we know what to expect the next morning. Well, HELLO!! What do you think? As predicted Wisconsin is under an ice storm warning. I made up my mind last night before I went to bed to call in and take one of my hard earned paid sick days just because. I declared this an official personal snow day! I used to love snow days when I was a kid. Waking up in the morning, getting ready for school only to discover that school was closed and all that was left to do was get outside and play, play, play!

I tried to sleep in but Arnie the alarm cat wouldn't let me. So I got up, made some great pumpkin spice coffee my sister gave me and planned the day. I didn't go play, sadly. I used the time to finished up some of the cleaning projects I had started. Yes, those blasted clean spots were making me feel too guilty. Any movement by me meant that Arnie just had to be up and under foot. Something that was amazingly and, quite humorously, cured when I began to vacuum. That sent him packing. He's still staring at me right now from under the table. Oh, the power I feel!

I bundled up later and went outside to move my car. Alternate side parking - the bane of every Cheesehead's existence. Well, that and Minnesota Viking fans. Actually, it was quite nice outside despite the icy drizzle. My sister brought Joe, her bumbling Chocolate lab, outside. I pelted him with snow balls which he loved! I swear if he could, he would dig himself into a snow bank and just stay there. I've never seen a dog who loves the snow so much.

I decided this was the perfect day to reread some of my old favorites. Restarted "To Kill A Mockingbird". I read this one at least once each year. I'm not sure why I love this book so much but I do. I think it is the idea that there may be a little Atticus in all of us, if we look hard enough. It's like comfort food to me. Speaking of which, I am roasting a chicken and the smell is amazing. I plan to eat it later with some homemade mashed potatoes and green beans. I think a Bloody Mary is in order as well!

This was a perfect snow day. I may even start wrapping those Christmas gifts!

Meet Arnie!

Today was a grand day! Seriously, I feel like a five year old on Christmas morning. I got my kitty! AND - we are having a wingding of a snow storm right now. So, the combination of those two wonders has turned me into a giant smiling head.

I didn't think the shelter would let me take a cat home right away so I decided to go buy all the things I knew I would need when I got a cat. I went to Petco and loaded up a cart full of goodies and, lo and behold, the shelter people were actually AT Petco for a special adoption day thing. I looked at all the kitties they had there and this one, when I held him, just crawled up under my chin and purred. Love at first sight! He's 8 months old, a black and white Calico and he's a character! He's been home less then 4 hours and has explored every available inch of his new domain. He even managed to disappear for about an hour which is almost impossible in this small apartment. His name is Arnie. That's what the shelter named him and I wasn't too keen on that name but the more I get to know and love him the more I realize, the name kind of fits! So, I have become a full fledged member of the Litter Box crowd (as my friend Kathy so siccintly put it)!

And the snow! It's blowing and cold and wonderful too. Everything is white and quiet and there's almost no traffic to be heard. I can hear the roar of the lake and the pattering of the snow on the windows and I am here, cozy and warm, with a beautiful ball of black and white fluff purring on my lap. Yes, life is good!