So it's almost the end of February and once again I have this sense of having survived a month. So much stupid illness, for me and the boos. I am still congested from the last bout, but feeling better every day. It would be nice if we didn't get another virus right away, knock wood. I feel energized by the great visit we just had from Aunt Barbara and looking forward to other family visits coming up in March.
I read 10 books in February, so have now read 20 books so far this year, very much on track to read 100. And just like last year, I didn't read any Barbara Pym, my usual February staple. I dipped into some of my favorites, read snippets, but no full books. Maybe it's because I've read her entire oeuvre so many times I have it memorized (but that was never a problem before). Maybe it's just Ridgecrest.
Here is my February reading list:
11. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. What a cool book, thoroughly enjoyed it. So funny, and of course you're never sure how well the humor was translated from the original. I'd love to discuss this with a native Japanese speaker.
12. How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart. An oddly meandering book. I thought I'd never finish it. Some useful stuff.
13. The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald. Miss Fitzgerald is one of my top 10 favorite authors, maybe top 5. This is a sort of biography of her father and his 3 brothers. Fascinating, heartbreaking.
14. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I wanted to reread this. It didn't hold up well (I was perhaps 11? when I first read it) but maybe it would still appeal to a young person. So many unanswered questions. Can't decide whether I want to read the sequels now.
15. High Country Fall by Margaret Maron. This begins a little orgy of mystery-reading. It was pretty good.
16. Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron. Another pretty good mystery.
17. The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald. I'd never read any Travis McGee. How portrayals of women in novels have changed!
18. Free Fall in Crimson by John D. MacDonald. More Travis McGee, and that's probably enough for me.
19. Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. Another OK mystery.
20. A Season in Hell by Marilyn French. Just finished this today. A memoir of how she survived esophageal cancer (which no one survives). In some ways just a ridiculous book, in some ways very insightful. I'm still digesting it.
I have a stack of books ready for my March reading. Tomorrow I think I'll just read Barbara Pym. And of course one of these days I need to write something myself again. Or get a job.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Home with sick kids
The title about says it all. Baby A and Baby B have been sick for the past week or so and this week I'm staying home with them. I'm embarrassed that last week (when only Baby A had it), I sent them both to daycare. It was Saturday before Rocket Boy and I both realized that they were truly sick. And Sunday we went to Death Valley. Oh honestly, I can't get that out of my mind. World's Worst Mom (among mothers who do not actually dismember their children). I've been sick too and I also have pinkeye for the 3rd time since December. Anyway, since Monday we've been keeping them -- and me -- home and quiet. No stroller walks even. Today I strapped them into their car seats and we went to the bank to deposit a check, but we used the drive-through window and we went straight home afterwards.
So what is there to say about these days... they are long and nothing much happens and by the time the kids go to bed, I'm frazzled. I wake up late. RB gets up to go to work and he gives the babies their morning bottle (yes, they still drink a morning bottle, yes I know they're almost two, World's Worst Mom, I know, I know) and comes into the bedroom around 7:30 to tell me he's leaving. "OK, bye," I say, and turn over and go back to sleep. The last two days I have not gotten up until 9am! The fact that the babies are not screaming by then must be due to the fact that they aren't feeling very good either and probably go back to sleep too. MUST get up earlier tomorrow. Anyway, when I finally do get up I spend some time picking all the conjunctivitis gunk out of my eyelashes, put the drops in, and do a Sudoku. No, I do not normally sit and do a Sudoku while my children are waiting to have their overnight diapers changed. I am not myself this week. Eventually they do start to scream and then I quickly get dressed and go into their room.
They are always happy to see me in the morning, no matter how long I put it off. I open the blinds. We change diapers. We put on clothes. The babies grab favorite books and try to get me to read them to them. I say no, we'll read it after breakfast. We go to the kitchen to have breakfast. I attempt to make sense of our dreadful local newspaper while the babies throw cheerios at each other.
After breakfast is a terrible time. On a normal day we would go for our stroller ride, but this is not a normal week. We go into their play room (their gated-off section of the family room) and I sit in the papasan chair. They immediately grab books and climb into the chair with me. I started wondering today whether it is normal to spend as much time reading as we do. Yes, I know I'm the person who tries to read 100 books a year, but what about them? They never want to do anything else! They only want to sit snuggled up next to me while I read "Blue Hat Green Hat" or "Bear on a Bike" or "Baby Dress 'n Go" or "Diego and Click Take a Pic" or "The Runaway Bunny" or...... At some point I get sick of this and either get up and go somewhere else (they follow me, screaming "mah! mah!") or get down on the ground and try to get them to play with a toy. "Look," I say, "here are some trucks. What do the trucks do?" Baby B, frantically waving "Baby Dress 'n Go" at me, says "mah! mah!"
I hate "Baby Dress 'n Go." It has photographs of babies dressed in different outfits with appropriate rhyming text: "Boots and puddles, what a mess/For spring, a pretty hat and dress." I've started messing with them when we read that book. I point to a picture and say "oh look, it's Peapod" (a child in their daycare) or "I believe that's Syrus." Sometimes I say every picture is Peapod. At first this annoyed the babies and they would say "No!" but now they ignore me. They're getting their book fix; they don't care what I say.
The morning goes on and on. Sometimes we do the laundry. I look at my watch a lot. Since we've been getting up so late and their appetites aren't good right now, we've been skipping snack and just going straight on to lunch. Most of it goes on the floor anyway. Then we go to their room, change diapers, read 50,000 more books, and then I put them in their cribs for a nap.
On my break (their nap) I eat chocolate and -- wait for it -- read. MY choice of book, and not out loud. Also I play on the computer. And oh yeah, sometimes I work.
When they wake up from their naps I ignore them for a while. But eventually I have to get them up. They're grouchier when they wake up in the afternoon. We change diapers again and go have a snack. And then it's afternoon and what the heck are we going to do until dinner???
What should I be doing with them? I was reading a blog written by a lot of random twin moms today and various moms were talking about how much TV their twins watch. The ones whose twins watch TV were defending themselves: "we do crafts every day and they have excellent verbal skills" said one.
Crafts every day?
Excellent verbal skills we don't have. Well, I have them. I get all this practice, reading aloud 50 million books a day. All the boo bears say is "mah! mah!"
But crafts?
I may start to cry.
Eventually I have to start making dinner, and things get worse and worse. Baby B wanders around the kitchen clutching a bottle of water, a sippy cup of water, and a lid from a bottle of iced tea. Baby A takes one or more of the above from him and hits him with them. Impassioned screaming results. Somehow dinner gets made. RB comes home from work. We eat. The babies throw their food on the floor. We clean them up and put them behind a gate. RB cleans the food off the floor. I join them behind the gate and read them 11 more books. Then we either give them a bath first or we go straight to their room and change their diapers and put them into sleepers. We give them their nighttime bottles (World's Worst Mom). I read 93,000 more books to them. We put them in their cribs and say nighty-night.
It doesn't sound so bad written down. These are the wonderful years that I will miss desperately someday (when I am senile).
So what is there to say about these days... they are long and nothing much happens and by the time the kids go to bed, I'm frazzled. I wake up late. RB gets up to go to work and he gives the babies their morning bottle (yes, they still drink a morning bottle, yes I know they're almost two, World's Worst Mom, I know, I know) and comes into the bedroom around 7:30 to tell me he's leaving. "OK, bye," I say, and turn over and go back to sleep. The last two days I have not gotten up until 9am! The fact that the babies are not screaming by then must be due to the fact that they aren't feeling very good either and probably go back to sleep too. MUST get up earlier tomorrow. Anyway, when I finally do get up I spend some time picking all the conjunctivitis gunk out of my eyelashes, put the drops in, and do a Sudoku. No, I do not normally sit and do a Sudoku while my children are waiting to have their overnight diapers changed. I am not myself this week. Eventually they do start to scream and then I quickly get dressed and go into their room.
They are always happy to see me in the morning, no matter how long I put it off. I open the blinds. We change diapers. We put on clothes. The babies grab favorite books and try to get me to read them to them. I say no, we'll read it after breakfast. We go to the kitchen to have breakfast. I attempt to make sense of our dreadful local newspaper while the babies throw cheerios at each other.
After breakfast is a terrible time. On a normal day we would go for our stroller ride, but this is not a normal week. We go into their play room (their gated-off section of the family room) and I sit in the papasan chair. They immediately grab books and climb into the chair with me. I started wondering today whether it is normal to spend as much time reading as we do. Yes, I know I'm the person who tries to read 100 books a year, but what about them? They never want to do anything else! They only want to sit snuggled up next to me while I read "Blue Hat Green Hat" or "Bear on a Bike" or "Baby Dress 'n Go" or "Diego and Click Take a Pic" or "The Runaway Bunny" or...... At some point I get sick of this and either get up and go somewhere else (they follow me, screaming "mah! mah!") or get down on the ground and try to get them to play with a toy. "Look," I say, "here are some trucks. What do the trucks do?" Baby B, frantically waving "Baby Dress 'n Go" at me, says "mah! mah!"
I hate "Baby Dress 'n Go." It has photographs of babies dressed in different outfits with appropriate rhyming text: "Boots and puddles, what a mess/For spring, a pretty hat and dress." I've started messing with them when we read that book. I point to a picture and say "oh look, it's Peapod" (a child in their daycare) or "I believe that's Syrus." Sometimes I say every picture is Peapod. At first this annoyed the babies and they would say "No!" but now they ignore me. They're getting their book fix; they don't care what I say.
The morning goes on and on. Sometimes we do the laundry. I look at my watch a lot. Since we've been getting up so late and their appetites aren't good right now, we've been skipping snack and just going straight on to lunch. Most of it goes on the floor anyway. Then we go to their room, change diapers, read 50,000 more books, and then I put them in their cribs for a nap.
On my break (their nap) I eat chocolate and -- wait for it -- read. MY choice of book, and not out loud. Also I play on the computer. And oh yeah, sometimes I work.
When they wake up from their naps I ignore them for a while. But eventually I have to get them up. They're grouchier when they wake up in the afternoon. We change diapers again and go have a snack. And then it's afternoon and what the heck are we going to do until dinner???
What should I be doing with them? I was reading a blog written by a lot of random twin moms today and various moms were talking about how much TV their twins watch. The ones whose twins watch TV were defending themselves: "we do crafts every day and they have excellent verbal skills" said one.
Crafts every day?
Excellent verbal skills we don't have. Well, I have them. I get all this practice, reading aloud 50 million books a day. All the boo bears say is "mah! mah!"
But crafts?
I may start to cry.
Eventually I have to start making dinner, and things get worse and worse. Baby B wanders around the kitchen clutching a bottle of water, a sippy cup of water, and a lid from a bottle of iced tea. Baby A takes one or more of the above from him and hits him with them. Impassioned screaming results. Somehow dinner gets made. RB comes home from work. We eat. The babies throw their food on the floor. We clean them up and put them behind a gate. RB cleans the food off the floor. I join them behind the gate and read them 11 more books. Then we either give them a bath first or we go straight to their room and change their diapers and put them into sleepers. We give them their nighttime bottles (World's Worst Mom). I read 93,000 more books to them. We put them in their cribs and say nighty-night.
It doesn't sound so bad written down. These are the wonderful years that I will miss desperately someday (when I am senile).
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The tortoise club
Well, tonight I did something fun -- I went to a meeting of the Ridgecrest tortoise club (http://www.ridgecresttortoiseclub.webs.com/), aka the Ridgecrest branch of the Kern County chapter of the.... well, something like that. It's part of the California Turtle and Tortoise Club, CTTC, of which I am now a member or will be when they cash my check. Anyway.
You know how it is when you do something that's just exactly what you want to do, something that speaks to your soul? The happiness you feel, the lightness of being, the blood coursing through your veins, the pinpricks of excitement. It's late, I'm fumbling for words, but you know that feeling? Never thought I would have it at a tortoise club meeting, but when I saw the notice about the meeting in the paper I immediately wanted to go. I changed our travel plans this weekend so I could go. So maybe I had an inkling of what it would mean to me.
This is a new club, its first meeting was in December. There were 25 people at this meeting -- the little room at the Methodist Church was packed. Doesn't that seem like an appropriate place for a tortoise club meeting, by the way? Methodists are kind of plodding -- OK, I'll stop. I thought maybe there would be tortoises at the meeting, but they're all hibernating. There were people there who have NUMEROUS desert tortoises at home, hibernating. Some people have other kinds of tortoises too, and they don't hibernate. There's some kind of huge African tortoise that people buy when they're little, not realizing that they're going to weigh over 200 lbs soon. Those are available for adoption too...
We viewed a PowerPoint presentation about desert tortoises, their habitat, etc. Every time there was a photo of a desert tortoise, people would ooh and ahh, me included.
I sat next to an older gentleman who has 5 desert tortoises in his backyard. He used to have 12, but some kids stole them and he only got 5 of them back.
Imagine having 5 desert tortoises in your backyard. That sounds like heaven to me. I had thought you couldn't have desert tortoises anymore, since they're endangered, but it turns out that you can ADOPT them. You have to register with California Fish & Game, and you can't sell them or turn them loose in the wild. And you can't take them out of the state.
I realize that I have finally come up against a reason why a person might want to stay in Ridgecrest forever.
You know how it is when you do something that's just exactly what you want to do, something that speaks to your soul? The happiness you feel, the lightness of being, the blood coursing through your veins, the pinpricks of excitement. It's late, I'm fumbling for words, but you know that feeling? Never thought I would have it at a tortoise club meeting, but when I saw the notice about the meeting in the paper I immediately wanted to go. I changed our travel plans this weekend so I could go. So maybe I had an inkling of what it would mean to me.
This is a new club, its first meeting was in December. There were 25 people at this meeting -- the little room at the Methodist Church was packed. Doesn't that seem like an appropriate place for a tortoise club meeting, by the way? Methodists are kind of plodding -- OK, I'll stop. I thought maybe there would be tortoises at the meeting, but they're all hibernating. There were people there who have NUMEROUS desert tortoises at home, hibernating. Some people have other kinds of tortoises too, and they don't hibernate. There's some kind of huge African tortoise that people buy when they're little, not realizing that they're going to weigh over 200 lbs soon. Those are available for adoption too...
We viewed a PowerPoint presentation about desert tortoises, their habitat, etc. Every time there was a photo of a desert tortoise, people would ooh and ahh, me included.
I sat next to an older gentleman who has 5 desert tortoises in his backyard. He used to have 12, but some kids stole them and he only got 5 of them back.
Imagine having 5 desert tortoises in your backyard. That sounds like heaven to me. I had thought you couldn't have desert tortoises anymore, since they're endangered, but it turns out that you can ADOPT them. You have to register with California Fish & Game, and you can't sell them or turn them loose in the wild. And you can't take them out of the state.
I realize that I have finally come up against a reason why a person might want to stay in Ridgecrest forever.
Friday, February 12, 2010
I used to like getting the mail. Sometimes there would be a letter. Sometimes a magazine that I could look forward to reading. Sometimes an interesting catalogue with lots of pictures.
How things have changed. Once in a while I get a letter and that's always nice. Magazines come and are set aside, never to be opened. Ditto the catalogues. Sometimes I give the catalogues to the babies, because they like looking at the pictures.
We also get bills. Bills for this house. Bills for the Boulder house. Bills for our house in Canon City. Bills for Clifford's Boulder house. Bills for Clifford's Alma house.
But the main thing we get is requests for money. Almost all of these are addressed to Clifford, our dear friend and former neighbor who died in September. We get his mail now and all the organizations to which he used to give money have acquired what they think is his new address.
Clifford typically gets 3 or 4 of these letters a day. EVERY DAY. Sometimes more.
I used to just toss these in the recycling bin, but I've gotten smart (thanks Barbara!) and have started writing back to the organizations to tell them that Clifford is deceased. Last weekend I sat down with a pile of envelopes and when I was done I had 17 letters to mail. I thought I was caught up, but today I had another huge stack to go through. I've actually run out of stamps, so I'm only sending back the ones that provide a postage-paid envelope -- just 5 today.
Clifford gets requests for money from lots of animal charities, conservation charities, PETA. He also hears from the National Rifle Association and other hunting groups, various medical charities, and many Catholic organizations. Somehow those are the worst. In addition to asking for money they also ask you to send in prayer requests. Just seems wrong to me. They send religious pictures, cheap jewelry, nickels. So many of these groups send nickels. What is it with the nickels? I just keep them. A charity helping blind people sent him a little miniature book light. I kept that -- it's useful.
We can't give Clifford's money to these groups because his estate isn't settled yet. So I know I'm doing the right thing, writing "Mr Moser is deceased. Please take him off your mailing list" on form after form after form. And I don't want to send my own check and get on these mailing lists. I just can't cope with what's on my plate already. Still, I feel bad. Who will give $10 to save alley cats, big cats, wolves, abused farm animals, and abused sheep in Australia, not to mention elderly nuns who need medical help? There are a lot of good causes out there and several of them have lost a good friend.
How things have changed. Once in a while I get a letter and that's always nice. Magazines come and are set aside, never to be opened. Ditto the catalogues. Sometimes I give the catalogues to the babies, because they like looking at the pictures.
We also get bills. Bills for this house. Bills for the Boulder house. Bills for our house in Canon City. Bills for Clifford's Boulder house. Bills for Clifford's Alma house.
But the main thing we get is requests for money. Almost all of these are addressed to Clifford, our dear friend and former neighbor who died in September. We get his mail now and all the organizations to which he used to give money have acquired what they think is his new address.
Clifford typically gets 3 or 4 of these letters a day. EVERY DAY. Sometimes more.
I used to just toss these in the recycling bin, but I've gotten smart (thanks Barbara!) and have started writing back to the organizations to tell them that Clifford is deceased. Last weekend I sat down with a pile of envelopes and when I was done I had 17 letters to mail. I thought I was caught up, but today I had another huge stack to go through. I've actually run out of stamps, so I'm only sending back the ones that provide a postage-paid envelope -- just 5 today.
Clifford gets requests for money from lots of animal charities, conservation charities, PETA. He also hears from the National Rifle Association and other hunting groups, various medical charities, and many Catholic organizations. Somehow those are the worst. In addition to asking for money they also ask you to send in prayer requests. Just seems wrong to me. They send religious pictures, cheap jewelry, nickels. So many of these groups send nickels. What is it with the nickels? I just keep them. A charity helping blind people sent him a little miniature book light. I kept that -- it's useful.
We can't give Clifford's money to these groups because his estate isn't settled yet. So I know I'm doing the right thing, writing "Mr Moser is deceased. Please take him off your mailing list" on form after form after form. And I don't want to send my own check and get on these mailing lists. I just can't cope with what's on my plate already. Still, I feel bad. Who will give $10 to save alley cats, big cats, wolves, abused farm animals, and abused sheep in Australia, not to mention elderly nuns who need medical help? There are a lot of good causes out there and several of them have lost a good friend.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
One year in Ridgecrest
Well it's here -- the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Ridgecrest. Actually, it's only the anniversary for the babies and me, because Rocket Boy didn't arrive until February 13th. He drove here from Colorado with Whiskers, while the babies and I flew to Las Vegas with my sisters and then rented a car and drove to Ridgecrest. What a terrible day that was, and what a terrible drive.
Today, thinking back on that, I thought I should do something to celebrate, or at least commemorate, the year gone by, but I honestly couldn't think of anything. I thought of having a Ridgecrest specialty for dinner, but what would that have been? Takeout from Carls Jr? When we first got here we ate at Kristy's restaurant a lot, but that's kind of off limits to us now because the babies won't behave.
When we first got here I was so depressed I almost couldn't function. RB found a couple of places in town that sell milkshakes and he brought them home for us almost every night. That's how I gained 9.5 lbs in 3 weeks. It's so easy to gain weight in Ridgecrest.
So what did we do today? In the morning the babies and I took a stroller walk to the recycling center, turned in 30 pop cans, and received a receipt for $1.50 which we took to Wal-Mart to spend. I had thought to buy valentine stickers, but they didn't have any good ones, so instead we bought a small ball for $2.00 and the babies fought over it all the way home. A very Ridgecrestian activity. In the afternoon, after their nap, we went to the library. Afterwards I desperately wanted to do something else, not go straight home, but I couldn't think of anything. It was a little too chilly to go to a park since I hadn't brought their coats. I didn't need to go to the grocery store. I'd already been to Wal-Mart. And I couldn't think of ANYTHING ELSE TO DO. Which, when you think about it, is as typical of Ridgecrest as it is possible to be.
Here we go, Year Two.
Today, thinking back on that, I thought I should do something to celebrate, or at least commemorate, the year gone by, but I honestly couldn't think of anything. I thought of having a Ridgecrest specialty for dinner, but what would that have been? Takeout from Carls Jr? When we first got here we ate at Kristy's restaurant a lot, but that's kind of off limits to us now because the babies won't behave.
When we first got here I was so depressed I almost couldn't function. RB found a couple of places in town that sell milkshakes and he brought them home for us almost every night. That's how I gained 9.5 lbs in 3 weeks. It's so easy to gain weight in Ridgecrest.
So what did we do today? In the morning the babies and I took a stroller walk to the recycling center, turned in 30 pop cans, and received a receipt for $1.50 which we took to Wal-Mart to spend. I had thought to buy valentine stickers, but they didn't have any good ones, so instead we bought a small ball for $2.00 and the babies fought over it all the way home. A very Ridgecrestian activity. In the afternoon, after their nap, we went to the library. Afterwards I desperately wanted to do something else, not go straight home, but I couldn't think of anything. It was a little too chilly to go to a park since I hadn't brought their coats. I didn't need to go to the grocery store. I'd already been to Wal-Mart. And I couldn't think of ANYTHING ELSE TO DO. Which, when you think about it, is as typical of Ridgecrest as it is possible to be.
Here we go, Year Two.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Weeding
Spring is here, I think. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that winter is here, but springlike things happen during the winter in Ridgecrest. We have had some rain, so weeds are sprouting.
Last year, soon after we moved into this house, we had a lot of rain and the backyard exploded with very attractive flowering plants -- which turned out, unfortunately, to be weeds. We ended up paying a guy hundreds of dollars to remove them. This year I'm thinking I should get a jump on the weeds, so the babies and I have started working on them. On days when I don't have the energy to go for a long walk, I still enjoy getting outside in the garden, and sometimes I think the babies like that better than a stroller ride.
This morning we all put on our shoes and socks and sweatshirts and went outside to weed. I brought the long dandelion digger but also wore gloves, because I mainly pull weeds by hand. Baby A began pushing his little grocery cart around the yard. Baby B started pulling up all the garden lights. "No, no!" I shouted. This was ignored. I pulled some weeds and put them in the little garbage can that I'd dragged out with me. Baby B spotted Whiskers the cat on the patio and ran over to pull her tail. Baby A began to scream because one set of wheels had come off the grocery cart. I set down the dandelion digger and went to fix the grocery cart. Once it was fixed I looked up to see Baby A running along the side of the house carrying the dandelion digger. I ran after him and retrieved it. Went back to weeding.
Our big cat, Pie Bear, likes to lie in one very large patch of weeds. He is so big that he flattens the weeds, like a deer nest. I decided it was time to get rid of the deer nest, so I began pulling up those weeds. As I worked, I heard the babies yelling and looked across the yard to see them pointing up at a tree. I supposed it was a bird until I saw a long tail -- it was Whiskers! Somehow she had climbed the tree, probably to get away from the babies.
When the little garbage can was full, I dumped it into the big garbage can near the back gate. I decided we had done enough weeding for the day, so we went inside to have a snack.
Last year, soon after we moved into this house, we had a lot of rain and the backyard exploded with very attractive flowering plants -- which turned out, unfortunately, to be weeds. We ended up paying a guy hundreds of dollars to remove them. This year I'm thinking I should get a jump on the weeds, so the babies and I have started working on them. On days when I don't have the energy to go for a long walk, I still enjoy getting outside in the garden, and sometimes I think the babies like that better than a stroller ride.
This morning we all put on our shoes and socks and sweatshirts and went outside to weed. I brought the long dandelion digger but also wore gloves, because I mainly pull weeds by hand. Baby A began pushing his little grocery cart around the yard. Baby B started pulling up all the garden lights. "No, no!" I shouted. This was ignored. I pulled some weeds and put them in the little garbage can that I'd dragged out with me. Baby B spotted Whiskers the cat on the patio and ran over to pull her tail. Baby A began to scream because one set of wheels had come off the grocery cart. I set down the dandelion digger and went to fix the grocery cart. Once it was fixed I looked up to see Baby A running along the side of the house carrying the dandelion digger. I ran after him and retrieved it. Went back to weeding.
Our big cat, Pie Bear, likes to lie in one very large patch of weeds. He is so big that he flattens the weeds, like a deer nest. I decided it was time to get rid of the deer nest, so I began pulling up those weeds. As I worked, I heard the babies yelling and looked across the yard to see them pointing up at a tree. I supposed it was a bird until I saw a long tail -- it was Whiskers! Somehow she had climbed the tree, probably to get away from the babies.
When the little garbage can was full, I dumped it into the big garbage can near the back gate. I decided we had done enough weeding for the day, so we went inside to have a snack.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sledding
Today we decided to shake off some of our sadness and go sledding. Rocket Boy brought back a double inflatable sled from his last trip to Boulder and we wanted to try it out. The only problem was: where was the snow? There certainly isn't any in Ridgecrest, though it's rained the last couple of days.
We decided to drive to Kernville. To do so, we took Highway 178 over Walker Pass. There was a little snow around Walker Pass, but not much, and none at all in Kernville. It's about the same elevation as Ridgecrest, so I don't know what we were thinking. We had lunch at a doughnut shop there and asked the owner where we could find snow. He suggested Alta Sierra. We had never heard of that, but it was easy to get to. We went south out of Kernville to Highway 155, and then wound our way up a mountain.
Alta Sierra is about 3000 feet higher than Kernville. After driving uphill for a while and seeing nothing, all of a sudden there was snow! Everywhere! The babies in their carseats noticed it too and began to point and comment unintelligibly. Signs popped up telling us chains were required (we don't have any, but the Subaru's all-wheel drive is usually enough). So here was our snow, but where could we go sledding? Eventually we found the entrance to Greenhorn Mountain Park, and we decided to park there and just climb up the hill a little bit, and that kind of worked.
RB and I put on our winter gear first. Then we re-shoed the babies (they always take their shoes and socks off in the car), threaded their new mittens on strings through their coats, and put them into said coats and mittens. RB dragged the sled up the hill and set a baby in each seat. They were off.
The snow was actually horrible. It was several feet deep and crusted over, so every time I took a step, I sunk deep down into it (this is called post-holing) but I never knew how far I was going to sink because it was so crusty. I was sure I was going to twist my knee and/or ankle, and after just a little bit of that I headed for the car. Actually I crawled back to the car on my knees. Part of the time I scooched back on my bottom.
RB is always more comfortable in snow than I am, having grown up with it, so he was OK. But as he pulled the sled, Baby B, who was sitting in the back seat, would sometimes flip over backwards into the snow. Desperate crying would ensue until he was rescued. Eventually the crying got so desperate that RB brought Baby B back to me for comforting. Then RB sat on the sled, with Baby A in the back seat, and they slid together a little bit, but then Baby A went head over heels into the snow, crying ensued, and they both returned to the car. We took off all our wet coats and whatnot, the babies helpfully removed their shoes and socks, we gave them each a blanket to cuddle, and we started back downhill.
Of course nothing could be done about my wet pants (from sliding down on my rear), but I didn't really mind. We went back to Kernville hoping for a cafe mocha, but all the stores were closed (it was almost 4 pm). So we drove home to Ridgecrest, changed into dry clothes, and had pancakes.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
February reading update
We made it to February! I have never liked the month of January, but in Ridgecrest it's a pretty neutral month. Not too cold but not hot, a little precipitation but not much, no bad winds. I think February will be similar. A year ago I was preparing to leave Boulder, almost catatonic with misery. I almost think I'm having an anniversary reaction, remembering how unhappy I was when we first got here. Things really are better now, though. I still don't like it here, but I get through the days.
One thing that gets me through those days is of course reading. I'm happy to report that I read 10 books in January! One tenth of the way to 100. Numbers 6 through 10 were as follows:
6. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. Loved this! It was a little slow in parts, but so interesting, all about how the Puritans influenced the creation of this country and how they influence us to this day.
7. The Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle. This was her first novel, and it's for adults. Supposedly quite autobiographical. Although it was very first-novelly, it was quite readable and good. Would like to read the sequel.
8. 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan. Sigh. Well, it was pretty good. Worth trying out. His best point was that you should try never to yell angrily at your kids because that just means you've lost your temper, it doesn't help discipline them.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. I finally got around to reading this. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
10. How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat. I've always wanted to write a mystery, so thought I would read some books about it. This was OK, not too much I didn't know already.
I think February will probably not be such a big reading month -- but I could be wrong. I currently have 6 unread books out of the library, and then there are all those Barbara Pym books calling my name. We'll see.
One thing that gets me through those days is of course reading. I'm happy to report that I read 10 books in January! One tenth of the way to 100. Numbers 6 through 10 were as follows:
6. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. Loved this! It was a little slow in parts, but so interesting, all about how the Puritans influenced the creation of this country and how they influence us to this day.
7. The Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle. This was her first novel, and it's for adults. Supposedly quite autobiographical. Although it was very first-novelly, it was quite readable and good. Would like to read the sequel.
8. 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan. Sigh. Well, it was pretty good. Worth trying out. His best point was that you should try never to yell angrily at your kids because that just means you've lost your temper, it doesn't help discipline them.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. I finally got around to reading this. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
10. How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat. I've always wanted to write a mystery, so thought I would read some books about it. This was OK, not too much I didn't know already.
I think February will probably not be such a big reading month -- but I could be wrong. I currently have 6 unread books out of the library, and then there are all those Barbara Pym books calling my name. We'll see.
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