Blech.

Slept late. Took John and Will to school, then ran. Slowly. Went to gym, biked and swam. Slowly. Showered, ran home, then headed to town before the big storm hit. Of course, it's all relative. A month ago, this would've been just another eight- to 16-inch snow. But since it's April, it's snow mixed with sleet, freezing rain and rain.

Blech.

Picked up the bike, computer supplies, contact lenses, crap for Robin's ferret, groceries and a grow light for the seed starter. Barely made it home since the Tracker has no snow tires, but made it just in time for the Great Pyr to nearly kill Robin's nearly blind German shepherd that she's left with us (along with the ferret and a mutt of dubious origin). Poor shepherd had one fang sticking out sideways by the time Cleo was done with her.

Blech.

Remembered I'd promised Will that I'd move John's computer into his room (balancing the scales somewhat, Robin left her desktop computer behind for John to use). Went to town on Will's room. It was about a four-hour job for the floor cleaning and general maintenance.

A decent dinner. A little bit of work done. Forecast calls for another 10 inches of snow tonight, followed by a 40 percent chance of snow for the next week.

Blech.

A Really Good Photo

This is one of my favorite photos, taken for the day job by a really talented Maine photographer. I'm posting it so I can use it as my profile picture (too lazy to create a new blog or work around the raw HTML code).

It's the white pine, which is the state tree of Maine. Actually, this is what's left of a white pine, after acid rain hits it. The photo was taken in Acadia National Park, which is still one of the most beautiful places on the East Coast.

An Unscheduled Rest

I didn't mean to blow off working today -- far from it. I didn't even think about it until about 3:30a, when I was trying very hard not to heave my dinner.

Ah, well. Teach me to do a better job of staying on a healthy diet.

Woke up again around 615a and still felt like hell, so I slept late. Did a day job assignment about an hour down the road that was somewhat entertaining, stopped by Home Depot for more garden supplies and the grocery store en route home.

Feeling better. Tomorrow will be busy, and the weather is supposed to get really crappy. Again.

Mist

A long, strange day.

I was exhausted when I woke up. It's a Monday, and I usually don't run on Mondays, but had almost talked myself into it last night. Anyway, glad I didn't. Took the boys to the bus, did a couple of hours of work. Lisa took Robin to her recruiter's office. From there, she caught a bus to the Military Entrance Processing Station, and will be en route to San Antonio tomorrow morning to begin basic training.

Yikes.

Beat my head against a day job wall for a couple of hours, making not a lot of progress, ate too much out of frustration. Couldn't even make whole wheat with my freshly ground wheat (no molasses). Ack.

The weather here is, to put it mildly, crappy. Internet connection was down most of the day because of the fog and mist, which should change to icy rain tomorrow night, followed by snow for the rest of the week.

I punted around 5 pm and headed to the gym. Did a 13.2-mile bike ride and 0.5 mile swim. Eh. Should've done more, but people were started to wander into the pool, and I had to go to the market to get molasses before it closed.

Was still feeling vaguely grumpy and resentful when I walked out of the market with my molasses. Stopped for a minute and figured out the only sound I could hear was birds fussing. It made me feel better for a minute. Then a tourist in an SUV drove past, splashing mud and spewing fumes. Pissed me off all over again.

I'll have a better day tomorrow.

Rachael Ray Is All About The Food

Not Enough Hours

Certainly not if I sleep late again.

Busy weekend. Took Saturday off to make a Whole Foods/Trader Joe's/EMS/Barnes & Noble run and didn't get back until pretty late. Did a little bit of cleaning, watched a little television, read a little.

Slept late again on Sunday. Got up, ran seven miles. Came home and ground about a dozen cups of wheat berries for whole wheat flour, but didn't have enough time to bake. Sigh. Still, a pretty decent upper-body workout. Went out for a quick bike ride at the gym. Grabbed pizzas for the kids, Chinese for the girls and shrimp kung pao for myself.

Sounds like a truly boring weekend. But I saw a few things that made it worthwhile:

*** First robins of spring
*** More Canadian geese in the fields
*** Snow melting faster than it's gathering

I don't know why I feel like this -- never really had bad cabin fever before. But I'm just counting the minutes until I can get out in shorts and run. Until I can get on a bicycle outside, instead of a gym machine. Until I can hike anywhere, work in the garden and collect chicken eggs.

I keep telling myself that it's important to enjoy winter. Who knows if it's ever going to be as good as it was the last year? But I'm still looking forward to this spring.

I'll go for a morning run, bake my bread and get a lot of work done tomorrow.

National Geographic Is Spying On Me