Finally spring!

 Finally no frost on the car! And warm enough to take the kids on walks. Tessa, Shanna and I walked over to Naomi's right before Maya had to catch her school bus. Apple and cherry blossoms are out. Even my tulips, the ones not nibbled on by the rabbits (they bite off the blossoms).

My Own Private Vegas

Yesterday I finally felt that I was productive. It helped that Steve was gone for 16.5 hours so I could throw things in the trash without him second guessing me. Better yet, today is garbage day so he wouldn't have had time to recover things from the trash (this has happened before). So the house its a bit lighter.

And  I made a huge dent with the patio pruning the geraniums, reinstalling my solar lights, putting new ones up, and cleaning things up. Still more to do but when I came back late at night, all was aglow. I should have taken a photo right then but that will have to wait until tonight. And from a distance, a hummingbird was at my feeder.

And what to do with that Costco chicken carcass? No one around here eats dark meat. All was converted to soup stock, enough for two big batches of soup.

A huge storm rolled in this morning saturated the ground with torrential rains so some of my stuff fell over. Fortunately nothing broke. I am waiting for the sun to dry things out so I won't get sopping wet from the puddles when I eventually ride my bike.

The return of the hummingbird

The geranium that attracted the hummingbird through the glass. Note pile of solar lights on the other side of the glass. Still haven't fixed these up yet.

Steve saw our male hummingbird yesterday trying to get at my geraniums through the patio glass. He must be desperate as so little is in bloom. Generally the hummingbirds ignore the geraniums despite their brightness. And it never got much above 50 yesterday, fine for running but not much else. As soon as I heard about the hummingbird , I started making nectar for the feeders. I didn't see them used yet. And since we presumably have turned the corner on the coldness, some of the geraniums were dragged outside. They did well this year over the winter with plenty of blooms.

I am an election day widow again. A special election was called with only one issue: more funding for the city buses, which to me seem largely empty. Why couldn't they wait until there was people to be elected or more issues? Such a waste, though I guess a hundred in our pockets as Steve is working the election today. And if we are really lucky (hope, hope, hope) we might get a bonus of free mulch from the city grinding all of our yard waste.

It is early now as Steve needed to open the polls at 6 am. All I needed to do was press a button for coffee.

May the 4th be with you! (though it's passed)

Or at last not against you.

Ceiling of Alhambra taken by my traveling niece in Granada, Spain

With the cold, windy, rainy weather lately, it has been difficult to get a long bicycle ride in. Yesterday morning I was in luck. Although strong winds were yet again forecasted, very early morning, they were largely absent. By the time I turned around during my longest ride yet of the season, they popped up but were now on my back. Perfect timing. Yep the 4th was with me.

One night last week, we had a very intense storm. The winds were so strong that they lifted a 30 lb stone tile on Josh's patio table and dashed it to the ground. We saw his family later yesterday, Allie as cute as ever. Her latest tricks: rocking to music, throwing balls and everything else, and clapping.

Later Maya came over and she practiced her ziggling skills outside.

Flashdance Flashback: Recently there was an article bemoaning the lack of skilled tradespeople, specifically welders. Welders are so rare these days that they command salaries of up to 150K in the Midwest. Hmm..could this be something Naomi could do? She does have good hand eye co-ordination and the program couldn't be that difficult. My favorite welder? The flashdance girl: welder by day; booty shaker by night. She  had promised her granny that she was going to be a ballerina despite not having the funds for formal training (welding must not have paid so much in the 80s). But certainly the Pittsburgh Ballet could recognize her raw talent? Awesome booty shaking to "Oh What a Feeling!" ensues.....
Downside to welding? Toxic metal fumes...

Someday my prince will come or Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo? I was told early on that this strategy for economic stability was off the table for me due to my predicted lack of attractiveness, I would never land a husband. Thus it was up to me to support myself but on the plus side 'at least you aren't an idiot'. I would counsel young women everywhere to become self-sufficient, relying on ones good looks has its downsides (like being trapped in an abusive marriage such as my mother was). Recently Naomi has begun to date someone with some economic stability with the name of a famous Shakespearean character (with the accent on a different syllable). Could this be the answer? Way too early to tell.

More Alhambra. I skipped Granada on my Spain trip as it was not convenient to get to

A spot of blue in a world of red

This is a map of average temperature changes from the National Climatic Data Center for March 2014. Bright red indicates much higher than average temps for that particular region; dark blue much colder. Note the only dark blue area in the world just happens to be centered over the Great Lakes

March 2014 happened to be the 4th warmest March in the past 134 years. What? All that complaining about late polar vortices I did? Well for most of the world, it was much warmer than usual. Only in the Northeast  US (okay parts of Canada too)was it colder than usual and in the Great Lakes, perfectly centered over My Michigan, much colder than usual.

And the trend continues: still cold outside here. And rainy and windy....And the Great Lakes still have 26% ice cover NOW in May (see photos of my recent trip). Yesterday, an ice 'tsunami' was reported up on Grand Traverse Bay. Strong winds had pushed the wall of ice into a row of houses.

I will have to be doing that bike ride on muscle memory I guess.

I have still managed to enjoy myself. Lots of indoor work to do along with the outdoor. Ms. Maya and her mom came over yesterday. She wasn't as thrilled with the Ziggle as I thought she'd be but I am sure the boys will find grandma's house more fun now.

My niece is travelling around Europe now when she has time off from her 6 month research assignment in Madrid:

The Alcazar in Seville, Spain. We were right there ten years ago and didn't pay to go in. Silly us! Thus this is my niece's photo, not mine.

Let's ziggle!

Maya on the ziggle. You move by twisting your body. Good for ages 3-8 though Tessa had fun just pushing herself on it

Still loves the garage sale Little Tykes Police car

Over the years, I amassed quite a bit of toys from garage sales to amuse the grandkids when they are over. I rarely buy anything new unless it is for them to take home. I had bought most of this stuff before when I had kids and then gave it all away, I hate to buy new again.

This week, I bought two new riding toys that will be good right now for Daniel and Maya: the Ziggle pictured above (though Oliver might like it too) and a balance bike (which is being shipped). The balance bike has no pedals but the child can easily reach the ground to push off. It is a better segue to riding a 'real' bike than ones with training wheels.

It is like late March outside. Cold and gray. I did manage to plant 70 mini glads in the soggy soil after my run. Along with the freshly planted lilies and phlox, my summer garden should be colorful. Now all that is in bloom is a few sorry forsythias, some of the primroses and my bedraggled hyacinths. Everything is at least a month behind.

Yesterday, Shanna and I went to many stores mainly to get ideas for a backsplash for her kitchen but to look at a few other fun things too. One little pretty I got for myself is this thermometer:

The little colored balls have tags on them indicating the temperature. If it is less than 64 (usual for our house a good portion of the year,, all of them will be floating towards the top. This summer, we should have a greater range of temps and the balls should fall

May Day: vicious dogs!

The attack dogs yesterday were probably pitbull mixes

One of the hazards of biking and running in the country are loose dogs. Even dogs that just want to have fun are a hazard while going fast down a hill biking. Despite all my years of doing both, I had only one very scary moment in which I had a face off with a snarling doberman guarding its property which apparently included a road that I was on. I had to stop and place the bike between me and it. Any movement on my part made the dog more eager to attack so slowly walking the bike off its domain was out of the question. I kept yelling for the owner to pull off its dog.  Eventually the owner came out of the near by house.

I went for a short bike ride yesterday on the same road I use almost every time to access longer rides. While heading north, I passed a smiling woman fitness walking. Within less than five minutes, I decided it was rainy and cold and turned around towards her just as two dogs bolted from a farmhouse towards her followed by their owner. The dogs proceeded to attack her; her screams could be heard for miles. She had just managed to cross the road when I came. Fortunately some fast cars were in between me and the dogs at that point. She was extremely upset and frightened. The dog(s) had bit her several times on the leg. Within a minute, an off duty cop stopped by to offer assistance.

I never saw those dogs before despite the many times I am on that road though Steve said  after being chased twice from dogs from that same farmhouse, he changed his running route. They seemed to be a mix of pit bull and lab weighing about 50-60 lbs.  Usually just walking doesn't set dogs off: running and biking evokes the prey instinct and they just have to chase. Most just do it for fun but a few mean to attack.

In Italy, residents carried big sticks with them when they left the village for their walks to deal with the packs of dogs. At the time, I was more worried about the packs of boars I encountered on my early morning runs though probably the dogs were the biggest danger and they probably were unvaccinated. ( I did encounter one wolf, the only one I ever saw in the wild, and several foxes).

May Day!!!! The day that true spring begins. The weatherman has been having trouble predicting the weather. One moment storms; the next beautiful sun. Are there Maypole dances any more? I remember the beautiful dresses and ribbons from the elaborate Maypole dances from the high school across the street when I lived in New York but in Michigan, no one ever heard of them.

Oh and a first: Naomi invited me to dinner to show off her cooking. But I had already eaten. I do have a photo of my potential meal though.