King Harold the Great

I am King Harold. Master of all I see.

And these are my loyal subjects:  The lovely Maid Marissa and the beautiful Princess Maren.  I will uphold and protect them at any cost.

As soon as I get rid of this large booger.

Much better.  I will bark at imaginary neighbors.  I will make large amounts of yellow snow with a relatively small bladder. I will rid the world of useless Barbie fodder by chewing it to miniscule pieces. I will climb the highest snow mountain in a single about 25 bounds before I need to take a break. See?

Ugh...

Humph... almost got it....

Just. One. More. Try.

Whoosh.  Made It.  Like I said. King Harold....

oh look...a squirrel!

How Cold Was It?

It's so cold my blankets were trying to crawl under me~CNN

This was one of my friend's status posts on FB this morning.  She lives here in town and this is so very appropriate for today.  My word....it is cold.  And snow.  We have snow up to our eyeballs.  I kid you not.  And wind.  Bone chilling, mind numbing, booger freezing wind blowing the snow up to our eyeballs and beyond. And I just have to wonder why in the world we live in Iowa in the winter.

When I was young, I remember winters with a lot of snow.   We had gigantic snow drifts to tunnel through and sled down.  I used to think that was only my perspective.  I was shorter then.  In recent years it didn't seem like Iowa was capable of producing that kind of snow anymore.  I was wrong.

I'll just take you on a little tour around town.  Not that the pictures do it justice.

Main street.  Not too bad.  Atleast there are some cars out and about.  Have to say the city crews have done a great job keeping the roads clear.

Kids playground.  Hate to think how muddy and dirty they will be in the Spring.

The basketball courts are under there somewhere.

Church parking lot.  Think they have a bit of snow to move before Sunday morning services.

Have to say it is a good day for sundogs.  Caught these two (can't see the one on the left) playing out by the airport.

See all that stuff flying around in the background.  That would be a blizzard.

This is the road heading south out of town.  I don't know how well you can see, or in this case not see, but the road ahead seems to disappear into a whole lot of nothingness.  Pretty sure that is why we had no school today.

And this would be our street.  Sorry about the wiper in the foreground, but I was not about to get out of the car.

The neighbors.  I am afraid one morning we will wake up and find their house completely buried.

Like our mailboxes.  Who knew getting the mail could be such an adventure?

Whoops! Maybe the Captain should have taken the bench in. Don't think I will be sitting our there for awhile.

Just when I think that deck railing couldn't possible hold more snow, it does. 

So that about sums it up.  How did you like that for a nice warm feel-good type of post? 

I'm just a little bitter.

Need to go make me some hot chocolate.

THUNDER SNOW

This morning we woke up to the weird weather phenomenon of what these NW Iowa weatherpeople like to dub THUNDER SNOW. The radio, the TV, even the Captain (those flying types really get into the weird weather phenomenon) they were all loving the THUNDER SNOW. A bit dramatic don't you think? But, I guess there is no other way to describe it. Partly thundery/partly snowy? Snowy with scattered lightning? Looked it up on Wiki and it is the real deal. They even have a little diagram about it.



The weather here in Iowa often makes an awkward transition to spring, and that is just how it felt this morning. Seven AM or so and we heard our first peal of thunder. Hmm, was that really what I think it was? Flash of lightning later, followed by another boomer - yep I guess so. Immediately thought of green grass, smell of rain, tulips, POD marching band practice, and all that other good spring stuff. But, looked out the window only to see a driveway covered with sleet and ice and a bit of THUNDER SNOW. Decidedly awkward.



We now have blowing and drifting THUNDER SNOW. Actually the thunder is long gone, but some of the snow that fell while it was thundering is still blowing around. So that would count as THUNDER SNOW in my humble non-weatherperson-just-a-nurse opinion. Of course, now there is just plain snow added to the THUNDER SNOW. It is having a hard time living up to the hype of the THUNDER SNOW. I feel sorry for the plain snow.



SOOOOO, as an IA Pilot Wife, who is desperately wishing, hoping, praying, for Spring, I have had to lower my expectations once again. I will say I do have an absolutely lovely, mesmerizing, unbelievably hot fire in the fireplace right now. I am in love. Take that THUNDER SNOW.

Fickle

I know what you are tying to do. I have your number and it is 52 luscious Fahrenheit degrees on 2 (as in February)-10-09 in Northwest Iowa. You are easy come, easy go. Here today and gone tomorrow. You tempt me with your warm breezes, those glimpses of green grass peeking out from the dirty worn out snow, mixed with the heady perfume of thawing Iowa black dirt. I know how you are. You want me to think that you are committed and here to stay, but I am not easily fooled. You are a one day stand and tomorrow you will give me the cold shoulder.


I will, however, tip you back and drink you in and relish every drop. I'll get tipsy on your excess. It makes me think of this:


and this,

and this.

Lovely apparitions all, but, in my heart, I know you will just give me much more of this.

So, I am waiting on the real deal. You will not break me Fake and Fickle Spring-like Day. I am just not that into you.

Better Out Than In...

This is a common sentiment among nurses. Most everything is better out than in when it comes to a day in the life of the nurse and her patients. Gas (flatus), poo (bowel movement), vomit (emesis), snot (sputum), pus, (exudate) - you name it. If we want our patients to start feeling well, all of that stuff is better out than in. With the exception of blood - always good to keep that in.

This is also true for the IA Pilot Mom. After what seemed like weeks of brutal cold, it finally warmed up here a bit. A balmy 36 degrees. Lover-ly. I am serious. I didn't even have to wear my coat coming out of work the other day. Balmy Iowa. Anyway this sentiment rang especially true for the girls. It was time. Time to burn off some of that pent up energy. Better out than in.

I know I complain about the winter weather here in Iowa, but that is just part of the culture. It is required of an Iowa farm girl, no matter how long she has been off the farm. Secretly, there are things I like about it. Like sun dogs, the snow that falls so softly that you can see each individual flake (and yes each one really is different), a roaring fire during a blizzard, and the sound of kids laughing while they are sledding. The other day the whole town rang with it. The kids were at full peal.

The Captain took the girls sledding on the locally infamous "Golf Course Hill". This is a GREAT sledding hill, but also the site of a few too many concussions, broken bones, and blood (better in than out you know). It makes the IA Nurse and Mom very nervous. I tend to do better fretting at home. At the top of the hill is the clubhouse, and at the bottom is a ravine with a creek. If you are going too fast your options are either to: 1)ditch, 2)jump the ravine, 3)line yourself up with bridge and pray, 4) or fall in and die. I am sure the pictures won't do it justice, but a good memory jogger for me. This is a video of Marissa coming down, but the Captain thought she was going for option #4, so he dropped the camera to stop her.

This is M & M doing just a half hill.

A View of the Ravine

So, yes, everyone made it home safely to some hot cocoa, a very relieved IA Nurse and Mom, and a long winter's sleep. Not a muscle moved. No blood, concussions, or fractures. Like they always say, better out than in.

No More Snowflakes...

I cannot stand them any longer. They are everywhere. Falling from the sky. Littering our neighborhood with their horrendous piles. Blowing in from Canada. Everywhere I look another snowflake. I can't control the ones outside, but they are BANISHED from my blog. Whew... that feels better.