Friday, May 22, 2009

Ruffled Feathers


I was at my brother's house on Sunday afternoon. As I got out of the car, I heard a familiar sound. Then, I spotted the source of the noise, hiding in the woods.

Do you see them?

It was kind of fun to see them on a Sunday afternoon. However, I remember a time a few years back when I was not so amused....

My husband and I parked our camper in my brother's yard the night before my sister's wedding. All of my siblings and our spouses went out the night before the wedding and we were out until the early morning hours.

At about 3:30 in the morning, my brother's rooster started crowing. I'd been in bed in the camper for a short time, just long enough to fall asleep soundly. I was not amused. At all.

This is when I first learned that roosters don't crow only in the morning.

A farmer's paper I read said, " Roosters crow all the time. The connection with the sun coming up is a misconception. They might, on occasion, crow right at dawn. But it’s just a coincidence. Roosters crow whenever they feel like it: morning, noon and night, not to mention afternoon, evening and the parts of the day that don’t have names. I think the general rule for this is that a rooster crows any time it wants to – or feels the need. "

It was an educational night.

I also learned: canvas sides on a pop-up camper are not good sound insulators; roosters don't crow just once; yelling at a rooster does nothing to stop his crowing; and my brother's yard is not the perfect camping spot when you hoot with the owls at night because you may have to crow with the rooster's in the morning.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Hello Spring

Hello Spring.


I've been desperate for you. I've missed you terribly and thought about you constantly when you were away. I'm so glad you are finally here.


Sunday, May 17, 2009

Triathletes



My daughter and one of my sisters participated in a triathlon on Saturday.
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The weather was brutal. The temperature was in the low 30's and the wind blew hard all day, gusting at over 40 mph. Not optimal weather for biking and running, especially right after a swim, with wet hair. My other sister texted me and told me to dress warmly because there was snow on the ground. She said she was staying home to make a cake.
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Triathlons consist of swimming, biking and running. This was a sprint triathlon and the course was: swim 500 yards, bike 14.7 miles and run a 5K.



The swim was done in the high school pool.


After the swim, the triathletes changed into biking clothes. Typically, they wouldn't go into a locker room and dry off and change but the weather was such that they had to bundle up for the ride. The time it takes to move from one event to the other is the "transition time." This triathlon was a fundraiser for the swim club and the triathletes didn't wear timing chips so the times were very approximate. Definitely more for fun than competition for this race.






At the bike staging area, my sister and daughter set out for the ride. They said it was mostly against the wind which made it a difficult ride.



Back after a brutal ride, the running begins. The finish was at the high school track. I sat in the car to keep warm until I heard my sister's and daughter's names being called over the loudspeaker as coming in off the course.


This was the first tri of the year but it won't be their last. They have both signed up for a few more this summer. Before noon, they had earned a tee-shirt, a medal, windburned faces, and day of memories.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day


Neither of my kids were home, nor did I get to see my mom for Mother's Day. I did have lunch with my sister, sister-in-law and two darling nieces though. My youngest niece, Kora, decided she was done shopping after lunch and I took her home to my house. On the way home, we stopped at the Ferris wheel and had a ride, played a couple arcade games and shared a strawberry sundae. It brightened my Mother's Day to be with her and listen to her stories and seven-year old wisdom.
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Kora mentioned on the way home that "Grandma sure had a lot of kids"
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Yes, she did, Kora. And I'm very happy that I am one of them.
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Even though all of us kids are all grown up, my mom still finds ways to take care of us. She does it in gestures such as bringing over loaf of homemade bread or fresh picked rhubarb when she visits or doing laundry when she's over and I have to be a work, she prays for me, and her voice always sounds so happy to hear from me when I call on the phone, even though I usually don't have anything interesting to say. I expected to be taken care of as a child, but now it is a unexpected blessing.
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Thank you Mom and Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Barney and Bambi

Some people name their cars. I don't but my husband and daughter both have names for their cars. My daughter's car is purple so she's given it the name "Barney."

Yesterday my daughter called me at work and told me that she was driving on a street and a deer ran into Barney. She said that she didn't hit the deer; it hit her by running right into the side of her car. It was the middle of the day on a city street. She said the deer got up and pranced away. I laughed. I didn't think it sounded too terrible.
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Then she said that it did some damage to her door and she couldn't roll the window up.
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She sent me these pictures of her car. I kind of feel bad for laughing now.




Poor Barney. He doesn't look so good.

Friday, May 1, 2009

May Day

When my kids were small, in our old neighborhood, we always celebrated May Day with baskets for the everyone in the neighborhood. We filled our baskets with candy, sometimes we added a flower in a pot. We put the basket on the front steps of a neighbor and rang the door bell, when the neighbor came to the door, the goal was to run away before the neighbor could catch and kiss you.

My son used to run really slow when we left the basket on our neighbor Dawn's steps. She didn't know about May Day Baskets until she moved to the midwest, onto our street. When she had children, they took up the May Day basket tradition in our neighborhood.

None of the children in my neighborhood do May Baskets now.

I didn't forget May Day though. Look at this thoughtful "May Day Basket" I left my husband on the front steps.
I didn't even try to run away when he tried to kiss me.