More Snow
LeAnn posted this blog on Monday, December 20th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
It’s snowing again, and since I have not yet written about the last snowstorm, I figured I’d better get busy.
The last two weeks have been hectic with meetings for the newspaper, extra village board meetings for the newspaper (the village’s clerk-treasurer passed away and the village board did not yet have a budget, tax levy or a mill rate), extra stories for Christmas editions of the newspaper, digging out from the blizzard last weekend, and getting ready for family Christmas.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why have we let the pace of life become so frantic and crazy? It is wrong, somehow, because I know for myself that when I let myself become so busy I don’t know which way is up, I miss out on enjoying the small things in life. And that’s really what it is all about, those day-to-day small things that make up the fabric of our lives.
And speaking of small things, the six little kittens are climbing around all over the house. After Tom Sawyer became the first to escape from the living room, the others soon followed. The two black kittens, Julia and Iris, are up on my desk right now. I am home today because my truck blew the manifold pipe coming up a big hill on Friday, and it is at the country auto repair shop about two miles away. We drove it over there yesterday.
Or I should say I drove it over there. Randy followed me. My little truck does not have much power without the manifold pipe, and I thought he was going to have to push me up the big hill. Rather than drive my husband 30 miles to work this morning with a winter storm warning out, then drive home, take care of the horses, cats, dog and get ready for work, drive to work, drive 30 miles again to pick him up, drive home, and then drive to a school board meeting tonight, I asked my boss if he would mind if I didn’t go into the newspaper office. Even though I am at home, I still wrote two articles and submitted them, one with pictures.
Anyway, Julia and Iris are playing on my desk . . . and my lap . . .and my legs. Julia is named after my beloved Juliette (age 6, whom I raised from an infant) who went outside one September morning and never came home. Iris is named after Rosie and Violet, two of my kitties who also went outside one September morning and never came home. Tom Sawyer is named for his adventuresome spirit. My “pretty little girl” tabby kitten is named Roberta after my beloved Bobby Cat (aged 11) who went outside one September morning and never came home. Bobby Cat was named Bobby Cat because she looked like a bob cat with those dark spots on her ears. Roberta has tufts on her ears — like a bob cat. The other two kittens have not yet told me what their names are. (I guess they haven’t told Randy yet, either.)
The winter storm last weekend dumped 20 inches of snow in our area. We haven’t had a storm like that in about 20 years. The snow was one thing, but then it was also very windy and piled all of that loose, fluffy snow into huge drifts. It started snowing Friday night and was finally finished by Sunday morning. We spent time moving snow with the tractor on Saturday and shoveling snow, and then we spent a good part of last Sunday moving snow and shoveling snow.
I had about 50 feet of drifts that were thigh high on me to dig through last Sunday in order to get to Isabelle’s pasture so I could feed her. There were huge drifts all over the driveway and the yard. We had to dig out the trucks so we could move them so Randy could get in there with the tractor to push more snow out of the way.
Randy took pictures of the snowstorm and e-mailed them to me and I was going to post them here, but when I checked the e-mails, there were no pictures. Not sure why they didn’t attach to the e-mail. . .
If I am going to sit in my office to work, I can see that I am going to have to make sure I am wearing chain mail pants. My legs are already scratched and pinpricked from kitten claws. The youngsters are having a blast playing on my lap (King of the Mountain) and playing around my feet.
Now, if only I could find a way to bottle all of that kitten energy and sell it. We’d be rich.
No, wait, I am already wealthy beyond compare. I have everything I need — clothes, food, heat, a roof over my head on a snowy winter day , and kittens playing at my feet.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Tom Sawyer revealed his name by his adventuresome nature. (December 2010)
If you look closely, you can sort of see the tufts on Roberta's ears. (December 2010)
My 10-year-old orange tom, Gilligan, is bemused by the kittens. (December 2010)
Julia, who was the tiniest of the kittens when we brought them in the house, has now caught up with the others. (December 2010)
This little tom, who has not revealed his name, likes my big orange tom Gilligan. (December 2010)
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