What season is this?
First - I'm a bad blogger. I have been so lax in blogging lately that I'm sure I've completely lost my readers, the three I used to have.
Second - this is the most bizarre weather year ever. We barely had a winter this year, which was both good and bad - bad for skiers, snowmobilers, and the water situation, but good for those of us who hate driving in snow and ice, shoveling driveways, gray winter days, and stuff like that... you know, those of us who grew up in Southern California where, as we all know, it never rains (tell that to the So Cal folks this year!). Now, here it is, April 26, and it was 82 yesterday! EIGHTY-TWO!!! In Sandpoint, Idaho! In April! I've already mowed my lawn three times! I've lived here for 22 years and have never, ever seen an April like this. WARNING: It could still snow before summer actually arrives.
The accepted logic here is you can't plant your garden until "the snow is off Baldy" - a medium-sized mountain under which the town sits - and it's not, but I think this year all the accepted norms should be tossed aside because nothing is normal. Everyone was saying before winter we were in for a bad one. The caterpillars were really fuzzy or something like that, the geese left early...well, bzzzzzt! WRONG! So, I'm thinking it's definitely time to plant SOMETHING despite the fact that it's only April 26 (which is also my son-in-law's 30th birthday). I think this weekend I will put my patio pots together. It is weird though - my grape hyacinths are barely blooming, the tulips are still just buds, and daffodils are still bright and perky, so how can I even ponder putting together a pot of geraniums, pansies, nemesia, and the like? It's just not synching in my brain...
Speaking of this weekend, Sunday, May 1, is Bloomsday, the largest timed road race in the world. I have "run" this race about 10 times or so. My first one was May 1987. My husband and I ran and pushed a stroller with Jonathan in it. He was not yet a year old. Right before we crossed the finish line, I got him out of the stroller and let him walk across on his own. We had entered him so he got a t-shirt too. We ran it for the next three years, with Tom carrying him on his shoulders for 7.46 miles when he was 3 and weighed about 45 pounds. He finally got too big to carry and they stopped letting stroller pushers run so we took a break. We ran it again a few years later when he was big enough to do the whole course on his own two legs. Now I do it with some co-workers or my daughter and her friend. Last year Shana and I did it, just the two of us, and without any advance training on my part, we finished in 1:43 - pretty good for someone with two bad knees who doesn't run and hadn't trained at all. This year I don't expect to do as well. I'm about 20 pounds heavier (ugh) and my knees are worse than ever AND I haven't even been walking in advance of Bloomsday. I'll be happy to just finish under two hours. At least this year the weather should totally rock.
So, one of my favorite TV shows is Joan of Arcadia. I love the way she is so sarcastic to God and yet does what he asks her to and sees how what He asks her to do affects others. Anyway, I read that it might not come back next year. That would be tragic. So, if you like Joan, I suggest you join me in emailing or writing CBS on behalf of Joan. It is a great, wholesome show and needs to stay on TV.
Ciao! Sieze the day!
