They say it's spring.

Truth be told, we don't get out much in the winter 'round here. Even if it's not that cold, living on the Roof has it's disadvantages. Namely that's MOTHERTRUCKING windy here, about 362 days of the year.

In the spring, summer, and fall, it's fine.

In the winter?

It sucks big fat...well, it just sucks.

That's why today was SO wonderful. We got out! We weren't bundled up in 18 layers! (Only 2!) We didn't get blown over when we stepped out the door! It wasn't quite balmy (even though it's SUPPOSED to be the first day of spring) but we got out anyway. JOY! BLISS!

Sadly, the feelings of JOY! and BLISS! were not shared.

Corben? Was dubious.Still dubious.Even more dubious still. Not to mention clench-y.And pushing him on a bike? Earned me a "what the eff, Mom?" scowl to beat all scowls (Despite the fact that he didn't want to get off of it.)In spite of Captain Frowny Mc Scowlpants, we had fun.

(Or, at least I did!)

Happy first day of spring!

WW - Potential

(April 11th, 2006. 3 more weeks? I think I can, I think I can...)

Pretty please, come spring!

Last year...in one month from now, I was hanging my laundry outside on the sunny sunny line.

One more month...I can do this.

Me, and the wind.

It's one of those wickedly blustery days here on The Roof. I know how this goes - the wind blows strong and hard all day long. The sound filters in through the weather stripping around the doors that needs to be replaced, and permeates the glass in the windows. It's low, constant rumble makes me feel like there is a freight train just over the horizon, chugging on, slowly yet relentlessly, all day long. It's ferocity means it's too cold to play outside, which is ok, because just the sound of it it enough to make me crank up the fireplace and turn on the kettle. Skip the coffee, it's a tea kind of morning.

At the same time that the sounds of the breeze whipping by makes me want to snuggle up under a warm quilt and read the day away, it also makes me feel unsettled and antsy. There will be no reading the day away with two smalls running around the house. The fact that I'm blogging at 8am is a minor miracle made possible only by a new iPad, and a baby who thought he was ready for the day at 5:30am, but has since changed his mind. But he'll wake again shortly, and be ready to go. And I'll be reluctant. To go, that is, just about anywhere with the wicked wind pounding away outside. It makes strapping children in the car seat difficult and chilling. It makes traveling to and from town messy and slick on the roads. It makes my list of errands that need to be done seem less important than they did last night, when all was still in the great outdoors.

And yet, the list will not go away on it's own...things that need to be done are some of the few things that the wind won't pick up and take with it on it's way by, making it disappear into the next township.

(My cast iron bistro set is one of the few too.)

But today, I think I might be brave. I think its time to conquer the wind, show the gusts who's boss on this here hill. The wind isn't going to go away, but neither are we, so we might as well find a way to get along. We don't need to be bestest buds, but we should at least be able to muster a wave across the fence in the morning.

Nod and smile, top of the morning to you. What are you up to today? Oh, just blowing and gusting around you say? Sounds delightful. Me, I'm going to bundle up the kids and head into town. Going to run a few errands. Buy some groceries, some weather stripping, some more tea. Maybe even a windmill.

My baby...

...is so not a baby anymore!
P.S. SNOW! We finally have snow!

The Second Weekend in November

The year before last, we were buried in snow. Last year we were sitting on the patio eating lunch. (One of us was extremely pregnant!) This year the second weekend of November brought us sunny sunny sunshine, and the kids and I decided to hit the Bruce Trail.

It was a perfectly perfect end to a lovely week of balmy temperatures.

Alas, all good things must come to an end...rain, rain and more rain for the next week! Ah well, it was delightful while it lasted!

Conditioning the Air

We've lived here for nearly 5 years, and I can count the number of time's we've turned on the AC on one hand.

(Life on the ROOF. Up high. It is ALWAYS windy here.)

The first few times were in the first summer we spent here. It may have had something to do with the fact that I weighed over 200 pounds and had a bun in the oven; a bun that was nearly cooked, and an oven that seemed to be constantly turned on HOTTER THAN HELL.

I don't do hot well.

I actually consider myself lucky that I'm fairly cold blooded. In the winter, if you're wearing 2 layers, I'm wearing 4. You're wearing 4, then I'm wearing 7. Spring, and everyone is in t-shirts? I'm the one with my sweatshirt on, and my toque in my bag, just in case.

So today, when I was effing hot, I knew that others around me were even hotter.

Proof was in Corben, who every time I picked up, started dripping sweat from each tiny spot where our skin made contact.

We gave up on clothes two days ago. The boys have been running around in their underpants/diapers. (Well, except for Steve, who I insist gets dressed before he leaves for work.) I started Monday in my underwear too, but decided to change to my bathing suit, in case the UPS guy or some random Jehovah's Witnesses showed up. (Me and the UPS guy are buddies, but we're not THAT close.)

Needless to say, there's a lot of skin for to drip around here these days.

And then there's Corben. Corben is teething, with every pore of his gums and is MIS-ER-ABLE. He's not napping, which is making him crankier. And instead of napping, or jumping, or rolling around on the floor? He's nursing. And nursing. And nursing.

And when there's all that nursing, there's lots of sweaty skin touching sweaty skin. When I pulled Corben off me after one (of a bazillion) nursing sessions today, and had to get a towel to dry us both off, I knew it was time.

I cracked.

I turned on the AC.

Now I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. Only now I'm also afraid I'll never go outside again.

Please, send vodka.

A sign.

8:27pm. Steve is at work. Everyone else is asleep. A whole evening to surf, blog, catch up on trashy TV.

Alas, there's a storm brewing. The power has been out once, and all the lights just flickered again, the baby monitor started beeping...but the computer stayed on.

None the less, I think it's a sign. Power down the electronics. Go to bed early. Read a book. Drink beer on the (covered) porch and watch the storm move in.

Hope you're having a lovely Easter Weekend.

Careful what you wish for!

Yes, I asked for snow. I didn't mean we needed it all at ONCE! We got snow. Lots and lots and lots of it, and it's still coming down. The drifts on the driveway are already 2 feet high. Tomorrow I will show you pictures, but tonight I am just going to huddle under my cocoon of pink and pretend it doesn't sound and feel like the wind is going to blow our house down.

Oh, and by the way? Remember Bubba, our new car?

Bubba has 4 wheel drive, and I knew I was in love with him when I drove to work on Wednesday morning and found myself stopped behind a line of cars trying to get up a steep hill on Airport Road. Without missing a beat, I swerved into the oncoming lane, went right around those pansy-assed cars, and carried on my merry way. There may have been a little bit of giggling too. (I know, the good Samaritan thing to do would have been to stop and help these poor folks, but I didn't think me and my unborn [but not by much] child were really the best people to be helping push heavy cars up icy hills, so I kept going.) Needless to say, I am in LOVE with Bubba, and his 4 wheel drive.

And drifts in our driveway? Bubba eats drifts for BREAKFAST!

Incoming...

Well, we're battening down the hatches and preparing for the first "decent" storm of the season. I have my doubts that it will be anything too hefty, but everyone always gets so excited about the first big snow. The fact that we've made it till December 8th without a snow storm is a bit of a minor miracle. But now the tractor is tuned up, the gas tank is full, all the snow tires are on, the snow fence is up, and I'm crossing my fingers for enough of a deluge to warrant a snow day!

In other news, we're down to 23 days to go till the Cheese (supposedly) makes his first appearance. The midwives come this week to check out our digs and make sure we have all the necessary stuff for the home birth. I have 6 days of work left. The only thing we have left to do is to stock the freezer a bit (how did I forget that part?) and take the comfortable sheets off the bed and put the nasty ones on with the layer of plastic underneath. I'm leaving that till the last minute, because I have enough trouble getting in and out of bed, and rolling over in the night without a layer of plastic underneath me to slip-slide me around.

I'm still kicking myself on a daily basis for not buying stock in Tums when I found out I was pregnant.

The three year old of the house is being remarkably well behaved these days (or my tolerance level is higher because I figure at least he can express in full sentences what the issue is that's causing him to FREAK OUT and sob uncontrollably...and even if those issues are something as trivial as me sitting on his Spiderman, at least he can tell me what the trouble is, which is more than his little brother will be able to do.)

I'm treasuring every last morsel of sleep I can get, especially the morsels that come in 6 or 7 hour chunks, because we can soon kiss those goodbye. I'm enjoying my last days as a mother of one, and looking forward (with only slight trepidation) to being a mother of two.

And while I'm trying to enjoy these last few weeks, I'm also taking every available opportunity to milk my pregnant status, including going so far as taking a Starbucks card that was up for grabs in a family gift swap this weekend, and placing it atop my protruding belly, and then looking at my Starbucks-hungry cousin with sad, pregnant doe eyes, and pleading with him "don't take it away from the baby." Heck if it didn't work too!

So...that's about all that's occupying our brains these days, incoming snow and incoming babies.

Stay tuned...

Lovin' the sunshine!

This time last year, we were being deluged with snow. Kid was in his snowpants, throwing snowballs and rolling around in the fluffy white shit stuff.

Today we drove up to Blue Mountain to pick up our ski passes for the season. And then we had lunch. On the PATIO. In our T-SHIRTS!

This sunshine? Lovin' every minute of it!

GAH!!!

I have to go out this morning and scrape SNOW off my car. SNOW!!! Gah!!!!

Seriously people. I thought we were over this.

Maybe, just maybe....

2 very important things happened yesterday, so important that I'm here telling you about them instead of getting my lunch ready. So important, that I will go hungry today at work.

OK, not really.

Anywho. Important thing #1: I was walking to my car after work and thought "gee, it's really windy out here." Then, I realized that it was windy, and the wind was NOT chilling me to the core, freezing even my warm blood with every gust. Nope, it was more of a WARM breeze...bordering on balmy even!

Important thing #2: Yesterday? I did not. Wear. Socks! Can you believe it? Mary Janes, sans socks, all day, and no frozen toesen!!

Peeps, I hate to say it, but I think it may just be spring!

Can I get a WHOOT WHOOT!!!

C-c-c-COLD!

Holy smokes it's COLD outside. The ol' mercury is dropping to minus TWENTY FOUR tonight (that's about minus 10 degrees farenheit for all you south of the border folk.) Oh, and factor in the windchill, we're looking at about minus 28. Sweet Mary! It's these days where I pat us on the back for being smart and buying a NEW house - not one of those kinds of houses where the pipes freeze if you even mention winter.

I know, I know, talking about the weather again. Me=lame. I just don't have the brain power for anything else.

If you're living somewhere warm, I want to hear about it in the comments. Tell me all the wonderful things you're doing with your warm selves. Maybe make note of your address too...if this crap keeps up, you may find me on your doorstep!

We now break from our Christmas programming...

To share with you the little hissy-fit that Mother Nature is currently in the middle of.

Remember this thing:It's the play-thingy that I got for Griffin this spring for a song and a dance. Although it wasn't the most popular toy in the yard this summer, we sure do love it, and would like to keep it around for a while.

This is the view off our side porch (wave to Lawnmower Dave, that's his house!) Big red arrow? Where play thingy sits.When we woke up this morning? Play-thingy? Here:Yes, 1/2 way across the bloody field! This is no small play-thingy, as far as play-thingies go, but in all my windy days here on the Roof, we have NEVER had wind quite like this. Fourtunatly (HA!) it wasn't ALL over there. There were parts of it littered about - here, here, here, and here:Big slide and small slide? On the right, mostly still in our back yard. Blue tube thing? On the left, 1/3 of the way across the field. And by the time I got my boots and snowpants on to go retrieve it all, less that 5 minutes after Steve screamed that first "HOLY SHIT!!"? Well, by that time the body of the thingy had crossed the intersection, and landed in the field across the road, here:

Sweet mother of Mary, it's windy here! Thank JEBUS that back door Doug just happened to be driving by when I got to the intersection, and helped us toss the thingy into the back of his truck and bring it back home, where it's safely sheltered in the greenhouse.

Now....knocking on wood that the fricking greenhouse stays put!!

Snow-mageddon??

From the Canadian Weather Guru - Environment Canada:

"..Could this be snow-mageddon?..

Environment Canada is generally not prone to exaggeration unless there is deemed to be a real threat. We evaluate weather information and prediction models in a measured, scientific manner and couple that with overall impacts for significant events.

Mother nature from time to time will line up a near perfect set of conditions that generate a series of significant events. That time appears to be the coming week or so for many portions of southern Ontario in the form of snow storms. There appears to the right balance of sufficiently cold air in place, with Arctic highs to the north and a storm track along the lower Great Lakes. The term 'snow-mageddon' is not meant to alarm anyone or make light of the situation, but to highlight the cumulative effects and impacts that a series of snow storms can have on a wide region.

Total accumulations from the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday events may reach 50 centimetres in some areas. The cumulative effects of these three storms will make travel over this pre-Christmas period very difficult at times."

If Environment Canada is calling for "Snow-mageddon" (we actually prefer snow-pocalypse here) then I'm pretty sure we're in for it!

Happy Holidays!

The joys of the winter commute

It usually takes me an hour to get to work in the morning.

Yesterday it took me 2 and a half hours.  

The first 80 kilometers took an hour.

The last 10 kilometers took another hour, thanks to the lightest of light dustings of snow, and the stoopid people who don't know how to drive in it.

Pushing the SEVEN cars up the very long and windy country driveway to get to building where I work?  The last half hour.

It's going to be a loooooong winter!

So far, so good...but the night is young!

Toddler asleep, not a single tear shed.

Tonight, snuggles with Daddy. Tucked in and kissed goodnight by 8:30.

Around 9:15 I hear a mysterious noise and look upstairs to find Griffin on the landing, walking back and forth running his hand along the rungs of the railing over and over...just like last night. Must be soothing or something? I looked up and said "I thought you were sleeping! Can you go back to bed please bud?"

"OK" he said, toddled back into his room, closed the door behind him, and went to sleep.

Easy peasy! (She says all laissez-faire like, while subtly knocking on the wooden desk in front of her...)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And now, the bad news:

(This, sadly, is one of the most visited web pages in our winter repertoire.)

Aw heck, lets zoom in for a close up, shall we??

So there you have it folks. Winter is on it's way. Heck, I think it may even be HERE!! And wouldn't you know it, we just sent our tractor in today to get the blower put on and have ol' Red get all shiny and tuned up. No matter how on the ball we think we are, winter always seems to sneak up on us here.

Pray for our under-dressed souls, that are still in denial and haven't dug out the hats and mitts yet. I'll keep you posted....that is, provided no snow laden limbs affect our power lines!

Giddyup!

No...please...not yet!

Do you know what I had to do this morning? DO YOU???

Well, I'm going to tell you and I promise you're NOT going to like it.

I had to fricking SCRAPE off the CAR this morning, because the entire windshield was encrusted in ICE!!

ICE people! Windshields encrusted in ice happen in the WINTER!!

Dudes, I am NOT ready for winter.

I know it's coming, but I'd like to live in denial for a wee bit longer. Except when I wake up to a windshield covered in ICE, I have a hard time with that denial.

I am now going out to check and see if all my tomatoes are still OK, if they too are in denial....or if I'm making mass quantities of tomato sauce tonight!

(Ice, dudes. Ice! Not cool.)

Too busy to chat

Oh, hey!

Hi!

Remember me? (That's ok, I barely remember me either!)

It's been a bit busy 'round these parts. Sadly there have been no big adventures, no racous stories of drunken debauchery to share, just little old us, working too much as usual. I'm currently gearing up for the opening of the school show...two more weeks, and I can start coming home at 4:30 again, instead of 8!

Till then....

Miss me!

(P.S. The leaves are starting to turn here. Consider yourself warned.)