Here and There, This and That...

I'll be off to Miami on Tuesday for a conference. I've never been there and it seems about as diametrically opposed to my current surroundings as it could be and certainly as far a trip as one could find from here in the continental U.S. It will be "interesting" but not really a trip for seeing much of the sights. John will keep the home fires burning and when I return it will be his turn to travel. He'll be going to Las Vegas for a conference and then on to his regular beat in California before we have real face time. Truth be told, we'd both prefer to stay here and goof off, but a mortgage is a strict task master.

The rain came as promised this week but we had some sun in there as well. The snow-covered mountains are fabulous this time of year. There is just so much "eye candy" up here. We've also turned the corner on winter as it is getting light earlier and staying later. Not too much just yet, but at least I'm not driving to and from work in what son Jake describes as "camping-dark". That makes the commute much less tiresome. We bought a ramp for our brown dog to make getting in and out of the vehicles a bit easier. She'll turn 13 in another couple months which translates to about 91 in human years if the 7:1 ratio holds true. She's much younger in spirit (aren't we all?) but the jumping in and out, up and down, was taking a bit longer with more effort. I took her with me to retrieve John from the pick-up place when he returned home Thursday night and, while she needed some encouragement to use the ramp, she was able to ride in the new (and significantly higher) vehicle. Prior to the ramp, I would have had to lift her into this car so the ramp is good for both of us older ladies :-)

John is ramping up (no pun intended) for the garden this year. We'll add a couple more fruit trees to our "orchard" and try to get an earlier jump on planting this year. I am nearly at the end of our potatoes from last year and am using the last bag of frozen blackberries in my morning smoothies. I'd like to get a little freezer this year to store some things but I'll have to balance that with the potential for power outages and potential loss. We're considering putting concrete down on the garage side of the house where it gets very wet in the winter. The grading and reseeding effort didn't seem to make much difference to the amount of sloppy, wet puddles there. If we do that, a small greenhouse might just be a good addition to that space. A few dry days now and then and he will begin to work on creating a level foundation for the shed that will be priority #1 this year.

So, the weekend brings groceries, homework, housework, and football. But first a shower and then off to dig my Cheesehead "hat" out of the closet. Go Packers! Priorities.....