Skating Season Start

Another sign that spring is approaching is that the other day I was able to go out on my rollerblades after work, marking the official start of skating season.  The earlier shift to daylight saving time is good for something after all, allowing me to take advantage of a mild day.  Felt great after a whole winter of the Nordic Track. But I need new wheels and my skates are more than 15 years old and pretty beat up, so this spring might be time get new skates.

The next day it was cold and rainy. Lousy Smarch weather.

Update: the next day, today, the eve of the equinox, we had a freak but intense snow flurry.  Giant fluffy flakes.  I had to brush an inch or two of rapidly melting slush of my car this morning!

The Lamb Lies Down

You can forget what I said about forgetting what I said about spring coming.  This weekend it was unseasonably warm and mild.  Saturday I went ice skating with the girls and their scout troop, out on the rink in shirtsleeves.  Sunday was the official start of yard work season.  I took down the last of the Christmas lights, uncovered the fig tree, and raked the yard clear of old leaves, branches and debris.

Enter The Lion

You can forget what I said about spring being in hoping distance. We got walloped with an unseasonably late snowstorm yesterday. The endless winter continues.

Ironically, Sunday, the day before the storm, we went skiing. It had been a bit warm last week, so we were keeping an eye on the weather report, figuring this would probably be our last opportunity for the season. It was our third time this year, which is pretty good. We took the kids and everyone did a good job of getting up early, so we were at the mountain by 9:00. We put the girls in a lesson so Jeannie and I got the morning to ski on our own. It was a bit icy but not too bad. The girls both did great in their lessons. Lizzy is now skiing blue trails with confidence, although her style is not super aggressive. Michelle can make it down the bunny hill under good balance with control over her speed and direction. She’s ready to go up on the lift next time out.

It was a good time and we were glad we went. But Sunday evening we were checking the weather again and saw a major snowstorm was on the way that was not in the forecast the night before. Kind of late in the year for this sort of thing, and by morning the whole city was under a good 6″. School was cancelled and alot of people didn’t come into the office, so all my meetings were cancelled too and I might’ve just as well worked from home. Had we known, it would have been the perfect day to hit the slopes. Ah well.

Photo Galleries Update

One of things I like to do in the wintertime is update my photo galleries.  This year it’s taken a bit longer than usual because of moving into my new computer.  Here are three Family and Friends Foto galleries, going back all the way to last spring and bringing us up to date thru the first half of the summer.  As usual they are password protected, so if you are friends and family and need the password, please contact me.

http://zingman.com/fotooz/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-03/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-04/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-05/index.html