Ice and Snow

The snow did come. It didn't start until after 9:00 Saturday morning, but the weather people were right. It snowed large, fluffy flakes that looked like white bits of insulation. It wasn't easy to determine how much we got since it was blowing so hard from the east. Even today I see parts of our yard that are nearly bare or exposed old snow.

Thinking ahead, I went out to shovel Saturday night after supper. I thought it would mean less snow to shovel in the morning if it snowed all night like they said it would. I decided to shovel it to the west end of the driveway on account of the wind. However, when we all went out this morning, we saw that the snow pile I made last night acted like a fence and stopped the snow from blowing to the neighbors yard. In the end, we had just as much snow as Steve across the street.

As I wrote, the whole family helped out. With three shovels and four people I had to problem solve to keep the boys happy. That's why you see pictures of Jack with a window scrapper on the front steps. Aidan loves to shovel as long as the snow stays off of his face and out of his gloves.

Tonight we took Jack to the Skate With the Varsity Hockey Team Night. All of the squirt, mite, U-8 girls, and termites had a chance to meet the players. Aidan doesn't do hockey games well, so we hired the babysitter to come over. He was happy.

When we walked in to the rink the players autographed a team photo for him and he registered for some raffle prizes (he won a Wild pennant, cup, and hat-which Jodi had just bought). Once he registered he ran to the locker room to get out on the ice with the older kids.

It was a little nerve-wracking. They had the heavier pucks out (Jack uses a lighter puck for his level) and I could here them banging off the boards. I was sure he was going to get a puck off the forearm or in the gut, but he didn't. The worst that happened was getting laid out by "a big orange guy." One of my 4th graders saw he was hurt and helped him off the ice.

He was awesome out there. Tonight was the best I've ever seen him skate. I think he was really pumped up to be out there with the big boys. His form has improved so much and he whizzed through a puck relay where they had to zig zag around the cones with the puck, do the same coming back, and pass off to the next kid. I wasn't so sure about how he would do when I saw him lined up for that drill. He was one of the smallest 3 skaters out there (out of 75 kids and 25 varsity kids).

Later he had a slap shot drill where the coaches used a radar gun to gauge their speed. The varsity kids were hitting about 70 -75 mph. Jack didn't hear what he got, but it must have been at least 10 mph. Jack's favorite was the varisty vs. kids game. The rink was divided in half with a game on each end.

All the while Aidan was at home playing with the sitter. Jodi and I were impressed. The sitter had him fed, in his pajamas, and changed when we got home. That earned her an extra $2 on top of her base pay.

All-in-all another fast, fun weekend. I'll post more pictures when I have more time.

Bright, Cold Saturday

I feel like I'm in a study to see just how cold a human can get sitting in an unheated hockey rink. Each week I dress a bit warmer and the weather gets that much colder. You'd think being inside would offer some relief, but Jack practiced at the older rink today. The ice is fine, but along the exterior walls there are huge 5-foot exhaust fans that allow in daylight (and Canadian arctic air). The rink is cold.

Jack doesn't mind. He's loving hockey and comes off the ice drenched in sweat. For a while practices where a drag for him. We'd have to coax him through the drills or watch as he skated off to sit on the bench or in the penalty box. Over the last 3 weeks he has done well following the drills. He is noticeably better than he was last month. Earlier, he still had a hard time skating backwards for more than a few yards, now he can go the length of the ice. He does it slowly, but he is doing it.

Tonight Jodi and I hired a babysitter to go out to eat. Truth be told, it was a trial run to see if she could survive Aidan when we take Jack to kindergarten registration next Thursday.

It went well, the sitter survived and the boys were in one piece. We had a nice time, too. After seeing it went well, Jodi said we need to go out once a month. I'll hold her to it. The only problem is the lack of decent restaurants nearby. Waconia has very little. Which means we have to travel. Minneapolis and St. Paul are too far, same for Eden Prairie. Which leaves Chaska: Ruby Tuesday, Pauly's, and a few others. Oh, well at once a month it's easier to swallow the $5 beer. I thought I was at the dome.

Getting Used To It.

I just checked the Pioneer Press web site and it is 1º F as I write this. Despite the cold, it did snow a couple of fluffy inches. I shoveled before work and after supper today although the snow was so light and airy I could have used the leaf blower.

Shoveling did allow a couple of things:
1. Time outside. Today was the first significant amount of time I spent outside that didn't involve walking into a building from a parking lot.
2. I noticed fresh tracks. There is another small mammal prowling around my house. I noticed tracks circling our house and branching off to the neighbors. I just got rid of the bush-eating rabbit (due to his fatal fall into my egress basement window well).

The cold is affecting my workplace. Kids at school have not been out for the past 4 school days and it's taking it's toll on the teachers and students. Even having the kids gets dressed and run around the building for 3 minutes would be an improvement.

I've adapted comfortably to the cold by doing the following:
1. Idle the car before driving. I'm afraid if I don't, the important parts of the car will snap, shatter, or explode.
2. Wear hat, boots, gloves, and coat outside. Like Dad used to say as we dressed to do chores as kids, "It's not a fashion show." And like Garrison Keillor has said,"There's nothing fashionable about winter. Especially when the cold causes a constant trickle to run from your nose."
3. Lotion my hands obsessively. This is the pothole season for skin. Since I work with 26 germ-carrying kids a day, I wash my hands a lot. Wet skin + cold = cracks.

Driving to work today the boys and I came across a semi-truck struggling to get up the St. Boni hill. This hill is a steep 300 yard climb from stop lights. It's no problem if you've got a running start, but if you have to go from a dead start you better have 4-wheel drive. I saw the problem in front of us as we waited at a red light. We detoured around it and later came upon a Minnetrista cop in the ditch. I'm glad my morning didn't start like that.

If a Tree Explodes in the Woods ...

Cold is relative. Two weeks of temperatures below zero and 30º will seem warm enough to build a snowfort without a shirt. You'll find people sunning themselves outside ice fishing shacks with metallic arrays under their chins. On the flip side, after a week in July with temps near 100º a 62º night gets the neighbors turning on the furnace and looking for their cuddleduds.

It was cold today and it will stay cold for the next 5 or 6 days. Driving home from work I was looking at the trees and remembered a novel by Gary Paulsen that I read to my fourth graders in years past called "Brian's Winter." In the book the character, Brian Robeson, has survived a plane crash in early summer in the Canadian wilderness. He is able to adapt to life in the woods gradually. One extremely cold winter night he is lying in his shelter by the fire when he is woken by the sounds of what he thinks are gun shots. The next day he goes out looking for the source of the noise only to be nearly killed when a maple tree explodes expelling splinters like shrapnel.

It wasn't quite that cold today though.

Animals don't seem to be affected too much by it. On the farm the cows huddle together out of the wind or will find a bit of sun to lay in. They seem extra furry on these days. The bangs of fur on their foreheads curl into a bushy mass that The Donald would kill for.

I've got neighbors that like the cold. They run their air conditioner constantly throughout the summer. It came on in late April (I kid you not) and didn't go off until November. The really hot days we had last July must have shortened it's life by 10 years. I expect the Lennox people will be out to replace it this summer with some industrial rated unit used in cyrogenic labs.

In truth, I don't mind the cold too much. As long as the furnace works and my trees don't explode.