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.

At Least It Feels Warm in the Ice Arena

It is bitter cold today. The mercury has congealed into sludge somewhere around -20ºF (-29º C). One could be tempted to skip hockey practice and lie under a pile of blankets watching the natural gas meter spin and listen to the furnace run without interruption.

But we went. Feeling adventurous, I took out The Rumbler and let it warm up for a good 15 minutes. Even after the lengthy idle it still complained when I accelerated.

As for hockey practice, it went very well. Jack skated hard and did almost all of the drills. He decided to do the backwards skate station twice and skip the puck handling drills. After practice I bought him a Twix bar and went to pick up his friend Tanner for an afternoon play date. When I brought Tanner back to our car, Jack had saved half of his candy bar for him. What's going on? No breaks on the hockey bench and sharing chocolate?

The kids played well in the basement, they got me downstairs to play hockey with them. When I stopped to look out our egress window I found the Bush Bane- the rabbit that has assaulted our shrubs lay there frozen stark stiff. He must have fallen down and could not get out and froze/starve to death. So my plan of procrastinating took care of our rabbit problem.

Big plans tomorrow. Mom and Dad are coming down for Jack's game and Mike, Choe, and Suki will come after we get back. Right now Jodi's cleaning the house and making Chex Mix by the bushel. Now our house smells like the Quaker Oats factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There is no way it will all be eaten tomorrow. She'll have to freeze it in five gallon buckets.

The Suburban Herbivore

Wildlife is scarce in our neighorhood. It's only been 5 years since the farm fields that used to exist here were scraped away to host a crop of houses. The building is done, trees and plants have taken root, and animals are starting to return.

We see bluebirds, goldfinches, and other birds in our yard, but mammals are nonexistent. Except for the bunny.

He emerged one day last summer from under our the neighbor's deck. The house is for sale and vacant. Once he saw us he scurried back under there.

The kids like him. They have fed him carrots and get the binoculars out to spot him sunning himself under the slide. Aidan likes to waddle to the window and say "Where is da bunny? Where is da bunny?"

He was a peaceful bunny, or so we thought. This week I was looking out our north windows and noticed our hydrangea bushes are gnawed down to stumps. I found some damage to our dogwood bushes late last fall so I put out some hose sections to frighten him away (apparently rabbits mistake them for snakes). We had reached a peace, or so I thought.

Then Friday morning while getting the paper, I caught him in the act. He was on the sidewalking chewing on our burning bushes. I scared him away, but on closer inspection, he had given those shrubs a beat down. Not only that, he left behind tell-tale signs of shrub consumption and digestion.

Now I need to make like Elmer Fudd and kill da wabbitt. I really don't want to kill it - I don't want to spill blood on our yard. My choices are: A) Relocate the bunny, B) Send it to Rabbit Paradise, C) Start a food program, D) Ignore the problem.

D is not a choice. I need to take care of this guy (?) before breeding season starts.