So, I know it's much too early, yet I find myself peering closely at the exposed soil of our front walk, searching eagerly for the bulbs we frenziedly planted last November. We'll likely get a few more snows, maybe even big ones, and it won't really be spring until May. I find myself searching for those green shoots, none the less.
Equinox will be here soon. With 12 hours of daylight, spring will be close behind.
Scott's mac is a sad sack right now, and I've been rebuilding the webserver just for the fun of it (geek). We've got a digital camera full of pictures, and once we've liberated them, I'll add some images of our latest endeavors. In the meantime, here's the news from two geeks, and a dog.
Our roof has been a surprise. Though the surrounding homes boast ice dams of varying dimensions, our modest home is nearly ice free. With the freeze/thaw cycles we've been experiencing, there are a few icicles along the east and west edges, and a minor amount of ice build up - not enough to call it damming. The snow pack is flattening out, and falling off in wet clumps. We've had a more normal amount of snow this year. Our front yard used to slope away down to the street, with the current snow accumulation the front yard slopes towards the house, instead. Makes it slippery for Abby, and treacherous for us - we don't come with natural 4WD!
Abby has had such a good time this winter. She's delighted in our indoor 'race track' (formed by the hallways, living, and dining area), and has formed a deep and loving relationship with an evergreen in the front yard. She has a not so loving relationship with a young aggressive dog next door. White dog barks it's head off if it sees Abby. She mostly tolerates it, but once in a while gets a wild hair and returns her own torrent of abuse. We've seen the white dog jump it's fence, and we know that it nicked the ear of another dog in the neighborhood, so Abby doesn't go outside unescorted. Walter has some cyclone fence, so we'll see about securing the front yard come spring. The snow in the back yard is too deep for her to do her business easily.
We went to the Fur Rendezvous Parade in February. There were dogs and kids and cars and military folks and floats and all kinds of other stuff too! We watched a fur auction, and saw the World Championship Sled Dog Races (sprint races, not long distance like Iditarod or Yukon Quest) begin, Abby at our side (she appeared to like it, certainly her tail was wagging). We've been eating at the White Spot on a regular basis, and are slavishly devoted to our Stargate nights (5 hours of Stargate with dinner from Wok Express oh yeah). We went downtown for the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog race (sans Abby, there were so many spectators we left her in the car), and got lots of cool pictures. We love watching the people nearly as much as the dogs. The dogs are so maniacally happy, so boundlessly energetic, that their joy is infectious.
We love being home owners. While we are still unpacking, have not yet unloaded the conex, haven't even put the door frame back! we are reveling in the responsibility and pleasure of this oh so concrete affirmation of our adulthood.
So what have we been doing? Well, unpacking is a continuing and apparently never-ending task. Scott has accumulated many magazines, so we recently organized them so he could decide what he wants to keep, what goes. We toyed with the idea of delivering them anonymously to Uncle John, but I fear he would deduce the culprit and retaliate accordingly. We're also working on painting the closet shelves, which will facilitate the unpacking process by providing more storage spots. The 'to do' list, like unpacking, is never ending.
Scott has an ambitious (for us anyway) plan for the large closet in the marmalade room - a deep shelf at 30", slide the lateral cabinet and behemoth laser printer beneath it. Then shallower shelving at regular intervals above that, and perhaps a rod on one side for seasonal clothing. The shelving will be arranged so we may place the servers (yeah, that's plural) in the closet as well. It'll make a quieter, tidier marmalade room.
There's also been some plumbing chores. As Scott predicted, the garbage disposal yielded a big ol' nasty clogged pipe. I removed the trap. No joy. I enthusiastically snaked. No joy. I yielded, and called the rooter dude. Rooter dude cleared the clog (no easy task for him either, which was gratifying), and at our behest and under protest, he de-installed the errant garbage disposal.
And in the bathroom I installed a doohickey. See, Scott is tall, I'm short. So while the showerhead was height appropriate for me, Scott was getting weary of hunching for his morning ablutions. And neither of us cared for the insipid and nearly ineffectual mist that the showerhead delivered. We found an easy to install shower extender. You unscrew your showerhead, screw in this thing, then screw your showerhead to that. This gives you an 18" vertical range of motion. And as an unlooked for benefit - the spray is no longer ineffectual! That puppy is shooting out water like a 1960 to hell with conserving water Hoover dam never looked this good dynamo! woo hoo! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but after tolerating a stingy trickle of water for months, that's how it seems >grin<.
Let's see, we've put some art on the walls (thank you Uncle John), are vacuuming a little more frequently (but you should still watch out for dust bunnies), put up nightstands and several lights (IKEA!), and made some covers for the comfy pads in the marmalade room. The marmalade room has gotten most of our attention, not unsurprisingly since that's where we're spending most of our time. There's a curtain in the bathroom now instead of a sheet, the cookbooks are unpacked, and while we haven't quite gotten around to installing the can-o-mat, it too is unpacked and waiting it's turn. The books we had at Walter's are unpacked and stacked 3 deep on our book shelves, however there are an unknown but probably vast quantity of books left in the conex.
It's a lot of fun. Our next project is too install new dryer duct in the crawl space. See, there's some duct down there now, but given the missing segment, doesn't do much good. I can stand upright in the crawlspace, so I'll install the ducting while Scott shouts encouragement from above. Not a bad division of labor.
Like marriage, owning a home is even better, more rewarding, more wonderful, than either of us ever imagined. Wow.