Alaskan Spring

Sipping coffee on this early Sunday morning, I am enjoying the peaceful quiet of the white foggy mist that has settled around the birch trees. Varying shades of dirty white to grays hides the fallen branches from the last windstorm. It seems that even the wildlife have gone back into hibernation; no prints in the snow, no scurrying in the bushes. It must be warm outside; the dripping from the roof reminds me that it is an Alaskan spring day!
It snowed 22 inches in NE Anchorage starting early Friday morning and lasting well into the night. Our area had a mere 14 inches coupled with multiple electrical outages. Travelling the roads yesterday to work was easy, but parking anywhere was a challenge. Like little boys in a sandbox, both the Municipality and Fort Rich had put away their winter toys, replacing them with heavy construction noisemakers. Scrambling and grabbing the closest item with a blade was the order of business for the day.
The Garrison Commander brought inspection teams in on Saturday to walk through all barracks. It was a facilities maintenance verification not a check on Soldiers as some young recruits seemed to think; Saturday morning party eyes were evident on many faces. It was a mandatory site inspection as directed by Department of the Army. Some of you that scour the internet for headlines may have read about an incident at Fort Bragg where soldiers coming home from Iraq were moved into barracks in questionable condition. It was brought to the attention of Congressmen by a soldier’s father. Housing provided three inspection teams with cameras and vehicles. Of course the day started with coffee and donuts and ended five hours later much the same way after our briefing to the boss.
I went from work to a housewarming. Wanita Sweet had just moved into a wonderful condo with zero lot lines; i.e. no maintenance and lots of covenants in this development. In her typical style of food preparation “Take Out” or “Take Me Out” she had assembled a wonderful luncheon. She surprised the Hoochies by fixing a sweetened meatball dish. the secret ingredient was grape jelly. Wanita had downsized from a four-bedroom house to this condo in january. We had helped with her garage sale last fall and a couple of people had helped move the furniture. She is always the perfect hostess!
Special Note to the Bundy Clan – I enjoy your Blog as well. I tried to comment yesteday and failed miserbly twice…more evidence that I lack in computer communication. :-)

Grandma and the Babies

(2 out of 5 1/2)

SPRINGTIME – IS IT COMING??

I am taking a break from cleaning. Jennifer’s blog about her freezer almost made me feel energized; but then I became normal again and only am cleaning what someone would see if they walked in the front door. I am trying to get stuff done so I can escape to my sewing room. (My Main Man says it’s no better than his garage and boy toys; just a room for girl toys!)

It’s snowed 11 inches on Tuesday night and Wednesday there were 121 accidents as people drove like maniacs to get to work. In fact, one of my employees hit a car that had crossed the median and went airborne. Those two people walked away without a scratch; my employee was injured. The police told him his airbag and seat belt saved his life. Impact left him with broken knee cap and lots of bruises and sore muscles. Meanwhile, the snow completely melted over the couple of days. Today it is snowing again. BIG, beautiful flakes! I really want spring to be her and all the snow to melt so that we see tulips and can start on our front yard.

Grandma Lehman’s birthday was yesterday. Dad talked to her for about an hour and she sounded better than she has for a long time. She is selling some of her stuff so that she can sell her house and move into an assisted living building. I don’t know if she can take her dog, but I know it is getting more difficult for her to get out and walk/play with her. When I go back to Nebraska in late May or early June I will spend some time with her.

Next weekend will be really busy. I am taking off on Friday to figure out the hardware for the living room windows. Then I will start on the window quilts. I have the design done, but need to plan it all out; background fabric and the animals. Saturday is the Mothers Tea at our church. I am ¼ of the committee setting it up, etc. We are setting each four-person table with a tea service from one of our members. I am using the silver tea service from our wedding and the tea set from Germany. Several people are also doing tributes to women they admire. I have mine just about written, but really needs some polish. Sunday is my birthday and my trip back to Nebraska is my present. We may go out for dinner to Outback, my favorite steak place. Monday I am taking a day just to sew. I found some really cute dress fabric for the granddaughters. I still need to decide what to do for the boys. Jessica gave me four small projects as well. This is all a great excuse to stay away from work!

Now I am inspired – finish the laundry and cleaning – then to my sewing room.

April Showers

OK friends and relatives. April showers turned out to be snow showers. We have about 2" of snow over the weekend. It was windy and cold. Both of us were working, so we were not out this weekend. The Sporsmans Show was at the Sullivan Arena and he worked in the Safari Club International Booth both afternoons. I had lots of paper work at the office to catch up on. Seems everyday this week I was in the field working - inspections, construction sites, etc.

The great news - we finally mailed out the Holiday Notes! It's Season's Greetings, in the Spring Season. Enjoy the notes!