Tuesday, June 14, 2005
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY....1993
After the first of the year the rains continued so much that water was everywhere. Some roads were covered, fields and yards were full in the lower areas. Where we should have been getting snow the warm air was full of moisture and the rains continued. Here in the Ozarks we have many farm roads that cross creeks with a concrete slab to drive over. Even though people are warned not to cross when there is running water they are so used to doing it and getting by with it…..the time comes when the water is deeper than they thought and the car is washed away. Tragically, there are preventable deaths or narrow escapes.
For some reason, many of our January’s are unusually warm. I remember when George was just a baby I took him for walks in the baby buggy in January. We may escape in December and January but February usually makes up for the favor we find in past months. I have lived in the Ozarks long enough to remember some bitterly cold October and November’s. I guess there is just no “usual” weather no matter where a person lives. Our old weather patterns have been so disrupted as compared to when I was a child in Nebraska, it is hard to anticipate weather at all. When the forecasters are wrong so many times with all of their hi-tech equipment, we shouldn’t be surprised when our own expectations fail.
Jennifer had been to visit uncle George in Shawnee for a week so Becky drove to Springfield to meet them for her return home. Later in the month, Jennifer left to go back to Culver-Stockton…..we always missed her after she went back. She continued to work along with keeping her grades up at the college. She was working on a double major and we were rightly proud of her.
Later in the month we did get temperatures cold enough to freeze ice on the trees, and eventually, some snow. Jennifer was safely back before the roads became dangerous. The last week-end in the month we went to visit friends at the Lake of the Ozarks and had a fun time of gadding and shopping. The area is beautiful even in winter and we enjoyed the wild ducks on the water in their cove.
Work was pretty slow during the month. We had more office time than usual because we didn’t give road tests to new drivers and most of the expired or out-of-state drivers were only given written and eye tests. We spent a lot of time reading and in my case, I did a lot of stitching. I took a quilt top to a lady in Van Buren for machine quilting. It was put together on the machine so I didn’t mind the machine quilting. I was still working on the quilt at home that was all hand-stitching.
To our surprise, in February, John had a King Cake sent to us from Louisiana. It is a special cake at Mardi Gras time….the icing is in Mardi Gras colors, bright green, purple and yellow and the cake is quite large. It looks like a coffee cake, actually. Anyway, the fun is to see who gets the “baby” in their piece. Whoever gets the baby must buy the next King Cake…..I think. John will have to correct me on this if I’m wrong. The baby is a small plastic doll put into the cake before it is sold. We love going to New Orleans with all of the customs and different culture. It’s always a learning experience each time we go. I think it is safe to say we have lost John to the South….I don’t think he will ever live North again. A friend of his says he is more of a Southerner than they are….. “they” meaning the people who are born in the South. He has certainly embraced everything the South has to offer and shares with all of us when we visit.
We got our big snow in mid-February. I was off work due to President’s Day and we tried to keep it scooped away so the birds could eat but it kept snowing over the feed. It was up to my knees when I walked up to Becky’s to finish painting the glass in her door. It was hobby paint to look like a stained glass window. I had been working on some of the glass at home and liked the outcome. One lesson and Becky went on to paint some of her windows…..turned out very pretty.
The next morning the roads were in good shape but our drive was blocked when the road-grader pushed snow across it. A young man from church came and shoveled us out…….people are so good to think of others. A few days later we woke up to six more inches of snow. It was putting a freezing mist on all of the snow which made a strange sight. It looked like a plastic covering. We were given a couple of days off due to conditions and so I made good use of the time at home.
John and Barb had their 10the wedding anniversary on the 19th and I made cookies to send for his birthday coming up in March. We closed out the month with Bear having some kind of intestinal bug so he didn’t feel well for a few days. So far we didn’t have the flu like so many but there was still a lot of time to go before we could consider ourselves lucky. With February over it wouldn’t be long until the daffodils would be peeking out of the ground and we could celebrate Spring once more……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
For some reason, many of our January’s are unusually warm. I remember when George was just a baby I took him for walks in the baby buggy in January. We may escape in December and January but February usually makes up for the favor we find in past months. I have lived in the Ozarks long enough to remember some bitterly cold October and November’s. I guess there is just no “usual” weather no matter where a person lives. Our old weather patterns have been so disrupted as compared to when I was a child in Nebraska, it is hard to anticipate weather at all. When the forecasters are wrong so many times with all of their hi-tech equipment, we shouldn’t be surprised when our own expectations fail.
Jennifer had been to visit uncle George in Shawnee for a week so Becky drove to Springfield to meet them for her return home. Later in the month, Jennifer left to go back to Culver-Stockton…..we always missed her after she went back. She continued to work along with keeping her grades up at the college. She was working on a double major and we were rightly proud of her.
Later in the month we did get temperatures cold enough to freeze ice on the trees, and eventually, some snow. Jennifer was safely back before the roads became dangerous. The last week-end in the month we went to visit friends at the Lake of the Ozarks and had a fun time of gadding and shopping. The area is beautiful even in winter and we enjoyed the wild ducks on the water in their cove.
Work was pretty slow during the month. We had more office time than usual because we didn’t give road tests to new drivers and most of the expired or out-of-state drivers were only given written and eye tests. We spent a lot of time reading and in my case, I did a lot of stitching. I took a quilt top to a lady in Van Buren for machine quilting. It was put together on the machine so I didn’t mind the machine quilting. I was still working on the quilt at home that was all hand-stitching.
To our surprise, in February, John had a King Cake sent to us from Louisiana. It is a special cake at Mardi Gras time….the icing is in Mardi Gras colors, bright green, purple and yellow and the cake is quite large. It looks like a coffee cake, actually. Anyway, the fun is to see who gets the “baby” in their piece. Whoever gets the baby must buy the next King Cake…..I think. John will have to correct me on this if I’m wrong. The baby is a small plastic doll put into the cake before it is sold. We love going to New Orleans with all of the customs and different culture. It’s always a learning experience each time we go. I think it is safe to say we have lost John to the South….I don’t think he will ever live North again. A friend of his says he is more of a Southerner than they are….. “they” meaning the people who are born in the South. He has certainly embraced everything the South has to offer and shares with all of us when we visit.
We got our big snow in mid-February. I was off work due to President’s Day and we tried to keep it scooped away so the birds could eat but it kept snowing over the feed. It was up to my knees when I walked up to Becky’s to finish painting the glass in her door. It was hobby paint to look like a stained glass window. I had been working on some of the glass at home and liked the outcome. One lesson and Becky went on to paint some of her windows…..turned out very pretty.
The next morning the roads were in good shape but our drive was blocked when the road-grader pushed snow across it. A young man from church came and shoveled us out…….people are so good to think of others. A few days later we woke up to six more inches of snow. It was putting a freezing mist on all of the snow which made a strange sight. It looked like a plastic covering. We were given a couple of days off due to conditions and so I made good use of the time at home.
John and Barb had their 10the wedding anniversary on the 19th and I made cookies to send for his birthday coming up in March. We closed out the month with Bear having some kind of intestinal bug so he didn’t feel well for a few days. So far we didn’t have the flu like so many but there was still a lot of time to go before we could consider ourselves lucky. With February over it wouldn’t be long until the daffodils would be peeking out of the ground and we could celebrate Spring once more……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
