Life in the Slow Lane

A snow storm is expected tonight. That makes today laundry day. Because doing laundry with three small children is hard enough without needing to trek through the snow to get to the laundry room. As I walk back and forth, I say good-bye to the grass. It isn't quite as hard to do this time around because I trust that warmer temperatures will be back again soon.

Today is not nearly as glorious as yesterday was, but still it feels simply wonderful. The only snow left on the ground is where snow has been piled up or deep in shaded areas. With the warmer temperatures and snow-free ground, I begin to think "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Maybe that's how people manage to live here year after year. Just like a woman manages to forget the pain of childbirth enough to have more kids, people forget the pain of sub-freezing winters.

Friends, today was THE DAY. Remember how "THE DAY" is the first fluke-warm day of the year? It feels so comparatively warm that everyone goes out in shorts and enjoys the sunny day. Friends, it got all the way up to 53 degrees!!!!!!! !! There was no way we were sitting inside for this one. I started the day with a bike ride. Yes, it was still in the 30s at that point, but I saw more people wearing shorts than wearing long pants. Then we went to the park. If you scratched the bark aside, you still hit ice before dirt, but people... SUN! Warmth! Then SOS had to go to a meeting, but the kids and I took a picnic to the zoo. Friends, the zoo was a zoo . It was packed. The parking lots were full and there was no street parking anywhere near the place. It took us half an hour to find parking. CutieLittleBoy kept complaining about how hot it was... even though he had soaked his shoe stepping onto (and through) thin ice. After the zoo, we returned to pick up SOS an...

Back in the days before winter (also known as BW), someone was telling me about a park on the beach of one of the lakes. She mentioned that it was one of the best beaches Madison had, and wasn’t it a little sad that in warmer months it was crowded with poor Wisconsinites who didn’t know any better? I was on the hunt for good parks to take the kids to and simultaneously trying to gain a better image of how parents of young children survive. So I asked whether people still played there during the colder months. “Oh, yes!” She said. “It’s like a big field. I take my dog out on it and throw a stick for her to bring back to me.” I inwardly smirked as she had obviously not understood my real question. But then there is this. Yes, that is a bicycle. Yes, on a frozen lake.

I found a recipe for cooking a roast that involves starting the oven at 500 degrees. Our oven is probably as old as the apartment and never is the right temperature. I'm probably crazy to have attempted it, but winter has got to be the best time to do so, right? If our kitchen combusts, I can just open the windows and all will be okay, right? Of course the fire alarm sounds, but it goes off just about any time we use the oven and frequently when we use the burners. I perhaps stressed it more than usual, though. The last of the battery’s reserve was used up on this dinner and it chirped incessantly until we organized ourselves sufficiently to purchase a replacement battery. At least the meat is a unanimous success. Only time will tell whether I’ll have the nerve to repeat this recipe again.

When SOS first moved to the Los Angeles area, I bought him a box of Everlasting Gobstoppers. You know, to see him through sitting in traffic. When we prepared to move from the Los Angeles area to Wisconsin, SOS returned the favor. You know to see me through the winter. To give you an idea of how long this winter has been... I just bought my second replacement box.

Maybe it is a good thing that CutieLittleBoy didn't want to go outside and play the other day. Those children you see playing in the mud volleyball court? They are lifting up the sheets of ice on top of the puddles and then sitting in the water. Let's hope they've got really good snow pants and boots.

CutieLittleBoy is doing a unit on plants for school. They are going to study phototropism. His assignment is to build a maze for a plant (preferably a vine) to grow through as it seeks sunlight. My assignment is to find a plant (preferably a vine). I stopped at the mega home and garden store in the area. (This is the store where on my very first visit I thought, “I’m going to miss this place when we move away.”) I stopped the first employee in the garden area and asked where I might find some potted plants. “You mean plastic or real? Real? Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t get any of those in until April.” I wonder if I will need to sacrifice my teeny potted plant for his experiment. My next stop is for groceries. As I approach the checkout counter, I spy four lonesome potted plants next to the packaged flower arrangements. One of them is a golden pothos in an oversized pot. I know I’m paying for the pot rather than the plant, but I’ve never been one to easil...

The snow is melting fast right now. I’m in the middle of reading Perelandra. This is relevant. Bear with me. Yesterday I read the chapter where the main character Ransom, after days and days of living on the strange floating islands that rise and fall on the ocean swells like floating seaweed, arrives on a fixed land that doesn’t move with the waves. As Ransom steps on the land, he realizes how much he had missed the familiar sense of walking on solid ground. That’s how I feel looking out at the snow-free landscape. There’s grass out there. It’s even green.

It’s Saturday. I don’t need to suit everyone up for snow play. It’s even above freezing. The perfect day for going outside. Or so I think. I try to get CutieLittleBoy excited about going outside to play this morning. He’s morosely standing at the window. “I don’t want to go outside to play. There’s no snow. I only like to go outside when there’s snow to play with.” He cannot be serious. Can he?