Snowless bike

It was just a week ago that I posted a photo of a snow covered bike. Today it's still in the same spot but the environment around it has changed dramatically. I don't think the bike has moved in that week.

I'm just saying.

This has been an abnormal spring

It snowed again over night. It was quite pretty this morning and it seemed like a good time to go for a walk and catch the morning sun on the new snow. Down the street on Fairmount I encountered this bicycle locked to a rail and layered with the heavy snow. It was a sight that needed to be recorded.

The snow isn't eight inches deep, but it put a layer of heavy snow on all the trees. The blue sky this morning is very welcome, and the snow will be gone by Friday. This was taken about a block from where the bike is anchored.

The sun is as high in the sky and as intense as it is on August 19. I think that spring is about to spring.

Yuck factor

Maybe it's time to give up on spring. There was a message written on a window on Lexington as I drove by this morning said, "Merry April." I guess we're due for up to six more inches of what I sometimes call "lovely whiteness."

The Minnesota weather radar pretty much sums up the yuck factor.

I'm still going to play tennis tonight at Wooddale. It may be a wild ride there and back.

Later edit:  Tennis has been cancelled.  The roads are bad.  There will be other sunnier days to hit the courts.

The falls flows again

Finally, an April day with some sunshine, no wind and temps in the 40's.   I took it as an omen that spring may yet appear. The NCW and I decided that after lunch we should go see how the local water falls was handling the extra flow of water. The rain and snow melt added enough water to the flow of the creek to make the falls once again a real water falls.  The ice has yet to melt away, but soon it, too, will be flowing down the creek.

The NCW was happy to be outside and proud to be able to pose jacket-less. The falls are to be seen in the background.

We walked down to the big river and back, too. There were quite a few people out enjoying the sunshine, some of whom were still wearing parkas and stocking caps. It'll take a while until we really believe that winter won't reappear.

The Boston Marathon bombing has taken much of my attention today.  I still can't imagine how anyone can intentionally kill an eight year old child and consider that to be a good or even defensible act.  Random acts of insanity must somehow be quashed.  Hug your children and be careful out there.

Another birthday

As hard as it is to believe, the Prairie Princess (aka Daughter of Norway) turned 30 years old today. That week there was a huge snowstorm that dropped maybe 10 inches of snow in my backyard, and tonight there is another big snowstorm waiting in the west wing to drop another load on the Saintly City. What goes around continues to go around. PP is in Norway finishing a master's thesis this week and won't see the storm, but it looks like the weather there isn't much better.

And one of the last photos of the Prairie Princess before she made her return flight to the old country, here with the North Country Woman at Lake Como in January. She has grown a bit since 1983.

Happy birthday, my baby girl.

Birthday month

It's April and it seems like there are more family birthdays this month than any other.

Just thirty-three years ago Unky Herb was born in a Minneapolis hospital. I have quite a few photos of the boy from 1980 and this is one of my favorites. There was a snow "event" the day he came home from the hospital, and today seems to be very similar. There were flurries yesterday and today is cloudy and dripping but it is probably too warm for a snow dump, but April is a cruel month. Perhaps the cruelest.

Another photo from 1980 when Unky Herb was a mere infant. That youngish looking guy was me, Tennis Tousan, now an elder, perhaps a geezer.

We had a little cake for lunch, and we're planning a birthday dinner next week.

It has been a long slow slog towards spring, but it looks like we're going to have flowers and grass and leaves on the trees again soon.   I've had a few walks over by Como Lake and the trail around it has been clear of snow and ice for a few days.  Soon the crab apple trees will begin sending out blossoms and color will return to Minnesota.