The snow has stopped and it is now dangerously cold outside. It never got above 0 degrees today. When we got up, it was 16 below. We haven't seen temps like that in a couple of years. Fortunately, it is supposed to warm up tomorrow and for the next few days.

So we all stayed home today and just puttered around the house. I finished cleaning some cupboards, ironed a bit and am really caught up on computer stuff. It was very peaceful.

Tomorrow, the choir is singing, so I go to mass at 10:30AM, then right out to Rhine to work the shift out there. I will bring my pistol. If it is quiet, I will shoot. Dick said he would take us out for dinner, since I will be busy all day.

I was looking at the song book that I put together for the Deeleys when we used to have sing a longs on St. Patrick's Day, planned by Dad. He had me put some really old, hard to find and hard to remember songs in this book. I found one called Old Sing Sing tonight but can't find Old Herring. The words go this way:

When I'm cleaning old herring.
I'm dreaming of you
When I cut off their heads
And their little tails too
And the smell from the kitchen
Each day stronger grew
When I'm cleaning old herring
I'm dreaming of you.

Later

Mary

We have SNOW. And we actually heard THUNDER this morning. Poor Chelsea did not believe her ears. Jim has plowed us out twice already. The library closed (finally) at 1:30. He struggled to get home. Then the car got stuck in the driveway so had to plow before he could even get it in the garage.

Dick and I did get to see Sue at the Clinic to get his blood tested at 8:30. The test was perfect, as always. Sue is amazed. He has been within bounds for a year now, which is unheard of. She thinks that he should write a book for the others who have this condition.

Anyway, we got home just before the skies really started dumping the white stuff. I changed my eye exam to next week and choir was cancelled, so I got to stay home all the rest of the day. Boy, did we get a lot done.

I called Mom tonight and she was warm and safe also. She said that she had not seen a soul all day but had talked to several people.

I will post a picture that I took several weeks ago of the tree outside my garage door. I love the way it turned out.




Tomorrow Sheboygan County should be able to begin moving again.

Love

Mary

It is just starting to snow a little bit. I saw the flurries when I took Chelsea out for her last "visit" of the night. We are supposed to get 4 to 10 inches between now and Friday morning and then the temperature will drop into single digets. So - Winter is not through with us yet.

Dick decided that we should shop today because of the possible storm and the fact that we have enough to do anyway with doctor visits tomorrow. That meant that my whole day that was supposed to be at home got broken up, so I didn't get to do all that I wanted too. It was OK though. Chelsea and I had a really good walk just before lunch. If this storm is really bad, it may be a couple of days til we get another one.

I tried free arm quilting on the baby quilt for the Guild and ended up ripping it all out. I was not happy with it. I will try another pattern tomorrow and see if I like that. I also cut the final fabric for the final border of the quilt that I have been working on totally by hand while we travel. Then I just have to sandwich it and get it on the rack. I will quilt it by hand also. The cats will love that, they seem to think the quilt is a hammock for them.

Talked to Bret tonight. He is fine. He an friends are going out to the river this weekend for the long Presidents Day holidy. They will boat and jeep, all right around the park where he rents the space for his trailer.

Have a nice Thursday and stay warm.

Mary

I got to stay home ALL day again today. I did sewing and computer catchup and desk clearing. It was great. It was quite warm today, so Chelsea and I had a good walk. She also got a bath this morning and is just beautiful. She actually glows in the sunlight again.

Jim is adjusting to his new job. He liked today better because he had stuff to actually DO, though it is cutting in to the time that Mary has to train him. The hardest thing for him so far is changing to a day person.

I was supposed to be able to stay home all day tomorrow too but Dick wants to grocery shop because Thursday is turning out a bit busy with two medical appointments. He gets his finger pricked and I have my eyes checked.

A cricket has moved into our office. He is between the desks somewhere. Dick will insist on spraying bug spray soon. I hate that because it smells so bad and I don't like poisons especially where the critters hang out. He will probably want it sprayed just before we go to bed so we can shut the door. I think there is already one dead cricket body back there. We can't figure out how they get in here and they always go to the same spot.

I am watching the second and last half of the Westminster Kennel Club show. I do like that. It is such fun seeing all the dogs and hearing about the different breeds. My friend Janet Thomas is a former breeder of Alaskan Malamutes and still works the dog circuit as a handler. She says that this show does not involve quite as much competition as the shows she works but that it is fun to watch.



Til tomorrow.

Mary

A busy Monday, as they usually are. Bible study was lively. We were discussing the paralized man whose friends dropped him through the roof for Jesus to heal as the crowds were so thick that they couldn't get through. Shows a lot of faith and a man who had some pretty good friends. Not a bad combination.

This afternoon was the Sheboygan County Writers Club. We read our February poems and Valentine stories and those of us who went to Milwaukee read our poems that we wrote about the pieces of art that we saw. I read four pieces today. I will actually print one here that I did NOT read at the meeting but I need to be thinking of spring as we got another dusting of snow today and it was COLD. More snow is on the way I hear. So lets dream of spring.

CYCLE

Robins grow fat
On poor old worms
That squirm up out of the earth
To avoid drowning
In the fresh spring rain.

Tomorrow I get to be home all day. I intend to begin assembling the baby quilt. Dick and I will have to do the next step on the Luna Bianca wine also. I did finish and free arm quilt a pillow top. I will put the picture on so that you can see it.




Have a happy Tuesday

Mary

I always stop at Mother's after Mass on Sunday mornings. Today my brother Matthew would have been 52 years old. He died in 1972 at the impossibly young age of 17. He left behind him boxes of poems that he wrote from 1968 until the day he died in 1972.

Mother mentioned the date and we both said "Matt's birthday". He used to say (when he was very young) that it was Lincoln's birthday too.

Mother and I enjoyed a happy remembering.

Matt was odd. There was no question of that. Even in grade school, he found it difficult to sit through a whole entire class at his desk. By the tome he reached high school he often would just get up and leave. He was never mouthy, or flip. He would just leave. Finally Les Vanderpan, the vice principal called Mother to school and told her that they just couldn't have that. Mother understood, but took Matt home. The following year he went back to try again. He told Mom he wanted join a commune. She said that he had to finish high school and gain 20 lbs.

He was impossibly thin and he experienced headaches that were excruciating. The day he died he was scheduled for more tests and brain scans to see if they could isolate the cause of the headaches. He told my sister Nora that this time they were going to find out what was wrong with him.

Matt hated sports and gym and all of that type of activity and actually petitioned the school system to make gym a non requirement as he felt that it was beneath his dignity. He lost, but he tried.

One of his teachers wrote a forward to a book of his poems that was published with money raised by his friends who put on a benefit concert for that purpost. The book is called Castle Mount. A teacher of his from high school, Larry Lashway wrote the forward. Here is a quote form that forward. "What can you say about a 17-year-old poet who dies? Nothing that the poet himself can't say better."

Here is one of Matt's poems. He seldom used capital letters always referring to himself with a small "i".

BELLADONNA

i'm in the wrong place
this isn't my ocean or my beach

now how can i get off it
without knowing how i got here

so many many people
telling me to smile

how's a smile goona help me anyway?
this is no laughing matter

someone had better stop me
before i get born again

(now is the time
to get the church bells tolling)

if we stay here any longer
god may spear us like fish

but the thought doesn't frighten me
because i haven't enough mind left

to feel fear with...
but at least i warned YOU

anyway you look at it
it has to end soon

before the cosmic shadow
kicks us out of this alley

think about that
while i hold my breath and turn blue

i'm in the wrong place
this isn't my ocean or my beach

Mom and I had the nicest hour sharing memories about our Matt. A smiling happy remembering. He was a beautiful child blond, fair and big eyed. And he dove into life full of wonder and excitement. I miss you Matt but as the priest said at your funeral. Maybe God took you home so young because you would not have survived in the world outside outside of your safe nest of home.



Mary


Mary