Blogged down

Folks have been mentioning once again that this blog has been rather neglected. My mother thought perhaps I'd gotten blogged down in other stuff.

If we're blogged down in stuff it's either snow or just the daily business of life, which sort of go together this time of year. I'll add something about the weather below, but here's what goes on while the snow falls: School, basketball, homework, piano lessons, statistical analysis and graphics with R, worry about potential job loss, dreaming about green grass and bicycling, playing with Christmas gifts (thanks to you all), wishing we were staying in shape, the Playmaker's sidewalk sale, cleaning the bathtubs, re-shelving the pantry closet and painting the doors, dreaming of bicycling, filling out tax forms, reorganizing the filing system, setting up bookcases in the office/mudroom (what a great room), more work with R, wishing spring would come, dreaming of bicycling, wishing spring would come, dreaming of bicycling, wishing spring would come...

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, said Albus Dumbledore. Obviously, he didn't live in Michigan. We're reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Quinn.

Let's see... interesting news? Report cards just came home with the kids. I don't know what we're going to do with them, setting expectations they'll regret, they are. Of course, their performance has been exemplary. I've been enjoying working with Abbey on the partial quotients division method. It's better than the way we learned. Quinn is making good progress towards becoming literate.

Glasses and braces. Abbey got them both in January 2009. Lucky kid. Her glasses are purple and her braces are various shades of lavender. Ten years old. Next thing you know she'll be in college.

Weather. I looked at the climate summary for Lansing. This has been Lansing's coldest winter since 1994, and not since 1979 has there been a January in which the temperature never once made it out of the 30s. In January 2009, the temp only made it above freezing three times - and then only just for a few hours. We had 18 inches of snow in January, and 55 inches of snow this winter. If you need to convert to C, let me know and I'll send you the formula. This kind of winter is oppressive. We'd never have survived Bethel Alaska. I wish we'd never left Seattle. But let's look forward, not back!

As a bicyclist this winter, I've been, well, not really a bicyclist. I rode a few times in the fall after the first snows fell, but got discouraged by the bitter cold temperatures, the snow piles that the plows push into the bike lanes, the cavernous potholes on Dobie (the) Road (to Hell), the frozen ruts, deep footprints, and plow spray on the bicycle paths. I've spent the winter taking the bus to work, which isn't as much fun, but it sure is easy. I'm working on getting set up to ride again, now that we should be getting through the worst of winter. More on that to come...

Soon, too, I'll take pictures of Abbey's new facial hardware and get them posted here.

Off to bed, dreaming of a new day, another season. Here comes the sun...