Snirt Sculptures.....

We've had a run of warm weather, but we still have a few piles of snirt (snow with dirt in it) piled up here at ECP. I've had a sort of bet in my head trying to pick a date when the last of the big pile will disappear.....maybe mid-March???? Anyway, walking home from the store today I looked at the piles and they reminded me of sculpture creations.

This one made me think of a big dog or lion lying down....eyes looking off to the left, ears up at the top.

I couldn't crop out the truck in the background so went out a couple hours later to try again only to find the "head" had fallen off! So now maybe it looks like a snow-covered mountain?

Looking closer to the building I spotted an interesting formation right by the bushes. This one made me think of some of the photographs of ice burgs posted on the internet....without the beautiful blue colors.

 

So on a 59 degree February day the left-over snirt created some imaginative shapes for me to enjoy. It was just another nice walk in our neighborhood.

Recommendation....

My reading goes in fits and starts. Sometimes I am so plugged into a book that nothing else can capture my attention. Other weeks I pick up and put down one book after another and just don't get past the first few pages.

About two years ago I read a very special book and wrote my blog "Impact" on November 1, 2022. The book was Beartown by Fredrik Backman and it was about hockey! When I brought it up from the Eastcastle library and realized what it was about I almost took it back. But within the first few pages I realized this book contained so much more than one sport.

A few weeks ago I found the next book in the trilogy, Us Against You. I finished it today. Once again, hockey in a small town....but so much more. I could have underlined quotes from dozens and dozens of pages. Toward the end these two stuck out for me.

"It's so easy to place your hope in people. To think that th world can change overnight. We demonstrate after an attack, we donate money after a disaster, we lay our hearts bear online. But for every step forward we take, we take an almost equally large step back. Seen over time, every change is so slow that it's barely visible when it's happening."

"The path back to normal life is indescribably long once death has swept the feet out from under those of us who are left. Grief is a wild animal that drags us so far out into the darkness that we can't imagine ever getting home again.  Ever laughing again. It hurts in such a way that you can never really figure out if it actually passes or if you just get used to it."

A book about hockey but so much, much more. The quote from The Washington Post sums it up better than I can, "A lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover, and how individuals grow."

The third in the series is titled The Winners. I'm on the hunt for that one now.

Faces.....

About two years ago there was a Facebook "challenge" inviting people to post "things with faces". The photos cropped up for weeks and it was fun to see a tree looking back at you, or a face discovered in the plumbing, or a crack in the ceiling that reminded you of someone frowning down. We still lived in Port Washington and I know I posted a couple faces created by the grain on our wooden doors.

Dave and I went for a walk the other day and we spent some time glancing down at the dates on the varying areas of sidewalk under our feet. It seems concrete doesn't last very long and some blocks have at least 6 different sections/dates/construction companies. And then we spotted something else.

I asked him to take a photo with his phone. This metal cap reminded me of a face (the "G" and the "S" were the eys, the "A" the nose and the big open mouth was yelling something at us. And look at that tongue! Maybe it was screaming because of the bullet hole right in the middle of the forehead??? 

Anyway, our walk reminded me of the Facebook find-a-face challenge. Might be fun to start all over again.

Blues.....

We are having a not-quite-normal winter in Wisconsin. I really am not complaining about it because temperatures approaching 50 in February mean that going for walks is easier than trying to carefully pick your way along an icy sidewalk. But the thing that is getting to me is the fact that actually seeing a blue sky and sunshine is so infrequent. Day after day we have grey skies.....or just some kind of complete cloud cover that looks whitish-grey. It's dull and energy sapping.

For years Dave and I suffered through what I called "my February Funk".....just a month where I felt low and sort of sad. I haven't felt this way in quite awhile. I think this is because we were lucky enough to run away for the month of February and find warm temperatures and blue skies. And I also think that having Fenway meant that we did have silliness and laughs everyday in our home/condo/apartment.

At 5:00 this afternoon I just decided I needed to get out for another walk and find some fresh air and get closer to my 10,000 steps. So while Dave napped I put on my jacket, grabbed my hat and gloves and went down the hall, down the elevator and out of the building. Mild, no wind, no blue sky.....but fresh air alone seemed invigorating.

So I headed east to Lake Michigan and was greeted by blue. It was sort of pretty and it is nice that we have more minutes of daylight as we work our way through the month.

But blue.....just shades of blue.....you can hardly see where the horizon meets the sky. Just shades of blue. I guess I'll just have to get through February and wait for March.

Again......

Dave and I are 77 and live in a retirement community. This was a good decision for us and we do like living at Eastcastle. We've made new friends, gotten involved with new activities....all while trying to stay connected to our outside involvements.

I'm glad we are making new friends.....because frankly over the past few years we've had to say goodbye to so many "besties". I no longer have Phoebe in Delaware or Denise in Maryland. Claudia is gone from her Indiana farm. Janie lives in Alaska, Pat in North Carolina....others in Florida. And yesterday Dave's high school email account informed him that a boyhood friend, David Mosedale, died in January. My David grew up with triplets living two doors down....David, Ken and Robert. Now Ken remains....in New Hampshire.

We honestly did not stay in close contact with the guys, just an occasional visit or call. Can't remember the last time we saw David after our wedding because he moved to California after college and never came back.

But the last time I saw him is carved into my memory.....as Dave's best man on December 29, 1967.

Over the year I heard about many of their chidlhood/high school "activities" and I used to say it was amazing to me that my Dave lived through all of them to find me at Ripon.

So another "rest in peace" to someone who helped shape early memories. It seems to get more bitter-sweet with each of these phone calls. Inevitable.....but sad.