The tune your bones play as you keep going

February snow for us today, after a freak February fake spring Wednesday that reached nearly 65 degrees. I went out that afternoon with my long lopping shears and attacked the Rosa rugosa, carefully tossing the thorny branches over our tall fence into the back yard. I made it out nearly unscathed, just one fingertip embedded with the tiny spikes (my ferocious gardening regularly wears holes in my good work gloves). In the end, I took pity on one very small clump of rugosa, but I may reconsider and shear it to the ground (I should. I probably will). After the ground thaws, I'll dig up as many of the roots as I can...my eventual plan is to replace it with this and this and maybe this and this.

But I'm here now, and now there's dry snow rushing from the sky in clouds, greying the windows. We walked Clover over to Deering Oaks into wind that was shockingly cold, snow that felt sharp on our faces. She chased sticks up and down the hill, and we watched passing plows push plumes of snow into the air along the highway beside the park. The walk home put the wind at our backs. I was thinking about Ukraine the whole time, wondering what the weather is like there right now.*

Abominable Snow Dog

*It's raining lightly in Kyiv, and residents are barricading themselves in their homes, having been instructed how to make Molotov cocktails.

bad blogger, BAD blogger!

i'm pretty sure that one of the cardinal sins of blogging is apologizing for slacking off on the blog entries, so i won't waste any time on that.

but i will add that i've been earning my keep this week, helping my friend heather in her warehouse. i pretty much loved this gig (to be repeated when her company hits another busy spot), which satisfied my deepest OCD urges to sort and organize and count. m is temporarily employed there, too, about 3/4 time while he continues his job hunt.

this news makes me equally sad and angry.

much less importantly, i had an adventure this morning! gee whiz, what fun! i got in the car to drive bean to her bus stop, and we made it about 1/2 mile down the road (okay, maybe only 1/4 mile) before we heard a loud and decisive thump/floppy floppy sound from beneath scooby's belly. it was then that i noticed that my foot's pressure on the gas pedal wasn't making the car move forward any faster -- and so, we drifted to the curb, gracefully, and stopped.

quick as a flash, thanks to modern cell phone technology, mama d flew to zoe's rescue and whisked her off to school right on time. nearly as quickly, the guy from aaa arrived and took scooby off to the car emergency room, leaving me, in my pajamas, to walk the 1/2 mile (or, more likely, 1/4 mile) back home.

and our temporary employers, heather and matt, drove down from yarmouth, picked us up, and delivered us to the brunswick warehouse. then, because they are incredibly kind people, they loaned us (not for the first time, i might add) a car. now we sit with fingers and toes crossed, hoping for good news from the car hospital.