Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Year Day

Given the only-once-in-four-years opportunity to blog on February 29th, why not?

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Geoana is on crutches, courtesy of torn ligaments (courtesy of a friend who accidentally stepped on her foot).  Her mom and dad are adjusting to a kiddo in need of some extra attention and assistance.  She's taking everything in good stride (pun intended).

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What am I reading currently?  LBJ:  Architect of American Ambition by Randall B. Woods.  It's just a bit short of 900 pages, should keep me occupied for a while.  I'm at the time where he just assumed the presidency and 1963 became 1964.

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Had the first BB shooting competition of the season.  Was this past Saturday in Oakley.  Geoana placed second overall in her age group, and among the best shooters in western Kansas that ain't bad!

Their team overall came in second.  Geogal was keeping an eye on the targets and stated our kids weren't far off the leaders.

The day itself was your typical horribly windy Kansas prairie day.  On the way home Geoana looked up from her book and asked if we were driving close to a storm.

No.  Just a whole lotta dust in the air.  Mental note:  change air filter soon.

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Davy Jones died today, victim of a heart attack.  I already got our boxed set of "The Monkees" TV series out of the closet.  Later tonight we can honor his memory with an episode or two.  (Did I mention Geogal is a HUGE Monkees fan?)

He wasn't her favorite one, however.   That honor goes to Micky Dolenz.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Miscy

Now on the downside of February, here's another snapshot of what's happening in our territory. 

My last post noted a new snowfall.  There's still residual white stuff in the shady areas because, unlike my late teenage years in New Mexico, the temps usually don't climb high enough to melt off the snow completely within two or three days, as often occurred in the Land of Enchantment.  Since I am well into adulthood snow just doesn't hold the same novelty as it did when I moved to the mountain west from Houston Texas (where any measurable snow accumulation is as rare as a 70-degree day in Kansas in February). 

Still it was fun to take the kiddo and her friend sledding on fresh powder. 


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My thoughts on the football season just concluded? 

I barely watched the Super Bowl, didn't even give much heed to the commercials.  Have to wonder if both of these events are becoming victim of their own success.  However it was gratifying to watch the Pats lose (again) to the Giants. 

Me rooting for the Giants.  See what's become of me??

Three more positives for the 2011 season:  

1)  No Bret Favre
2)  No Terrell Owens
3)  No Tiki Barber

Here's hoping I can add Randy Moss to that list this time next year. 

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In the lamest-make-a-connection-department I saw that Apple is soon to release a newer version of its operating system.  It's named "Mountain Lion."  

Features and improvements aside, speaking of felines you don't want to encounter in the wild unarmed here's a pic I took a couple of weeks ago when going to the local auto parts store.  I was planning to use it in an entry here with a phrase such as "You know you live in a small rural town when..." 

When you go to buy a new car battery and the vehicle next to you has several dead bobcats on the flatbed.  It is trapping season, after all. 


Saturday, February 04, 2012

Finally some snow! Plus an update.

It’s not that nothing’s been happening, it’s just that there’s not been much about which to write.  

Yes, starting a blog post with a grammatically incorrect sentence is not the best way to get going however it is early on a Saturday morn and the laziness factor is in full gear. 

Woke up this morning to a nice snowfall.  Not any surprise, as we have been watching the forecast for days now.  In fact it cut our business with not a whole lot of pleasure trip this past week just a bit short. 

Trip?  Yes, we were gone to Colorado ever since Sunday afternoon.  You wouldn’t hear about it here until after the fact (we have enough intelligence not to advertise being away from the domicile--never mind that we took our iOS devices with us!). 

In fact upon our return we got a message on the machine from our across-the-street neighbor expressing concern about our whereabouts.  This wasn’t due to a lack of communication, however.  Rather our neighbors were away from town themselves and didn’t return until after we hit the road.  This, combined with a text from our next-door neighbor on Thursday morning reminded us that part of small-town life involves folks being truly concerned for each other. 

Gotta like it. 

Anyhow, back to the present.  Since there’s a worthy amount of the white stuff on the ground today I see Geoana and I heading to the park with sleds on hand.  Plus she gets to wear her new snow pants, Christmas present from Geogal, who was concerned that we might not get any more measurable snow this season. 

Scratch that concern. 

How was Colorado?  So-so.  I had a conference/symposium, which in my field means you sit on your backside in marginal-quality chairs for several hours per day (my sciatic nerve just loved that) and Geogal was able to spend her time doing observation for her academic program (in a field completely unrelated to mine).  We didn’t have a great deal of downtime but did manage to hit some good restaurants and enjoy cuisine that we don’t have in our corner of the world.  (Geoana stayed behind as neither she nor we were thrilled with the prospect of her missing a week of school.) 

Wanted to hit Ikea, didn’t happen.  Wanted to visit some RV dealers and check out travel trailers, didn’t happen.  Wanted to go to the Apple Store, that DID transpire. 

Headed home a day early to avoid the storm that has dumped the white stuff here and shut down I-70 from the Kansas border to Denver. 

There’s no place like home.