That elephant out there is shivering as well.

I really would like to have something to say other than remark on the deep snow that has been outside since FOREVER, but this morning I opened the door for Shane and felt the frigid air pour in and saw the landscape . . . AND I CRACKED.

Yes, I who have been saying to people that Well, it’s winter have – how do you say in English?- had enough.

Maybe I should wait awhile before writing anything else.

Well, that title about sums up this post, other than to point out this is just one of her canes and only a picture of the top of it at that.

It snowed; it got really cold. However, we have not gone to Daylight Savings Time yet so it was daylight outside and schools did not delay. Now soon, I think next Sunday, we will do the deed and everyone’s circadian well-being will be given a jolt. At least everyone who has reached the point in the year when going out of the house to the car is something you don’t need to do in the early morning dark. Your spirits are lifted, but next week comes the whack up the side of the head and you’re back in the grogginess of It’s always darkest before the dawn.

This happens because we are so incredibly far west in the Eastern Time Zone and the Standard/Daylight Savings adjustment was moved up by about three weeks a few years ago. I miss the days when we were on Standard Time year round and in the summer months – in an area close to Michigan and Ohio – talked of Fast Time and Slow Time.

Oh, by the way, the snow is still knee-high out the backdoor. Sheeesh.

Today Summer is to make a film for Spanish class and I have been informed I have to feed her some lines in Spanish as cues for what she is to say. What? At first I had it palmed off on Der Bingle but he didn’t come because of the weather – this time Fairborn is getting it worse than we are . . . and it ain’t good here.

I don’t do spoken foreign languages well and am dreading it. However, Alison is on call at the hospital and when Summer gets up I am going to try and get her determined* to have her mother be the vocal participant in this little entry for Cannes.

*Summer determined is a force to be dealt with. But then, a couple of times, Alison has looked at Summer, shaken her head and said in an exasperated tone, “You and your grandma.”

Gee, it really takes the burrowing in, resting aspect of winter away when you have to shovel snow and knock firewood loose from the frozen, snow-covered pile. But, then, I’m happy to be able to do it – although I have been filling my daydreams with ways to have logs automatically delivered to my hearth.

I need minions.

This morning I went looking for a song; I didn’t know the name, but I knew two parts of the lyrics: Frank jumped in and bit my leg and But, she’s cherry. Turns out the song is Classified by C.W. McCall and I managed to find a YouTube version of it.

Now while I was over there at YouTube and in the country western song division, I looked over at the sidebar and saw some  videos of June Carter, before she was June Carter Cash. I listened to a few and then typed Johnny Cash into the search panel. Working my way through, I came to one about the flag – our flag, the U.S. flag – and I listened to it. I listened to it twice.

I thought about a lot of things, not the least of which are the people who have just been so upset with the United States and any show of allegiance. But thought gave way to just feeling and  I realized in my mind, I was back standing at the side of a runway – in the family visitors’ area on a SAC base. The klaxon had sounded and the crews had zoomed off in their blue pick-up.  I stood there with my four-year-old son, watching as B-52 after B-52 came down the runway and lifted into the sky.

I must have been aware of  the roar of the engines, but what struck me most was how the wings were so long, the flapped slightly at the ends. (There were actually little wheels to keep them from scraping the ground.) I was young, the sun was out, the wind up a bit and, for some reason, I just knew it was a drill. It was impressive but it was part of my everyday life.

Looking back, I realize I’m proud of what I witnessed – my husband and others taking responsibility for protecting what that flag stands for – my country, my heritage, and what was then, my future.

THE VIEDO:

VIDEO OF B-52 SCRAMBLE:

And here’s a video of a B-52 minimum time take-off: (It’s 10 minutes long)

Stuff is fairly chockablock here at The Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse and I’m thinking about documenting some of it so that maybe I will see it and not just pass my eyes over it. I don’t know where it will wind up when I am gone, but for now, I’ll let these iphone photos hold the images.

On a window sash:

Just got word of a 2-hour delay for today because of winter weather – ice, snow and wind chill – so that will throw a cog in the make-up snow day scheduling. Oh, well, it gives me an extra two hours before I have to “shoot the slalom run” on the downhill street that empties into the back side of the school parking lot. That route keeps you from encountering school buses on narrow streets both my the middle school and the high school, but it is itself a narrow street on which cars are allowed to park on one side.

Sometimes I think maybe somebody might park a car out there that they wouldn’t mind getting hit by one of those teenage drivers. Oh, such a mind I have.

I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but the last time we had such a strong wind, the garbage bin lid whipped up and smacked me a good one on the forehead. I guess I live sort of a low-rent Garrison Keillor lifestyle sometimes,. (Without his politics)

I believe I’m feeling in the mood for a quick tempo-ed country song –  one with line such as “Frank jumped in and bit my leg”. * Oh, no, am I actually thinking of looking that up on itunes?

Aha, I found it  on YouTube.

This is unusual for me; I am all ready to go to my doctor’s appointment and I have at least an hour before I need to leave. I am in my clothes and not looking for my keys.

This feels so odd.

Well, I am going to brush my teeth once more before I leave – with one of those sonic toothbrushes. It IS possible I could take the brush out of my mouth before I turn it off and fling toothpaste and saliva every which way.

Because we have had so many snow days, schools are making up the time by adding a hour to each day. And because 2-hour delays kept affecting the same two periods, schedules have been revamped to make take that into account. It varies from day-to-day, according to Summer and I her recitation in the car this morning sounded like a code: 4th, 4th, 5th, back to 4th and so forth. This was not the actual list she gave, but it reflects the doubling-up and repetition. Well, as we old folks say, “Not my problem.”  Cold, huh? Well, my empathy reservoir is low.

I hope they don’t have to rush the experiments in Chemistry too much; I’d hate to have the building blow up. You laugh, but I know someone who is married to someone who is related to someone by blood who blew up a chemistry college lab. Now, that will get you noticed. Actually, it might have been the whole chemistry building. You know, I’m going to have to arrange to hear that story again – maybe with sound effects.