25 degrees and windy

My sincere apologies to continue on about this whole winter thing. 

Mike and I donned our xcountry skiis this afternoon and skiied the permimeter of the farm.  The sharp northwesterly wind cut through our cap earflaps and hurried us along.  The snow is sculpted from the wind and the recent new snow.  We sink a bit in the slogginess of two feet of snow-cone-like mush; freezing at night and thawing during most days.  

I have completely given up looking at the weather forecast, certain to be disappointed yet again.  I have been cheerleading over here on the sidelines for Spring to win against Winter since - seriously - mid-March.  Was it too much to ask?  Last year, Mike chidded me for planting four cabbage plants in the garden in mid-March.  They froze, got snowed on, thawed out and became beautiful heads of green cabbage.  Today, there is still a couple of feet carpeting the garden.  I thought about shoveling out the two raised beds, but the 20 mph wind and 25F temperature deterred me from the effort. 

So, I finished the book I've been reading.  It was wonderful!  The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig.   Some of you have read it, I know.  This long winter has prodded me into reading paper pages of books.  Reading.  Sitting in a chair, under a lamp, waiting out Winter's reign. 

Rooster has a visit to the doctor tomorrow.  He will be relieved of any further thoughts of manly duties.  As well, a tuck under each eye will hopefully help his curled up lids that scratch his eyes.  He will be miserable and I feel bad about this certainty.  Not every day is a good day, Rooster. 

The world is a funny place.  In the past 24 hours, I have heard tales of beekeepers stealing sugar purchased for bees to make alcohol and sell it through the members in the bee club.  I have heard of threat letters - their words cut from newspaper clipping and pasted to a piece of paper with foot powder added to the envelope prior to sealing, the return address belonging to the Retaliated Person.  Things in the fire department were rarely easy, often rife with conflict.  But rank things like these never happened.  It's all about integrity.  And integrity is harder to find outside the Fire Service.  You have to walk away sometimes before you can really see what you had. 

Not every day is a good day.