Another bleeeeezard

So I got THE CALL at 5:40 am that gave me permission to roll back into bed and snooze for a while. I have a cold (or a "code", as the kids call it, because you can't pronounce "cold" when you have one), so a snow day is very very welcome. It's not a bad "code", just an irritating one. Some folks at school have a rather nasty strain of Influenza B, and there's also that vague "stomach thing" that goes around, and even a couple of cases of whooping cough. FUN!!!

It's been snowing pretty heavily since I got up several hours ago-- the pretty snow-globe kind of snow. I took a couple of pictures of it-- my little garden out back, which in the summer is all wild with cosmos and phlox and sunflowers and pumpkins, but now is just a mound of snow...


...and this dead pine branch that fell from the tree with the birdfeeders in it that fascinates me with its convoluted beauty...




A snow day also gives me the chance to just sit and veg and knit and nurse my sore throat and drink gallons of tea. I've been craving a Star Wars marathon for a while (you can't watch just one!) and my VCR's decided to become so infested with gremlins so I figured I'll watch my VHS copies just one more time before the VCR finally dies. I really would love to get a DVD set of the old version of Star Wars, with none of the new crap in it (though I do like the restored "extras" like Han stepping on Jabba the Hutt's tail) but I really think none of the old ones exist any more. I'm a purist like that. The Empire Strikes Back has always been my favorite, and I think it's funny that that's the movie that has very little new stuff in it.

But anyway, enough complaining. Mum came to visit me on Sunday and stayed through until yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Mum's truck is a piece of doo-doo, with slick tires and no weight in the back. As soon as she got to my town she did a 360 and got stuck, and got stuck again overnight when it snowed, and (my personal favorite) got stuck again backing out of the driveway:


I did nothing to help. I just stood there laughing and taking pictures. Finally some of my neighbors (not a single tooth among them) got their truck and a chain and yanked Mum out. It was great.

So anyway, I'm going to go finish up the Star Wars marathon and work on the Hamster's blankie. This panel is about 10 inches long now, and I love how the shades of blue are striping and pooling around... veddy niiiice...