Spring

I actually saw a rainbow on my way to work yesterday.

A freakin RAINBOW, people!!

So it appears Spring may be on the horizon. Our local wacky weatherman says we'll see up to 50-something degrees this weekend, and the worst might be over.

Here in Pennsylvania, when we go straight from extremely bitter cold and snowy, to warm and sunny, it lasts til the end of April, then we get one last storm that dumps six inches of snow on us. Like Mother Nature throwing us the finger.

Temperatures have been warmer this week, and most places are seeing a lot of snow melt. Our backyard is melting, and has maybe four inches of snow left (down from twenty), but the glaciers along the sides of our driveway may be here til May. They're still at least four feet in height.

In other news, I took my daughter to the soccer sign up at the local high school on Tuesday. This is the school she'll attend next year.

I don't go into "that town" much, and I have to admit, I've never been to that school at night before. I knew it was in a crappy section of town, but I was woefully unprepared to see drug deals going down just outside the parking area.

Around the school itself, there were several bombed-out crack houses. Boarded up windows, garbage in the yards, shady types floating around. The works.

This isn't friggin Philly or NY. It's just a small town that's been overloaded with transient people from the city. Back in the 70's and 80's, people moved from NY, NJ and Philly to the Poconos - many looking for a better life and lower taxes, but many others came to sell drugs, real estate scams, and hide from the police.

It's Bronx-lite.

In light of those facts, along with the general lousy reputation and lack of funding for this particular school, we've been forced to look at other schools.

We'll have to cut back and really budget our money, but if it means she'll be better prepared for college and considerably safer - it's worth it.

Snow, Fall

Well, I was going to write something about teenagers, angst, and how everything in life seems just so difficult when you're 14, but then I decided against it. It'll just make my daughter crankier.

So we didn't get the insane six inches of snow on Sunday. It's bad enough that four inches of snow fell last Thursday. The leaves haven't yet turned color, much less fallen off the trees, so when that heavy, wet snow fell last week, the branches collapsed under all that weight. We lost a lot of tree branches, and have some serious cleanup and pruning ahead of us this weekend.

Of course, today it's 65 degrees outside. The sun is shining, and it almost looks like Spring instead of Fall.

Schizophrenic Pennsylvania.

Gorgeous

They're predicting a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend here in Northeast Pennsylvania.

85 degrees this afternoon! Refreshing, considering it was 31 on Monday, and I was forced to scrape the frost from the windshield of my car.

Found some baby chipmunks living under the shed steps:






Both were about the size of a golf ball. I was able to get pretty close before they took cover under the step.

This guy's been foraging around the yard for a few weeks now, and I'm sure is responsible for matting down my Snow-In-Summer. I'll allow it though - due to excessive cuteness:



Looks like my Double Mock Orange will finally bloom this summer. I started these from 6 inch shoots 3 years ago. Now I'm going to have to find a permanent home in the yard for them:



Of course, it's also tent caterpillar season as well. Bastards:



Time to put the potted Plumeria outside for some sun. Poor thing goes dormant every winter when we bring it inside, and loses all it's leaves. About a week ago, it sprouted this cauliflower-like growth on top. Google tells me it's called an "inflo", and means we'll have flowers soon!



Once outside, by July it should have a few robust leaves. For now, it looks more like an alien ovipositor, or a giant, green hoo-ha:



Have a great weekend everyone!

Where's Spring?

Yes, I'm complaining about the weather again.

It was 32 degrees this morning. There was a frost advisory. Two weeks ago, it was one hundred degrees.

I can't take it anymore.

Schizophrenic Spring in Pennsylvania

It's been raining for a week solid now. Just prior to that, we had a 4 day heat wave where it reached 100 degrees. That's right. One. Hundred. 100 smelly, sweaty degrees. In April.

Since then, it's back down to 40 degrees in the mornings, and maybe 65 by mid-afternoon. And wet.

This is one of the many reasons I hate PA. There's never a gradual move into Summer, with cute, light jackets, and kicky new ¾ length tops. Spring is a schizophrenic season where one day you're wearing a down-filled parka, and the next it's shorts and a tank top. If you're lucky enough NOT to get SNOW in MAY, you're waterlogged with rain.

I've lived here all my life, and have never gotten used to it. Someday, I'll move to a state with stable weather.