The Weather

"Joey would like the temp to go above 15 today...please?"*

Joey is a friend we know from the dog park. Stella's person. One of Stella's people actually, but I don't like to go to the "dog mother" place because that's just weird. Joey is from Texas which is far, far away. We're not sure why she picked Illinois as a destination(we suspect employment but we have no official clue) but we're fairly certain she didn't come here for the glorious weather. In fact, we haven't seen her (outside of Facebook*) in a long time because it's just too damn cold.

We wonder if, upon crossing the border into Illinois, did anyone tell Joey about things like 'Winter projects'. These are things we do around here when you can't do anything else. People actually reserve projects during the summer to save them for times like these. Like, ooh I dunno, resume reconstruction or Scrabble marathons or reorganizing your filing cabinets or anything that sticks you firmly indoors.

She also needs a good chili recipe. I made some yesterday and ooh it was good. I'd share it but it was just your basic cliche chili. Oops. I just noted that the official dish of Texas is chili. Maybe Joey can hook us up.

I nearly heard myself drawing that mental line in the snow one day last week. You know. The "Okay I'm done with this whole snow thing now." line you've been hearing people say since the day after Christmas. It was cold, my legs were burning, I was hiking over what would be called a 'snow stile' which is where the street intersects with the sidewalk that is remarkably NEVER shoveled. Grantley was glimping. (Grimacing and limping because of the salt.) All was unswell. But, I caught myself before I got to the end of that sentence because it ran through my head, this is how we pay for the red tulips in Spring.

Spring is coming Joey. It will be here before you know it.

(And here I would insert a drawing of a tulip poking thru the snow, if my scanner was functioning. Clears throat and hopes genius nephew is paying attention.)