Chicago!

Hello from Chicago! No, it's not an April Fool's joke. I've been looking forward to this trip for about 2 months. It's finally here!

As usual, I got to the airport way too early. After an uneventful flight (which means I only had sweaty palms and heart palpitations during takeoff & landing), I worked my way to the Blue Line at O'Hare, got off the subway at the right station, lugged my suitcase up flights & flights of stairs. And then yet another flight to get up to street level & sunshine! After a quick detour into Potbelly Sandwich Works, I made it to Union Station. No problem for this country chick.

I only tripped one person, and only took one wrong turn. Now I'm sitting on the Metra train, waiting to depart Union Station for Lisle. Once there, it's a leisurely stroll to Brenda's house, where she has a key hidden for me in a super-duper top-secret location. There's a pit bull and a French mastiff in the house, but they know me, so I'm expecting some big, stinky doggy lovoing while we wait for Bee and Ms. Sophia to get home.
Ciao for now!

That Dog

Baxter. Yeah, I talk about him way too much. He's a goofball.

He has an obsession with tennis balls that I thought would get better with age. But it hasn't! Now, he not only bounces around when he figures out we're going outside to throw the ball, but he won't give up the ball when we're done playing.

I've pretty much given up on fighting him. It's either play a tug-of-war I will not win or bribe him with his current favorite treat: peanut butter. Sigh. Who's getting trained here?


Sure. he's fairly good-looking now. But he used to be so cute.

See how he was two years ago:
And now:

Yep, I think he finally grew into those ears. Not that I was really worried! He's not really quite as interested in the camera now as he was as a pup.

He hasn't been very good at stepping into the big shoes Kona the wonder corgi left behine when it comes to being a hearing dog. In fact, he's pretty much failed. When someone comes to the door, he goes to the door to greet them, forgetting all about me. Ringing phone? Forgetaboutit.

Maybe once I get my brand-spankin'-new speech processor for my cochlear implant (that's a whole 'nother blog, two years or so in the making), I can focus more on training him. In the meantime, I have no fears that he would be very protective if the occasion ever presented itself.

I have a deadline calling, and there's a plane seat with my name on it on Thursday! I will try to blog from my destination, but no promises. Pictures are sure to pop up on Facebook, though!

Drying Out

Things are finally drying out here! I even have my car back in my driveway (what a novel idea). I spent the last few days walking through the creek to get to my car -- the water was just at the tops of my boots. I did venture to Walmart with wet pants one afternoon. Classy.
I'm thankful for pink rubber boots, dry socks and sunshine. And ziploc bags -- for sealing up my camera when I cross the creek on foot. I learned a lot from my $200 lesson last fall and am not taking any chances when it comes to water and cameras.

The daffodils are in full bloom around here. It's pretty cool to be driving in the country and see bright clumps of daffodils springing up on old farmsteads -- even in places where a house no longer stands. The tulips and planting season aren't too far behind. The greenhouse is chock-full of gorgeous plants, and it just hit me last week that we have to plant all of them in just a few short weeks! Down here, the goal for planting is April 19. Up north, they could still get snow.

Life is good and getting busier by the minute with a social event tonight, work, a magazine deadline and -- best of all -- my upcoming long weekend in Chicago! I'm headed to Springfield this afternoon for a group dinner with a deaf group. It should be an interesting evening with good food, new friends and zero communication gaps.

Waterlogged

All that snow I was complaining about? Gone! That's the good news.

The bad news? This:

My regular readers know what this is (and they know I complain about it a LOT). New readers: this is what we call a "low water bridge" in my neck of the woods. When there's a snow melt or a measureable rainfall, chances are there's water over the "bridge." (As opposed to under...as it is in about 99.9% of the rest of America.)

Sarcastic much?

Since I'm blocked in on both ways out of the hollow by these "bridges," I have to be a little creative with my travel plans sometimes. This year, my patience has worn thin already. I don't know if it's a new respect for moving water that stems from my inadvertent swim in the cold Buffalo River back in November, or if it's just a raging case of PMS.

Weather.com and any insurance website will tell you NOT to drive on a flooded road. Six inches is enough to reach the bottom of most passenger cars. A foot of water can float most vehicles. The warnings and no-nos go on and on.

Here's what the creek road looked like today -- much lower than it was on Tuesday. Of course, Baxter was an unwitting model to demonstrate scale:

It's raining as I type this, and is supposed to rain on Thursday, so the creek will be back up higher & faster Thursday and probably Friday morning.

I should be just fine in the meantime, as I've stocked up on Diet Coke, milk, coffee and a treat I don't want to share.

I'm not going to worry about the water level again until next week -- because I have a plane to catch, God willing and the creek don't rise.

Hopefully, this will be the last of the winter photos for a while!

I got lucky and shot this one through the patio window. (I guess my windows are cleaner than I thought.) The birds seem to appreciate the birdseed I've been putting in the feeder. They go through it a little bit too fast!

Johnny likes to ham it up for the camera:

And (hopefully!) the dogwoods will be starting to bloom in a few weeks. They're my favorite. But not today with the snow: Thankfully, the snow melted today! The creek is up (of course -- and I barely have enough milk for my morning coffee), but at least the sun is shining again.

Spring: FAIL

Mother Nature is quite mixed up sometimes! Saturday was the first official day of spring -- something many people were looking forward to.


We were teased with a gorgeous 70-degree day on Friday. Cold, rain and some white stuff on Saturday.

And Sunday morning, I woke up to this:



Baxter thinks it's awesome. I'm not quite so impressed.

Equinox

It's spring -- according to today's weather & the calendar, at least. Ask me again tomorrow (Saturday), & you might not get the same weather or season. It's nearly 70 degrees today, but the weather forecast promises 100% chance of rain, thunder and...snow. Nice, mother nature!


I got in a great trail ride today. Even Baxter got in on the fun and he was a very good boy. He didn't even chase the cows we came across in the Bailey's pasture.

Soon, this view will be full of green. I still think it's gorgeous -- this oak tree has to be at least 100 years old.

Settling in for the nasty weather -- it means moving my perennials back inside, tucking away my seedlings in a warm spot, and curling up with books! I have a great read on my nook -- it's keeping me up late. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" is even better than the first book of the trilogy. I'm glad I discovered this Swedish author.

And if I finish the 1200-plus nook pages (entirely possible, with this weather), I have a free book to read! I never win drawings (I'm currently in the running with tens of thousands of other folks for a cherry-red KitchenAid mixer on Tasty Kitchen and a $1300 camera on Pioneer Woman, but I know I won't win either) -- but I somehow scored a free book from Doubleday via Goodreads.com!

Have a fabulous weekend!