News & Notes, S-No More Edition

After having a winter with almost no snow or extreme cold, we've now officially gotten our fair share.  We're still about 20 inches behind normal, but it's been a few solid weeks of snow and mostly bitter cold.  It was 11 degrees when I took Carter to school this morning, and I'm pretty sure it has snowed a little bit almost every day for weeks.  We did have some sun in the middle of all that, which not only offset the cold a little but helped the snow go down, too.  But we still have a good amount on the ground and it's mostly been too cold to make an effort to really enjoy it.  And, of course, more is on the way.  Interestingly, we haven't been getting hit with huge storms--just a few inches here and there with a couple 4+ inch hits.  Meanwhile, areas downstate have gotten a foot or three at a time.  I found a photo in my parents' albums from what appears to be the second-to-last amazing snowfall we had at our old house back in early 1984.  I feel like that was how I remember snow being almost all the time as a kid, and yet we hardly ever have anything that interesting anymore.  

Up to the bottom of the grill!

The snow piles are one thing, but check out the drifts on the houses behind us!

Of course, this week's Facebook memories brought up the crazy snowstorm we had when I was precariously pregnant with Carter, a solid foot and a half with Craig on the road twice in a few days.  That was scary.  But it was still quite a rare event among the last few years.  

Our poor tree was so bent over!  It recovered its height but I guess we'll never know if it contributed to the fungal infection it got not long after.

It was so deep and so heavy on the branches. Look at the pine trees in the back!

I guess between climate change and being in a slightly less lake-effect-prone area than my childhood years, it's quite possible things are just different now.  I keep thinking this would be a good year for a big storm just because we're not really going anywhere anyway and if school is canceled we are perfectly fine to just sit home since work isn't an issue either.  This week would actually be perfect since school is off anyway, and it turns out we could get up to a foot early in the week!  But we're hitting my threshold after which snow officially starts getting annoying and more unwelcome--Valentine's Day--and I will be imminently starting my countdown to better weather.  March isn't that far, and while it's rare any good weather actually shows up then, it at least makes it more of a possibility.  This year it could be more important than ever since the outdoors provides an extra level of not just freedom, but safety.  On the bright side, I'm not completely disgusted by winter yet, but I can tell I'm rapidly getting there after this extended run.  It's reminding me a little of the endless nature of Rochester's (literal) coldest month ever back in February 2015 when I was unemployed and spent much of my time shoveling out and braving the cold for school pickup.  The snow never got a chance to melt and I forgot what it was like to walk out the door without cringing.  We're not far off from that if this keeps up, but at least masks are an extra barrier against the cold!

I promise the rest of our house does not look like this, but this one is impressive!  At least the bushes were supporting the weight!

 

In other news...Around the time of my last post I went on a couple mini-rampages around the house to do some cleaning and organizing.  The weekend prior to the post I did a major scrub-down of my dressers, which tend to get a lot of dust that's hard to clean out without taking all of the various items on top off.  Plus my dresser where my makeup lives tends to get pretty gross with powder and splatters.  I felt so much better when it was done.  In the process, I decided it was time to toss the handful of roses on one dresser that I had collected from various family funerals.  At this point I had forgotten whose was whose, and they were starting to break apart and leave a mess.  I felt grateful I hadn't added to the pile in a couple years, but I decided to take a few pictures to remember them and then let them go.  

This one was still so pink!

Little did I know at that time that my aunt was living her last moments down in Florida.  She was married to my mom's brother, and after he passed away a few years ago, she ended up distancing herself from most of the family.  Ironically, my mom and I both found out about her passing via Facebook a few days later when our friends-of-the-family nursing home posted the obituary online.  There were some step-kid dynamics that probably made the family situation worse, but even my parents struggled with how to proceed at the time.  She spent a lot of time more recently out of town with her daughter's family, which was probably for the best anyway since her health was never quite the same since my uncle started his downward slide with Alzheimer's.  I'm glad she had family nearby at the end, and it looks like they crammed in some fun while they were down there, on the days she felt good.  While family dynamics and some sketchy weather made me question whether I should go to the funeral, I decided that despite those challenging last few years, she had been my aunt for far longer, so I wanted to make it a priority to go.  I actually had to delay my trip a little bit on Saturday, simply because there was a pretty decent lake effect event happening that day.  Areas on my route ended up with a foot, and even my parents got a pretty decent helping of snow.  I managed to miss pretty much all of it, aside from some residual messy roads when I got into town.  But I did see the impressive lake band as I drove in, and luckily it just ended up being some clouds when I finally drove into it.

Sunny where I was but the band was looming!

Sunset happening through the clouds

The visitation was pretty quiet--probably a lot of reasons for that, not the least of which is that funerals haven't really been a thing for months due to COVID and people are likely still a little nervous even though some limitations have been reduced.  It was good to see some family and be there to share my sympathies with her kids and grandkids.  The service was very nice, and after a little visit back at my parents' house (with a final check of the radar), I was back on the road and made it home around 11pm.  I'll always remember my aunt's fiery red hair, our times on their boat (where I was always a little impressed that her red hair remained in place so well), and how much she seemed to enjoy opening Christmas gifts from my grandma.  Closing a chapter on that section of the family's history definitely brought up old emotions surrounding the loss of my uncle, and I found myself a bit dumbfounded at how a couple who seemed primed to be amazing retirees flamed out so early.  They were both able to retire comfortably and relatively young, and spent most of their time on their boat or cruising the Caribbean (many times with my parents).  They were both active and social at the time, but their various health problems changed all that, and to this day it's hard to believe they're both gone.  But I was thankful to have a chance to say goodbye.

The following day, a long-awaited, snow-delayed delivery arrived at home.  For whatever reason, Craig had been actively wanting to get a puzzle.  We even did a family Target run the previous weekend while picking up our Saturday take-out, to no avail.  But eventually we found one that fit the bill online, in price, theme, and size.  It's a 1,000 piece puzzle of hundreds of Simpsons' characters, which seems extra appropriate with all the Simpsons episodes we've been watching for the last year.  After waiting through multiple delays, it finally arrived, and we got to work pretty quickly.  Craig couldn't stay away from it, and the rest of us put in some solid work as well.  By Wednesday, it was complete!  We left the last 10 pieces for Jacob to put in when he got home from school.

Early stages

Making progress

Jacob after putting in the last piece

The finished puzzle

Now we're on to finding the next one, I guess!

The last week of school and work before break next week ended up being a bit of a roller coaster.  Carter had some good days of getting his work done quickly, and he had some struggles and more phone arguments than I care to remember.  I did manage to get a screening call to finally get him in for an evaluation.  I'm hopeful they can help him, but I did say that I think we may need to medicate him (or at least find out exactly what might be going on with him) before we even think about therapy, since we know from experience that he hates being confronted about his issues.  It'll be a waste of time and money until we can get him to a point where he can begin to deal.  We'll hear more about next steps within a week or so.  He also has his well visit this coming this week so hopefully we'll get some additional insight there.  It's been a long road and we just want to get him some help, ideally before the end of the school year.  I think we all need to see the difference that could be made before summer hits.  

As for Jacob, he was excited to start modified basketball on Monday, but initially he was a little frustrated by the quality of the team (what else is new?).  But just as his outlook started to improve, he had to miss practice due to a bit of a school punishment.  He ended up with a day of in-school suspension (which also meant he basically missed a practice and a half) because he ended up shoving a kid that was picking a fight with his friend/teammate.  Ultimately we weren't mad at him because we knew he was trying to do the right thing--and in fact I think school felt a bit bad punishing him for the same reason--but he probably just kind of got stuck in some sort of school zero-tolerance policy.  We talked a bit about needing to get a teacher involved instead, or just pulling his friend out of a situation if he could.  We also reminded him to consider his friends carefully since this one seems to attract some trouble.  Not that he should ditch him, but just keep an eye on things and maybe steer clear if things seem to be going south so he's not getting additional marks on his record.  Anyway, now that that's behind us, we're just waiting to see when his games might start.  In the meantime, he has a tournament tomorrow to finish off his canceled fall season at the gym where he usually plays.  I won't get to see him, but it's been so long since he's played a real game that I hope it's at least a good warm-up for him.

Now we're looking forward to February break week.  I took a few days off since it's torture sitting at my desk when everyone else is around.  I had hoped maybe we could escape to do a tubing trip, but basketball practice seems to have put the kibbosh on that.  But we will get to celebrate Valentine's Day and Carter's birthday, and hopefully we can think of something else fun to do in the meantime, if the snow allows.  Different week, same scenery, but we'll try to make the best of it!