Category Archives: weather

by | May 18, 2012 · 10:24 pm

May seems to be popular for weddings

In addition to Mike and Sarah’s wedding tonight, I found out a friend of mine got married last week. Belated congratulations to Kelly and Brad! Tonight’s wedding was huge. I thought Mike was kidding when he said about 400 guests were invited. There were closer to 450 people there.

Today was not a fun day to drive from Eden Prairie to St. Paul. What should be about a 25-minute drive turned into close to two hours. The weather was warm, the Twin Cities set a record high of 93°F today, but there should not have been THAT many cars stalled out. Maybe the 10-15% ethanol we’re required to have in our gasoline is causing vapor lock. In addition, St. Paul decided to close just about anything that was paved. I-94 was closed, and there was a lane closure in I-35E. The main thing is I made it.

Work is going OK. I’m figuring out how things go together in Silverlight and C#.NET hasn’t been too onerous yet. I’m already working on a live project and moving forward on it.

With all the love in the air, please take time to let your loved ones know you love them.

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Filed under rebuilding, weather

by | May 17, 2012 · 8:59 pm

Congratulations Mike & Sarah

I will be attending their wedding tomorrow night in St. Paul if (a) I’m not stuck at work really late and (b) the dreaded orange barrel season hasn’t choked the thoroughfares down to hiking paths. There is some irony in attending someone’s wedding so soon after losing my spouse. Life keeps moving with or without us. Lucy and I were softies for newlyweds. We hoped they would have as much joy in their marriage as we had in ours.

Tomorrow might be our first 90°F day of the season here in Bloomington. Today’s rain fizzled out after a few drops. Our next chance of rain is the whole weekend.

Since I work in Eden Prairie now, my commute takes me within a mile of Lucy’s resting place. It’s nice that I get chances to visit her.

The bald eagles are out in force today. I saw one in Eden Prairie and three in Bloomington. We also have about a dozen turkey buzzards soaring along the Minnesota River south of me.

I hope to get some pictures of Lucy’s gardens this weekend. Perhaps the weekend won’t be a total washout.

Thank you for thinking of me and for keeping Lucy’s memory alive by reading this. It really does mean a lot to me.

 

 

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Filed under nature, rebuilding, weather

by | May 13, 2012 · 8:32 pm

One month

Today marks one month since Lucy passed away. My parents and I went to breakfast, and then we stopped by the cemetery to visit Lucy. They left about 10:30 this morning.

I saw my first monarch butterfly today. Lucy enjoyed butterflies and hummingbirds. The painted lady butterflies have been around for well over a month, but Lucy would be excited seeing the first monarch of the season. Late this afternoon I heard a fox yipping and barking. My guess is a pair is scouting locations for a den. It was this time last year a male and female were in the neighborhood.

The gardens really kicked into gear now that the weather has warmed up again and the rain has stopped for a few days. OK, so the fool living southwest of me is watering his back yard and then will gripe loudly and profanely about the mosquitoes. You would think that over five inches of rain the first ten days of the month would adequately moisten the soil down several inches. I know the ground clumped when I was planting glad bulbs today at a depth of four inches.

I had planted dahlias a couple of weeks of ago and they have sprouted. The string beans in the hanging planters are about an inch long now. All the blue flax is in full bloom and the white flax is starting to bloom. Lucy would be happy with her gardens now.

I’m behind on getting garden pictures taken and uploaded. The upcoming week will be incredibly busy, but I hope to squeeze in some time for photos. The forecast is temperatures in the 80’s almost the entire week, although Friday into Saturday looks stormy and sticky.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! One of my blessings is my mother is still alive. Lucy had lost her mother in August. This would have been Lucy’s first Mother’s Day without her mother. Now they are together.

Thank you for your time, and please take time to count your blessings. You have more than you think!

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by | May 6, 2012 · 10:00 pm

So today’s NOT Mother’s Day

After wishing Suzy and Julie a happy Mother’s Day, I realized I was a week early. At least I didn’t mail my mother her card yet.

After another major soaking today, I think we can say we’re out of the drought. The storm rumbled through at about 2:00 am and ended by 2:45 am. It dumped 1.42″ of rain and some pea-sized hail. I can’t see any garden damage, but that might take a couple of days to show up.

Lucy knew about my new job. I had interviewed on March 20th and we found out the next morning that Lucy’s battle turned significantly worse. I called them to turn down the position. Later that day I heard back they would hold the job open while Lucy needed me.

I had promised Lucy I would take care of some tasks for her this year. The basement steps are almost fully painted and my back and knees are letting me know it. That was on hold because I didn’t want to expose her to paint fumes. Even low odor paint with no Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) still off-gases as it dries.

So even though it’s not Mother’s Day, give your mom a hug anyway. She’s earned it!

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by | May 5, 2012 · 6:50 pm

“The Sky is Crying”

Lucy’s MP3 player has about 1,400 songs on it (all legal, of course). One of them, Stevie Ray Vaughn’s cover of “The Sky is Crying”, seems appropriate today. My backyard picked up 1.11″ of rain since midnight, and 1.46″ since the yesterday. The Twin Cities metro area was about 5″ behind on rain. I don’t see any standing water despite all the rain. I also haven’t seen any state birds (mosquitoes)…yet. I swear the Siberian irises have scuba gear on now.

The garden planting is almost complete despite the downpour. The garden work has been very therapeutic for me. Lucy and I would eagerly await the arrival of gardening weather. It gave us some wonderful quality time together through the years.

It’s been a tough week dealing with the administrative minutiae that needs done once a person dies. With the exception of one local financial institution, everyone I have dealt with has been sympathetic and helpful. Lucy and I tried to cover all the bases to reduce the hoop jumping for the surviving spouse, but it’s still tough.

Most of you know I start a new job on May 14th. I’ll be working in Eden Prairie as a Sr. Software Engineer for a company that is growing quickly but intelligently. The job is demanding and I’ll need to be as close to 100% as possible when I start. That’s why I’m trying my best to get the administrative stuff done so quickly.

Thank you again to everyone who has called, emailed, or visited. Words cannot describe how you have helped me.

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