Spring or Winter….hard sayin’, not knowin’

I know, it’s silly to talk about the weather.  Too cold, too warm, just right, etc etc.  I’m not going to bitch and moan, only recognize how gullible I was just a few weeks ago.  Snow all but melted away, green grass out my window – I put my skis away and geared up for a solid running season.  We began Friday Night Fives (5k at 5pm on Fridays, starting at Two Sisters), I happily ‘donated’ my registration fee to the Nordic Club in Anchorage and decided against driving back up there for the 40k Tour of Anchorage (which was today – hope ya’ll had fun up there!).  Well, it was entirely novice and (mostly) I knew it. This past week we’ve had blizzarding conditions – they cancelled school on Friday!  WOAH!  Snow.  Lots of snow.  So, I’ve brought my skis back out, put my running sneaker insoles back in my xtra tuffs, and admitted that I was wrong.  It’s only March.  It’s still winter. 

An early sign of spring, however, is that Chris (my super-rad-smokejumping-little-brother) began the move back into workin’ summer mode.  Which means not only do we get to visit with him for a few days before he heads to Fairbanks, the household dog count goes from 2 to 3.  Only a 1-dog increase, I know.  But it’s a lot more dog.  A Lot.  Sheamus is pretty funny, though, and we’re happy to have his big head and dopey beautiful blue eyes back in the house. 

This is a TERRIBLE picture.  However, it’s the only picture I have of my brother and I, and so here it is.  Chris graciously joined me on a day-trip to Seward.  7+ hours of driving, mostly in blizzard conditions, I worked for several hours, we had lunch with Jen and hung out for an hour or so at the SeaLife Center (Thanks, Jen, for the comp tix!).  I toured the Seward harbor for work, Chris drank coffee, and then he played with a lovely harbor seal before we left.

 

Chris successfully made it to Fairbanks and is settling into life again as an AK Smokejumper.  He does have a blog (it’s linked over on the right), but he’s worse at updating it than I am.  Maybe he’ll get bored up there and throw up some pictures – maybe even the ones I took of him cooking some *incredible* shrimp and grits for Ben, Blaine, Katie and I!  When did he become such a cook?!  I love it.

In Sunday news, I went for a morning ski with Kaya and Shaemus…it was beautiful, snowy, and quiet. 

 

And then we stopped by the sawmill to see Ben, Jefe, Steve, Pemba, and China – and of course, the new boats!!!!

Those boys do good work.  I am terribly impressed and excited and smitten with these boats….(Ben’s is in red/blue, Jeff’s in yellow/gray).  The day was rounded out with a little bit of dog-roughhousing at the sawmill and then the beach.  This evening I dusted the leaves of our plants. Can anyone tell me tricks to avoid big broad leaves gathering inches of dust on them?  It’s a fairly laborious task to wipe down each leaf, though they look so much better now – I can only imagine that breathing is also a whole lot easier.