christmas, grandpa, winter, writer's challenge

A favorite winter memory

3 Comments

Mama Kat’s writer’s challenge for this week allowed me to choose to write about a favorite winter memory. I figured I would also combine it with Christmas and kill two birds with one stone.

I remember the winter season around Christmas the year when I was 9 or 10 with special fondness. That was the year that I got my first shotgun for Christmas and my brother got a rifle. It snowed afresh a few days after Christmas. We were living in a small Nebraska town at the time, across the street from Grandpa and Grandma J. The fresh coating of snow and subzero temperature made for perfect rabbit hunting weather. The snow meant that the rabbit tracks would be visible and easy to follow in the overcast dimness of the day.

Grandpa, dad, my brother and I went down to the creek bottom and began hiking along the creek looking for fresh tracks. Looking back on it today, I realize that grandpa and dad didn’t even bring their guns, a pretty sure hint that they were doing this for us boys rather than for table meat. Over the years I have become pretty certain that the whole hunting trip was more to instruct and check out how responsible my brother and I were with our new guns than to bring home anything edible. At the time, no such thought even entered my head. My senses were full with the crispness of the day, the joy of traipsing along the creek bank, eagerly looking for signs of game, the seemingly endless variations in shades of gray and brown in the dim overcast light, and the time spent with grandpa and dad.

Although we saw several rabbits, they remained safe from both my brother and I. Our aim was pretty poor, even considering how excited we were and the fact we were using brand new guns. My brother and I tried out each others guns with no better result. It didn’t matter to us. We were hunting with grandpa and dad. The world was a good place.

After several hours of walking along the creek, it was time to head back home. We were happy and tired. And I think we all got something out of the hike and talking. Sadly, it was one of the only times I would ever go hunting with my grandfather. The next year we moved back here to the town where I now live and about 100 miles from grandpa J. By the time I was old enough to drive, he and grandma had begun to suffer ill health. They were eventually moved to a house down the alley from where we lived so that there was someone to take care of them.

(Writing this brought to mind how different my two grandfathers were and yet how they shared certain things when it came to the grandkids. I’ll have to use that as a topic in the future.)


Editted to add: The next post, Grandfathers, does just that.
meeting, weather

A little about even less

1 Comment

I sit here writing this post after warming up from the trip home from the energy conference. Attendance was good, even with the bitter cold and wind. It was kind of fun to watch the transmission line company guys bob and weave while explaining why they weren’t getting the lines to transport all the energy from the wind farms out of the area. Fortunately for the local wind farms, FPL and others got together to build their own lines to the main interconnects. Leaves some of the other areas a bit frustrated with the chicken and egg problem (which came first, the transmission line or the wind farms?).

I hate this kind of bitter biting cold. Usually we only get it for a couple of weeks in January, but this year it is here in December. Oh well, I can dream that it means that January will return to seasonably warm out here on the plains. You know it’s cold when I keep putting my feet out to the server farm blowing waste heat to warm up. The computer nerd’s equivalent of the old yule log I guess. Instead of throw another log on the fire, just fire up a few extra processes on the servers. What do *you* do to get that extra warm feeling?

Off to do some laundry – at least the son put all the bedding in the laundry hamper after his weekend visit-by.

recipe, snow, weather

They lied!!!

5 Comments

The “They” being the weather people. It was supposed to get up to a balmy 14 degrees today. Instead it peaked at about 6 degrees and the wind blew all day. The wind chill for most of the day was between -20 and -50 degrees. Contrast that with the 60 degree day we had yesterday. Lends credence to the old adage about the weather in the Colorado plains – if you don’t like the weather now, just wait a minute and it’ll be different. Right now the thermometer is falling past -3 degrees. (Since Google analytics says that about 50% of the readers of this blog are from metric based areas of the world – all the numbers are good old degrees Fahrenheit, not Celsius. [ -25 degrees F is ~ -32 degrees C ])

I finally decided that the wind was as calm as it was going to get about noon and went out to shovel the walk and driveway. Then I ventured over to the mother in laws and did hers as well. You could sure tell the difference in doing the two driveways. My house faces south, so shoveling the drive put me in the lee of the house out of the north wind so it was cold but not biting. MIL’s house faces west, so shoveling her drive put me squarely in the north wind and it was definitely biting. You could feel your checks stiffening in minutes. One of the rewards was a plate of fresh from the oven cookies from MIL. Yum!  My mother and I were planning to attend the Master Chorale’s Christmas sing this evening, but the cold, wind, and ice deterred us. All in all not a fit day out for man nor beast.

I see on the news that the temperature has already set a new low record for the date in Denver and will probably set a new one for tomorrow if it just stays as cold as it is now until midnight. (Denver International Airport is currently reporting -15 degrees) The silver lining out of all this is that the mountains are getting some great ski snow. Vail got 22 inches yesterday and is forecast to get another 22 inches tomorrow as the next front hits. Almost makes me wish I skied. Of course my wife is up in the mountains and is not quite as overjoyed as the tourists. I think she is conflicted – snow means good business for the mountain businesses, but it also means the ice and cold can get old if you are not skiing.

So what did I do to while away the cold afternoon and evening? Well, I made a casserole and baked a cake. Nothing like cold weather to make one appreciate the warmth of the oven and baking. I approach cooking as a form of experiment. Mix this and that and the other thing and see what happens. Sometimes it tastes good and sometimes it is a lesson learned (and a garbage can filled). The casserole turned out to be good. If any one is adventurous, here it is.

Squash Casserole

  • 2 cups grated zucchini
  • 2 cups grated star squash
  • 1 cup chopped green pepper
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella)
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 cup Bisquick mix
  • 4 eggs
  • salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp of each in my case)

Turn oven on to 375.
Mix everything together well in a large mixing bowl.
Stir well with a large spoon.
Pour mixture into a greased 9×9 baking pan (at least 2 inches deep)
Cook until the top is medium to dark brown, about 35-40 minutes
Makes enough to serve 6-8

The cook time depends on how much moisture is in the zucchini and squash. I used  frozen shredded zucchini and it was pretty wet after defrosting. It took an extra ten minutes or so to cook. Fresh Zucchini shouldn’t take as long, but this isn’t summertime!

Next time I may try using cheddar or jalapeno jack instead of mozzarella. Be interesting to see how the taste changes.

Time to get ready for the meetings tomorrow morning. It promises to be a long day with meetings starting at 9am and ending with an energy conference from 6-8pm. If it’s as cold tomorrow as it was today, I don’t think Molly will be anxious to go for a walk tomorrow night. We’ll see. Today she romped in the snow while I shoveled the walks and driveways. She isn’t a lot of help as she likes to shovel snow with her nose and throw it back where you’ve already shoveled. She doesn’t get that snow removal is not a game!

football, reporter, son, weather

Yo Ho Ho

1 Comment

I am contemplating just making my titles be something like Monday, Tuesday, etc. It seems that no matter what my intent is when I write the title, the actual blog entry morphs into something else in the process of writing it down. Does that ever happen to you?

Today was a day to enjoy the warm weather before the storm. The adiabatic heating got it up to near 60 today as the cold front pressed in. The forecast for tomorrow has it getting up to a glorious 10 degrees before falling into the minus numbers by 6pm. Quite a change from the 60 of this afternoon. (BTW, the link to a definition of adiabatic heating and cooling is for my wife and others that are curious what it means when I babble on and on.)

I fixed the front yard light, put up some Christmas ornaments, and went walking with Molly the wonder dog. It was a fun way to spend the day outdoors in the sun and warmth. I suspect even the squirrels know the weather is changing. They were all out sunning in the park today as we walked. Of course Molly wanted desperately to go say hi to each and every one of them. And of course they stayed just out of dog reach and chattered. The first dog that learns how to fly is going to be a real surprise for the squirrels.

The son rolled into town yesterday to see some friends. We talked on the phone for a bit in the evening and the next I heard from him was when got here to the house at 5:30 am this morning. He got up and took a shower at 1:30 this afternoon and left. I suspect I’ll see him at early in the morning tomorrow when he gets back in and then tomorrow afternoon when he gets up to head back to college for finals on Monday. Such is the life of a college sophomore sneaking home before finals. Brings back memories doesn’t it?

In other odds and ends, I haven’t heard again from the AP reporter who was down here the other day. I suspect that when she gets the story done or if she has questions will be the next time I hear from her. It’ll be interesting to see what she makes of it. The driving factoid that is behind the interest is that our sales tax revenues and other economic indicators here in the city are within .2% of last year. This is as opposed to the 30-80% drops in many urban cities. I have my own beliefs as to the reasons, but I’ll wait a bit to expound on them.

Let me close by lamenting the lull in college football games. Other than the I-AA (as it used to be called) semi-finals, I’m suffering from withdrawal. I can’t wait for bowl season to start!

benefactor, busy, weather

Friday, Friday ….

1 Comment

A fitting capstone to the week. It has been busy this week and next week is looking to be even busier. I’ve never quite figured out why the weeks in December always seem to be so busy. At least part of it stems from the sudden realization by many people that if it doesn’t get done *now* it won’t get done this year. Another part stems from the seemingly random congruence of the universe as things one has worked on all year finally approach fruition. Yet another part seems to come from people in the holiday mood who suddenly remember they haven’t said hi or talked to you in a while. I spent so much time talking on my cell this afternoon that I had to charge it this evening.  Add everything together and it seems like December is the busiest month of the year.

As the recompense for suffering through a call to the lawyers today about contract matters, I was fortunate enough to have coffee with a benefactor of the town, the college, the hospital, and just about everything else in the area. He and his family recently sold their company and being the type of people they are, he was already thinking about what other needs the community has. He has already given millions in the last couple of years to the community through the city – for an outdoor water park, for a new park, for the expansion of the library. He has made the city council and me as mayor look like superstars with his donations to the city and his trust in us. And he and his family don’t even reside in the city proper. The most interesting thing is the modesty of he and his wife. I literally had to twist their metaphorical arms before being allowed to put a 6 inch plaque up acknowledging his gift on the water park fence. Even then it had to be in an inconspicuous location. He and his wife did it for the joy of seeing the kids enjoying the park, not for acknowledgment or acclaim or credit. Opening day we had free admittance and he and his wife were able to watch the kids stream in and enjoy the gift.  It was the closest I have ever seen he and his wife to tears.

Now that he has sold his company, there will be an announcement on Monday that will forever change health care in the area. And knowing him, if he can manage it, the gift will be from anonymous. If he can’t remain anonymous, he’ll just duck his head and say it was what anyone else would have done. But you and I know that isn’t true. One of the greatest joys of being mayor has been getting to know people like him better. People that are fundamentally good. People who give back to the communities that they have lived in for years and years, where they had their families, raised their kids, and this case even buried one son due to the ravages of cancer. That son was a classmate of my wife and I.  And I suspect the son would be just as modest and good as his father if he were alive today.

Enough for tonight. I have to be ready to enjoy the semi-nice weather tomorrow because it is supposed to turn cold and snowy on Sunday. The forecast for Sunday is for a high of 14 and a low in the negative numbers with moderate to high winds and snow. A good day to curl up before the fire with a cup of soup and the Sunday papers.

Things Done Right