it's pixel-stained technopeasant day!

.
After inquiring in a plaintive tone, I was told that I might tag along for this momentous day; a day full of momentum. I'm passing along a story I wrote during the winter season just past. It's short enough that I have hopes someone will read it, so to make it easier to do so, I'm appending it to this post instead of posting a link.

SNOW WIDOW

It was a beautiful wedding. If Walt Disney had made a movie about it, it would have been full of singing clouds and dancing bunnies. But this one didn't end in a happy honeymoon, or with the happy couple standing together in the sunset. It ended with just the bride crying icicles over a frozen puddle, and I made it my business to find out why.

My name is Frost. Jack Frost.

Maybe you've heard of me. I don't have an office or a big ad in the phone book, but I get around. I write my name on your window in a script that was old when cuneiform was the coming thing. I nip your nose when you're going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house, and sometimes I bust your basement pipes just to keep you on your toes. Cold is my business.

( well, if it's not too long... )

labor-intensive weekend

.
Saturday I was outside a lot, frolicking with Sarah. She was very bike-minded, and wanted me to come out and join her on my bike, so I went out -- surprised I was that my bike tires were still inflated -- and rode circuits across our sidewalk, turning around in Jan & Moe's driveway, in the street, and back to the sidewalk. Then we went to Panera's for some breakfast. Sarah had maybe two bites, preferring to get all her energy through the air, directly from me. Next we went to Stanley Park, engaging in our usual swings, slide, monkey bars, and more swings.

Home for late lunch.

Then we were off to the shops. First, we went to Target, where Sarah decided she wanted a two-piece swimsuit. Then we hit the book store, and I got "Strictly For Music Lovers," a four-disk set of Spike Jones recordings, in mostly chronological order. We returned home and I had a lengthy nap, and then I think we frolicked some more. We had tacos for dinner. Later on, I was upstairs and Sarah came up with the innocent "I'm not hiding anything" look and slipped into her room and put something in a drawer. I checked later, and it was the remains of her taco. Later, she asked me if somebody had been in her drawer. "I smelled a taco in there, and I threw it out," I said. Sarah wondered who put it there, and noted that it didn't walk there by itself. She got to sleep fairly quickly that night.

On Sunday, Sarah wanted to eat in, so I made the usual biscuits with cheese on top and little Polski sausages inside, along with scrambled eggs (with cheese and sausage and some garlic salt & a sprinkle of pepper) and orange juice. We went out and rode our bikes around the circle at the end of Johnson Court for about fifteen minutes. Sarah seems more steady on her wheels now, and maybe we can take those training wheels off some time.

Colin came over from across the street, and for about two hours, they dug a 'pond' in the back yard and carried water over to it from the wading pool, a cup at a time. Following that late breakfast, we never actually had lunch, so when supper came, I chowed down with a vengeance and taught that plate of spaghetti and meatballs what was what. Revenge came when I got down for my stretches. Oog. Fat.

Sarah procrastinated relentlessly on her bath, taking 30 minutes to get in after I filled the tub and another 15 to do anything but play around once she was in. Cathy put her to bed with relatively little grief, but Sarah woke up at 4:30 from a bad dream, calling for her mommy, who went in to comfort her. She came back to bed after a while, and just before 6:00, the same thing happened again.

All in all, it was one full weekend. I might take a nap today, but I also need to go to the post office and mail a small package, unless somebody knows how many stamps I should put on a padded envelope with two slimline-jewel-boxed CDs in it, in which case I could send it from right here. Since it's a nice day, I'll probably take a walk outside later on.
.