April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
I don't even pretend to understand the whole poem but a coworker quoted the first line the other day and I will attest to the truth of those four lines, at least for the residents of New England.
Last weekend it snowed, probably six or eight inches worth over two days. Sunday the snow all melted, then Monday it snowed from before dawn until after dark. We headed home from work early to make it home before the slush on the sidewalk turned to ice. We went sledding at the park across the street as we hoped that it was our last opportunity to do so :)
Thursday was warm but poured rain, and it has turned cold again. Highs are in the 50s, lows near freezing, wind chill making it feel like the 30s most of the time. But...the sun is shining, we're getting more daylight hours, and flowers are beginning to bloom. The neighbors' hedges are starting to get leaves on them and there are red tips on the trees where new growth is beginning. It wants to be warm outside. But until it is I sit inside impatiently reading books and watching TV, wishing it were warm enough to be hiking, biking, running, or boating (or I'd just settle for not needing the down coat and wool socks).
Besides the prolonged winter we are doing just fine. We both had an encouraging week at work, as Patrick got a big chunk of work done, and I got some positive feedback from my manager on the work I've been doing. To celebrate Patrick's big accomplishment, we went out for a cupcake and ice cream on Thursday evening. And on Friday night we belatedly went out to dinner for Patrick's birthday at The Elephant Walk--we had originally planned on going a few weeks back but Patrick wasn't feeling well.
Otherwise we've been staying busy, mostly spending time with friends. I hosted Easter dinner a couple weeks ago, which was both great and chaotic. I did all the cooking on Saturday, and then, unknown to me until 8am Sunday morning, my refrigerator stopped working, holding all the food at about 55F overnight. I opened the refrigerator to get eggs to make muffins for our church's Easter breakfast and realized that nothing was cold. I burst into tears, with 18 people coming to dinner in just a few hours. But I was able to pull a pot roast together between church and people coming, and I served both the fresh food and the questionable food. No one died of food poisoning so I count that as a success. We had a lot of fun but I forgot to take pictures in all the stress and chaos.
Tonight we're sitting down with the calendar and trying to figure out how to allocate our vacation days this year. We feel like time is moving so fast and our calendars get full before we even know it.
Oh, I've been meaning to brag on Patrick for helping me make such an awesome sewing cabinet:
He made that sewing table (nested in the wardrobe) to fit my sewing machine perfectly. With the pegboard everything is so much easier to get to! (If it doesn't warm up soon I'll have to start a new quilting project!)
