Winter break

We're having a break from winter out here in the west. I know this is a very bad thing in some areas, such as California, but in Colorado we're cool with it. We've gotten less snow than normal this winter, but there's been some, and it's been nicely spaced out. Plus, the mountains have gotten quite a dumping, and that's where we store our water. So no one out here is concerned.

This leaves us free to enjoy our sunshine and our temperatures -- not exactly warm, but VERY pleasant for January. Yesterday it got to 65 degrees! Today only 48, but come on, it's January! The National Western Stock Show is going on right now in Denver and the frigid temps we normally have at this time of year are referred to as "stock show weather." Not this year. It's positively balmy.

Yesterday, Kid A and I went to a park in north Boulder that we call the Raccoon Park, because of this --

-- a cute little decoration on one piece of play equipment.

Kid B chose to stay home and watch television (sigh), and Kid A missed his company.

But later I took both boys to the Rocket Ship park and a good time was had by all. And this morning we all went back to the Raccoon Park and later to the Rocket Ship park, and more good times were had.

At the Raccoon Park yesterday I saw people wearing shorts and Crocs. It was like winter in Ridgecrest! When we got home, I changed into cropped pants and my Teva sandals. Got a little chilled later on, but it was still fun. Today we all wore long pants and jackets (and real shoes), but the sunshine was lovely.

Yesterday Rocket Boy finally got to work on a flood-related problem that we've been ignoring for months now: the gravel in the gutters. Remember how the flood waters dragged much of our side yard gravel into the street?

Over time, some of this has been cleaned up (mostly by us), but it had gotten to a level that we could live with. Or rather, Rocket Boy could live with it. I complain about it every few days, but he ignores me. And truly, I could go out and shovel it myself, but do I? No.

What finally got us (him) moving was a comment on our neighborhood listserve about "the flood debris" remaining on our street and could anyone do anything about it. Embarrassed, I showed the comment to Rocket Boy and he sighed and said OK, I'll work on it. So he did.

And by dinnertime, he'd gotten the north side of the street pretty well cleaned up. The south side of the street still looks like this:

but he said he'd work on it later this week. It's been four months since the flood and I think some people are already forgetting about it. But we aren't. It's still with us. We're slow.

I've just finished making a pot of vegetable soup that should last us through the week, and now I think it's time for another park trip. The beautiful weather can't last forever and tomorrow morning I'll be on the bus to Denver.