Snow in Woodstock.

It's been a mild winter (knock on wood). 

These photos are from the first week of March.

Woodstock, Illinois. Kimball and Lake avenue, right in town.

Snow day.

Today's a snow day. We are, as I type, getting over a foot of snow. It was so bad Clint picked me up at work with his Jeep - it was too bad to drive my car home. Why do the kids always have the better cars?

I took these after getting home before it got too dark. It didn't start out too well; I took Cubbie out to run around while I was taking pictures.

I was walking through the snow with my camera dangling when he ran by me, his head catching the camera strap, pulling it out of my hands. He had a new collar with my camera dragging in the snow. I got it back, dried it out and took these. I was snowing so bad I had a hard time even seeing. Anyway...

This catches the fresh snow on my picnic table, a rusty clothes line pole along with a bush in the middle, and the American flag in the back. (My 92 year old aunt lives in the house on the right and that is her super tall pine tree - there was no angle that would have kept them out of the picture, so they stayed.)

Green pine needles on branches, trees in the middle, and trees far back. The wind was blowing so bad I got hit in the face with a branch. I would have liked to get more of the dog tracks at the foot of the closest tree but couldn't see thru the viewfinder. Snap, shoot, and head home. Ha.

Labs like snow as well as water. I'm standing in my garden looking west. Cubbie, mid trees, far house and garage with blizzard conditions (look at it blowing off the garage roof). On the right by the tree is the picnic table in the first picture.

Recropped below:

This would be my favorite though I obviously didn't take it today. Reds near and medium (and Cubbie), tree and softball bats far. So warm looking. Reds do that.

A moment...

I always liked the movie Momento. Black and white (movie clips) pictures going one direction timewise while the movie itself is going the other way (you had to see the movie to understand - sorry). I only have one black and white picture included here, the pictures are reversed - last to first. This one, the last (first) one has a "Hebron" road sign in it. You can't believe how happy I was to see it.

I woke up to weather news on the radio that many local roads were closed because of blowing snow. Living in the sticks means a 10 - 15 mile trip to work via a country(ish) highway. Open fields border the highway, so if you are out in the open you can't see. Snow just takes over.

I started out this morning and got about a half a mile out into the country. One car ahead was already in a ditch with another stopped to help (in my lane). I slowed to a stop and was considering my options. Then, looking to my right, I saw a big, new, white sedan slowly drift into the snowbank next to me. The driver couldn't stop and rather than rear ending me, she took the snow bank - all in movie type slow motion. And that not being enough, I looked in the mirror and saw another car sliding towards me. I moved ahead about 10 feet and avoided my second accident of the morning.

With all traffic stalled, I turned around (not easily) and headed back home. Clint has a four wheel drive Jeep. I borrowed it. After trying a side road to work (lesser traveled - but lesser plowed) option, I regrouped and went back and drove to work on the original highway (the cars that almost hit me were still in the ditch). This time I followed a semi-trailer - they forge a path and you can always see them above the snow. Made it to work. Late.

That was the easy part. Getting home was worse.

Now I'm driving Clint's Jeep, of which I can't even work the radio properly. Four wheel drive but I'm uncomfortable driving. I left work while hearing on the radio that the road I was taking home was considered closed. Well, no one stands there and tells you you can't use it so I did (and I wasn't the only one - they were just discouraging usage of it). It eventually got me there; scary, white knuckle driving, but there.

I was driving so slow on the way home I was able to take a couple pictures. No danger. I was only going about 15 miles an hour.

Lastly, I'd like to add I really hate whiteouts.

You can't see where you are going, but because of that, you can't stop either or you risk being rear ended. There are a couple places where you have to drive about a length of a football field on faith - you can't see any oncoming cars or the road. You just hope the people coming the other direction are doing the same thing in their lane, not your's. The last two pictures were the first two taken.

One Momento in my life. And it worked out. Yea.

A day in my life. Beatles, A day in the life. (Bonus: quick photo clip of Mick and Marianne) I think.

15 second videos, vols.2 and 3.

I used to take pictures with an 8mm camera. Two and a half minutes of film time, developing took about a week for five bucks or so. They are in a shoe box somewhere. ??? I later got a VHS tape camera with a two hour capacity. That made for really boring videos. It's nice to tape relatives at family gatherings, but watching them age before your eyes during the taping translated into a long and boring video.

My latest camera has a fifteen second video setting. Quick and easy. You always have a start but most times no ending - just a cut off point. I like it because it is a bookmark of some time in my life. I can see what was happening on a particular day, what the weather was like, how big the pets were - months or years after taking it. And it is short enough most people can endure it.

Volume 1.

With the cold and snow, Cubbie and I haven't played ball for quite some time. Usually I can hit a softball as far as possible (hundreds of feet - ha); he'll chase it down, run back through my legs, turn around, and give it to back to me (through my legs again). Time obviously didn't permit here.

Rama, the cat was watching us. I threw a ball in his direction, almost hitting him. I didn't say anything because I was laughing (alot, but silently). Cats don't fetch. He just wanted to go inside. Ha. (By the way, Amy ran out of gas in the driveway that morning explaining the gas can and other junk on the porch.)