Birthday Blizzard

First, a Squickton of heartfelt thanks for all the marvelous birthday wishes! And special thanks to Ann for spilling the birthday beans!  I spent the morning sinking crocus bulbs in terracotta post in advance of the evening blizzard. Why terracotta pots? Well. Crocus bulbs smell like nuts, so if you have a battalion of voracious rodents you have to strategize. Mine is to sink terracotta pots in the ground, backfill and cover with wire mesh for the Winter. I figured it was yesterday or never. Turns out I was right! Ain’t nobody got time to dig through a foot of heavy snow to plant a bunch of irritating little bulbs.

Now. Excuses. Omg. So. Many. Excuses.

1. Computer fritzed out on me last week. Boo! My amazing Geek Squad leader, Dee, and her genius tech Justin said repair would cost nearly as much as new, so new it is. But it just got here Saturday.  I only have The Genius Justin work on my stuff, so that was gonna be today.

2. Nature had alternate plans for me, dumping nearly a foot of heavy snow last night, 45mph winds knocking out power and just generally making an ass of itself. Dunno why I was surprised by it, blizzards are a lot like hurricanes – they let you know ahead of time. But denial, right? in pelting rain at 4:30p I was sure it would blow itself out and just dump a lot of water. At 5:30p, it was plain to see :  I. Wuz. Wrong. It’s the kind of snow that, unless you have a blower or a bobcat, you might as well stay indoors.  Staying indoors is a Good Thing.

3. Intermittent Internet and an inability to wrangle my tablet in any intelligent way means y’all will have to wait for winners. I was lucky to remember my admin acct (okay, it took 3 tries, but who’s counting?) Pity me. I approach gadgets much as I approach reptiles. Warily. My tablet, no doubt, has  allll sorts of neato features. I’ll never know ;-). I just want to check my work email, then go read a book. A bound, paper book. Hey, at least it’s not foolscap. Or papyrus. Right?

I can’t figure out how to get the picture of The Girl in Snowmageddon uploaded.

Holy cats & crackers! I did it!! Sideways. But I did it!!

To be honest, I suck at tech and don’t have the nerve to try to go back and forth to have The Girl poke some winners. I’ll be back next week, promise! And she’ll poke a couple from this post as well. Tell me how your weather is! I think we’ll have this snow upon us for quite awhile. DagNABBIT!

  • RoseMacaroon says:

    I’m in the bay area, and we’re having delightfully intermittent heavy rains, nothing toof dreadful and yes, helping with the fire situation! I love your gardening strategy — filing for future use ?

  • Ingeborg says:

    Just one day ago it looked like we would get no snow, then the forecast changed. So it looks like we will get snow tomorrow morning, then turning to sleet and rain later in the day. The big question is obviously if the roads will dry up before the frost returns. I hate icy roads and pavements more and more as I get older.

    Good job trying to protect the flower bulbs!

  • Jennifer S says:

    Happy Birthday! There’s a book I’ve been waiting to read for awhile now and I’ll look every now and then to see if it’s been checked in at the library but it never is and I refuse to download it to my iPad to read it that way. I……could always have them reserve it for me. Naaaah. Too easy and too many books to read in the meantime. I’ll wait!
    No snow here except for the one time a few weeks back. Lots of rain though.

  • Shiva-woman says:

    We just got rain in California and we’re getting more! So happy– and it actually looks like Fall, the air feels brisk. I planted bulbs two days ago so they’d get a little something to drink. Happy Birthday!

  • filomena813 says:

    Here in Maryland we are also close to breaking records for the amount of rain we’ve had in November, but actually the entire year has been pretty rainy. We had a surprise snow on November 15th, which was early for snow around here, but the rain keeps coming.

  • Kathryn says:

    Happy Birthday Auntie A! Your way of planting crocuses is brilliant. It gives me hope for someday growing little bulbs where I want them to be rather than where the squirrel replant them. Thanks!

  • Dina C. says:

    Here in Virginia we are close to breaking records for the amount of rain we’ve had this month, quarter, season, year — you get the picture. All year has been rainy. And we already had snow here, which is super rare for November.

  • Brigitte says:

    Happy Birthday!

  • Queen Cupcake says:

    Warmest birthday wishes, Musette! Here in New England we have rain, rain, wind, and more rain. At least it isn’t snow. I have to drive West (to Rochester NY) this coming weekend, so I expect to see some of that. Somewhere I read that a small pile of sharp gravel above the bulbs will discourage the little beasts but I have not tried it.

  • matty says:

    Happy Birthday. No snow here yet.

  • Maya says:

    I love your idea for crocus. Mine kept a lot of chipmunks fat and happy. Surprisingly, we have had a lot more rain than snow but we did have the coldest Thanksgiving day in more than 100 years. Oh well. Is it spring yet?

  • Kate E. says:

    Happy Birthday!! I’m happy to say we got rain here in N. California and it was enough to help with the fire nearby and to clear up our air. I’ve lived in snowy places before but never experienced a knock-out-your-power type of blizzard. Stay warm & safe!!

  • Furriner says:

    Happy Birthday!!!!!

  • hczerwiec says:

    Happy happy happy! I love your MacGyver’d bulbs — that is so brilliant. Only a light dusting of snow here, but cold cold cold.

  • Tara C says:

    I am profoundly grateful to be under the sunny blue skies of San Diego right now, even though I love snow (for very short periods of time, which unfortunately Canadian winters are not, hence my fleeing south for the dark days of winter). My puppy girl has never seen snow, but my previous girl loved it. Once she discovered squirrels are out year-round, no weather was bad enough to keep her from the hunt.