I told myself that this week I wasn’t going to write about the weather. I think I write about it too much and it becomes tedious. Well, in writing that I wasn’t going to write, I’m already writing about it, so I’ll just say that it warms enough for a few days to melt some snow, but then it gets cold and snows again. So there’s still plenty of snow around. The only thing growing is the sad little patch of snowdrops out front. It’s almost April and it still looks and feels like February.
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| No flowers outside, but inside my clivias are full bloom now. |
Tuesday was our high school’s annual Dessert Theater. This was the ninth year for the event where the students perform musical numbers and serve the audience desserts. This year they managed to pack the gym again. There was a wide variety of music presented. Josiah was heavily involved – he was in 11 of the 18 numbers. He sang with the high school choir and the select choir, he also sang in a trio, a duet, and a solo, he was in the percussion ensemble, and the jazz band. Stacey was also involved helping plate the desserts and with the cleanup afterwards. It was a nice evening.
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| The high school choir singing "Danny Boy." |
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| Josiah singing "Just the Way You Look Tonight." |
The insurance adjuster finally came by on Wednesday to look at our barn. He measured and took pictures. He emailed his estimate that night. We’ve had two contractors come and estimate what they think it will cost to put on a new roof. Things are progressing slowly. I don’t think anything can be done until it warms up and drys out anyway (there I go writing about the weather).
There is some sort of bug going around at school. Lots of coughing. I call it kennel cough because the school is like a big cage where we all share our diseases. Anyway, I caught it and I’ve been coughing for a couple of weeks now. I don’t feel terribly sick, I just can’t talk or sing or exert myself without having a coughing fit. I’m sure if things would warm up and dry out (there’s a weather reference again), I’d get over it quickly. In the meantime, my pockets are always full of Hall’s mentho-lyptus cough drops.
On Saturday we decided it was finally time to re-tile the shower in the upstairs bathroom in an effort to stop water from leaking through the dining room ceiling. It ended up being a bigger, harder job than anticipated. We naively thought we could just rip out the old tile in an hour, put up new backing board, put up the new tile, let it cure overnight, and have it ready for showers on Sunday morning. It didn’t happen that way. It looks like we’ll be bathing in the downstairs bathtub for a while.
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| Tearing out old tile. |
Our neighbor Dona Blake died and her funeral was on Friday. She was 84. Hannah and I went to the viewing on Thursday. Stacey went to the funeral. Dona’s husband Henry died back in January. They both had been living in Extended Care at Cole Memorial Hospital for several years. The house they lived in, just next door to us, is the house my great-grandparents, Theodorus and Anna May Howe, once lived in. It was the house my aunts most remember growing up in. Henry was actually my fourth cousin through our third great-grandparents George Washington Daniels and Achsah Hawley. Henry was a character. He loved to walk over while I was working in the garden and talk. Dona was a saint, truly one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. Dona kept to the house, but always loved to have us drop in and visit. Now that they’re both gone, it seems like the end of an era here in Gold.
Today was our Branch Conference. We had visitors from the stake. Because our branch is so small, there were actually more stake visitors than branch members there. It was nice to have the Stake do all the talks and classes, though I did miss teaching my Sunday school class. After the meetings, the branch (actually the Shilligs) provided sack lunches for the stake visitors since they have such a long drive back to their homes. The Shilligs are the masters of the sack lunch – and the nice thing is that this evening when we go to our Sabbath Soiree at the Shillig’s house, we get to feast on the leftovers – ham sandwiches, a variety of chips, and homemade cookies.
This week our spring break begins. We have a half day on Thursday and then we’re off on Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. It isn’t much of a break, just a long weekend. Friday is also the beginning of Passover. We’re having our traditional Mormon Passover Seder at the church on Friday with the missionaries. And Easter weekend is General Conference. Spring break, Passover, Easter, and General Conference – what a great conjunction of events! And by Thursday we’re supposed to hit 50°! (One last weather comment). It’s going to be good week.
