Spring

Mark Twain once said, "The coldest winter I've experienced was a summer spent in San Francisco."

Mark should have spent a spring in Northwest Kansas.

Monday was a beautiful day. No breeze at all, and warm...Almost hot. Beautiful day that begged you to stay outside.

Today, Friday, the wind is blowing. And not a gentle breeze, but 40 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph. And, it's raining--with a slight mixture of snow. Rain, which is moving at 40 mph horizontally hurts when is slaps you up-side the head. It pounds into your chest like bullets. You can hear each drop as it smacks into your body and anywhere else it hits.

If it's not raining, then being out in winds like this, requires your full concentration on standing up, on moving forward, on maintaining your balance. And, if it's dry, you have to concentrate on seeing where you want to go. If it's dry, there's so much dust in the air that at times, that you simply cannot see where you are going. That is very scary.

Two weeks ago, on the first day of spring, we had a blizzard. Nasty blizzard. The kids and I were home for Spring Break, but Kev was supposed to work. He chose to stay at home. Visibility was extremely low and the drifting across the highways made driving unsafe. The irony is that not one ounce of snow fell all winter. We had snow in the late fall, but once it was officially winter, no moisture until the first day of spring. Typical weather in Kansas.

Spring also brings track season and baseball season. Today is a perfectly typical track meet day. Miserable, wet, cold and windy. Baseball games get cancelled due to high winds and rain. Track meets do not.

I'd venture to bet that Mark Twain's summer in San Francisco was much nicer than spring in Northwest Kansas.

Lost books

I'm a librarian. I take care of books. I work with books, I let people read these books, use these books. And I expect people to take care of the books they borrow. Yet, I realize that things happen, and a book might get water damage, or pages fall out, or sometimes, they get lost. I can deal with that, I understand.

Except when it happens to my kids. I get so annoyed when my kids lose library books, or when they have overdue library books. Maybe because we librarians are a small group--we know each other. And, I expect the behavior of my kids to reflect on me. And when my kids lose library books, well, then, somehow, I've failed.

Miss Kat has lost a book. It's not a library book, but it's one she's reading in her reading class. It's important that she have this book. I saw it one night this week, but it was in her trapper, so I didn't worry.

Last night, she was in tears because she cant find the book. She wasn't in tears because she lost the book, but because she'd get an "F" on her assignment. She looked in her room, she looked in the living room. She looked downstairs. No book. She asked me what I did with it. As if I were responsible for her book.

I didn't help her look. I told her where to look, but I refused to help her. After all, I didn't lose it. She thinks she lost it at school. I suggested she check lost and found and the library.

But, I forgot, I am the stupidest Mother in the world. Miss Kat quickly reminded me that it wasn't a library book and no one would ever think to return it there. O yeah, I forgot. After all, I only work in a library. We get all kinds of lost books returned to us, whether they are ours or not. But, hey, I'm stupid. I forgot that my 10-year-old daughter knows more than I do.

I hope she finds her book. I really really hope somebody turned it into the library. Then I can say "I told you so."

Drivers Education

Andy passed his written Drivers Ed. test yesterday. Now, he just has to drive with the instructor in early June, and then he'll have his restricted license.

I have mixed emotions. I'll be glad when I don't have to rearrange my schedule to take him somewhere. But I'll worry about him driving alone. I was so worried that he wouldn't pass the test.

He's been coming to the college for the past month, taking the daily quizzes online to prepare for this test. You see, they don't actually TEACH the kids anymore, the kids read the book, take their quizzes, then take their final test. All the teacher does is post the grades and drive with the kids. Andy had lots of trouble with his quizzes; for some reason, the teacher wasn't receiving them. So, with 2 days to go, we got a phone call from his teacher telling him that he had 15 quizzes to take.

Now, my son never defends himself. He said "ok, I'll get it done." Then he hung up the phone. Relaying the conversation to Mom, well, Mom got hot. "What? You have to taken all your tests, why didn't you tell him you've taken all the tests? Why haven't they gone through?"

Hot Mom took cool Andy to town immediately. We were on a mission.

We logged on at the college, and it showed that Andy had indeed taken his tests. Hot Mom made Andy print all those quizzes off--to prove he'd taken them. We did discover he had skipped chapters 4 and 5, so he took those quickly and we printed them all off. We then emailed his teacher, just to let her know what was happening.

They finally got all his tests sometime the next day. Mom cooled down a little. But, it all ended well, he took his final and passed. Hurdle one cleared.

Andy's been driving frequently. In fact, I seldom get to drive to work anymore. But driving with a teen, a not-the-most-observant-teen, is an experience. Last night, right after passing his driving test, we had to go to Gem to get pig feed. Andy drove.

He scared the c.r.a.p. out of me! We were tooling down the road at 65 mph, rapidly gaining ground on a truck pulling a tractor on a trailer. MY foot was pressing into the floor, trying to get that imaginary brake to grab. Andy, was not. I gently reminded him to pay attention to how fast we were coming upon that big tractor. Andy wasn't concerned. I mentioned the brakes--a little less gently this time. Then I frantically squealed something about hitting them hard.

We didn't hit the tractor, but I sure wish Andy had slowed down a little quicker. He was really annoyed at me. I have no idea why.

You know, I blame all my gray hair on my daughter. But, I'm starting to rethink it--I know I got a few more last night.

You can justify just about anything

This morning I stopped at Loves to get a bottle of pop in the 1 liter size. I've pretty much given up pop, I might have one once a week now when 4 months ago, I HAD to have a Diet Dr. Pepper every morning. And I often had to have two to get me through the day. So, I quit. Cold Turkey. I was miserable. My family was miserable. Caffeine headaches are nothing to laugh at. Mine lasted two solid weeks. And I was grumpy enough that everyone at home and at work told me to go get one and drink it!

We survived. But, I've learned that I no longer can tolerate much caffeine. If I have a glass of tea for supper, I can't sleep. If I have a can of pop in the evening, I can't sleep. So, I've learned to just drink water.

But this morning, I stopped to get the 1 liter size of Dr Pepper. Why? Well, I needed a bottle in that size.

Yes, I need the bottle.

Miss Monkey has not rejected me completely. Her momma isn't giving her quite enough milk and she was hungry last night!

She's a little bigger now and needs more that my Mike's Hard Cranberry bottle will hold. So, you see, I needed that liter bottle!

Anything for a good cause. And, I'm not the only one who can justify just about anything.

Kev and Andy can as well.

They are running around my house, morning and night, with turkey calls in their mouths. Yes, I have a chorus of turkeys serenading me, annoying me, making my hair stand on end...You see, turkey season starts soon, and they have to practice.

Yeah. Right. Sure.

See? You can justify just about anything.

I've been rejected

Remember that feeling--that feeling you get the first time your baby recognizes you, and his little face lights up with a big old grin, just because he recognizes you and knows you are his momma. Remember?

I had that feeling again. Except it was caused by Miss Monkey, the goat. I put Monkey in a dog kennel at night with one of her siblings, then Saturday morning, I went out and let them out and gave Monkey her bottle. She drank it down, then ran off to play with her siblings. At 11:00, I went out again with her "mid-day" bottle. I walked into the barn, called her. She stopped playing, looked at me, and her little tail just started swinging. She had her tail moving so fast, her entire back end was just wiggling. She ran over to me and started in on her bottle, finishing it lickity-split. Then, she let me cuddle her, and she ran off to play.

At 4:00, I brought out her last bottle of the day. But this time, she didn't run to me. She stopped, looked at me, jumped in the air and took off. So, I grabbed her, showed her the bottle, and she wouldn't open her mouth. Since I was holding her, I could feel that her tummy was full. She'd betrayed me and the bottle for her Mother's milk. What's up with that?

I stayed in the pen for probably 1/2 an hour, hoping she'd really come over for her bottle. And that little ...MONKEY...she just ran over to her Momma and started nursing. And her mother never once pushed her away. Not once. She just sniffed, and let her nurse. And, that was that. It's monday. She's still nursing her Momma.

I feel so betrayed. I've been rejected...by a goat.