A Winter Friday in Michigan

I drove to work on Friday through pouring rain. But it had quit before 10:00 AM, so I did get my morning walk in outside. But, I didn’t like it! The temp was falling and the wind was rising…

A lot of folks at work still had their power out and I heard a few stories about trees falling on houses or across driveways. So, I figured I got off easy with just having to reset the clocks last night.

I did brave the elements to walk over to Facilities with a container of my beef noodle soup. It was a bribe for Michelle as I wanted to borrow the measuring wheel over the weekend. It worked!

Why did I want it? Because if you remember, last year I was still in a brace and using a walker, so I paid a small fortune to have the landscape company mulch my gardens. I know I had no other choice, but I was really disappointed by the results, especially in the far back garden (it was WAY too thin).

So, this year, I want to bring in a dump truck of mulch and spread it myself, as thick as I want it. But, to do that, I need to calculate how much mulch I need. So, I have to measure things (there is a formula, you see) and figure out how many square feet of mulched space I have. But, I don't have anybody to hold the other end of a tape measure; hence, the wheel.

I didn’t bother trying to go home for lunch. I went to the Time Out and got my Lenten Friday favorite, fish and chips.

I took my afternoon walk inside, thank you.

I drove home at 5:00 PM in high wind and occasional snow showers (yes, I said SNOW). I treated the cats and went out into the wind and gloom to take some photos. I took some of my hyacinths and, since my daffodils aren’t out yet, a photo of my neighbor Tammy’s daffodils, for Carl.

I also took a photo of the small amount of flooding in the back yard for Jake and Carla. You may remember years ago in springtime I would usually get a lake back there. So much so that ducks would fly in and stay for a couple of days! But my neighbor finally put in a dry well and a pump and now you (and they) can see how effective it really is.

Back inside, Scruffy was checking out the measuring wheel, so I took his photo, too.

I started watching the rest of the news while I warmed up some of that soup for my dinner. Despite all my fears, its didn’t need much adjustments, probably because I used original, instead of low sodium, beef stock this time. I am now officially happy with this batch!

I never switched channels as the Boston Marathon bomber saga kept unfolding. I watched it until about 10:00 PM when the kid had been caught and taken to the hospital. I didn’t understand the chain of events all that well, probably because it was happening live. I decided I could wait until the morning recap to figure it all out and went to bed.