Back and forth...

Today I was unable to get across the idea of using re-usable/canvas shopping bags In lieu of PLASTIC bags,-
I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items. When I checked out, I handed the cashier my bag, and he started packing it for me. Except when he got to the package of chicken, he started putting it in a plastic bag. I said, Oh yeah, I have my own bag- just trying to be nice about it.
But just as pleasantly he said Oh I always put chicken or meat in a plastic bag, what if it leaks.
Hmm...it would leak into the plastic bag then??? And be just as messy.

I think he was missing the point behind bringing your own bag(s) but he was trying to be helpful. Amusingly or ironically, the store actually gives you 5 cents back for using your own bag. Hmm. I decided it wasn't worth arguing back and forth about, so I took the bag, and when I was outside took it out of my bag and stuffed it in one of those plastic bag recycling bins.

Hmm...

birds, butts, and beer (cans that is)...

So far, despite the short but enjoyable break in weather hostilities, the bird feeder remains untouched. There are birds around, including Ginormous crows flying in the yard, a woodpecker at the tree, but no bird feeder customers (yet).

We discovered that the layers of snow covered the lovely mess of cigarette butts that the previous tenants felt generous enough to leave behind for us in the yards(both front and back, because, let's face it, why limit yourself to depositing your cigarette butts to ONLY the backyard when you could also spread that joy to the front too). Maybe they were under the impression that cigarette butts are biodegradable and will now return to their natural place in the ground. Maybe they were trying some new, rogue version of composting. Who knows...I can't speak to their motivations. I only know it is pretty gross looking. Of course only to be topped by the fact that they also left empty beer cans in the yard too, just to complete the classy look. Yay.
Also, guess how big out trash can is (Provided by the garbage removal service). It's 96 g.
It looks like some sort of industrial size recycling bin- and yet this is the smallest size. How much trash do people put out each week????!?!

a strange sensation

no, it's not the after-effects of the King Bing...
I was outside today and I had this odd feeling- I'm sure I'd felt it before-
and then I realized-
I wasn't cold! It's pretty difficult to dredge up that feeling but after months of feeling
uncomfortably cold, with bitter winds that cut right through your clothes, it's pretty disconcerting to suddenly NOT feel that. It's like, wow, I'm outside and I'm NOT wearing thermal underwear, wool socks, and 2 sweaters! What the hell is going on?

Yesterday to celebrate the impending arrival of this new "non-coldness" - we took to the hill of Ames and went sledding, before the snow becomes a slushy mess. First in our makeshift flattened cardboard box (which worked pretty well) and then in our friends' sled, which was fun, as we went round in circles and hit icy bumps and then climbed back up the hill to do the whole thing all over again! It was similar to our snow-tubing adventure last year, but not as cold and free!
I saw a guy with his snowboard, trying to work out that hill. And some people with their pretty dog.
Now there is that big ol' sun in the sky and high time for all this snow to start to melt down into a slushy snow mess! Good times!
Also observed: one of the displays in the alcohol section of the grocery store: Dom Perignon champagne marked down from like $149.99 to $124.99, displayed alongside packages of chaser (allegedly prevents hangovers)
I don't know what the pairing up suggests, just thought it was noteworthy.

a Midwest treat?

this says it is a Midwest favorite. From Sioux City, IA.

cold

it can't be good if the HIGH is predicted to be


zero....