Day 12.080: Exile #2's Sunday Column #243

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #3 has been adding to her animal care experience this weekend by feeding our neighbors cats. They are two big black cats from the same litter. Both are a little reticent. In fact, one of them made sure to hide whenever Exile #3 entered the house. The other, although also shy, soon got over his shyness when he realized Exile #3 was the person who would be providing the food this weekend. He is quite enthusiastic about his food, to the extent that the other cat’s food has to be placed up high so that he won’t eat it along with his own (he’s not capable of climbing up, also thanks to his enthusiasm about food). Today, however, he also showed enthusiasm for his new human friend, and didn’t want to let her go. She was quite sad to be done with the job too!

Although we have not been celebrating here, Happy Mother’s Day to our Mums and all the UK mums we know.

Day 12.079: Open water

I noticed some time this week that the large pond near my workplace, which just a few weeks ago had been in use - quite safely I'm sure - for pond hockey, was now completely ice-free.

Today, we were not surprised to find the river looking similarly spring-like, but it is a welcome sight nonetheless.

Day 12.078: Sparkles

It's the beginning of the weekend, so here's some sparkly sand!

Day 12.077: Beach wood

Not only did we get out for our morning-exercise walk yesterday, but we had a second one - a quick stroll on the beach at lunchtime. It was a chance to enjoy some sunshine on our skin - although it was also quite cool and breezy.

The items we see on the beach seem to vary both from day to day and in pretty specific areas on specific days - one day lots of large snail-like shells, another day lots of clam shells, further along the beach lots of small stones etc.

Yesterday we started seeing driftwood:

and then more driftwood:

and then all this driftwood:

Day 12.076: Sap season

Many years ago and a few states away I dubbed this season between winter and things-starting-to-grow, "thaw". It is followed by, but distinct from spring. Most Mainers seem to refer to it - not without reason - as "mud season". This is also maple sugaring season as the sap flows when daytime temperatures are above freezing, but it is still dropping below freezing at night.

We made it out for a walk this morning. Despite the warm daytime temperatures over the last few days, the temperature at dawn was a maple-farmer-pleasing 19 °F (-7 °C). I don't think it's a sugar maple, but I did spot this evidence of flowing sap (and the freezing temperatures perhaps) - a sapcycle?

As for mud, we're not doing badly even though most of the snow has melted. It was certainly a much easier walk than the recent ones thanks to clear dry sidewalks underfoot.

Day 12.075: Another music video

This one involved getting permission to use some images of works by the artist who partially inspired the lyrics:

Day 12.074: You've Got Crabs

I was the first member of the family to discover "The Oatmeal" thanks to his comic strip about "why I run long distances". I was almost certainly the first to know when he invented a card game. However, since finding a strong love of that game - Exploding Kittens and its various expansions, Exile #4 has become this family's biggest fan (of the games at least). A while ago, she suggested that we should get another of his games, "You've Got Crabs". It took a while, but she recently found a copy and so we played on Friday night:

And, as you might surmise, it was very entertaining!

Day 12.073: Exile #2's Sunday Column #242

Exile #2 writes...

The snow is melting fast - we can see more than half of the grass now, and although it is a discouraging yellow-brown color, we’re sure it will soon perk up. We’ve seen robins, so we know spring is here. More tellingly, we’ve also seen humans, who are coming out of hibernation. We ourselves decided to take advantage of the daylight savings to go for a walk this evening. It’s not as virtuous as it sounds. We were actually heading to the supermarket to buy a treat, but we felt like we’d done something to earn it.

Tomorrow, Exile #3 and I are off on our very first college visit. I’m still struggling to get my head around GPAs, PSATs and FAFSAs, let alone the sea of public and private colleges out there, but this will hopefully be a helpful first experience, whether or not it’s THE one.

Day 12.072: Rochester Opera House

Today, E5N1 had a rehearsal for the school musical, Exile #4 bided her time until late afternoon and then went to a birthday party/sleepover. Exile #2 kindly stayed around to support rehearsing and biding and I set off with Exile #3 to drive to New Hampshire so that she could perform with her dance company in the Rochester Opera House:

After a great and very varied performance and then a very nice early dinner with a group of dancers and families and a quick internet check of whether she was allowed to drive in New Hampshire on her learner's permit, Exile #3 drove me home again.

Day 12.071: Future Friday

For the Friday of dance school spirit week, they were invited to imagine a future (or futuristic) version of themselves.

Yesterday, we discussed this dance costume and Exile #3 declared, "Yes - with space buns!" and so it was:

It turned out that just-one-space-bun was also a look:

as were her expressions as the buns were removed:

Day 12.070: Student choreography in progress

On Tuesday, we were able to see the works in progress for this year's student choreography show. Exile #3 is choreographing three numbers this year - two group numbers, one for her and three others and the other for five dancers but she is not dancing in it. We knew a little about both of those. The last is a solo.

It is definitely a sketch at this point, but it was fun to see it and all the other pieces at this stage. In three weeks, it will be the showcase performance.

Day 12.069: Classy girls

On Wednesdays, I generally end up bringing the girls home together as Exile #3's class helping with the little ballerinas and Exile #4's karate class finish around the same time.

Today, Exile #3 was wearing some dramatic eye make-up for "Wacky Wednesday" in the dance school "Spirit Week", Exile #4 was looking her normal kick-you-in-the-face self (slightly reduced by a bemused smile).

Day 12.068: Last (full) day of winter

According to my sources, the equinox is just 20 hours away making today the last full day of winter (as reckoned in the US anyway). A lot of our snow has gone - E5N1's snowman is just about still identifiable. We have realistic expectations of March in Maine, but we are ready for spring!

Day 12.067: Winter turkeys

We see groups of wild turkeys fairly often, but I don't remember seeing them in the winter so much in past years. Here is an example:

Day 12.066: Exile #2's Sunday Column #241

Exile #2 writes...

It was a varied morning at church. Exile #1 and I performed a song, and I also assisted a member of our congregation, who is fluent in ASL, to teach our kids to sign a song. They picked it up pretty fast and then shared it in the second service.

This afternoon, we treated ourselves to a movie trip. In fact, it turned out to be more of a treat than expected because the theater had been newly fitted out with some very squishy, very large, reclining seats. Not only did these seats lean back but they also had a footrest that you could raise. It was really quite luxurious!

We were there, perhaps not too surprisingly to see Captain Marvel. No spoilers here, but there was a full complement of happy Exiles afterwards.

Day 12.065: Icy still

The days have been much warmer, the nights have been much less cold and we even had a little thunderstorm last night. We're starting to believe that the snow might disappear soon, even though a few days ago it still seemed to have a very firm grip where it had not been shoveled or plowed or otherwise cleared.

So, I was not sure what we would find when we made it down to the river this morning, but it is still frozen and a place for the gulls to stand rather than swim:

I suspect that will not be the case for much longer.

Day 12.064: Algorithmically generated

I've got to hand it to the people at Google Photos who created the code that generated this:

Unless there's a person poring over all my photos, in which case, "Thanks!" and "Stop snooping!"

Day 12.063: Dark and white

Thanks to the time-change it was dark when we set out for our walk this morning. Thanks to an overnight coating of snow, it was quite white too.

The new snow didn't last long once the sun came up, but we got to enjoy it (and there is still plenty of snow-pack on the ground to remind us that spring is not here yet).

Even in the early light, the new snow was half an inch deep or more in places and then inexplicably absent in others:

Day 12.062: Rasta Pasta?

It's pasta sauce (for those who didn't already know).

Day 12.061: Office keyboard

Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't help but see a piano keyboard as I was looking across the meeting room at these blinds today:

Day 12.060: Two steps forward...

Here are two similar looking sunrise photos from our morning walks:

The top one is from late January at around 7 am. The lower one from a week or so ago at around 6 am. That is progress. We've lost that progress for now thanks to Daylight Saving Time, but it won't take long to get it back again.

At some point, we might see the ground again as well.

Day 12.059: Exile #2's Sunday Column #240

Exile #2 writes...

We remembered to reset our clocks so that we could successfully spring forward this morning, but it was the only bit of springing going on. The snow that started as we left church mid morning, continued for the rest of the afternoon giving the day a distinctly wintery feel, and Exile #3, who we retrieved from a sleepover was also looking less than springy. She had had a good time, though, and did manage to stay awake for the rest of the day.

A snowman mysteriously appeared in our front yard late afternoon.

This may have had something to do with Exile #1, who was shoveling. It was enough to persuade E5N1 to go out and build one too.

However, later we discovered the original snowman lying on his side with the other seeming to point and laugh. So now we’re wondering, did Exile #1’s snowman fall... or was he pushed?

Day 12.058: Dancing, dancing, dancing

Exile #3 had a dance performance this afternoon, with all these talented young people:

It was a gathering of the non-competitive dance companies in the area. After the show, Exile #3 headed off to get ready with her friends for a school dance while Exile #2 and I went back to the dance studio to watch the adult part of the show - including several of the dance teachers and choreographers for the early show. Both shows were quite marvelous, but we will have to wait until we see Exile #3 tomorrow to find out how the third of the dance events went.