our fifteen minutes of spring

Before the snow starts up again. Ray The Not-A-Meteorologist says, and I quote, "We have one more day of warm temperatures. Enjoy, because one of the biggest weather turnarounds you’ve ever seen is about to happen." Oh, good! We’re getting a cold front coming through from Ohio, with colder air "invading". That sounds about right. "Much below normal temperatures {yes, he IS that grammatically challenged} during Thursday-Monday will translate into significant problems due to the potential for plant-killing freezes." Well, I’m glad I’ve resisted buying any plants other than pansies. Which I’m planting in pots and can drag into the house. Stupid April. It sounds like we’re not alone, though.

This weekend we went to visit Baker B’s mom. His sister’s daughter came up from Atlanta, with two of her kids and her husband. We were glad they came up, since we figured after Gail died we’d never see them again. The niece has three kids – 17, 14 and 10 – and we’ve always been really fond of them. I’m not even getting started on all the dysfunctional-family reasons we figured we’d never see them again.

But whatever. They did visit, and it was very good to see them all. Minus the son who stayed in Atlanta to take care of the dogs and cats and to throw parties. The 14 year old, who was a little on the nerdy side last time I saw them – a little over a year ago – is now Total Goth Girl. Black clothes, pitch black hair, heavy glittery eyemakeup and very black mascara and eyeliner, great big black shoes with mismatched shoelaces, odd black and red striped way-past-her-knees socks. It was kind of a shock, and kind of funny too. The youngest one hardly said a word, which was odd since she chattered non-stop every other time I’ve been around her.

I’m kind of disappointed because we really didn’t spend that much time at all with them. They didn’t get to Morganton till nearly 4, and we almost immediately went back out to ride around the country and try to find some land that Gail owned, which is now the daughter’s. Oddly, there is no access to it. Gail had it for years and years, and never did anything with it because there’s no access. We drove down some trail-like logging road yesterday, and got close, but the road ended before Gail’s land began. Years ago we just parked on the side of the interstate and walked over to it – it borders the interstate – but of course there was a state trooper parked exactly where we needed to stop. And I think that’s very illegal. The niece’s husband had a GPS device and a Google Earth maps, so they pinned down where it is, and planned to go to the county courthouse and check into it further – they’re staying till Wednesday.

So we went back to the house, amid talk of going to Hardees for dinner (feel free to insert great big EWWWWWWWW here), decided we’d get our car and follow them so we could leave from there and come home, and that somehow turned into Baker B taking his mother’s little truck to WalMart and buying some topsoil for her. I thought we’d just meet them at Hardees after that, but then he wanted to finish mowing the lawn. I was like, "Uh, duuuude, they are going to wonder what the heck happened to us, since we SAID we’d be right BEHIND them," but Baker B, being Baker B, wasn’t too concerned. He didn’t want to eat at Hardees and is Mr. Neurotic about being at restaurants where he doesn’t want to be, so he just assumed they’d figure out we weren’t coming, eat their Hardees food, and come back to his mom’s house. Where we’d still be.

Of course, a hour and a half later, he’s mowed, we’ve made an unsuccessful dirt trip to WalMart (all the bags were broken, what a shock) and they are still not back. So he decides we better leave, since it’s nearly dark and we have to drive up the mountain. I really felt bad – I hardly saw them, we didn’t say goodbye, they had no idea what happened to us, and who knows when we’ll see them again?? I know the niece has a cellphone – they ALL had cells, except for the 10 year old and I think she’s about to get one – but of course I don’t know their numbers and they don’t have mine. So, Baker B left a note in the kitchen and we went on home. We did swing by Hardees, where there were no customers at all, including the ones we were looking for. 

Turned out they’d gone by Wendys, thinking maybe we went there as Baker B had expressed a willingness to eat at Wendys that he didn’t express for Hardees. So they thought maybe we thought we were all going to Wendys. But whatever! They all know perfectly well how weird he is, and I’m certain nobody held it against us. But I still felt bad.

However, Baker B, Mr. Obsessed With Maps and Tromping Around in The Woods Man, has gone back down there today. So that he can go tromping around in the woods with the niece’s husband and use the GPS device and have fun with Google Earth maps. He was just DYING to go see the land, and tromp around trying to find it. And the niece’s husband really likes him, so that should be fun for both of them. If they don’t get SHOT. Apparently yesterday they asked at a house by the logging road if they could use it to get to Gail’s land, and the guy said no. (We’d stopped Sunday to ask too, but nobody was home so we went in anyhow). And apparently he owns the land all around her land. So I’m hoping there’s not an incident. It’s kind of backwoods and rednecky and out in the boonies there. And niece’s husband is way over six feet tall and has a ponytail that’s probably five feet long. And is a skater dude despite being over 40. So we figure it’s probably best if he’s accompanied by semi-normal-looking Baker B.

 So I felt a little better. Although I’m STILL disappointed that I didn’t get to see more of the girls. And the niece too, who I’ve always liked despite all the…dysfunction. Maybe they’ll come up more now. Especially if they can get access to the land.

Well, since spring is already about to be over, I’ll leave you with a bunch of pretty springy pictures.  These first ones are of the mother-in-law’s gorgeous backyard. And it’s an hour south of here, so is WAY ahead of us.

This is what we have:

This one is beside my building. I like this picture since it looks like our campus has lots of pretty green space and old well-kept buildings. Which sadly is not at all the case. We have a couple of nice old buildings like this one, a number of old-but-not-in-a-neat-way like ours, and a bunch of ugly new buildings. And the green space is rapidly vanishing. Still, this looks like something out of a recruitment catalogue.

Next time I’ll post some Weird Things In The Mother-In-Law’s house pictures. Because I was booooored waiting on Baker B to finish mowing, and when I’m bored I take pictures.