More than ready for spring.

Many people have heard me mention that we don't get much snow where we live. On the rare occasion that it snows, it generally goes away by the next day. In fact I haven't had to plow the driveway for two years.

Then there's this year. Starting in December we've had a bunch of cold temperatures and lots of snow. 'Sadly' I was in Trinidad and Dubai on business for much of that time. January brought another dump of the white stuff but 'unfortunately' Janis and I were in California for ten days. During the last week we were joyously watching the last piles of it melt away and I was seriously considering mowing the lawn for the first time this season. (I may have been planning on joyfully sharing pictures of that event with friends and family back east.) But our fair weather joy was short lived. Yesterday afternoon, it began to snow once more. By evening the weatherman's promise of a minor snow event was changed to a snow warning. This morning there was about ten inches of the white stuff on the ground and snow continued to fall with some brisk winds to blow it around. This continued all through the day. And this evening I was appalled to see that the weatherman had upgraded the SNOW WARNING (now in caps and red lettering on the weather website) to last through the middle of next week.

I spent three hours on the tractor, moving snow today. Tomorrow will be the same and most likely the next few days after that as well. I suspect my warm weather friends from the southern states will laugh at me the next time we talk. I guess there will be no more denying that winter does indeed come to these parts 'on the rare occasion'. I am more than ready for a nice warm spring.

Adding the magic

Sometimes the best way to get from point 'a' to point 'b' is not a straight line. I would agree it is most often much easier to go straight and faster too. When we are in creative mode the object is to do it correctly, and not simply be efficient. It all depends on what we are trying to achieve. 

On the PNE project we did the last of the welding on the lower armature today. Before it was declared finished I had to go around the structure one last time to add the upper edge. No tape measure nor level was required. This had to be a wiggly line done randomly. It wasn't the fastest nor easiest way but in the end it will be the most pleasing visually and will add the most magic. True magic it seems most often takes a little more effort.

Another bowling alley milestone

It was a very big day as the crew applied and sculpted the last of the concrete for the bowling alley lane archways. Space to move around the shop, as always it seems, was at a premium. Now the crew will move on to a slightly different style of arches, ten in all, for the side wall areas.