First Snow of 2024: A Lazy Saturday and a Promise to Ride

First Snow of 2024

Snow had been in the forecast for a week or so leading up to Thanksgiving. It disappeared and would reappear a few times, but it did finally happen today on November 30. I was remembering a year ago we had our first snow on this day too as Carrie and I went to a Washburn basketball game when it was snowing after Thanksgiving break. There was a game today, but Carrie and I were both tired, so we decided to stay home today. A pretty snow although I have not heard how much snow we had. 

The Saturday following two Thanksgiving celebrations is a lazy Saturday for us. We have dishes to do, but I have taken a few naps throughout the afternoon. Watched the Jayhawks lose their last game of the season in football to Baylor with Baylor being too much for us after knocking off three ranked teams in a row, we stumbled with Baylor.

Sleepy Oliver

Oliver is enjoying the lazy day as he relaxes on the couch in a pile of blankets where he is sleeping and staying warm. I think we had his heated blanket on too that he is using through the day. Yes, he's quite spoiled, but we adore him.

Not a lot planned for tonight. I had leftovers for lunch and will have leftovers for dinner too. They are so good! I love Thanksgiving leftovers. We have homemade pies to eat tonight which include sweet potato pie and dixie pie.

Yes, you guessed right that tomorrow I plan to start riding my bike again. I have been away from bike riding, or exercise, for a few months, but I plan to get back on the bike tomorrow and start the journey. That's what always happens following Thanksgiving where new gym memberships are started and people make decisions to start working out again. That is me this time too and hoping to stick with bike riding two or three times a week. I am feeling excited to start riding again, so that will help to keep me motivated to do so.

Until next week, have a great week and stay warm.

Cold, Snow, Ice, Sweaters, and Spring Right Around the Corner

Oliver Sweater

Cold, snowy, and short days the past few weeks but days are getting longer. I did notice this past week when driving home from work that the sun was setting and it was almost 5:30. I had left work late and driving home noticing there was still light in the sky and pink in the western sky. It was beautiful! No, I did not get a picture taken, but I did enjoy the fact that it does mean the days are gradually getting longer.

A few times when letting Oliver out to do his business, he would stand to lift one paw and then the other. He immediately started shivering as it was sub-zero temperatures. Poor guy! Carrie would carry him out to the middle of the yard a few times just to help his little paws. He was a sweater puppy when it is cold and seems to like wearing the sweaters. We did have one day where it got up in the twenties or so and Oliver wanted to spend time outside enjoying the sun. Crazy guy!

It has been below zero multiple days and snow on the ground multiple days which is longer than I recall in the past few years. As a kid, I recall having snow on the ground for days, or weeks, but the past couple of years it seems like it will snow and be gone after a few days. Not with the latest snow falls we have had lately. The temperatures hovering around zero allow the grassy areas, and even some streets/pavement, to keep a covering of snow. 

Last weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs played in one of the coldest games in NFL history. I was glad to watch the game from the comfort of a home and my beer not freezing. It was not a game I wished I was at while watching on television. I spoke to friends who did attend and it sounded miserable although they did say how they can say they were there and stuck it out to the end... well, almost the end. They left partway through the fourth quarter. Stories to tell though of frozen beers, ice for feet, and noses freezing. Good times!

Rest assured that the days are getting longer and it will soon be spring here in Kansas. The warm weather will be here before we know it and Oliver cannot wait!

Stay warm and I will talk to you next week...

Washburn Basketball, Movies, Weather, and NFL in this Update to Start the 2024 Year

Carrie and John at Washburn Game

Carrie and I attended our third game of the season. We have missed a number of early games in the season, but hope to make the remaining games of the season. With traveling, holidays, etc., we were unable to make games earlier in the season. We had a great time on Saturday. Washburn came away with the win. We attended the Washburn game on Thursday too and we won that game too.

While we were at the game, we decided we are going to attend one of the home track meets Washburn plays through January. I have never been to a track meet although I have watched them online, so I am looking forward to attending our first track meet at our very own Indoor Athletic Facility on the Washburn University campus.

Friday night, we stayed home and enjoyed watching movies. During the holiday break, we watched a movie, or two, every night. There were a few we did not get to, so we watched on Friday night. We were able to watch The Holdovers and it was fantastic! We watched The Holdovers on Peacock, but I know it is playing at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS. Worth checking out as the whole cast did a great job. From the same director who did Sideways (2004), Alexander Payne put together a good story that was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes. After watching The Holdovers, we decided we would watch Sideways as it had been a long time since we had seen Sideways. Fun low key Friday night for us.

Trees and Lights in the Snow

Friday also brought our second snow to Topeka. It was not supposed to amount to much, but it did snow all day long and left the trees and shrubs looking pretty. A wet snow that covered trees, so Carrie snapped a picture of our trees and lit up snowman in front of our house as it was pretty. The forecast is for significant snow fall Monday through Tuesday, so we will see what happens. 

This is the last weekend of the regular season for the NFL. Many teams are playing backup players to save their starters for the playoffs which includes the Kansas City Chiefs who are not starting Mahomes and others to keep them fresh for the postseason. So I am looking forward to watching football all afternoon although Carrie is not thrilled as she will be happy when the season is over and no more football. 

A wondering ramble of topics for this week. Short week last week with New Years Day on Monday, but it was back to work. It was a good productive work week. I hope your year started out well and I will talk to you soon.

Extreme Weather, Remembering Snow and Cold from February 2021 and a Dog Paw Hurting from Extreme Cold

What a few weeks it has been not only here in Kansas but across the whole United States. Record temperatures for much of the country and in Kansas we saw temperatures drop to -16 which did not include the wind chill. Our friends in Texas continue to deal with water issues from not being able to drink water to broken pipes when their temperatures fell below normal temps for the region. We have heard that friends in Houston and Dallas are starting to return to normal with drinking water returning to normal in some areas, but still many people in Texas reported as not having power or issues with the water they have in their area. With warmer weather, hopefully we continue to see areas return to their normal temperature for this time of year and get things back to normal.

Here in Topeka, I worked from home Monday and Tuesday as there was snow, extreme cold, and not ideal to be outside let alone traveling. On Wednesday, February 17, I went into work and found that the roads were not bad at that time. The city had not done much of anything to treat the roads, but I had no issue getting around. By the weekend, we are up in the low 40’s and find much of the snow melting away. 

After having what I would say is a mild winter, we were caught in extreme temperatures, snow, and even some freezing rain, to make the middle of February 2021 interesting. As we see MLB spring training starting next weekend, college basketball is winding down to final regular season games, we can only hope that no more extreme winter weather will be had for our state or others that suffered through an unusual winter period for all.

I know our dog, Oliver, is happy to have warmer temperatures. On Monday when I let him out at one time,  I think he hurt his paws with the being in the snow and cold. Prior to that time, I was not letting him be outside very long and would often go with him to rush him along, but one time on Monday when he was out, he appeared to hurt his right front paw when the cold got to it. He was not interested in our touching him or checking why he was hurting. By later in the week, he seemed to be back to normal and whatever was hurting him from Monday had stopped hurting. 

Be safe and just think that Spring is right around the corner.

Fall Weather with Snow in the Forecast Tonight and Tomorrow

Fall weather is here! Hard to believe it is supposed to snow tonight. It seems that the cold and snow came out of no where. We had been having such nice weather the past few weeks, months, and then snow is in the forecast.

I have heard some "experts" say that they are predicting a bad winter. Lots of snow... cold... and more snow. We will see what happens. The way 2020 has gone so far, I could see us getting a blizzard or two to finish out the year.

Today, I did leaves for the first time this year. I am not sure I did leaves at all last year. Instead, I let the trees in our yard drop all of their leaves and then called to have someone come out and get them. Seemed to work well, but I am sure our neighbors did not like our doing this at all. Back yard had leaves that went over your shoes in most spots of the yard and of course when the wind would blow, it would throw the leaves all over the place in our yard and neighbors yard too. Even with fenced in back yard, the leaves can manage to find their way out of our yard and into other yards.

I probably do the lazy method for doing leaves. I do not like to rake so I usually use the mower to mulch and then go over them again to bag. Yes, causes more trips around the yard to do this method, but less bending over to pick up leaves. For the work today, I have two full bags of leaves. This was only the front yard and both large trees in the front basically have not dropped many of their leaves. The back yard, I decided not to do at all as there are only a few leaves on the ground in the back.

Meanwhile, our neighbor in back of us has already done his yard multiple times to pick up leaves just this past week. I am sure he cringes when he sees our yard, leaves everywhere, and I won't even go into how the yard looks in terms of grass. Oh well!

Now we wait to see what the weather brings tonight through tomorrow. Just how much snow will we get? Always fun with the first one or two snows and drivers in Topeka. Be safe and when we do get our first big snow, I am sure I will post about it here.

Happy Easter!

Awaken today for Easter Sunday to snow again on the ground. We are late into March and yet there is snow once again on the ground. We had a dusting of snow earlier this week too. Crazy Kansas weather!

I recall painting eggs when I was little and then getting up early Sunday morning to hunt for the Easter baskets. The candy was always good, but I still love a hard boiled egg with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Brings back good memories!

Happy Easter to all! Have a wonderful day!