Groundhog day and the voices in my head

About 8:35 this morning front drive

The weather warnings have been ominous, snow was on the way, a southern wind would blow it up this way and eastward.  Often the Mississippi River Bluffs here shield us from a lot of bad weather. This winter has been rather mild, in fact, all weekend I was able to get outside where the sun  was shining and  balmy  mid 40 degrees temps were refreshing.  It was nice to get in some walking miles.  So although the sun was not shining this morning it looked like I would be able to get across the rive to the Y for my yoga workout.  Jerry shrugged his shoulders and said, wait and see.  On yoga mornings I do not have to leave until 10 o'clock, so  I waited and did a load of laundry meantime.  Thinking that if the weather services predicted correctly this time and most of our snow was gone, melted the last few days, perhaps I should snap some before pictures.  All the while I was hoping the forecasters would be wrong.

Back deck, 8:30  this morning

Back yard down to shop and motor home house,
the white remnant of snow is slight about 9:00 AM

I had decided to go  to the Y and get my pretzel twisting weekly yoga fix; it's the class I will never fully master, always something of a challenge and yet one that I can gauge has tremendously benefited  my flexibility, strength and balance.  I really dislike missing my routines and after all, living here means winter sometimes.  By no means am I a native Minnesotan, more like a Californian though raised in western Pennsylvania.  And although I really like four seasons, too much winter is not a good thing.  Any weather that restricts my activities is not a good thing to me. So I  proceeded to proceed, got my yoga mat ready to go when the clamor started. I could hear a small voice in my head, you know those naggers, as it got louder, "Patty, you do not have to go looking for trouble, just stay home."  And Patty replied, " oh don't be a scaredy cat, a wimp."  "Don't go looking for trouble, Patty."  The voice became duet as I recalled these words told me often enough by Mom and later in my life by Aunt Jinx Mom's sister who survived her.  There is a Polish saying that if one will just  let trouble alone it will make it's way elsewhere, something like that, so they invoked their Americanized corollary, "don't go looking for trouble."  Today I sometimes say "I don't need to go looking for trouble" when I refuse an invitation to go out at night, I am not fond of driving after dark, especially in winter. It's not that we live in an unsafe area at all, actually here in the Mayberry like setting we are blessed.  I realized that here this morning, I was hearing advice from Mom and Aunt Jinx, was that just a deep phobia or a warning to heed.  While I mused about  this, I went to get my sweat pants. 

And then I looked outside and a few flurries had started.  Better to wait a second or two.  I know now it was a good thing to heed those voices.   Within 20 minutes the snow began in earnest and then picked up a kick.  Jerry said, it was coming from the south.  He pays unusual attention to weather, watches and streams the weather channel, and delights in the computer research and models of what's moving where in the air currents.

 

I posted these  and more of the rapid increase with this snowstorm onto Facebook earlier. The above photo is about 5 minutes into the start and the whitish stuff is coating our previously pristine front drive and walk and down the street.  Well, I'm thinking it might not be too bad, I can drive in this, and then, the clouds opened up and down came the  snow.  Within  twenty five minutes snow was accumulating, carpeting the grounds and  walks.  The following photo is our previously pristine back deck now getting carpeted. 

 

It didn't take long before it was a white out all around, making it  appear as though we lived inside one of those snow globes, you  have seen.  One like they make in Bavaria today and sell, I had learned on my Danube Christmas Markets tour in December that they invented the snow globes and the older ones are quite valuable.  Bavaria is a glass making are of renown in Germany/Austria and home of some of my ancestors. 

This next photo is taken from our front picture window out toward the front drive, now invisible, and compared to  90 minutes earlier, things are looking bleary.  I admit it is sometimes a good thing to listen to the voices.  Mom would be happy.

 

Speaking of Mom, today is/was her birthday, also posted on FB.  She would have been 92, but she left this earth at 80, in 2004, suddenly.  Helen was the baby of her family of siblings and the one who would die the youngest except for the infant brother.  It was a blessing though a shock, she had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the years ahead were not going to be good.  She was spared a debilitating long drawn out eking away of the  body although there was some dementia that was creating a havoc in her behavior.  I shared this photo of her at about 3 years  of age on FB too today, the only photo of her as a child of which I am aware, and retrieved from my late Uncle Carl, her brother. For some reason when I try to put the caption on these photos, Blogger moves them around to where I do not want them.  A pox on Blogger!  

The very last photo is the last time I saw Mom alive in Pennsylvania, taken at her kitchen, she was lecturing me about something, I think she might have been saying, "well, Patty you do not have to go looking for trouble!"

By the way the MN State Patrol has closed Interstate 90 here because of blizzard conditions and Highway 61 has some shut downs too.  Our city has not yet sent the snow plows out, so this really is  a mess and the worst snow storm this winter.  Our roads are normally all kept clear immediately.  

Groundhog Day

Today's a day I always remember; if Mom were alive she would be 85 today. Blessedly she was spared further ravages from Alzheimer’s and died suddenly in August 2004. Her birthday was Ground Hog day and if she was in a good mood when we were kids we'd tease her and ask if she saw her shadow. If she was not in a friendly mood we'd keep quiet. We knew better. Mom was in no contest to be our friend, she was the mother and we were the kid and that's the way it was. We knew when not to tread lightly or otherwise.

Long before the movie about it, Ground hog day was an event day for me growing up in western PA. I am surprised at the disdain in some blog comments in today's Wall St. Journal about Punxsutawney Phil, et. al. Who can have that much self righteous anger, animosity toward Phil and groundhogs as weather predictors? Who are these people who find no fun in Phil? What a weird world! Look at him isn't he cute! I still today await Phil's predictions, even though here in WI they have copy cat ground hogs. There is only one Phil descended from the original Punxsutawney Phil.  

I was a Phil friend and defender as far back as I can remember. If I were feeling especially touchy I could sob, "How would you like to be dragged out of bed into the cold with cameras and people looking at you!?" Or I could whine, “He wasn't bothering anybody and look they wake him up!" I made it personal. I could turn on the drama. I made up stories about Phil and his phamily; in these tales, they were either dreading or celebrating their special day and often how they prepared and even plotted to make the best of it. One tale had Mrs. Phil open the door to the burrow early to invite the people in for root beery tea (yes that's root beer tea, another of my creations) before they awakened her husband. Even at a very young age somehow I knew it's all in the attitude even of a ground hog to rise up and enjoy or wallow back and grovel. 

Sure wish I'd written those stories down, products of my fertile imagination, instead of merely  captivating my dolls or friends. I had a few favorite dolls, still with me today, especially Marcella, my talking doll, pictured here, still with her orignal dress. Jinx bought her for me in 1950 for my 6th birthday! A talking doll was really something then. But when it was time for a lesson from Patty Lou, she was polite and all ears. I'd lecture the dolls. I even drew some rough cartoons about Phil and Phamily and how Mrs. Phil loved to dress up and wear diamonds. (I loved diamonds way back then too, sparkles!) One tale had Phil pilfering jewelry from the lady down the hill, like a squirrel or a crow so Mrs. Phil could dress up! I do remember earning a Girl Scout badge for one of my tales of Phil and Phamily...and reading it to our troop. By that time I had to be 12 or so, but I still had my imagination. I thought that was so creative "phamily..." I never had a name for the wife other than Mrs. Phil and there were never any progeny; just the two of them. I even created a musical song and dance routine in their honor, to the tune of, “You are my sunshine....My biggest fans and best audiences besides the dolls were my grandma, grandpap and Aunt Jinx.

These are good memories that have stayed with me a life time. When Steve was young and growing up in CA I tried to interest him in Phil and groundhogs, and my stories. This worked fine while he was a toddler but who ever heard of a ground hog in Sacramento, CA? And as he grew, he lost all interest, considering it was just Mom being weird, and as he grew more it was, "Mother really!" So the stories of and about Phil and Mrs. are buried in the back side of my memory. But once I year I look forward to Phil's descendant's weather prediction; to continue winter or not? Now that we live in MN people know all about Ground hogs so it's a familiar harmless past time.

And by the way Phil saw his shadow, so it's six more weeks of winter......ahead in 2010.