We had two late blizzards, the one we barbecued in and the one this week that dumped a foot of snow. Our electricity went out two days in a row with the last one, but we didn't get too cold before it was on again. The kids, though, went to school in the dark. Laurie's was the only classroom without windows, so she met in the art room.

 

The boys had some power at Central, but in some rooms they only had one of every five lights on, so it must have been pretty dim there. Power came on here before it did at Northern, but Northern canceled classes until the power was back and Art didn't get to teach any of his classes.

RJ was formally accepted into Boys State, so he'll be roaming the campus at Northern the first week of June. Hope he doesn't get tornadoes like Robert did when he was there.

Mike ships off for a show choir event in Sioux Falls tomorrow, starting at 5 am. Last night he came home late from jazz band in Morris, Minn.

Laurie made a snowman but it melted.

Becky was accepted at grad school for Colorado State in Greeley for the fall.

That's about it for around here. Let me know what things are like where you are.

Today, Art has a stack of midterms to grade, so he is playing chess. And Mike is busy with a lot of homework and music things. He's got music to prepare for state jazz band which is coming up next month. Tomorrow, he goes to Mitchell for the show choir classic, but this year he goes as an accompanist.

RJ is in Milbank today with student congress. We have to be ready to pick him up when he calls. He submitted forms for Keystone today. I think he may actually have a Saturday free tomorrow.

Laurie was surprised today by a package in the mail from Aunt Marta. In it were two Adventure in Oddysey computer games. THANKS, MARTA!

Tomorrow, I have Shakespeare Club, but it will be sad because Lorraine Steele died yesterday and so she won't be there. She was in her nineties, but I thought she was in her low 80s. She drove ME to a luncheon last week! She died at her home, and she seemed in pretty good shape last week, so I don't think she suffered a whole lot before her death. I will sure miss her. What a wonderful lady she was.

I have several projects I'm working on, but among them has been this one on spiritual abuse: Provender.

The flooding has so far stayed away from Aberdeen, although Westport got hit pretty bad. Columbia wasn't as bad as usual, but maybe that's because the water all emptied out in Westport. The Mog is very high, but I think it will stay in its banks unless we get another bad rain storm like we did a couple years ago. Don't even want to think about that.

 

By now, he can do it in his sleep! Here's a link if you want to watch RJ give his original oratory on Net Speak at the state tourney. http://sports.sdpb.org/finearts/debate/aa/oratory.htm

You'll need to click on the video link by his name. The sound quality isn't great, but it's all we've got. He won the AA division state championships this weekend for original oratory.

Do you remember the old comics? Do you know who "Ant Man" is? I didn't either, but I got the idea early on in this great Mark Steyn column: http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MGQ2MjI3NWIwYTQ4NWIzODk0YWE4ZDcxODg3ZDdkMmQ=

The point that stuck out the most was this: The $4 trillion Congress is planning on spending next year (2010) could just about be covered if you took every single dime of the taxable income of every American earning over $75,000.

Better chew on that idea for a while.

Somehow cold enhances complexity. It didn't help that we got about a foot of snow the same weekend the State B wrestling tourney was in town. Every little dinky town in the state sent wrestlers to Aberdeen, the coldest, snowiest spot in South Dakota, so cars lined up for blocks around Northern, right during snowstorm cleanup.

Gotta hand it to the public works dept. though. They plowed right through the snowstorm all through the night before the tourney and had the area around Northern pretty well clear of snow. It was the rest of town that was sloppy.

Thursday night, as the foot of snow lay on the ground, and the snow had stopped, Art decided to trudge through the snow to his office to get another stack of exams to correct. At first, the snow came as a relief. He was already exhausted getting the kids to school early and bringing them home from events late, and he had been sick, and it was cold. So the snow day came as a welcome relief. Northern, which never closes, even in the worst weather, was closed this time.

I had dozed off, but decided I should call his office and make sure he arrived safely out of the snow. I called and there was no answer. I kept calling every few minutes and still didn't get an answer so I began to panic. The first thing I did was go looking for his fallen body in the snow around campus. It was about 10 p.m. and everything was closed and dark, except the brightly lit tech center where his office is located.

Unfortunately, it was locked and I couldn't get in. I was very cold because it was eleven below and I didn't walk through the buildings. I was looking for a stricken husband after all, and that would mean snowbanks. So I trudged back, called his office again and then decided to call the campus policeman, who is a friend of ours, Jesse.

Jesse gladly went over to the tech center and found Art busily at work in his office. He wanted to correct as many as he could in the warmth of his office before braving cold temps again, and his phone was slightly off the hook, so it rang in the central office and not in his room.

After he was home and it was time for bed, I could not get warm for anything. I shivered and stayed awake much of the night.

The next day, I had to deal with snow. It was a teacher inservice day, which should mean that kids stay home, but no. Mike had to turn in his jazz band audition cd because school was closed the day before. That meant we had to dig out the car buried in a foot of snow. It was eleven below again, but now there was a bit of a breeze so it was frigid. Even with my thermals on, hats, scarf, gloves, it was mean weather. Mike and I took five minute relays digging out the driveway until the path was clear. Then I took him to Central and drove home, went back a little later and picked him up.

After he was home, his jazz band teacher called and said he had some free time and could Mike come back and work on some music. He must have liked what he'd heard on the cd and thought Mike might work as a backup player for the mood music portion of a jazz band festival. So I drove Mike back and came home. I later went back and picked him up.

Then I had to take Laurie to piano lessons because we missed Wednesday's lesson. After that, we just had time to get her to the eye doctor for an eye exam. Two teachers noticed trouble seeing the board and the nurse tested her and thought she needed an exam.

While I was at the eye doctor's, Mike called and said he needed to go to Central again for a show choir rehearsal he forgot about. But I couldn't take him, so he called Becky and Art and Art used Becky's car to get him to Central a fourth time. Later, I picked him up.

Every time I went to Central I had to battle State B wrestling traffic on roads narrowed by ridges of plowed snow. It was a madhouse! And the piano teacher also lives near to the Barnett Center where the tourney was held. When I let Laurie out for her piano lessons she had to climb over a 3-foot ridge of snow to get to the driveway.

My feet were chunks of ice and I thawed them slightly near a space heater in the eye doctor's office. We were made to wait there for more than half an hour and my feet were almost thawed when we left.

I got up at 4 am to get Mike to the show choir bus at Central. He was on board five hours each way to Vermillion.

At 9:30, RJ left with Becky for worship team practice, and at 11 o'clock three things happened: Art took Laurie to her cheerleading game, Becky dropped RJ back home, and then Becky took me to Katy's baby shower out in the country.

At noon, Art left the game, came home, took RJ to the museum where RJ gave a presentation to the Aberdeen Historical Society on German scientists working with nuclear secrets during Hitler's time. Then Art went back to the game, picked up Laurie and took her to the museum, then took RJ and Laurie home.

Becky and I returned home in time for me to catch piano festival, which would be held the same time and place (Northern) as the State Bs, but fortunately, we live right across the street. Art and I listened to RJ play an Aaron Copland piece, Cat and Mouse, and a Chopin piece for the judge; he scored a Superior rating, the highest.

A little later we accompanied Laurie to the Johnson Center at Northern for her first piano festival competition, where she, too, scored a superior. She wore her cheerleader shirt, tights and ribbon with her new dress because it all matched.

Later, we decided to celebrate the superiors by going out to Cbinese.

I had to miss Shakespeare Club, but that's the breaks.

It's nearly 2 am now, and Art and I are waiting for the show choir bus to return from Vermillion so we can pick up Mike and then go to bed.

It's warmer now, but for some reason, I'm dizzy.

RJ took first in original oratory at quals this weekend and now goes onto nationals in Alabama. All his hard work paid off. He got in at about 2:30 in the morning and then had a piano recital the next day. He and Mike were both fine at the recital, and Laurie, too. Laurie was a little nervous, but she did fine. RJ now has a week to do a science project and also has a state debate meet, which is not connected to the other debate events.

Sorry, Miranda. I always get bad photos of you. But it's all I have just of you. Wish I'd taken more and more good ones. At least the family one came out okay.Miranda was home. It was good to be with her and her family while they were here. Now, for some pictures:

We had a great visit with Miranda, Vern and the kids. Kenneth is becoming much more a little boy and less baby. April charmed everyone. How can there be such a good, sweet little baby? Granddaughters are so wonderful. I enjoyed pulling Kenneth on the sled around the yard, but I was winded a whole lot sooner than Kenneth was finished riding. Still he was a good sport and did not complain when Grandma was out of breath, enjoying kicking at the icy, crunchy snow just as much as riding in the sled.

Miranda and Vern looked at property out here and have a better idea of what living in South Dakota entails. I have a feeling they'll be staying in California a while longer, but we would sure enjoy having them out this way.

RJ is in Yankton today at a debate tourney, while Mike is up in Fargo with jazz band.
Laurie felt too sick to go to her game, so Art stayed home with her. Yesterday, she had a friend over and she and Jolie swam at the Y and played with Webkins.

Stephen Vincent details how the left is coming around to realizing that the birth dearth is real and is a real problem, but how it's now starting to put the blame on conservatives.

 "By seeking to perpetuate the traditional family structure of stay-at-home mothers dependent on working husbands, conservatives have unwittingly formed a perfect storm of population decline. In modern economies, most families need two wage earners, goes the argument, so in families where mothers leave the workforce, there is a strong incentive to suppress fertility due to economic pressures. They can afford one baby, but probably not two and definitely not more" Vincent notes in his Human Life Review article.

Vincent later compares Paul Ehrlich's dire predictions of a world tainted by the results of the population explosion with Pope Paul VI's human vitae encyclical and shows that after 40 years, we now know who was a better prognosticator. (Hint: It wasn't Ehrlich)

If the left is finally coming around to seeing that the problem with population isn't that it's exploding, but quite the opposite, I'll eat my hat, except I don't wear a hat.

 

 

The only time I ever gave a public address, besides in one high school speech class, was for the Gideons group in Aberdeen about 9 years ago. Art says I did just fine, so I'm believing him. Now, I've been asked to do it again at an event in Huron.

What I wish I had was a little green pocket testament, just so I could remember how it felt to hold that very first Bible, and also to see if they still have those little helpful subject indexes. I couldn't read them now -- the type is much too small for my aging eyes -- but with reading glasses, it would be good simply to reminisce.

I hosted Shakespeare Club here today, which is always fun, and always means three days of nearly non-stop cleaning first.

It was a great group of ladies (and one man) that I always love being with. The program was on Shakespeare's lodgings on Silver Street in London.

Today, Mike has been at school playing piano for show choir practice. One of the neatest songs he plays is called "Hot Chocolate," from the film "Polar Express."

RJ has been in Watertown at a debate tournament. He does an oratory on net speak that sounds wonderful, so I hope he does well.

Laurie had her first game today. She is cheerleading. Right now, she is with her dad at the school's fun night. We made a heart cake for that.

We must request, you dress your best; it's God we're trying to impress

As Simeon scribbled a missive to the Roman authorities, Eli rushed in, out of breath.
    ‘Simeon! Listen! Aron, that Egyptian who tried to lead the revolt last month? He’s escaped again, and the crowds in the street are going wild! Not only that, but Tiberius’s new tax plan is causing more talk of rebellion. Groups near the temple have been whispering about it all day. And Pilate’s clamping down on the wrong groups, as usual.”
    Simeon stared out the door, stylus in hand.
    “The price of wool has tripled in a week, assassins have killed the Roman guard in the south of town, thefts along the Jericho and Damascus roads are increasing so that some are talking about restricting trade altogether. What are we going to do?” Eli demanded, but Simeon still stared out the doorway and said nothing.
    Eli was perturbed. “Aren’t you going to say anything? Judea’s about to overflow with rebellion and you’re just sitting there?”
    Simeon continued gazing out the door, and Eli followed his line of vision until he saw a group of fishermen and laborers gathered together talking to some crippled people.
    Simeon moved his gaze to Eli and said clearly, and in strong tones, “The problem with Judea is that its people don’t show enough respect for God. God would bless Judea were it not for motley crowds like that one out there.”
    Simeon pointed to a sorry looking carpenter and some scraggly fishermen.
    “We are to be a light to the Gentiles,” Simeon went on, shaking his head. “Yet we won’t dress the part. What does it show the Romans, or even God Himself, if we approach the temple looking as that crowd does?”
    Eli swallowed hard and nodded.
    Simeon continued. “I’m given to understand that some of these new religious types we keep hearing so much about, don’t even wash their hands before eating! Shameful! What does that tell the Romans about our devotion?  Don’t even wash!
    “And some say that a few of these so-called “disciples” roaming about are so casual in their obedience to the law, so casual toward God, that they even break the Sabbath regularly, like it’s some kind of suggestion from God and not a commandment! What will the Romans think of us? What must God think of us, when we allow “disciples” to go around plucking grain in the fields and practicing medicine on the Sabbath day?”
    Eli looked out the door. The crowd did look shabby. He couldn’t dispute it. And that John the Baptist fellow out in the desert, he was even worse. Eating locusts and wearing coarse, camel-hair garments that hardly covered his flesh. It was, indeed, a vulgar and overly casual approach to worship.
    As if he read Eli’s mind, Simeon said, “Look at the clothes! Coarse, dirty, sloppy! Doesn’t God deserve better than that? Fine garments. Surely, even on a fisherman’s salary, they can afford one soft suit of clothes for temple worship! It is absolutely disgraceful that they can’t find any soft, clean clothes to wear.”
    Eli was glad he was wearing a nice, new tunic and suddenly didn’t begrudge his wife’s recent purchase of that expensive, purple dress.
    Simeon shook his head and sniffed at the unkempt group near the temple. He saw the carpenter tossing pigeon cages over tables and whipping the temple traders.
This made Simeon suddenly angry. “See! This is what happens when you turn a blind eye to propriety and decorum. Look! Look, Eli! Do you see the chaos that comes from pandering to the slovenly? That’s what I mean! Judea can never hope to rise to its former glory until we insist on respect!”
    Eli nodded, noticed that his fingernails were dirty and quickly hid his hands behind his back.
    Simeon continued, “I am writing to ask Pilate to make a proclamation. Only clean sandals shall be allowed to enter city gates on the Sabbath. That’s a first step. But it’s the job of the priests to make it clear what is acceptable and what isn’t in the way we present ourselves to God. Washing hands often is a must. Priests should insist on this. There should be no dithering on that point.”
Eli began cleaning his nails secretly behind himself, using the brass studs on his belt.
Simeon went on. “The priests should insist on soft clothes in the temple, too. God doesn’t want vulgar, coarse commoners showing up on His doorstep. God is great, and greatly to be praised. People should be wearing their finest. We should insist that those who enter wear at least one gold ring. Can that be too much to ask? We’re not talking about Pan or Diana here. We’re talking Jehovah, the great Creator!”
Eli nodded agreement.
“The finest. That is what we must display. The finest. Wearing gold, though perhaps not required, should be requested of serious worshipers. Those wearing gold should be placed in advantageous positions in the temple, so that glory would be given to God. Those in shabbier garments should be hidden far in the back, in the dark, far corners. Gold, finery and clean, fine linen. That is what God deserves from His followers! There must be respect!”
    Outside, Roman soldiers began roughing up some women. Eli saw a priest cross the street to avoid watching.
Eli cringed, then looked back at Simeon. Simeon had stopped watching the commotion by the temple and had begun scribbling furiously on his tablet.
    He was glad Jerusalem had such valiant men as Simeon, men who weren’t afraid to speak truth to power.
   

Welcome to the Siberia of the Upper Plains!
It's times like this morning that those of us global warming skeptics really, really, really wish Al Gore and his ilk were right about global warming. We could use just a little relief from subzero temps about now.
After two blizzards, several snow days and now polar air, it's time for the tropics. We'll even take 10 above and sunny!
When I woke up this morning the outdoor thermometer said 29 below. The radio guy said Watertown was at 39 below.
"Wow!" I told Art. "39 below! That's cold! They must have something wrong because it's 29 below here and we're never 10 degrees colder than Watertown."
Turns out Watertown's temp wasn't wrong. Turns out my thermometer hit its limit. The NWS had us at 39 below with wind chill temps to 57 below. That's Siberia.
Anyway, the rubber flap on my car's cup holder froze and hardened. I didn't know rubber could freeze stiff. When I tried to force a cup into the cupholder, one rubber flap was so brittle, it simply snapped off, like it was made of hard plastic. Freaky!
But our car started without being plugged in and Orly's room's water pipe still has not frozen this year. Hooray!

Because we didn't get one big blizzard, but instead enjoyed several smaller storms, the snow kind of crept up on us. I didn't realize just how much snow had accumulated until I made my way through the backyard to the alley with the garbage today. It's like this in life, too. You don't know how much stuff you've allowed to accumulate in your life until you look up one day, and there it all is. Above: Anyone for a cookout? Our barbecue is clogged with snow. To the right, the boys' car, which hasn't moved in a while, is pretty much immobilized in the snow.
Left, our birdbath is almost buried.

It's only mid-January, and people here are already sick of winter, but maybe that's because we've had so much snow that getting around town isn't easy anymore.
The roads are sloppy. We just got the walks shoveled when more snow came. Then our neighbor blew all our drives and walkways clear last night. Now so much snow has fallen and blown around since then that you'd never know it was cleared yesterday.
When will it end? Not until May probably.

When everything seemed against them, when all seemed lost, when everywhere they looked it was dark and hopeless -- then He stepped in and took a little child by the hand.

Psalm 30

 I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

 O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

 Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

It's been great having Robert, Beth and Abby visit us. Today, the other kids had to be back in school, with the boys also having piano lessons after school. It was much quieter around the house today. The tree is still up and I need to get that taken care of. We've had some good times of hymn singing, card playing and Abby watching. Robert is on the old, reverse sleep schedule, so he goes to bed around 8 am and gets up in the evenings. Everyone else is back to a normal schedule.