Everyone
who knows me even a little bit is aware that Winter rates no better than my 8th favorite season, right down there
in a tie at the bottom with “Cold and Flu”. Whattya mean there are only 4? No,
no, no…there’s Spring (the most glorious, IMHO), Fall (a very close second), Summer (mostly good,
when it’s not acting out its beastlier side, called “hot and humid”), Baseball (awesome…except of course when the Orioles stink), Vacation (loads of fun, albeit much too brief ), Holiday (Halloween to New Year’s: festive and
delightful), Soccer (which is extra-special for Team WestEnders, since it happens TWICE a
year in our household), and finally…the chilly, dark, sleet-and-snowflake time that
shall not be named. (See what I mean? And I've probably even forgotten some...but any additions to the list would STILL probably rank above the Big W, for me...)
Well, if we've gotta be stuck in frosty limbo for a while, at least
there was some excitement last month, with the monster storm—for this part of
North Carolina, anyway—that dumped up to a foot of the white stuff in our area. But now it’s
just…February (spoken with a groan and just a hint of whining)…that short, dreary placeholder between January 1st and
March 1st--which in our area, signals the de facto beginning of
the Warming-and Blooming period…that keeps us going until the calendar catches
up with the official first day of Spring a few weeks later.
So yeah,
there’s really not a whole lot to recommend the F-month. For the boys, the
academic term has entered its 2nd semester, which doesn’t really
change anything in terms of their classes. However, the cancellations from the
aforementioned icy precipitation caused the Powers That Be to pretty much take
back every holiday from now until Spring Break, so it’s gonna be a loooooong
slog for the students. Oh, and also Derek now prefaces many conversations with his new catchall excuse: “Hey, I AM a Second Semester Senior…”, which translated from the Teen Dialect
essentially means “I don’t want to be bothered with whatever it is you’re asking me
to get back to you on/care about/do”. (Does that about cover it? Yeah, I think at some point we're ALL going to start counting the days until graduation...currently 122, if you're wondering...)
As for
Riley, he continues to slog away at his Freshman schedule, as one must do at
this point in the year. Recently, though, he got to break up the usual routine
of reading/writing/studying by constructing a model of a building—of his
choice—for World History. He opted for a Greek temple, and came to me with the
loaded question, “Hey, Mom, do you have time to take me to Michael’s for some
craft supplies this weekend?”
He fully knows that this is rhetorical, as the
answer is always going to be an unqualified, “HECK YES, sweetie!” (What can I
say? It’s a super-fun Nerd Field Trip, wandering around in the aisles,
discussing what materials to use for the walls, roof, and columns; how to
securely attach the pieces; and the best way to decorate his creation. Although
he did 100% of the actual work himself, I earned my Design Consultant badge on
this project, for sure.)
Then there's the fact that the "Spring" soccer games have just kicked off (Ha! Pun intended...), meaning that we'll be spending our weekends running all over God's Green Earth (which my mother used to say, as a general term...in this case, though, it encompasses "various sites in the Carolinas") for the next several months. For our first set of matches, we had a chilly one (sunny, but temps in the 30s) at a nearby field (15 minute commute), followed by a slightly warmer contest (50 degrees)...45 minutes away...in a steady downpour. (Which Husband volunteered for, believe it or not--but I think this might be used against me somewhere down the road...so keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain again on a game day...until we wrap it up in May, okay? Thanks for your support...)
And finally, we can't wrap up this segment of the news without a Derek story, right? Last night he came looking for me to enlist my help with some homework...which almost NEVER happens anymore, so I was extremely curious as to what input he could possibly need from me (beyond the usual "Please sign this" or "I need money for [fill-in-the-blank activity]"). It turned out that for an APES (A.P. Environmental Science) assignment, they were calculating their carbon footprint, and he wanted me to consult on some details of our family's...consumption of resources.
For example, he led off with, "So, how many pounds of fruits and vegetables do you think we go through in a month?" Oh, Jeez Louise, I don't know....can you just say a LOT?" Tragically, we had to come up with an actual amount, so I did some quick estimating...calculating...fabricating?...and threw out what seemed like a reasonable answer. But we were FAR from done...we also had to make up stuff--I mean "formulate a logical number"--for such items as: dairy products (Um...Hold on while I Google 'How many quarts of milk does a whole cow hold'? And cheese? Fuhgeddabout it--just put down a really big number and move on...); grains (including cereal? Good grief...can you convert "at least an entire grocery store shelf" into units of measurement?); and beef...broken down into "grain or pasture-fed" (to which Derek exclaimed, "How the heck should I know what it ate?" But I assured him that since we typically buy the box o'burgers from Costco, we'll just go ahead and admit to the less-environmentally-friendly option in this case...).
Then we had to tackle such entertaining brain-teasers as "How many kilowatts your house uses monthly". (Is "no clue" an acceptable response? No?) Siiiighhhh...I was just getting up to go check the electric bill when Derek waved me off and said, "Nope! We're just gonna enter the national average for that one!" We did at least take a stab at some of the more transparent queries, like "Miles you drive every month". And we did our best to mentally add up an approximate weight of plastic, glass, and metal that we recycle. But when all else failed, "national average" carried the day. At the end of all this, the spreadsheet did a handy-dandy calculation and figured out that Derek's carbon footprint, based on our semi-fictional data, was...2...which meant absolutely nothing to me.
That is, until Derek explained that according to his teacher, everyone would probably end up between 2 and 4. Okay, so far, so good--but what does it MEAN? Apparently, it corresponds to the number of acres of land you'd have to theoretically cultivate, to offset your lifestyle. Therefore, Derek's score indicates that he should be tending 6 acres, to make up for his impact on the planet. Well, alrighty, then--that's good to know! (Not gonna happen, mind you, but valuable and fascinating information, nonetheless.
So there you have it...while it's true that we're still in the throes of my least preferred season, we're officially heading toward the much more pleasing double whammy of Spring...and Baseball...and who knows, we may even be getting smarter while we do it. We'll just go ahead and call that a Winter Win-Win!
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