Too busy too long

All right, all right, I know I haven't written for a while. I've got my reasons.

Mainly because I get really busy in mid-winter. Like last year, I got really bogged down with my basketball-coverage duties in January, running off three and four nights a week to games during the coldest part of the year. Last week, for instance, we had overnight lows of -31 F and -28 F (-35 and -33 C), and I was out at games four straight nights. No wonder I came down with a cold on Friday.

Good news, though. The cold is nearly over. I know it is; I gave it to my wife.

Also, the subzero weather is over. The entire area was in the throes of massive cabin fever after about two months of unrelenting cold and snow. But we got into the 40s last Sunday. It cooled a bit on Monday, but Tuesday was back in the 40s, and it was mostly sunny Wednesday. When I left for the office after lunch on Wednesday, the porch thermometer read 60 F (16 C), 90 degrees warmer than the week before. Nice!

That means my mid-winter depression is nearly over, too. Some milder weather and a little sun will do that. So, too, will the impending end of basketball season. It means that soon I won't have to spend all those nights away from home. By mid March, I can do what I want in the evening after being in the office all day. That's a nice change, especially since these last few weeks have been so damn hectic and stressful.

My wife's cold arrived the day after we went out for Valentine's Day. We had talked about going out Sunday evening, but my cold was still bothering me a lot, and I had a lot of work on stories that night, anyway.

By Monday night, the paper was all finished, and I didn't have a game. So we went to a local restaurant. Alas, we should have gone earlier. We left at 5, hoping to eat and then get to a movie starting at 6. Fat chance on Valentine's Day. We had to wait. "You'd think it was Mother's Day," I joked to my wife.

Meet the furry herd

If you have read my little essays for a while, you may know about one of my special friends, N. She lives about 100 miles away from me, in far northern Wisconsin, is a widow and about three years older than me. I try to visit her every month or so. (It's really hard to get away in winter, though.)

The main event: watching movies together. We enjoy our time together.

One thing I have never told you about (or maybe only mentioned briefly) is about her dogs. Maybe you would be interested in learning more about that.

N is mostly retired and works in animal rescue--especially with spitz-type dogs, which include the malamutes, the samoyeds and her favorite, the keeshonds. Those are the dogs that are bred for the kind of very cold, snowy conditions she endures in winter. And they get plenty of snow there, out in the woods just south of Lake Superior. This is a picture from earlier this month ...



The lake-effect snows relented long enough for me to visit in mid January, and during my visit I talked to her (with my little digital recorder) about her dogs and the stories behind them. I also got some photos of "the furry herd" ...