Preparing for Snow

They say we're going to have some winter this week. Snow by tomorrow, in fact. So, I guess we'd better get ready for the big storm of 2010. One thing I'll not do about this impending storm is to gripe. That's something I've been known to do during winter, but not this year.

We have not been cooped up inside our houses enough these past few months to have much reason to gripe. In fact, I figured out last week while taking our tax information to the accountant why I felt more ill-prepared than normal.

The last two years I've taken great pride in having every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed by the time the envelope full of goodies landed on Bev Kee's desk. Bill used to interrogate me about the taxes during the days immediately prior to meeting with the accountant. I always felt intimidated because I prepared my share by the seat of my pants.

Not the last two years though. Long winter days spent inside the house except for times spent outside the house to shovel, plow, bring in wood and feed animals provided ample time to find all those receipts, add 'em up, double-check them and organize them neatly into a final product of pride.

Not this year. Nice weather has kept me outside and away from the paper piles. Who's got time for taxes when you can actually go bike riding or horseback riding in January and February---almost every day??? Not me.

So, when I took our taxes to Bev's office on a "drop-off" call rather than a "meet-and-confer" call, I hoped she'd be burrowed in her office, too busy to come and see me. If she dared take a peek inside that yellow envelope, she may notice a less efficient pile of forms than usual.

Not our Bev. She did meet and confer with me, but she was nice enough not to look inside the results of all those piles of papers, overstuffed envelopes, and ciphering and recyphering.

Instead, she told me how folks have been getting their tax packages in early this year for two reasons----to figure out how much money they're going to get back and to get their hands on that money as soon as possible or to figure out how much they're going to have to hand over and to plan for how they're going to find it to hand over.

So far, we haven't heard back from Bev. Maybe she'll call tomorrow when it's snowing and when I have time to go look for something that might be missing from the yellow envelope.

For today, however, I'm not going to worry about Bev or taxes. Instead, I'll worry about how I'm going to put this sunny day in the mid-50s to proper use. And the hours available for doing that just diminished a bit.

We're going to my sisters' house at 5:30 to watch the ZAGS play Loyola Marymount in the WCC Tournament. Loyola beat them a couple of weeks ago, so it promises to be a game filled with tension. My sister Laurie just called with the menu of lasagna, chicken strips and salad. So that means I'll bring the dessert and munchies.

With the remaining time of this beautiful sunny Sunday, I'll get some paint to touch up some of the planters in the yard and the fence, chewed over the winter by my beavers---oops---those are called horses, aren't they?

I'll also wash my filthy car and do some other yard work.

Yesterday's beautiful day was well spent with visits to Gamlin Lake, Bottle Bay and an empty cabin. Must be those sisters took off for Schweitzer or something like that. I also washed my Lily. Can you believe that? Bathing a horse on March 6, and she even dried.

Then, I hauled her over to my sisters' where we worked in the arena for a while and then took a spin down Center Valley Road, led by my 88-year-old mother, driving her golf cart. I was wishing someone would come along and get a picture of that rather unique Center Valley parade. Mother even drove down to the hay field to check out Harvey Lippert's plowing job.

Thoughts of tomorrow's predicted snow were pretty far from our minds, but close enough to make hay while the sun shines. Well, we haven't exactly made hay yet here in beautiful North Idaho, but we sure have made the most of the unusual sunshine.

We'll do that again today and then, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . . . ."