It's beginning to look like MUD season!

Our wet snow of yesterday morning gave way to rain and our temps remained above freezing overnight, with above-freezing highs for the coming few days. This means much of the drive has melted off and the rest of the snow pack is (hopefully) sinking into the earth.

"Mud season" will hopefully soon be upon us, and shortly there after the beginning of the gardening year, "as soon as the ground can be worked."

It's been a wacko week for me, mostly good but still decidedly out there and I will be glad for a return to a more normal routine as the week turns.

Monday I had planned a road trip to Calais (about 3 hours away) to meet some Internet friends who had just arrived in Maine. They moved from TX and are staying with mutual friends there until their stuff arrives, hopefully today. The weather gods saw fit to bring us a nor'easter with snow, sleet and the like that day, but it was not as bad as the weather guessers predicted and, though many businesses and all the schools in my area and theirs were closed, the roads were "not bad" in my use of the phrase. The predictions, I guess, served to keep the "other idiots" off the roads, as I saw little traffic on the Interstate and not a single vehicle off the road either coming or going. My reference for "bad roads" comes from a holiday trip from Spokane to Seattle with the kids, many years ago. We had promised we would go visit friends who had moved away though the west side of the mountains had been hit with a "terrible" storm. We started counting vehicles off the road with the first one we saw after crossing the pass and if memory serves, we lost count, or lost interest, somewhere in the 200s. When we got the the island off Seattle where our friends lived, they were without electricity and we had a grand adventure, as we had both lived "off grid" in the intentional community where we met.

So after a great visit with new and old friends, and having dropped off some tomato and pepper seeds to my friend Robin (who is going to start them in her greenhouse as a backup to my windowsill starts) I made my way home... an entire day away and on the road.

Then followed our usual Tuesday crazyness, early AM counseling appt in Dover-Foxcroft, followed by a trip to my store to pick up the paycheck and a quick trip to Bangor for errands (post office, bank, meds...) which had to be a quick one so we could get back home in time to turn around and take K back to D-F for the second part of his sleep study, the overnight stay. Of course we are still in panic mode with the Park Service project, so some editing and sending of files had to happen in there as well. K offered to be dropped at the hospital earlier than his 7 PM appointment so that I could make it to my Master Gardener class and not be too late (which I did, arriving 1/2 hr into the lecture. I was able to take the quiz that usually starts the sessions during the break and got a copy of the hadout from the lecturer, so all was well.)

After class ended at 9, I had to come home and try to get to sleep so as to be able to pick K up at 6 AM (which meant arising at 5, much earlier than I usually do these days). Unfortunately sleep eluded me and I made the bad choice of eating some ice cream, which I know I should never do just before bed, as it always results in the "drowning in crap running down my throat" phenomenon, which doesn't do much to help sleep... and I couldn't even take an OTC decongestant as I would never wake in time in the morning.

So Wed. ended up being a day to just survive... I napped twice, sent out invoices to clients and managed to struggle through a thankfully short night at work.

Thurs I went BACK to Calais, to deliver a hand truck (dolley) for my friends to use when their stuff arrived. They didn't have one, and I felt it was a good way to be able to help, even though most likely I would not be able to be there in person to lift and carry, due to work.

Meanwhile I have clients wanting stuff, and my heart is not really into it. But it must be done today... fortunately a short evening at the store today and tomorrow.

And mud season precursors, which must truly give a northern gardener hope.