Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Chat with Deb—Spring! (Spring-ish?)

I can point to signs of spring; and signs of “No no no you are NOT taking the snow brush out of the car!”

ME: We have flowers! Real flowers!

DEB: More crocus? The ones out front look great!

ME: Oh, you saw those? Um, then, no. Not yet.

Aren’t they pretty? Yep, as of Sunday, March 8, these were all our flowers, front and back. Please feel free to OOOOH! and AHHHH! as appropriate. (all photos by author)

ME: We’re seeing predictions for temps in the 70s this week. We can open up the house, and you know what else?

DEB: (pause) Assume I don’t.

ME: I can put in the pumps!

DEB: Oh, that would be great! Won’t the water still be really cold, though?

ME: Um… yes. Probably. Yes.

We have a stream in our backyard, with short waterfalls. Totally artificial.

Stream with waterfalls, July 2025. Growing green stuff, everybody remembers those, yes?

Stream at dusk with snow, December 2025. I pulled the pumps the next day.

The water circulates because of two pumps that push the water to the top parts of the stream from a large (~800 gallon) sump. The sump is big enough to not freeze all the way through in the winter, but it’s safer to pull the pumps out and put them in the garage (freezing is very bad for this kind of pump). I like to wait until we have a forecast of sub-freezing temps for the coming week, because I won’t run the stream when it’s that cold anyway (ice in bad places). Plus we love the water running through the snowy landscape.

But by that point the water is VERY cold, and the pump connections are partly submerged. So I need to move quickly to get them disconnected before I lose feeling in my hand (old age and diabetes are not my friends). [Yes, I do have waterproof gloves. Lovely things. Also worthless for work where I need to be able to feel how a connection is coming done and undone. Ask me how I know this.]

But we really like being able to sit out on our 4-season porch and listen to the sounds of water running. Not to mention the occasional entertainment from birds who love to take energetic baths.

ME: Done! We’re back in business, luv!

Yes, it looks a tad barren with bare trees and no flowers (yet), but give it a month.

ME: I found more flowers! These are snow crocus, I think. They’re tiny, anyway.

Finger included for scale.

Anyway, we’re sitting here in the porch now with the windows open, the sounds of water and birds providing a calming influence, and temps in the upper 70s. Ah!

DEB: So they’re saying it’ll be in the 50s for a high over the weekend. Oh, and now it’s a 30% chance of snow a week from now.

So there’s that. Yes.

[embed]List: Chats with Deb | Curated by Jack Herlocker | Medium Chats with Deb · My wife and I, just talking about stuff. Formerly "Conversations with My Wife" and with all the old…medium.com