Just. Too. Hot.

Forty degrees today. I know. I'm never satisfied. T's ice-skating started up again this evening, and most of the town had turned up to watch, it seemed, sitting on the frigid bleachers in shorts and vests. Her classroom was so warm at school, that they had to have lessons in the cafeteria. Alas, like in Australian schools, there seems to be very little air-conditioning for what, when it's not minus forty, is plus.

I overheard this at the ice-rink: Child reading Malory Towers: "Mommy, what's a 'blazer'?". Mommy: "It's a kinda snow-mobile, honey".

I've been doing more running. One of my favourite tracks is to run along the railway-line, which is a common evening walk for a lot of people around here (the rails have a utility vehicle track along side, so are quite wide). The consensus is that it is 'most likely illegal', but the drivers wave to you, and the police just drive on by. For a state which seems to have quite a loose definition of 'gun-control', they probably think "Well, if you're daft enough to be walking along a track when a 120-carriage freight train is rolling-along, is there really anything we can do or say to help you?". And, yes, they are really 120 carriages long - this means (quick mental calculation) with each one 20m long, it can sometimes straddle several railway crossings at once; effectively cutting one side of the town from the other. I tried to run along side of one the other day as it was waiting for its green-light, but gave up and ate chocolate instead.

I have a problem, otherwise, on where to run. Memorial Day was last week (white heels - hurrah!), which means that everyone (else) has opened up their cabins, and cracked open the Glad-Wrap on their boats. As the roads here can be quite narrow, the boat-trailers quite wide and the road-kill plentiful, it means there's sometimes very little space for me (pavements are non-existent....everywhere requires a car, and today I treated myself both to the drive-through chemists, and the drive-through post-box).

And I'm not able to run cross-country at the moment because of the ticks. The ones you can see are OK...it's the ones the size of poppy-seeds which are the ones to scream hysterically at.

I took an executive decision last week (i..e spent a Lancashire man's money without asking him first), and bought some furniture for the 3-season porch. In the last house we were always being nibbled at by the voracious mosquitoes, but here, luckily, there is a balcony enclosed with screens - pretty handy on a swamp. It also has a ceiling fan and speakers for piped music, if only we could be bothered with trying to figure out how it works. Once or twice we have found ourselves sitted in there, Conversing.

Bridgjo had a good day's kayaking on the river, which is very high, due, of course, to the snow. He took T out on the lake, but she sat in the back, with her friend in front, and let her do all the work. Chip off the old block.

Under the counter

I think the butcher fancies me. Every now and then he slips me the not-so-nice looking steaks or tail-end of the salmon in with my order, saying they don't look good enough to sell. Obviously this will put me in good stead should the Second World War break out again.

T, after spening the last 18 months tip-toeing across the ice, has passed her first grade ice-skating. She is the same level as I am, and is everso strict when it comes to her giving me a leson each time we go out. By forcing her to enjoy sport (sometimes physically, sometimes through crisps) I am hoping she will never have to experience the full unmitigated horror of being chosen last for the netball team.

The ice-skating has now finished for the summer, and I have replaced it by attending a personal trainer at the gym, courtesy of one of bridgjo's friends who can no longer use the lessons he paid for. The Swiss friend and I have started running around the lake again. The weather is beautiful and sparkley....though now and then a Minnesotan will sigh and murmur "It's not over yet, y'know".

A bloke said "Howdy!" to me today. I giggled.

Winter is icumen in

The bugs have stopped their incessant night-time chatter, indicating the start of our second sub-zero winter. A sort of joke, but I am already wearing two thermals vests and my ski-jacket. Inside the house. Like all good English people we refuse to put the central heating on just yet, although we did give it a blast last night, to accompany the first fire of the season. We're not quite an environmentalist's dream.

T is getting busy at school. Homework started this week. It is really being more of a chore for most of the mums, trying to persuade their kids to sit down and do it.The teacher has said that if they are not finished within 30 mins, to leave it. My approach is that this is far too long, and eats into valuable colouring-in time at home. I give her 10 minutes. So far it has involved reading lists and attempting to write five words without copying from the original.

She is also attending Vision Therapy as she is having difficulty focusing. I'm quite optimistic as there appears to have been an improvement already. Some of the things she has to do seem quite tricky for a 6-year old. eg Jessica sits opposite to her and says "Which is your right-hand, which is your left?", and then asks "Which is my left-hand and my right?", which involves a fair deal more spatial awareness than her mother is capable of (ask bridgjo - there was a very good reason we invested in a GPS). The exercise she likes best involves her lying on the floor on her tummy, and me touching an arm, leg, head, and her raising it. Then we go up to 4....it's a bit like the Simon electronic game with "Lady-Bird"-clad appendages rather than flashing-lights. This is all to do with "body awareness" as it is tricky at this age to just say "Well, move your right eye in a bit". There are lots of tracking exercises ("Follow my finger....") and focusing games to do too. What with the homework, this, plus she needs to keep up with her English reading, we're going to have to start getting up earlier.

But not this morning - a tumultuous thunderstorm at 6.30am, and the darkest morning yet, encouraged us to have an extra hour in bed with a story.

I took my skates in to be sharpened today. This is in spite of the other woman in my class coming a cropper the other day, and either wrenching or breaking her ankle (a piercing scream and and yell if "It's grating", is not something you really want to hear. Or, indeed, experience).

At the shop I came across the snort-worthy Warrior Nutt Hutt. This sturdy piece of equipment came in one of those inpenetrable plastic jobbies (of the type, paradoxically, scissors are normally sold in), with the award-winning design being a photo of a broken peanut casing with two tatty looking peanuts inside.

Parky

This morning, just north of here,it was minus 60 degrees fahrenheit (with wind chill). This means, it was approximately ONE HUNDRED degrees warmer in my fridge. I phoned Australia on Monday, but got no response. I called again on Tuesday - "Oh yeah, we didn't come in. It was a recovery day as it's been so hot".

Ah the similarities between Perth and MN. Once has snake-bite, and the other frost-bite. One has tanned, buffed surfer dudes (apparently), and the other, well you have no idea until you get 'em home and unwrap 'em.

In fact, here the weather has to be a measured minus 50 degrees before the authorities close the schools. So kids can be waiting at bus-stops in weather which would make a polar bear wince and say "a bit parky for me, I'm afraid".

Both T and I have had our first ice-skating lessons. T says she's OK for lessons now,as she can skate. This is almost true as she is going forwards, bending over, and turning. Conversely, I can waddle like a duck, knees bent, bum out. I am a diva. T wants to be able to do tricks. I will settle for knowing how to stop.

Tonight's tea is terriyaki pork. We are giving turkey a rest for a few days.

Myths and Fallacies

We were talking about the weather at school this morning. I strongly suspect that this is a topic of conversation which is savaged even more so than in England. I twittered that I'd heard that it gets so cold that a cup of thrown hot coffee will turn to ice. "Not at all," said one of the mums - phew! - "It turns to snow". Oh.

Bridgjo has volunteered me to be a member of the PTA - I may get voted in tomorrow night. I am writing my acceptance speech as we speak, as apparently no other bugger fancies doing it. As long as there is coffee involved. The Parent/Teachers meeting tomorrow is from 6pm - 8pm, but includes baby-sitting and pizza for the kids. I may need to smuggle some gin in.

This evening we put up the pumpkin fairy lights outside for T, and started carving her second pumpkin. I am heartily fed-up of pumpkin soup, although I have only made it once so far, from the remnants of the first pumpkin. I roasted it and pureed it with cream and Gruyere. I figure we need the calories for when the cold sets in.

We are taking Hallowe'en very seriously (although unfortunately the first bag of chocolate "treats" has already met an early demise....).

I did an hour's kick-boxing today. I kept trying to do it with my eyes closed (and falling over), so I didn't need to see my reflection stretching back to infinity, as I am completely unco-ordinated, and it kept reminding me of those reasons why I was always picked last for rounders.

T's and my names are down for ice-skating. T had said that she wanted to do it, then changed her mind and said she didn't. Bridgjo wanted to go along with what T said, but I feel she has sometimes far too much choice for a 5 year-old. She will do ice-skating, and love it! The rink is only about 5 mins away, but the next term doesn't start until January. It is in a little precinct next to the police-station. The speed-limit is 10k there, and, do you know, I keep exactly to that speed (now).

The school at the end of the road has two out-door rinks that they flood with water, although Andrea, who I had coffee with yesterday, said it gets a bit tufty with the grass underneath. I noticed flyers in the toilets at the rink for companies who can come round to your house and flood your back-yard with water to make it skateable.