Hi, everyone!
The calendar says it’s supposed to be spring, but we’re not quite there at Grandma and Grandpa’s house! Last week, we had more snow on top of our snow! The new snow was pretty, but I’m ready for spring weather!
Grandma said snowy weather was the perfect time for an indoor project like making new books about me! After she printed and trimmed the pages, Grandma took me along to the Fedex store to turn the pages into books! First, we had to laminate the pages in plastic, so spills wouldn’t hurt them. The laminating machine has hot rollers inside. The rollers iron the plastic laminating sleeves together around the pages as they pull the protective folder through the machine. I helped Grandma line up the pages inside the laminating sleeves, then I got to feed the folder through the laminating machine. We made two copies each of two new books! They are numbers 50 and 51 in the Books About Me series!
After all the pages were laminated, I helped Grandma cut the pages apart and trim the plastic to the proper page size. When that was done, I put the temporary page numbers on one copy of each book. That helps the person doing the binding keep the pages in order! Then I turned in the pages to be punched and spiral bound. After 49 other books, Grandma knows lots of ways to help the binding person do the work correctly. In addition to numbering the pages, she includes a sample page from a previous book where the binding holes were punched in exactly the right places! These books are the May birthday books, so it will really be spring by the time James and Thomas and Bill and Karin see them!
My Christmas cactus friend has lots of blooms, and the outside temperatures feel like Christmas, too! It was so cold on Monday night that we could use the garage as a freezer! Grandma said we should take advantage of the cold night to defrost our upright freezer. Grandma and Grandpa put all the food from the freezer in the garage to stay cold while they warmed up the freezer enough to melt all the ice inside. Then Grandpa opened the drain tube so that the melt water had someplace to go!
As the ice melted, I was a good helper! I watched the pan under the drain tube to let Grandma know when it was full of melt water and needed to be emptied. When most of the ice was gone, Grandpa used a hair dryer to melt the rest. Then it was time to dry the inside of the freezer and the shelves before turning it back on to cool down.
I watched the external thermometer to let Grandma and Grandpa know when the freezer was cold enough to put the food back in. Then I helped Grandma put all the packages back on the shelves. Grandma says defrosting the freezer is a good way to remind her what she has stored there!
On Tuesday, Grandma took me to her office to do some spring cleaning — on her computer file storage! There were lots of files that Grandma knew right away could be deleted, like old tests and committee meeting records. Some files need to be looked at before Grandma knows whether or not she wants to keep them. Now those are few enough that Grandma can copy them onto a jump drive and bring them home to review.
Tuesday night, when Grandma was leaving for chorus rehearsal, Grandpa and I heard a big thump! The spring on the garage door had pulled off its attachment! Grandpa said the garage door must have had a spring fling! On Wednesday, I helped Grandpa put a new attachment hook in place and reconnect the spring. Now the garage door will open the way it is supposed to again!
Today is a lovely, sunny day, but it’s still cold out! Grandma and I went out in the yard to see if we could find any signs of spring. The snow is melting around the edges of the house on the sunny sides. We found some crocus trying to bloom, but something had eaten right through the leaves and blossoms!
The branches of the azaleas and holly are bent down into the snow. I hope they’ll bounce back when the snow melts! We still have a big pile of snow where the driveway was plowed, but the town picked up our neighbor’s big broken branch this morning. Our fence rail fell down again and I helped Grandma put it back in place.
Where the snow has melted, I can see daffodils coming up. I’m ready for spring any time!
Love,
Lion-san
You are certainly prolific, Lion-San! …and helpful.
Nancy-san said she saw a crocus today. She said she has been looking ever since you saw one but most of them are covered with snow. There is less snow near where the greenhouse is.
This is the time of year when we have had enough of winter and are all eager for signs of spring. We did have one crocus. We saw a bluebird. Wish he would nest here. We have loads and loads of sticks and leaves all over the grass now. Great Uncle Bill just went out to pick up sticks. Yes, Lion-san spring will come.