Taxes, tunes and tumbles

Yesterday was my first day back at work at the tax office. It's still early in the season, but a fair amount of people called to schedule appointments or ask questions. Jeff (my boss, Tim's brother), had me listen to eight saved messages on the voice mail and try to decipher some (a few people tend to go on about unrelated things when they get a chance to record their own voice). I relearned the skip, fast forward and rewind features, and tried not to delete important things.

I left the office a little early, since I'd been up since 5 am to walk the dog, blog, fix lunches, and get the kids out the door (Mark had jazz band at 7 am, and since he's Christina's ride, she had to get up too). Then Mark had a concert last night at school along with the Martin Luther College Wind Symphony of New Ulm, Minnesota. The concert was really magnificent--the college band played a variety of numbers, including an amazing percussion piece with tympany, various chimes, xylophones and bells and other drums and percussion instruments. A favorite piece was a jazz number which highlighted an adult trumpet soloist. We had front row seats, so it was fun to see the incredible talent of all the performers up close.

When we got home, Christina had already gone to bed, but left a note that she had been too tired to take Raven out for his nightly excursion. I got the leash and put my boots on again. We just stepped outside the front door when WHOOSH--I landed flat on my back. Well, not really flat, as my back encountered the bottom step of our porch. I was able to holler for Tim and he came out to help me up. (He almost slipped, too.) It's nice to have warmer weather, but at night when things refreeze, our porch becomes a skating rink. We have talked to the city about putting up some kind of canopy to keep the ice from dripping and melting on the sidewalk, but they want thousands of dollars to get a variance to build what we want. Politics. I would think safety would be more important than the fact that a neighbor might want to do something similar to what we do and perhaps go overboard. Maybe I'll talk to our city councilman--his son is friends with our boys....

Well, I'm a little sore today, but thankfully did not hit my head or break anything. I landed on a good place, I guess--just below the shoulders. I think my head must have snapped a bit, because my neck is a little stiff today. The hazards of living in Minnesota. My walk with Raven this morning was uneventful--slippery spots, but I anticipated them before we got to them.

Let's see, Groundhog's Day is less than two weeks away, then how many more weeks of winter?

Till next time,


Suzi