Yesterday was a glorious day for a walk. Warm but not too much so, and sunny with a little breeze. Perfect spring weather. The daffodils in front of the UU church were happy. Tiny leaves are popping out, and I even saw some trees in flower.

Down at the park, things are greening by the river, and some kayakers paddled by as I stood on the bank.



Violets lined the parking lot, and dotted the grass along the path.



I recently discovered a new cheese & gourmet shop downtown, and it's a delightful place. It's just a little hole-in-the-wall, but the proprietor is very nice (and she really knows her cheese!) and the selection is large. I tried a German triple-creme with mushrooms, and it was delicious. I'll definitely be back. I'm so glad to see all the new businesses downtown; a lot of places have opened in the four years I've lived here. We have a brewery, a martini & tapas bar, an ice cream place with a speakeasy in the back (really!), a flatbread pizza joint, and a new dress shop to name a few. Just the opposite of Westfield, where I used to live. It was sad to see all the empty storefronts there, and it's a much bigger town. I'm also glad to see that the new shopping plaza just outside of town hasn't hindered downtown at all. Maybe it even helps; who knows? It would be nice if folks who came to the plaza to shop decide to check out downtown as well. I like supporting local businesses.

My mom is home from the rehab place, and doing much better. That's a relief. She's going to have a visiting nurse for a while, and one of her neighbors has a daughter who does housecleaning, so mom is hiring her to help out. She's doing her exercises and her breathing exercises, and is determined to get and stay well. This makes me happy.

I brought the grill back up to the deck, and maybe I'll be motivated to light it up tonight. That sounds like the perfect end to a lovely weekend.

It was a pretty intense week. It started out by snowing on Monday morning, which I took as an insult as it was the second day of Spring. To add insult to injury, so to speak, as I was pulling into the parking lot at work, the snow plow driver neglected to look and see if anyone was coming before plowing through right in front of me. We saw each other at the last second, but neither of us was able to get out of the way fast enough, and the front left corner of my car scraped along the side of his truck, crumpling the fender and part of the hood. I went through stages of disbelief and anger, and finally sadness every time I see the damage to my poor baby. It's driveable, and the headlight even still works, but it's a pain to deal with and I'd really rather not have to. The good things are that I can drive it until it gets fixed, nobody was hurt, and it wasn't my fault so I don't have to pay for it. I keep reminding myself that it could have been a lot worse. But still... grr. Argh.

Friday was the last day of the quarter at work, and I found out late on Thursday that I hadn't made my goal after all; they're not counting appointments that need to be rescheduled for some arcane reason, and I needed three more to make my goal and get a bonus. So I spent a frantic Friday making many calls and getting more desperate as the day went on. I scraped it out, barely, but was so totally wiped by the end of the day, I actually slept until 8:45 on Saturday. That never happens.

Also on Thursday, my mom had to go to the hospital again. She wasn't getting better from the flu, and her doctor wanted her to check in and get taken care of. Flu at her age, and with her asthma, can be dangerous. I'm still not quite back to normal after two weeks, so I can understand the concern. They're taking good care of her, and she's getting lots of calls from relatives and friends to keep her occupied.

At least today should be fun. My friend B is having her annual Easter bonfire and Peeps roast. The sun is even expected to make an appearance. It'll be good to get out of the house and spend time with friends.

Happy Easter to you if you celebrate!