No snow


SA may be free of snow for the first time since last year.  On the other hand there may be still a little left in a shady spot in the garden.  Where the snow drifted during the Christmas blizzard, which was usually on the north side of something and thus shaded throughout the day, it has persisted for a month now.  Maybe this week it will be dry enough in the lane to get down it with the pickup and clean up debris.  Last week I carted off a load of trimmings from the two big junipers in the front of 2005.  They’ve needed trimming for years and that danged China berry is sending up sprouts all under them.  Some of the sprouts have grown into small trees and I have to get in there and clean them out, a thankless task, but I’ll keeping pecking away at it, weather permitting, till it’s done.

We helped Barbara celebrate her 91st birthday Saturday a week ago.  They had a room at a church and a pretty good crowd to fill it.

Li’l r is playing basketball on a team, her first crack at that.  I think it is the first for most if not all of the girls on the team.  Saturday they nearly won, with Rebecca chipping a basket and a steal, but mostly they get hammered.  Their first game was against a team of smerfs that ran rings around them.  We learned after the game that this bunch of little girls — little even relative to Rebecca’s team which is not big — has been playing together since they were three and play year-round.  Before Rebecca’s game one evening we caught the tail end of the smerfs playing a team of much bigger girls.  The score ended in a tie.  Rebecca’s team has lots of enthusiasm, though, and we are seeing some progress but I’ve yet to see any signs they are coached to play as a team.  Mostly it’s just the same two or three girls who bring the ball down the court and get the ball taken away from them because they won’t pass it to a teammate.  In their defense, though, their teammates don’t do a very good job of getting open so they can pass to them.  Oh well, maybe they will improve as time goes by.

Abigail’s ankle is getting better.  She’s going to PT a couple of times a week.  There is some possibility she could play in a basketball game before the season is over buy she might be better off letting the ankle heal so she can play volleyball.  She’s on a club team composed mostly of Canyon girls and it’s a pretty good team, one that actually wins, which is a refreshing change from her last stint in club volleyball.  Abigail is limited in practice to serving and setting but she doesn’t play in any of the games yet.  Maybe that will change soon.  She prefers volleyball and may not play basketball next year.