Home again

We got home late on Friday night and spent the weekend recovering from the adversity of traveling. Now the bags have been (mostly) unpacked and put away, and we're getting back into the swing of things. This week is spring break at the university, which means a quiet week for me to get caught up. Daniel is also on spring break from Northstar, and, although Charlie has to go to school, its a new trimester, so at least there's a bit of honeymoon there as he gets to know the new teachers.

The weather has been amazing for March. I generally tell myself to not expect spring-like weather until April at the earliest: we've had blizzards on St. Patrick's day before, after all. But the weather has been like early summer. Yesterday, the crabapples all leafed out and the maples (which hadn't been flowering in the morning) were all in full flower by late afternoon. I'm watching the cherry buds with great anticipation.

I'm still recovering from shingles. I still can't quite make it through a full day of work and find I'm needing around 12 hours of sleep each night. I've been leaving work a bit early, fixing an early dinner, and going to bed around 6:30pm. I feel fine in the morning, but run down by the afternoon -- the beautiful weather isn't helping. And I still need to take the painkillers: I'd be in bad shape without them.

I got out for my first "real" bicycle ride on Saturday: I just rode to the stadium, around the loop road, and back. It's about 5 miles: a good first outing, until my rump toughens up. I've been riding my bike to work for a couple of weeks now. If the nice weather holds, I'll try to get to the Connecticut River next -- or maybe all the way to Northampton. It's nice to get a jump on the good bicycling weather for the season.

I got down Alisa's bike and helped Emily try riding it yesterday. She made a good first effort -- and didn't fall down or get any broken bones or anything. It would be nice if she could use the bike to give herself a little more independence.