It is the last weekend before April 15... and I am not working.
Let me repeat that: I am not working.
I am not sure this has ever happened in the 15 tax seasons in which I have labored since 1993. (I was laid off for a couple years during the post-9/11 recession.) This half-time gig is awesome.
And now, a moment of silence for Carrie K., who IS working.
This past week I had several county meetings for this, that, and the other. During these meetings I discovered that it is sugaring time right now, and anyone who lives in the country or the woods is way busy, what with the tapping and the boiling and the bottling.
"Oh, you need to talk to Kris about that, but not this week. He's up to his eyeballs in maple syrup."
"Yeah, the sap is really running right now."
"I can take care of that next week. This week my wife and I are too busy sugaring."
And so it went. Somehow I had known that people tapped maple trees and made syrup in this part of the state -- the maple syrup I buy in the store here and even in the Twin Cities generally comes from Cumberland, only about 30 miles from where I sit -- but somehow I had not realized how significant sugaring time is hereabouts. The comments I heard this week taught me that it is akin to the fishing opener and the first day of deer season, a time of intense outdoor activity that occupies only a portion of the local population but somehow touches everyone else in the area. Pondering that realization, I now know why it took me so long to awaken to it: it obviously occurs during the latter part of tax season, a time of the year when I am consumed with working and only occasional moments off for eating, sleeping, and commuting.
Like I said, this half-time gig is awesome.
* * * * *
I took a little break from knitting the toddler sweater.
These are for Code Pink, a Radical Act of Knitting for Mother's Day, which I read about at Vicki's blog. I still need to make 2 more pink squares and 2 green ones before I mail them off on Monday. Those four remaining squares should take about 20 seconds. Four-inch squares of knitting worsted on US#7s go INCREDIBLY fast. Every single one of these squares has surprised me by being nearly done before I realized it.
My squares will be somewhere in that fence cozy.
