Thor's day

Well, that is what Thursday means, you know -- Thor's day. Since he is the Norse god of thunder and all that, it was appropriate that we had thunderstorms in the area today. Just another of the mixed signals of spring.

Some of the signals are good. Trees are starting to leaf out, some of the flowers are starting to come up, birds are singing, days are warmer and all that great stuff. Tom spent today helping the Sauk County Land Conservation Department bag trees and prairie seed for people to pick up tomorrow for planting. He ordered about 75 trees himself. I think most of the ones he put in last year made it through the winter, and yesterday he showed me where he plans to put the pines he is getting this year.

Other signals -- like thunderstorms -- are less pleasant. For example, the wasps have begun hovering around the deck again. I went out yesterday evening and picked up a couple of neat-looking glass bee and wasp traps to hang out there. You put sugar water in them and supposedly the insects fly in and can't find their way out. We'll see. At least they are decorative.

We do want to get the wasp situation under control. Tom's foster son John Sjaastad, his wife Liz and their three small children will be staying here at the beginning of June on their way to Chicago where John's father is receiving a teaching award from the University of Chicago. (He is a world-renowned economist.) As soon as Tom learned they would be stopping here, he began to childproof the house. Apparently Elliot -- whose middle name is Odin, the chief Norse god and father of Thor, as it turns out -- is at the age where he is attracted to electrical outlets. So Tom bought some of those plastic guards and covered every outlet in the house that doesn't have something plugged into it. They work well -- it is almost impossible to get them off when I need to plug in the vacuum, for example. I figure it will take Elliot about three seconds to pry one off.

I told Tom I was going to get him one of those signs that says, "I childproofed my house, but they got in anyway."