Made it to Utah

It was a long trip, but I made it to Utah safely. I got up at 3:40 AM on the East Coast and arrived here 5:15 PM Mountain Time. That's 7:15 PM my Pennsylvania time. Whew! All is well though. I'm having a great visit. It took the baby until today to warm up to me and it was worth the wait. They're all so cute and fun to be around. More tomorrow.

Let it Snow

Yes folks, we are having our first snow storm today. Four inches of really heavy wet snow is expected in the valley. Six inches at elevations above 1200 feet. I asked Michael what our elevation is. It's 1100 feet. So there you go. We have 100 feet to spare. And up to 40 mile a hour winds. It should be over before I'm supposed to fly out tomorrow morning. But, if not, I could go the next day and still make it to Provo by Halloween.

I've been out twice today already and it's only 10:16. The first time was to get the paper. I usually run out and pick it up in my bare feet. But today I put on shoes and took an umbrella. The second time was to pull a big branch off of one of our cars.(Car is okay.) For that I needed my new down jacket. It's not sticking now but we have the whole day ahead of us! I think I'll make chili.

My mom always has trouble Christmas shopping when the weather is nice. She wants it to be cold and crisp outside so that she can get in the mood. I think she would have no problems here! She might even overspend.

Yes, I actually played my violin in church

I think I kept a pretty low profile in Denton, playing my violin in church only on rare occasions. I did play with the girls in a quartet for one Christmas program but that may have been it. There was so much talent in the Denton Stake that I was loath to advertise my extremely limited skills on that instrument. Suddenly I find myself one of only a few violinists in the Wilkes-Barre Stake (a stake is a regional organization of individual congregations which we call wards) and so I actually volunteered to play in an ensemble for the prelude to the Saturday night meetings for our regional twice-yearly conference. And, unbelievably, I enjoyed it. I really could use some practice and my bow needs new hair but it was still fun. Luckily, this is a once-a-year gig so I don't have to worry about it for another year. I also sang in the stake choir which was about half the size of the usual Denton Stake choir. This was a good group and a good turnout for this stake since it is less than half the size of the Denton Stake. We easily fit into one building for our meetings while Denton's conference was broadcast over the Internet to avoid two sessions.

The strangest thing about having the membership of the church be so small in the Wilkes-Barre area is the almost total lack of impact the members have on the community. Our ward here covers the whole county. In Denton, my ward covered less than a fourth of the city, and a much smaller percentage of the county. In Denton, you would be hard-pressed to find a school teacher who couldn't name several Latter-day Saint students they had taught. And we had many members who were prominent in their fields and in volunteer organizations. Here it's amazing to find a person who actually knows a member of my church. And when you talk about growth, here are the numbers according to the census bureau. Luzerne County, PA in 2000 had 319,000 residents. Their estimate for 2006 is 313,000. That's a two percent loss. Denton County had 432,000 residents in 2000 and the census bureau estimates that the 2006 population was 584,000. That's a 35 percent increase. Just a little hard for me to wrap my mind around some days.

More on voting

First, these pictures are random, but I don't have any voting pictures! The little girl is Gracie whom I got to keep two times a week for a month at the beginning of the semester. Pretty cute. The second is a pipe band at the Civil War encampment at Warrior Run. They were extremely good.

Back to voting. I did get my ballot and will be dropping it off in the mail. There were only six people or things to vote for on my Pennsylvania ballot and one of them was an uncontested candidate. It is true that I'd never voted for a state auditor before. So I had to figure out what that person does. But making choices was amazingly simple compared to Texas.

I looked at the Texas ballot from my old precinct. Twenty-three choices. Granted a few of them were uncontested but there were still a whole lot of choices to make. It's true that Texans have a lot more control over smaller decisions. But a lot of the choices are because judges are elected for short terms. A judge in PA is elected for a ten-year term. This means judges up here can worry more about doing their job than getting re-elected.

I'm not sure which system is best. But at least here in PA, I felt that I could make an informed choice on all the candidates. And no railroad commissioner to vote for! I also looked up my voter registration in Texas. If I had decided to visit my son instead of my daughter this coming week, I could have easily voted in two states as I am still registered in Texas. I realize I would have had to break federal law to do that and that that would be grossly immoral, but you have to wonder if that happens? College students who turned eighteen before they left high school might easily be registered in two places, their hometown and their college town. So could folks who are transferred often because of their jobs. I guess that it's just like any other part of a democracy. You have to depend on most people doing the right thing. I looked all over the Denton County election website to find a way to unregister myself and couldn't find out how to do it. Hm-m-m. Don't you think they should at least describe a way to unregister yourself when you move? I guess I have to write them a letter, but I seriously doubt many people do that.

Am I Dense?

I just don't get this stock market thing. If investors just stopped panicking and selling off their stock, wouldn't things settle down for everybody? What are they going to do with their money? Hide it under the bed? And why would anybody want to sell off their stock when the prices were the lowest they'd been for years? Wouldn't this be a good time to buy stock? I must be dense. Somebody explain this to me please.

Tender mercies

A small but dramatic "tender mercy" happened yesterday. It was really cold here. The coldest day since April, in fact. Although it was in the 40s, we had one of those damp, biting winds that Texans are so familiar with. My red winter coat is really cute but it's not warm in a wind. (A real fault, if you ask me.) I had already decided I needed a good coat for a Pennsylvania winter. So while I was out buying my son-in-law's birthday present, I thought I might look for a better, warmer coat. And I was really hoping for a bargain. Aren't we all trying to be penny pinchers these days? Something prompted me to go to Macy's. Even though I doubted that I would find something cheap this early in the season, I realized that, at the very least, I could see what was available and stylish. Stylish was important to me because I am going to be wearing this coat a lot! I looked around and decided that down was what I needed. They had maybe a hundred down coats on sale for a really good price but a little steep for me so I didn't even try one on. But I particularly admired a coat by Calvin Klein and thought I might come back later. Then I went to my favorite store, Ross. You never know what you're going to find there. And I've walked out of it without buying anything as often as I've bought something there. On the rack in my size was the exact same coat I had admired in Macy's, only forty dollars cheaper. So now I have a beautiful, new down coat that will keep me very warm.

In our church, we talk about "tender mercies" a lot. This phrase is mentioned in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. We have had it defined to us in a special way. A tender mercy can be something that seems like a coincidence but, in fact, you recognize as a personal message from God. Now forty dollars may seem relatively unimportant to you, and in the large scheme of things, it is unimportant. But the knowledge that I am being watched over and personally protected is worth more than all my earthly possessions.

What? I can't vote?

I woke up at 4:45 this morning with the realization that I will not be in Pennsylvania on election day. There is no early voting in Pennsylvania, and the state only tells you that you "may" be able to vote absentee. You must state your reason for being out of town. No excuses of any kind are allowed if you are present in the county on the day of the election. Your excuse has to be a "duty" of some kind but can include vacation if you are employed. So I'm hoping that the reason I gave for going to Utah will pass muster, otherwise I won't be voting in this election. I mailed off my request for an absentee ballot today. This is way before the deadline, but if they don't get it to me before I leave on the 29th, I've been disenfranchised.

This stinks. But voting as an expat must also stink. I found a number on the Internet which may or may not be accurate: 3.7 million expats (including my daughter and her husband). That's a whole heck of a lot of people, many of whom care very much about their home country and how it's run. And judging from mail service in some countries, I bet a lot of them don't get their ballots in time to return them by the deadline in the US.

I found early in-person voting to be very convenient in Texas, especially as a school teacher. So for today at least, The Keystone State is the Stone Age State. I looked it up. Thirty-four states allow early in-person voting without an excuse. More will allow it with an excuse. Come on Pennsylvanians, get with the rest of the world. Early voting is cool and is the way to go.

Les Feuilles Mortes

Did you know that the old song, "The Falling Leaves", was really a French song to begin with? "Les Feuilles Mortes" is the name of it and it means "The Dead Leaves" which is a little more dreary. And that's what we have lots of right now: falling, dead leaves. We had a good freeze last night so the leaves are falling fast. It's like gentle snow falling all around you when you stand under my maple tree, only with gigantic red snowflakes instead of small white ones. So based on the photo, your question for the day is: Where do the leaves end and my car start? It is pretty cool having a red car covered with red leaves.

I spent every fall of my childhood cutting out leaves of colored construction paper and wondering why the heck I was doing it. We talked a lot about fall but other than football season, it was really hard to tell the difference from summer. My little GL was born on October 19th in Arkansas and it was over 90 degrees that day. When we took her home from the hospital her hand got a burn on it from the metal buckle on her car seat. Luckily we figured out really quickly why she was screaming. Sorry, peach! So we sure didn't have fall that year.

But here the colored leaves are real and not made out of paper. And fall is truly amazing. The colors are deep and rich, the weather is cool, the apples are crisp and the pumpkins are ripe. You can cut your Jack-o-Lanterns early because they won't rot the way they do in Texas.

And I can come back and read this idyllic post when I'm knee deep in snow in February and freezing to death.

So sorry, Pennsylvania. It's Utah for Halloween

I've been trying to use some US Air vouchers for free tickets for a while now. I finally got a ticket and will be going to Utah from the 29th of October to the 4th of November. I can't wait. Provo is my favorite place in the world for Halloween. It's the way I remember Halloween from my childhood. I love seeing my grandkids all dressed up, and the whole town is kid-friendly on Halloween night. And my daughter is super nice about letting me come at short notice.

So sorry, Shavertown. I will have to miss your holiday here. They tell me that the kids will come to our door for candy. (In Texas, they had stopped coming.) Maybe Michael will get home from work in time to give out candy. If not, the neighborhood kids will just have to wait until next year to trick-or-treat us. I will be able to check out the haunted library before I go though. Wonder what that's like?

My life is so exciting

This morning things started going bump in the basement. Really serious noises as if a very clumsy thief was trying to steal what few things of value we have down there. I opened the door to the basement and there were a pair of sunglasses and some sunblock lying on the floor that weren't supposed to be there. A while later, I checked again and a container of Off! was lying at the bottom of the stairs. So whatever was down there was obviously a party mammal. And most probably a squirrel. Hammy in my basement! Just think of the possibilities!

My wonderful neighbor came over with a tennis racquet, I grabbed a broom and we investigated. I had the idea of just leaving the basement stairs door open (it doesn't open directly into the house) in the hopes that whatever it was, it would want fresh air and food. My neighbor suggested that I use a peanut butter cracker as bait. So we left two crackers with peanut butter at the top of the stairs, opened the door a crack, then went into the living room to chat. After our talk, I checked and one of the crackers was gone. So I closed the door and left the other cracker to make sure our friend had left. At last check, that cracker is still there so I think we solved the problem. I won't leave the cracker for much longer because then I'll attract a mouse friend or two. Tonight, Michael and I can investigate the basement to see what damage the critter did during his or her stay. And try to find out how the thing got in.

Texas was so replete with reptiles and amphibians. I couldn't keep lizards out of the house. We had several really sad episodes. And I hate the idea of having any reptile or amphibian in my house. But Pennsylvania is really mammal-oriented. We've found deer footprints in our yard and we have a resident woodchuck as well as chipmunks and squirrels. No bears that we know of in our neighborhood, thank goodness. But they have them at Michael's work and in Mountain Top, a community on the other side of the valley. I wasn't too freaked about having an animal in the house although my hair stylist reminded me today that a squirrel is just a rat in a cute costume. And yet I panicked in Texas when a teeny little lizard found his way in the back door. Well, I never aspired to being totally rational. Good thing!

Frustration

There's a whole lot I'd like to say about the long hours Michael is working. But it wouldn't be politic to say too much in a public forum. He promises this will get better after the first of the year and I am hoping and praying that will be so. I'm glad we don't have kids in the home right now. They would never see him. Luckily, I'm here all the time and so can see him whenever he happens to be home which today was between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. (He had left at 3 a.m. and has returned to work this evening.) So my being flexible helps out a whole lot. He went through a lot of periods of extra work in Fort Worth too but I didn't notice it as much because I was working so many hours as a school teacher. Let's put it this way: he is really going to enjoy retirement.

Shickshinny, Wapwallopen and Mehoopany

If there's a state with more colorful town names than PA, I'd like to see it. On Friday, I went on a campout (yes, moi, on a campout) to a camp owned by our church on Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in New York. I drove there with some friends from church. This was a women's campout and it was a lot of fun. The fall colors are amazing and Seneca Lake seems to go on for miles. The highway goes along the side of the lake and you see bed and breakfasts, historic towns and vineyards everywhere. We went through Watkins Glen which is legendary for car racing. I didn't know it had one of the most beautiful state parks in America. Michael and I will be going back. The Saturday of the campout, the girls and I drove thirty minutes to the Palmyra Temple which is right by the Hill Cumorah. The temple overlooks the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith received his first vision. What an amazingly beautiful place!

While I was gone, Michael went to a place called Council Cliff which is near Wapwallopen. He also passed through Shickshinny. He was looking for hawks but didn't see many. Instead he got a glorious view of the Susquehanna with fall foliage. On Sunday, we drove back through some of the towns I had seen on Friday and Saturday. We went past Mehoopany, went through Meshoppen, Wysox and Wyalusing. The pictures are as follows: A scenic overlook near Wysox, PA which shows a curve of the Susquehanna. The Palmyra Temple grounds with the Sacred Grove in the distance. My own sugar maple in my back yard. In the couple of days since I took this photo, the leaves have turned orange red and the tree is on its way to the deep red we associate with the Canadian flag.

We are in awe of the beauty of fall here. I think winter will have to be incredibly harsh to negate the effects of the gorgeous summer and mild and colorful fall.

Warrior Run-Fort Freeland Heritage Days

We went to Turbotville, PA last Saturday for a festival we had seen advertised in the local paper. Warrior Run-Ford Freeland Heritage Days is pretty interesting as festivals go. The Warrior Run school district bought a huge tract of land which included a historic house from the 1700s. The district and local historical society work together to put on this festival. The home has been completely restored and the students are apprenticed to learn Colonial crafts and skills. They begin as grade schoolers hauling water and such and work up to doing very complex skills like quilting, pump making, blacksmithing and butchering. They also have an Indian village and most years have a re-enactment of a Revolutionary War Battle. At another site across the highway, they have Civil War re-enactors at a historic Civil War site.

We had a grand time. Michael put a hole in a fence post, and we tasted everything from three sister stew (corn, beans and squash) to fresh-pressed apple cider. The lunch they provided was cheap and good. Michael and I had a bowl of chicken soup to warm us up. The most exciting thing was to see beautiful young people learning all about the history of their region. A high point was talking to the master quilter who was insanely impressed when I told her about my daughter's big win at the Paducah, Kentucky quilt show. The pictures are of a cooper making a barrel, Michael learning to make wooden fencing, and a young lady at one of the cooking booths. I'll try to get more pictures loaded to Flicker. We were somewhat amused that the festival was well-attended by the Amish. It seemed odd to see the Amish ladies in their caps watching the costumed girls and ladies in their similar lace caps. The Amish men's clothing was very similar to what the boy and men presenters were wearing.

It was completely un-Disneyfied like Williamsburg and yet very authentic. And everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. We only had to drive an hour and a half to get there. The drive was awe-inspiring since the leaves are well on their way to their full fall color. Michael talked about it at work and sadly no one seemed to have ever heard of it.

New Temple

Although Latter-day Saints attend church in chapels which are near our homes, we also attend temples which provide a different and very sacred worship experience. Right now, we are in the Washington, D.C. temple district which is five hours away. There is a closer one in Manhattan, which is two and a half hours away, but by the time you beat the traffic and find parking, etc. it's quite an adventure. So we are thrilled that our church announced that a temple will be built in Philadelphia. It was exciting to be in Dallas, Texas when its temple was built and I look forward to seeing the whole process of opening the first temple in the state of Pennsylvania. A totally unexpected bonus of moving here.

On a more worldly note, it is wildly interesting to live in a swing state. Pennsylvania could still go one way or the other. I can't tell you how important I feel having candidates visit our area frequently and knowing that my vote is being actively sought.

Done!

My first draft is done. 61,000 words and the last two chapters give new meaning to the word rough. But the story has a beginning, a middle and a happy ending. Hooray!

5000 words to go

My goal was 60,000 words for my novel as that is a good length for contemporary romance. So I'm at 55,000 words and almost finished. So the length will be good. I'm dying to get it done but yesterday was totally booked and I didn't write one word. Today's the day. I just feel it. I'm so excited about finishing it that I'm not that bummed about our bus trip to New York that was planned for tomorrow being canceled.

Finishing my novel is not the most important thing I have to do today. Wishing my dad a happy 89th is number one. So as soon as I post this, I'm on the phone. Happy Birthday, Dad!