Goodbye Happy Car! Hello Impreza!

Today I rented the storage building for my Miata, better known as the Happy Car. It's so short it will fit in a 10 by 15 foot unit. Michael will spray it off and we will wait until the roads have been washed off by rain before driving it to the storage facility. We don't want any of the ice melt stuff to rust my car while it's in storage. That's the whole point. It will stay there until spring has come and the roads are salt-free once more.

I will be driving the Subaru Impreza from now on. It is very comforting knowing you have all-wheel drive when you try to negotiate the five-minute drive to church or to the grocery store. There are scary, twisty mountain roads in any direction from my house.

I went to Target today for a microwave cart since our kitchen counter space is the size of a postage stamp. The essential microwave we had to buy is taking up far too much room. When I go shopping, I always park far away from other cars but today it didn't help. Someone too lazy to walk a few yards and put their cart away safely let the wind catch their cart and it rammed into our Impreza. Since the contact point was the metal base, it completely wiped out my wheel cover. Could have been worse. I could have lost a door. It wasn't even cold today or rainy. Just windy. Thanks a lot, folks. I park miles away from you so you don't ding my doors and then you let your carts ram my car. I thought it was just my Miata people were out to get. I've been hit in parking lots twice in the Happy Car and once at an intersection standing still. Now that they're hitting our Subaru, I realize that it's not the Miata, it's just me. Sadly, there are plenty of irresponsible people here in PA just as there were in Texas.

Why bother?

So if they're having a white Christmas in New Orleans, why bother moving to Pennsylvania? Seriously!

We have got about an inch today but my brother on the left got far more in Baton Rouge. For great pix of the snow in Baton Rouge, check out the Baton Rouge Advocate website at 2theadvocate.com. Sorry I can't link you there. Blogger isn't working well for me today.

Going to a party in the snow tonight. I think I'll be a lot less excited about the snow when I can't look out at it past my Christmas tree.

Tear my heart out

My daughter just posted the first closeup I've seen of my new granddaughter. Knowing that I'm missing out on all that beauty is almost more than I can bear. She's glorious and if they made a china doll based on her face they would sell a million copies. I'm so excited for her sister who gets to go meet the new one and help out with the new baby adjustment period and visit the beautiful city of Prague.

This is not to discourage my daughter from sending me pictures. It's far worse not knowing what E looks like than seeing how precious she really is. So keep 'em coming.

This really isn't a move to Pennsylvania issue. We were even farther away in Texas from this daughter. But it is a "I live so far away from my family" issue.

My talented and bubbly real estate agent came by the other day to drop off a lovely ornament for our tree. (Glad I decided to put one up!) She complained about the grayness of the weather. It was four o'clock in the afternoon but it looked like nine it was so dark. She said that it looked like a horror movie outside. So I'm guessing that this weather is a little unusual. Even so, I'm dealing with it. Yesterday I got busy and went out in the pouring cold rain to do all my errands because the alternative was going out in the icy rain and sleet today and tomorrow. It's all relative. The happy car hasn't gone into storage yet but I think I've found a nice home for it. But it looks happy in the snow picture, doesn't it? I love the way Miatas smile.

How many porches do you have?

I received a call yesterday from my firstborn, N, who was wondering what had happened to a package she and her husband had sent. According to UPS, they had delivered it to my porch on the 4th and knowing her mom the way she does, she knew I would call her immediately on receipt to squeal in her ear about how excited I was to receive it. Michael was home while I was talking to her and he wandered around looking for this missing package while I tried to think of more places to look. After he checked inside the sun porch, outside the sun porch, under the sun porch furniture and outside the back door it occurred to me that we do have a front door and it actually has a porch. So Michael opened the front door which no one uses because there is no walkway leading up to it, and, lo and behold, my wonderful new Harry Potter book was sitting there all nice and dry even though it had snowed for the past two days. Naomi finally asked how many porches we have. Two, I realize now. And we have four entrances to the house, one for each side. Doorbells on three entrances. Well, I guess you can't say we aren't welcoming. You can break into our house from any direction.

A new Harry Potter book is always a good thing. This one is a very nice addition to the collection. Thanks, N and T. You're great!

Church canceled?

Yesterday morning, there was only one other car in the church parking lot when I arrived. I couldn't figure it out. I wasn't early for my meeting but just right on time. Where were the others? I walked around the building in my snow boots looking for an open door since someone else was obviously there. My snow boots which I was wearing for the first time leave a cute hobnail pattern and I was having fun crunching along trying to see which door was open. As I walked I noticed tracks and realized that a deer had walked the entire perimeter of the church in the wee hours. Eating shrubs I guess. So there were my footprints and the deer's but that was all. No one else's and no open doors either. It occurred to me that maybe church was canceled since the parking lot was over an inch deep in snow that had fallen in the night. Some of our church members live even higher up in the mountains than I do so they must have had lots more snow. In Denton, Texas they would have at least considered canceling with that kind of road conditions.

By the time I got back to my car another car drove up and then another. I realized three things. One is, you don't cancel church for a little snow around here. Almost all the roads had been plowed and sanded in the short distance I had to drive to church. The other is that the next door neighbors to the church must be using our lot for additional parking for their Beemer. The third is that I should consider whether arriving on time for my 8:15 meeting is worth it since I seem to be the only one who gets there on time.

Snow is pretty

Who knew that I would wait until it started snowing before I went running my errands? I'm usually the one hunkered down in my house refusing to drive in any kind of icy or snowy weather. But it was so pretty coming down (and since it wasn't sticking to the roads at all) and since I now have an all wheel drive vehicle, I decided to do the post office and bank run in the snow. I wore my Santa hat which gets mostly stares around here. (Maybe it's too early, but it's December and it was snowing for Pete's sake!) I wonder if they wore Halloween costumes here to go to the grocery store? I'm guessing not. I was in Utah so I don't know what they did here. Early on Halloween day in Provo, the grocery store was packed with people dressed in costumes when I visited my daughter. And in Texas, a Santa hat or a Halloween costume wouldn't surprise anyone, I don't think. But here in Pennsylvania we are rawther conservative. Oh dear!

Dressing up is one of the things I miss most about being a kid. So I think we adults should take full advantage of the clothing possibilities at Halloween and Christmas.

About this time last year

About this time last year, we found out Michael had the chance to be transferred to Wilkes-Barre. What a difference a year makes! As I look back on the past year, the hardest thing was just deciding to move so far away from family and friends. The second hardest was getting our house ready to sell. It's still daunting looking back on the amount of cleaning out, painting, and fixing up we had to do to get it ready. At least I spent a lot of my last winter in Texas outside enjoying the sunshine. The third hardest thing was getting this house organized and livable (an ongoing project.)

I've swung violently from pessimism to optimism all year. I tend to be optimistic about the big things working out (health, my children's happiness, my long term goals, my marriage) and tend to be pessimistic about the small items (the seriousness of the leak in the laundry room, the possibility of losing my luggage when I fly, the chances of finding what I want at the grocery store.) I must drive my family crazy.

Here's what I expected that came true: Our new ward (church congregation) is full of great people. I have to spend a lot of time in airplanes going to visit family members. My parents have needed me to be there for them. I miss the sunshine. I hate being so far away from my children and grandchildren. Living in new part of the United States is exciting.

Here's what I expected that didn't come true: I would hate the cold. (So far so good. It really hasn't been that bad. Down coats help a lot.) We would find people to be less friendly than in Texas. (They're actually very friendly and very nice.) We would have trouble living in such a small house. (I have learned to love my well-organized small kitchen and downsizing has not been bad at all.) I would lose contact with my friends and former students. (I actually have more contact with my students through Facebook and by emailing, calling and writing blog posts, I've kept close to friends.)

Here's what I didn't expect at all: Michael works so many hours and so many days of the week now that we don't get to do as many fun things as we want. We haven't been to Manhattan yet! The summer offered us the most beautiful weather imaginable. I'm the only organist in the ward and the best pianist by far so I play all the time. My writing career has come to a complete standstill. It's really hard to get a teaching job here if I decide I want to go back into the classroom. People are begging me to teach piano lessons. We haven't been to one musical concert since we moved. I've gotten excited about cooking again. My children and parents seem to be closer to me than ever before. Even though Pennsylvania is beginning to feel like home, it's so beautiful here, I still feel like I'm on vacation all the time.

Wow, that was probably way more info than you needed.