Birthdays

My Birthday was yesterday. It was no big deal, as birthdays seem to be once you get past the age of say, 21. Its hard to remember birthdays from year to year since I normally don't do anything noteworthy. Maybe that should be something I should think about doing, planning something unique on my birthday so I can actually remember it. My fault really. All I did was do my normal, Thursday day off stuff like grocery shopping, an errand here and there, got my car washed. That was noteworthy because it was soooo filthy from all the salt muck on the roads, and here in Vermont, you just don't go thru a car wash when the temperature is 8 degrees, or your locks and doors and trunk will freeze shut and you will either not be able to get into your car, or possibly even, not be able to get out of your car! So it felt really good to have a clean car especially since I don't work for 3 more days which means it will stay nice and salt free in the garage until then.

Next year I will try to think of some way to celebrate it for just me, something I can remember, something that will mean more to me when I end the day and look back on it before I go to sleep.  

Here is a picture of my granddaughter after she blew out the candle on her second birthday cake.

Warmer Days

There was a touch of spring in the air today. We drove down to Burlington for a vet appointment with one of our dogs, and actually saw a car with its convertible top down! Now that is quite crazy because it was only about 45 degrees out, and roaring down the highway at 65 miles per hour meant that his wind chill was about, maybe 20 degrees. Cold enough to freeze his drippy nose. But it felt nice out, and it was also sunny, which made it seem even warmer, even though there are still heaping mounds of snow everywhere. Here is a photo of our two dogs in front of a snowpile by our house last week.

Kuma and Mishka in the snow!

They love it in the snow, but after their walk this afternoon they were so muddy. But it will freeze again, and then there will be ice everywhere. Here is another picture from last week.

This is Mishka going up the driveway.

It was a bright, but cold day, but the sky was so blue. It can be so beautiful around here, even if it is 11 degrees and there is snow everywhere. Soon it will warm up on a regular basis, and then it will be time to tap the maple trees and start to collect the sap to boil it down for maple syrup. We should tap next week sometime if it seems like it will warm up enough. The sap normally runs for most of March, and by the end of sugar season, the snow is gone, the trees are starting to bud, the peeper frogs are out, and the sap will stop running. I can smell the sap boiling in the sugar house already. Its a great time of year!



White-Out Driving

I decided, on my way home from work tonight, that I really prefer not to die in a horrendous car accident on a snow packed interstate. I don't want it to be because of something stupid that I do, or because of something that a crazy driver does because he needs to pass me when you could barely see past the front of your car, and sure can't make out even a single lane of the road you're driving on. Tonight's drive home was pretty awful, probably my worst drive home since I began commuting to Burlington nearly 2 years ago. And my thoughts about not wanting to die in a car accident was because my 2 hour drive home 4 days ago was because a woman who lived in a neighboring town was killed driving into Burlington, and worse yet-she was wearing her seat belt. I know this isn't the most up-lifting post to make, but it is a fact of life living in Vermont, that you will most likely have to make several questionable drives each winter, deciding which driving habits will get you safely to your destination. Mine tonight was to follow the car ahead of me who was going about 35 miles an hour, which felt just about right to me. That is until he decided 20 to 25 mph was a better choice, at which point I made the decision to pass him and venture into the great white void on my own. If it wasn't for the banks of snow on either side of the interstate, I wouldn't have known for sure that I was even of the road. But I made it home all in one piece, thankful for another safe journey, and glad that the snow should end about 7am, about 2 hours before I need to drive back down to Burlington to open the store for the day. I will end this now because we are in the middle of a bunch of lightening and thunder, and the 3-6" of snow has just been adjusted to 9-12", with periods of rain, freezing rain and sleet mixed in. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a power outage...

Starting Over

I started this Blog last year thinking I would create this wonderful site filled with all kinds of thoughts about my life and where it has taken me and what it means to be at the point I am now. But it never really went anywhere, and looking back at it today, I flushed it down with the DELETE button and thought I would try again.

So...I will start over, and see if it can take a more enticing direction.

I have lived in Vermont for just over 5 years now. And I should mention that's "Northern" Vermont, because we are only 11 miles from the border of Canada. I will never be a true Vermonter because I wasn't born here to a generation of people who had lived here since the middle ages, or something like that. But that doesn't bother me because I have moved constantly my whole life, and always managed to make just about anywhere I was my home. This feels pretty permanent right now, and I am rather certain only a few things would prevent me from being here for nearly forever. I really like it here, and should probably say I really love it here. I could go on and on about the beautiful blue skies, small towns, great people, breathtaking scenery, and on and on and on. But I think anyone who loves where they're living could do the same thing. Maybe you could even do it if you didn't really love where you're living. But this works for us, and that is all that counts.

We had a major snowstorm yesterday. That big, monster storm that covered the US from Texas to Maine. We got about 16" of snow, but this is Vermont, so nothing about our part of the storm made any national news. We didn't have any building collapses that I heard of, no horrendous car accidents or 60mph winds. It was just a really snowy day. I work at a mall that is 35 miles from my house, and I should have worked the afternoon/closing shift yesterday, but they closed the whole mall for the entire day. It never even opened, except for IHOP, Kohls and the nearby grocery store. I got up at 6:30am, and calling the mall office at 7am was like finding out we had a snow day from school when I was in high school. I say high school, because snow days then were so much more appreciated than in elementary school. I told my daughter (who lives in Texas) that my mall was closed and she was surprised, thinking that Vermont can handle anything, especially a mere foot of snow. We can, but we also know when to sit back, wait, and let nature run her course first. Maybe that's why things seem to get back up and running so much faster here, why it feels like they can handle it so well. While in Texas, despite the threat of a ticket if you slid off the ice covered roads and the police responded to it, my daughter was told she had to report into her office. And, the evening news featured several cars on Dallas roads sliding right off the pavement!

Snow falling around our house.

So, what did I do with my snow day? What nearly every other woman did who found herself with an unexpected day at home did-I baked cookies. And spent time outside shoveling and walking the dogs, and sat by the fireplace reading and drinking tea. It was a nice day. Today I had my regular day off from work, so I did my regular day off stuff, then tomorrow its back to work for the next 6 days. And yes, we have snow in the forecast for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But its February, and this is Vermont.