Winter Is Here.....Camping Season is Over For Now.

Took me a while to get this post up, been kind of busy with other things.

We closed the camper up Halloween weekend, so now it is winterized and ready to greet us in the Spring.
Hopefully we will have better weather next year than we did this year.  Not many hot days, well not hot enough to get the pool temp up to a comfortable "warm".  It was quite cool most of the year.  There were a few weekends where it was very nice and the water was just right for swimming and/or just floating on our floaties and noodles.  I even acquired a moderate tan!

Now that winter is here, we stay in most of the time, maybe go out for dinner or to visit mom on the weekend.  I have taken up crochet again, and we have been watching a lot of old movies and lately the Christmas shows that have been on TV.

We haven't been playing much World of Warcraft, I guess we need a break from it.  I get on occasionally to do a few things but we don't stay on for hours like we did last winter.  It just isn't a priority for us.

I have been contemplating re-arranging furniture to get a different look, but not many ways to change it around in these small rooms.  The living room is pretty much the way it will stay since there aren't enough solid walls to put a couch against or enough room to re-arrange end tables or other furniture to make it work.  The bedroom is about the same although we have the option of moving the bed from one wall to the other, but that would make the angle at which we need to lay to watch TV would be an uncomfortable contortion LOL.

Missy Dawg continues to be a source of entertainment for us.  She seems to even converse with us.  We tell her something and she makes sounds like she is answering, or most likely sassing.  She knows our schedule and routines and never fails to remind me when it is time for bed, or when it is time for me to get up, even on a weekend!  She did finally adjust to the time change, took her about a week this year.  But she still doesn't know how to read a calender.

Work has been pretty steady, lots of Wal-Mart's and Sam's Clubs going up and we are doing almost all of them in our area.  We are looking for a new location for the office and warehouse since our landlord sold the unit we are in now and the new owner wants to use it for his own business.  So hopefully we have until maybe February to actually move out.  I am already stressing about the move, worrying about getting everything packed, getting rid of what we no longer need to keep, making sure everything gets moved without damage, especially the computers and my big plotter.  I am not going to worry about the warehouse, let the guys deal with it, but the office is mine and I have to make sure everything is moved and relocated at the new place in the correct locations.  I am really hoping to get an office that has more than 1000 s.f. this time, as we have literally grown out of what we have now.  The only other thing that concerns me is how much further I will have to drive to get to it.  I don't like expressway driving, so hoping it is somewhere that I can take back roads that are plowed and salted in the winter and don't flood in the summer.  Is that asking too much?

That White Stuff Is Falling From The Sky

That white stuff is falling from the sky. It's all over everything...grass, trees, shrubbery, and of course the streets and sidewalks.
We had less than an inch on the ground when I left for work this morning. After backing out of the drive, I instinctively put my truck into 4WD. The street wasn't plowed or salted yet and was a little slick. But when I turned onto the main road at the end of my street, I didn't expect it to be worse than my side street. Even 4WD won't help you when you hit snow compacted on top of what I can only imagine was either black ice or freezing rain that fell before the snow. I wasn't going fast, since I had to stop at the stop sign, tires didn't slip when I started moving, but when I hit the road I started sliding sideways. Luckily there was unpacked snow between the tire tracks and I carefully maneuvered onto those to get some traction. It worked, and I stayed on that part of the road until I got to the next town, which was about a mile up the road. They had their roads nice and cleared, salted, and drivable without any difficulty. I guess that's one of the drawbacks about living in a "township" instead of a "town". The Counties are responsible for the roads in the township areas, not the individual towns, so that means the two-lane roads like the I had to drive on are considered secondary to the main 4 lane road that leads to the highways, shopping, schools, etc.
Such is life...and winter in the Midwest.

Is It The Maturity Factor, Or Is It Sheer Exhaustion?

Have you ever been driving somewhere that you go to regularly, such as work, and took your normal route, but for some unknown reason the scenery didn't look familiar? Did you think you missed a turn, or turned at the wrong spot? A cold chill runs up the spine because you're thinking you have to turn around and figure out where you are.

This happened to me this morning. As I was driving to work, I was thinking of some new jewelry design and calculating what I need to complete it. I mechanically made the necessary turns, but after making the third one, the landscape looked strange, or different. Granted, it was dark, and I was a bit on the tired side, but still, I really thought I missed my turn. Panic gripped me for a moment as I tried to figure out WHICH turn I missed. I am driving thru a heavily industrial area with a lot of sub-lots and half roads and not really sure what went to where. All of a sudden I saw the familiar curve in the road that tells me the next corner is a sharp right turn, and I felt better.

I hate when that happens!

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!