I'm back!!!! Under a mound of snow!!!

Well, here I am...blogging again. I really enjoyed this when I was doing it before. Then life went all crazy...buying a house seemed to have a lot to do with that. But I'm gonna try to hit it again, at least periodically here. I think the voices in my head should have someone else listen to them besides just me....


So, it is February 15, and apparently we have moved to the Arctic Circle. Up until just a couple weeks ago, the weather hadn't been too terribly bad this year. Then came February. That groundhog must have been really ticked off the morning they woke him up to ask him if winter was over or not, because he's really socked it to us here. (Does anyone else find it very strange we rely on a giant rodent to predict the weather??)


So, first it was freezing. Like, so cold that you could feel your nose hairs turning to ice. (Believe me, that's cold!) Then, we got like 13 inches of "accumulation". (That's our fancy weatherman terminology for "Good Gravy, it's snowing AGAIN!") And everybody spent a day digging out. Then we got 4 or 5 more inches. And everyone dug out some more. Now it's snowing again. This is ridiculous. We tried driving through our local Target parking lot the other day. I felt like we were in the Himalaya's. Snow mountains piled up everywhere....I could almost hear the yodeling....


But, such as is winter in Ohio. Why, we even had freezing fog a few days ago. Freezing Fog. Now that is some wild stuff. Even for this neck of the woods.


But we'll tough it out and hope it won't last too much longer. And that our basements don't all flood when all this mess starts to melt. And try to remember one more time why on earth we live in this glorious state.....

Apartment Livin'

I'm ready to move.

I have lived in the same apartment since 1994. Or maybe it was 1996. Well, whenever that bomb went off in Olympic park at the Atlanta games...that's the day I moved in here. (What a way to remember it, huh...) I have 4 rooms...living, bed, bath and kitchen. I'm not complaining about it - they're good sized...the building is pretty secure....we have a laundry room in the basement...I don't have to worry about mowing the grass or shoveling walks. A lot of folks out there are a lot worse off than me. But still...I'm ready for a change.

For one, there are some distinct downsides to apartment living. One such issue...while there is a laundry room, of course we have to pay. Quarters only. I hoard quarters like a raving lunatic. I mean it...if it came right down to it, I'd cut your little pinkie right off to get a quarter away from you. It truly brings out a less-than-lovely side to a soul's personality.

On top of that, I live on the second floor. Which means since the laundry room is in the basement, I have to go down 3 flights of stairs to get to it. So I load up my basket as full as I can possibly cram it and lug it down the stairs. Open the basement door...no - can't open it - neighbor locked it on me. Don't have my keys. Put the basket down...back up the stairs. Get the keys, back down the stairs, open the door, head down the treacherous stairway of death that is nearly too narrow to carry a basket down. Get to the washers and realize...someone else has left their wash in them. OK...don't want to carry that stupid basket back upstairs, so will leave it downstairs in my bin. Hmm...left the key to my bin upstairs. !!!!! Hide the basket back in the corner and hope no one steals my clothes. Repeat this process about 3 times before whoever it was finally retrieves their clothes. Did I bring the quar...I forgot the stupid quarters upstairs! Back up. Back down. Back up to wait. Back down to retrieve. Clothes are Gainy fresh. Now...if I could just get the others to get theirs out of the stupid dryer...

Parking is a joy too. There's no garage. And the lot is on the other side of the building from my place. So I normally park on the road in front of my door. That is, until everybody else in the building decides they want to park there too. Oh, but they only do that on the nights that I have 100 pounds of stuff to carry in. You'd think I'd be in better shape than I am by now. And winter is just grand. Try scraping 12 inches of ice and snow off a car standing the middle of a road where apparently people are not allowed to slow down as they drive through it because they sure as shootin' never do! The greatest invention I've ever found is "Heet" in a can. Takes ice right off the car. Of course I discovered the hard way that since the can is metal it will also eat the flesh right off your fingers if you spray it on a cold morning without gloves on. I cried all the way to work one day. It was not pretty.

Another problem is...well, me. I appear to be a bit of a pack rat. So you do the math....4 rooms....15 years.....that's a lot of junk in a little space. A LOT of junk. Really...you just have no idea how much junk...

SO...I'm ripe for a change. Someday, maybe, it will be a reality. I can't wait for the moment.

AND I dread it.

I mean, dear lord...how I am I going to pack all this junk...

To Start...

My first blog. I'm excited. My cousin Shelley started blogging and wanted our clan to start too. I love the thought of being able to keep "in touch" this way. The distance from KY to OH is too far most of the time. Perhaps we've found a highway to keep us closer now! (Check her out at http://shelleystories.blogspot.com/. Love you Shell!)

So..what to say? Well, I'm here in Ohio, so let's start there. I love being a Buckeye...I really do. But there is one downfall. Winter...drags...on....forever! Today was 58 degrees. Nice breeze. Beautiful. Tomorrow they're calling for snow. SNOW!! Good grief!!

Driving in Ohio is most dangerous 2 times a year. One is during the first snowfall. Second is during the last snowfall. The first is because it's been Spring, Summer, Fall before we get back to snow again, and somehow during that time the sunshine, rain, hail, tornadoes, thunderstorms and whatever freak weather conditions have hit us have wiped our minds and memories completely void of how to drive in snow. People look at the white powder on the ground and think..."Oh, how pretty. I wonder what this lovely white powder on the ground is." Then they proceed to get in a car and crash into everything in site as they drive like there is no lovely white powder on the ground. Every year...

But perhaps even worse is the last snowfall. Because by then, we are sick of it. See, in Ohio snow does not just go away in a neat and tidy manner. No...first we endure the frigid temps, the piles of snow and ice, and then the slushy, sloppy mess of the thaw. And then, the weather will get nice. Just like today. 60 degrees or more. Sunshine. Men and women run through the streets exalting their freedom from parkas. Children pull out their beloved flip-flops and cut-offs. Put on a tee shirt. Work in your yard. What a glorious moment!!

But we should know...everyone who has lived here more than one year should know. It's not over yet. No...Mr. Winter will creep back in with that one final snowfall just to try and drive us all completely insane. And by then, it's too late. We don't care. We're tired of snow. We're tired of ice. We WANT to drive 65 miles an hour. It's our Right as Americans! And no stinkin' weather pattern is going to hold us back!! Oh, we see the white powder on the ground. But we are headstrong...we are determined...we are about to make the body shops very happy again. We have ended as we began. The circle is complete...

So..we'll see. Maybe we won't get the snow. But if we do, well - maybe I'll just stay home!

Until we meet again...