Winter Driving Hazards

I love to drive. I like to call it my "windshield time", where I have nothing to do but stare out my windshield and think, or occasionally practice my karaoke. I told some friends that my commute is an hour and twenty minutes one way. That isn't completely unreasonable, but then I told them that my commute is 90 miles one way. That is a little more unusual. And expensive. (For those of you doing the mental math, in Montana you can drive 90 miles in an hour twenty by driving the speed limit...and maybe just a "pinch" more.) Ordinarily, this drive relaxes me and gives me some precious alone time. Lately, however, the road conditions have made the commute a little more nerve racking. But it's not the snow and ice that bother me. Any fool can deal with that. It's all the other winter road hazards that are the problem. Maybe you've heard of them:
The "Driving Too Fast For the Conditions" Guy: You know the one. Everyone has slowed down due to the black ice/snow pack and one guy thinks he's going to break ranks and move to the front of the pack. Everyone else in line puckers up until he either backs down and gets back in line, or spins off into the ditch. Either way, hopefully he finally figured out why everyone else was driving so slow!
The "Driving Too Slow For Conditions" Guy: You come over a hill, traveling well on the mostly bare/patchy snow interstate when you encounter someone driving 25 mph. Here's a tip: If the roads are so bad that you have drive that slow on the interstate, maybe you should just stay home.
The "Over-Reactor": They encounter a little ice and immediately slam on the breaks. If that doesn't send them into a skid, then they try a little over-correction. If this hasn't finally sent them into the ditch, well, there's always next time. (By the way, I don't care how strong your faith is, "Jesus take the wheel" is a figure of speech!)
In addition to all the "hazards" mentioned above, winter driving also produces several phenomenon that still cannot be explained.
The "Difference in Vision": Why is it that in blowing snow or foggy conditions, everyone leans forward, as if the reason you couldn't see was because you were too far away from the windshield, and those extra four inches you gained will make all the difference? Also, why do semi's seem to have a clearer view of the road than I do in my car? Is the visibility really that much better up there? It must be, because when I can't see, I seem to get passed by semi's like I'm standing still. (Which has the added bonus of obliterating my vision completely, forcing my to drive by Braille using the rumble strip on the side of the road. Good times...)
The "Coffee Shop" Paradox: After a particularily bad snow, everyone in town has to go down to the coffee shop, if for no other reason than to complain about how bad the roads are.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we are finally moved! (And by moved I mean that almost all of our stuff is here in our new house, still in boxes for the most part.) I want to especially thank the husband, as he really did the lion's share of the physical labor involved. (A special thank you to the husband's brothers for their help with the "unloading"!) I'm not sure what I was hoping for, but the place looks alarmingly the same as it did before we left! I'm still meandering through a maze of boxes and I can't find a damn thing! (Where is that corkscrew!?!) I read somewhere that moving ranks fifth on the list of "life's most stressful events". (Behind death of a loved one, divorce, birth of a child and loss of a job!) Two months ago, I wouldn't have agreed with this ranking. "I love to move!" I said, naively, "It helps me get rid of my clutter!" Open mouth, insert foot. Yesterday I had a mini-breakdown. I started back to school last week, and due to the work involved with the move I am already falling behind and I hate to start a semester that way. I was crying and snippy with everyone. (Monthly hormones may have been a small factor in the breakdown, but mostly because I couldn't find the things I was looking for!) Added to my stress was the fact that I was between internet carriers. (My previous carrier didn't offer service in my new residence, which I think is just a way for all of them to fleece me out of more money!) For the past two weeks we have had no internet or cable. I know...it's like we're cave people! On top of that, I didn't get rid of nearly as much clutter as the husband had hoped. Of course, our definitions of "useless" items differ slightly. He claims I have too many books. I think that the waterbed frame he found near the dumpster might be taking up valuable space. He said I have more stuff than anyone he has ever met. (Um, have you met my parents?) I thought that an entire trip dedicated to a power trowel may have been unnecessary, especially since he hopes never to do concrete work again! (For those of you who don't know, a power trowel is a huge thing that looks like a giant...fan or something and I guess it does something to concrete...I don't know, it's never really been made clear to me.) But on a positive note, we did some good things. We used the money my brother gave us for Christmas and bought new dishes. (The dishes we had been using were given to me, used, when I was 19. As they were still in pretty good condition, I gave them to my brother!) We also bought new kitchen towels, bath towels and bed sheets. (The ones we had were mostly wedding gifts from going on 9 years ago!) A big chunk of purging was in the Tupperware drawer. (Beware: Tupperware will reproduce on it's own if left in a drawer or cupboard for too long. But not evenly. Our lids had a big old happy family, but our bowls seemed to be suffering from fertility issues.) We tossed all but our favorite pieces and bought some new, with the new little organizer thingys. Overall, we have reached that place where we are finally getting rid of the second-hand stuff we acquired when we were "just starting out" and bought new stuff or our own. It really feels like growing up. (I think early 30's is an excellent time to start thinking of yourself as a "grown-up")

Well, thanks for reading. I really wanted to celebrate being back online with a new post. Both of my fans will be thrilled.

Living Online

Why doesn't everyone have a website? I don't mean a personal site, I mean businesses. The fam and I are moving from a relatively urban area (100,000 people. Yeah, I know, but in Montana that's as "urban" as it gets.) to a more rural area and nothing says "rural" like stepping 20 years into the past. I wanted to find out where to register to vote, but this town doesn't have a website. I wanted to look for apartments, but the town newspaper (at least they have a newspaper) cannot be found online. I wanted to look into T-ball/swimming lessons/Girl Scouts for my angel. No website. Golf course? No website. Are you seeing the theme here? There are some places that don't even take VISA!!
I do everything online. I go to school, pay my bills, do my shopping...everything! It looks like I'm going to get a glimpse of how people lived in the "good ol' days". (Like 1992.)
On the other hand, this is a small town. My angel can walk to school. I can bike to the store. They have charge accounts at the hardware store. And though not everyone will take my plastic, they will take my personal check. And there's something to be said for that.

Running with scissors...

Due to our impending move, I have investigated the requirements to move my angel from one school to the next. Apparently, all she requires is to have been born at least 5 years ago and be up to date on her shots. I thought there'd be more to it than that. Her new school will contact her old school to have her transcript sent over. Transcript? Really? It's Kindergarten. What could that possibly contain? Knows her letters...A. Knows her colors...A. Cuts a straight line...C+. My angel seems to be struggling with that concept. (A skill her mother has yet to fully master!)

Her Preschool teacher informed us of this deficiency in our parenting. She explained that my angel didn't know how to use scissors, in fact, she didn't even know how to hold them. Almost as if she had never held a pair before! (Pause for embarrassed laughter) I calmly explained that it had honestly never occurred to me to place a pair of scissors in my four-year-old's hand. Her age not withstanding, my angel comes from a long line of scissor-abusers.

Brother #1, as a small child, took a large (and thank goodness, plastic handled) pair of scissors and cut the cord of a running fan, resulting in a tripped breaker, a useless fan, and a rather large notch in the scissors. (This little incident occurred in the pre-autumndaesy era, so I can cheerfully claim zero blame for this!)

Brother #2, after I purchased a brand-new sleeping bag for him, (so new I was in the process of removing the tags) cut a large snip in the nylon. Why? I asked. Shoulder shrug was his four-year-old answer.

Not to be left out, the husband is just as big a scissor offender. (Probably bigger, as the boys were toddlers and he was a grown man acting like a toddler.) One day, while the cat annoyingly batted at the cord to the window blinds, the husband snapped, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the cord high enough that the cat couldn't reach it. Through his red haze of fury, it escaped his notice that the blinds were raised almost to the top, and with a shorter cord, they won't go down all the way. (I quickly informed him of this miscalculation.)

Because of all these reasons, my angel had in fact not held a pair of scissors until her preschool teacher handed them to her. Not wanting her to fall behind, the husband and I bought her a pair of safety scissors for her desk. She may have broken the curse, as the only thing she cuts with them is paper. In fact I frequently have to use her scissors, as I can never seem to remember where I have so cleverly hidden all the other pairs around here...

Moving Woes

I am living in a storage locker. We are in the middle of a move, and almost everyone can relate to the chaos this creates. There are basically two kinds of moves: the no notice, no packing, throwing your junk in the trunk of your car kind and the plenty of notice, super organized, hired movers kind. I've done both, and each has pros and cons.

The husband's favorite move happened two years ago when we (finally) sold our house with the stipulation that we would be out in 48 hours. We literally filled laundry baskets with stuff, drove them to the apartment across town, dumped, and returned for more crap. This "bucket brigade" move was very easy for him because he only had to fetch and carry. This same move nearly drove me to the padded room. My grandmother's teacups were sharing a box with boardgames, scented candles and cough syrup. (This box ended up in the master bedroom, even though it was labeled "livingroom", neither of which made much sense.) Luckily my mother stepped in with some much needed female assistance and some red wine therapy.

For this move we have plenty of notice, which may be why it's so frustrating. Moving day isn't for another two weeks, so right now the house is filled with boxes. Some are full and some are not, and I have no idea where anything is. (Including the corkscrew!) Out here in the sticks there are no moving companies so we are pretty much on our own. We'll rent a U-haul truck and the "movers" will the husband's brothers and buddies, none of whom understand what the word "fragile" means. (Fra-gee-lay. Must be Italian.) But they are the only guys we know who will work for beer. But this time, I'm not "paying" them until after the truck is unloaded!

New to this...

Okay, so I'm a blog virgin. To be honest, I've never even kept a diary. I'm not really sure what I'm doing here, except I love to read about the lives of other women, so I figured there may be others who would be interested in what I go through. (Probably just my mom)

I am what I like to call an "eclectic" woman. I love Prada, but I usually by my clothes at Target. I am currently attending university to achieve that coveted "degree" that everyone keeps talking about. I love the written word, but I chose Math as my subject of study. Like I said, I'm a puzzle.

The husband and I have been at this marriage-thing for over 8 years, which is pretty impressive now-a-days. (Don't tell Grandma, but we were co-habitating for 2 years before that!) He has two boys from a previous marriage, whom I love dearly, but will here-to-for refer to as "the hellions" or "the boys", depending on my mood. We also have a daughter together, whom I will call my "angel", which, honestly, is a good description.

My goal here is to chat about motherhood, discuss employment hassles/job search trauma, share recipes and/or patterns, and basically rant about life for modern/traditional women. I hope you'll join me. Till then!