The New Year Begun

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the "normalcy" that next Monday will bring.

I like things to be somewhat "set".

And, these past two weeks of holly-daze have made for some confusion regarding what day of the week it is, where are we going, who's doing what and so on. So I'm ready to bring Monday morning's normalcy BACK! (Mind you, I CERTAINLY did not feel that way when I worked outside the home . . . let's make that PERFECTLY clear.)

That said, the lack of normalcy has allowed for a huge amount of visiting and catching up with friends. We're still "doing Christmas" with various groups of people, and yesterday was no exception: on the road for the 1-hour drive to town to have a traditional "meat pie" meal with friends at 2:00 and then down to the local tavern for a surprise birthday party at 6:00. After getting in about 1:30 AM on New Year's Eve, I don't think last night was but an hour earlier. So, I'm happy to be in tonight!

The snow continues to fall. It doesn't seem that we've had a day or two lately between little storms. The winter of '08-09 will go down as The Year We Finally Had Winter, no doubt! And, all I can say is, "Thank goodness for back-up plows!" We STILL don't have our 1-ton ("good", new) pickup back from the mechanic, so the old 1977 plow truck has been earning its keep. And, in addition to our 4+ mile-long winter driveway, we're keeping a friend's long, twisty, hilly driveway open while he travels for work every two weeks! Tom drove the plow truck to his massage therapy appointment this afternoon and then plowed out Big View on his way home.

(Some day, I'll have to tell the story of the old '77 plow truck. It's the vehicle I got to [had to?!] drive in high school on the days I was lucky enough to take one of the cars in. Mom & Dad figured I had fewer chances of getting hurt in a metal box that size. It's also the car I had my very first kiss in! Right in front of town's only mortuary! Good grief.)

Anyway, I digress . . . .

Here are some shots I took yesterday after yet another dumping. It being New Year's Day, the main road wasn't plowed when we headed into town @ 1:00 in the afternoon. Fortunately, the snow was fluffy, and we'd taken the 4-wheel drive Subaru.

So, this is the "main road" that we drive 12 miles of in the winter (between our 4 mile long winter driveway and the highway).



Even the highway wasn't very clear. We drive about 20 miles of this to get to town.




And then: town. In the early afternoon of the 1st, it was quiet! Perhaps everyone was still nursing hangovers?!