Monday, March 17, 2014

Ch-ch-ch-changes

We had another milestone in our family yesterday. Our youngest son, who had already moved to Austin in early January, rented a small truck and moved the rest of the furniture that his Nana had given him. Since he's never driven anything larger than a pickup truck, my husband rode part of the way with him to make sure he had gotten the hang of driving a small truck.

As he turned the corner, going south from my Mother's where he picked up the bed, I realized I was witnessing a landmark moment in my youngest child's life - moving furniture to an out of state home. So, of course I couldn't resist taking a picture as he drove. (Please note red dirt at the crossroads, this is only a mile from our last red dirt road in the neighborhood.) I followed behind until he decided he thought he knew what he was doing. Earlier in the week, the national weather predictions were for tornadoes and other lovely stuff for Texas. However, by the time we got back home and checked the weather, it seemed like the weather predictions had changed. Not that anyone was upset over the possibility of not having to worry about tornado warnings. The big deal in the national weather was more snow for the Northeast. I swear, once again, I don't know how they can stand it up there.

It had been such a busy weekend, I was so beat that I actually fell asleep before midnight. This was the 2nd night in a row - that's almost a landmark for me. So, I was asleep when my son sent me a text message at 2:12 a.m. saying he had arrived. We have promised we're going to Austin this spring - assuming spring arrives. I'm beginning to wonder. I'm starting to research Austin spots to visit. Mainly, I want to find out why Austin is weird. My husband told me last night 150 people move to Austin every single day, but only 20 people are moving away daily. It's gonna get a bit more crowded. I had heard on the radio that it has the 3rd worst traffic in America. Right now, our son is enjoying the convenience of a 7 minute walk to work. I doubt he fully appreciates how convenient life is for him right now. Someday when he's trapped on a freeway day after day, it will hit him. However, the inconvenience of a small starter apartment may finally overcome the practicality of walking vs driving. Right now he's just having fun, setting up his 1st apartment right out of college. I remember those days, and they were fun. I had bought him the large Pampered Chef pizza pan for him to have a little house warming present. There's nothing like pizza on a Pampered Chef stone, even if it's just a simple one made with croissant bread dough from a tube, which is one of my very favorite easy meals.

         Elaine, aka, the Red Dirt Cowgirl

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Moving On

I've been giving myself pep talks about surviving winter. Mainly I've been telling myself it's time to quit taking it so hard and it's time to move on. I'd like to say I've risen above the occasion and have made the best of it. But, alas, I haven't. I'm taking it hard, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We've made jokes about living in Alaskahoma, but deep down, I know it's nothing like living up north. I don't even know how they are surviving winter. I guess the less said about it, the better. Why belabor the point, it's not like we can change the weather.
Old gas station in late 1970's. This was around the corner from our first house we lived in 35 years ago when we were young married.  It was torn down years ago, a trailer now sits on the spot.
The bottom line: life moves on, things change, I need to quit obsessing on the "I hate winter theme". 

Monday, March 3, 2014

I'm starting to let the winter of 2013-2014 to wear me down. Here is is March 3rd and I'm trying to figure out new ways to stay warm. Our grandsons came on Friday night for what we thought was an overnight visit. The bad weather hit again before we could get them back home, so we have extended house guests. Of course, you don't mind when it's your grandkids. I can now say I know what thunder sleet is, we had that new experience yesterday. It hit during church and we had to wrap up church early before the sermon. We barely made it back home, driving through another episode of the stuff before we got to our house. Luckily I had a little warning Friday afternoon that they were coming for a visit, or my cooking might have had to get more creative than usual. At least we have electricity and wood for the wood stove. But, I'm ready for spring. This is ridiculous. I'm ready for life to move on. We've decided to work on our house to get it ready to sell and this prolonged winter is cramping my style.

My church has another pancake supper tomorrow night. That is, if we can get to the church. I kind of need to know, I'm in charge of the pancake batter. I guess the day is getting ready to unfold and the news & weather will tell us how bad it really is. What I really hate about the current thought in the news/weather world is how they high jack the programming and just take over. I mean it's really not necessary to have an entire morning of "Aint it awful out there be careful, to know that "it's really awful out there". I get it, and I bet everyone else does too.

I realized when I reviewed the pancake recipe from last year's post, that I don't know what I did with the 97 cent Easter baskets with lids that I used to make up all the extra batches of batter. Oh well, guess I can go buy me another batch of cheap Easter baskets. I think this year I will box them up later so I don't have to do that again.