Saturday, February 8, 2025

 To catch you up: SNOW.

There, that's all you really need to know. 

But seriously, it has been an "old fashioned winter" in January and so far this month. We get lake effect snow coming off of Lake Huron so we usually get more than other areas, but this is crazy. There have been road closures due to heavy drifting and poor visibility, school buses have been cancelled, and schools have actually closed for the day (unheard of ). 

Here are some porch pictures. 

See the little path of footprints? I had been keeping up with shoveling that for the boys who still go outside in the winter but the amount of snow just got ahead of me, and then slid off the metal roof, and then froze solid, and then got more snow on top, and now it is almost impossible.

I have managed to maintain a bit of a path on the back porch. I am out here daily on my way to this:

My trek to the chicken coop. Often, my footprints get blown in between morning and late afternoon. Perspective: when I sink into the snow, it is about knee high, that means over the tops of my boots. Fun!

We were away for two weeks at the beginning of January. The first week was at a "resort" in Puerto Plata with our grown children and significant others. Although it was "fine", we feel that "fine" isn't enough for the money it cost us. We won't be coming back to Puerto Plata again (Dominican Republic). It is old and tired and not really what we would prefer. We think we will go to Punta Cana (same country) instead. We have been to Punta Cana a few times, but it is always more expensive. We think saving for it will be worth it. Although it was lovely being with the kids.

The second week, the kids returned home to work and we stayed at a "villa" in a gated community. We did like the villa very much. We did not like what the gated community had to offer. There was only one restaurant and nothing else. No little supermarket or a place to buy tylenol or sunscreen, no gym, no other restaurant choices. Instead you had to catch an irregular shuttle that would take you to the nearest town where you could purchase groceries or whatever you needed, but then you had to kill another hour or two before the shuttle could take you back to the gated community. The town (Sosua) left a great deal to be desired, so again, we made a decision that we would not go back there. 

Fun fact, even though we have been to the D.R. many many times, I experienced this for the first time:

Yup, it's what you think it is. That darling was in between the seats of a sectional that I had sat on many times on the patio part of the villa. This particular day, husband had sat at an opposite end and the sections were pushed apart. I had gotten up, don't remember why, and turned back again and saw THAT. There was a great deal of swearing and quick moving. It was as big as you think it is (a little less than hand-sized). Who was this darling? 

Pretty sure I saw a hispaniolan giant tarantula that day. Husband found a rake and encouraged it to climb aboard and he relocated it in the shade on the opposite side of a small building on the property. Regardless, I never sat on that sectional again. 

Lastly, even though it was nice to be away with the kids and to have adventures such as the one above, I would have enjoyed myself a lot more had I not been dealing with IBS (D). Nope, it wasn't something I caught on holiday because it started at the beginning of December. Yes, two entire months of it. I'm still not 100% sure it's not due to a change in my medication that I take to suppress hormones after my breast cancer. I had switched to a different kind a bit before that. So now I am experimenting. Although I finally got in to see my dr. (6 weeks wait - delightful health care here) she said not to overthink it and it just is simply IBS (I've had similar flares in the past) and even shared that she herself suffers from it. Feel free to chime in if you also deal with this. It's nice to feel like I'm not alone. (It's none of the other scary things because I had tests about a year ago that showed nothing). So I'm stopping my medication and seeing how that changes things. (don't worry, I won't stop it forever, and I have other choices, too).

I am back to doing a bit of supply teaching again (substitute, or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods). I'm happy to do that. It's my "normal" and usually my "happy place". I noticed I'm using an awful lot of quotation marks in this post. Must curtail that a bit. 

I've already been out to do my chicken chores and will be grocery shopping soon. Son, who has moved out four months ago, is coming home for a short visit, so I'll be sure to buy enough to accommodate another person for suppers. It will be nice to have him here. Have a great day, all!