Outside My Window ~ 1.10.10

Outside My Window…is one word….COLD!  Or I should say freezing, like most of the country.  At 8:40 am, we are at 26F with winds at around 13mph giving us a 15F wind chill.  The skies are blue and the sun is shining, but it is still COLD!  Our forecast high for today is 36F and we will drop down to 21F tonight.  The daytime temperatures for the coming week will improve but the nights will remain very cold.  They are forecasting a high of 50F for Thursday ~ that will feel downright balmy after the temps of the past couple of weeks!!  🙂  I’m hoping this arctic air will let up soon…..I received my most recent power bill and it was a shocker!!

I am thinking…or maybe I should say, trying to remember where I put some old photos of mine.  I have been dragging out photo boxes and old photo albums, but I can’t put my hands on the ones I’m looking for.  I did find another two photo albums that contained photos of Shaun, my friend that passed away last year.  I have so many photos.  They are stashed here and there so I haven’t given up hope of finding the ones I’m looking for.   I have a feeling the photos I’m looking for were actually slides….which I no longer have.  I have the negatives, but not the slides.  If you notice my new header, this is a photo I took years ago on a trip to Steamboat Springs during the time I lived in Colorado.   

I am thankful for…my warm house.  These bitter temperatures really make me appreciate the fact that I have someplace to go and be warm.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to be cold and have no place to go.

From the kitchen…is Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee dripping into the pot ~ not quite fast enough I might add!   I’m debating on what will be on the menu for today….I’m craving some warm, comfort foods.  Perhaps some oatmeal with chopped walnuts and raisins for breakfast.  I have been craving some pasta lately so that is a possibility for dinner.

I am creating…not so much for myself right now.  I’m working on getting some of my family photos  and other photos burned onto discs for family members that have requested them.

I am going…to spend a good part of today cleaning and organizing.  As much as I would love to sit and edit more photos, I need to step away from the laptop and get some things done around here.  🙂

I am reading…not so much right now.  I have been reading and experimenting with  my new PSE7 book, if that counts.  For the most part, my reading has consisted of  keeping up with the blogs I follow and reading an occasional news report online.

I am hoping…that my dear, sweet Cailin gets the hang of driving.  Oh, did I mention ~ she got her learner’s permit on Monday.  Maybe I neglected to say because my nerves are still a bit frazzled!  🙂  When Alanna got her permit, she didn’t drive all that well….but she managed to drive out of the parking lot and down the street (I should mention a fairly deserted street) a bit before I couldn’t stand it any longer.  But in all fairness, I had taken Alanna driving a few times around the high school parking lot ~ which is huge by the way!  Poor Cailin, she never got out of the DMV lot.  But let’s begin at the beginning…..as we were walking out of the DMV, Cailin asked if she could drive out.  There were no cars parked right around us, and while she would have to make a rather sharp turn to get back around to the exit, it isn’t that difficult a task so I agreed.  We got in the car….Cailin got situated…..put the car in gear…..went two feet and then half laughed, half screamed “I can’t do this” as she stomped on the brake.  Ok…I kind of laughed and said that it was alright, if she wasn’t comfortable I could take over.  No, no she said, she could do it.  So I told her to maybe not press on the gas pedal right away, let the car move forward on it’s own as she maneuvered around a median.  There was quite a sharp right to make, but she was doing fine ~ until a car pulled into the lot.  They stopped to see what she was going to do……..the car had stopped it’s forward motion so I told her to give it a little gas.  Well, she gave it a lot of gas AND didn’t straighten the wheel out so we were going in a circle, heading towards the median with me yelling “stop….stop….Stop…..STOP!”  Wham, we run into the median but not with enough force to do any damage.  Oh, did I mention she is doing that laugh/scream thing the entire time this was all happening.  I put the car in park…..unbuckle…..got out….walked around to the driver’s side and told her to let me do it……and off I drove.  I told her as we drove away that I thought we better get her out of there fast before someone came running out of the DMV and demanded her permit back!  I couldn’t help but laugh….it was actually funny.  We have had the conversation on how important it is to actually stop when I say stop….and she must find a way to stop that doesn’t  leave seat belt strap marks on my body each time.  We have gone out a few more times……in parking lots…….and she is getting a better handle on steering and braking….but we have a bit more to go before I’m going out on the actual road with her.  It is like I told her, my mother and my sister last night at dinner ~ it would make more sense for me to walk outside and smash up my Jeep with a sledge hammer than to let her on an actual road right now.  Yea, she needs some work…and that laugh/scream thing she does, that has to go.  🙂

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks……..my wind chimes singing outside in the frosty air…..and an otherwise quiet house.

Around the house…laundry to do……finished laundry to put away……photo boxes and albums that have been dragged from their storage places 🙂  …..the last of the Christmas decorations that need to go back into the attic…a very chilly attic I might add which is why I have not been so anxious to climb up there and put these things away!

Plans for the week include…continue my daily blog postings ~ so far so good!  I have managed to post something each day…..mind you they are not world changing posts, but this blog was never intended for that purpose so I’m good.  Other than that……I haven’t really made any kind of plans for the week.  It is a clean slate, waiting to be filled up with things to do. 

One of my favorite things…is the feeling you get when you see and experience something that takes your breath away.  It could be that first kiss…..the first time you drive…..the view from a mountain top….walking through the forest after the first snow……or a night sky full of stars.  It is that “something” you can’t really describe, but it makes your entire body smile and warms you all over.

A picture I’d like to share with you…yesterday I took Cailin down to the boat dock for a bit of driving.  Why the boat dock….well, extra large lot + frosty cold weather = no cars to speak of and less stress on mom while she drives.  🙂  Since the sun sets so early now, I rarely get by there to get my sunset photo fix……but I was able to yesterday.  These two shots were taken a few minutes apart at different camera angles.