Passing of time...

Sunday morning here...it's a little cold, though the sun is out at least. In fact, one could be fooled by how it looks outside and go out in summer clothes, only to find it's probably in the high 30's (F) out there. That's just a little too cold for shorts and a t-shirt.


We're a little saddened this morning. Lou Lou, our faithful companion seems to be ill. Our pets are like our kids and so when they aren't showing their usual bouncy traits, we worry. Lou Lou is a lovable old basset hound, getting on in years. She's had her fair share of illness the past few years, and it reminds one that as we get older, so do our loved ones. Lou Lou has an interesting demeanor. She'll be at the bottom of the stairs when you come down of a morning, tail wagging and a happy look on her face. Sometimes she'll drive you insane, constantly following you around, under foot. But no matter what she does, she's such a lovable pet.

One thing that Lou Lou has been doing for about a year is to climb up on the couch, and then position herself on top of it, right by the window, I guess so she can check out what's going on. She particularly likes to this early in the morning when the sun shines in...and with the temperatures so cold, who'd blame her. The funny thing about this is that she looks like a cat up there. Her weight pushes her down into the cushions and she gets into a position where she stays for hours on end. Imagine the feeling you get when you're in your fav chair or other seating arrangement - this is what she is obviously feeling. :-)

Well, not enough time to finish this off right now...so I'll finish up and come back again soon...

Ok, now it's Tuesday morning, almost 5:30am. For some reason I agreed to go into work earlier today, so 7am will see me firing up my computers (we each have 3 of the things to use to get our work done), and heading out into the virtual world. For those of you who know what I do, then that'll make sense...for those of you who don't, a large part of my work is spent interacting with analysts around the country, and that is done online using a corporate chat facility. Speaking of which, we just moved to a new system, and unfortunately it's a Microsoft product (Communicator), so what do you think happened yesterday?? It crashed of course, so the whole environment had to move back to the old system.

An update on Lou Lou. She spent most of Sunday on the couch, looking very lethargic. She even had trouble getting interested in her favourite treat, a duck & potato concoction that she'd do almost anything to get from us. When she's rejecting her treaters, you know something's going on. As I expected, it was like a 24 hour bug, and yesterday she was back to her bouncy self. She greeted me very excited when I got home from work. When my wife came home, it was like Lou Lou hadn't see her for years! Suffice to say we are happy to have her "back".

Tomorrow (Wednesday) sees us heading off for a 3 day break, to see the family in Michigan. It's the Thanksgiving holiday and as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, it's a time when Americans like to get together, so the drive up there is likely to be a long one, as thousands take to the highway. The weather always has an impact, and so I had a look at the weather channel's forecast for the next few days. Looks like we might have some snow showers on the way, though for the most part it'll be flurries, so it should be fine. It's only when you start to see snow ploughs sitting in the middle of the highway that you start to get a little wary...usually a sign of worsening conditions.

Well, I should finish up here and see about some breakfast. That of course will mean that one sleepy old basset will be looking for a snack as well. But no complaints here, Lou's back!! :-)

The holiday season approaches....

Well, here it is the start of another week, getting closer and closer to the end of the year. I think someone at work today said that there are 41 days until Christmas. Closer though is the Thanksgiving holiday break.

Thanksgiving, for those non-Americans who happen to be reading this, is perhaps one of the most revered of the American "holidays". It's a time when people will drive, fly, bus, and hitch to get back to see their family; and don't forget, being winter, that can mean long times on the crowded highways, often in treacherous weather conditions.

One memory I have from the first year I was living in the USA was of a total whiteout on the highway. We were close to Cleveland (Ohio) heading north to Michigan. Cleveland, being near one of the Great Lakes, suffers from what they call "lake effect" snow, which basically means that the wind blows across the lake and generates a lot of snow, and quickly! So, here we are, making good progress when we started to see lots of snow ploughs out on the highway -- this is always a sign of worsening conditions. Soon the conditions had become so bad that the road began to disappear and shortly after, a whiteout occurred...total loss of vision. This indeed was extremely scary and downright dangerous - it's little wonder there are so many multiple vehicle accidents on the roads during the winter months.


The photo here is indicative of what it's like on the roads during winter. It's no wonder that cars here get rusty so quickly, because not only do the ploughs clear the snow, they "seed" the roads with salt, designed to melt the snow and ice to make it easier to navigate.



Thankfully we own an all-wheel vehicle, a Mitsubishi Outlander. It's extremely good in snow, which is just as well, because that's what we hoped for when we bought it. According to American "standards", the Outlander is a small-size SUV. I wondered what SUV stood for when I first arrived...and soon found out it meant what I knew in Australia as a 4WD. The SUV stands for "sports utility vehicle". Trust the Americans to come up with a long winded name for a 4WD.

It's a time when Americans like to reflect and think about where they came from and where the future may be leading them. Well, that's what I think they are pondering anyway.

So...you might have guessed that I have adapted (kind of) to the winters here. I'm cautious driving on icy roads, and always heed the advice of others, especially when it comes to driving in snow.

Time for bed...more to follow in a couple of days...till then, take care!