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Can I get back on the Blog track again?

Yeah, it's been a long time readers.
I had been working on various draft posts on my iPad2 while traveling and at home and then with a recent 'app' update, the updated app apparently now has issues with iOS5 and all was lost as the app will only "force close" every time I try it. The developer has replied to me that they had submitted an update to Apple and it should be available 'soon' but over a month later and still no update makes me think it's time for a different blog app! But I actually BOUGHT the app, so I guess I'll give them a little more time. And next time I'll save all post drafts as online drafts instead of 'local', losable, drafts!

So here it is December 8th and while last month seemed like winter was going to be a 'bear' this year it has settled to mainly just cold and dry- so far!
Much of November had been cold with some snow fall but only traces, and never sticking much. Then about two weeks ago we had the first SNOW of 2011, almost 2 feet in just a few days. Very nice, in my opinion, and almost nobody was ready for it quite yet. For us I have to get the chains and snow plow on one of our quads and even the city and state didn't have all their winter gear ready to roll yet either.
But then we went from December weather to March weather in just a few days as warm weather came up from California way, where else would hot air come from?, and much of the snow dump melted.
There were spring flooding and runoff warnings all over and many people, like us, had basement flooding problems from the rapid melt and almost a weeks worth of steady rain instead of snow.

Since then though, the temps have gotten 'seasonal' which means 30s daytime and teens to 20s at night so everything is all frozen again and what snow around is now more ice then snow. All this and it isn't even winter yet! It is those really short days this time of year too, like sunset at 3:30 and dark by 4 PM. And dark till after 7 AM with sun up around 8 AM. Really makes it hard to get up at 6 AM!

With us, not too much going on after Octobers trip to Hawaii for a week to visit with Sean and his wife and me to experience my first trip to Hawaii. I actually had never thought I'd get to Hawaii, it hadn't been one of those 1001 things to do before...... to me. But I was very glad to have gone and we will go back again!

I didn't love the island humidity, but I did really enjoy the scenery, and I'm not talking at just the beaches like Sean likes! We had spent 3 days of the week there on the "big Island" of Hawaii and drove around the entire island one day and went to the Volcano National Monument twice while there too. And of all the things we did while there the thing that kind of surprised me most was how you always hear the Hawaiian 'music' and you think ukelele (yes I had to look up how to spell it!) and string instrument music. Maybe some drums or bongos included. But what do you hear when in the Hawaii of  2011? It isn't that kind of music! Well, let me correct that, if in a pretty touristy area you could find some music like that, the stuff you'd think would be drifting throughout every shop and town. But what you're going to normally hear in cars and on most shops radios is 'Reggae Mon!'

That was a kind of music I don't think I could ever really get into but seemed pretty popular with many people, Hawaiian Reggae.
I still really did enjoy seeing Hawaii and Oahu while we were there. We also drove around the island of Oahu which is where Sean and Brandy live. Sean loves living there now. He was pretty nervous about making the move a year ago but now he's glad he did. He likes the all the time temps of 80s daytime and 70s at night. And he's gotten used to the humidity. None of the apartments in the complex they live at, and it's a big place, have air conditioning! I'd die!! And we even stayed at his place for the rest of the week in Hawaii.

So back on the 'mainland' and back into the routine, Stacy traveling to Boise at least once or twice a month. She was there two weeks ago and she'll be going to Boise for a week via a visit with Sandy in California for a couple of days and leaving Saturday when I take her to the airport. Stacy will be seeing Sandy and Erik's new place after their move to Northern California and then driving Sandy's Jetta to Boise and then back here to keep it since in her new job Sandy has a 2012 Ford company car and no place to park her car for a year or more. Stacy plans on using the Jetta to make her summertime trips to Boise next year as Sandy's Jetta gets over 30 MPG which is better than anything we have at the moment except the motorcycles and she can't take all she usually needs to cart to Boise. That's also why she's never been able to take the Solstice either, always something has come up and she has to take more stuff with her and the Solstice, while it gets close to 30 mpg on the highway, has no room for much luggage. But now and until next spring the motorcycles and the Solstice are put away for the winter as our driveway in that area is ice and will stay ice until next spring. Too much shade all the time this time of year to melt.

Stacy just told me that she'd been talking to Sandy and Sandy told her that she'd been in a slow speed accident today. But it Sandy in the boss's new car and he was driving and got too close to a Fed-Ex truck. We're glad nobody was hurt and it was her boss and his car!

Maybe, I hope anyway, that now things at work are slowing down to where I can get on the track again as I'm told how many extended family read these. That was after all the reason I even started this blog!!

Till next time, Tad




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