Time change

No, not in any special meaning way. It's daylight saving time end this morning, what means most of people are up at god knows what hour on Sunday. Thanks, whomever came up with this stupid idea! Ever heard of Chinese saying: "If the blanket is short, no matter whether you pull it over your head or over your feet, something's gonna be exposed?" In the winter days are short, and regardless where you stick the house, there will be many dark hours, and we will burn light! In the summer days are long, what's the point in rolling the clock? Anyway, I wasn't even going to post anymore, unless something really special happens, but I got nothing better to do. It's Sunday, 5 am, I've been up for an hour (internal wake up clock), and it's my day off from exercise. So here. Lets sit on the couch...

What happened since my birthday? Life. We bought me a car. A Subaru, just as I dreamed about last 2 years. I've driven 2 Subaru's in my previous life, both times as it was THE car to have for the lifestyle in the states of NY and OR. My tiny Honda Civic served me well in TX (it was also my divorce consolation, barely enough money for that, and extremely fuel efficient). Now, in CO, with real winter already hitting us, and ski season right upon, it was a necessity, not a fun thing. Although it surely IS a fun car for me! Love it, fits me like a glove.

In October, we managed only two real mountain outings, what with all this travel and car buying and the weather. It was the weekend after my birthday - and after the first snowstorm of the month (yes, first of a few) and the first freeze that we ventured into a place we knew has a large Aspen grove. We were looking for Fall colors, excited for our first Autumn. But, alas, that 8F knocked off all the leaves, and they were mostly brown by then, too. Fall was rather short this year, but there will be more, of course. We live here now!

Larry's sister with her family, living in Denver, came to visit us and check out the house renovations that are done. Seems that they were pretty impressed, including the little one! ow it's Larry's turn to roll up the sleeves and do (lots of) work around the house. First on agenda - attic insulation. It's pretty damn cold in the house now that we're no longer in any warm period of the year - which here suddenly means 20's at night and 40's during the day. He already spent many hours removing crap that is in the attic, hidden inside the nearly bare 2 inches of old insulation. Then - crack sealing and blowing some serious layer of warmth!

In the 3rd week of October we traveled to TX, for work. We drove there on Sunday, then Larry drove back on Thursday, stopping n the way in Lubbock to visit with his son. I stayed behind to put 3 more days of work, to accommodate more of my precious clients and earn some serious mula. I got to stay with my University of Texas friends, from back when I was still a scientists, on 2 nights, and they treated me like a queen! I also got to see a few of my running friends during massages, and all in all, it was a great and productive trip, for my heart, soul, and bank account. Because despite the fact that work here picked up by a lot, the half-pay and half-hours still makes me feel like I am not participating in family wellness in a meaningful way. I know, I know. Nobody's dying from hunger here. But, I do prefer to be useful, to other people and to the Universe.

The day I flew back, we picked up the car we chose a week prior, and by the evening, the temperatures dropped...and we headed into a week is some serious winter, that was unexpected even for here. We were in single digits at night, snowstorming for 3 days straight (with work shutting down on one of those), and barely in teens during the day. Yep, no joke! But, I never missed a run, nevertheless. Bundle up! All of this reminded me of growing up back home, in Russia. Plus, of course, winter in NY and OR still was by far more real than in TX! Last 10 years robbed me of snow and cold, so I felt like kid in a candy snow. Local mountains opened their earliest season in 50 years!

One day we rake leaves, another - shovel snow! Ha!

It is sort of stabilized now, and we're heading into consistent 20's at night and 40's during a day. I can live with that. We might jump on that skiing opening next weekend. For now, we're settling into a forgotten life adjustment for the cold weather, cooking a lot of hearty things, and knitting a lot of warm stuff. It's the life I heart. :)