Inside the Kingdom, and out...

Startlingly, yesterday it was above 40 degrees most of the day! The snow on our front porch (and the furniture therein) had melted away! It seemed so warm that when I got home I had the feeling that I would spend the evening whiling away with a brewski on the porch... For the first time. Of course, reality sank in that 40 is still a bit cold to comfortably max out of doors... And then today it was back down to 20. But it was a sign!

I do look forward to using the porch. Yesterday I actually contacted a Realtor about looking at some houses in town! Now I doubt that we will pursue this in the near future, as we still have some financial tidying to do. But I have, yet again, mixed feelings about it. I love this little house (though it is too small for us), but I don't think that there is any chance of the owner wanting to sell it... And we cannot decide if it would be best to live out our days out here in the rurality of East St Johnsbury (quiet, secluded, safe, rural) or in town (less of all of those). Mainly it involves Elinor. Growing up in the country seems very peaceful, but I dream of living on the hill in town where we all could walk to films at Catamount Arts, to the Fairbanks museum, to the Athenaeum... Oh, who knows. But with reasonable houses available at under the 100k mark, it seems a pity to just keep renting.

In other news, I am enjoying a three day weekend due to being done with my duties at the White Market on Thursday and not starting work at Hunger Mountain (as the Scan Coordinator if I haven't mentioned it) until Monday. I am somewhat over the regret's of leaving White's (assuming that I can keep in contact with the folks I like who I met there) and I am getting exciting about being around natural foods again and working with databases again. In some ways, this move to Vermont is working out just as we hoped! It will be nice to have basically the same workweek and shifts as Caitlin and being able to drive to and from work with her! Though we think that once her Temp gig with the state is up, she will look for something part time around here (we spend too much time away from Elinor and, though she has grandfolks out here to watch her who do a wonderful job we want to do most of the raising ourselves). At that point, I think I will actually be able to take the bus to Montpelier, which would be a long trip (about 35-40 miles each way), but might actually be quite nice.

Also, we took an excursion today. Friday I took I-91 up to Barton (a great, great town) and I really liked the trip. Very beautiful. Today we took that route again but went all the way to Newport, where I hadn't been before. A nice little town on the shore of Lake Memphremagog and just a couple of miles from Canada! We liked it there. About the same size as the rest of these little towns, but with a yarn shop, a bookstore, a nice old fashioned natural foods store (complete with a cafe with a small, but tasty looking, vegetarian buffet) and actually a tavern that looked interesting. We may try going back again and checking it out some more.

tgif?

Another Friday. I am still, even though I be in Vermont, quite the procrastinator. I was really looking forward to this weekend, just for its own sake and also to do those darn tax things that I always put off. But now I can't get around to anything except for hanging out with Elinor and wishing that we had some decaf around here!

Anyway, in more Vermonty news. We got a nice layer of snow last night, to make all of this sad old snow that's covering everything look a bit fresher... And just to counter my old fears of trying to get a job around these parts, I gave notice at my current job as I have accepted another one. I will now keeping Caitlin company on her commute to Montpelier everyday.

We are really missing Elinor though. Currently she spends about 10 hours a day, 4 days a week with the in-laws. now it will increase to about 11 hours a day 5 days a week. I think we have a good solution for further down the road, but for the time being we will just have to deal with it.

Speaking of Elinor, here she is...

A new dawn

Today marks Caitlin's first day at work! As she is working in Montpelier (about 40 miles east) and she has to be at work at 7:30, we are starting a few new ways today. Monday through Thursday I will (for the time being at least) be getting a ride to work from the in-law's who will then be watching Elinor from 7:30 until 5:30.

This will be a big switch as Elinor has always spent the majority of her time with one or both of us and now that won't really be the case. A bit startling right now, but I imagine that the transition will seem normal as pie.

Today is also the first day that Elinor has worn Chuck Taylor's! She put up quite the stink when we put them on her, but now she seems fine with them. We did double knot them so she couldn't take them off, though... Here she is, a bit foggy, due to leaving the camera out in the sub-freezing car for a week.