Erieversible

Okay, not exactly.  We close on the house on Wednesday at 10:00.  Assuming everything goes according to plan.  That’s the dawn of our new life, I suppose?  Though the subject has echoes of the 1943 film ‘We Dive at Dawn’.  Life’s like that.

There’s a lot to do between now and then, including the pre-closing walk-through.  Plus all the utilities and essentials such as cable TV.  I spent 42 minutes on the phone this evening setting up cable - I hope that I don’t need 42 minutes for each of the utilities otherwise I’ll be having trouble keeping up the ’smiling voice’ by the end of it all.

With 75mph winds in the last 24 hours, and more flooding than this area has seen for a while, if the house is still unscathed when I look round it tomorrow then, touch wood, it should be a fairly sound house for a few years yet.

Fingers crossed…it is all beginning to end.

Why do you always think of the perfect present for someone at the last minute.  Or is it just me??  Hubby and I have been married for a long time and I never seem to find the right present for him.  He is very fussy and also generally inclined to buy himself whatever he sees that he wants.  There is the added complication of his birthday being Christmas Day…two lots of impossible shopping trips in one!

So yesterday I thought of the perfect present for him.  (Can’t tell…he will see this, of course!)  And today I braved the dreadful roads to look for it.  And I can’t find it anywhere.  Which figures.  Today hasn’t been my best day.

First I went to Wegman’s to buy a cake for his birthday and managed to lose my grip on the top of the box of one beautiful (16 dollar) cake!  Result:  one cake upside down on the floor with its lid still in my hand.  The Wegman’s people were lovely and didn’t insist that I pay for the damage, which they could have done as it was entirely my fault! 

Anyway…from there the day could only get better.  But then I drove all the way to Fairview on icy roads to find the place I was going was shut.  And it took miles and miles of driving to find a safe place to turn around.  Another trip to another place…also in Fairview…also shut…also off the beaten path enough to cause some complicated to’ing and fro’ing to get back where I wanted to be.

I gave up and went to the mall.  Where I joined all the other desperate lost souls searching frantically for the perfect present.  Actually, there seemed to be a lot of people buying gift cards everywhere I went.  When in doubt?! 

So…not a great day…but tomorrow is Christmas Eve…hubby comes home for a LONG break…and the kids are off school…and…it is Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Driving into Buffalo yesterday along part of I-90 I saw a gang of three plows, operating together, clearing the complete carriageway in one fell swoop.  Looked impressive.  Today on Transit Road there was  agang of four plows.  They sure know how to shift the snow around here!

I’m assured by colleagues at work that the sort of weather we have had in the last 36 hours is quite abnormal and due to the fact that the lake hasn’t yet frozen.  If true, then next winter will be quite mild as far as my experience will apply.

I had seen how this part of the world handles heavy snowfalls on a couple of previous visits to Erie, but this is my first full winter here and I remain impressed.