I'd Rather be Shoveling Snow

As I'm huddled in the new office with no air-conditioning, lamenting the Skopje summer heat (and the sweat that comes with it), I can't help but dream of March in Wyoming and being snowed in for two days by "the blizzard of the season." [The picture below was taken at 5am after the snow had been blowing strongly and horizontally for 14 hours already!]

Oh it was so nice! Nestled in a warm log house with my drukarki (closest friends), cooking chili and cornbread, figuring out a puzzle, swooning over Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice and laughing hysterically at Nacho Libre taking off on his scooter. We also went out to play in the snow... yes, in the blizzard... we can only imagine the neighbors looking at us and collectively shaking their heads at our stupidity and muttering, "city folk."

Being snowed in was not without it's challenges, though. The septic system backed up, but we were able to fix it by finding... er... the poor little mice family that had given their lives to clog it up in the first place. Also, a day after the storm while rushing outside to catch the snowplow before it bypassed our driveway... Whoop! Slip! Clunk! My foot slipped on the steps and Smack! went my back onto the wooden planks. I was up in moments, though, because if we didn't catch him to plow our driveway we'd be locked in for even longer. The driver kindly plowed our driveway and my back turned out to be no worse for the wear. =)
Ah! Good times were those spent with my friends on that road trip to Wyoming.

Sigh... the landlord just stopped by and snapped me back from my daydreaming of cooler days. The phone guys are here to install our landline. It's great to have the landline, but honestly, I'd rather be shoveling snow right now. =)

Walking to Work -- the unintended circuitous route

This morning I headed out into the muggy warm morning with no particular route planned, just that I'd head in the general direction of the new office and then see what I'd find. What I found was that I'd stumbled upon an area of town I'd never been in before. Honestly, it was quite shocking and a little disorienting! Here less than 1/2 mile from my place are some streets I'd never explored before.

At one point I was almost convinced I was lost... and I found I wasn't the only one either as I passed an older gentleman with hand on chin looking from building to street with a confused look that must have mirrored my own. We joined into an unspoken pact as we determinedly put one foot in front of the other looking for the glavna ulitsa (main street). Eventually he found another older gentleman who was obviously an old friend who pointed him in the right direction... and I surreptitiously followed! =)

Back out on the main street I was dismayed to find that I'd essentially been walking in a zig-zag pattern that zagged more than zigged and ended up parallel to where I needed to be. And here I thought I was walking on a diagonal line! Oh well. I found some new places, fun graffiti and interesting nooks and cranny's that deserve further exploration. But I decided to leave that for another day and purchased some bananas and peaches (amazing, btw, as they are in season) and walked the remaining five minutes to the office.

In the end, what should have been just a 20 minute walk turned out to be almost an hour instead. LOL. Gotta love the self-guided tours.

****
I didn't have my camera handy to take a pick of the new and interesting graffiti, so the one up top is from last years GCF walk.
****
Yes, it's the start of the new budget year and so I'm back on my feet and walking to work. It helps, though, that the new office is half the distance of the previous one. =)

Yesterday's News

When I went to the corner store to ask for "yesterday's news" so that I could use them to pack up the more fragile things in the office, I'd not realized what "day" that would have been. As it was, the papers they gave me included several stories covering the deaths of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I must confess, it seemed a bit wrong to use these papers... but as I needed to pack up, pack up I did.

And as each page was wrapped around cups, plates, pictures and other items in the office, I reminisced about the many good memories I have from high school for which Jackson's music was the soundtrack... or the many "mysteries" my friends and I (as "Jill") solved when we were 8 and pretending to be the "New Charlies Angels."