Gatlinburg

We had heard that the lights that Gatlinburg puts up for Christmas were due to come down after this week-end so we high-tailed it up there this week-end. It's quite a tourist town and it's called the Gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains. We agreed to listen to a time share presentation in exchange for a $100 "gift".

We figured that would pay for a hotel room and food so we stayed.

This morning we woke to find it snowing!! Ordinarily I'm leery of snow but this wasn't sticking to the streets so I wasn't worried about driving in it. It turned out to be a light dusting.

We briefly set foot in the Great Smokey Mountains, enough to know we need to go back again - maybe in the Spring.

Company! - and more.

These posts have slowed way down... have you noticed? That's partly because it's Winter and partly because we've been busy settling down. There's so much to do!

However, we did have some fun recently when Ben and Laura came to visit. Laura flew in Thursday and Ben followed on Friday after he got off work. They spent a lot of time checking out the city and surrounding areas.

On Thursday afternoon, Laura and I got to toddle around town a bit. We went to the Art District and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Check out the photos. The time with them went all too quickly as they went home on Sunday but we look forward to the next time - whenever that is.

Our weather has been wonderful. We did have just a touch of a cold snap when the rest of the country had a huge touch of that same snap. We get frost every few days but Larry clears a spot in the garage for me so my ride is dry and warm. I love it!! Days have been in the 40's and 50's. Occasionally we get rain but we get blue sky in between - or at least patches of blue sky. So far, this is easy Winter weather.

Work is going well. My department worked a lot of overtime the first month but starting this week we're back to 40 hours a week. We're allowed to start work any where between 7:00 and 9:00. I've been starting at 7:00 lately so with a 30 minute lunch I can get of as early as 3:30!! I'm lovin' that too.

I'm currently reading books on lawn care and composting. That's something I haven't done since 2000! It feels good. I may even get my hands dirty this week-end, clearing out the remains of last year's garden.

Hey! The local scrap yard man gave me two more license plates for my collection. We had to get rid of the refridgerator and dishwasher so I traded them for two plates. Well, not exactly but that's more or less the end result. He did also give me $13.80 got the metal. So now I have Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Georgia!! I also found some people that want to trade plates so when we change ours from SD to TN perhaps I'll make some good trades. :-)

Our computers are finally up and running (as I'm sure you've guessed by now). If I don't email you first, then send me an email!

PS (I don't know why this is all smooshed together at the end. Hope you don't mind it being compressed.)

Getting Settled

Hello to y'all,

It's been a while since I've been in touch. The last couple weeks have been busy with moving and getting settled. Larry has been working very hard every day fixing things, organizing stuff, and all that goes with settling into a new residence.

We brought the RV to our property last week-end. It's sitting on the grass behind the rental house and - to tell you the truth - I haven't seen it since then. The windows in our house don't look that direction and I can't see it from the drive-way. It seems odd to me. Larry tells me it's still there. :-) We're going to sell it. In fact, Larry placed an ad in the Boat and RV Trader magazine for their next issue.

While Larry has been working so hard at getting settled, I've been spending about 9 - 11 hours a day at work. This is the busy season in payroll. We just finished preparing W-2's this week. I'm told that pretty soon we'll be going back to 8 hour days. We have what is called flex time, which means I can start my day anytime between 7:00 and 9:00 and go home accordingly. I can work a little more one day and a little less another. It's very nice.

We finally got connected to the internet via cable modem this week but our in-house computer system is still being worked out. Larry got our computers networked (if that's the right term). My "office" is the last to get settled so doing email has been a little inconvenient. That's okay though because I come home pretty tired.

Laura and Ben are coming in a few days!! They going to scope out our community and see if this is a logical place for them. We're quite excited about seeing them.

I'm still trying to talk my parents into coming. Dad's ready to move here but Mom doesn't want to budge. If you have any contact with them, feel free to encourage her.

So far, Winter has been easy. It seems to go back and forth from nights in the 50's to nights in the 30's, depending upon whether the skies are cloudy or clear. One day it was actually rainy and cold and someone said they saw snowflakes and someone else saw slush but I didn't see either.

Cindi sent me a license plate from Montana!! Larry had discouraged me from making the US license plate map (See previous blog for talk about the map.) out of real license plates... and he might still be the smartest one here... but I couldn't help but love getting the real plate in the mail. It's a great reminder of our travels (we have seen a lot of plates!!) For now, while building the 50 state collection, I'm thinking of using plates as a kitschy kind of wall art. So, I may renew my efforts to collect the 50 states. If you have the opportunity to get your hands on a license plate please think of me! You'll probably hear me talk about this more.

That about wraps up the last couple weeks. One of these days I'll get some photos going again.