My response to Old Man Winter

Lets see... how did I get here?
1.   Last month, my 9 year old truck (THAT I LOVE) left me on the side of the road for 2.5 hours in 12 degree weather.  Fuel pump went out on my commute to work - so no heat.

2.   Then as you can see by the pict below, my Z is unwilling to move with ANY snow on the ground.  Lets be honest, it doesn't like wet pavement.  I got it stuck, and had to get it unstuck myself!

 

3.  Then I ran over a deer with my Z that has 3 inches of ground clearance and it left meat and blood all over it, and who knows what kind of damage.  You can see Ollie enjoying it as some came off in the snow.  The night I did it, he was so afraid to get near my car.  He was shaking and barking and running around it.

So, what I have isn't working.  I've had enough.  It's only me, and I need to get to and from work, even with this freakish weather. I've learned how to drive well in the snow, but as far out as I am - I need AWD, and while my truck is great.  It's no longer dependable enough with no real help if something goes wrong. 

Why a BMW you ask?

 Well, I wanted a Ford Explorer, but once Roger found out he could get a BMW for the same price as a Ford, he forbid me from the Ford lot.  Plus its diesel, so it gets 40% better gas mileage.

... Now it gets to get all salty and dirty and attempt to dodge deer.

Hatching baby chicks

My neighbor, Katie got an incubator to try and hatch some eggs this year.

After two years of buying baby chicks, we thought we'd take a stab at this.

 If you look carefully, you can see the first cracks in a couple of them.

Well just today (while Katie is away for the weekend) they started hatching.

Two out, three more trying.  They can actually peep inside the egg, before they even break the membrane!

"Squat Toilets"

It was in Russia that Sharon and I first experienced squat toilets, but it turns out that they are common in the Black Sea area as well as parts of Asia.

The first time was very unexpected and came with hours of conversation. 

This is a picture of a VERY clean one in a nice gov't building.  Most of them have no running water, no TP, no trash can.  They are basically a porcelain hole in the ground.  Now this may not seem so bad at first, but consider all the things that you might have to do in a bathroom and think about doing them here.

-BUT-

Most of them that we went to were beyond disgusting.  Many of the times I had to roll up my pant-legs and trudge through the "soup", because it turns out that for those of us that didn't grow up like this - we don't really know how to aim!

Sharon and I spent quite a bit of time discussing the logistics of these events.  It was always and adventure! In Italy you get two toilets - here we get a hole in the ground.

Going on?

It's been about 6 weeks since I've posted anything.
I always try to post something once a week, but I had decided that it was time for this blog to come to an end.

I've adjusted to life in Northern VA probably the best that I am going to, making much of this life "old news".

However again, I'm getting feedback from close friends and family that it is the only real way they know what is going on in my life.... and that they want me to continue.

I'll finish out my vacation photos while I reconsider, but I think I'm sorta done with this.