Is It Winter Yet?

When I woke up this morning, the windows were all frosted up, so I grabbed my laptop and checked the forecast.  The forecast this week calls for flurries.  Well I discovered today that what is called flurries in Gros Morne would be called a "major snow event" where I come from - in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Mike has shoveled three or four times today.  The plow has been by at least a half a dozen times.  And it still snowing.... sorry I mean flurrying.

In Pennsylvania, schools would have been cancelled today.  Businesses would have closed early.  Supermarkets would have been crammed with shoppers buying bread, milk, and eggs.  But here in Woody Point... we had flurries.  Nothing extraordinary, nothing unusual for this time of year.  Just business as usual.

Since October, I have been waiting for my first Newfoundland winter to start.  Instead I experienced a glorious fall - sunny days, leaves of many colors, crisp nights, fishing boats in the Bay.  November had started much the same way.  We were only here nine days before we headed off to Ontario and the States.  While we were gone, there was some snow in Gros Morne  and when we arrived back in early December there was some new snow falling.  But even I could tell it was not winter, yet.  We were still able to do our daily walk on the Community Trail.

The bit of snow we did get was all washed away on Christmas.  But yesterday we had some flurries.  Today we had more flurries on top of yesterday's flurries.   People have been telling me that I am lucky that last winter was not my first Newfoundland winter.  Last year it started snowing in October and did not stop until March.

So they tell me that winter has now started here.  It will continue to snow and accumulate until March or April.  Now that I am seeing a bit of winter weather, I agree, I am lucky it is not last year.

The Dream is Happening!!!

The Dream:   Live Simply in a place that I like to vacation in, because then everyday will be a bit like a vacation

I had been toying with this dream, with this fantasy for years.  We had a good life.  We lived in a nice house in a beautiful area of Pennsylvania.  We had good friends.  My family was near.  We had our health.   I had a good job with a major corporation.  Mike was earning a living doing what he loved - entertaining.  He entertained at senior residences, local festivals, private parties and in the summer up in Newfoundland with his band the Sharecroppers.

We already had a vacation home in Woody Point, Newfoundland.  And most important of all we had each other.   Even so, I had a yearning to live a simpler life with enough free time to explore my creative side.  Mike had a yearning to go back to Newfoundland to live.  That is where our vacation home was located.  We spent our last three summers there and really liked it there.   And voila..... Mike turned 60 and started to receive his teachers pension.  It was time to put our Pennsylvania house for sale.  It was time for me  to "retire".  It was time to live the dream.

The house sold in two weeks. Yikes!  We were then faced with unloading 26 years of possessions.  We both are the kind of people who do not need a lot.  I am the kind of person who doesn't buy frivolously.  I decide what I want and look and look until I find it.  I totally appreciate quality.   I am not materialistic but it was gut wrenching.  We had to fit everything we were taking with us into our Ford Van and Subaru Imprezza. 

We gave away our special "things" to family and friends.  We sold as much as we could through classifieds at my work and on Craigs List.  Then it was time for the big moving sale. 

Even though the sale was quite successful, we probably made 100 trips to Goodwill before and after.  We always cheered when anything we put out at the curb was picked up by someone driving by.  The irony is that we furnished our vacation home by shopping at Goodwill and picking up items that someone else had put out at their curb.

Retiring from work was much easier.  My manager was aware that this was a dream of mine and I had promised to give her a lot of notice.  She was not surprised when I told her the time had come.  Working for a large company, we had a benefits center.  I was assured my current health insurance would cover me in Canada. 

It was time to say good-bye to my family, our friends, and our favorite places. 

We packaged up four large cartons to ship via UPS.  And then filled the van and car and were on our way....