It was a day of firsts for me. First of all it's interesting to note that this month is the 1st month in the last 6 years that I have not been pregnant or nursing!! :) I weaned R the day before her 1st birthday. She has had no problems with that at all and hasn't even asked to nurse since then. So today I had a appointment in 'the city' and instead of having it on Papa's day off and us all going which is what we normally do I dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa F switched the Travelall for the Honda at Papa's work place and headed out alone. Grandma and Grandpa have been asking to have the kids for several weeks and so with breakup here it worked out great. Everyone who knows me a bit knows that I'm not a driver. I dislike driving. Papa once thought it'd be great to go over the road team trucking. There is NO WAY. I just don't like it. At all. I enjoy watching the scenery, talking to passengers, dozing and doing what ever else I can to keep from being bored while in the car. But driving isn't one. So because of this I don't drive much. Papa drives. Papa enjoys it. But today was a new day!! LOL. I still don't enjoy driving but I sure enjoyed today!! I've never really city driven before and so am always very nervous when I have too. But today I did. I drove through the city to my appointment and then afterwards I drove all around for a bit then up to Walmart and the craft store then to BP where I met a friend A for supper. It was great!! I found I can drive in a city!! I found I could even drive in the city with it raining!! It was awesome. Now don't go getting any idea's about me becoming a city slicker... It wont happen. But I sure did enjoy my 1st day out all alone for most of the day in about 6 years... Actually while I typed that I realized that I don't believe I have EVER done this before. Not in our almost 10 years of marriage.. or anytime before that. I've gone for a day of fun with a friend or two but never by my self!!
On the way home I was driving along minding my manners and I saw a strange thing. The first time it happened I wasn't sure what it was. But as it kept on happening I realized I was seeing the 1st thunder storm of the year!! BEAUTIFUL pink and purple lightning with several having a whole fan of strikes at the same time!! Lighting up the whole sky. I drove right though the storm on my way home thinking how strange it was to have a thunder storm with 2 feet of snow on the ground and almost no ground showing at all... even on the south sides of the roads.
When I was growing up a favorite game of my fathers was to watch out for wildlife and see who could spot things first. I've always been pretty good at it and now as an adult I find I do it automatically. Papa and I often compete a bit with this and I'm 80% of the time the winner!! Today on the way home I spotted a cow moose in up to her belly in snow eating some small bushes in a draw on the side of the road. She was safe enough there, and so was I, but it got me to thinking about how hard it must be out there in the bush for the moose and deer this year. The snow level has been amazing and how hard it must be for them walking through all that snow (she was in right to her belly. I could see no gap at all.) to get feed. The moose normally stay away from the roads as much as possible but this year there have been several sighted in the 'city' and our friends A&M had a cow and her calf on their front lawn awhile ago.. in the middle of a subdivision!! A said she could have reached out of her car and touched the cows rear end!! That's how close it was to them. A said it ate part of their bush!! And my sister, who also lives in the city, and her family have had SEVERAL moose in their backyard. A cow and a calf, a young bull. Moose eat young bushes and generally trim rather like a goat. And with the snows this year they are coming to the road sides to eat as it is easy food. The roadsides here are mowed every few years of everything. Looks nasty when they do it but the mowed areas are used to help the animals know where the roads are and help us people see them before they get too close. They are also using the roadways as fire breaks as a lot of the wood that surrounds our communities is dead wood. So far they have only made the roadways larger in case of a forrest fire and haven't actually used them.
