Thursday, December 23, 2021

Good food and pretty sights in America

I sure missed good seafood - especially shellfish. We went to The Crab Pot and were treated by my sister to what appeared to be a Low Country Boil with crab. 


My husband ordered chicken strips - he did not eat one bite of seafood, it's not his thing. Poor Germans don't know what they're missing. I think it was the only non-seafood item on the menu. 

I've been enjoying diet A&W root beer every day, Grape Crystal Lite, and Fresca. Restaurants have become too expensive and groceries cost so much we're eating no-name cheese and bread, and buying 1-ply toilet paper. I'm ashamed to say I'm eating junk food from my youth, but not completely pigging out like we did on our last trip. Two neighbors told me it's Biden's fault that food is unaffordable. (Food prices in both Germany and America have gone up this year by almost 10%, but food prices in America were always higher). One day Walmart was completely out of drinking water (we have to buy it because the well is bad, according ot my dad). There were also no big boxes of wine *lol*

I work on the house/garage/yard 5-7 hours per day and enjoy hours of Star Trek, live, every night. 

I'm still not enjoying driving a massive Dodge Ram, which sounds like a space shuttle leaving Earth, but smells worse. It's a challenge to keep it centered in the lane with its delayed steering and braking. We've taken it on the ferry 7 times now (at 20$ each time!) and every time is worrisome cuz they make me go up the ramp to the 2nd level where I cannot see what is ahead of me due to the steepness - I just see hood. And what a tight squeeze it is on those ramps! We'll have to get a picture of it because it's such an important part of our stay. We are grateful to have a vehicle we're not paying 100$ for daily! 

I've befriended a squirrel and right now there are a dozen birds on/near the feeder including a pair of Spotted Towhees and a pair of Juncos, birds that don't occur where we live. 

The mountains (Olympics) are out today, whenever the sun shines we get a beautiful view  out my dad's office window and even better, when we get in the truck and drive around the corner, the entire Olympic range is right there. Mostly it's rainy so we really appreicate any sunbreak. 


 

One sunny day I did zero work around here and we went geocaching instead. The woods are, as always, completely empty of other users, and the trees are a very tall pine with white bark (?). The moss was hanging like hair off the branches in the sunlight and sparkling with crystal droplets from the nightly rain. 


This morning we had a misty rain with sun at the same time. It was hard to capture on camera. I ran out and looked for a rainbow. 


 


 We had one full day of snow with accumulation. One is enough.


 
We also watch a lot of HGTV together, as we always have. Since this house will eventually have a staging person coming, I chose some old-looking books for the shelves. 

OK time to get back to it!




3 comments:

AareneX said...

I guess you're happier about driving the big Dodge truck now that there is sn*w everywhere?

lytha said...

Aarene, it's a rear-wheel drive: ( I'm not going anywhere for a while! But we prepared so we're staying at my mom's until it's safe to drive it.

AareneX said...

We have two all-wheel drive cars (the Hondas), a 4x4 truck, and a front wheel drive van that is supposedly for sale but nobody can get here to buy it. We could get out if there was an emergency, but there isn't. We'll be here for at least a few more days.

The good side of this is that we built up a LOT of hunkering skills during lockdown. We will be fine. Hope you are also fine! (You know, you can fill the bed of a rear-wheel-drive truck with sn*w to weight it down if you don't have gravel or firewood at hand).