"Welcome to Kansas"

This greeting was yelled to me from a passing minivan as I got out of my car at work yesterday morning…let me back up…during my drive to work yesterday morning, I noticed that my lips were chapped, so I dug into my purse and pulled out my handy dandy MAC lip gloss. As I titled the rear view mirror to expertly apply my lip gloss, I thought – it’s really windy outside and when I get out of the car, my hair is going to blow and stick to my lips…but I HATE having dry lips, so I kept going. So, back to the parking lot at work…I got out of the car, and IMMEDIATELY my hair is blowing everywhere! I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t push my hair out of my face because my hands were full of all my junk. That’s when I heard the voice…”Welcome to Kansas!” I realized as the car drove away that it was my plant manager who shouted to me. I waved as best I could and tried to see through my messy hair to find the door to the office.

The wind is INSANE here….it blows and blows and makes a mess. I was so excited to move away from Desert California so I would have less dust in my house. Man, was I wrong! It is MORE dusty here than where we came from…I guess because of how much the wind blows.

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There are a bunch of train tracks that I have to cross to get to work. There are 3 places down this road where I can cross them to get to work. There’s usually a long line to turn at the first crossing, so I don’t take that one very much. The 2nd crossing is the one I usually use, and it’s a pretty rough road, but I only have to cross 3 tracks. If there is a train blocking the tracks (which happens OFTEN), then I pass by that crossing and go to the next crossing, where there are 14 tracks to cross – I counted them this morning! These tracks are so rough that I have to drive over them in 1st gear, going so slow that my car almost stalls. My poor Saab!

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This is the first time that I have lived somewhere where the geese actually fly south for the winter – actually, the first time I’ve lived where geese live (or that I’ve noticed them). When we first go to town, the puppies and I were surprised by a strange squawking sound heard from the sky. We didn’t know what it was at first! The dogs barked and ran around the yard, and I just stared at the sky in awe. It’s the coolest thing to see them flying in a “V” across the sky.

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My MIL scared the crap out of me last night. We go to bed early because we get up early. So, when she called at 9:52 pm last night, we had already been asleep for about 20 minutes. We don’t have a phone in our room, so when I woke up (with my heart pounding as always happens when the phone rings and I’m asleep), I had to run into the living room to grab the phone. She told me she had just talked to Uncle John and she needed to talk to B. I freaked out…I thought something was wrong, someone was in the hospital or someone was dead! I went back to our room, woke up B, and told him his mom wanted to talk to him. He was on the phone for about 1 minute, and then he hung up. I asked him what was wrong, and he said…”mom wanted me to play golf on Friday”…what???