i'm going to tell this story, and i swear it is the truth (hand over heart, or pancreas, left lung? i don't know). in 1977 into 1978 i was living in new england. we had the blizzard of '78. i went to a 2 story window and climbed out, with my cross-country skiis and went to a neighbor's house to get her dog. i skiied down the drift from the window and skied a little more than 1/4 mile to her house. i had to dig the door out when i got there. her poor baby was standing with his legs crossed and the water level rising in his eyes! anyway, i let him out and took him with me to our house. he pulled me on the skiis back home. it was a little tough getting him through the window. did i mention he was an irish setter golden mix? big, sweet baby of a dog. he was so happy to be out of his house! and as i recall, he was pretty hungry, too! but what fun it was to go get him. and have him pull me home!
after that storm we moved to texas, in august! with a car and a moving truck. i had the screaming cat and the 6month old baby who was teething. dh had the truck, no music radio (we had cb's), and the car sick dog. what a trip! it took us 3 days, and re=enforced in my mind just how far away we were moving. years later i did the trip in 24 hrs straight with one break for b'fast. but that's another story! anyway, the next year we had a horrible heat wave and drought, i think it was 104 days over 100 dgrees. so i wanted to get a tee shirt that said ' i've been tested' and on the back, ' blizzard of 78, heat wave of 80.' that was a very wierd time in my life! it took 2 years to adjust to the differences , and then i never wanted to leave! granted, we were in dallas which has milder weather than the panhandle. and fewer tornadoes ! probably fewer of most things. i never saw a rattlesnake or a live armadillo. they are used as speed bumps. the boys had a tarantula as a pet. we did have little glass scorpions. they like the dark, so they get in your shoes. and when you put your foot in, WOWZER! but they're not any worse than a bee sting. trouble is, though, they are very hard to see, and easy to step on.