Artesian Well

It's Christmas Eve. I have been staying at my in-law's house in Massachusetts for the last 2 weeks, (a 20 day trip in total) and one night while my husband was away for work (in sunny California), his dad and I went for a ride to Best Buy to get me a camera to replace the one that was stolen from me last week. What a holiday trip, dude.

Devoe and I went to the Providence Place mall to see his sister at work and my purse with license, credit card, gift cards, and fairly new camera was taken from a massage chair that we sat on while trying to get Harmony to stop crying. Sadly, I did not notice the bag was gone until we were in the car for 45 minutes. Calling security and the store didn't help, nothing found, oh well, people suck at malls... especially at holidays when they aren't honest, good citizens and don't turn in important things they find. I had to get my gift cards and credit cards shut off and replaced, get a new license mailed, get a camera... etc. ANNOYING.

Anyways, while riding in the car with my father in-law, our first time alone in a car together, we chatted about the hometown and weather, the old t.v. business that runs in the family and how he took a book correspondence class to learn about television engineering, very interesting. He also explained how if the huge blizzard that was coming the next day called for it, we may need to turn on the generator in the basement, how it runs on gas and how badly they needed it during last year's ice storm in which they had no power for 5 days and the toilet doesn't flush and they can't take showers without electricity because they have their own Artesian well for the house. The well was drilled when they built the house, therefore they dont pay for water, because the well uses electricity (which they do pay for) to get the water up from hundreds of feet below the ground. It's cool that they have their own special water supply, although I've always thought the water tasted a little odd, all those minerals maybe. They used to melt ice blocks from the lake and pool on their living room wood stove in order to flush the toilet during storms. "Wow," I said. Wow. I do NOT want to live here again. My baby enjoys the look of the snow, and smiles at it, but after 3 minutes outside, the smile transforms to a frown/scream/squeal/cry as if to say "GET ME INSIDE NOWWWW!!!" I love seeing the snow and cozy-ing up to a nice cup of tea looking out on a frozen lake, but living in it, in this cold, bitter, biting wind, frozen footed, slippery road, salt stained, gray sky, dark cloud, snowed in, piled up, no sun, dry skin, sore nose, environment---- welllll, let's just say, it is NOT well with my soul. Ready to scoot on out, make like a tree and leave, but wait, there ARE NO leaves here for about 5 months!!! YIKES. I'm not saying Florida is paradise either, 7 months of crazy heat and blinding sun isn't quite my cup of tea... but we'll take it! If only we could find a happy medium ;)

SOOOO, on a totally different note... once you hit age 50, is it a rule that you automatically begin sitting around with friends discussing illness, retirement and how you are going to die any day now? Is this what I have to look forward to in 22 years? Also, do you automatically start throwing away or misplacing other peoples' things, i.e. sentimental items belonging to your children who have left them in your home thinking they are safe from harm or disposal? I used to think that my sentimental objects were safe in the hands of my mother, neatly tucked away in a corner of her home, only to be moved or touched by me when I visit.... yet my mom and this trip to my in-laws has proven me VERY wrong. Things just start mysteriously disappearing into black holes somehow, and when asked, our parents tend to shrug it off or get irked at us for accusing them of the loss. Oh well, c'est la vie. I just hope that I can make my life always like a well, always full, bursting with excitement like fresh water, bubbling over from deep below. So far, it has been.