Turtles

It is Christmas Eve!

It is the day before Christmas! There will be snow here for our white Christmas. My family goes out to breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. It was very good. While we were driving there at about 8:00 this morning, the temperature was between 14 and 17 degrees. The wind was probably between 25 and 30 mph as well. It made for a very cold walk through the parking lot. The picture above is from the car while we were driving home.

Today I made cookies. It was nice to not be in a hurry making something. I spent two hours and now have lots of frosted sugar cookies. In case you cant tell, we have red hearts and santas, (the blob things are Santa with his pack on his back. The two in the picture below are upside down.) yellow stars and bells, and green Christmas trees.

Library Trips

Beware of the library. Okay, not really. Just don't go with me unless you want a huge pile of books. In under a half hour I managed to find 13 books that make a total of 4409 pages. I also got 2 CD's and 3 DVD's. As I read them, I will try to post reviews of how good they are. They range through a variety of genres and reading levels. I still prefer the teen fiction over most any adult fiction.

Snow and Home

Yes, I am talking about snow. But its what is happening around me. We got a massive snow storm today. My dad measured a foot deep in the level, non drifty parts. I got a couple pictures this evening.

More snow but at home this time

Finals are finished and there is nothing else I can do for any of my classes. My grades are astuck being whatever they are at. I am going to miss a lot of my friends from various classes, but am excited for next semester.

I am home for Christmas break. That in and of itself is cause for celebration. But the problem is that I miss my roommates now that we are all home. It is also weird to have nothing random going on. Usually if I get bored, I can just go talk to one of them and they will be doing something fun or will remind me of something I need to do.

There is a lot less for me to do around the house here. At my apartment I have to cook dinner if I want to eat. I have to keep everything cleaned up or it turns into chaos. Here, it is already done! Very strange.

I went to go visit friends at the high school today. It was really fun to see some people who I haven't seen in a few months. I got lots of hugs and a chance to talk. When I was done visiting people I looked outside and it was nearly a blizzard. After fighting through the crazy wind that was trying to kill me, I had to drive home. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive. It took me over twenty minutes to make a five minute drive. The visibility was poor. My guess is about three houses was maximum. As I would pass a house I was slowly able to see the dark space where the third house down was.

Once I got home I took a few pictures to try to show how snowy it really is.

It's COLD!!

This whole winter thing is not a foreign concept for me. I am just used to winter starting in early November, not late December. As much as I don't like being cold, I love winter. It snowed somewhat significantly today. I am partly afraid to drive onto campus because other people are not used to driving in snow. I guess they will get used to it. I am glad it snowed though.
Interesting observations about snow:

• Snow makes things warmer. I know that doesn't make any sense, because snow is, well, COLD. But it makes the outside temperature feel warmer if it does not actually make it warmer.
• Snow does not fall silently. There is a sound in its silence. This also makes no sense, but until you experience it you will not understand. There is a different kind of silence in the snow. Everything sounds muted.
• Snow brings out either the inner child or the inner old person. Either you love the snow and are captivated by its magic, or you ignore its beauty and grump about how its cold and wet. Personally I think the childlike approach is better because there is nothing you can do about snow. It is here until it wants to leave.

Here are some pictures I took this morning of the snow.

Origin

The name for this blog came from a box. I know, that is rather strange, but it is true. I was getting Christmas lights out to put up in my room and I looked on the back of the box. Now, I have this strange habit of reading EVERYTHING. Cereal boxes, billboards, ads, and apparently light boxes. The box lists the typical Caution: touching wires that may have lead in them has been found in California to cause cancer etc. (I think that notice is on everything in California.) then the Very Important! electrical announcements (This product might shock you unless you read the instructions. It just KNOWS who has read them). Then I see the heading Spare Parts. (2 twinkler bulbs, 2 regular bulbs and 2 spare fuses if you were wondering.) I have been thinking about making a blog and I figured that would be as good a name as any. So I went for it.
I am sure that story was just fascinating, but I don't exactly have a direction I am taking with whatever I post here. It is all going to be just Spare Parts.