Musings of a New New Englander

Gentle Reader,
I have been remiss in keeping up with posts about  the many goings on in these parts. I have started and left unfinished several riveting posts... such as:

A silly, yet informative tutorial on How To De-Skunk a Dog.

Complete with photo illustrations.

A collection of beautiful...

and interesting...

and odd 

sights seen whilst on my daily wanderings about the neighborhood.

Including this house built in 1690. 

A post about a funny note that the Truthist left for us on his door.

The good news that Bailey and Gunner became best buds (in spite of his

lingering aura of Skunkiness)

Just a cute picture of the ever-adorable Norah--

who liked Gunner all along.

And the interesting side-note that we are living

in Winnie-the-Pooh's neighborhood.

I may still finish those and post them if they don't get too far past their freshness date. But in the meantime, I have a list of some observations I have made about our new surroundings:

1. I no longer make the mistake of going up Cod Fish Hill Road instead of staying on Dodgingtown Road when I am on my way home from the church. But I always smile as I drive by Cod Fish Hill Road.

There is definitely a British feel in road and town names.

2. I have a new friend who gave me these directions to her house: take Cemetery, then Flat Swamp. Next turn onto Poor House and the next road is ours. You have to give the Colonists credit for being clear--if a little depressing, when it came to naming their roads. 

3. I love the accents here. I sometimes forget to pay attention to what is actually being said because I am thinking--"He sounds like John F. Kennedy." or "Is she from New York? Oh yeah, New York is just a few miles from here."

4. The school nurse has a full-on Connecticut accent and Sam has had to go to her a couple of times when he was feeling sick. Later at the dinner table, he gives a complete re-inactment with a spot-on impersonation.

"Oh, youah face is  flushed, commeah and let me take youah tempacha."

I'm sure they get a kick out of our odd western accent so I mean this as a celebration of regional differences and in the most loving way. And in the interest of full disclosure, sometimes Sam reads during family scripture time with that accent and we have to put a stop to it in order to maintain the dignity--but he is very good at it.

5.  I love that school is dismissed for Jewish holidays. Not just because it's a break but because it has prompted me to look up the meanings of Rosh Hashanah  and Yom Kippur. I have a greater appreciation for the meaning behind their holy days and I hope the boys do too.

6. The roads here are, as described by another transplant "spaghetti roads". They wind and meander and no two meet up exactly at a so-called intersection.  They all remind me of Forest Home Road for any of my Camas readers. They are over arched by beautiful trees and it feels like I am driving in a tunnel of greenery wherever I go. I'm still a bit surprised when I come out of the leafy reverie into a shopping area. It's like Target or Costco was plopped down in the middle of a forest.

7. There has definitely been a change in seasons. I am enjoying jacket and sweater weather for the first time since we left the Northwest. It was a warm and humid summer and then one morning, I let the dog out and there was a crisp, nip in the air. Fall is here. The leaves are changing and it is spectacular. Even the Truthist is somewhat excited about the seasons changing. He almost got a little--dare I say--giddy, talking about cozy winter evenings by the fire. 

8. I like that shopping carts are called "carriages". It sounds so elegant. 

9. I love that there are American flags everywhere around here. I thought it was just a July thing when we first moved here a few days before the 4th,  but they are still up on almost every telephone/power pole and on many mailboxes and at every important building. Our town is famous for its giant flag pole--100 feet tall-- right in the middle of the street in the middle of town.

10. I love the people here. Our ward has been friendly and kind to us. We've been invited to Sunday dinners and enjoyed the company of good, stalwart families with stories of living overseas and other adventures. Everywhere I go I have met interesting and talkative people. I thought New Englanders were aloof but I haven't seen that. Maybe the more rural Connecticut is different. 

So, those are my rambling thoughts on our adventures. We are off to New Jersey this weekend to visit our son and his family and take a little jaunt into Philly. The Dead Sea Scrolls are on exhibit there and we plan to take that in as well as any other history we can squeeze into our trip. I promise to take pictures and get that into a post.

Eventually