nearly normal

it's been a very long time since i had to really drive anywhere. for about the last 10 years... or geesh, probably longer, we've always lived sort of in the thick of things. also known as in/or close to town. so everything was pretty much a stone throw away. in Cranberry i don't think it took more than 10 minutes to get from our house to just about anywhere, with the exception of downtown Pittsburgh.

that's so not the case here... we are sort of living out in the boonies. and it doesn't help that everything is super spread out, so it takes me 10 minutes just to get to the junction that leads to the main roads that actually take you places. from there it's at least another 10 minutes to the freeway ramp... i forsee a lot of gas stations in my future.

with that said... i've actually been out and about more in the past 5 days than i have in the last 6 months. since The P left, the boys and i have been running all over - trying to keep cool and stay out of trouble. the keeping cool part is tough. there are a lot of trees here, but i have yet to find a decent park that's both free and shaded. what a concept, right?!? we stumbled across one yesterday that was completely devoid of any trees or vegetation whatsoever and after baking in the sun for about 15 minutes even H-man had had enough. the staying out of trouble part has been much more successful. we've been gone so much during the day that H hasn't seen hide nor hair of the rabid neighbors in 5 whole days and i'm elated to report that he was nearly back to normal today. not one single hitting or pushing episode... does this mean we'll be going out everyday?? perhaps ;) i've got a few friends who make it a point to get their kids out of the house each and every day and they're not even avoiding anyone. in the past i always thought they were a bit crazy... but our living situation was a lot different then. we no longer have a huge house, private yard or secluded street to call our own... and we sort of get on each other nerves a lot faster in our current digs. so perhaps there's something to this "getting out everyday" philosophy ;)

in other news... our air condioner froze solid today. totally Loved that!! thankfully the house only got up to 87 before they got it "fixed". let's just hope this time the "fix" sticks!