Carolyn Was Out Again

Elkmont, Alabama

Weather: low 23 degrees, high 50 degrees, clear skies

We're going to take care of the cold feeling that the heat pump creates in the new home base. Tomorrow, a gas log will be installed in the fire place to give us some radiant heat, and we should feel much warmer. I know the temperature is the same, whether a heat pump or a source of radiant heat is used. But, it doesn't feel the same. So, tomorrow night, I should be able to back up to an actual gas flame and feel the heat radiating. I'm ready! Ahhh, I love the smell of scorched denim.

When we lived here back in 1980s, we had a heat pump, but out primary source of heat was a very nice wood heater that had a cook top as well as a blower that pushed the heat throughout the house. That heater saved us several times when the weather was so bad that the power was off for days at a time. We stayed warm and were able to cook. If I was younger, I would have another wood heater installed. I guess I have to finally make a concession to age by using the gas heat. Besides, I'm getting a little lazy. At least it feels that way.

Can you believe Carolyn wanted to go shopping again? This time, she wanted to go to Huntsville, which I was a little surprised about. The traffic is usually bad over there, and we thought it might be a little worse. Boy, were we ever wrong! The traffic was a lot worse than normal. At 1100 hours, traffic was backed up like rush hour every where we went.

Our first stop was at Bed, Bath, And Beyond. It had been a while since we had been in that store, and Carolyn was disappointed that she couldn't find what she was looking for. She seems to think the quality of the stuff she was looking at had declined since the last time she had been to one of those stores.

Target was in the same shopping area, so we drove over there to see if Carolyn could find what she was looking for. She had more success there, and found several items she was wanting, including some blankets for the spare bedrooms. Terri and Thomas will be here for the holiday, so now they will have blankets to sleep under.

The next stop Carolyn wanted to make was at Sam's Club, which the GPS said was only 0.4 miles down the road. We followed the GPS directions to a..... WalMart Mall. Huh. That's not what we're looking for. Carolyn checked the GPS again, and found that two locations for Sam's were in the GPS, but it was obviously wrong for the first location we went to. The second location was punched in, and we found it was 1.4 miles east of where we were. Ten minutes later, fighting the traffic, we saw Sam's.

I had to park about 20 acres away from the store because that was the only space I could find. I hurried in to the store and found what Carolyn wanted, paid for it, and hiked back to the truck. Whew! That was the busiest Sam's that I have ever been in.

Our impression of the economy here is that the area is very prosperous. It's almost like they are thumbing their nose at the bad economy elsewhere in the country.

Leaving Sam's and starting home, we found that the traffic situation had gotten worse. It took us about 30 minutes to get away from all the traffic and get started home. By that time, Carolyn was ready to get away from it all. But, we had one more stop to make at the library in Athens so we could check out some books to read.

Carolyn says she's not going any where tomorrow. We'll see how she feels about that in the morning. I'm trying to keep her busy, and if she wants to go for a ride in the beautiful countryside around here, we'll do it.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Buffalo, New York: Boost Buffalo

Not all who wander are lost.