Frost Begins

It started a year ago last summer. Maybe even before then if I really want to be honest with myself. We were doing our best to be a country family. 5 years living on a small rural acreage had been good to us. A woodpile provided heat through the winter (who needs a furnace!) and a flock of chickens provided eggs and meat, and ribbons from the county fair each year.

I had taken a job in town with the idea that some time in the future I would move closer. The commute, at a little over an hour each way on country roads, crossing the peak of the oak ridges wasn't unpleasant, but wasn't quick either. It was tiring enough that I had found 3 or 4 rest spots along the way, and often would pull off the road for a nap on the drive home.

In winter, there were hotspots to watch for ice and drifting snow. If there was an emergency at home, I had to hope my wife could handle it. Gas for the car was taking about $250 a week from our budget. I had a convertible I loved, and the extra miles were quickly killing it. We needed to make a change.

With a flurry of activity we finished some projects and put our house up for sale. In a month, we had sold and bought a new place. Now we have been here for a couple months and are starting to feel like we are permanent fixtures, not visitors in someone else's house. We painted a bedroom, fixed a sagging ceiling, and are in the process of replanting gardens for a showy yard in the spring. We no longer have chickens, and the dog has gone from over an acre to roam, down to a 50 X 100 ft yard.

Or two boys are thrilled to have a park next door and a pool in the backyard. They have libraries and schools in walking distance. They have city busses and garbage trucks to look at out the windows. We thought that moving from the country would be hard on them, but they seem to have adapted quite nicely.

Our eldest, and only daughter has started life in her new highschool. She has found and lost, and found romance. She has discovered the liberty of walking to school, which is good some days, and awful on others.

My wife has returned to work, we have hired a nanny. We have our first furnace. Ever.

Welcome to the House of Frost. The only house we have bought that came with a painting of itself.