Life in Madison - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A few updates and reflections....

CARVANA

After about 18 months of not owning a car I decided it was time to purchase one. The hunt for a car was unique because visiting car lots in person would prove challenging without a car. As I was looking on line for local car options CARVANA kept coming up so I checked it out.  I found a car that fit my list of needs so I proceeded to purchase my first car on line. I know, crazy right? No up front test drive or wandering a car lot and looking at all the cars in person and no sales person to talk to. There were some great aspects, no sales person pushing a sale, a huge inventory to search through, all of the car fax info and features documented, no price haggling, and a quick checkout process. Best part, they deliver it to your door. There is a week timeline where you can switch for another car (twice) if it doesn't work out for any reason. There is also a 100 day warranty to cover anything that comes up. It worked out great and I highly recommend it!

​Super grateful for covered parking!

NEW SEMESTER - SPRING 2024

We had a 5 week winter break and I worked hard to be prepared but the first day of the semester was a disaster! Okay, perhaps it wasn't that bad but I will tell you about it and you can make your own conclusions.

The previous week two big snow storms hit Madison, dropping about 20" of snow. It was beautiful! These pics are after the first storm on the brilliant day in between storms.

Huge piles of snow were in every parking lot and great snowbanks lined each street. They do not plow roads the way it is done in Utah. Even a week after the storms the neighborhood roads were still snow packed and it didn't even look like a plow had been by. Kind of crazy, but I have 4 WD!

Classes began on Tues. 23 Jan. and the day before I had heard that an ice storm was possible for the morning. It happened.... 
My window view is the parking lot and that morning I watched people skate across the lot, some intentionally others unexpectedly. I was pretty apprehensive about venturing out but I needed to get to campus. Gratefully, I didn't have to be there super early but I like to be there early enough to get set up and prepared.

I made my first attempt to venture to the bus stop and got about 10 feet out of the building and had no traction. My building is half way down a hill so the slope made it about impossible to navigate an icy slope. I resorted to sliding back to the building thinking I would wait a bit and see if it either warmed up or the maintenance crew salted the sidewalks.

On my second attempt I grabbed a small container and filled it with ice melt on my way out the door. It helped but I ran out just as I met up with the main sidewalk which is a steeper trek. I again slid back to the building and waited a bit longer because I had no way to carry a sufficient amount of ice melt with me to make it all the way to the bus stop. I wonder if anyone was entertained by my struggles on the ice? I was!

By the time I made my third attempt I had run out of time and had to make it to the bus no matter what. The roads appeared to be much better than the sidewalks so I decided I would go straight across the road instead of up but that also meant traipsing through a field of snow up to my knees. It worked! My boots were filled with snow but no slipping and sliding so it worked out great. The rest of the day followed a similar pattern though, false starts, missed information, and unfinished lessons, at least that is how it felt. The following days went better and I have high hopes for this week! 

GRADUATION!

Even though it didn't work out for me to be in England
for the graduation it is official, I am now a graduate of
Historic Building Conservation from
Kingston University, London England.

I really miss England but I am forever grateful for the
experience and time I spent living there.

I am filled with gratitude to have this degree.

​Cheers!