Faith, Snow, and Faith

Faith I

I was conversing with a friend on IM the other day. I re-read our conversation afterward, then went back and read some of the others we'd had. One thing struck me, and that was how I come across in (rapid) print as opposed to how I really sound. It's a common thing on the internet, and doesn't generally bother me. However, with the fast pace and randomness of our conversations, he has got to be wondering just what kind of Christian I am due to some of the comments I'd made. So, to explain (more for my own peace of mind than anything else):

1. Verbiage. I use masked cursing online more than I use it verbally (i.e. $#%@!!). It's faster when I'm aggravated about something (namely, my shift key not working) to type that than to say "Oh, gee, my shift key isn't working." I don't type 100+ words a minute so I use shortcuts. So assume it stands for "drat-diddly-dee" or something, OK?

2. The Playboy magazines. I've been an "automatic renewal" subscriber for years now. Why? I like to read them. No, really... I called once to see if it was available without pictures, but it wasn't except in the Braille edition. (I can't read Braille.) I like the interviews, the product reviews, some of the fiction and Raw Data. It's the only thing that might be considered smut that you'll find in our house. The hubby and I read it in turn and discuss articles with each other and I have no problem with that whatsoever. And we hide it when my brother is here.

3. Grade-school grudges. I don't have any, really, life's too short for that. But I refer to those people as I knew them then, since I haven't seen or heard from them since. Maybe they regret treating people like dirt. Maybe they talk about me the same way ("Oh, yeah, the weird chick..."). Maybe they don't think about it at all. I don't have any other points of reference so they're stuck in my memory as the mean girls. I hope we can find some other common ground to discuss besides grade-school history anyway, though I had a great trip down memory lane looking up our former teachers. I'm going to write to one of them.

4. Truck worship. Yeah, I'm just throwing that in there... (This is going out to everyone I've ever IM'd with a photo of myself hugging the truck.) I love vehicles, and I love my truck. I'm not obsessed with it, but since it's the nicest thing we own, I tend to yap about it. I picked him out, I named him, and he's like our first-born child since we don't have any actual ones to spoil. Not worship; unconditional love. Did I mention he's purple? What's not to love?

Snow

It snowed yesterday. Not here, but in the higher elevations. We took above-mentioned truck for a drive today to look at the fall foliage and wound up near Lake Jean. Hubby was surprised to see that there was enough snow to call out the plow trucks! It was the wet, heavy kind that's great for snow sculptures. Unfortunately I was unprepared, having only a long-sleeve shirt and no jacket or gloves, and the wrong shoes. I got out long enough to throw a token snowball at my husband, lost a shoe, and hopped around until I could retrieve it and get back in the truck. The remaining snow was pretty to see among the fall colors, though. The sky was simply incredible today too. Still... snow a week before Halloween? Might not have to move to Canada after all!

Faith II

Faith is a family friend. She and her husband are a truck-driving team; they are long-haul (or over-the-road) truckers and only get home a couple days a month. I missed seeing them this time around but my husband got to see them for a bit. They presented him with a goodie bag full of... drum roll... ELK! We now have elk steaks and elk loin in our freezer. Man, that's even better than venison. I'm stoked (and thankful, since we lost almost all our meat when the freezer quit). Faith, by the way, is the neighbor who invited me to come work for her for a couple weeks 6 years ago. I met my future husband my first day there, and I'm still working there. I'm grateful for the former; the latter is debatable. She was smart enough to get out. I got her job, but still, if a pay raise doesn't come my way soon I'm going to be seeking other employment. Guess I should be happy that I'm employed at all but I'm collecting job applications. (I'm also available for work-at-home computer stuff... hint hint.)
Anyway, Faith and Jeff are wonderful, down-home folks with big hearts and I wanted to give them a shout-out here. Hi y'all! Thanks!!! See you at Thanksgiving and keep the rubber side down!