New home! Or at least apartment...

I finally resolved all of my picture issues. I found my cable to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer. I found a free picture-editing program. I have downloaded pictures. So here we go...

We finally made it out of Erie, PA. They reopened I-90, although I don't know if I would go so far as to call it safe. This is what we got into by the PA state line...

Now, I know some of you have experience with this whole Northern/snow-living thing. I don't. Mom had the good sense to NEVER take us very far north during the winter. I like the way she thinks. Nathan and I got out of our vehicles, looked at each other and said, practically at the same time, "What on Earth were we thinking???" I told him I was in this mess because I was following him. I didn't know what he was doing there. But I digress.

Even through a snow storm, we made it to Watertown (that's NY for those of you who aren't keeping up), got the cats boarding at a vet clinic, and got checked into a motel.

After a week or so of looking around and finding out there were only two apartment complexes that were going to have anything available for the next month, we decided on one. It took another five days or so to get the lease signed and move in. Well, "move in" would be a better way to say it. We slept on an air mattress for the first few nights with a broken thermostat (very bad when it's 10 or colder outside). After that, things started looking up. We got all of our things from the movers and I haven't discovered anything missing yet. There was some minor damage to some things, but nothing I just can't handle.

And now for the good stuff... On one of our trips to look at apartments, we passed several dairy farms. At one farm, there is somebody with a really big tractor and a really big sense of humor. We found this...

If you're not exactly sure what that thing is, it's a snow man. Yes, a snow man. If you aren't exactly sure how tall it is, I walked up to it and Nathan took another one for you.

I'm guessing 20 feet tall. Those are tires for buttons. I think coal in large quantities has other uses 'round these parts. Like keeping people from freezing to death.

That's all for now. I'll write again soon (sooner than before, I promise. I got my picture problem solved, remember?) about the town and the crazy weather and whatever else happens.

But a 20-foot-tall snowman? Seriously? What kind of people live here anyway?