September 3, 2010

Josh in his new glasses.

Today was a really boring day.  Josh is not feeling great, but actually it's because he has a head cold.  So he slept most of the day.  We did manage to get out at the end of the day and got his new glasses and had dinner.

I thought I'd tell you a few funny things about Minnesota:

• They have roads called, for example, 35W N.  Yes, it's "west" "north".  (Of course, there's also 35W S.)  Unbelievable.  As one with no sense of direction, this is not a good situation.
• During busy times, there is a traffic light on the on ramp on the highway.  When it turns green, ONE car can go forward and merge onto the highway.
• Their traffic lights are mostly on the side, not above.  This took some getting used to.  Yes, I went through more than a few yellows at first.
• They have roads with dotted lines up the middle, but they are two way roads and you cannot actually go over the dotted line.  Not sure why it's dotted instead of solid, but I did think I was on a one-way once when it was actually a two-way.  I didn't make that mistake again!
• While Minneapolis is a grid, they have numbered "streets" going one direction and numbered "avenues" going another.  OK, so I'm totally confused.  We are on 2nd St., but there's also 2nd Avenue.

Driving has been an adventure, but we're getting pretty good at it.

Now to your so-called hurricane or tropical storm Earl.  While you had hot weather, high humidity, rain but not much wind, we had freezing cold temperatures and LOTS of wind.  I checked weather.com several times today, and Waterford had 10 mph winds, while Minneapolis had 35 mph winds.  With the wind chill, it was about 50 here today.  Josh and I were cold, but the natives were out in shorts, short sleeves, and were still sitting outside at restaurants to eat.  They are a hardy lot.

Miss you all.  Love to hear from you.

xxoo

Deb