Home At Last

This afternoon Zoe and I moved into a home near Park City UT for the duration of his contract, nearly six months. It is a two bedroom, three bath, one car garage ski condo that backs up to a nature preserve less than ten feet away.

We have no Internet until late Wednesday so cannot show you photos or describe the beauty of the adjacent mountains and marshland. I took all I could carry out of my car, dragged suitcases upstairs and haven’t yet unloaded them from this morning.

Taking a break looking out at the view I saw a red-tailed hawk just still, riding the air currents, for about two minutes before he swooped down. A moment ago two geese stopped at the stream about 15’ away and flew off honking.

As to skiing I believe I may be seeing The Canyons, part of Park City and perhaps Deer Valley. Despite snow and cold temperatures the sun does melt snow so everything is kind of brown and dead-looking. We hope Jim comes home soon. No word yet but at least it’s not snowing.

Two more fronts are forecasted for this week, one for Tuesday-Wednesday, another for Thursday-Friday. I got up here in 20 minutes on dry roads.

I’ll get you photos when I finally have Internet service but the difference between here and our lovely extended stay is 1,000%. Now Zoe just has to get used to it. I don’t know where to walk her. She’s just had her dinner and will need to go out.

I’m not cooking tonight, but it’s not because of the Maytag and Jenn-Air appliances. We need to finish unloading the SUV and the Honda tonight and find a real box-cutter so I can dispense with this stupid paper cutter from Walgreens.

The view is terrific and will look lovely in summer. The small streams must have just unfrozen and waterfowl are everywhere. Ducks keep landing in the stream right by us and Zoe doesn’t care. She lets out her alarm for any person or child who strolls or jogs by. She’s only been here a few hours.

One of the things that sold me on this place is the slate tile, granite and appliances. Also that it was a smaller place than others and was certainly not a “Frat House” and I’ve seen one of those.
Everything is clean and orderly. I’ll have my shopping list and go tomorrow to cook a nice meal, once I inventory the cooking materials. I’m not adding to my kitchen pots and pans unless absolutely necessary.

The birds are done and have gone home for the night. Jim is trying to get home to our new place as well. He’ll call a few minutes out and I’ll talk him in. After all, someone’s got to get a fire going.

I think there’s a Domino’s nearby. Delivery would be great tonight. Interesting I was told that every home in Utah must have a land line (sop to AT&T, probably) in case of emergency. That’s like telling us that every e-mail we ever send must also be sent in the mail to that person with a huge amount of postage.

I thought Texas was unnecessarily paternalistic. Utah, I have only been here a few days so need time to figure that out. In TX I would be making more Spring dishes about now. Here it’s still winter and I have a stew or few to try before the snows stop blowing.

There’s a farmer’s market June – October a couple of miles away once a week. Concert series. Movies are within walking distance. Whole Foods is as well. I’m still looking for a drycleaner.

Hope Jim gets here before dark. Zoe’s looking out on the expanse and mountains, just showing the lack of info as where Jim will come from.

Have a great evening and cook well. As soon as I get my kitchen, desk and Internet set up I’ll be back with you. Cheers, Dee