The locals here thrive on coffee. The coffee shops here remind me of the churches back home in Tennessee: there is one on every corner. Churches are few and far between here though. Scott, being raised adventist, has seen only two churches. I was raised Church of God and I've only seen one of those. We have decided to meet in the middle and go to church on Saturday and Sunday. The weather is overcast, yet again, but it doesn't take away from the beauty. Oh wait, I see a bit of sunshine peeping through the clouds…. and now it's gone again. If it's this pretty in winter, I can only imagine what spring and fall will bring. We have a lot of yard work and landscaping at this house to do, but it will be well worth our efforts in the end.
Every chance I get, I run errands during the day to see the landscape. Coming from the south, I held my opinion that we were country farmers, but now I stand corrected. I've never seen so many farms in my life. There are so many different types of farms here, too. Dairy farms are few and far between, but I will see a rooster or a cow every once in a while. What populates these fields are rows and rows of trees! I'm not sure what type of fruit grows on these trees, though. When my dad comes here for a visit, he'll be able to tell me. There are also a ton of vineyards hosting different names and wines. The houses aren't as kept up as the houses in Chattanooga, but it's hard to keep the mold off of everything because of the damp weather. In fact, I believe that's why the grass looks so green; moss and grass intermingle on the ground.
Pluto, my dog, hates rain and thunderstorms so I was a little weary to bring him out here. I kept telling myself that he would get used to it. The first five days, he shook himself to sleep. He was a nervous wreck. When we moved into the house, I put a little blanket in the closet for him so he could hide. Tuesday, he stayed outside for about ten minutes at a time. Wednesday, I had to force him inside. Pluto loves to bark and chase things. If I could train Pluto, he could win races and obstacles because he's so fast and agile. When he runs, he gets so low to the ground and runs so fast, he looks like a champion grey hound. Our yard here is fenced in but half of it stretches along the road. Every time a car races by on the road, he runs along beside it barking his head off. I'm sure the neighbors don't find it as amusing as I do, but I can't find it in my heart to scold him because this is what makes him happy. The neighbors will have to learn to deal with it.
Back in Tennessee, Pluto would chase and nip at the cows legs in our back yard, but here in Oregon, there is no wildlife to do that, so what does my dear old dog do? He runs with the wind and barks at the clouds. He's beginning to love this place, and I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. After the third day of his non-stop shaking, I started to think that him being here wasn't worth my happiness because he wasn't happy. How could I possibly keep him in a place that he hated? I would be a cruel person to do that so I was making plans to send him back to Tennessee with my parents. He was so happy there. Now, I'm glad I didn't put my plans into motion because he's growing to love it here.
I believe I will love it more when we get our stuff here! Scott took a week off to get married so we didn't have enough time to take a honeymoon. Instead of a week long honey moon, we decided to wait until summer and go on weekend trips to see the north west. Originally, we were going to rent a truck to drive our stuff out here, but since we only had two days to get out here, we decided not to test our marriage that soon. Seriously, who wants to drive a U-Haul truck non-stop for 42 hours as newlyweds? Certainly, not me! We ended up flying and paying a trucking agency to drive our stuff.They quoted us a reasonable price and we signed a contract. They picked up our stuff last Friday and told us it was going to be here anywhere between the 2nd of March to the 5th. Now, they're running behind and won't be here until the 9th. We ordered a couch but it won't be here until the 20th. We are sleeping on an air mattress for now. One of the perks of being out in the country is our privacy and back yard over looking the Willamette river. Being too far out for the internet to reach us is NOT a perk. I can do without cable TV. I went without it in Tennessee for over a year. But I cannot deal without internet! It's ridiculous that with all of our technology, it is limited to the cities.
I'm done complaining about the internet. I am very lucky to have the chance to move out here and have a roof (pronounce ruff here in Oregon) over my head and coffee in my belly. This is an adventure. In time, I will reflect back to these memories of sitting on the blow-up mattress with a down-feather blanket over my legs, hearing absolutely nothing but silence, and wishing I could have it back.
It's Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 but I probably won't be able to post this until this weekend. Until next time….
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