The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

As I've mentioned, I'm not a reflective person; I have a "man the torpedoes, full steam ahead" mentality. But it's become a tradition that I take a little stock and look back at my decision to leave sunny Southern California in December 2018 to move to snowy, cold, foggy, damp Waitsburg. So here goes, as I bravely reflect now, rather than in spring when the weather is warm, the garden is green, and the sun is shining.

Since I will soon be retired, I have no excuse, "I'm too busy to do that now," to justify my procrastination. The list of projects is growing, including those that are necessary but boring:

•Patch and paint every room in the house.

•Touch up the scratches and gashes on the new kitchen cabinets.

•Wash the windows! All of them!

•Organize and cull the useless clothes, linens, and other random items out of the attic (it's become a convenient dumping ground).

There are a few fun things on the list:

•Buy seeds and restart my annual garden log, with the ongoing, but never reached, goal of keeping it up to date through the entire season. (Goals are good, right?)

•Decide which seeds to sneak into Daniel's attempt at an organized garden.

•Finally, take some day trips; Bluewood, Starbuck, and Palouse Falls are first on the list, especially without snow tires and with the top down. (Come on, Spring!)

Along with the projects on the "to-do" list, I am also proud of some of my accomplishments:

•I have become cold weather acclimated; I can go out of the house to throw out the trash without putting on my thermal underwear, sweater, boots, scarf, gloves, and hat. I just run out and dump dressed "as is" – usually in a tee shirt and leggings.

•The same acclimation reached for letting Mugsy out first thing in the morning.

•We still eat tomato sauce, potato soup, and pickles from our garden-a never-ending source of surprise and pride for me.

I continue to learn about living in the PNW; some lessons were more difficult than others:

•There is no such thing as "one and done" regarding mice. And we certainly know now that we can't depend on the neighborhood cats. We had another mouse in the pantry and more in the root/wine cellar. They got into a giant block of cheese and turned it into a liquid mess.

•Mice also attacked and damaged the twenty-plus bags of chutney Daniel made from our 33 pounds of green tomatoes. Lesson learned: no plastic bags, use jars.

•I now know about weeping pipes, and I think we will finally conquer the problem this winter. I run the hot and cold taps to avoid frozen pipes before we get single-digit temperatures.

•I appreciate and marvel, yet sometimes lose patience, with the polite drivers in the PNW. It seems I can sit at a four-way stop with no one making a move. Everyone waiting their turn. I know they are saying: "You first," "No, you go" "No, I think it's your turn." I've still got a little NY and Calif. left in me, so after I look around, I hit the gas. I do say (silently of course), "thank you."

Last week, I was back in Los Angeles for client dinners, our office holiday party, and doctor appointments. It was 80 degrees, sunny and clear skies. Am I crazy? You chose!