Hickory Run State Park in PA

If you love nature and hiking, then Pennsylvania is your kind of place. There are so many beautiful state parks to go hiking and explore.

Sunday we went to Hickory Run State Park hiking. There are many trails with lots of beautiful water falls. The picture is of the Boulder Field, which is a 16-acre, 12-foot-deep phenomenon created during the last ice age. It is truly an amazing thing to see. You can walk across the rocks, which I didn't want to do because most of the rocks I put my foot on moved. Just the thought of walking across those rocks safely made my stress level begin to rise. So I decided not to. In stead I just took the picture!

The leaves are a changing here and it is soooo beautiful. There is about a 6 week window in the fall wherein you can see the beautiful colored landscape. Click here to see a video I made of the changing leaves.

Ciao

Bike Riding

One of my favorite things to do is ride my bike.

When I was 14 years old I was given a purple bike. Every day after school I would jump on my bike and take off down the street. We lived in a neighborhood that had large streets and not much traffic. I could ride really fast and feel the wind going through my hair as I maneuvered my way through the neighborhood.

Bike riding in Los Angeles never felt like it did when I was 14 years old. I couldn't ride my bike anywhere other than the beach. Keep in mind, your chances of getting hit by a car just crossing the street are great in Los Angeles, never mind being on a bike.

There's an 8 foot bike path that runs along the Pacific Ocean from Malibu, through Santa Monica, Venice to Marina del Rey. This 8 foot bike path is divided in half. One half is for people going in one direction and the other half is for people going in the opposite direction. It is clearly written with words and pictures that the bike path is for people on bikes or skakes. Not people walking and not people with baby strollers. It's beautiful to ride along the oceans. In facts it is so beautiful that millions of people want to be there so riding your bike on the bike path, along the ocean, can be extrememly stressful. After all, you don't want to run anyone over. So you never get any kind of speed and you will never feel the wind blowing through your hair.

Saturday I took my bike out and rode down the street to the Susquehanna River and along it past the corn fields. I got great speed and could definitely feel the wind in my hair and I thought to myself, "OMG this is exactly what it felt like to ride my bike when I was 14 years old." A great experience which I plan to do more of.

The picture is of my Hello Kitty bike that I spent one year covering with swarovski crystals.

Ciao

Time Zones & Rain

The majority of my clients for my legal business are in California, which is 3 hours earlier than the time here. Which also means that my work phone doesn't start ringing until noonish. I love it!

I can get up and casually go about my day doing what I feel is important to me before my work day begins.

Because of this time difference I am sometimes sitting at my desk at 7:00 or 8:00 at night, which is no big deal to me because I have done that a lot in the past. On most days I just stop around 6pm.

Los Angeles may or may not get rain on Monday. This will be the first rain of the season. They haven't gotten any rain since around April. Sometimes the rain doesn't get as far south, to Los Angeles, until November.

It's a real mess when the rain arrives in California. All of the oil from the highways comes to surface on the first day making driving dangerous. People don't know how to drive in the rain and there will be specials on television about hydroplaning. All of the mountains that burned will get soaked with water and begin sliding.

It began raining here the night before last. Intermittent showers with grey skies and a cool breeze. I love it! It feels like a creepy movie. It's like rain... without all the drama you have in California.

One thing I have to do is force myself to go outside. It's not that I don't want to go outside, it's just that from living in California for 23 years I am kind of conditioned that you don't go outside when it rains. It's just a California thing. You actually plan everything around rain. Some people won't even go to work when it rains. I can remember a zillion times when I would have plans to meet a friend for lunch and get the call in the morning, "Hey we need to reschedule, it's gonna rain." or "Hey it's raining, we have to reschedule lunch." In the south and the east people go about their life like normal in rain and snow. This is something I want to get right this fall/winter.

I have a friend who moved from California to Idaho and she wouldn't leave the house in the fall/winter because of the conditioning from living in California. She gained over 100 pounds! Ouch! So I definitely don't want that to happen to me.

Ciao

I Learned About My Heating System

The most intimidating thing about moving here has been learning the different heating systems. In Louisiana and California you just flick a switch and electric heat comes out. Here it is quite different.

In Wilkes Barre we had a baseboard heating system. Baseboard hot water heating systems work on the principle that heat rises. The "radiators" that bring warmth into the room are therefore installed low to the floor, typically along the baseboard. Water is heated in a boiler tank in the basement just as water is heated by gas, oil or electricity in a system separate from the water heater that supplies the plumbing system. The water is then pumped through the pipes in the baseboard.

Here in Bloomsburg we have a steam heating system, which uses steam generated from a boiler to heat the house through pipes to radiators in each room. Yesterday my landlord came over with the heating guy to go over how this system works with me. The picture on the blog is what I have in my basement.

Some of the homes here have oil and coal heating systems. Those are super intimidating to me.

Across the street from me, my neighbors live in a giant 2 story purple house. Yep, a purple house. I was invited over the other night and they gave me the grand tour. The ceilings are 16 feet high. The house is huge to say the least. They are a retired couple from up-state New York who moved here 6 years ago. Neither has any children. They just have 3 cats. They showed me their "movie room". I was told that the "movie room" is the room that they live in during the winter months as it is the only room that they heat. I guess it makes sense not to heat an entire mega mansion when there are only 2 people. But then I wonder, How much sense is it for 2 people to live in such a big house when you can really only afford to live in one room during the winter months? I estimate that their home is at least, if not more, 4,000 sq. ft.

Today it was 55 degrees with a 10 mile an hour wind... a bit windy and cool. Everyone keeps staying that the weather here gets ugly in November. I am in a "wait and see"mode.

Ciao

Hiking in PA

This is the month that the tourist come to Pennsylvania. The leaves are changing and it is really something to see.

The weather is fantastic! Around 60 degrees during the day and 40 degrees at night. Sweater weather!

A client told me it was 115 degrees in the San Fernando Valley last week. The San Fernando Valley is where Woodland Hills is located. Where I use to live.

And once again, California is burning. Big fires in the San Bernardino area.

This past weekend was a hiking weekend for me. My special guy and I went to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Bet you didn't even know that existed, well neither did I. The picture in this post of of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. It is situated in approximately 160,000 acres. Their are a couple of trails and bike path. It's really something to see.

I also went hiking in Ravensburg State Park. It is on 78 acres of beautiful wooded mountains.

Hiking is excellent exercise. During my lifetime I have spent too many hours in a gym. It's time for me to get my exercise in the outdoors where I can breath clean air and see real beauty.

Ciao

I Went to the Bloomsburg Fair

You would think by now I would be use to the big difference living in Pennsylvania is versus living in California. But I am still amazed.

Last night we walked to the Bloomsburg Fair and we paid our money and walked right in. I was shocked. I didn't have to walk through a metal detector, have my purse looked in or get scanned with a wand. I just walked right in.

Then I realized, Los Angeles is on the map for a terrorist attack, Bloomsburg isn't. No matter where you go in Los Angeles, the county fair, a Dodger baseball game, an amusement park, it doesn't matter. You will go through a metal detector, have your bags checked and get scanned with a wand.

A few years ago I attended Santa Monica Community College and they installed metal detectors going into each building. I had a metal ruler because I was taking a drafting class and I would have to arrive to class 15 minutes earlier just to go through the door. What a pain that was.

Every court house in California has the same thing. In March of this year I had to go to the court house and they wouldn't let me in because I had a metal pad lock (that I used for my locker at the gym) in my purse. I had to walk back to my car and leave the pad lock there before I could get in the court house. I have to tell you... this shit is not normal. However, the people in Los Angeles are so accustom to it... and so busy... that they just can't see the forest for the trees.

I feel free here. Free to come and go without having to be patted down.

Ciao

Christmas

I usually get the Christmas holiday feeling around August. I know it sounds weird but there is a very good reason.

In my early 20's my best friend, Judy, and I would do our Christmas shopping around September. Both of us hate the idea of being in a retail store in the month of December. In New Orleans the weather can be cold and rainy during the holiday time. Combined with rude, anxious people to hoot. So she and I would get together year after year and do our holiday shopping.

Judy went to Texas and I went to California. However, hating the holiday season rush hasn't changed. Some years I get it done by September 1st. Some years I slip and don't get it done until October 1st. Since 90% of what I give needs to be mailed, I just wrap it, box it up and stick the boxes by the front door with a post-it on when it needs to be mailed.

Then the holiday season shows up and I can cozy up on the couch with a good book, bake cookies or whatever and I don't have to go out and fight the retail madness.

I am happy to report that this year's gift giving is all done, wrapped and sitting at the door ready to be mailed.

Ciao