Settling in to our new surroundings.

It has been a quiet week. A taste of times to come I fear. The weather is more changeable, cooler nights, but very hot days and evenings. The humidity is largely gone except when we are building up to a storm. These seem to happen fairly regularly and when it rains it's as if someone has emptied a bucket over you. This rain will soak you in a few minutes.
I like to sit out on the swing seat on the front porch and just watch it until I am forced to retreat inside with the seat cushion as the storm intensifies. We get very loud thunder and dramatic lightening and it sounds and feels as if it is right on top of the house.

Our street turns into a river and it is obvious why they need storm gutters round here. The so called creeks that surround the town, become rivers almost instantly.

I like storms, so have rather enjoyed this. Also our house appears so far to be waterproof!

We had an evening meal out with friends on sunday at a nearby winery- Holt's Summit, just outside Jefferson city. It was a beautiful setting, sitting outside overlooking the Missouri valley, warm evening, with dramatic sunset.

We had to have the house wine, which was not bad, but the food was crap! Such a shame. Beautiful setting, but haute cuisine, or cuisine of any description does not appear to have reached these parts. Still, we enjoyed the occasion and are grateful for the one restaurant in town, which is our nearest, which can actually cook meat properly.
The norm round here is to order twice as much as you need, i.e. one helping and take what's left, home in a doggy bag. All the restaurants, fast food places, have huge piles of polystyrene boxes especially for this. The helpings, of course, are far too big, but personally, I do not want to take home food, which wasn't much good in the first place and is not going to be improved by reheating or keeping. To be polite, I have been taking it home and binning it.

I have had my first taste of private health care, or rather dental care. I do have insurance, I hasten to add and made sure dental was included as my teeth are getting to that sort of age!
Something gave way and I couldn't chew on one side. So on the way to my weekly yoga, we visit the dentist, where they are all bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8 in the morning. Before you could turn round I was in the chair, x-rayed, prodded and diagnosed with 600 dollars worth of treatment. I can handle this rather bad news at this early hour, because I know I only have to pay 20%. He probably took one look at my mouth and thought he could retire on the proceeds.

The hours here are very different. Roland nearly died, when he found that two of his classes started at 8am. He is amazed that when he arrives- on the dot, they are all sitting up, ready and waiting.
Lunch in the cafeteria ends at 1 and dinner ends at 6. Dinner and party invitations are for 5 or 5.30. You are often home by 9. It doesn't seem too bad at this time of year, but the early starts will be hard mid winter.

I will leave you with two images of the master at work. Firstly in his large and rather empty office.

And secondly, on the front porch, where you can pretend to be engrossed in a book, but actually having a good nose around. We do after all live on a corner.

We are heading for another storm, so I'm going outside to watch it come!