Snowshoes!

I love my new snowshoes, built for women. On Sunday, Daisy and I took off through the woods for an adventure, she leaping and bounding like a reindeer, me trying out the snowshoes, taking baby steps so I could make a sort of trail for someone who might want to walk through the woods after us. Once we got to a snowmobile trail someone left, I was able to take normal steps. My hips hurt a bit at first but then everything quieted down and I was off and, well, not exactly running, but walking at a brisk pace, enjoying the cold, crisp air and the beautiful sunshiny day. I think snowshoeing through the woods in VT with my friend J would be a really nice adventure. I have to train for the Chocolate Festival up in North Conway at the end of February. Some of the women I work with and I are making a girls’ weekend and going up for an overnight at an inn and then snowshoeing through the Chocolate Festival. It’s the 19th annual CF so it must be pretty good. Hey, anything with chocolate has got to be good! One can either x/c ski or snowshoe around this 5 miles course which has stops at several inns and ski places along the way, each with their own special version of a chocolate treat….YUM! A wonderful guiltless way of enjoying chocolate and the outdoors. I only traveled about a mile today so I need to get more training in before the CF. I want to be able to snowshoe the whole way, though they do have a shuttle bus for those that can’t quite finish the journey. I think I can do it, if I can make stops along the way to rest and eat chocolate delicacies. That should spur me on to the next stop and the next and the next….

New Tires

I need new tires for my car. I barely made it through last winter with these crappy tires I have that are GREAT in rain but so lousy in snow. I have no traction in the snow, just slip slide my way through, hoping no one makes me stop because I'll never get going again. I've gotten expert at steering out of slides though.

My mechanic gave me a price of $127 per tire to replace the crappy tires with just decent all season tires, nothing special, just decent. Yikes! He says that includes mounting and balancing. Big whoop. He would charge me every time he had to rotate them, every second oil change. So I figure I should go to someplace that specializes in tires that does free rotation for the life of the tires. I shop online just to get an idea of how much or how little I can get away with since I have to replace the crap tires sooner or later, even if I make it through this winter with them. The cheapest price I find is $82.50 a tire including mounting, balancing and free rotation. That's still a lotta clams to shell out! J's tires were only about $50 a tire for decent ones. Why do mine have to be so expensive?

I'm so tired of worrying about money all the time. I owe, I owe, I owe. I think I need to play the lottery or something. I would love to pay everything off and start fresh with just utility bills and a mortgage. Ah, life would be much easier....