I moved down to this valley from the mountains when I got a job teaching high school art. For awhile I resisted, and commuted, but after my carpool partner moved away it was no longer enjoyable or economical to drive up and down the big grade. I moved to the valley six years ago and it has been a slow adjustment and one made with much griping.
Really the only season I dislike is summer (and the occasional autumn when the heat drags on into October). It is HOT in this valley and midday in the summer is not condusive to any sort of outdoor actvity. It took me a long time to adjust to that and to learn to get out early and late. Summer I turn into a mole, working inside until the sun drops down behind the Sierra.
And winter - well, truth be told I wish we got more snow in the winter. I'm lucky if there are two mornings all winter when I'll actually wake to sparkly whiteness. Here. At the house. And I don't require Mammoth amounts of snow. If we could just keep one to two feet on the ground around here - enough to go out on skis - I'd be happy with that. I'm a snow person. I like snow sports. A lot.
This time of year and spring - these are when a person falls in love with this place. The colors, the sky, the crispness in the air - it is so gorgeous spring and fall. I've noticed that I enjoy it more and whine about moving less. I'm adjusting.
More and more of our friends are moving down here, out of the snow, and we find more and more to do. We snowshoe more and ski less, we wait anxiously for the ponds to freeze so that we can skate, and we walk, pull the bikes out for rides along the canals, and once in awhile I get up to the snow. Not as often as I would like but occasionally.
It looks like we'll be here for awhile and it is good to love where you live. It has taken me awhile and it is nothing like the love-at-first-sight I felt when I arrived in the area around Mammoth Lakes, but like many things that change as you get older, this is a different, slower kind of affection. This one is growing out of common sense, time, replacing activities, and although it might sound a little boring when I describe it that way, it actually isn't. It comes with a lot of satisfaction and contentment, and those aren't emotions very easily achieved.
Busy day ahead of me - I've got seven pans of cinnamon rolls rising, ingredients for a couple of pumpkin pies waiting, and a bunch of yams to turn into a yummy casserole.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and enjoy where you live!
Comments