SCANNING, SPANISH AND SNOW

After scanning hundreds of pictures over the course of two weeks, I had wishful thinking that I had finished the task.  But I knew better.  I was missing photo albums but just didn't want to find them.  Of course, being a bit anal retentive I knew I couldn't call the task complete until I found the albums that weren't really missing (they were just stored in a totally different location).  I wonder what all the expats in Panama have done with albums and albums of pictures?  Is it that they have just had crates shipped to them with all of their prized belongings, and we are not doing this?  Do they have them stored in the States with loved one's?  I have a few more albums to go, and with those, Ray will have to help.  They are of his childhood, so he is willingly going to pick and choose which pictures he wants saved on a flash drive.  Eventually, and hopefully within the next month, I will disassemble the albums to reduce the bulk.  I want to put the pictures into photo boxes and the flash drives along with my external hard drive (I use the "Click Free") into our firebox.  I will take the flash drives to Panama with me and a few framed pictures (taken out of the frames for traveling).  This is the plan anyway.  Subject to change.

I had to pause the scanning this afternoon to start a Spanish lesson with Ray.  We re-learned the alphabet, some phrases, how to get around town, and some simple statements.  Again, my biggest concern is when learning, the teachers speak so slow.  This won't happen in Panama.  But I will do my best to just say "Hable despacio, por favor" (speak slowly please).  The dialect is different, and the speech is rapid.  And then there is my hearing loss.  I do know that we want to have some basic Spanish under our belt when we move there.  I also know that it will be a constant process of learning the language and needing to be immersed in the language with others.  And I know even more that I will tend to get lazy and just want to speak English.  And lazy may win out.  This is why I hope to live in a Panamanian neighborhood rather than an Expat community.  We will get to that when we get there.  We have to see what's available to us at the time.

And finally, it has been too cold in Virginia!  We have had temperatures in the teens and twenties during the day.  Last Wednesday we did get snow.  The weathermen were predicting a trace of snow in my area.  We ended up getting two inches of snow that morning.  It made the schedule at work a bit confusing.  Some patients canceled, but more patients came in since school was closed and many did not go to work.  I was at work for the day.  Ray had the day off by chance.  Then on Friday we were supposed to get another inch in the area during the evening rush hour.  School was canceled for the day again, since the streets were icy and snow was coming at the end of the day.  (It's just the way things are done here.  School is canceled the night before, just in case.)  We ended up getting a sprinkle of some snow flakes.  So what we do know is the weathermen have predicted the temperatures right.  Just not the snow.  Still.  And what I know is that I don't really enjoy the cold.  I never seem to thaw out.  I walk to the store, to my car, into work or to a restaurant just thinking warm, sunny Panamanian days.  I will even settle for seventy degree temperatures (this is what is coming on Wednesday--high sixties--the weather is crazy this week.  Then snow on Friday again so they say.)  I am just done with the winters. Lack of snow, freezing rain (what we are to get tonight supposedly), frigid temperatures and having to get out of bed to go to work in it.