Toto, We Are Not In Kansas Anymore

We've noticed that there are some differences between California and Utah, and it is keeping us scrambling (so much so that we have been derelict in our blogging, with so many things to think about and do). For example, who knew that you have to seal your driveway with cement sealer every year before winter hits? Drain your sprinklers too? Rake up leaves so you don't get mold on your roof and lawn and other places? Clean your gutters and make sure there are no shorts in the strange icicle prevention device that lines the edges of our roof? 

Just when you think you're kind of getting used to it, something else pops up that reminds you that we are in a whole different world. A few examples:

• There are not zero, not one or two, but three (yes three!) country music stations on the FM dial. This is a good thing. The down-side: the only more popular format is the ultra- conservative talk show of the screaming-head, invade the world and shoot all the liberals variety. (They scare me, like a plague virus--it gives me the willies just to skip by them. Thank heaven for preset buttons.)
• I actually saw someone with a full blown mullet yesterday. Yikes.
  
• People carry around step-ladders to help them get into their trucks. And it is not because Utah is a state full of vertically challenged people.
  
• If you turn left, you cannot assume that the oncoming traffic will stop or even slow when the light turns red (forget yellow -- it may as well be a "gun that engine" sign). People run red lights around here like it is a constitutional right. I've had more near head-ons caused by assuming that some courtesy will be show to us poor left-turning people than I care to think about. (Sorry, pal, it may be Zion, but when we get in our cars, it's each one for himself.  Besides, you're turning to the left.)
  
• Speaking of traffic, there are some interesting unwritten rules here. Like if there are three cars and three lanes, each car has to fill one of those lanes. And cruise along side by side. At the same speed. Forever.
• If you don't have a stable of ATVs, snowmobiles, at least one large boat and one mobile home, with a Hummer in the yard of your 7000 square foot house on a quarter-acre lot, you just haven't arrived yet.
• There are polygamists everywhere. I feel like I've landed in the middle of an HBO miniseries. They own property just down the hill from us, and there is a compound (literally -- there is no other word for it) across the street from Kate's school. Then there is the co-op store they run on main street. Of course, you never actually see them. But everybody knows (think Leonard Cohen). It just feels strange.
  
• You go to the park, and see someone about your age with kids about the age yours are. Being the polite, friendly type you walk up and say, "your kids are so cute, how old are they?" The response: "Oh, these are my grandchildren, and . . ." True story. Happened twice. We don't ask anymore. It is safe to say we are not in Marin County.

Of course, some things about coming home have been a joy. The mountains are just spectacular -- I never really gave them the credit they deserved when I was a kid. There is nothing quite like the smell of August after a thunderstorm here, or the crispness of mornings after a cold rain, with leaves on the ground everywhere. The rich earthiness of it feels like life itself. Autumn has been spectacular, and even the now bare trees have a beauty that speaks of age and endurance and essence and survival.

If you are a kid, there are many other pleasant surprises.  Like finding your mom's wedding dress and trying it on.

Or knowing that you can go to grandpa's deck to eat pine cones any day of the week.

Then there is the fact that you don't have to wear your sunglasses at night to escape the glare of the paparazzi . . .
And mom and dad are so busy you can watch as much Blue's Clues as you want and smile like the Cheshire Cat stealing cream.

Or just having a lot of family around to make you laugh.

And if that is not enough, there are the sunsets from our deck . . . :-)