Frosty the Hobo

Last week didn’t merit a blog post only because there were no fun pictures to share. Still, some exciting happenings, presented in a pleasing bulleted format:

• Jeff moved out into his own apartment! His roommate is a guy he works with at the rock climbing gym. They both like science and rock climbing. What a pair. It has been fun to visit and raid their kitchen for snacks, for a change. But they live up a steep, steep road on the steep, steep mountain, so Rachel doesn’t like to go there much.
  
• Since Jeff’s departure, Jacob rearranged all the rooms in our apartment. We switched our bedroom to Jeff’s and made a new office. The living room became an 18th century parlor room full of instruments and books, while our mountain bikes moved out of the cold and into the kitchen. What a decadent amount of space for two people!
  
• We’ve been socializing! More of a feat for Rachel than Jacob, but then, most of the new friend candidates are either students at the art school or relatives of students. Rachel is teaching some girls how to crochet, and together they are justifying numerous trips to the local yarn shop.
  
• Last weekend we took some of the first-year art students hiking on Upper Table Rock, an enormous lava-rock plateau near Medford. We had actually hiked there once before, on our short apartment-hunting trip, but the summer heat and wildfire haze had prevented us from even seeing the top, let alone reaching it. Beautiful view (despite the fog) and a vast expanse of subalpine prairie.

[Gymnast Jeff]

• Ashland’s first snowfall! More than 48 hours of intermittent precipitation resulted in only about half an inch of accumulation, but apparently even that is remarkable for the valley. All the school districts for miles around were closed or delayed, and we had to dig out the ice scrapers from the closet for the first time. We can enjoy it so much more, knowing that it only lasts a day or two. Mt Ashland might finally have enough powder to kick off ski season.

We fly home for the holidays on Friday and can’t wait to see everybody. We’ve both been having nightmares that our pets will no longer like us, but we can’t wait to see them, too. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, happy holidays to you!