The Bill of Rights & Amendment to the Constitution - First Amendment

This topic has come about because lately I've heard a few of these used, and some mentioned by people from other countries, and I'm not sure many people *really* know what the Bill of Rights or amendments to the Constitution are, and what these mean for life here, so I thought it was a good topic for a blog.

We get enough American TV in Australia (and other countries) that I'm sure all of us have heard some of the amendments for the Constitution already: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, "I plead the 5th" etc, but what do these really mean?

Well firstly, the Constitution is the law of the land in the United States. Every rule eventually leads back to the Constitution and people take the Constitution, and the rights it conveys, very seriously (as they should). There are 27 amendments to the Constitution and the first 10 are referred to as the Bill of Rights. Because there are so many amendments, and because they're not just small phrases, it's not as simple as just listing all 27 rights so here's the Wiki article for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution#The_Amendments but in short, amendments to the Constitution, such as the Bill of Rights, explains some freedoms not fully explained out in the Constitution.

The First Amendment is the one I wanted to talk about for this post. The First Amendment deals with "individual rights" such as (the titles are hyperlinks to Wiki articles for more information):

1. Freedom of Religion - the right to practice any religion, or none at all
2. Freedom of Speech -  the right to communicate opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them
3. Freedom of the Press - the freedom of communication and expression through mediums including various electronic media and published materials.
4. Freedom of Assembly - the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests
5. Freedom of Petition - the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Contrary to popular belief, Freedom of Speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want and there should be no consequences. That is an extremely popular misunderstanding of what it really means and you will read it anywhere someone is fired for posting stuff about work, or posting public opinion being held against them at work, or people being sued. People crying out that they shouldn't be fired/sued/held accountable because it's "Freedom of Speech".

As you can see from the explanation, the term "to anyone who is willing to receive them" is extremely important. There are limitations, such as: defamation (saying something false to damage someone's character), or libel (accusing someone of something they didn't do), racist remarks or copyright violations.

Likewise, with "Freedom of the Press" it doesn't mean they can say whatever they want either. Certain information such as private/classified information is off the cards.

Basically, these rights are here, these freedoms are here, but all with moderation and respect.

Wiki about the Bill of Rights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
Wiki about the Constitution:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today (almost to the day) I made my first post so this is quite the anniversary for me!

This blog started off like most probably do, with people asking questions about my life here and wanting comparisons to life in Australia. I don't know all the answers (surprisingly :P) and it led me to researching and later, to blogging about my findings. Sometimes I'll see something funny, or tell someone something they find funny or strange and I come here and leave little drafts/notes for myself of things I could/should write about.

You have probably noticed by now that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to my post dates and to be honest, it's because sometimes I struggle with finishing off posts.  I have many posts sitting in draft form just waiting for me to get the drive to finish them. Some might say I'm a bit of a perfectionist but it's probably more that I babble on too much and it's hard to cut it down to make sense! I will work on a post for a week. This one for example I actually started 5 days ago and am now just finding the time to work on it...

Hopefully though you guys don't mind the random dates of my postings and will continue to read on anyway :) I would also like to involve you in my blog and in the spirit of my One Year Anniversary, I would like to encourage my readers (if you're out there and so desire to) to ask me questions or suggests topics that you would like me to give my two cents on or look into.

Thank you for reading! I do read all your comments and thank you all for your feedback :)

Easter - Holidays, Candy & Toys

Large Aussie Easter Eggs

You read that title correctly... candy and toys, not chocolate, is how Easter is celebrated here in the US, that is IF they celebrate Easter at all. (Again please remember this could be specific to my area so no offense to anyone who celebrates differently!) It's not only candy/chocolate that's different either, it's also the manner in which it is celebrated, and the Easter holidays themselves.

This Easter, like the ones before it, I was jealous. Posts all over Facebook, people talking about their four-day weekend in Australia and me, I had work both Friday and Monday. Easter is supposed to be four days of relaxation, family time and chocolate comas... not in the US!

I was talking to a friend on Friday morning as I was getting ready to work and she asked me why I was up so early on a day off, that she would be sleeping in. When I told her I was getting ready for work she was confused and asked me if it was Friday here. When I told her yes, but it's not a Public Holiday... well... she had some choice words to say so I thought it would make a good post to explain WHY :)

I'm sure a lot of you are aware that Americans in general tend to be quite religious, so you would think that the US would have a religious holiday such as Easter as a public holiday... BUT the US is also big on separation of church and state and also Freedom of Religion (the freedom to pick any religion or none)... so having a religious holiday as a public holiday is a no-no because that would be "forcing" people to participate in a religious holiday.

Now, don't think that means you CAN'T have those days off, you can tell your employer that you are taking that day off as a religious holiday and they cannot refuse you (discrimination issue and all that), and apparently quite a few people do this. Some government agencies (like the court house near where I work) elected to close on either Monday or Friday, businesses can choose to close or not close, but it's not "mandatory" like some holidays are (there will be another post about the different kinds of holidays to come).

I asked my work colleague about schools as well (as she actually has kids, I do, but just the furry and scaley variety :P) and she said that as Spring Break is around the time of Easter, some religious schools will time Spring Break to start on Good Friday so that they have the Easter weekend off as well as the regular time off for Spring Break (which varies by school, no set period), which averages about a week off.

Easter basket for young kids

Easter Basket

Easter Basket for the older child

So now we come to candy and toys. I was able to get a few photos of Australian chocolate (many thanks to friends and family!) but because I don't really know that many kids here, I didn't get any of Easter baskets  (so I borrowed some pics from online) but in short... kids don't get chocolate like we do. No chocolate comas for them. No giant chocolate bunnies and giant eggs about the size of your head. That's just unheard of. Here in the US, you get an Easter basket. Quite literally a basket (usually in Easter colours - pastels) that has toys in it, and often with some candy (skittles, M&M's etc) thrown in.

Large Aussie Easter eggs!

 The Easter candy/chocolate here does not even compare to what is sold in Australia over Christmas. Here they have themed items, like Easter coloured M&M's, or the shapes of bunnies or eggs in regular candies (like egg shapes Reeces Peanut Butter Cups). You'll get skittles, or pop rocks, peeps (they are little chick shaped items) and a whole slew of other candy, just Easter themed. I believe it's around now that you start seeing chicks and ducklings for sale in some farming stores too.

It's not that Easter here is BAD or anything. It's just one of those holidays that for 26 years I was used to celebrating a certain way and was, quite honestly, disappointed that I couldn't get my head size eggs and other Easter chocolate like I could in Australia, it just did not seem to be as big an event as it most definitely is in Australia. I know a lot of ex-pats feel this way their first Easter as well.

One of the things that a lot of these differences do is make me wonder when the time comes, if we have kids, what sort of traditions are we going to pass on? Would our kids appreciate having Easter treated more like the Australian Easter where they only get Easter Eggs (lovingly imported from Aus that is :D)... after all, they get candy on Halloween, and toys on birthdays and Christmas... or will they hate that they're "different" from their friends? The same goes for any of the other Australian holidays. Should we celebrate Australia Day? Should we tell them what the Melbourne Cup is? Should we explain that Thanksgiving is an American holiday (and Canadian but a different date)? Where is the line between TOO different, and just different enough? Maybe just having a mum that talks funny will be enough :P

Money!

Exchange rate Feb 20, 2013

I think we've all seen enough of American money in the movies to recognise it when we see it, but I thought some of you might enjoy a quick comparison to Australian money, and also to learn a little bit about money here in the U.S.

To start I thought I would address a few quirks about Australian money, for those readers who aren't from Australia so you know exactly where I "came from".

Australian Coins

First, in Australia we have done away with 1c and 2c coins. This was many moons ago while I was still a kid. The smallest coin in Australia is now the 5c coin BUT you can still sometimes see prices as, say, $1.88. Now we don't do the 1c or 2c so we can't give coin up to 88c but neither can the cashier give 2c change. If you pay with card (EFTPOS in Australia) you will be charged exactly $1.88 BUT if you pay with cash, you will pay $1.90. It gets rounded down or up depending on whether it's closer to the next 10, the previous 10 or 5. At first people were worried they would be cheated out of money with the rounding up but really it most likely evens out, plus, you can just use card (which is VERY prevalent) instead of cash, problem solved :D

Australian Notes

Australian notes are made of a polymer so it feels very plastic. You can cut it with scissors but getting it wet doesn't damage it. A bad thing is though that when wet it's possible for them to stick together, and sometimes even if dry by static, so you could accidentally give someone more money than you intended! The notes also have a few safety features, mostly watermark type things, so you can tell if it's real or fake.

The best thing about Australian notes, in my opinion, is that they're colour coded. So when you look in your wallet you can tell by looking at the colours how much money you have in your wallet! A lot of people call Aussie money (and UK money) "monopoly money" because it's so multi-coloured and to them, looks fake.

American Notes

American money is basically paper (though a special kind) and very easy to tear and if it gets wet it can destroy it (however it's not uncommon to see notes taped back together!). Occasionally you will hear someone refer to American notes as "greenbacks" and this is of course because they're green, or rather they used to be. Like Australian money, American money is starting to become coloured, just not quite as BRIGHT as Australian notes! I still find it hard to identify how much I have in my wallet though, and I'm sure I'm not the only person to open it up to see a few notes and think I'm rich, only to find out they're $1 notes :P

American Coins

Similar to Australia, America has coins that are being used less often to the point you may never see them (unlike Australian 1c and 2c which are now totally obsolete), these are the 50c (half dollar), $1 coin. They also have the $2 note which you won't see too often either. You can still find some of these, but they're not common.

Both Australia and America have slang terms for particular notes. Not everyone uses the slang (me for example :P) but you might hear certain things from time to time like "redder" for a $20 note in Australia (because it's red) or "Benjamins" for $100 notes in America (because Benjamin Franklin is on the note). This wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slang_terms_for_money has more examples (though I'll admit some of them must be old because I've never heard some of them! Like I said, personally I don't use the slang terms, not when "10" is so easy to say but doesn't mean you won't hear them some time!

Both countries have security marks/features in their of course, BUT here in American there is a special marker/texta! The first time I saw someone take out a marker and scribble on a note I was confused when nothing came up. I wondered why they were testing if a marker worked, on money! That's when I asked and found out about the "counterfeit detector pen". Here's a "How Stuff Works" link to explain: http://www.howstuffworks.com/question212.htm  Basically if the money is fake, the marker will show, if it's real, nothing happens :)

It did take a while for me to get used to the differences. It's still weird to me to have so many ones ($1) in my wallet but I know other people that find it odd to have "big money" (anything with "dollar" after it being "big") as a coin, especially as they're not light! A lot of American men carry the "change" in their pocket as well and someone I know went over to the UK and ended up carrying a fair bit of money in their pocket not realising they had $1 and $2 coins in there! It's also still weird to me that the American 5c piece is the size of an Australian10c piece, and the 10c piece is the size of an Australian 5c (roughly)... not to mention all the pennies!

** I'm sorry this one took so long to get out! I'm actually working on a few at the moment, and the Health Care one specifically is difficult to make sure I make sense (when sometimes the healthcare here doesn't make sense!). So stay tuned! I'm going to try and get some of the "easier" ones out first and continue working on the Health Care one :)

Seasons - Weather & Shopping

01/21/12 - Temp in F

01/21/12 - Temp in C

This is a post I've been thinking about for a while because it was of course one of the first things I noticed, the difference in weather!

In my area of Australia (I'm just gunna say "Australia" for this post to save time but yes, I know it's hotter in QLD, NT and WA than in Vic :-P) it was basically HOT (Summer), warm (Autumn & Spring), and cold (Winter)...  Cold was anything under 20C (and I don't remember anything under 0C) and sometimes at night it would get down as low as 1C and that was just the world ending! But most of the time it basically felt like we only had two seasons... either warm, or kinda cold.

Foliage wise too, nothing really changed. I didn't noticed the plants really obviously dying off then "springing" back to life like I do here in the US. I noticed Autumn of course but we must just have a lot of evergreens near my house because I never noticed an extremely large amount of leaves. Everything basically stayed green all year round until it went brown in the heat of summer.

In a lot of towns here there's a "dumping" area for plants, lawn clippings etc so this past Autumn (okay it's called "Fall" more often in the US) we scooped them up and dumped them there. SO many leaves, about 4 truck-bed's full and it was a lot of work and I definitely felt it the next day!

Here in Iowa we definitely have all four seasons. Summer is HOT, Autumn is warm with the occasional cool breeze (and the leaves falling etc), Winter is FREEZING with snow, and Spring is warm but wet with all the snow melting then all the grass comes back green, and flowers bloom.

Summer gets ridiculously hot here in Iowa, but a humid hot which I personally think is worse in some ways and better in others. The dry heat in Australia is good in that you can often stand in the shade and not feel as hot, but this also means the risk of bushfires is greater. Here in Iowa there's no hiding, it's hot EVERYWHERE. The good thing about that though is window unit air conditioning units are really reasonably priced and actually really efficient. We have central air-conditioning as well (very spoilt) so our house is basically climate controlled which is wonderful :-) My husband once told me that it gets so humid because of all the crops (corn and soy) that boosts the moisture in the air.

It was only after my first full (and proper winter) when I finally realised what "Spring Cleaning" was and why it was necessary. Over Winter the house is all shut up of course and sealed with the heater running (in our case central heating with a humidifier running because the dry air from the heater makes me so itchy!), that's a lot of recycled air. When Spring hits you open all the windows and let the air circulate. You clean EVERYTHING to get rid of that "sealed up" and stale feeling and you throw out stuff you'd just been storing because you really don't want to go out for longer than you have to!

With the weather came another realisation, I don't own enough clothes! Well.. okay I didn't own enough variation of clothes, not to contend with the weather anyway :-P

I have to admit back in Australia I basically wore the same thing year round (only adding a jumper when cold) because the temperature didn't really alter all that much... pants (jeans) and a t-shirt... so I didn't really understand in movies how they would "pack away" clothes or buy clothes in seasons ("this is my winter wardrobe"). Why would you pack them away? Why would you buy multiple seasons of clothes? Seems a little pointless and expensive... WELL, now it all makes sense! I store my heavy winter coat, snow boots, beanies, winter gloves, long sleeved undershirt and all that because you only need it for 3 months of the year. As it starts to get cold you get those clothes out of storage, move your colder weather clothes to the front of the wardrobe and the summer clothes to the back.

That of course leads to SHOPPING for seasonal shopping. My jeans broke last summer and I went to go buy a new pair from a store I like to shop in and all I could find were capris or shorts or skirts but not a good range of full-length jeans. I had to wait until they came "back in season" before I could get proper new ones. I had to get cheap jeans that I hate but at least did the job.

I broke my sunnies last week and found out that those are seasonal as well, and found out my favourite shopping store (Kohls) is a seasonal shop so NO sunnies :-( Ended up located my sunnies (same as my broken ones) at Wal-mart. Thank goodness for Wal-mart hey!

They talk about times of the year in terms of seasons too. "I'm going to college in the Fall", movies are "out this summer"... I have to admit it takes me a second or two to calculate that :-P

Pop Can & Bottle Recycling... For Money!

Okay so I found it hard to find a heading that didn't just make it sounds like I'm talking about typical bottle and can recycling that we do in Australia, so hopefully you guys were attracted by the word money as something interesting/different and read this post! It's only going to be a short one (you all probably have realised by now that "short" is a relative term!) but seeing it's something I did today I thought I should get it out there before I forgot! As a heads up I'm probably going to use the term "can" a lot but assume I'm talking about bottles as well :D.

Today I took 240 cans to the "can center" and in return I was paid $12. Now you'd be forgiven for thinking I actually got paid to recycle, but that's not actually the case... not entirely anyway. I'm not profiting, I'm actually breaking even.

How's that you ask? Well, I can't remember whether it's the same in Australia, but cans and bottles here have this weird looking writing on them that usually includes a monetary amount like 5c or 10c. It's actually state codes with how much of a deposit you pay for the bottle or can. See pics below (p.s. the can one was a really hard photo to get clear!):

Soda Bottles Deposit/
Recycling codes

Codes on the cans

Receipt Showing Deposit Paid

So you can probably see that there are only a couple of states that are listed (CT, IA, HI, MA, ME, NY, OR, VT for 5c, MI for 10c and CA says CRV explained here http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/bevcontainer/ ). This means that if you buy a bottle or can in those particular states, you will PAY a "deposit" when purchasing the beverage (see my receipt above).

In order to get that deposit back you need to take the bottle or can to a redeeming center. Apparently legally the place you bought it from is supposed to accept the can back, but not all places are equipped to deal with it so will only take a 12 pack or a small amount, if they take any at all. That's why they have the "redemption centers".

Rules for Redeeming

There are rules for redeeming cans and bottles as well. The place I went to today gave me a list of rules (to the left). Every place probably has different rules. The place I used to go to (that has since closed down) would take 240 cans or 300 cans. You were paid 5c per can. Now here's the thing. They never actually counted the cans while you were there (that would take too long because it's by hand) so instead some places will go by the "height" of the bag (because the can bags are pretty standard in size/width and yes we usually pay for them, 75c at this new place). I actually found at the old place they didn't pay me for the 300 cans but I didn't know that at the time, it wasn't until I got home that I was told I should have been paid more ($15 as opposed to $12) which isn't a lot but can add up over the years!

At the new place they don't count them either but the lady told me they will only take 240 cans (or rather only pay for 240 cans but you can give them more, just won't be paid more) because people were cheating them and saying there was 300 when there was less. They trust you to have the right number of cans in the bag until you prove to be untrustworthy. She also told me that the companies who make the pop are the ones that pay them for the cans. They are paid 6c per can, they pay us 5c per can so their profit is 1c per can. Apparently since the old place closed they've been EXTREMELY busy handling the cans and have needed to hire on someone new to help (she told me that earlier that week in one day they had well over 70 people come in so $138 profit assuming all the bags were exactly 240 cans and not including bottles etc).

Processing the cans at the can center consists of people opening all the bags and sorting them into bags for their respective manufacturer to collect (and people don't tend to wash them so it's really sticky) . When I dropped off my bag there were 2 people sorting cans and there were a LOT of bags to sort. It'd be pretty good repetitive arm exercise though... I know because I had to sort through my cans into bags of 240. Fun fun!

On doing some research for this topic I actually came across some posts that talk about "can counting machines" that you empty your bag of cans into and it spits out a receipt that you take to the cashier who will give you the money for however many cans are on the receipt... of course I also read that homeless people camp out near some of those places and beg people for their receipt (but homeless people is actually a whole other post for another day)... so maybe counting the cans myself is better than dealing with the guilt (misplaced or not).

A friend asked me where I stored the cans. We have a breezeway and in that breezeway we have a cardboard barrel from my husbands father that a can bag fits into perfectly... other people have other methods of course). It's taking up a bit of the breezeway now only because I sorted the cans into separate bags but when those are gone it doesn't impede movement at all.

So there you go. Not everyone collects the cans and instead just throws them out (whether they don't have the storage space or they're above it). Some people actually collect the cans from other locations (bars, outside apartment complexes, if they're cleaners at businesses or schools) and actually add to their income in that way. Given I have collected 720 cans (or $36) in the last year+ (yes I was lazy redeeming them) that's actually, over time, a fair bit of money you're throwing in the trash. I know it drives my husband nuts but hey, I have $12 right now that I didn't have yesterday, and when I take the other 2 bags I sorted that'll be another $24. PLUS it saves space in the regular trash can :D

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little post. Now I'm off to spend my $12... nah it's bedtime, but thanks for reading :)

P.S. Here's a wiki page explaining the reason behind it for some states and countries if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation.

Winter - How it affects normal life

Storm - 19 December, 2012

Well we finally got snow and it came in the form of a pretty decent storm, called Winter Storm Draco. It started with rain, then turned to sleet (horizontal at that) and then turn to snow. Combine all that with the high winds 25-35mph the roads were awful.

Thursday was when I first heard the storm was coming and I admit I didn't really think much of it. I didn't realise the impact it would have. I didn't really want to drive in it, but wasn't too worried at the same time either because, I thought, I'd just pull over, or drive slow. I totally forgot that my truck needs weight in the bed (goodbye traction without it!) and the size of my tyres make for good aquaplaning.

Storm Draco Begins 20 Dec, 2012

It was first supposed to hit at 6am (around the time I get up to get ready for work) but as it turns out it didn't hit till 11am and it continued through the day and I couldn't tell you when the wind really died down. I can tell you I left work at 3-3.30pm and didn't get home till 5.30pm-ish. It took 2-2 1/2 hours to drive 30 miles (which normally takes me 45-60 minutes).

I knew what was going to happen, but that doesn't help when it's actually happening. A few times I lost traction enough to fish-tail my truck. Once up onto a median strip (narrowly missing the pole because I jerked the wheel in time.. which incidentally is usually a big no-no in this weather... smooth fluid movements, nothing sudden.. no sudden acceleration or braking or turning), another time into the opposite lane of traffic (where thankfully the guy was at a stop sign and just laughed at me as I said "SORRY!!!"), and the final time I "ditched my truck". I lost it on the interstate and was headed for a ditch. It wasn't a small one either so I was forced to alter my trajectory as best I could and fling my steering wheel the opposite way. I still got stuck, but this time sideways and not a nose-plant into a big ditch. Thankfully a good samaritan (Ryan) drove past, saw I was still in my truck, and turned around (risking his own safety I will mention) and asked if I was okay. He called my husband for me (my phone battery was dead), and then asked me if I had anything like a chain and he'd pull me out. Luckily I still had some ratchet straps and though it ended up sacrificing itself, he got me out and I drove the rest of the way, very gingerly home. When I got home my husband and our neighbour were digging out our driveway. My back and neck were sore (from sitting so tensely) but I was oh so glad to be home, thankful I didn't roll my truck, thankful Ryan stopped to help and that his truck was strong enough to pull mine out, thankful I didn't ditch on the way home (and it was BAD... I couldn't see the roads at times but you can't pull over or you'll never get out so I just followed the tail lights ahead of me), thankful I've driven that path enough that I could guesstimate where the road was, and thankful it wasn't bad enough to incapacitate my truck.

ANYWAY before all this happened, I was talking a friend one morning (around midnight Aussie time but more like 7am central time in the US) and I had to run outside to start my truck. While out there (and still on the phone) I noticed my windscreen had iced over as well so I had to scrape it (it hadn't snowed yet but we'd still get ice on the windscreen). While telling my friend this (and a few other winter issues) I realised I hadn't addressed this on here yet and it might be interesting to some of you to read what winter can sometimes mean for daily life (outside of freezing our bits off!).

Winter in my area of the US means snow. I'd never really seen snow before I moved to Iowa, once for about 5 minutes as I drove through some random snow fall on the way to Melbourne, but that's about it. I thought in places where snow was common, it snowed daily/regularly during winter and I had no concept of what it really meant to have a white winter!

I thought (in my innocence) that when it snowed it pretty much snowed constantly. A few breaks here and there but mostly constant, how else does it stay on the ground? Well, that's because it's FREEZING! You might see on the weather report it's 35F but then it'll say "feels like 20F" because with the windchill it feels much colder. It can be sunny out with the nice hot sun feeling great when you're inside, but as soon as you step out the windchill.. brrr!

It doesn't snow all the time. It's like rain, only instead of rain it's snow. So think of how much it rains and imagine that being snow instead. That's what it is.
There's a few things to address so I'll do them in numerical point form to make life easier (hopefully) in case anyone wants to specify a particular number to ask questions or comment:

1. Getting Up Earlier -You're never quite sure if you're up "early enough" or "too early" but if you have somewhere to be, you better make sure you give yourself at least an extra 1/2 hour (depending how bad the weather was the day before) both to be able to leave the driveway, and also to get to work/wherever you're going on time. The next few points will explain why...


2. Start Your Vehicle Early - You will need to start your vehicle early to give it time to warm up. Not just inside the vehicle but also the engine itself. Driving on a cold engine isn't good at the best of times, but worse if it's frozen... but lets be honest, mostly it's about making sure that heater is working before you head out!


3. Digging Your Vehicle Out - You need to make a path out of your driveway so that you don't run over too much snow, compacting it into a slick surface (makes getting out harder and sometimes dangerous and almost impossible to shovel later). Just about everyone owns a snow shovel, but some really lucky people have snow blowers (makes it SO much quicker to dig out!). You will need to dig around your vehicle, as well as making sure your license plates and lights are visible (don't forget the brake lights including the "top one" if you have one).


4. Scraping Your Windscreen - Whether it's snowed a lot or not, almost every day you will have to scrape your windscreen, whether you're going somewhere or not. The reason for this is if it gets to the point where it melts then refreezes you could end up with a hard shell on your windows etc that you can't scrap off easily and you CANNOT use water (no matter the temperature) because cold will freeze, and too warm may crack (it's that cold) so scraping is your only option (eventually salt may work too...)


5. Wiper Fluid - It's funny how used to using wipers you get without realising it. You cannot use them in winter unless you have a special fluid in them that doesn't freeze otherwise, you guessed it, it could freeze on your windscreen and make a huge mess. You can buy special fluid (make sure you check what temp it freezes at, it'll usually say on the bottle) that will only freeze at really low temps (we just got some that'll be fine to -27F) and can even sometimes help melt the snow.


6. Digging Out Paths - Some towns will have rules about whether you MUST dig out your footpath/sidewalk or not. Failure to do so in those areas can result in a fine. However I know that some towns while this might be a "suggestion" there is also a law where if you've dug out and someone slips and hurts themselves it's your fault whereas leaving it alone it's "natures" fault. so you need to make sure you know so you don't end up regretting it! 





#7 Roads Being Plowed

7. Snow Plows - Governments, and even some people, have snow plows. The city workers will plow the main roads after a snow fall (sometimes during depends on how long it's been going on) to keep the roads clear and safe. The regularity of plowing depends and the time as well, so some mornings you might be "snowed in" because you can't drive your vehicle on the roads until they're plowed, and sometimes even the plow can cover your vehicle making it hard to get out, so be careful where you park! Some people own attachments for their trucks as well either to earn money by digging out people's driveways for them, or for personal use because they live on a road that doesn't get plowed by city workers.


8. Salt - Something totally new to me... salt melts snow! There are different kinds of salt too. Some are gentler than others (for example I was warned to avoid walking my dogs because some salt is so harsh it can burn the pads of their feet... so snow shoes for pets seems to have a practical purpose as well as being cute!). Just today I saw some coloured salt on the ground (not entirely sure why it's coloured.. maybe so you know it's there?). There are also big tanker type trucks that carry a salt water solution to salt down the freeways and highways. It doesn't work too well when the road has iced over and while it helps with the roads.. it leads to the next point...


9. Rusting Vehicles - The salt they put on the road, like when you live in a town near the sea, ends up rusting your vehicle. So while rust is a bad thing of course, I don't know of anyone that wouldn't buy a vehicle for everyday use simply because it has some rust (of course the amount matters), because it's going to keep rusting. My husband has a vehicle, a camaro, that he doesn't drive in winter for this very reason.


10. Warm Clothes - Something that perplexed me was, what do you do with all the winter clothes you're wearing to get from A to B and entering a warm building, like say, Walmart? Your tolerance may vary but I wear snow boots, gloves, a beanie, scarf (or facemask), and a big heavy coat... when you enter a building with heating that gets HOT and while the snow boots can stay on, what about the rest? I thought I'd see people carrying backpacks so they could stuff their winter gear into it... I haven't yet though 'cause most people just shove the gloves into the pockets of the coat or hold the gloves and beanie in one hand with the coat slung over their arm and the scarf loosened.


11. Cheaper Winter Clothes - One bonus of it being winter here 3 months out of the year, winter clothes are MUCH cheaper here than in Australia. I bought a coat that I can wear 4 different ways (there's a reversible inner coat that I can wear by itself or with the outer coat). It was only $60 when something comparable in Australia would be hundreds of dollars!


12. Shoe Spikes - I fell only once last year but one of the dangers of snow is black ice. Sometimes just a surface that doesn't look slippery but is. You can buy they spikes for your shoes that you slip over the sole of your shoe to make walking less dangerous. I don't personally use them because often there's not enough snow and you'd need to keep taking them on and off to walk on spots where there's no snow. Also out of interest, nearly fell on my butt the other day because i didn't see the submerged cement corner :S


13. Emergency Pack - The morning after the storm hit, I put my dolphin torch in my truck (http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=12292 - I love it!). I already had an emergency blanket (you know the silver ones) and also an airplane blanket I appropriated from my last United flight. It's also best to make sure you carry food and water but of course water freezes in the cold so you need to take it out and put it back in again. You should also put a chain or tow rope in just in case and, unlike me, make sure your phone is charged or have an emergency phone that can at least dial 911 or 112.





#14 Going Into a Ditch

14. Going into a ditch/Getting Stuck - There are government vehicles that drive around during storms (or after) checking vehicles for people. This is usually on the more main roads so try and drive on the main roads unless you're comfortable with the idea of waiting hours before someone drives past to rescue you.


15. Filling Your Vehicle With Fuel - This is probably the weirdest part... you don't shut your vehicle off when filling up. I remember all the signs at the petrol stations in Aus with their "do not use a mobile", "make sure your vehicle is completely off" signs and here there is no such thing. You leave it on to keep it warm.


16. Parking - There are some places where you're not allowed to park when it's snowing, and some places you shouldn't because vehicles can get plowed in (i.e. when plowing the roads the snow covers your vehicle and good luck getting it out!


17. Snow mobiles - Just like some people have four-wheelers, some people have snow mobiles at well. The interesting part is there are actually specific snow mobile routes and signs for them. I think it sounds like fun but it's also dangerous because you can't see what's under the snow, that's the main reason for the routes, so you can be more sure it's not dangerous.

Out of interest, snow isn't always "pretty" either. The salt from the road causes the snow to go from pretty white to grey/brown sludge.