Back in the Eastern USA for sure

When we lived in Pennsylvania I tried to learn the names of the plants that were in the woods.  I also tried to learn about the birds that lived in Pa.  Today I went walking and by so doing I was able to note the plants that live by the wayside.  I found White Yarrow, Hickory nuts, Colts Foot, Chicory, Ragweed and Goldenrod and in the spring I look forward to seeing May Apples and Trilium among other things.
I saw how the leaves are falling from the trees due to the rain that was falling as I walked.;  the leaves just fall in a carpet under the tree.  The little birds were out in full force.  I heard Chicadee's, Blue Jays and Crows.  I also heard the little birds whose name I do not know, but they were described as "little fluffy feathers that tweet so lightly and are hard to see)  I also saw a grey squirrel that lost the battle with the automobiles.
The rain has been falling all day.  That is quite a different situation than in Arizona but is similar to that of my home town - if the rain goes on for a while, my mother used to say of that situation "The rain  has already set in" and it did last for a while - like a few days.
We found the State Archives building and went in to see the station where we will be working - it looks quite scarey.  It has been almost a month since we were trained and life has been so hectic since then that we have not picked up the manual they gave us and it all looks so foreign.  I am sure that with further training on Monday, we will be ok.
We signed up to go and exercise at the YMCA after work each day at the archives.  Perhaps along with doing a great job digitizing, we will also achieve svelte bodies................ha ha ha ha
We did a bit of exploration and tried to find the K-mart plaza.  It was so crowded in front with fast food outlets that we missed it altogether so after driving about 3 miles past it, we turned around and drove slowly so that we would not miss it and made the other drivers very unhappy with us for going so slowly.
Our goal was to visit the Goodwill store first to look for lamps for our apartment.  Did not find any that we thought would fit with our decor.............. which is classic Goodwill anyway.   We are perfectly happy with it all anyway because it so resembles our first apartment back in 1974, in Scalp Level, Pennsylvania.  I did find a super raincoat at Goodwill.  We went next door to K-Mart and were sad to see that the store was very unkempt and poorly lit and it was hard to find anything we could use.  But, we did find two snow shovels and one snow brush and ice chipper.  We were advised to get a shovel early, because when they sell out, they do not order more until next year.  One of the shovels we bought is particularly for digging your car out of a snowbank or if your car is stuck.
It is cold now and I really need a warm coat so we will go to LLBean and get one.   We were advised to go to the outlet store first before we go to the flagship store...................you never know what you will find.