Dedham, MA

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Kurt and I drove across Country to get my company car from CA to MA. It was a wonderful trip and really did a lot to cement our friendship. If we hadn't made that trip I don't know that we would have survived what came next.

The job was a complete disaster. I was not able to handle what I had gotten myself into. Perhaps if I had been in CA where I was surrounded by people who supported me and were able to give me a break from the stress of the job things would have turned out differently. I was not, and New Englanders and especially those folks around Boston are very insular and don't take well to outsiders. I tried for 12 months to make friends. I made two friends while I was there. A man who was from Martha's Vineyard and a woman from Houston. It was another very lonely time for me. Although in the midst of all this a friend from CA who I had just met, came to be the rock I relied on to get me through this time. Our friendship became what it is today because of the fires of that time. I am so very thankful for her and her support of me during these months. Kurt and I stopped talking shortly after I moved to Boston. And many of my friends from CA dropped off the radar as well. Those friends who were true friends remained, but many were busy with their own lives!

During the winter of 04/05 I survived the a horrific blizzard. It is funny how even when I was not adjusting weather defines my life!
In April, which was the worst month in Boston, I had my boss stab me in the back with what was to be a fatal blow for me with the insurance company. In the end I was unable to continue to work for him without further impairing my health. In early May I took medical leave for 12 weeks and during that time, moved myself back home to CA.

When I moved back home I spent a month living in Kurt's house (we began talking again in January 2005) recovering from Boston and getting my feet under me again.

I finally moved back into my home in CA and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life when Hurricane Katrina began to look like a huge threat to the Gulf Coast region. After much soul searching (because I wasn't sure I could do what I had done with Robert and my dad on my own) I contacted the company I had worked for so long ago to see if they would want a commercial adjuster. I spoke with the head of commercial claims and he told me to come on down!

North American Blizzard of 2005

The North American blizzard of 2005 was a three-day storm that affected large areas of the northern United States, dropping more than 3 feet (0.9 m) of snow in parts of southeastern Massachusetts, as well as much of the Boston metropolitan area. While this was by far the hardest hit region, it was also a significant snowstorm for the Philadelphia and New York City areas, which both suffered occasional blizzard conditions and 12-15 inch (30-38 cm) snow accumulations.

The storm began dropping snow on the upper Midwest on Thursday, January 20, 2005. It slowly moved eastward affecting the Great Lakes region and the Mid-Atlantic states on Friday and Saturday, January 21 and January 22, 2005. On Saturday evening the storm entered the Southern New England area. The strength of the storm, coupled with the extreme Arctic temperatures, created a light, fluffy snow which increased the snowfall totals.

The storm shut down Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts and T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island, while also impairing travel throughout much of Massachusetts due to the high amount of snow covering the roads. Practically all schools in the Metrowest and South East regions of Massachusetts were closed for at least two days. Cape Cod Community College, as well as all public schools on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were closed for up to a week.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2005

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