I love to travel...see what's out there in the world.......and my small town of Slippery Rock (The Rock) is a great place to come home to. It's cute, cozy and quaint, safe, quiet and really a bit of a lazy town (especially during the summers when the college is out of session). Most people know each other...I can walk down the street and say "Hello" to people..and I know their names (and they all know mine)!! It's small town America in a good way...good because it is a college town, so we do have many different types of people, international students, foreign visitors, speakers and performers that come to town, as well as the locals here. We have two Chinese restaurants (thank goodness!) and we have a micro-brewery! Everyone offers something, some things are new, some things are old, some things you want to be exposed to, others maybe not so much, but all in all it's harmless and again, it's safe.
Our office is located in one of the original buildings of Slippery Rock. It's red brick and has a typical (for this area) barn stone foundation. It was built in the late 1800's. It used to be the town hardware store...it was owned and named after the owner, Mr. Gibson...and interestingly enough the Gibsons owned and worked in this building and owned and lived in the house that I live in now! So it's been many, many, many years that a person has made tracks back and forth to/from 140 South Main Street to/from 211 Franklin Street.
Well, Vipin and I own our office building as well the building next door (which has an apartment upstairs and The Hair Studio salon on the street level...this building was in the 1800's the local bank and in its basement is still the original old bank vault). In our building we have two apartments on the 2nd floor (with SRU student tenants), we rent the main street level office to ReMax Realty, and our offices are in the lower level. The entrance to our office is in the back left corner just under a bright blue awning (which has my business names Airport Orbit and The Cultural Studies Academy on it). Here are summer and winter photos....as you can see...winter work days require lots of snow shoveling...we are in Western Pennsylvania after all!
On the other side of our office building is a small pedestrian alley way...this used to be used for the coal carts back in the 1800's...now it is used to go from the town's public parking lot to/from Main Street (and directly across the street from our office is the local brewery, North Country Brewing Company...so it's an alley that is used as a walk-thru all the time!). The building on the other side of the alley way has two apartments upstairs and the local jewelry store, Taggart's Jewelry. Barb Trouterman is the owner and operator, like me, she took over her family's business...this town is full of good, honest, hard working business WOMEN!! And most of us go out in the winter and shovel our own walks every morning! GIRL POWER!!!
Our town has grown quite a bit over the years...I am very proud of it and of how far it has come. Here is look (summer and winter) from just outside my office door...you can see the town parking lot and our gazebo off to the right (I'm so glad we have one)...and ALL THE SNOW!!! It's been a hard, cold, icy winter!! I'm quite ready for Spring and beautiful flowers!! It's just around the corner.......
Keep Warm!!!
A BABY AARDVARK
A BABY PANDA
Could this be my new office assistant??
Yes...this is a little baby HEDGEHOG on an apple!
So, a new craze is to have a hedgehog as a pet! I wouldn't have thought of it, they are more to me like a wild garden animal (something you see digging around under bushes)...they very popular in Austria as little knick-knack statues and to be seen depicted on aprons and on kitchen things...considered good-luck! But hedgehogs as pets?!?! Well, of course... just go to Hedgies.com and you can learn all about them...where to get them, how to raise them, what to feed them, how to care for them...everything!!! Now...why would someone want a hedgehog as a pet? Just look how adorable they are! 
I WANT A HEDGEHOG!!
HERE IS AN ALBINO ONE...so pretty!
On the other side of our office building is a small pedestrian alley way...this used to be used for the coal carts back in the 1800's...now it is used to go from the town's public parking lot to/from Main Street (and directly across the street from our office is the local brewery, North Country Brewing Company...so it's an alley that is used as a walk-thru all the time!). The building on the other side of the alley way has two apartments upstairs and the local jewelry store, Taggart's Jewelry. Barb Trouterman is the owner and operator, like me, she took over her family's business...this town is full of good, honest, hard working business WOMEN!! And most of us go out in the winter and shovel our own walks every morning! GIRL POWER!!!
Our town has grown quite a bit over the years...I am very proud of it and of how far it has come. Here is look (summer and winter) from just outside my office door...you can see the town parking lot and our gazebo off to the right (I'm so glad we have one)...and ALL THE SNOW!!! It's been a hard, cold, icy winter!! I'm quite ready for Spring and beautiful flowers!! It's just around the corner.......
Keep Warm!!!
