One of the biggest differences between living in the country and living in New York City is what you see from your window. In our little house in Queens, you might see a patch of the sky, but mostly you see your neighbors' houses. From our house in Northern Virginia, the view is quite different. You see the sky, the mountain in the distance, and you get a full view of the sunrise and the sunset.

Since I tend to stay indoors on days when the temperature is less than my age, I concentrate during the colder months on what I can see without going outdoors. This past winter, I took advantage of the features of my new Panasonic DMC-FZ18. The lens on the DMC-FZ18 gives a view that is greater at both the wide angle and telephoto ends of its range. As you will see from the following pictures, both came in handy. Today's thought -- Imagine working in the customer service department at Hoover Corporation, where people call to complain because your product doesn't suck.