Not much to say

I want to keep up my dedication to write more often but I find I just don't have much to say ... much of the time. I'll try to improve on that. For now, I have one more day to work at the bookstore and I'm pretty happy about that. I don't think I wrote here that I figured out why I took this job: It was to see if I actually wanted a job. My across-the-road neighbor is my age (maybe 1 yr. older) and retired about 6-9 mos. before I did. She lasted about a year before she took a part-time job at the college in food service. She works half-days, I think, and gets her summers off. But she's very local with her entire family practically within shouting distance so she doesn't travel as much as I do.

I'm finding that even volunteer work means a commitment that, while more easily adjusted than a paid job, is something that you have to try to keep up. My reading for the vision-impaired, for instance, is something that I'm supposed to do every week. I miss about 1 out of 6 weeks and always feel guilty about that. I just realized that I might be gone for 4 successive Tuesdays when I go to FL for grandbaby2's arrival and I'm wondering if I should have a laptop to put my sound-editing program onto so I could sort of keep caught up with the reading. I won't spend $500 (or more) to do that but it has crossed my mind. So keep this in mind, all you young readers: retirement, like old age, ain't for sissies!

The weather is weird: LOTS of wind yesterday and last night, the yard littered with broken branches ... again. Yesterday it got into the 50s, I think, and there are flood worries because of rain and ice jams just north of us; tomorrow it'll be snowing and then pretty cold again. Bruce thinks yesterday was our "January thaw." Oh, I hope not. At least we're not Utah ... or Seattle ... or southern Wisconsin ... or ... ... ...

Christmas 2008

Happy Christmas to you!

As you can see, Bruce & I had a very nice--and rewarding!--Christmas. He gave me a very beautiful pendant: a blue topaz heart-shaped stone that's a "flower" with silver (or white gold) stem and leaf. It was designed and built by the local jeweler who designed my engagement ring. Really beautiful, delicate and feminine. I love it. I gave Bruce a shiatsu massage chair pad and he loves it. I'm glad.

Below is my attempt at a Martha Stewart table design. It's not too fancy this year; I just decided to use the bows from gifts to dress the table. It was fun to try, anyway.


And here is yours truly with Bruce, our Christmas portrait. I'm wearing my lovely Coldwater Creek winter sweater. It's too subtle to show up here but there are three white Christmas trees on the sweater, pearled and lightly sequined. Very nice and I feel lovely in it.


The ice cube snowman lights up blue and the light fades in and out. A little weird but I love it, and obviously so does Bruce because he got the batteries into it well before I got to it!

Ho Ho Ho!

About that job

Darling Bruce snowblowed (snowblew just does not sound right so live with my approximate grammar) the driveway yesterday even though he should not even have been outside. But he honestly doesn't mind doing that (most of the time).

And then it snowed more last night. But really only a little. And I put together a crockpot meal last night so I didn't have to do that this a.m. And even more darling Bruce drove me in and I got to the bookstore at 9:00. That's where I discovered I was on the schedule now to work 11:00 - 7:00. HUGE sigh (and muttered curses, you can bet). I actually caught Bruce before he got home--no he doesn't have a cell but I knew he was going to the gas station--and he came and took me back home. Then lo and behold, my car started! (I'll get a new battery in the next week or so just to be sure of it.) So I drove to work. As I was leaving the training supervisor told me that if I'd come to her at 9:00 she would have had me stay and work till 5 or 6.

All that was just lead-in to this: Is it because "retail" hires so many students that managers can be that capricious with their schedules? Or is it that college students have taught managers that they don't need to know schedules more than a week in advance? Or is it that because there are so few full-time workers that capricious schedules are the rule (whether or not the part-timers are students)? There's a fundamental difference between the way retail in a mall situation is run as compared to the way upscale department stores are run. Or maybe they only used to be different. I don't think so, judging by my experience in some upper-end stores in Tampa: the floor salespersons were very well dressed and made up, knew the stock in their departments and provided VERY good service. Malls maybe began our decline to the McDonalds type of service in retail, and then WalMarts took that even further. I know I sound old and crotchety about this, but there really was a service standard that meant the customer was right, or at least knew something.

So a customer complained to me at the cash register that the service in the bookstore was "terrible." There were always lines, he said. (There aren't; it's the week before Christmas, for heaven's sake.) So I said, "We try to give every customer as much time as needed at the register, sir, and that's why the line sometimes moves slowly." I had done all he wanted, after all. He missed my point. But it was nice to hear from a customer about 3 people later that she was impressed by how quickly we kept the line moving. Yin and yang, I guess.

"Later That Afternoon ..."

Here's the second video I did.



You can see the snow a bit better, I think. I have no idea how many inches we have now--looks like 3-4. Bruce is apparently feeling better and is out with the snowblower, which he pooh-poohed a couple of years ago. The birds are fun to watch on a day like today: They're puffed up as fluffy as they can get so they look like feather balls with wings! Even the tiny chickadees look big.

I called the bookstore and told them I wouldn't be there at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. I told 'em my battery was dead and my husband was too sick to shovel. One truism & one slight exaggeration. I'll get there when I can. And they're okay with that. There won't be any shoppers until about 9:30 or 10:00 anyway. Duh.

So we're getting the snowstorm that you all got (with the exception of the Florida contingent but at this time of year it's just better for my peace of mind to pretend they're getting this too). It started at about 8:30 this morning and will probably snow all day. As you can see in the little video, this is on top of the 10 inches we got two days ago.



(I think the snow coming down is actually more visible a bit more distant from the house. And I didn't mean to cut off like that; I thought my camera battery ran out.)

White Christmas? To quote Sarah Palin, "You betcha!" I'm not so happy about that because white could mean just enough snow to cover the grass; it doesn't have to be two feet deep! And Bruce has a whopper of a cold. I'm probably going to learn how to use the snowblower!

However, my Beetle's battery is dead right now. So I'll make a call to AAA because the car is in the garage nose-first, of course, and I don't want either Bruce or me pushing it out. Those AAA guys have a portable charger they can take into the garage, I'm pretty sure. I just can't decide if I'll call today or tomorrow. I think I'll let it go till tomorrow because I should drive it around a bit after it's charged and I absolutely do NOT want to do that today; the weather is just like it was when I was a pinata. I do learn from experience. :-)

The bad news is that I'm scheduled to work at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. I may not be there at 8:00. I can take the Ranger; Bruce doesn't mind that. It's getting out of the driveway that might be problematic. When the plows go by we get an impenetrably packed foot or more of snow from them. It's like shovelling concrete. We'll see how it goes, and I'll certainly tell you, dear reader, all about it.

For now, have a relaxing Sunday.

Picture Postcard World

I live in a world of picture postcard pines. Driving home from the bookstore today I passed countless evergreens (I was driving; I couldn't count them!) that are snow-laden just like those always pictured when showing ski resorts or the Adirondacks. The roads were slushy and brown but the pines were beautiful. I do love this area. Looking out my window right now I see about 4" of snow on the cedar rail fence around my garden. It's so pretty. (It covers all the leaves I didn't rake off my garden. But my plants seem to do fine with a bit of insulation through the cold cold months. How's that for rationalizing?) I think I really am gearing myself up to walking outside again; I miss walking around the block here and keeping an eye on snow-covered trees, the now-frozen now-not river and its winter changes.

The bookstore was busy all day today, and I'm probably in a pretty good frame of mind because I only worked 8:00 - 3:00 today. Next week will be a long one again: 8:00 - 5:00 on Monday, Tuesday and ... dah da dah dah (think mournful, threatening music) Friday. I'll just paste a smile on that day and try to deal with all the people who want to return things without receipts. Maybe I'll try to find an attractive flak jacket between now and then! But that schedule means I'll be able to make my cinnamon rolls--yes, just like my mom made every Saturday--for friends. I won't eat too many of them because I'm still working at staying low-carb. My cookie and candy intake has been remarkably low this year. I'm not sure how long that will last but I'm trying!

Light is fading outside; it's getting close to that shortest day. The air seems blue.

Have a good evening.

Am I Just Too Old?

This job at Borders is far more wearing than I had thought. It hadn't occurred to me that I would suffer so much from being on my feet so long. I'd made an appointment with a podiatrist back in August; their first opening was Dec. 3. When I went I was told I had bunions, no big news, but I'm finding that those bunions that almost never hurt me are being really badly affected by this job. My feet and legs ache all the days I work and it takes about one day (I've had F Sa Su off all this time) out of three before they're really pain free. As you might guess, I'm looking forward to having this job end: Dec. 30 is my last day. That means only T - Th this week, probably M - W next week, and M - W the week after.

I'll start walking outside again in January. It might not be every day for awhile but it's going to be several times a week. Last year I didn't go when it was about 10 degrees or colder, but we'll see about that this year. I may up my wimp quotient and not go when it's 15 or less.

Right now the wind, as Bruce would say, is "blowing a gale." It sounds strong and feels soooo good to be in our nice tight house. And I'm off to soak in a hot tub (no, it's not a hot-tub!). Mmmmmmm.

First "gift" under the tree

We put up the tree this afternoon/evening, just getting it up and the star on top and then broke for dinner. I made a stir-fry so the break was about 90 minutes, but dinner was good. As I was walking through the living room after dinner I noticed something on the tree skirt. It was too big to be kitty throw-up/fur ball and too far under the tree to be doggy doo. And when I asked Bruce whether he had put it there he said no. So here's the first "gift" put under the tree by HollytheDog:





It's her bone! Yes, it's blue, but it's a big rubbery thing that we were advised to get for Holly because she's a hard chewer. (NylaBones can chip and if you've ever stepped barefoot on a well-loved NylaBone you know just how sharp those chips can be. I guess they're dangerous to a dog's insides so she doesn't get them anymore.) I don't know if she didn't want the cat to get it, or was being considerate about us tripping over it (she's never been considerate that way before...) or whether she was pretending to be outside because her walkies got cut short today when she stepped on something or twisted an ankle, anyway she got hurt. So I just had to put the photo up here. That dog is way to much like a human sometimes.

BTW, just a thought that occurred in my usual free-association way, here's a quote attributed to Groucho Marx: Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

Hallelujah

I forgot to say anything on Sunday about our concert on Saturday night. The Champlain Valley Voices, F.K.A. the Champlain Valley Oratorio Society, presented portions of Handel's Messiah oratorio. We did the whole first section, virtually nothing from the 2d section, and much of the last section. We had a 20-piece orchestra and 90 voices plus 4 soloists. The soprano had a glorious voice, pure, clear and effortless. She's a local girl, the 23-yr-old daughter of a pediatrician and she's studying currently at Mcgill University in Montreal. Just an angel of a voice. The alto soloist was the former director of CVV (when it was CVOS), the tenor was a college student currently in NYC, and the bass sang the part his dad had sung 20 years ago with CVOS. I'm pretty sure that performance was the one I sang in; I very vaguely remember it but it would've been the first time I ever heard the whole Messiah.

The chorus sounded pretty good from where I was and I actually bought the CD so I could hear what 90 voices sounded like in the college's auditorium with the worst acoustics. Here's the PSU Web site's image of E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium:



It's pretty but you have to work to get the sound out to the audience. We were onstage--all of us--so it was a bit crowded. And the orchestra was, of course, in front of the chorus, so we really had to work! But I think it went well.

And the Messiah was certainly a good way to get me into the holiday spirit, anyway, so tomorrow I'll get out the house decorations and probably do the tree on the weekend. Let the holidays begin!

A very interesting video

My friend Wayne, another librarian, sent me this link for "Old Fat Naked Women for Peace." (He's further left than I am, even.) It's pretty neat. I think I'd have to have a very personal reason for such a protest--a child serving in Iraq or the like--or I couldn't do it. But a lot of women can, obviously!

So here's the link.

Still here, part deux

So after I finished talking with the trooper, who almost fell again getting INto his patrol car, I got back on the road and drove about a block from the intersection of death to the next intersection of death. (This is literal; there have been fatal accidents at both intersections in the last 10 yrs. Both times they were caused by drivers on the Rand Hill Road running their stop signs and either broadsiding or being broadsided by someone doing 55 mph on NYS 374 or even just 40 mph on NYS Rte. 3 [the latter would have been me]). ANYway, I sat at the stop sign at 374 while a long string of cars made its way slowly up that highway, led by a person driving a red Jeep convertible. She turned left in front of me and started to go past me, only HER wheels had nothing to grip and she continued to pirouette until she hit me in the LEFT rear fender. She was truly crawling and although the crunch sounded disastrous, again my miraculous blue baby didn't get even a scratch in the paint!

However, two bangs like that are two too many for little me. I felt like a pinata! I drove home evereverever so carefully, very grateful for Bruce behind me, and STAYED HOME the rest of the day.

This doesn't compare in danger to the accidents that have befallen my sister in the last couple of weeks: a blown rear tire--while she was talking to me on her cell phone (I've said that it's my familial duty to be the one to hear her death, and I'm truly not joking about that, just really really hoping it doesn't happen)--and an exploding rear passenger window while driving on I94 in Wisconsin. At least we weren't talking when that happened; I would have been the casualty!

I know she won't read this but there was a conversation yesterday on NPR, her favorite radio station, between an NPR reporter and an expert on the neurology involved in "multi-tasking." Turns out we really cannot multi-task. What we do in reality is pay attention to one thing at a time, switching among all the demands on our attention and managing them all worse than when we concentrate on only one thing such as, um, driving. Our brains simply can't do more than one thing at one time. And the PhD who was making this statement specifically addressed driving and cell phone use, saying that our attention is naturally more on the conversation than on the driving. Just as an aside, a trooper told Bruce and me that they're familiar with "cell phone lane-drift." Apparently it looks a lot like inebriated driving but it's really people paying more attention to the phone than to the road.

I've always found it too distracting to talk on the phone and drive. It's one thing to have the person there and carry on a conversation; they see that you have to ignore them to pay attention to traffic. I'm glad to learn that I'm not really working with an under-developed brain!

Okay, okay, I'm off my soap box. I'm going to veg in front of the TV: Chuck, Heroes and CSI:Miami are a 3-hr. no-brain-required evening for me. Yay.

I'm still here!

This will be very brief and I'll try to expand a bit tomorrow. I'm really, really tired because my adrenaline was so high for a period today and then it dropped and I made about 8 dozen Spritz cookies and wrapped presents, on either side of making lamb chops for dinner (for the first time in my life) ... and they were very tasty!

Why was my adrenaline up? you might ask. Because I was in a minor accident that almost was a T-boner--either I would have broadsided someone or he would have done it to me. As it was I managed to pull my car to the left and scraped across his front bumper. Then I slid across the opposite lane and headed directly for a sturdy wooden fence in someone's front yard but I went onto the grass where my wheels finally got some purchase and I didn't even get a scratch -- on me OR the car. But the other guy never even came to see if I was okay; he just took off. I did call 911 (after a call to Bruce) and reported it all to a very nice trooper, who nearly fell on his fanny getting out of his car. Slippery doesn't begin to describe it.

More tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

Our Feast

Here's what we did for Thanksgiving: I cooked and we ate. But I've been very good lately (lost 6.5 lbs. so far) and didn't blow it on too much food. But I ate carbs for the first time in awhile.

What you see here is my traditional Thanksgiving menu: roast turkey with stuffing (still in it), mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus, and cranberry relish. No rolls (as if they were necessary!) and only a few crudites.



And here is what we look like this year: older! Bruce NEVER smiles in photos. I smile like the Village Idiot (minus drool ... usually). And next time remind me to try to coordinate what we're wearing; print with plaid is a bit hard on the eyes!

Long Ago, in a Galaxy Far Away ...

Actually, it wasn't THAT long ago that my first daughter was born. And since my sweet niece Kitty asked me to put it here, I'm posting the picture that was taken of me when I was in labor before delivering my darling Emily.



I then owned that little Honda "mo-ped." It wasn't a real moped because it had no pedals, just a little engine that topped out (with a governor) at 25 mph. And I had driven it to work that morning, then my water broke at noon. My husband came and picked me up, then took the bus back to the library and brought the scooter home. By the time this picture was taken I was truly having contractions.

You have to realize that my official due date was actually one month hence. That pic was taken June 3, 1979, and my due date, according to the OB, was July 4. So I'm not as horrible a pre-mom as you might think! But that due date was obviously wrong, as Emily was born at 12:50 a.m. (I'm pretty sure; she'll have to check her baby book) on June 4--NOT July 4. And she weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz., so I'd hardly call her a preemie. What's a little weird here is that Emily's first baby was due on Dec. 20, 2006, and she went into labor on Nov. 20. Her dr. stopped her labor temporarily, so Kaitlyn was actually born on Nov. 22. But she, too, weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. And she had jaundice, just like her mom. And they treated her like a preemie, but a little more relaxed-ly than had been done with Emily--I didn't get to hold her for 12 hrs. while they kept her under what I call the McDonald's french-fry lights.

I just thought people might get a kick out of this. And aren't the glasses a piece of the past? Were they big enough, d'you think?

Long Day

This is one of the last really long days I'll have--I worked 9:30 - 5:00 and then had Oratorio rehearsal 6:45 - 8:45. The Champlain Valley Oratorio Society is trying to change its name (and image) to the Champlain Valley Voices so that we might attract audience members who like more than Handel, Mozart, Faure and Mahler. We're actually doing some OMG American composers: our Spring concerts for the last two years have been Gershwin and then Kern, Berlin and a few others. This coming spring will hear another "chapter" in the Great American Songbook. I'm not sure if I'll be here for the concert but I'll probably attend rehearsals because I love that music so much.

The rehearsal tonight was for Handel's Messiah, which I haven't sung in an unknown number of years. It's really the only oratorio I halfway enjoy; I'm just not that big on classical vocal or choral music. But I'm participating enough to even be a member of the board! So I'm doing my part. And the Messiah should sound spectacular. We have 90 voices plus a hired orchestra and soloists, 2/4 from NY City. The director is just a dynamo--a Wisconsin native and Packer fan. She's very funny ... and a good conductor. She's also a fabulous pianist, doing a number of shows here there and everywhere.

Gotta go catch CSI:Miami with my sweetie. Nye nye.

Random Subject 1

I've set my computer up to go into the My Pictures folder and randomly fun them across my screen as my screensaver. It's having two effects: 1) I'm cleaning up my photos--I appear to have a LOT that are less than interesting--even to me, and 2) I'm going to write about a few of them here. So I'll let my screensaver kick in and see what comes up right now. I just have to sit here patiently...

Okay. Here are tonight's photos. (I decided to do a few because it shows the story better.)





And here's the story: My ex-husband teaches philosophy at PSU. In this job he is now teaching a class on fly-fishing. For credit. It's part of the Expeditionary Studies program (created and run by my former boss's (dean's) husband, a current golden boy on campus). He's been joined before by my husband and my husband's oldest fishing partner, John. So Bruce & John helped Chuck teach his students to tie flies, and then how to fish them. There was a third TU member (that's Trout Unlimited to gill-free readers) who joined them, my friend Hap, who was in my first music group, Happenstance. Plattsburgh is truly a small world, no? Anyway, someone took these photos at the final exam, when each student had to tie flies, three, I think. You can see that the teachers had probably more fun than the students.

Just to identify the photos: Top is Hap, John, & Chuck (L to R); middle is students working on their flies; bottom is Bruce clowning around with John.

I'm not sure what I think of this course. I know that Chuck has taught sport and philosophy for a long time, which is pretty ironic since one of the first jobs he applied for was teaching the philosophy of sport at ... UNC? North Carolina State? Anyway, a school in that area that was pretty much jock heaven. He scoffed then. (That memory just popped into my head right now; I remember the phone interview he had. Wow) And I'm sure that he does teach philosophy and require the students to read and write philosophy as well as tie flies. But ... like I said, I'm not sure. I'll leave the judgments to you, Dear Reader.

Anyway, that's the pic of the day. I wonder what will come up next time.........

Bummer

We went to a women's hockey game tonight. PSU Women won the Division III National championship last year, beating hated Middlebury, and that's who they were up to play because there was a small tournament here: Middlebury, Elmira College, Williams College, and PSU. Yesterday Middlebury beat no.1-ranked Elmira and we beat Williams, so it was Middlebury against us. Again.

The only problem with our going to the game tonight is that it was held this afternoon. True bummer. These tournaments almost always have the games afternoon & evening, afternoon & evening. So we got to the arena at 6:30 or so and there wasn't one car there. We figured we'd blown it but didn't know how. So much for assumptions. Had we checked the schedule that we have magnetted to the fridge we would have seen that, duh, the game WAS this afternoon. So right now I just spent about 15 minutes trying to find the score. So much for the Internet being on top of things. The only place I could get it was on the Middlebury page: 2-2, a tie. I checked the college's women's hockey page, the local radio station, local newspaper and local TV station and no one had an update of the "they're going to play Middlebury tomorrow" stories. Sheesh.

So now I'm going to try to find something ... make that anything on TV and do some cross stitch/bead stitching. Here's what I'm working at:



It is totally beautiful, or will be when I finish it. It's an angel and was given to me by my sister about 5 years ago. No joke. I am determined to finish it. It's a mind-boggling design. (I could give you the title of the piece and have you search it out on the Web, or even give you the link for it, but I don't want you to see it finished until I finish it!) I had someone ask me if my sister gave it to me because she likes me or because she doesn't like me. I thought that was pretty funny. But you notice I'm not answering it.

Tired

Boy, I've apparently gotten very used to being retired. I worked 9:30 - 5:00 M,T,W this week and I'm wiped. And I saw the schedule for next week: M 11 - 7, T, W 9:30 - 5, F 7 - 4. Holey moley that's a regular work week! I may have to rethink this "part-time" job.

That's it for today, I think. At least I'm trying to get myself into the habit of writing daily.

So Much for Good Intentions

So, I posted two days in a row and then missed one. Big surprise. But I wasn't feeling too great last night--my back almost seized at the bookstore and I took 4 ibuprofen at once, something I haven't done in a long time. It sort of plays havoc with my stomach. So I mostly lazed around and didn't do anything last night, even skipped Oratorio rehearsal. (We're doing the Messiah and I haven't sung that for probably 15 years so I thought I'd stay in it this semester.)

Workwas not great today. The idiot boss scheduled me for "lunch" at 3:00 p.m. This is after my starting work at 9:30 a.m. That's 5 1/2 hrs. without a break, which is not only unpleasant, it's illegal. My immediate supervisor came to me and apologized, saying she hadn't set the day's schedule and this would NOT happen again. I've thought from the get-go that the top manager might be not the best person there to have that top slot, but what do I know. The woman who supervises me is probably one of the smartest people there; I hope she climbs the store's ladder.

I sent my sister a little present-for-no-reason today. I love doing that. (I do wish sometimes that people would do it back but that is definitely NOT why I do it.) Anyway, the gift is a little box with a book, iPod for Dummies--and I think a pair of earbuds. I think she'll get a real kick out of it.

I shouldn't be working at a bookstore, especially one that sells all those little cute sort-of-tschotchkes. And pop-up anythings. I'm a total sucker for pop-ups. And animated things. And ..... I should probably get my pay in merchandise because I usually make it only a work day or two without buying something. I'm sure they love me!

Day 2 of My New Regime

So here I am back, two days in a row. For me, that's an attention span that's twice as long as usual! And I do have something to report: I figured out that my darling dog may not be neurotic; I think maybe she has an autism-spectrum disorder. She LOVES patterned behavior; is frightened of loud noises; has almost preternatural hearing and can hear thunder approximately 50 miles away (judging by her immediate exit from wherEVER she is to her hidey-hole in the basement); sometimes exhibits behavior inappropriate to the social situation, e.g., barking and bristling at friends and probably sniffing the crotch of and/or licking bad guys (not that we often encounter those but there's a strong chance this behavior would ensue). HOWEVER, we love her bundles and bunches anyway, and since she's now an upper-middle-aged dog (10) who probably doesn't have all that many years left, we'll forgo therapy. Here's a great photo of Holly.



The other news is that there was a giant fire in Plattsburgh yesterday. After our favorite pre-hockey-game restaurant, Lum's, closed we migrated to the Perkins that opened about a year ago. It burned along with the Comfort Inn hotel it was connected to, along with the Legends Sports Bar that had opened about 6 mos. ago, if that. There was a visiting college basketball team staying there and they lost everything from their laptops to their jerseys. I really feel for them--as college students the loss of their laptops probably means their entire semesters' notes, quizzes, assignments, etc. Yikes. A conference that was in session had people leave, thinking it was a fire drill, and the attendees left purses, laptops and ... car keys! What a nightmare. I cannot imagine what the total bill will be that goes to the hotel's insurance companies. Wow. And my little it's-all-about-me take is that now we'll have to find ANOTHER pre-hockey-game restaurant. (I'll just put in paren's that this is the second of our favorite restaurants to meet its demise through fire. I think we'll just keep that off the Burgh's restaurant radar!)

Here's the local paper's and TV station's takes on the fire: the Press-Republican and WPTZ.

New Approach ... Maybe

I think I'm going to try to be a better blogger, writing a little most days rather than waiting for something momentous to report. Lord knows there's not a lot momentous in my life these days and we're only just heading into winter. At least that's what I'm thinking today. Tomorrow when I remember something I HAVE to get finished I'll change my mind about regular posts but we'll wait till then for that to happen.

Today I did nothing. Nothing. Truly. I made spaghetti sauce because I realized that the way I make it is a no-carb recipe so I can have it--just no spaghetti, whole wheat or not. I only have one more day in the no-carb part so next week I can have leftover spaghetti sauce ON spaghetti! I've been trying to move in the direction of "the Mediterranean diet" for awhile. You know, olive oil and whole grains and more fish, the regular litany. So now I'm going to try harder. We'll see how that works. I figure I'll do a regular Thanksgiving blow-out but try to limit "bad" carbs to only one meal per day. So if I have cereal for breakfast (yes, it'll be high fiber) I won't have a sandwich at lunch, something I've done for a long time anyway. The hard part will be the evening meal, but I've been trying to do sweet potatoes instead of white for awhile, brown rice ditto. I'm just going to try to pay more attention to that.

It's raining and has almost all day, which is why I read literally all day rather than raking. Tonight I think I'll watch "Volver" (via Netflix) while Bruce listens to the away hockey game. And so our exciting life goes on.

Owning a dog

I'm not of the group that thinks that you don't "own" a dog. I believe I do. But my dog is unbelievably neurotic--more on that later. Meanwhile, I've just started a part-time job that has me on my feet for my entire shift: tough on my arthritic hips and all those other joints above, below and in any remote way involved in locomotion. So.

I came home from a 7-hr. shift (six plus a 1-hr. break) and my feet & legs were killing me. I came in the door at about 8:20 p.m. and wanted to feed Holly-dog immediately, since I'd been gone since about 9:30 a.m. (extended office hours for my LIB105 students that day--and I actually had students up through 12:00!). Poor Holly had had diarrhea, and I, not realizing this, stepped into it right inside the door. So of course I tracked it through the kitchen a bit. Caught it and then cleaned from about 8:30 until after 10 p.m. Holly was, of course, mortified. But I let her know I wasn't mad and she seemed to pick up on that. But sheesh, this part-time job stuff seemed to be a big mistake after that! Not really. I'll come home if I have to, to let her out. it was just really really tiring to have to come home and clean, with bleach and Spic 'n' Span and paper towels and carpet cleaner, etc., etc.

I know why I've never lived alone.

Haiku

While walking the dog today, beautiful sunshine at 5 p.m., pretty stiff wind blowing on and off, the smell of fallen leaves, I decided it was just a day for haiku. So, for your enjoyment:

Yellow leaves blowing
Browned by October wind
Reds already left

Flat October sun
Harder, somehow, than summer
But not cold, not yet

Jobs for retired librarians

I guess it's just one job, really. I started on Sunday at our local Borders--that is, at Borders Books and Music in Plattsburgh (said with lilt in telephone voice). Right now I'm a "greeter:" I have to greet every customer who comes into the store and say, "Hi, may I help you find anything specific today?" What's really terrific is that about 1/3 - 1/2 the customers who come in actually want help! So I don't feel like a completely intrusive doofus.

It's actually enjoyable: It gives me the people contact I know I need (I'm still amazed how much I like "cocooning"). And of course I've seen enough books already to spend ALL my earnings! I'm very carefully staying away from the picture book section! So far the baddest thing is that I cannot wear jeans of any type. Rats. I'm going to ask about corduroy "5-pocket pants" that I'm hoping will slide by. I don't feel like buying too many clothes for a job that'll end after the holidays. But I'm definitely buying some black sneakers. I'll be on my feet for my entire shifts so I need truly comfy shoes and I absolutely REFUSE to be that "little gray-haired lady in sneakers!"

So I'll be a bit busier than I have been, and that's a good thing. Maybe I really will lose a few lbs. since I won't be near food while I'm working--thank heavens the mall just moved Aunt Annie's Pretzels way up the row from Borders!

Ooooooh! as in aaaaargh!

Bruce & I JUST got home from going to get our season tickets for the PSU men's hockey team and having lunch. It's 5:08 p.m. We left the house at 12:10 p.m. Tickets went on sale at 1:00 p.m.--JUST to last year's season ticket holders (LYSTHs from here on)--and there are enough excited Cardinal hockey fans to go early to get in line. So we met our friend Bill and were joined by our friends John & Sue; since we all sit together we all bought together. (No one can buy for anyone else. Go figure.)

We walked out of the Fieldhouse with tickets in hand at 2:50. No joke. It took us 2 hours and 20 minutes to pay for 2 season tickets. The set-up for ticket sales was THE worst designed "system" I have ever seen. Literally. I have never in my life seen such poor planning. Add to the wait the fact that the one, yes that's right ONE, computer being used was slow.

Absolutely nothing in the clusterfrak was computerized. The lone computer being used was to re-enter all of our information into a database. For some reason last year's database was not being used for anything, but the Athletic Dept. had printed out the list of LYSTH, so it's clear the database did exist.

The biggest error was that the Athletic Dept., almost certainly after a "meeting with all the stakeholders" and probably thinking they were getting a jump on things, had assigned seats to each LYSTH, in approximately the same place the seats were last year. This is because the seating changed considerably, going from bleachers to theater-style seating. But most LYSTHs didn't like the reassignment. This was the first line to stand in.

The second line was for each single or pair of LYSTHs to go individually (or as a couple) into the actual rink and put a hand on the desired seat(s). Why, I do not know.

The third line was to get that laying-on-of-hands approved by the guy from Line 1. The fourth line was to get each LYSTH's info entered into the database on that one computer. The fifth and last line was to get the actual tickets, one for each home game.

It is truly amazing that no one killed the Athletic Director, who was the guy at the destination end of Line 1. Apparently the idea of using clerical personnel or even work-study students for some of this never occurred to anyone in the Athletic Dept. But I forget, it IS the Athletic Dept. Duh.

We had lunch at 3:10 and after a short stop that I'm sure I'll tell about some time later, we came home. Now I'm going to take 1) a Tums, and 2) a nap.

But we got our tickets.

Awww

I used my new Webcam on Saturday to connect to grandbaby Kaitlyn. Actually I connected to her mom, who then called Kaitlyn over to say hello to Mimi (that's me in Kaitlyn-speak). I was looking right at the camera saying hello and smiling (probably being just a bit silly and the poor little darling was mystified. She had this puzzled half-smile. Emily told her to blow a kiss to Mimi, which she didn't do, so I blew a kiss to her. And when Emily asked her if she could give Mimi a kiss, Kaitlyn bent over and kissed the keyboard!

Things don't get much sweeter.

Powerhouse and Wind Mills

Today Bruce and I took a beautiful drive about 20 miles north to lovely Altona. We were looking to find an old powerhouse that just got a bunch of money from the wind energy company nearby. There had been a picture in the paper and Bruce said that although he knew exactly the dam, which was going to be removed, he couldn't place or picture the powerhouse. So we went to look for/at it. It turns out to be the building below and the dam in front of it is the one that Bruce knew--a few years ago he grabbed hold of a piece of rebar sticking out from it and with a light pull he pulled out a big chunk from the (off-stage left) pillar that's pretty much like the one that says "Built 1923." So both he and I don't share some locals' concern about removing the dam. I think it's ugly and Bruce says it's useless as a dam, too.



So I took a few pictures. The one above is the only one I could get from that side; the others were all from the back and I've put just one here.



I think that refurbed it could be gorgeous. I would put a theatre in it. But what do I know.

The marching pillars in the shot below are what carried the "penstock," which is apparently the name of the big pipe that carries water from a river to the turbines of a powerhouse. The pipe is about 5 feet in diameter (at least the one behind our house that goes to "our" powerhouse is). This particular old powerhouse was built by a local entrepreneur, William Miner, and that makes it special to folks around here.



So what about the wind mills from my title? That powerhouse is not too far from one of the wind farms in the area. The last time we were up in this neck of the woods there was no evidence of wind turbines, now there are a bunch of them and here is a shot of me (in red sweatshirt)sort of near one. You really can't see me--click on the picture to enlarge it and look for a red blob--but if you can you might get some sense of how bloody big these windmills are!



Here's my best photo of the day. I really like the sculptural aspects of the turbines; I've said before that I think they're beautiful. The ones near us were revolving very slowly and silently (they're not online yet)and the sun was in the perfect spot. Put your sunglasses on.

Years

These are the roses Bruce gave me for our 7th anniversary on Wednesday. We went out for a very nice dinner and then shared a split of champagne when we got home--my contribution to the celebration. When I asked Bruce if he had any symptoms of the "7-year itch" he didn't even know what it was so I guess the answer was no. :-) (Me either, BTW!)

I planned to wax philosophical about those seven years but my niece has reminded me of something that I try to remember--and too often forget: I'm very happy with what I have. What I don't have will take care of itself and I don't have to spend any of my energy on it.

I have:

• a loving husband (funny, gentlemanly, protective and caring)
• two unbelievably beautiful and talented daughters who love me (and I don't have to put "I think" after that)
• two sons-in-law who adore their wives and whom I love truly as sons (and I didn't have to go through the scary growing-up part!)
• one perfect grandchild with another equally perfect one under construction
• a snug, comfortable lovely home in one of the most beautiful parts of the country
• an income that lets me live as comfortably as I want to
• a good life

I'll take another 7+ years of the same. Happy anniversary to us.

Rainy Saturday

It's a rainy day today and that's actually a good thing. A month earlier I'd have been whining about moremoremore rain, but for unknown reasons, today it feels good. When I walked this morning I was in drizzle about half the time but it wasn't cold drizzle so I was fine with it.

It's a good day for napping. This is the way Bruce (and I've decided to use real names 'cuz no one really reads this!) looks when he "rests his eyes."

Actually, this isn't even the best. When he dozes off after starting to work on the crossword puzzle he never even puts down his pen! He really looks likes he's still awake if you just glance at him. What a talent.

I just took an apple pie out of the oven. Bruce asked me today how many pies I've made in my life and I realized that it isn't really all that many. I gave myself a (rather generous) rough average of 6/year and I've been making pies for about 30 years. That's only about 180 pies. I'd thought initially I'd been doing it for 20 yrs. but I remember baking pies in Iowa, I'm pretty sure. I started well before I got my Cuisinart and I realized today while making piecrust in it that I've had it since 1982, so it's more than 20 years. But still, it's under 200 pies. That's not that many.

Maybe Bruce should have asked how many cupcakes I've made.....

"Conversation Starters"

The last time I got some foods from Omaha Steaks (yum) they enclosed a packet of "Conversation Starters." Here's the first:

If you could star in one movie, what would it be?
And what part would you play?

Being a genetic actress--meaning I truly was born with it, whether I'm good or not--I have a hard time with the question. There are soooo many good movies, and very good parts. For unknown reasons, The English Patient popped into mind. So right at this very minute, I'd take the role played by Kristin Scott Thomas.

How about YOU?

Holy Birthday, Batman!

Did I have a 60th birthday or what? All you loyal readers are lucky I'm still here; I almost succumbed to heart failure last Saturday. But I didn't. I DID find out how sneaky my relatives are ... all of them, apparently!

It all started innocently. (I promise not to drop into purple prose here. Really.) Daughter Elise invited me to Florida to grandbabysit Kyrin while Elise & Pedro went to two weddings in two weeks. I leapt at the chance: a chunk of time with Kyrin? What's not to want? So I booked my flights and then Stan said he wanted to come down and fish for grass carp in warm weather since he hadn't known what fish to be prepared for when we went in January. He flew down on the same day but returned a week later, while I stayed a few more days. And you realize that I threw all my previous good-teacher-ethics to the winds and missed the first class of the semester, leaving my two sections in Grad. Assistant's hands. (Ask me how guilty I am. Go ahead, ask.)

The first weekend wedding was actually on my birthday, so no celebrating, no drinking, no whoopdidoo at all. Bummer. But I WAS looking after my favorite, okay, okay, my only grandchild so all was not bad. And all my sibs called, which was very sweet. Elise remembered the occasion after I mentioned the phone calls and her sister Jane didn't call till Monday. I was wounded, deeply wounded. But Pedro & Elise gave Stan & me a gift certificate to a terrific restaurant and I decided to use that as my birthday gift from them (they said it was a thank-you for babysitting). Meanwhile, Stan really wanted to go to a less fancy restaurant and he grumbled about that so I answered that "No one made any big deal about my birthday and this was a big one, so I'm HAPPY to go to a fancy restaurant!" And it was fancy and it was good and I, for one, thought it was fun. The next day Stan went home.

So Friday Elise said that before they went to the wedding on Saturday she wanted to go out for lunch with me & Kyrin, spend some mommy- and daughter-time. Fine with me. On Saturday Pedro decided to join us. But I'm watching the clock, wondering if they aren't cutting it damned close for making it to the afternoon wedding. I AM a good mother and M.I.L., however, so I didn't say anything. So we all trouped off to Ruby Tuesday (BTW, this is probably where Stan wanted to go).

We're at our table, drinking our just delivered raspberry lemonades and looking at the menu when I looked towards the entrance and saw a woman who looked so much like my sister Alicia. I looked away and was just starting to tell this to Elise when I looked back and in the same space stood daughter Jane. I was dumbfounded. Really. I could NOT process the idea that Jane was there in FL saying "Surprise!" And then the woman who looked like Alicia appeared and good lord, it WAS Alicia! From Milwaukee. And then sister Amber from Seattle. And then niece Julianne from Florida. And then Elise was saying, "Oh, BTW, Mom, there is no wedding today." Which I also couldn't process.

I was laughing and crying and I said to Elise, "I feel like such a whiner." And now that's the code for the whole weekend. I guess EVERYone, including Stan, felt like telling me to stuff a sock in it about no fuss, but I truly did not have ONE clue that anything was going to happen.

Then, on top of everything, I got gifts! A beautiful jade necklace from China and a sweater set that is just gorgeous, a bouquet, balloon and great birthday cards. I don't have pictures from the restaurant but I have a few from Elise's house, to which we all repaired after lunch and where Pedro made a great holiday BBQ dinner on the grill. Cake and everything. I'm still reeling in amazement.

Three of 10 cousins ... plus one

Oldest sister in her own portrait

Twins separated by 17 months of our mother's hard labor!

Last but not least, an idea of the level of conversation I was capable of all afternoon. But of course, this is daughter Jane discussing politics ... or Pooh Bear ... with Kyrin.

I cannot say enough about Elise's planning skills. How she pulled this together is a mystery and I prefer it to remain so! But I think she should start thinking about being a wedding planner. If she can herd Kleibers, she can herd anyone!

So do they love me? I guess so! And do I love them, even the ones who couldn't come? YOU BET I DO.

Food for thought ... and comments?

I just read an article in the NY Times, "One First Is Celebrated. What About the Second?" It addresses the fact that the Democrats seem determined to downplay Barack Obama's race in the campaigning that leads to the election. I found myself pretty divided (which is a very bad way to find oneself, BTW, because you're not sure you're finding all the pieces) about this issue/idea. I can see why race shouldn't be a factor: it shouldn't define who one is, nor one's capablities, etc. But I can see also why it should play a part: Obama IS the first non-white candidate e.v.e.r (!) and as such is a huge symbol of the (slow but steady?) work of many, many Americans to eliminate race as a factor. 

So there's a pretty interesting dilemma, I think. Play up race too much and you risk the loss of disaffected white voters who see affirmative action as always bad--and many other negatives about non-whites of any color. Downplay race too much and you might not get as many non-white votes as you would otherwise. (Not that I think many would vote for McCain because of that.)

I'm no political pundit, obviously. But I think this is an interesting question and worth discussing. Want to make a comment? 

Grammy Again!

I can finally say in public that I'm going to be a grammy for a second time. Elise is due with Baby2 in March! I'm very excited. And I deserve a gold star because I didn't say anything to my siblings, etc., at the wedding; Elise was so thoughtful: "Mom, it's Alex & Jessie's day, not mine. I won't say anything till after."

So Stan & I will go down in a couple of weeks to visit & babysit while Elise & Pedro go to other weddings. I'm really looking forward to that. Then I come back to teach two sections of my old course. Ugh. BUT ... the course will be over mid-October. I can make it through.

I'm off to a Trout Unlimited summer picnic. We finally have a day (so far) without rain--I think it's the first in August!

Of Birds and Bees

My sister Amber sent some photos of her fabulous fuschia plant. Wow. I haven't had a fuschia since I left the "city" (that would be Plattsburgh) and came to live in the boonies (that would be Cadyville--well, actually we have a Saranac phone exchange, we pay property taxes to the Town of Schuyler Falls [pronounced skyler in this neck of the woods], a Cadyville zip code but we live in the neighborhood [?--not sure what its official designation is but we have a road sign that tells you you're in it!] of Woods Mills).

ANYway, Stan & I buy a new hanging plant each year for the front corner of the porch and this year we chose one that we both thought was a bit unusual.
What do you think?

It's a begonia. At least that's what the tag stuck into it said. Who knew there were begonias like this??


There's a hummingbird feeder just behind it (talking about second photo here) and the birds like to hang out in the plant and ambush any bird that's not supposed to be at __(any given bird's name here)__'s feeder. They also sit on the cable TV cable just above and to the left of the feeder and dive bomb interlopers from there. The dogfights are amazing to watch. Stan & I are convinced that one day one of us will innocently step out the porch door and get nailed in the forehead by a mach-speeding hummingbird--looking much like we just got hit with a dart since they fly FASTFAST beak-first!

This last hummingbird one is dreadfully out of focus and I apologize for that but the little bugger was just about to leave and I hit the zoom on my camera and snapped a nanosecond before it took off, so focusing just wasn't possible. You can see the beak that will someday wind up in my forehead if you look at about 2:30 from where it joins the bird's head. It whited-out near its head but the last part of it is visible as a diagonal line.

We really do love these birds, and Stan is filling the 2 feeders we have about every 2-3 days now. We figure all the clutches of eggs have hatched!

As long as I have your attention I'll throw in a couple more pictures--to make up for last night's post. These are Blackberry Lilies, so called I think because of their seeds, which for such small flowers--only about 1 1/2" - 2" across--are pretty big. Think of the seed balls that form on many Asiatic lilies or common tigerlilies. Impressive seeds. These are my only checkered flowers. (I'd love to get fritillaries, another checkered flower, just so I could say "I have fritillaries in my garden," love that word, but we're too cold for them. Check 'em out in a bulb catalog.)

August

I'm not a very good blogger. I just don't have the push to do this every day. I admire those who do but it'll be awhile before this becomes a daily task for me. Mainly because I'm just not that interesting. And this isn't meant as a whine, just an observation.

I did have fun at my nephew's wedding in Milwaukee last weekend. Jane & Dan came from NE and Elise & Kyrin from FL, so I got to spend a lot of time with them and it was a blast. Kyrin got to know me enough to come running down the hall in the hotel saying, "Mimi!" Or "Grammy" sort of. (I think Mimi is pretty neat.) She's at the age where she's growing so fast that a break of a few months in seeing her (like 6!) means she's a whole 'nother person. And a total cutie. And dancing with Jane & Dan was so much fun. First I love to dance, and second, I'm always in awe of my daughter's gracefulness. Elise was a gymnast--perfect petite bouncer--and Jane a dancer--totally focused ballerina, and I got to see that in them again for awhile. What fun.

It is rainininininininig here, what feels like constantly. Actually real raindrops have not fallen from the sky for a few hours now and it feels 1) like a miracle, and 2) like they don't have to fall because the air is already so wet. It's been raining for what feels like forever. In June it rained 27 out of 30 days; July it was 21 out of 31. So far August is 3 for 3. We're all beginning to check for mold or algae in armpits, elbow and knee bends. The house smells a bit musty--no sun to dry ANY air will do that here. My garden's flowers are working hard at being pretty but ... ah, it is NOW falling out of the sky, and we so needed the rain ... they could use sun, really! Snails will be taking over everything soon. GACK. Stan picked about a dozen snails off the hosta just outside our back door last week--I mean picked up with his fingers! Talk about GACK. But I saw my snake in my garden today so some bugs will meet their demise; I wonder if snakes eat snails.....

Okay, no photos this time so I'll go away. Maybe I'll get back more frequently; I'm trying to turn over yet another new leaf (do I look like a shrub to anyone out there?).

Woodsmen's Days

We did a fun thing yesterday: went to the "Woodsmen's Days" in Tupper Lake, NY. It's a (very) small town in the heart of the Adirondacks, beautiful to drive to, about 80 miles from here. The weather was gorgeous--you should see my sunburn. Or maybe not.

ANYway. Readers from Wisconsin will recognize this kind of event as one held in Hayward every year; I'm pretty sure Hayward's has been on ESPN. Tupper's is probably smaller but it's still a really big deal to them.

We got there at about 10:30, the time that the newspaper had given for amateur competitions to begin. All that was beginning at that time seemed to be the set-up for the competitions, which IMHO should have been done the day before! So competitions didn't begin until about 12:30. Truly annoying, especially because we never intended to stay all day. As it was we left well before the events I had really wanted to see. What we did watch were chain-saw slicing--three slices as fast as you can from a clamped-down debarked log; log-rolling--40' in one direction until it touches a stake at either end, then 40' back to touch stakes again; ax throwing--double-headed ax thrown at a target; and bucksaw log slicing--a 4' bucksaw to slice 3 slices from the chain-saw log. Impressive. Really. Fairly dangerous, especially in inexperienced hands, I imagine! And there was a chain-saw-carving competition from which the resulting sculptures were auctioned. (I cannot imagine what the liability insurance must cost for an event like this. Got to be godawful!)

The events that we didn't hang around for, which probably didn't take place till 5 or so--grrr, were a springboard chopping contest and a tree-felling contest. The latter was to be done using about a dozen 20-25' poles (basically limbless trees) set into the ground that contestants went about debarking and marking for their cuts. I heard another spectator say that not only would they be battling for the best time but the "tree" was also supposed to smash a watermelon. So it had to be fast and precise tree-felling!

The other event was to take place using a larger-diameter but shorter limbless tree, about 7-8' tall. On the top of this was staked a 2-foot "log" similar to the ones used for the chainsaw competition (but much shorter ;-) ). The contestant had to use an ax to cut a chink into the "tree" and drive in a springboard, then hop onto that and chop the log on top. Apparently this is somewhat equivalent to what loggers actually used to do to top trees in the forests. Sort of like standing on a moving limb, I would guess. Talk about dangerous.

You can see why I did want to see these events, but it just wasn't worth getting caught in the traffic jam that would happen when everyone left. Traffic jams in small towns are more annoying than in big cities, I'm convinced, because they never happen. So we left about mid-afternoon. I didn't bother to take my camera because I knew I wouldn't get good photos of the events.

It was fun. The equipment was impressive, probably the most eye-opening piece being the bucksaw. Four feet of unbelievably sharp steel teeth--teeth about 4" deep--that apparently cost $1500-3000 and $500 to sharpen! The women pairs we saw competing were tough, tough, tough. Wow.

And we ate Italian sausage with peppers and onions, which is standard "fair-fare." Yum. Now my sunburn will tan so I'll look great at the wedding in Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. Cannot wait for that!

Parallel Lives

You know how everyone is supposed to have a doppelganger somewhere on this planet? I actually met someone yesterday who may be mine. There are life parallels that are remarkable.

First, she has a beautiful and somewhat unusual name: Athena. She doesn't look like me but she's very attractive, I think. (Don't you?) It's her background and possible future that are eerily like my life was/is. I have my B.A. in Theatre. Athena has a B.A. in Theatre. I then became a librarian. Athena wants to get her Master's in library science--that's actually how the conversation started, when she found out I was a librarian. Then it turns out that she spent a semester at a famous fashion school as a fashion merchandising major, just like I spent a semester at Stout State University, part of the Wisconsin State system and one of the top home ec schools in the country. Her birthday is in August, as is mine. She's more than 30 years younger than I but that's okay. We got along famously nonetheless.

She's currently working for an Arts Council. I met her at a meeting I had to attend because I'm writing the grant proposal for the Oratorio Society I sing with. (I believe that if you belong to an organization and it gives you something, you need to give back. So you volunteer or run for an office or the like.) We had this very, very nice conversation after the meeting. I'm hopeful that she'll get into the Syracuse University online M.S.L.S. program; she would only have to go to campus a few times for 2-3 weeks and could do the rest from her home in northeastern NY.

I'm really hopeful of seeing Athena again. I'm going to get someone to go down to a production at the theatre her husband manage and will definitely look for her. I just had to share this with the five people who read this!

What else ... my garden

So I was talking on the phone to my sister and I stood at the window of my den, which I'm looking out right now, and named what was in flower currently in my garden. Here's the list:

• penstemon (a.k.a bearded tongue)--purple
  
• astilbe--white and pink
  
• bee balm--red(pink not quite in flower yet)
• ladybells--purple
• marguerites--white (like daisies)
  
• purple salvia (I think it's also called mountain sage)
• heal all--purple
• yarrow--red
• dianthus--fuschia
• candy tuft (almost gone by)--lilac and white
  
• Stella d'Oro mini daylilies--gold
• hybrid daylilies--PINK! (actually kind of salmon)
  
• foxglove--yellow, and pink, which I just planted yesterday, in bloom)
• Jacob's ladder--blue
• Shasta daisies--white
• Asiatic lilies--red-orange, white-w-deep pink, light orange, deep orange-w-cinnamon (and more in bud--different varieties)
  
• gerbera daisies--red and yellow (only annuals in my garden)
• yarrow--white
• nicotinia--deep deep pink
  
• evening primrose--yellow (a.k.a. sundrops)
• veronica--purple
  
• lavender--duh
• daylilies--soft yellow
  
• tickseed coreopsis--yellow
• coral bells--pink (the red-leaf variety)
  
• gallardia (blanket flower)--red and gold (one of my favorites)
  
• rudbeckia (yellow-orange with cinnamon ->brown centers)
  

and two different plants that I don't know the names of!--purples of different shades

Here's a photo from my den, but it REALLY does not do justice to my garden. This year it's a real garden.

See why I like July?

I tried again. Maybe a better shot:



Still to come into flower are more daylilies, blackberry lilies (if anyone wants seeds I'll mail them to you; these are very neat plants), liatris (a.k.a. gayfeather), sedum, ground geranium, perennial chrysanthemums, more veronica (tall variety), and phlox. I think that's it. There are a few plants gone by: centaurea (cornflower), euphorbia, Siberian iris, both purple and white, white bleeding heart, some more candy tuft (white and pink), a new plant I can't remember the name of but it's pink, creeping phlox. Now you have an idea why I obsess over this place; it's worth it!

Coming soon, MY GARDEN--The Movie.

July at Last

I am so happy it's finally July. It means I get to go to my nephew's wedding and see my daughters, granddaughter and siblings. I'm so excited. I'll see most of the rest of the extended family too, because it sounds like most of Marie's grandchildren and great-grandkids will be there. TERRIFIC. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

We've had some nice summer days recently. On Thursday I went walking on my usual 2.5 mile "walk around the block" and it was soooo nice that I did it again! And the endorphins were f a b u l o u s! I actually felt a little buzzed! I never had that happen before and I loved it. Maybe it's something I can catch again. But I did the 5-miler this morning and it didn't happen. Wrong shoes, I'm convinced. In a couple of days I'll try it again; I find that too many of the double trips don't sit well with my hips (pun intended).

I'm busy working for the Readers' Radio, having just started Cold Mountain. It's one of my favorite novels and is fun to read again. I read it myself, then read it aloud to Stan and now am reading it aloud again. The editing of my digital tapes is a pain but it has to be done. Maybe if I really dedicate myself this novel will take less than a year, as most take. (I'm learning perseverance in my old age! Now who would have predicted that for me?)

Happy summer to all--it's almost 90 here today and I love it.

The New Roof

Good Lord, who'd-a-thunk-it. A month to put on a new roof, especially one that didn't require us to take off the old one. But weather intervened. We started in early June with this:
Looks good, I think. But we did need a new roof and it seemed like a metal roof was the way to go. No more Stan up there shoveling off the snow; it slides off! No more Stan up there sweeping off the multitudinous droppings from the trees: chenilles from the oaks, propellers and then stems from the maples. They slide off! What could be better? So we started.

And then the weather changed. So last week (of June) we finished. Intervening weeks were trashed day after day by rain. We're finished now and here's how we look:
Huge difference, no? But it means far fewer trips for Stan up those ladder rungs. And NO maintenance. We do have to build shelters for all our plantings because snow really does slide off. But I think it looks good. Don't you?

North Country Americana

So this is very-tinytown rural Americana, at least in Northern New York: "Old Home Days." I think that's the name of the celebration Stan & I attended last Sunday in Altona, NY. Altona, y'know, is one of the "tri-cities" in these parts, them being "Altoni, Ironi, and Scioti." Actually, they're Altona, Irona and Sciota. Each town has probably 100 residents, if that. And they don't live within a mile of each other, I think. We missed the parade and the bagpipers band we'd wanted to see and hear. But we did see what had to be the highlight of the parade: The Pirate Float.

ANYway.

This photo shows what one family--I'm sure it's an extended family in this part of the universe--created for the parade. We talked to one of the people who'd obviously been on this float: he was in full "pirate" garb--rolled-up pants, boots, kerchief on head, live bird on shoulder--no joke. I'm only sorry I didn't take his picture; I'm sure he'd have loved it. So we asked if they would run the ship in the Plattsburgh July 4th parade and he said it wouldn't make it all that way (probably about 20 miles). But we'll have to make it to the parade in Mooers or Mooers Forks (these are real names; I'm not making them up) because he thought the ship would make it there. It's built on an RV frame, after all.

So we missed the pipers but we caught "The Castaways." They're a duo, two dudes who are either father/son or brothers or uncle/nephew or ... in this part of the country, relatives-of-unexplored-relation. (The West Virginia jokes apply here.) Actually, they were pretty good--oldies and Texas two-steps intermixed. But not really Texas two-steps because up there I'm not sure they've heard of Texas. The songs were the type that Bruce recognized from Cape Breton, but to me, the dancers looked like they were doing the Texas two-step. And one of the women dancing made me think so much of my mom I was almost in tears. Wow.

The Castaways were followed by step-dancers who are clearly working their way up. They were cute and earnest and I loved that. Then "The Strawhatters" came on--a volunteer band that was at one time a marching group. Then a band that played pretty much Dixieland. Now just a band that does marching band tunes but doesn't march. And we ate Italian sausages with peppers and onions--one of Stan's major food groups--and went home. Funny thing was that a good time was had by all.

Been awhile....

Okay, okay, so I'm not the most faithful blogger on the planet. Even on Planet Starla. But my life just ISN'T that interesting! So I wait until I'm in the mood and then I go on and on and on and....

Today it's raining, again. We've been in the process of getting a metal roof put on our house since June 8 and there have been so few days without rain that we're still not finished. One more section to go: the sunroom that Stan insists on calling a porch. I've put some photos here; you be the judge. (I actually had to go take these photos just now; I didn't have any on my computer! I could hardly believe that. But I think maybe we added it on before I had a good digital camera--2002, maybe? Hmmm. I know we remodeled the kitchen in 2001 so I think 2002 is right. ... Maybe.)
Anyway, it's a terrific addition to the house and will probably be what sells it, if ever we/I/Stan do that. Given the rising cost of fuel oil that may actually come to pass. That and the rising taxes. I just found out in a newspaper article that NY's property taxes, on average, are 79% higher than the average for the entire country. No wonder people are leaving in droves. I have to get stronger signals from Stan before I actually start looking into that possibility.
If we do go, it very likely will be to Florida. And not because one of my daughters lives there. It would be for affordability and climate combined.

So back to the porch, or sunroom, ... whatever. I spend a lot of time in it in the morning, reading the paper and drinking my tea. I can start to use it in about March--Stan's daughter gave us a very nice heater to use and it usually is about 20 degrees above the outside temp so it's not quite like sitting outside! (That would be part of my rationale for wanting to call it the sunroom; porches ARE like sitting outside.) And I can keep using it pretty much until it gets seriously cold, as in December. It's great for rainy days like this one, too. I sat and read out there for much of the rainy day yesterday.
We don't have a TV out there and sometimes I agitate to get one moved there (involves getting the cable out there somehow; I should have thought of that before Stan did that wonderful rock wall!) But then I realize that not having TV is what a "porch" is all about. I had the same tardiness with thoughts of getting heat into the room. When we re-did the kitchen we put a floor vent just to the left of the sliding door. And if I'd had half a brain I would have asked for an extension into the porch. But again I didn't think of that until the rock (and cement) wall was all finished. That may not sound so dumb but Stan didn't do that wall for two years! ANYway, that room, whatever it's called, may be my favorite in the house. Although I like the bedroom pretty much too; it was the first one we renovated and it still looks good to me! So today, since what I'd planned to do has been rained out (and I didn't really want to do it anyway--it involves EasyOff Oven Cleaner), I'll probably spend some of the afternoon reading my historical novel again. And only feeling a little guilty. And I know I've been running even more than usual with this post but it's because I wanted the pictures to space out in a vertical column and I had to keep adding text to do that. I know I could've just run them in a textless column below but I wanted to have them embedded. I think that looks okay now; how about you?

The only other thing I wanted to add today is that for unknown reasons my thoughts are running to obituaries. Mine. Stan's. I check them all the time in the local paper; good grief, I've been here long enough now that I actually have known some of the people listed! But I was thinking about how my mom had let us know what she wanted included in hers and how much easier that made it. (Again, I have absolutely no idea why I'm thinking in this vein but I woke up selecting wording!) So I have this nice spiral book that lets you put in one spot all that sort of thing and I've made that my job for this afternoon. It means I'll have to push Stan a bit; he'd rather have it just happen. Especially since he believes he'll go first. (Chances are good; he's 14 years older than I am.) But I'll do my info first and then maybe he won't object too much to answering questions.

Ooooooh! That just reminded me. On Monday I'm going to interview Stan for Story Corps, the national project to record regular peoples' stories about their lives or special incidents in their lives. I asked Stan to talk about the "Monk's Club," the house he and a buddy rented in Cocoa Beach, FL, at the birth of the space program. It's a fascinating story--they rented out rooms to a bunch of guys also working at "the Cape"--and he does a great job telling it. I just hope I can ask the right questions to get it to sound as terrific as it usually does. The recordings are stored at the Library of Congress but I just learned that they're not accessible online. Boo. We will get our own CD, however, so if you're interested in hearing it once we have it, I'll work on getting it to you.

And of course, I cannot NOT post a current garden picture. So here it is on a rainy day. You can't see all the flowers that are already open, but believe me, they're there.