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.

Okay, so I've been tagged by my niece Kate. This is the first time I've been so honored, probably because only about 5 people know I have this site! Anyway, here are seven weird or random facts.

One: An octopus apparently has three hearts. I just learned that last night from a NYTimes Sunday Crossword clue, so it must be true. If you don't believe it, look it up yourself. (I have not at this point in time.)

Two: Only in the last maybe ten years am I no longer able to make my kneecaps, when my legs are straight out and relaxed, go around in circles. I thought everyone could do that until someone almost threw up when s/he saw me do that while I was relaxing somewhere. I can still do it somewhat, but my theory is that my joints were all pretty loose and age is tightening them up. Ergo, no more bobbly kneecaps. Amazingly enough, that "ability" never affected my walking or running, etc.

Three: My favorite gin of all is Bombay Sapphire. Not only do I like the pretty blue bottle but since every gin tastes quite different from every other one, I really do like Sapphire's flavor. And Beefeater, which might come in second for me, tastes better in a martini (real martinis are made from gin and NOT VODKA!!!) when a twist of orange or lemon or lime rind--rind only--is used instead of an olive. This is because Beefeater is strained through citrus fruit/rind and retains a distinctive citrus tang. I think you have to drink a lot of martinis to discover this. I have and I did.

Four: There was, probably still is, a pond on the island of North Caicos in the Caribbean, quite down near the Equator, that is the site of a past paint factory. The pond, in 1998, was orange in color. The water, that is. Everything around it was dead--no surprise--and I took some pictures of it. When I got the prints back from the photo shop (this was before affordable digital cameras), the technician had changed the color in the photos. I guess s/he thought that the color sensor on the camera or something on the film had gone kerflooey and so adjusted the photo to have water of a more appropriate "water" color.

Five: When you try to grow a garden of anything, perennials or vegetables, your soil is supposed to look like chocolate cake. You can achieve that by mixing bagged top soil, bagged cow manure, and bagged sphagnum moss. Then you remove all the dirt in your garden space that looks like the sandbox you had as a kid, and replace it with your chocolate cake dirt. And then you do that again and again and your garden is a live demonstration of the evolutionary theory of survival of the fittest.

Six: One of the more embarrassing afflictions I've had is tendonitis of the thumb. Thumbs, actually. I had to wear a brace on each hand. I wondered, speaking of evolution, if, since humans are a step "above" (relative term) many other beings because of our opposable thumbs and I (temporarily) had no opposable thumbs, I had taken a step back DOWN the evolutionary ladder. What do you think?

Seven: Running a high fever when you're four years old affects your permanent teeth. It interrupts the development of the enamel and you're more susceptible to cavities. Ask me, I know.

And now to complete my tagging assignment, I'm tagging my daughter, the Pi Lady. She's the only other person I know who has a blog. (If you're reading this and you have a blog, you could let me know.)

1. On your post, link back to the person who tagged you - that would be me, in this case.
2. Post your assignment on your blog - seven weird or random facts.
3. Post these rules on your blog.
4. Post links to the bloggers that you will be tagging.
5. Go to those blogs and give them a comment on their blog to let them know that you have tagged them.

I just HAVE to add this photo. These are my best jeans and I think they do all right by me!

S-s-spring is h-h-here

Brrrrrr! It's 45 outside and we have the furnace turned on again. I really thought we could make it with our last furnace run on May 15 or so, but no-o-o-o. (Think John Belushi, if you're old enough to remember him.) And that is probably the high for today. I tried to do my 5 mi. this a.m. but it was soooo cold that I only went "around the block" (2.5 mi.) once. Oh well. The wind was fierce and it was spitting rain on and off the whole time. Ugh. I'll do the whole thing tomorrow.

At least we didn't have it as bad as the "higher elevations." It snowed in Dannemora, about 15 minutes up from us. (Someday I'll take a photo up there of the whole Saranac valley. It's beautiful, if you can overlook the prison that'll be in the foreground!)

Noothing exciting on the calendar for now. Stan is going over to Vt. tomorrow to meet up with an old friend he only sees once a year. They meet at the Mount Mansfield Trout Club, a mountain club that counts many of Vermont's movers and shakers in its membership. But there's no heat in the building, so Stan will take his sleeping bag, as usual. Then he'll spend several days sitting with his friend in a boat, catching and releasing big trout. Not my kind of vacation. But he loves to do it.

I'm getting ready for a workshop I'll do in Saratoga Springs in 2 weeks. I won't get really nervous till next week.

My Favorite Summer Topic: My Garden

Okay, last year I made big deals about my garden. Well, get used to it. It's my true love in the summer. :-) This is the view from my den window as of May 16. The plant with white flowers just barely showing on the right is the aforementioned Bleeding Heart.

The saying is that a garden grows thusly: The first year it weeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps. My garden is now into its seventh year, might even be its eighth, and I'm still waiting for that leaping thing. I do have to give the garden its due, however. The "soil" I started with was basically a large sandbox with a smattering of dirt. Replacing that with my hand-mixed blend ("CarlaDirt"--equal parts topsoil and cow manure with some sphagnum moss) has provided some nourishment and the garden hangs on. I love reading gardening articles that say you need to divide your perennials every three years, usually, because they'll choke themselves otherwise. I've NEVER divided one of mine and actually have added plants to thicken their spread a bit. But like I said, that garden is one hard-working survivalist.

So this is what I look at every morning, first thing. This is the view from my bathroom window. (Both these photos were shot through screens, to explain the grid effect.) The scene changes slowly but enought to interest me every single day. I'll try to put a photo up each month so you can see the progress ... and the color.

This year we're going to add a Burning Bush to the front yard and it will be just visible in this view. It'll be against the property-line chain-link fence that you can't see clearly here but the bush will be in that green space that's visible in the center far-left of this photo. Stay tuned.

And HAPPY SPRING ... at last!

I don't get the formatting

I've been working on that big post below for hours, waiting while the video tried and tried and tried to get itself uploaded. Now that it's finally included there, the spacing of my text changes mid-post. I've looked at the "Edit HTML" option to try to correct it but nooooo. So you're stuck reading squished-together lines.

My apologies.