Happy New Year Rabbit Rabbit

You know the drill. Ya gotta say Rabbit Rabbit on the first of each month for good luck. It's the first day of the new year, so you just better rabbit rabbit for sure.

Hope you animals don't have a hangover this morning.



In this neck of the woods you have to eat pork and sauerkraut on January first for luck as well. Whatdaya have to do where you live?

Good Health and Happiness to You

We've been busy with family and friends so I haven't been posting or commenting on your blogs much. I do think of you all. Heck, it's just as if you were real people! You bloggers.

My husband and I have two very good friends with whom we generally have dinner on New Year's Eve. This season I have been spending many hours sitting with Leah at the hospital by her husband's side as he lays dying. He's been sick since October 17 and has undergone so many treatments and procedures as the doctors kept saying "everything he has is reversible." He has endured much. Finally he is receiving palliative care. Last night he looked so peaceful.

Leah asked me to bring out a book to her last night because she was spending the night there again. So I grabbed the latest book by Sue Grafton. Leah and I have read all of those, and I knew she hadn't gotten to this last one which is T is for "whatever" -- .Can't remember right now what T is for.(If you aren't familiar with that series, it starts with A is for Alibi.)

Anyhoo-- I thought maybe I should take another book in case she didn't like the Grafton book -- it involves an old man who is under the care of a criminal caretaker, and that's sorta maybe not what she would enjoy right this minute. So I grabbed a John Sandford book: Dead Watch. I was almost out the door with it! Jeez! So dumb! That me. I ran upstairs and picked up ---honest to God --- A Widow for One Year. Good God Gertie! Sigh. My husband Niks laughed so hard at me. Leah and I laugh a lot together, and someday I will tell her about all the books I almost took out to her. When she's ready to laugh again.

In the end I took the Grafton book, the latest Reader's Digest, and Snow by Orhan Pamuk. I give my books away after I've read them, and Nik's books are mostly deep, heavy philosophy. This house is full of books, and there's nothing to read.

I wish you all the very best for 2008!

Merry Everything

Merry Christmas. Happy Festivus for the rest of you and yours.

Home at last

This is part of the mess in our side yard. It doesn't do justice to the way things were. Whole trees snapped and fell. Lines were down all over the place.

Although it was disconcerting to be without power, and away from home for days, it was beautiful.


Below is just ordinary grass. Each single blade is coated with ice. The world was lovely.


But all is well at last. The most annoying thing about it was the electric company itself. The lack of information was a killer.

I was hearing branches crack and fall all night. It really does sound like a rifle firing. Finally the power went out for the third time, only this time it didn't come back. I called to report the outage at 4 AM, December 16th.

Automatic recording: Your call has been noted. If the power has not been restored in three hours, please call again.

I call three hours later.

Automatic recording: Are you calling to report a power outage? If so, press one. I press one. Are you calling about an outage that you reported earlier? If so, press one. I press one. If you will be reporting using your telephone number, please press two. I press two. Please enter your telephone number starting with the area code. I enter my phone number. It has been determined that your power outage is due to the weather conditions in your area. Ya think?? Gee. I shoulda looked out the window. Duh. Your power will be restored at approximately 11 AM, December 16.

Eleven AM comes and goes. No power. Repeat above "conversation" with a machine. Now it tells me that I will have power by 3 PM. At three PM I call just to hear the machine. I think I'm in love. This time it tells me I'll have power by 7 PM. Each time it tells me, sweetly, that it has been determined that the power loss is due to the weather conditions in my area. That machine.

We left the house at about 6 PM. It was dark and I felt that the machine was just playing with me. You can't trust a machine that you've never met in person.

I call that machine obsessively every three hours. It gives varying answers. On Monday the 17th after getting "three hours" 'til you get power and "six hours" 'til you get power and then "three hours" again, I started hitting the 0 for operator button when I called the electric company. And yes, I do know the number by heart. The machine got a tad nasty with me. That bitch. She sounded down right testy. She has power. What the heck does she know about doing without?

I get a real person who says, "Your power should be restored by 11 PM on Tuesday the 18th." Woe. I think I may have let a little resentment creep into my voice 'cause she was not as polite as the original machine had been. Little tart.

The next morning I called again just to check. What else have I got to do all day anyway? The machine is being all sweet to me again. Telling me that the power will be restored in approximately three hours. YEA! I'm so happy. But it was just another one of her damn lies.

I persist and get another real person. A very nice woman who says that the machine and the first real person are wrong. Power will not be restored until Wednesday, December 19th at approximately 6 PM. I thank her, 'cause she was nice and all, even though she did give me bad news. So, we drove back to the house and packed more stuff for another day and night. I also flip up the lamp post light switch so that my across-the-street neighbor can call me when the power comes back on. The other side of our street got power back in less than 24 hours. I have to hate them all of course.

My cell phone rings at about 6 PM that same evening, December 18th. It's Janet my neighbor and she tells me that my lights are on. MOST of our lights are on. We kept forgetting and hitting the switches when the electric was out and half the lights in the house were on. So in the end, not one bit of information that I got from the utility was correct.

We came home to a very cold house, but there was no damage of any kind. The electric company is being investigated by the Public Utility Commission now. Each day after the storm was a sunny day. It should not have taken so long for people to get power back, and as I write this on December 20, there are folks who still don't have power. There were lines down in populated areas that were live and on the sidewalk for three days without attention from the utility!

I'm so happy. HAPPY TO BE HOME.

Pez Family Report

My husband and I have been without power since Sunday at 4 AM. We're not staying in our house of course. I don't have easy access to the Internet or e-mail, etc., so I'm not checking blogs. We won't be back at home until at least Tuesday night, and maybe not even then.

Daughter Actonbell is on a cruise, daughter AP3 is probably buried under snow in MA (haven't been able to get in touch with her), daughter 3D has electric power, but no Internet or television. She's had a minor surgery and is at home. If you're going to be home sick, you need one of those two things. No one knows when things will be back to normal.

I'd settle for heat myself. I'm not going to try to do the necessary links for the daughters' blogs because I can't imagine that there's anything new posted there anyway.

Lazy as ever.

Snow day

It snowed all day yesterday. It didn't amount to much, and our little school district is so small that we don't do any busing of students, so school was not canceled or shortened. We have maybe two and a half inches of snow on the ground.

But, for some reason, my church's version of a "prayer group" was canceled for this morning. Yea! Teehee. I got a snow day! So I'm gleeful. You can add that to the list of things for which I will be burning in hell. If there were one. But since there's not, you can add it to the list of things I don't have to do today.

Promises promises

This is what we were promised night before last:

This is what we got:



That's the Walnut Street Bridge in Harrisburg PA. It's always lit up like this. At Christmas it's even fancier. I couldn't find a picture of it all fancy for Christmas.

My point is that we missed all the snowy weather that the TV folks promised. Heck and tarnation.

Please note that I am not in charge of the weather. My hoping for snow does not make it snow. So if you live in the Northeast and hate snow, don't blame me when it snows. Save your pennies and go on a cruise. That Actonbell.

December Rabbit Rabbit

Rabbit rabbit y'all! December can be so much fun. Just don't take it all too seriously, okay?

Good luck this month.

P.S. THANK YOU! to all the folks who dropped by to wish me a happy birthday. It was happy indeed. I read all the comments, sometimes over and over, but mostly don't comment back. I'm rude. It's okay. Old people can do that.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to all these folks, dead or alive:

Ben Stiller
Billy Idol
David Mamet
Abbie Hoffman
Dick Clark
Shirley Chisholm
Efrem Zimbalist Jr
Sir Winston Churchill
Mark Twain
Jonathan Swift
Tan Lucy Pez

I'm older'n dirt, but glad to be here! Life may be hard, but it's even worse when you're not here.


I've got the droop thang goin' on. But I'm in shape. Round's a shape. My idea of weight lifting is standing up and it takes me longer to rest than it did to get tired. But of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. Still, I don't suffer from stress. I'm a carrier.

Do you realize that a postage stamp costs more than movie did when I was a kid? No joke! When I was a kid, it cost me 11 cents to go to a movie.

I may be old, but I refuse to die until I get some answers:

Is an unbreakable toy useful for breaking other toys?
If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown too?
If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?
If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?
If you're born again, do you have two bellybuttons?
If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Why are hemorrhoids called "hemorrhoids" instead of "asteroids"?
Why is it called tourist season if you can't shoot at them?
Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

You guys are young and smart. Check this sh*t out and get back to me.

Hunting season is upon us

It's almost time for the biggest deer-hunting season in PA. There are several deer seasons here, but this is the big one. You can shoot both antlered and unantlered deer starting this coming Monday.

It ain't safe to be in the woods! So don't go hiking. Half, or probably more, of those guys who are out there in hunting camps armed with guns, are just there for the booze. So. They are drunk and armed.

This is a guy who lost his license for drunk driving, but he's still got a gun and he's still drunk. Be warned.



Just sayin'.

Thanks

For the expanding grandeur of Creation, worlds known and unknown, galaxies beyond galaxies, filling us with awe and challenging our imaginations: We give thanks this day.

For this fragile planet earth, its times and tides, its sunsets and seasons: We give thanks this day.

For the joy of human life, its wonders and surprises, its hopes and achievements: We give thanks this day.

For our human community, our common past and future hope, our oneness transcending all separation, our capacity to work for peace and justice in the midst of hostility and oppression: We give thanks this day.

For high hopes and noble causes, for faith without fanaticism, for understanding of views not shared: We give thanks this day.

For all who have labored and suffered for a fairer world, who have lived so that others might live in dignity and freedom: We give thanks this day.

For human liberty and sacred rites; for opportunities to change and grow, to affirm and choose: We give thanks this day. We pray that we may live not by our fears but by our hopes, not by our words but by our deeds.

O. Eugene Pickett, Former President, Unitarian Universalist Association

No, it's not Christmas yet

Anyone just waking up from a long Rip-van-Winkle sleep would think that they had missed Thanksgiving. The stores are of course full of Christmas decorations now.

But there's still time to have a great Thanksgiving folks, and I hope you do!


'Course, if you're a turkey, I guess it's not so great. I mean a real turkey. You turkeys!


Actually, I've heard that Indians Native Americans don't like Thanksgiving any better than turkeys do.

Have a perfectly delicious dinner on t-day, y'all.


I hope you don't have to do it all yourself.

TGIF

Waiting for Friday......

Here it comes .............




Here it comes .............



Here it comes ............

Yay - It's Friday!
Have a good weekend!

Rainy day in PA

We're having a rainy day here. We need it.

I didn't take this picture of a cardinal, but we do have cardinals in the evergreens that line our back yard. They nest there every year, and they stay all winter too.

Hope the weather is just the way you like it where you are.

Happy Birthday Douglas

Wordsmith: A good writer. A person who, without changing the meaning, rewrites a work to make it better. An articulate person.

Happy birthday to Doug the dawg.



This belly dancer was tryin' like heck to get Doug's attention. All she got was my husband Niks' eye. That Doug.
Come to think of it: that Niks!

One Vote

It's election day here. My town's population is estimated to be 7,414. We're very much like one another. 95.4% of our population is White-Non-Hispanic. We have fewer than one thousand children in grades K-12. What would we fight about in a school board election?

Plenty.

One of our residents has donated 15 million dollars for an "arts center." There are strings attached. The center has to be located at a particular site, for one. According to the paper, our town is 2 miles square. You'd think we could agree on a place.

Fat chance.

I for one don't even want her money. I'm sick of the whole mess.

I hope my one vote counts in this election, as much as her 15 million dollars does.

Busy

I'm busy. Back tomorrow.

November Rabbit Rabbit

It can't be November! Where did October go? Where did the YEAR go?

You know the drill: Rabbit Rabbit.

Speaking of October, and we were, weren't we? I heard on the news that we just had the warmest October on record. Warmest EVER. No surprise there. It's been a very, very warm autumn here.

Good luck in November y'all.

Happy Halloween

Have a safe and responsible Halloween. Don't eat all your chocolate at once. Send it to me for safekeeping.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

My baby is 39 today. That's so young. If you don't know that, you're wasting your life.


That's AP3 and me in another time and place.

This may be your last catalog!

Promises, promises...

I get so many catalogs! Some from businesses that I actually do order from, but many from places that I have never even heard of before getting the catalog.

Sometimes it's easy to see who sold your name to a mailing list, but often I just have no idea why I was so lucky as to get a particular catalog.

It's a big bother, because I have to shred the mailing address label, and also check inside to see if it's one of those catalogs with an order form inside it that is imprinted with my name and a "customer number." See, I get to have my very own customer number, on accounta I'm so very special. I've never done business with these folks, but they've given me my very own customer number. And I don't want just anyone stealing my number, now do I?

That's because some other piece of junk mail, trying to sell me identity protection, has scared me into worrying about you stealing my good name and good credit.



If they have some kind of envelope in the catalog that doesn't require a stamp, I tear off the address label and put it in the envelope with a note to remove me from their mailing lists. I often even bite the stamp bullet and pay to mail it to them myself. I might as well. We have dozens of stamps around here that don't have a price on them. No idea what they're worth. I just throw a hand full of them on letters. Just to be sure.

Several catalogs have threatened to cut me off 'cause I haven't placed an order in such a long time. Now, I have NEVER ordered from these folks. So, I guess that is a long time. Go ahead. Punish me. I deserve it. Please. Take me off your *&^%$ mailing list.

Home again

Turns out that New England was about as warm as Pennsylvania. But the leaves were at their peak, and the trip was perfect.


This is daughter AP3 and *husband, Niks at Walden Pond. AP3 and I walked around the entire pond, which doesn't take all that long. (*As Doug points out in a comment, that's not AP3's husband, but her father, MY husband, Niks. If Doug were polite he would e-mail me and let me quietly correct that mistake in grammar. But noooooooo....he did exactly what he knew I would do to him if he had made that mistake: make fun of me. That Doug.)

Here's another picture taken at the pond:


We had a lot of fun together, eating at great places, walking, watching the Red Sox win, etc.

Hope you had a good week too.

Summer's back and I'm gone

We had a couple of cool days, but now we're back to summer again. So husband Niks and I are leaving this morning for New England. We'll see the leaves, enjoy the cool weather, and visit daughter AP3.

See ya!

Autumn at last

After days, and weeks even, of much-too-warm weather, at last it's almost perfect.

We've had record-breaking warm weather. Actually I call 90 degrees HOT weather. But today it's back to what it should be for October. In the high 60's and low 70's. It could still be cooler to suit me, but apparently some folks like it like this.

I love autumn.

Another scavenger hunt

It's time for another scavenger hunt.

A is for Animated Apple
Word is that both these apples can get quite animated. Could be they get help.


B is for Bad Bee

This little sucker is just the baddest of the bad. Trust me.

C is for Cold Cat

He just about froze his whatevertheheck off.

This is an after picture. He came in to get warmed up.

D is for Drunk Door

This person was so drunk he couldn't find his keys. So he improvised locking his car door. That redneck.

E is for Evil Elevator

Evil here is in the eye of the beholder. The holder of the elevator door beholds this as something-less-than-evil.

F is for Fast Face

Everyone knows that the face that crosses the finish line first wins. I don't know why they don't just call the winner "The World's Fastest Face!"

G is for Greedy Ghost

The witches and fairies are just about as greedy as this ghost.

H is for Haunted Head

I'm glad the head in my house isn't haunted. Niks would pee all over the floor!


This is a thought that haunts me. Inconveniently being called back from the dead while on the head. That'd suck, huh?

I is for Indigo Igor.


Any fool can see that Igor is feelin' blue. I sees.

J is for Jumbled Jack.

If you don't get this one, well, then you don't know Jack.

Now we have K for Keen Kite:

I think this kite is very keen. Also way cool.

On to L for Last Liver:

I'm guessing that the owner of this last liver wouldn't last very long. Just sayin'.

Apparently M is supposed to make us think of Magenta Mist.

This makes me a tad woozy.

Negative North is easy.

I think of Ollie North in a very negative way.

Obsessed Orange is next.


Obsessed or possessed. You be the judge.

P is for Peeved Post and there are several good ones for this.

This doggie is peeved about a post that his blogger did. So he did what peeved puppies do.

The person who posted this was pretty peeved too.


Q is for Quiet Quince.
This is a picture of quince being still.

R is for Rosy Rabbit.

I found some interesting pictures of a gal named Rosy in her rabbit costume. I don't know what Rosy was thinking! That Rosy. I thought about picking one of them. But then, what was I thinkin'?

Svelte Soda is what we do for the letter S.


It hasn't helped me any.

T is for Teeming Tonsils:

Could one of you check that out? I'm not touchin' it.

U is for Under Union.

Someone under Union Square feels the way I do about Bush.

Velvet Vest:

Okay, there were better velvet vest pictures out there. But I like this guy. This place needs pretty'n up.

There are Wide Windows and there are wide windows. This here is a WIDE window.


This is the Philip Johnson Glass House. Nothin' but a big ol' window.

Once again I had to Google the meaning of the X words:
Xeric Xenagogue. So, xeric is dry, and xenagogue is a guide.


This may be too exciting to be labeled dry, but I did my best.

We're supposed to do Yodeling Yard.


I'm so sorry. There's no yodelling on this site. None.

Unless you count those guys in the back yard:

They can get noisy.

Z is the end of course. The time just flew by, huh? Kinda like this zebra. It's zipping on by.
Zipped Zebra:



Ya know I won the last hunt. That's 'cause I jumped right on it and did it fast. Notice that I waited for several days to start this one. So if I win again, it's not my bloody fault.