On a lighter note

I need to lighten things up. Sandy will not bring me down. We have introduced some new cast of characters in our little off the beaten path library. There is a gentleman who now arrives daily with his dog. He wears a head of shocking red hair, about 55-60 years old and a real talker. About nothing. And the more he has had to drink, the more he talks. We now have a code word to help staff escape his diatribe...Friday it was about his car he bought and only having one key. And how he told the car dealership they WERE going to give him another key. Because he will picket with his friends and tell everyone not to buy cars from them. He finally realized no one was listening to him, or maybe he realized no one was at the desk anymore. He finally shut up.
Our illustrious sit down man was back in full form also. He yelled across the library for some assistance. I walked over and he handed me a piece of notebook paper that read " Do your kids ride your bikes on Mountain road."

"Can you post this?"
"Ah....what is this?"
"I want to know who is riding their bikes on Mountain Road."
Me: "Not sure what you are getting at..did you have an incident on Mountain Road?"
"No. I want parents to tell you if their kids are riding their bikes on Mountain Road. it's dangerous and they need to know."
"I don't believe the library can be responsible for parental guidance with bike riding, but we appreciate your concerns".

never mind you have been put in jail twice for pushing kids OFF bicycles.

pending doom

It is the calm before the cyclone. Hurricane Sandy is expected to arrive sometime tomorrow and hang around for 48 hours. I expect to lose power and hope nothing else. I have given some thought about getting out of dodge. Hurricanes make me very nervous. I lived on the Bay during Agnes and have no good memories of that experience. Trees down, power outages, massive debris in the bay, vicious lightning. And then there was Isabel

These are pics of our backyard. The water came about 15 feet from our back door. I was up checking water levels all night as Alan slept. Our neighbor was not so lucky from the what you can see in the picture.

Last year was Irene. Seems these are occuring more often. And this one is affecting a third of the country. I hope our 100 year old trees stand up to Sandy and the waters only slosh a foot. Maybe its time to move inland.

chickens and binders of women

You ask...how random is this? Well, you are right. It just so happens to be the hot topics of the week.
Alan has had his dream come true of owning poultry again. Much to the dismay of most members of the family. Except for Andrew, who is all about anything alive and unusual. After all, it isn't everyday you find chickens living under your deck steps in suburbia. I held out for as long as I could..I had visions of them living in the basement, lots of cock a doodling, and general bird stupidity. Well, I was right on one count. They do not live in the basement, rather a large chicken palace under the deck steps protected by the elements, foxes, snakes, hawks...just about every predator known to man. To them it is a palace..they have a roosting perch (chickens really do just sit on a two inch piece of wood and....well, they poop, thats just about it), plenty of laying mash (what the hell is that you ask? It is corn mash food that encourages laying eggs. Does it have a magical drug in it?), and bits of oyster shell to snack on (yeah..I know...I asked as well. it helps with the creation of the egg shell. DO they have oyster shell for Idaho chickens?). When they are tired of perching (Alan was quite concerned they were not doing this, so he had to show them), they hop down, eat, poop, drink, eat, poop....u get the idea.
We have 2 hens, so no noise. Roosters are the noisy ones and very protective of their harem. And we don't need no stinkin roosters for eggs. IF THEY ever get around to laying some. No names have been assigned..Oprah Henfrey, Hennifer Anniston, Mother Clucker were discussed. I like Hensel and Gretel. Gretel has a crooked toe-perhaps a hinderance in her perching ability. Now the stupid part..well, lets just say we have had them for a week and I have yet to see an egg. Despite the fact that ALan put a lacrosse ball in the nest to be sure they knew what the nest was for.
Speaking of stupidity, we had another round of presidential debates and Romney shared a doozey. The question came up about equal pay for women and he responded with a long passage of wanting to hire more women for his cabinet in Mass. and was given a binderful of women to choose from. I might also add that the thing most women need, according to Mitt, is flex time, so they can get home to their families and cook dinner. AMazon reviews of binders were quite witty..after all, how fair is it if you order binders and no women were included?
So, as the chicken saga continues, I will keep all of you posted. I have to thank Alan for giving me material for my blog. And after hearing about my brother's dog Ellie bringing him live chickens from the next door neighbor as he was reading the paper in BED, Lucy is keeping her distance.

End of an era

We had the death of a long time member of the family auto fleet this week. Not that we have a plethera of autos, but this particular one has been in the family for 13 years. This is what happens when you hold onto your cars for years and years-they represent the passage of time and the events that go with it. I had my very first real car in 1989-it was a 1988 toyota camry. I loved that car and drove it until the rust took over and reached 250,000 miles.
This week, our 1997 toyota 4runner has been sent to car heaven. Andrew rolled it a 360 and fortunately was ok. It held him in place. We have had that car for 13 years. I drove it when I was pregnant with Maddie. It took us to all our family vacations to the outer banks. Andrew was delivered to college for the very first time, where I promptly drove to my best friend marcia's to cry, eat chocolate, and drink wine.
We've hauled wood, new furniture, old furniture, my grandfather clock to try and have it fixed, and beach chairs. Andrew learned how to drive with that car. And my only accident ever was in the 4runner. I was driving my mother in law up to stay with us when a woman crossed over in my path and I hit her. Alan had a problem with a tractor trailer, that decided the make a left turn and run over the car. Forunately, no one was hurt. And it seems the good karma that truck gave us lasted to the bitter end-as Andrew walked away with nothing more than a bruise and sore wrist.
It's difficult not to be a bit sad to see them go.

what a weekend

There's alot to be happy about about. No, not being my cynical self. The orioles have clinched a playoff spot in baseball. The Ravens are 3-1. And I just spent a glorious weekend at the beach renewing my spirit and mind with women folk. We spent time on the beach and Bootsie, as she always does, had a spread of food fit for royalty. Crab salad, shrimp salad, thai noodles, various cookies and brownies, coconut cake, lasagna, flounder and crab imperial..just to name a few things. I must also pay homage to Don (her hubby), who's addiction involves owning a movie theater popcorn popper. He made copious amounts of popcorn-probably enough for an entire theater. I sampled a new cocktail this weekend..a cherry lane. It was quite good, despite the 13 dollar price tag in Berlin MD.

What all of us seemed to have in common was the fact that we have known each other for over 30 years. And we know each other this long because of Julie. (Except for Marcia, who came into my life when she was 16.) She is the cement that keeps friendships for many years. I am so grateful for that because I love all these women and can't imagine not having them in my life. Julie was a topic of conversation alot this weekend, especially how much we wished she was there with us. I know she was in spirit-unless all of her spirit was focused on the Orioles this weekend. Go ahead.