Lotsa Good

I'm trying to become wise in my old age. Which is a great undertaking, but I keep trying. Read my newest post so I wouldn't repeat myself. I repeat myself enough, when I talk to people, and relay things I've already written about. Old people do that. Repeat themselves. But I must admit everyone usually nods and is quite patient.

Sunday afternoon between wind and showers, we helped stepdaughter, Sharon, celebrate her birthday. Her husband Dave cooked dinner, baked a cake, and the kids all helped set up and clean up. We came for cake and ice cream afterwards. Delicious.

Doesn't seem possible that it's my brother's 75th birthday today. He had a nice dinner party at his son Jon's house on Sunday with lots of family, including son Jil, surrounding him with love. Good. Happy Birthday Bob.

This is the last day of August. It's always amazing how fast August goes by. Being a teacher, or ex-teacher if you want to get picky, I always felt the last week in June to be included in summer since we were always on vacation then. So - "technically" July had an extra week.

August has son Jil's birthday at the beginning and brother Bob's at the end. Whoosh. It's over. So fast. There goes the summer. I drove past some schools yesterday and saw the cars in the parking lot and felt quite nostalgic. I miss these days. Getting ready. There's nothing like working with kids.

Jil had an uneventful trip back to Fla. Good. He missed Hurricane Irene by a hair. Luckily he had such an early flight. Now he's back in his old routine.

I was able to get in touch with friend, Marcia, in NC yesterday (Monday) morning on her cell phone. At the time, they were still out of power from Hurricane Irene. . . til last night. Now it's "business as usual." When I talked with her, she and Hal were coming out of the doctor's office where she had her cast taken off her foot. She broke her ankle a while ago. So now her foot is in a boot for six weeks. So recovery is happening. Good.

I met some friends from Bath: Meredith, Carol and Lucy, at the Seneca Harbor Station for lunch yesterday at the waterfront in Watkins Glen. We sat outside under the covered deck. It was a perfectly gorgeous day: sunny - with a nice light breeze. They are just delightful people and we had such a good time. I took half my roastbeef sandwich home and had it for dinner.



I guess that's all the news from this edge of the woods. How're things happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Over-used, but meaningful words. . .

I was just reading a tongue-in-cheek article in Time Magazine about computer passwords and how easily they can be hacked. Joel Stein wrote that you should change your passwords every so often (every few months), never use information from your life, add &*^% and such to it, use capitals, lower case letters; randomize it as much as possible. Joel said that a hacker could guess his password in 33 seconds. Mine would probably be quicker. But - hey - please don't try guessing mine. It'd just make me nervous. And - We're all friends here. . . aren't we?

Bill is ending up his vacation - leaving tomorrow morning, Saturday, with a 5:50 AM flight. Good thing we're just 10 minutes from the airport. Leave the house at 4:15. In my mind I toyed with letting him drive my car there, leaving the keys in an inconspicuous place, and then Paul and I could go get it later on in the day. Oh, well. It's stupid to waste money like that and someone possibly stealing my car. I'm hoping for an early breakfast after we see him off. We were concerned about Hurricane Irene closing down Philadelphia Airport, but checking the Weather Channel, it looks like it'll be a-okay. So far. Knock on wood.

My good friend Rosemarie, from teaching days, came by yesterday with her daughter Emily. Rosemarie wanted them to look at Bill and Epril's wedding album. Emily will be married in October. Her new mother-in-law is Filipino. Rosemarie and Emily wanted to know if we knew of any Filipino customs that they could incorporate into the wedding ceremony. We mentioned some, but they were ones that I think they already knew. The wedding Bill and Epril had in the Phillipines was very similar to our weddings here in the states. Anyway I'm glad they came. . . because for the past several days, I worked on sorting the photographs and videos of their wedding. Something that I'd been meaning to do for a while. So that worked out well.

My cell phone rarely rings and I never have time to answer it in time, because I have to locate it - so after seeing who it was from, I called Rosemarie back. I figured she was just going to thank me for the morning visit. But - no. Our long-time principal, Nick Rossi, had died of lung cancer. Wow. That hit me hard. For years, he'd been not only our principal, but a special friend to us and God bless him, he meant a lot to me and to so many people. Lots of people considered him "The Best."

It's beautiful out today - and it's hard to think about Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast. I can remember hurricanes on Long Island when I was young. But for many years, Long Island has been spared. I remember some hurricanes - especially since they occured during the end of August when it was my brother's birthday. Lights and electricity would go off, but our gas stove continued working and we could bake birthday cakes and dinners no matter what! Candles were everywhere. We didn't worry about house fires then. We'd read by candlelight. You know, I think we've become a bunch of worryworts. Now, does that mean I've jinxed us? Knock on wood.

Got an e-mail from Marcia in NC. They've batted down the hatches. I think that's the correct over-used saying. I've noticed that I'm using lots of them in this post. Let's hope everything is a-okay and continues to be. Just wanted you to know we're thinking of you, M & H.

So - things are calming down around here at the Woods Edge.
How're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?

Yes. I'm still here. Been a busy week. Or weeks. My son, Bill, flew up from Fla. last Saturday, and is spending 2 weeks at the Woods Edge. Nancy, Dan, Vincent (5) and Evie (11 months) arrived the same day and spent the week here with us, also, after they spent a week with Nancy's dad at Keuka Lake.


Thursday afternoon, Nancy, Dan, Vincent, Evie and I went up to Harris Hill Park where we played miniature golf. We took two cars up which was good because 3/4ths of the way through the game, Evie became fussy watching us. She needed a nap, so Nancy took her home. Dan, Vincent and I stayed. They also have an Amusement Park for little kids up there which was perfect for Vincent.




He did enjoy the pony ride. I think it was his favorite. Obviously, the picture is darker than it should be. Woulda shoulda coulda used a flash! Woulda shoulda coulda used a flash on several pics.



Thursday evening, Lue, Sharon and her family came for dinner. Many thanks, from me, go to Bill, Nancy and Paul who set the table, and really saved the day for me - since I was at Harris Hill with Dan and Vincent. What a great help they were!



Vincent talked and talked about his step cousins and, I must say, they were very patient playing with him.




Bill's birthday was earlier this month, but we celebrated it when we were all here, with bar-b-q chicken using his grandmother's famous bbq sauce, (thanks, Dan, for being the chef) and having his favorite cheesecake dessert.




We spent an afternoon at the Watkins Glen State Park Pool. What a great place! If I'd known about it when my kids were little, it would have been fun to go to then.







One evening Paul built a fire and we enjoyed roasting marshmallows.




Now, I'm going through the-grandchildren-leaving withdrawal. The house seems very quiet and empty. Bill and we will continue doing some fun adult things, but it's hard to compare a house with a baby and a young child to one with only adults.

Nancy called and they had a good two-day trip home to Chicago. I'm so glad they stop at a motel overnight as a 10-11 hour trip is awfully long. Nancy starts work today, and there's a new sitter coming in that they interviewed before they left for vacation. So - I'd say they're back to their routine. Vincent starts Kindergarten the day after Labor Day. He's turning into a nice little boy. He gave out lots of hugs. We enjoyed him. And I miss him and Evie. Evie got two more teeth (now she has five)and learned how to crawl up stairs, and can now say "uh oh." Fortunately there weren't many reasons for her to say that.

Okay - so that's all the news from The Woods Edge.
What's happenin in your neck o the woods?

Garage Sale

You could say we were a little busy this past week. Our neighborhood had a neighborhood garage sale.

We had some things we wanted to get rid of, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. What a lot of work. We knew that, but it slipped our minds.

Sharon and Charlie brought some things to sell too. What a busy person Sharon is! She was here part of the time because she had a big party planned for Saturday night and Sunday morning they were leaving to go camping.

Friday, the weather couldn't have been better. Sunny skies, low humidity, good temperature. As I said, it couldn't have been better.

Our neighborhood is kind of off the beaten track. So, even though we advertised in the local paper, we didn't have much of a crowd. But it was steady. We opened Friday and Saturday. (Advertised - Fri. - Sun. 8-1:00) It was nice to be done by early afternoon.

Paul had built a "puppy pen" for Gracie to use when she was really young, and we used it for her on Friday to keep her safe. There were people, and cars coming and going. Since Gracie was used to being with us. . . it was safer for her to be in there. She didn't particularly like being in there and jumped out twice. But - It didn't take long for her to understand we didn't like that.

Actually, she wasn't in there all the time: Without us knowing it, once when she was out on her own, Gracie wandered across the grass to visit Chloey, the large (20 lb.) part- Jack Russell Terrior next door, who was on a long rope. Ann brought Gracie back. Gracie is the smallest dog in the neighborhood. Chloey is next. They're both young and exhuberant.

For a long time, Ann had been worried that Chloey would pounce on her and "break her bones." They were always kept at leash-length when they "met up." Well - Gracie was over there licking Chloey's face, and vice-versa, not pouncing or anything, and they were just so happy to see each other. So I guess they've matured enough for us not to be nervous about Gracie being injured.

Anyway - Gracie was certainly a crowd pleaser. Lots of people think of her as a long-haired Chihuahua. You don't see the Papillon breed (butterfly ears) up here where we live very often.

After the end of Friday's sale, we were inside the house, but we hadn't had time to actually closed up shop, a woman came by, knocked on the door, and asked if we were selling the pen. The lady said her dog was expecting puppies, and she could really really use it. After some thought, Paul and I agreed to sell it to her. (Unbeknownst to me, Paul had decided to sell it, instead of storing it back in the garage. This was fine with me.) Although I didn't know what we were going to do with Gracie on Saturday during the sale. Put her on her long rope? Well, that's what we did.

As good as Friday's weather was, Saturday's was as bad. It started out cloudy and gloomy. Then the rain came down. Sharon had a lot of furniture for sale, which we had placed outside - including a dining room table, chairs, aquarium, other things. We quickly covered the table, aquarium, with a tarp, and brought the chairs and the other large items in under the canopy. We moved our "register table" into the garage. Was it worth it? From 8-1:00 on Saturday, we made $6.00. Sharon and Charlie did much better on Saturday than Friday, and we did better on Friday. (Thank goodness!)

We don't think garage sales are in our future. Too much work and not enough profit.
Paul's taking piles of stuff down to the Salvation Army today.






Thought you'd like to see the Kids' Kamp. We now have four beds set up there. We need one more mattress.




Guess who's zooming. . .



So how're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?

This and That

Late yesterday afternoon, Paul and I drove both cars to the Dandy gas station which advertises 5 cents off a gallon of gas on Sundays. We also had 11 points on our Jubilee grocery store card. This took 11 cents off that price.

So - all told - as an incentive - we had 16 cents off each gallon of gas. I pulled into the fill-up area first, with Paul right behind me. He filled up my gas tank, the gas container for the lawn mower, and then began filling the tank on the van. The pump stopped at $100.00. He couldn't even fill his van completely.

We saved a little over $3.00. Big deal. So tell me again why we're frustrated over the price of gas? I think if someone offered gas coupons, like grocery store ones, they'd make a pile of money. Imagine - $5.00 off the price. They'd become billionaires. Can't you just see it? BUT - They'd also probably go swimming in a cement block. Apparently, that kind of a consumer-money-saving deal is frowned upon by the Powers That Be.

This morning I took some more pictures of the upstairs. They're very much like the last, except for the walk-in closet door, baseboards on the sheetrock. I'm gonna wait a bit and take some more in a couple of days.

Speaking of pictures: When I'm taking pictures in the Kids Kamp, it's hard to decide whether to use flash, which washes out the color. Or not - which makes the picture darker. I usually end up taking both and then deciding.

Digital cameras are wonderful. Can you imagine doing that with the old film-type cameras? Waiting to have the film developed and then deciding which to save, throw out? We surely take these digital cameras for granted. Aren't they wonderful?

The we reminds me of my deceased father-in-law who loved to say this (in response to a "we" statement.) "What's all this 'we' stuff? You got a frog in yer pocket?" I loved that. I'm not the only one who thinks that about digital cameras? Nope. There're lots who love this feature. I don't got a frog in my pocket, Pop.

And more about pictures: I experimented and put some pictures up on my Facebook page. Not sure how to keep them as a permanent "exhibit." Will have to look into this. Jil and Nancy's family are coming in a couple of weeks. They'll know how.

How're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?