Category: Uncategorized

Seems like yesterday

 Maah preshus baybeee started his sophmore year in HS today. 
 Holy crap. How can that be.
What does Steve Perry have to do with it? 
Well, here’s how it went. 
The rising son came home with a list of stuff he needed from Staples,
 like.. TODAY.
So I hopped in my faithful mom mobile and off I went for said supplies.
In the car, alone, I like to find a good song and sing my heart out.
If I did this with people nearby they’d run for cover.
A few channel hops and Steve Perry and Oh, Sherry came blasting out, 
 immediately transporting me back in time.
Funny how a song can do that…. 
make you feel for a few moments almost exactly as you did
way back then… 
Your first car, (pinto) a boyfriend who might or might not be the one  (wasn’t)
the windows rolled down and your long hair flowing..
the whole world your oyster,  possibilities endless.
….TIME seemed endless. 
I caught a piece of that today, on my way to Staples,  I did.
Thanks, Steve Perry, once again.

I don’t know if I ever really got over that crush.
 

The Paris Wife

 This book surprised me. I thought I knew all I really wanted to know about Ernest Hemingway, but author Paula Mclain has written an  intriquing, heartbreakingly honest, beautifully written take on his deeply complex relationship and early Paris life (another world entirely!)  with first wife Hadley Richardson.

  What I noticed immediately was that Mr. Hemingways’ artistic genius and cerebral torment were evident early on.  The story is told through Hadley, a truly  remarkable woman who stoicly supported the man  and his madness through the lean years as he struggled to make a name for himself.  Ernest’s first novel  – The Sun Also Rises  – was based on their experiences together during those years, although Hadley was left out of the book entirely. 

  Great read –

Happiness is….

  A  co-ed bonfire among a dozen or so 15 year olds, where….
They cooked their own food.
They were responsible stewards of the field surrounding the fire pit,
which they built all by themselves the day before.
They cleaned up after themselves!
The party broke up at midnight, when it was supposed to.
No complaints from the neighbors.
The teen years.. mood swings? Check.
Trials and tribulations? Check.
The exhiliration and pain in  the move toward maturity? Check.
Last night, there were no thorns on the rose.
I’ll take that. 
 You didn’t think they were gonna let me go up there and take pictures, did ya?

She wasn’t kidding

   Irene came and went… taking about 30 homes on the shoreline with her.  She also knocked down many powerlines and trees, washed out roads and left, I think,  half of Connecticut without power, water, groceries, gas.  There are crews from Michigan and Arizona on my sister’s street alone, trying to restore services.  This is where I sit now… at her computer.  She has a generator and internet when it’s running.

  This Old House lost four trees and alot of branches, but no major damage.  We also have a generator that was installed just two weeks ago (LUCK!).  So life for us is pretty OK compared to many others in our town.  There is a water truck that delivers to the town center every day, where people line up to fill their containers.  Groceries and gas are bought in the next town over.  Not all THEIR power is up yet either, but atleast some are selling provisions. The shoreline was hit the hardest along the coast.  I walked among the houses with my camera, and then realized how rude that probably was, as people were desperately trying to clean up the mess that was left. The expressions on faces down there were raw, shocked.

  They say we should have power, cable, internet back next Tuesday if all goes well. Let’s hope that storm brewing out in the Atlantic doesn’t decide to take up where Irene left off.   We’ve had enough.

  Until Tuesday, then –

A Day for the Dogs

   What a day. One of the Top Ten on my list. Just awesome!  Despite Irene’s impending threat, many volunteers and people looking to adopt dogs in need came out to support it.   I am humbled by all the help we got setting up the site, running the event and by the amount of people who came out to meet the dogs and give them new and loving homes. 

47 dogs out of 54 are now with their new owners.
I have never seen so many happy faces in one place. 
 Goosebumps, I tell ya.

 Remember Vanna?   She got a forever home.
Once the dogs are adopted, their orange bandanas are changed to Rainbows
and a large bell is rung …

 This is my Aunt Pattie, below. 
We promised ourselves we would not let each other take a dog home.
Because we have dogs already, you see.
But she only has one.  And this guy was so sweet.
  Buster’s owners had to relinquish him
when they moved into an assisted living facility where he wasn’t allowed.

Guess who went home with Aunt Pattie.
And is getting long with her dog Rosie beautifully tonight.
I’m sure my Uncle thinks I didn’t hold up my end of the deal. 
🙂  
This is a local family, good friends of mine who volunteered
for the event.
Orange T-shirts are worn by volunteers so we know who’s who in the crowd.
They took Jade home, a five month old terrier girl
who had been dumped in the streets.  
There was a blessing of the animals at the start of the day…

 

And here’s one soggy crew at the end of a loooooong day.
Hey, it’s a really bad hair day. Irene, ya know?

Calm before the Storm?

What can I say, Irene…. you’re not welcome here.

Weathermen are often wrong, we all know it’s true.  A line from a young boy to his mother….

“Mom, when I grow up I want to be a meteorologist! You get paid to be wrong half the time, how cool is that!”.

I do get a kick out of the excited frenzy of weathermen when they have something big to talk about. Their energy is palpable! And they say the same thing… over…and over again, just to keep the excitement going. It only adds to the giddyness when they are filmed standing outside in the storm in their rain gear, wind and rain whipping in their face.  Why do they do that, exactly, anyway?  Because we won’t believe them if they’re not right out in it?

We’ve got Dog Days this weekend… hard to make the call on what we should have done… call it off? Try to get Saturday out of it and nix Sunday?   The rescues were given the option to make the call, because they are, after all, traveling with their dogs to our site.  Most decided…. LET’S DO IT.  

And so we will.   

If you’re the praying type (most often I’m not…. hypocrit that I am  )…. send a few prayers our way.. that we find homes for all 80 or so of the dogs coming to our event on SATURDAY, since we have now abandoned hope for Sunday…. and that these selfless rescue crews arrive and return home safely.  Those who are not local will be put up in area homes Saturday night and will ride out whatever part of Irene shows up here, returning to their regions after the storm.

Last night we had almost 80 volunteers sign up from our area, all for the love of the dogs.  I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it.

This old house looks so serene this morning.  While the guys are putting all the outside furniture and fly-away objects in the cellar and the garden has been picked of anything that might be edible in the next week of window ripening, I grabbed the camera to capture the light.

Onward…

Got Homes?

  Meet a few more of the dogs who will be at our
Dog Days Adoption Event this weekend 
 Bitsy – 3 year old chihuahua female
How cute is that face?!…
CJ – a mini australian shepherd, 5 years old, approx. 20 lb.
CJ was used in a puppy mill breeding program
and when the breeder was done with him, brought him to the pound
to be euthanized. He is a sweet and loving boy.
Dusty – a young Lhasa Apso mix
Jasper, a young boxer mix
Eloise, a rat terrier puppy.
All of these sweet faces were abandoned for one reason or another.
Most where on their way to the gas chamber.
Thanks to the efforts of many volunteers and rescue groups,
they are on their way to Dog Days Adoption, and will
never face the chamber again.  If they don’t find forever homes
this weekend, they will be fostered until they do.
A big THANK YOU to all these rescue folks who work
tirelessly to save these dogs.
PS. for all of you who pray, send some our way so that
 hurricane  Irene doesn’t come to Connecticut.
oooooh boy.

Senior Moment

  … or Something.

   I’ve got this delicious jar of blueberry jam that a local resident by the name of Linda made and brought to our fundraiser this past weekend.  It’s almost gone already, because I cannot contain myself when I know it is sitting on the shelf in the refrigerator.  I’ve had two and three helpings a day on toast, it’s that good.

  
 I had my toast with jam at lunch time just because it was there and I had to have it…. and when I looked for the lid to the jam jar, it just vanished.  I looked high and low, under the cabinets, in the drawer beneath it.. in the refrigerator, in the sink… in the dog’s mouth…. I could not  fathom where the h*ll that lid went, because I hadn’t walked away from it and I didn’t see it fall and

IT .  WASN’T.  ANYWHERE.   

How ridiculous, it HAD to be somewhere. I looked in a 20 foot radius incase it had rolled.  Nope.  Finally I gave up and went about my business. I did laundry, washed the dishes in the sink, answered e-mail and made a few phone calls for the upcoming dog event.  Then I went outside to pick some lettuce for the chickens.  What did I spy way out in the GARDEN?

 In my defense, the bracelet has a magnetic clasp and it’s HEAVY, people.
 It coulda happened to anyone, right? 
Right.