Noah! Where's the Ark?

On the left, the water is FLOWING! The photo on the right shows water on the lawn plus the lake forming in the woods. Click on the pix to enlarge.

The most water I had seen in this yard (before today) was the snow melt followed by rain in the spring of '95 after record snowfall. What I have right now is far worse!

A Three-Year Old Wrecking Crew

My house was shown to a couple and their 3-year old daughter on Sunday. When I came home from a day of poetry in Shelburne Falls, MA, I thought a wrecking crew had come through the house.

My ‘stuff’ was all over the place…nowhere near where any of it belonged. It was as if someone kept taking my stuff away from this child and left it where they caught up with her.

I guessed it was a 2-year old by what was taken…where it was taken from that is. The eye level and reach of what I thought was a 2-year old.

The agent showing the house claims she was three, and he was the one chasing after her because her parents seemed to be oblivious of what she was doing.

Makes you wonder what their home looks like.

I complained to my agent who called the other one and he apologized profusely. A lot of good that does!

If you put your house on the market you are open to all sorts of nasty people. Beware.

Release

The poem is mine and the video was done by Renata Podhorecka. She is quite a talent!

Men's & Women's Brackets

If you have been following NCAA basketball tournaments, and, if you have read my posts on the subject, and you notice how many I had wrong...then you know why I don't gamble.

Men's Tournament Brackets

I'm making a long story short.

Syracuse will meet Duke in the Championship game.

I have no idea who will emerge victorious!

Jake and Layla

This is Jake (about 5 yrs old) and Layla (6 mos old). Either one of them is a crowd, but two of them....well.... Jake is a rescue. When my daughter went to an animal shelter to pick out a tiny pooch, Jake wrapped his paws around her wrists (she was sitting down on the floor playing with a small dog) and looked up into her face. Smart dog, Jake. For Christmas they deliberately bought Layla as a small puppy.

The breed is Leonberger. This breed was established in 1846 in Leonberg, Germany in the region of Wurttemberg by the German breeder Heinrich Essing from a crossing of the Newfoundland, St. Bernard, and the Great Pyrenees...all small dogs as you can see. ☺☺☺ If you want to learn more about Leonberger’s, go to this website: http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/leonberger.htm. You can also Google ‘Leonberger’. There are loads of websites.

Finally Set My Brackets

I waited until now to set my brackets for the women’s NCAA tournament, just because I could. ☺☺☺ Here are my picks for Elite 8, Final 4 and Championship games.

Dayton Region:
UConn will meet Florida State in the Elite 8 and go on to the Final 4

Memphis Region:
Tennessee will be defeated by Duke. Duke will go on to meet UConn in the Final 4

Sacramento Region
Stanford will whip Xavier and go on to the Final Four

Kansas City Region
Oklahoma will squeak by Nebraska to go on meet Stanford in Final 4

In the Final Four, UConn and Stanford will emerge victorious setting up a good battle in the Championship game.

And, there is no doubt that UConn will be the winner, for the second year in a row sporting a winning record of 78 in a row.

Mr. Frisky

Have you met Mr. Frisky? Don’t be too quick to say no. It depends on what you have been reading. Once I get Mr. Frisky, you will see it in my next book…the cover and title page.

I tried to install Mr. Frisky but it didn’t want to be part of my font book…yes, Mr. Frisky is a font.

So, we will have a little delay while we do what is necessary to have Mr. Frisky display itself as it should. Ya know…some simple things are just so damned complicated!

I will send the entire page to my font lady and she will have to convert the page to a PDF file so I can print it out and the company that gets the job of printing the entire book can print it out. BUT, FIRST…(don’tcha just love this?) but first I have to get my picture taken so that the picture on my bio page looks like me today and not 5 years ago. And that page is part of the other page that needs Mr. Frisky!!!!!!!

To ease all this tension, I am prescribing a nice long, soothing bike ride this afternoon. Ummmm.

Got the Car Wash Blues

I took my car (not my bike) to the car wash yesterday to the do-it-yourself bay. When I have it done by the automatic washer my car is left with dirty gray streaks all over the place.

I got my two one-dollar coins and after studying the different settings available, I decided I would fill the bucket I brought with hot soapy water and after I gave the car a good soap soak I would do some spot washing. Under the spoiler it gets really grungy and the back window right under the spoiler is likewise.

So I try to put water in the bucket…it splashes back, big time, so that there is now one inch of suds in the bucket and two inches of suds all over me. I don’t want to waste water while I’m doing the spot cleaning, so I turn the thing to OFF, ‘holster’ the hose and proceed to scrub the dirtier places.

Then I go back to the hose and it’s dead. Apparently you can’t turn it off and expect to turn it on again to get your money’s worth. So, I get two more one-dollar coins and finish the job.

The bottom line is: because I didn’t want to spend fifty cents worth of my own water and maybe a penny’s worth of detergent, I wound up spending four bucks for the wash, to say nothing of the one dollar for the vacuum.

I have to come up with a better idea. ☺☺☺

Tilly, God Bless Her, Has Passed

Tilly was a resident at the same nursing home as my mother. If Tilly had lived, she would have been 102 this coming June. Her daughter-in-law is a high school classmate of mine. So, Tilly felt like family.

Up to about a month ago, when she hurt her knee, you would see Tilly motoring up and down the halls with her walker. She was the first one to the dining room for her meals. And Tilly could bowl! Yes, they bowl in the nursing home…not the same as we would, but it’s bowling none-the-less.

Tilly passed on Wednesday, March 10th, around 11:30 a.m. with her family by her side. Wednesday afternoon is when residents go bowling. They debated as to whether to go forward or cancel, but decided to go forward because that’s what Tilly would have wanted.

My mother, age 97, who also bowls, was in the room next to Tilly and greatly admired Tilly’s bowling ability. That day of Tilly’s passing my mother dedicated her bowling score to Tilly, and bowled her personal best…a 54. I told her she should dedicate her score to Tilly every week!

When I got up Thursday morning I didn’t know Tilly had passed, but she was on my mind. As I thought of her, a feeling of deep peace came over me. I thought that no matter if Tilly was still here or had passed, she was peaceful. Two hours latter I learned of her passing.

And so, Tilly, God Bless You. You had a good life and affected so many people with your love and kindness and your example.

Gluten is not the Problem

Back in late February my digestive system was tied in knots and, in other ways, making me feel awful. It got to the point where I would cancel plans because of it.

I thought perhaps it was an allergy to gluten. I recently became allergic to poison ivy, so why not gluten.

I went on a gluten free diet for a couple of weeks and have come to this conclusion: I am not allergic to gluten. What I cannot do any more is majorly disrupt my eating/sleeping routine. Big NO NO for me now.

When the gastric upset started I was deep into the Olympics…staying up late, sleeping late, not eating on the usual schedule. It was about the time the Olympics ended that I started gluten-free. My symptoms went away to where I was before the Olympics. If the reason had been gluten allergy, the pre-Olympic symptoms should have disappeared. They didn’t.

Without going into details, what I think I need is a probiotic of some kind. I’m going to get tested to see if that is the case.

Basketball and Corporate Greed

The nursing home my mother is in does not have digital TV. Basic yes, but not digital. My mother is a huge UConn women’s basketball fan, but was not able to watch the Big East tournament game yesterday, nor will she be able to watch tonight. Many residents in the same nursing home are big fans.

Residents in nursing homes have very little to look forward to as it is. The Big East, UConn and ESPN took away a great opportunity for happiness among our elder citizens.

I’m pretty sure The Big East, UConn and ESPN don't care.

Ah, Spring!

Yesterday it was hanging sheets out on the line. Today it's bike riding. Sure signs of spring!

After Kathy and I got back from our Erie Canal bike ride in September '08 (see my blog, Erie Canal Bike Riding Adventure), I wasn't able to ride again until the spring of '09. With my mother's health concerns, there was little time to ride. When spring came around, I rode a total of 13 times before the nasty, wet summer closed in. I have been missing being out on the road, all by myself, just cruising along with not a thought in my head. It's as if I left it all out there on the Erie Canal bike path and the Universe saw fit to mess up my summer so I would have time to rest and heal.

Today was one of those crisp, bright spring days that begs everyone to come out and play. I answered the call. Deep blue skies, light wind, temperature close to 60...I had to be out there.

Hanging Out The Sheets

This is the first time for hanging laundry on the line this spring. Sheets are usually the first because they dry fast. All I need is a day with temps in the 50s, bright sunshine, and a good breeze. I hung them out at 9 and took them in at 12:30. Regular laundry probably won't be hung out until late April at best.

Once I move to a condo I won't be able to hang clothes, so I will relish every clothesline kind of day from now until then.

Some People Have Some Nerve

Yesterday, as I was leaving my house to go to Farmington, I noticed someone had put a sign at the corner of my property, “FOR SALE BY OWNER.” Well my house is for sale, but not by me. I have a realtor working for me.

I pulled the sign out of the ground and took one side of it with me so I could call this person and explain a few facts of life. I could not call on my cell from my driveway because my AT&T service is non-existent where I live.

Anyway, I called him and he could not believe I planned to throw his sign away. He wanted it back. I told him he could get it off the top of my rubbish bin, but only half the sign would be there.

I went out on his web site for the house and it’s a much larger, much newer, much more expensive than mine.

I’m having enough problems trying to sell my house, I don’t need someone trying to use my property as their own “HOUSE FOR SALE” billboard.

The Beyond Center

On Friday, February 26th, The Beyond Center in Vernon offered a program by Eastern CT Paranormal. We were able to hear voices that were picked up digitally but not by the human ear. Everything from “help me” to “get out”. The presentation was excellent and they promised they would be back. I highly recommend attending.

The Rice Bread Fiasco

It sounded like a good idea…dry out some rice bread then put it in the food processor to make bread crumbs. Since I’m eliminating wheat/gluten from my diet, I bought some rice bread…frozen.

Separating slices of rice bread when frozen takes a chain saw. I managed to mangle three slices off the loaf and put it in the microwave to dry it out. Well, that wasn’t going fast enough, so I put it into the toaster oven. Dried it out nicely. Rock hard chunks.

I put these chunks into the food processor and I swear the blades were dulled by the bread. It did nothing but produce a fine dust.

At the price of rice bread, I think I’ll head over to Nature’s Grocer in Vernon and buy gluten free bread crumbs…already crumbed.