AN ECUMENICAL MOMENT

Last night, the Town’s Neighborhood Watch group sponsored a Christmas Caroling. We hope this will be an annual event that includes people of all religious backgrounds and denominations. The clergy and congregations of the 3 largest churches in town were all invited to join us as well as any other members of the community. This was not a specific church sponsored event, and indeed had representatives of many different groups participating.

The coordinator for this event was Scott Mears. The Onley Baptist Church offered us the use of their bus, a real blessing considering the cold temperatures and breezy conditions. The Onley Police Department gave us an escort. AT least we hoped that with a police escort we would not get arrested for disturbing the Peace!

It was so much fun to see the families with their children and hear them enthusiastically singing Christmas music as we went from house to house.

After a freezing hour and a half, the group returned to the Onley Fire Hall to warm up with hot chocolate and cookies (courtesy of the Eastern Shore Buddhist Sangha) and fresh made cannolis donated by the Sage Restaurant.

Hopefully next year we will have a much larger turnout of singers and all the town’s churches will be represented, and hopefully it will be a bit warmer!

A WATER THINGY

Getting old is not fun. There are 2 things that go first – your memory……….. um,…………… and I forget what the other thing was. I have had trouble connecting faces and names for a long time… after teaching a thousand kids a year for a hundred years or so, I long ago gave up on names. Fortunately no one ever sued me for sexual harassment for calling them Honey, or Sweetheart, because I learned early on to do that. I realized how good I was at it the day I said “Hon, will you bring me some towels?” expecting the kid closest to the towels would respond and instead I had about a dozen kids jump up and grab for some towels to bring to me. (In an art room there are always stacks of paper towels around.) They were ALL my “Honeys!”

But then I started losing names for THINGS! Sigh. Well, I had always had the problem of switching languages… I think it is common in families that are somewhat bi-lingual… we often mixed languages in the same sentence which was not a problem as long as the people you were talking to spoke the same combination of languages. It is frustrating when folks look at you like you are nuts and you don’t have a clue that you just switched from one language to another, only for one word… I wish we had a way to send a visual picture from my mind to yours – then you would know what I am talking about. So, now my frustration is losing words in more than one language!

Anyway, the water thingy came today. OK, it is a birdbath heater, they say. But it is heating the water, not the birdbath. Whatever. So far it seems to be working. The robins love it. However, they were very cautious, only one brave tiny soul at a time ventured to the edge for a drink. The others sat near by watching. Maybe it is because it is so shiny. It is also very light weight, consequently the frog sitting in the middle to keep it in place.

While I was fixing dinner, the first deer arrived. Again, it was only one at a time… and it was too dark to get a picture. After dinner, I had to refill the birdbath. 

Fortunately the black birds stayed out front by the feeders. I swear, there were over a hundred of them at one point. They emptied 4 feeders. Sigh. So, I guess I will be off to the Tractor Supply place when the roads clear. Maybe they will have one of those water heater thingies for deeper containers so I can provide water for the deer like I did last summer when it was so dry.

Hope the weather is better at your place than mine!

YEAH, BUT……..

DO YOU KNOW any of those people who always have a “Yeah, but…” to say after you say something? I have a neighbor, a sad soul she must be, for whom nothing is ever right, nothing is good, or if it is kinda good, it should be better. I feel safe in writing this because she does not believe in computers (OK, I don’t believe in having a microwave or dishwasher) – not that that makes her a bad person, just I doubt she will ever read this. Maybe famous last words, I know – but, what the heck.

She stops by here periodically. I am never sure why, except I listen to her until she runs out of gas or starts sneezing, which ever comes first.  She is allergic to cats. I will make no further comment on that. I have been known to lock them up in the bathroom when she is here because Hadji will love her to pieces and Rascal will wash her toes if she is in sandals or untie her shoes if the weather is cooler. She thinks the inside cats should be allowed to go out and I should bring the outside cats in. For someone who is allergic to cats, she seems to worry about them a lot. It seems no matter what I say, she counters with “Yeah, but…”  - even when I switch sides and agree with her!

As you know, the weather here has been brutal the last few days. It has been a chore trying to keep fresh water out for the birds. I am thinking about getting another heated water dish if the thing I ordered for the birdbath doesn’t work. Anyway, she yells at me for not bringing Punk and Spook inside when it is cold. I don’t bother to tell her again how miserable that would make 4 little cats, I just try to show her how nice and warm their boxes are. They sleep in the real warm one, the one with the padded sides and top. Their food is in the heated box on the greenhouse. It is not as warm, but they can eat and be out of the wind, rain, or snow, their food stays dry, clean, and does not freeze. Sounds like a good deal to me.

YEAH, BUT, SHE has NEVER seen them IN their little nest, she says. WHY? They run like H--- when they see her coming. Yep, even Punkin who is usually out there begging for a head scratch. Even he hides under a bush. They now know the sound of her car and bolt the second they hear it pull in the driveway.

When they are not sleeping, sometimes they just sit and look out, much like folks looking out their window. Often one will be watching while the other one sleeps. In this case, Punkin is asleep while Spook keeps an eye on things. Or maybe he is just hoping there will be food coming out the back door soon. I don’t know. I do apologize for the lousy quality of the photo. The storm door was steaming up faster than I could push the shutter button.

Punkin is the braver one… he loves to sit and keep an eye on the back door from whence cometh the food. But this morning, he decided to sit in the box on the greenhouse where the food is kept. That way his hiney was warm, his toes toasty, and he could keep an eye on everything. And his ear was only a few feet from the kitchen door!

We are got snow. That doesn’t sound like anything exciting to most of you, but for us it is a BIG event. I shoveled a path for the boys to travel to their favorite potty spots. We got about 3 1/2 inches. The feeders are overloaded with customers. The camera scared the birds away for the moment, except for the bunch on the ground.

One of my favorite things is to see the camellias covered with snow. I love the color contrast.

I just had a mean thought… at least I know someone who won’t be coming by to fuss about things today! The roads are a sheet of ice!

Well, guess I’d better go clean some snow off the driveway while the sun is shining. You all stay safe if you have to be out in this stuff!

AN EARLY CHRISTMAS

SUB TITLE: SPOILED ROTTEN CATS LIVE HERE.

As the song on the radio right this minute is saying, the weather outside is frightful… But then, it is not as bad as it was yesterday. We made it up to 47 today! That is still lower than it should be for this time of year. And next week, they say we will be in the teens at night. TEENS! WOW! We have had years when it barely went down into the 20s and then that happened only 4 or 5 times all winter. Anyway, all this is leading up to Spook and Punkin, my outside kitties. They HATE it in the house – believe me, we have tried it and there was no peace until they got back out, even in temps in the single digits. So… I do the next best thing. I make sure they have plenty of warm places to sleep, even a warm spot to eat.

Their warm nest last year worked out so well, I bought another one, since often Spook sleeps inside the nest and Punkin stands guard on the green house. They can and DO sleep in there together, but, for some reason, Punk often likes to be on the greenhouse.

While I was at it, I did the cats AND myself a favor, I bought a heated water dish. Now you might ask yourself how is that a favor to me? It means I don’t have to go out and break the ice in the morning. That has become a major job these days as I am having a little trouble getting in and out of the house in the morning. I can get their food to them, sometimes just placing it on the greenhouse, but cracking the water out of the dish and refilling it in the bitter cold when I can barely walk, well, it is a bit hard. And last year, it often froze back solid in a few hours. Now before you call me a wimp, let me say, people with Lymes have a lot of trouble with cold temperatures. It quadruples the pain, and the morning pain is the worst, as many of you sadly know.

Also, I have been severely criticized by a neighbor or 2 for “not taking care of my cats” because they are outside in all that bad weather. Heated kitty beds are not cheap, but they are wonderful. See the grey double plug in the big yellow extension cord box? That is a thermostat that controls the bed in the area under it. If the temp drops below 40, the bed turns on. Also, note the wires wrapped around the cords. That is so an animal cannot bite thru or even into the wire. They think of everything, don’t they?

On the right, you can see half of a timer (dark green, semicircle), dusk/dawn or totally on or off, or by the number of hours – that controls the light in the greenhouse that keeps it at 45 or above.

The new kitty bed is in a clear plastic box so they can see everything at least until they get used to it. I guess it is their sunroom for now! The bed is currently on as I need to waterproof the area where the thermostat will plug in. The bungee cords will keep it from blowing in the winds we are supposed to get on Sunday (rain turning to snow.) I will level it out later. It just got too cold putting it all together today.   

Even the possum has a warm room. The back wall of her nest has a vented opening to the furnace room. The furnace is about 2 feet from where she sleeps. They did not have a sign that said Spoiled Rotten Possum Sleeps Here. Guess that is a good thing.

Next project, a heated birdbath. Next year.

VISITORS, WELCOME AND OTHERWISE

YES, I GENERALLY WELCOME all God’s little creatures, just some more than others. OK, I admit it, I am picky when it comes to my friends, and I like some critters that other people hate. It seems that I have a small flock of robins living here. That is not unusual for the Eastern Shore, tho’ I wish for their sakes they would go further South where there is more to eat. I hate it when the ground is frozen or covered with snow and they are hungry. I think of my friend who raises worms in a big vat which she sells for people’s composters. But that would not work. Poor worms would freeze before the robins could get to them.

It has been dry here. Except for that 1/4 inch of snow Sunday morning, it has been a while since we have had any significant rain. As you might recall, I keep several containers of water, 4 bird baths and big dog bowls, most of which are empty each day. But when it is this cold, the water freezes overnight before anyone can drink it all. Then in the morning, the poor birds sit and peck at the ice. So, this morning, I took a bucket of water out and slowly poured it into the big ground level birdbath. I was not 5 feet away until the robins were all over the edge of it drinking as fast as they could.

Didja ever notice, they space themselves as evenly as possible when they are drinking? The other robins were waiting a proper distance and seemed to know who was next in line when one left. Manners, I’ve always said robins have manners.

Then, in the not so welcome department… I know, they have to eat, too… I have had this visitor 2 days in a row. So far I have not seen him catch anybody. At the peak for the feeding frenzy out front, I might have 30-40 various birds at one time. When they do the Christmas Bird Count (since I don’t do it anymore) a couple people come and sit in my driveway and count my birds. Well, there are 7 feeders and 1 hanging water dish right outside my window, and in another week, there will be more.  Meanwhile, they hide in the camellias or deep in the holly while this guy keeps watch. And my little hawk sits and waits. And then he leaves and tries hunting else where.

HO HO HO!

HO, HO, HO!

Yesterday was Santa Train Day here in the town of Onley. Once again, the Onley Train Station hosted the stop. It was an exciting moment for many… a rough estimate was 62 kids. There may have been more, the kids did not hold still for a body count, and more may have come after the unofficial count. One thing I know for sure, I made 3 gallons of hot chocolate and went thru a container of whipped cream! This is double the number of kids from last year, probably because last year we had a torrential rain falling and some pretty high winds. This year it was a bit windy, but the sun was shining. The temps were in the low 40s, wind chill in the mid 30s, but at least it was not raining INSIDE the building this year!!!!!!

Once again we set up the tents in the building (Thanks, Pat!) After all, the weather around here is very changeable and more unpredictable than in most other places, and even though the weather graphics on TV showed a mixture of sun and a few clouds for the entire week-end, few folks believed we would get what I found outside this morning when I got up – SNOW! So, given we have a popcorn machine still standing in the corner, I thought it best we put the tents up, just in case. As I type this, it is dripping a bit of rain interspersed with the occasional snowflake, though the road still looks dry, sort of, almost. But, 5 minutes from now the sun might be shining! We just never know!

Also, the tent in the freight room is a good way to maintain crowd control so Santa doesn’t get mobbed. And this year I bought a string of LED colored lights to put around the Santa tent to make it a bit more festive. I was amazed that LED lights don’t give off any heat! Perfect for putting on a plastic tent!

We had a good crew helping to keep things working… cleaning up, making popcorn (thanks Shore Bank), passing out cookies (thanks PNC Bank), crowd control, putting up the plastic door that helped keep a tiny bit of heat in. Our only real glitch was with the circuit breaker – not enough juice to have a heater on, popcorn popper, and a 30 cup pot of water heating all at once. So, Susan and I took turns heating water for hot chocolate and popping corn.

A word of thanks to George for helping me put the plastic up at the door and running up and down the steps for me. It was a less than perfect day for my back and knee. I so hate being semi-helpless.

The families were lined up all the way down the tracks…

Waiting for that moment when the train came in sight.

Santa and Mrs. Claus and their entourage of helpers being escorted into the station…

The line went all the way from the Santa tent, thru the freight office, down the steps, and on out into the yard.

The kids politely took their turn carefully spelling out their wish lists.

I am not sure if the puppy took a turn or not, but the grandkids did.

I did mention to Santa that we’d asked for a new roof last year, and I pointed to our sad and sorry ceiling… “But it didn’t happen,” I said. Had he known me better I am sure he would have made some comment about being naughty or nice – you know, the kind of comment one makes with a lifted eyebrow and THAT LOOK that speaks volumes, but he was diplomatic and told me not to give up hope… sigh.

There were so many kids at the stops this year that the train was over an hour behind schedule when it finally pulled out of the station headed for Parksley. 

Thanks to all the kind folks who donated their time, money and energy to this project. It took a lot of all of that. But the look on those kid’s faces……….. priceless.

Hopefully we will have a new roof on for the Santa Train next year, and a few other new parts on the building. If you would like to contribute to our very worthy cause, we gratefully accept donations. Our mailing address is Onley Train Station, POB 144, Onley, VA, 23418. And I thank ya mightily! SO does Santa Claus! Honest!

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

I got an email the other day, well, I have had many of them over the years, on “the good old days.” I did not remember a few of the things, occasionally it predated me – imagine that! Anyway, this email had pictures of the cars from the 50s – remember the years of the FINS? And the old dial phones – I have one still in working condition… Often the emails talk about how much better things were in those days back before all this technology took over the world and our kids. How much simpler things were does not always mean better…  Because, if it were not for today's technology, you would not be reading this, would you?

I guess it always seemed better back when - I remember Grammy saying how much better things were... But, OH MY how she enjoyed a washing machine she did not have to fill and empty and did not have a wringer! And a dryer on rainy days.

I still have only a few channels on TV - who needs to pay all that $$ to watch filth, lies, and violence? With my antenna I can get 4 PBS channels, CBS and usually NBC and ABC, sometimes a few of the “extra channels”. What more do I need? We get 110 channels on the TV at my house in PA, and more often than not, we turn it off because there is nothing we want to watch.

I do love my lawn tractor. I do remember seeing the old push mower in the barn, but my Grandfather was the first in the neighborhood to get a power mower. You did walk behind it, the sit down version came many years later, so I don’t remember the lawn being cut with the quieter push mower.

My Toyota looks like any other year and like any other van, but I don't care. No style, but today one needs a van to carry all the stuff and as many people as we used to get in an ordinary sedan. I can still name the car and even the year for cars in the 50s and 60s. After that, they all kind of look alike, smaller and smaller, more alike than different.

The emails mention old timey food and ways of cooking. I still cook like Grandma - fresh food - organic... almost never any packaged crap. I am sorry I never learned how to can stuff. I remember bushels of peaches, tomatoes, string beans. All I ever got to do was shell peas and baby limas, or cut the tips off the wax and string beans. But I don’t have all those electric gadgets, electric knives, coffee bean grinders, espresso machines… nope, not in my kitchen.              

I do have an electric can opener. I use it to sharpen knives. I open cans with the can opener on the wall. You’d be surprised how many cans I opened for my neighbor when the power went out last year.  I still do not own a microwave. I do not want anything in my house with radiation warnings or that would make a hamster explode. Trust me.

My dishwasher is located at the end of my wrists… 

Telephones... geez. Having spent time in a wheel chair, I have PHONES... in this little house I have 9 working phones (landlines) and a cell phone usually left in the van. One of the phones is "hardwired" to an old jack and you have to DIAL it. Wow, huh? It was in the house when I moved in. But, it still works better and the sound is clearer than all these new things I can stick in my pocket and carry outside or put on speaker while I peel potatoes so I can talk and keep working at the same time. Didja ever have a conversation with someone and you can hear the computer keys clicking away in the background? That is not just multi-tasking, that is just plain rude.

The email mentioned how kids today cannot count. How true! In high school I worked as a waitress on week-ends and cashier during the week... I can count frontwards and backwards. I can add bills up in my head and the change in my hand without even looking at it. Grammie used to make me add up a column in the Wall Street Journal – in my head… and usually my answer was the same as hers. She always beat me. Kids today do not know how to make change if the bill is $4.12 and you give them a 5 dollar bill, a dime, and 2 pennies and they already rang up that your change will be 88 cents while you were fishing out those 2 pennies. They are completely baffled. They may be able to text message 54 people in a half an hour to tell them they just saw the dumbest old woman come into the store, but that $5.12 will blow their feeble education out the window. No wonder we are now ranked 25th in the World in Math.

I really don’t remember all the rest of the stuff in the email… but, having lived in parts of the world where so many things we take for granted in this country, no matter how poor we might be, I really do appreciate what we consider the basics, running water, hot water, central heat, a roof that does not leak. I still think my washer and dryer are luxury items, but I still prefer to hang my clothes out on the line. However, I recognize the joy of not fighting with king sized sheets on a clothesline.

And then there is this contraption, as G-ma would say, in front of me. I can hear from my friend in Japan in a second, and “talk” to my friends and family all over the world all at one time. And even though my house looks like a branch of the library, I am glad I can do research sitting here in my slippers and jammies if I want to. Technology. Its not such a bad thing.

AN ITSEY BITSEY TEENEY WEENIE LITTLE GREEN NEW ZUCCHINI

Here it is, almost Thanksgiving and the temps are in the 60s again today. I know it cannot last and I remember how we were caught so off guard last year – when the cold hit, it hit with a vengeance and leaving many of us with chores undone. It has always been a challenge to keep a fresh tomato from the garden for Thanksgiving dinner, but this year I will have a fresh pepper, a small cucumber, several tomatoes… but I doubt this zucchini will be big enough by then. Can you see it on the pink paper?

Yep, I resisted the urge to yank this little plant out and, bless its little heart, it has been blooming away. So, when I walked out to do a few chores this morning, I saw this nice big bloom and thought I just might take a picture of it. So, camera in hand, I looked around for a good shot – and what did I see? Back in the house for a piece of paper and the date – I mean who ever heard of a zucchini this late in November HERE?  Check out the tomatoes? The red ones were for lunch yesterday. No pictures of them! But I will pick these before the cold weather hits in a few days.

We have had several frosts. One zapped the coleus just a bit, so I cut them down but left the strobilanthes. The frost has not hurt it one bit. Can you see St Fwankie down under the leaves? This plant is over 4 feet tall. 

The fall azaleas are still blooming nicely and the camellias are earlier than usual. Everything is loaded with blooms.

One amazing little plant has been blooming ever since my friend Bobbie gave it to me – ages ago. Gosh, I don’t even remember when. It is a type of Bleeding Heart – the wild version? It is dripping with dew, we had a heavy fog this morning. 

The red camellias that usually bloom just in time for Christmas have started – 2 blooms today. Most of the leaves are down now and I  never posted the pretty colors. Oh well, guess that happens when you get too busy. I hope it is pretty at your house and you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

GORGES SEALS

No, I did not misspell that… these seals are on the rocks next to Fort Gorges, an old fort in Casco Bay, not very far off shore between Peaks Island and Portland. And , yes, it is pronounced, gorgeous.

Gorges is a strange looking thing sitting out there in the middle of the water on what was a small island – there are lots of them in the Bay… small islands, that is.

Can you see it sitting out there in the Bay? This is from the webcam at Portland Head Light.

Gorges is the only military structure on its own private island, but there are lots of ‘fort” type structures – military bunkers, spotting towers and fascinating tunnels and other military “stuff” on most of the islands. I say fascinating, tho I don’t really mean it anymore. They were fascinating when we were kids because they were forbidden territory. Small wonder, they were and are even today, dangerous, especially for small kids. We, of course, visited them more than once, climbing around and exploring most of them, swearing an oath to each other to never ever tell Aunt Kathryn. Funny, I don’t remember her ever hitting any of us, but I do remember her picking up a ping pong paddle and LOOKING at us. I memorized the LOOK, and it came in handy when I became a teacher. Stop ya in your tracks! LOL!

Anyway, I only remember being on Fort Gorges once when my boy-friend of the month “borrowed” his dad’s boat and we went exploring in the old fort. The fort was not as interesting to me as the seals that flopped around on the rocks. They did not like visitors.

The seals are easy to miss to the casual tourist – they seem to blend into the rocks. These shots aren’t the greatest, they were scanned from a couple of shots my sister took on our trip in 2003.

Yeah, this shot is back at BaHaba… the last pic taken of Luanne before we headed for home. Just had to post it before I pack up all the old shots and put them away again… 

OK… I have packed the pictures up… they will go up on a shelf, probably never to come down again. Some things are just too hard to do. Maybe I will get back to Maine… maybe…

The MECHANIC and the CARDIOLOGIST

A mechanic was removing a cylinder-head from the motor of a Harley
motorcycle when he spotted a well-known cardiologist in his shop.
The cardiologist was there waiting for the service manager to come and take
a look at his bike when the mechanic shouted across the Garage, 'Hey Doc,
want to take a look at this?'
The cardiologist, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was
working on the motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on
a rag and asked, 'So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take the
valves out, repair any damage, and then put them back in, and when I finish,
it works just like new. So how come I make $39,675 a year and you get the
really big bucks ($1,695,759) when you and I are doing basically the same
work?'
The cardiologist paused, smiled and leaned over, then whispered to the
mechanic...  'Try doing it with the engine running'

A MOMENT IN A HECTIC SCHEDULE…

Life has been exceedingly busy lately… phew! you just wouldn’t believe! But there is always time for a good story. My 80 year old Uncle sent me this… I remembered it was one of my old favorites… maybe you will remember it, too, and smile.

An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio, Texas leading an old tired mule.

The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town, to clear his parched throat.

He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail.

As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes,

a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?"

The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No, I never did dance ... never really wanted to."

A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger  grinned and said, "Well, you old fool, you're gonna dance now,"

and started shooting at the old man's feet.

The old prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet.

Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied. When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger,

still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon.

The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun,

and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.

The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds too, and he turned around very slowly.

The silence was almost deafening.

The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin 10 gauge barrels.

The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man's hands, as he quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No sir ... but... I've always wanted to."

There are a few lessons for us all here:

Never be arrogant.

Don't waste ammunition.

Whiskey makes you think you're smarter than you are.

Always, always make sure you know who has the power.

Don't mess with old folks, they didn't get old by being stupid.