Merry Christmas, ML...

I bought my house while I was home on leave from the Aleutian Islands. My CO called and told me that my orders had come through and I was being transferred back to Whidbey Island. SCORE!!!!!

I was so excited, And had my down payment already saved and in the bank. I went house looking, got a realtor, and told her what I wanted. There were several available, and 4 of them were being built. I went and looked and bought my house that day! It was not finished yet, but would be by October 1st which was the time I was transferring out of Adak! PERFECT!!

I got home and had to wait three weeks for closing, and then it was MINE!! I had a brand new house, with brand new appliances and carpet. WHOOT!! I felt like a queen!

I decided that I would cook thanksgiving dinner that year at my place, and my household effects were due to arrive way before then.

thanksgiving came, and I loaded the Oven with the Turkey, and everything was going along fine. UNTIL...I started to fix the potatoes, the peas, the green beans and the gravy all at the same time. One burner was fine, two were fine but three or more and the whole top went out. GRRRRRRR I got creative and made it through dinner, and then called SEARS the next week and they came out only to tell me that they could not find anything wrong. (be here next Thanksgiving Butt Head!!) SO I assumed it was just a freak coincident. Christmas dinner and the same thing happened. I called Sears again and they came out and replaced two of the burners. I did not cook a big dinner again for several years, and when I did, the same thing happened.!!

After the third time SEARS came out, I just said to hell with it, and only cooked with two burners.

FOr the past 2 years I have had to baby the stove along, because even the big burner wouldnt work. I could get it to work by pulling the burner out, then re-installing it, turning it on and then hitting it real fast and hard with my hand to see get it to spark. If it did not spark, it would not work. I did it real fast because I did not want to get burned on the off-hand chance that it WAS on. Bob would watch me go through this routine everytime I fixed him dinner. When He questioned me about it I told him I needed a new cooktop, but could not afford it yet. The oven worked fine.

Until this Thanksgiving! It worked just fine, but Now the self-cleaner will not work, because the buttons on the front broke off and are gone. WHen THAT happenend I dont know.

Yesterday I went to FOrks to see Tim, (tomorrow's story) and was gone all day, and when I got home Bob had gotten the new stove and had installed it for me.



Isn't it PURRRRTY!!!!

I had a built in-drop in stove before, and this is a stand alone. SO we had to cut the cupboard to get it to fit, but it works just fine!! I was sooooooo excited!!

It is a Whirlpool convection oven with self-clean oven. (gotta have that) and the glass top cook top. I LOVE it. He was gone when I got home, but I called and thanked him profusely for the Christmas/birthday present.

THen I turned around and saw the MESS!! They had used a sawzall to cut the cabinet, which is what I expected, but there was sawdust EVERYWHERE!! in the cupboards, on the counters, in the food, in all the appliances, all over the floor...I WAS PISSED!! I had a royal hissy fit at the mess. ( a week off of ZOloft...waiting for payday) So as tired as I was and hurting so bad, I rewashed all the dishes that were in the open dishwasher, then moved everything off the cupboards and washed them down again, and then the floor had to be scrubbed.

I was calling them every name in the book!! Why would 2 grown men instal a stove and leave such a mess? Well I should have known...It was Bob and Ron! Ron is a handy man by trade, and does this for a living, albeit self-employed. Ron is also the downfall of Bob. Ron says that perfection just gets in the way of Good enough! SO Bob has chosen that as his mantra also.

I called DOnna because I was pissed and wanted someone to just let me rant, I NEEDED to rant!! Hell I wanted to KILL SOMEONE!! (Not taking your meds does that ya know)
All DOnna said was MOM! It was FREE!!! ok, so I'm an ungrateful Bitch! ANd I feel so much better today, after getting meds, cleaning up the kitchen and taking a good hot shower and then taking some Tylenol PM and THera-flu. I woke up just fine, went in and cooked an omelet on my BEAUTIFUL NEw Stove.

Now I am waiting for Bob to come over for New Year's Eve. I am cooking steaks on my brand new stove in my brand new oven under my brand spanking new broiler.

Life is good!! (THANK YOU LORD for ZOLOFT!!)

Friends.....Maybe?

Don't you just know that dog would just love to chomp on that kitten? His master is probably standing right there and teling him to STAY!


I have seen this series of pictures before and lost them and tonight got them back again.

I am doing my bi-yearly cat sitting, for Tippie-Canoe, and Tyler-too. (yep, that is their real names) And Tyler has found a safe haven from Sadie...in the back of my closet on top of a comforter. Safe and warm too. Tippie on the other hand has discovered the DVR and perches in it all day long. WHen she gets down off the perch she slowly looks around and if she sees another cat or Sadie, she growls. Does not run, just walks around and growls, as if to say, "I am Kittie, hear me growl!" She is a seal point siamese and older than a kitten but we dont know how old. She is a sweetheart though, and as soon as Bob walks in the door, she is on him like he was cat nip! SOOOO Funny!

Tyler is the kitten that was adopted with Tippie. They found each other in the cat store, and were inseparable! Tyler is NOT Tippies kitten, but they both think he is. He is just over a year old and a big black sweet baby boy! He purrs and drools all over you. HE puts his nose right up against my arm and starts purring and making "mud-pies" and just goes limp. THat is until Sadie discovers that I have him on my lap, then it is black streak followed by blonde streak, followed by GRRRRRRRRRR as Tippie runs after them both to save her baby. My house is like Disneyland to them. Dottie says they LOVE to come over here when she goes back east.

Loki and Sadie play chase all over the house, and will settle down with the rest of the animals and cozy up to each other in front of the fire.

Once the fire place is warm and the spot in front of it is warm too, then all bets are off as to who is the aggressor and who is the victim. Who ever gets the warm spot first wins. Then all is calm in the Chandler household, and peace once again prevails.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve thoughts...

Christmas is a time for reflection. At least always has been for me in my adult years. When I was a very young adult not yet married, I loved Christmas Eve. I still lived at home, but I worked and I had my own car. I would save my money and go shopping on Christmas Eve. Oak Harbor was a lot different then, it only had one main street, Pioneer Way, and the stores were built out over the water on the South side. These were the old style buildings with wooden floors and high false fronts. The Christmas lights would be strung zig-zag from one side of the street to the other.

There were not many stores of note in town, there was the Co-op which later became the Pioneer Dept store, which carried EVERYTHING including piece goods. There was the shoe store, 3 drug stores, a coast to coast hardware store and two dime stores. That was just about it. None of these big box stores, and no strip malls. This was the mid 60’s, and we were a sleepy little town. I would buy a gift for all of my friends, even though it wasn’t much, a hanky or a scarf or a box of dusting powder. It did not matter. I felt so good about being able to save money and do this.

I would get all my shopping done, then go home and wrap the gifts. I always went to Christmas Eve Services at the Methodist Church, and gave all my gifts to my friends there. After Church services, we would have a cup of hot cocoa, and then head home to wait for “Santa”.

We lived in Coupeville, and my bedroom was on the second floor of an old Victorian home. It looked out over the field to the county courthouse. The County Christmas Tree was right in front of the courthouse, and was kept lit all the time day and night. Late at night I would sit there un my window seat and stare off into the dark night and look at the tree. I would then think back at how far I had come in my life, and how much farther I had to go to be where I wanted to be.

By this time, Mom had found her way to the bottom of a bottle, and was usually passed out in her chair. Dad worked 24 hrs at a time on the Crash Crew on Base, so it was up to Phyllis and I to make sure that Santa came for Michael. We would then head to bed and wait for him to wake us up in the morning. He was 8 or 9, and would be excited to see what was under the tree. When Dad got home at 830 in the morning, we were allowed to open our presents and empty our stockings which somehow magically got filled. Had to be Santa, because neither Phyllis nor I did it, and Mom was still passed out in her chair. Never did figure that out.

The quietness of the night sitting in that window seat remains with me still. The tree at the court house is gone now, and was not replaced. The County offices have taken over Coupeville, and Oak Harbor has become a hustle bustle place with three main roads all crammed full of strip malls and big box stores. We still have to go off Island to the mall, in Mt. Vernon, but we can find just about everything we need on the island. Everything that is except the community tree. There is no place in either town that you can call THE tree, that is all lit up and carols sung around it anymore. That has gone away. Every store has it’s own decorations, but there is no town center any more. No where to gather and have community sing alongs. It is as if everyone does their own thing and could care less about being a part of a whole. They all go to their different churches, and then home. No more neighborhood parties, no more caroling down the middle of the street. No more taking cookies to your neighbor’s houses. Where did it all go? When I sit there on Christmas eve and the nights leading up to it, with all the lights out except for the tree and the radio is on to Classical King FM and the non-stop Christmas music, I sometimes can hear the past calling out to anyone who would listen…”stop, people, STOP! Look around you, reflect on what you once had…grab that feeling with both hands and do not let go.” It would sure be nice wouldn’t it?

Hurrah!!

I have been trying to post for two days now, and I just can't seem to connect. Or if I do, I get kicked off right away. I SOOOOOO Need a new computer!!!

Christmas Spirit flew the coop! Spending three days in the dark and cold can do that to ya! You learn to cook on Coleman Stoves, You learn to always have extra propane on hand. You also learn not to cook indoors unless you have a good source of air.

there is a horrible epidemic that has come out of this blackout. And that is Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, and it has resulted in at last count, 7 deaths! 4 in one family, and all are immigrants from Countries where cooking on BBQ's indoors is quite the norm. But then so is no insulation and no windows. In The Pacific Northwest, our houses have to be tight, to keep the cold at bay and conserve energy. Most of us know not to cook indoors on a briquette BBQ but there were some who were using Gas BBQ's inside, and that is not good either.

I knew that from all the years of camping, and I made sure that when I did cook inside, on my dining room table that there were at least 2 sources of air coming into the room.

It has just been horrible for the minority communities from East Africa and the Indonesian islands. And the ELDERLY!!! One woman called into the radio station in tears because she had just gone to visit her grandmother in a retirement home, and there was no heat, and no way to cook. These old people were freezing to death and starving because some city councilman did not think to make a contingency plan for these people! MY GOD FOLKS use your damn BRAINS!! When I heard that I just was flumoxed! I was assured that the retirement homes here on the island had either a generator or an alternate heat source and that their residents were ok, in the dark, but warm and fed.

Some of the outlying areas east of Seattle still are in the dark one solid week after the winds blew. The power lines have been devastated by trees and limbs. The majority of the people that were prepared are taking it all in stride, but it is the fringes of society that have not prepared for this and are blaming everyone for the power not coming back on soon enough. Once again we have an incidence of people always expecting a hand out from the government. No idea how we are going to PAY for this handout, but they think they should have one. I don't! They can be prepared just like I was. They can adapt, they can listen to the radio and not play computer games. (although I did go through free cell withdrawals) They can have canned food and a canopener that does not work on electricity. (I use one everyday)

People were stealing generators right out of the yards where people had their freezers hooked up. People were selling cans of gasoline for 10.00 a gallon along the road. People were lined up for MILES in line to get gas for their cars at the one or two stations that still had gas to dispense, and then fights were breaking out when the tanks went dry. PEOPLE LISTEN!!!! BE PREPARED!!!! Get those tanks all topped off as soon as they say a storm may be coming. If it doesnt, ah well, you can use it for the car.

One other thing that was brought to light is all the tanks full of tropical fish that died because people did not think of them. THey get cold too and die. one young man took hot water bottles and set them in his tank to keep the water warm. COOL!!! He used his head.

I did not get my Melting Moments baked, because the power was down, but I did get rum balls and bourbon balls and the fruitcakes baked. TOmorrow I will make fudge and wrap the few presents I did make for family, and then get back on track.



I put my tree up AGAIN!!! and now the lights on the outside of the house are out. They are gonna stay that way! Im done. Enough is enough. On to CHristmas and PRIME RIB!!! YUMMY STUFF!! Donna is coming home tomorrow!! WHoot!! Not to celebrate Christmas becasue she does not do that, but to see her Mommie!!! :)

Tim's Christmas Present got shipped here instead of to him, so Now I have to return it to Amazon and re-order it to get it shipped to him. THat way they are assured there is no contraband stuck in the book! (from his MOTHER???) ah well.

I will post again tomorrow, IF I CAN GET ON LINE!!!!! Meanwhile, all of you drive safely and have a very Merry Christmas! See you next week.

WHOO! That was fun....

When I asked OmnipotentBenevolentEmpress of the 20 Universes to update my blog and let everyone know that we all were safe and alive, I had no idea she would unleash the TROLLS instead of the Gnomes. They can both be destructive, but those forest trolls are the worst. THey hide in the branches of trees and then ride them like a roller coaster when the wind blows. I think they like the way the transformers POP and put out the sparks and the great light show when a branch arc's across a power line and shorts them out. Nasty beings they...

The Island lost power on Thursday night and some of us still do not have it on. Phyllis got hers back on Friday, and so did Bob, But I didnt until Saturday night.
I had a pallet made up and laid it right in front of the woodstove, and had everything I needed right at hand. The radio was on, the lantern was full, I had the books and the animals all close at hand. I had just hunkered down for the night and looked up just as the lights came back on. I needed them to. As I said last month, it was fun when I was younger, but when you are all alone, it is BORING!

I will write extensively about the damage that was done, and the people stories that have popped up, but tonight I just wanted everyone to know I am back on line...hopefully for the rest of the year. I could connect, but the server would not let me go anywhere. I can now.

THank you all for caring. ANd through all of that, I actually got all my christmas cards made and mailed. Aren't you proud of me?

She's Okay

In an attempt to put a stop to the endless sappyholidaymovieathon that inevitably leads to the why-won't-you-give-up-your-boycott-and-celebrate-like-nice-people phone call I put out an order for the Gnomes to please cut off the TV access to the Imperial Mum.

Well you know how Gnomes get sometimes this time of year, what with Elves getting all the attention and their garden variety bretheren being left out to crack in the cold.

Anyway, They apparently managed to blusterate the entire Island into darkness for what they tell me will be days. This was not what I had in mind and I do very much apologise for the Gnomey behavior. (I'm making them sit in front of 24 hours of taped speeches by the Shrub as part of their punishment for over reacting without fulling planning.)

In the mean time The Mom is warm and dry at her cottage. Her wood pile is stocked, her wood stove is functioning and cats are providing extra insulation where needed. (Though if there's someone resembling the Marlboro Man that wishes to further the cause of Heat generation and preservation, I don't know that she'd argue too much.)

She claims she doesn't need any food, and in fact is more worried about having to eat everything in the freezer before it melts, but Bob (definitely NOT the Marlboro Man) has promised to bring a generator before that happens. If you live near by and know where there's a stash of propane or D batteries, I'm sure she'd be grateful.

Her phone does work just fine. If anyone should feel the desire to call her, feel free to email me at ms(dot)hyphen(at)gmail and I will see what I can arrange for you.

Cheers!
The Empress of the 20 Universes

Yikes!!!!1

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND
WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH FRIDAY
MORNING.

A HIGH WIND WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF STRONG
DAMAGING WINDS. A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL REACH THE AREA
THURSDAY EVENING. SOUTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE THROUGH THURSDAY
AFTERNOON...THEN SHIFT TO SOUTHWEST AND INCREASE FURTHER THURSDAY
NIGHT. SOUTHWEST WINDS AROUND 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH ARE
POSSIBLE THURSDAY NIGHT.

A STRONG SURGE OF WESTERLY WINDS IS EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM. ON
THE COAST AND IN THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA EVEN STRONGER WINDS
ARE POSSIBLE. IN THESE AREAS WEST WINDS 50 TO 60 MPH WITH GUSTS OF
80 TO 90 MPH ARE POSSIBLE. THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT THESE
ESPECIALLY STRONG WEST WINDS WILL BLOW ACROSS WHIDBEY ISLAND LATER
THURSDAY NIGHT.

Well folks, If you dont hear from us for awhile, we are without power....AGAIN!!! That would be me, Phyllis and Keewee too.

I need to go out toorrow morning and bring in my umbrella, so It does not end up on top of Lea's roof. I should be fine. THe garage door may blow in, but that is all. But I seriously doubt we will get winds that high.

GOt water, got food, laundry is all done, firewood is close to the house, got matches, got batteries, got propane and even have pet food. SO we are good to go.

OH YEAH! And I still have two bottles of booze for the fruitcakes! HEY HEY HEY! I am ready! jim beam and Bacardi! Whoot!

POOF!!!

oops

I Hate putting lights on the tree, When I was growing up my Dad always did it, and they had to be JUST SO! When I got married, Jim did it, when He left, Tim did it so now I have to and I HATE IT! My Sil Sherry came over on Saturday and put the lights on my tree for me and they looked really pretty.

I still had not gotten around to decorating it, so tonight I started. I hung the large bells along the bottom, and I sat down to rest my back, and POOF! the lights all went out. HRMMMM!!! so I unplugged them and plugged them back in again, and realized that Sherry had hooked all 6 strings together, and into one plug. I found one of the connections to see if that was the offending string, and it was so hot I could barely touch it. Needless to say, the lights are now all off and will stay that way until I can get the oomph to re string more sets of lights onto the tree.

It is a real tree, and I am so thankful that I was right there, or I would have had a serious mess in my front room. No, I dont think I want to deal with more water on my floors, especially at this time of the year. So all the peace I was feeling yesterday just went right out the fricking window. I think I will go have several bourbon balls! BAH HUMBUG!!

Winter Moon...

As I lay here on my tummy late at night, I can peek over the window sill, and gaze out at the moon peeking through the bare branches of the alders out back. It looks so cold and so lonely. The night sky in December is beautiful in an odd sort of way. The air is still warm, and the land is cooling down, so light fog forms, sometimes up high, and sometimes along the ground. THe fingers of mist it puts out, look like hands of Father Time, telling the world that it is time to sleep and rest for the coming winter, and renew for the coming Spring.

We have had some really mild weather the past week, after the Siberian Express blew through and dumped snow and cold on us. I have been able to see the moon come into fullness and then slowly pare away into a half moon. I would look at it as it slowly climbed up through the trees and cleared the tops to be free from obstruction, and then soar away like a big balloon, in the misty air. Several times I have seen an ice ring around the moon. Orion has moved so that he wakes up earlier now, so I can no longer see him from my bed.

THis has been a time of reflection for me. I have been listening to classical Christmas Music, and watching every Cheesy Christmas Movie there is. I am very much into the spirit of the season this year. More so than usual. We have made a pact that we are not buying gifts for family this year, we are making them. I have most of mine done already, and I feel good about that. We are not filling stockings this year, as I am flat broke, and I dont feel bad about that. I have almost all of my Christmas Cards made, and have to dig up the money to mail them all. I really felt good about that. I have really enjoyed making them.

I have done some Christmas baking this year, and That has been fun. I have my fruitcakes soaking in rum, and I made bourbon balls this year too. I will be making my Melting Moments tomorrow, and then finish putting the ornaments on the tree. I got a small one this year, and even that feels good.

I have been reflecting on all of the things I have missed about celebrating Christmas. This year I think I am going to see all I can and do as much as I can afford to do and then just sit back in my big comfy chair with my dog on my lap, and enjoy the rest of the year. The earth is resting up and maybe we all should too. All the hub-bub of shopping and rushing and buying is secondary. ENJOY! Celebrate! Be with friends and Family and recharge your batteries. Spring will be here soon enough and then we will all be busy again.

Snail Mail Addresses please...

As most of my regular readers know, I send out handmade cards every year at Christmas. That is IF I have your snail mail. (I HATE E-Cards!)

So all of you lurkers out there and those new readers I have, please send me your home addresses so I can get these in the mail to you.

my email is dreamer(at)galaxynet(dot)com Take out the parentheses and replace the words with the symbols and Voila! My email address.

Christmas Rules...

HOLIDAY EATING TIPS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet
table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see
carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum
balls.




2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-
malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch.
You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who
cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if
you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat.
Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's
Christmas!




3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of
gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of
your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk
or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a
sports car with an automatic transmission.




5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to
control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of
eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like
frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position
yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of
shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them
again.




8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each.
Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always
have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor
Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the
mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean,
have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the
party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read
tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by: My favorite
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather
to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a
ride!" --

A Christmas Story..

The Whidbey Playhouse is presenting "A CHristmas Story" this season, and even though I am not involved in this one at all, I Highly recommend those that can, get your tickets now and go see it.

I am probably the only person in the world that has only seen the movie 1 time. It is Hysterical! Ralphie want a Red Ryder 200 shot BB gun with a compass and a thing that tells time embedded in the stock, and he will do anything to assure that either his parents or Santa CLaus knows he wants it.

The tag line that keeps popping up when ever he tells anyone is "you'll put your eye out" and it goes through the whole show. THat and his little brother that has "to go wee-wee" at the most inopportune times.

Barbara and I went last night, and I laughed and laughed. THe story is funny, the actors were fine but I did not like the set. There is a lot going on in this story, and the set had to be 5 places at one time, and it worked, but it looked unfinished to me. It may have been, but I think that is how it was planned. It just needed something. No, I doubt that I could have done any better at all. maybe not even that good, but over all it was a good show.

We stopped by Seabolt's Smokehouse for dinner before hand and had their smoked salmon and chips and clam chowder. OH YUM!! Seaboldts started out as just a place to buy smoked slamon, and they have just branched out to serving self-order counter dining, and the place was packed. It was very good, and I will be going back. I know now to request more tarter sauce because they never serve enough in places like that. (Ok, so I am strange, I use tarter sauce on my fries instead of ketchup!)

THe menu had mussels (Brenda!) clams, tuna, salmon, cod, and crab. All big sellers here in the Pacific Northwest. For those of you that have never had smoked salmon, you do NOT know what you are missing. THe Mussels are grown right over there>>>>in Penn COve. And they are world reknowned! So funny too, because when I was a kid and lived on Penn COve, we would squash the mussels growing on the rocks and the piers. No one had any idea that they were actually edible. We went after the good stuff...steamed butter clams! Gads I am making myself hungry now.

Now back to seeing if I can get my stove to work... (grumble, cuss, swear!!!)

Only 21 more days of Autumn...

Just think, with all of the cold and the snow and the rain, we are still only into the 2nd month of FALL! Makes me wonder just what WINTER will actually bring.

It is now 36 degrees out there, but it is 1030PM. It got all the way up to 48 today. THe snow is all melting, the icicles are gone off the eaves, the snow is all gone off the trees and the snowmen that were built all over the neighborhood, are laying like a pile of forgotten snow in their respective yards. THere is nothing quite so sad as watching a snowman melt. Their eyes slip, their arms fall off, their hats hit the ground, and the carrots that once were a nose now look like really sick penis'!

I LOVE the snow. I love the silence that it brings, like a big fluffy blanket being laid over all the dirt and noise. Making magic happen for just one day. I love watching the juncos and the chickadees pecking through the snow on the feeders for the few bits of seed that are still hidden under there.

I love the crunch that walking on fresh snow brings. Like a giant box of Corn Starch being squeezed with two hands.

This is one of my favorite months! THe build up the festivities, the decorations, the hustle, the baking, the food, the people, the MOVIES! the songs. I Love it all.
I am planning on getting my tree up this weekend sometime, and then I will enjoy sitting there in front of the wood stove, with all the lights off, listening to Christmas Music and staring at the tree and the decorations. I have always LOVED CHristmas.

It seems really strange after being in Retail for 37 years, to NOT be up to my eyeballs in Christmas for 5 or 6 months. I think I do kind of miss it.

NAH!!!!!

Changes are a-comin'...

We have just been told that the weather system that is hitting the coast right now, will turn quickly to rain. The air has warmed up significantly from 8 degrees F last night to 34 degrees F tonight.

It did get cold! I kept Power all night and all day, but I would not count on it staying on much longer. We are having gale force winds, and with the ground as wet as it will be when it all melts, we will lose even more trees!

It was pretty while it lasted, now we will see the ugly side of it. The mud and the dirt! The road sand will all get splashed up on the windsheild, and we will have to wash our cars and filll the reservoirs.

I spent all day today inside in my snuggly robe. I did not even get dressed. I got up and built a fire in the wood stove, made a pot of coffee, and settled in to watch the birds and squirrels!

Sadie is a matted up mess right now. She will have to go to the groomer, but not until the snow all melts, and the mud dries up. She has had more fun throwing snow over her shoulder! Dumb dog! Even Lint has decided that he will stay inside for the duration.

I am so far behind in getting my things in the mail. Certain people's BD Presents came back, because I forgot to put a customs tag on it. DUH! Well It will have to go with the christmas cards now. This whole year has been a wreck for me. I am so hoping that next year will be the year of starting life over. I now have all my floors done, I have the walls painted, I have almost all of my unfinished projects finished, I have made every member of my family an afghan, so next year is for me.

I think I will reinvent myself. I really need to. Not making any promises, because I know how I am, but I will try. one step at a time. I may even put my Bio on Match.com just to see what happens! (eek!)

So right now I am laying on my tummy in my bed with the electric blanket on, the window opened 1/2 way, breathing in the fresh cold air, and typing away. Jay Leno is on, and soon I will be turning him off and turning on Classic King FM, and closing up the laptop and opening my book. I will read until I get sleepy, then if the electricity is still on, I will turn off the lamp and sleep until I wake up.

Hope you all are having a nice morning. Watch out for all the storms that are heading your way! They are nasty this month!

(OHMIGAWD! There is a model on TV right now wearing a 6,000,000 dollar BRA! WHY?)
That is just twisted!

Roaming...

You know you live in a small town when the airport closes because the one plane is frozen to the tarmac! This was taken from the road which is right at the end of the runway! When A plane takes off, you better duck!




Squash Barn taken from the OTHER side of the Prairie from the Cemetery that I usually shoot from. I love the contrast between the white and the red. I have been trying to get a good picture of this barn for years.




Yesterday while driving I was shooting from the car and this shows the hiway where the tree limbs had fallen on the wires, and they were about to fall on the road.




This just shows you how beautiful our island is. PUUUURRRRRTTTYYY Huh?

Most of the roads were still iced up and blocked by fallen trees and power lines. There are people up the Skagit River that STILL don't have power after 3 days. With record breaking cold weather this is really bad for them.

We are expecting an even worse storm than this one according to the CBS station in Seattle. Sposed to hit tomorrow afternoon and dump about 3-7 inches of snow, and then warm up and rain on Thursday. What this will mean for us, is that the new fallen snow will be heavy with water, and the trees will continue to fall and kill the power for even more people. Then the Ice storm and then the rain will have no where to go because the drains are all clogged with frozen solid snow! Could have more flooding on the mainland.

wonder what December will bring. Man I LOVE weather! I am a storm Junkie! AS long as I know I am safe and My family is too, then I love to sit back and watch Mother Nature do her thing.

I wanted sooo badly to sit out on the deck tonight in the 8 degree F cold and watch the stars, but the deck is as slick as snot and you know what happens when I head to the deck in November at night to look at the night sky! So I thought I would just stay in where it is semi-warm and enjoy. If you see any Northern Lights, let me know!

YES!!

Whoot! It snowed! ANd snowed some more, and then it snowed again. FOlks, this NEVER happens here. THe one time I remember it happening like this, it immediately turned to rain, and sunk a lot of marinas !



I bundled up, got in the car and put it in 4Wheel drive for only the 2nd time in 10 years, and damn near did not make it our of my drive way! THere was over 8" on top of my car, and a good 6 inches sitting on top of my snowman antenna ball!


antenna ball

The roads were pretty good once you got out of the COve and onto the hiway. The worst part was ducking all the falling tree branches and live wires. We hardly ever get any snow, and if we do it isnt often the wet gluey kind that this was. PERFECT for snowballs and snowmen and clinging to tree branches. I heard trees falling all night last night, but knew my house was safe.

THe scenery was absolutely gorgeous! looks like a fairy land out there. Tonight it has gotten down very low into the teens and all that wet snow is gonna freeze and the roads and trees are gonna be a nitemare! Poor Phyllis got called in to work at 530 this morning to drive the roads and make sure they were safe for the buses, and she didnt get home until 10pm tonight. I am sure she will have a lot on her blog once she wakes up.

I will post more pictures tomorrow, when the sun comes out, Then it should really be pretty. Everything will be closed, and people will be out sightseeing once the roads are drivable again.

THis is a major event for us here in the NW. We usually only get lots of rain. SO we are enjoying the heck out of this. I wish I was yound again,I would love to get out there and play in it!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

new

Rusty called me at 830 this morning screaming into the phone. "IT"S SNOWING!" I murfffed from under my pillow and stuck my nose over the window sill to see how much and all I saw was green.

"No it isn't;t!" I muttered, and she said yes it is LOTS of it, and big wet floppy flakes. It was not doing anything. SO she hung up and I re-buried my head for another few hours. The phone rang again at 1130, it was Phyllis, "IT"S SNOWING!" Once again I murrfed from under the pillow and stuck my nose over the window sill to see a few very tiny little flakes falling on the feeder.

OK, that means it is starting, so I got up to get dressed and get into Oak Harbor to get my insulin. By the time I was dressed the road was covered, so I said nope, not getting out in that, My Insurance lapsed on Friday, and I was going into the office tomorrow to pay it. SO I stayed home and watched it snow, and snow and snow! The birds were fighting over the suet blocks and scratching the snow off the feeders.

I saw several birds I have not noticed before, a tiny little olive bird that may be a warbler of some kind, and a Big thrush sized gray and olive bird. Huh! gotta look those up.

the big grey squirrels were Loving the snow, frolicking and running back and forth from the feeder to their trees. Lint refused to go out, said nope, No way am I getting my feet cold. Sadie ran out, hit the ice on the porch and slid right off the porch onto the grass. She was out until it started to cover the grass then she was ready to come in. Now I cant get her out to pottie at all. I have to throw her out and then slam the door really fast. Once out, she has fun, running and chasing snowballs, but she wont go out on her own. She came in looking like a snow-dog!

We have snow advisories posted until tomorrow morning, and should have another 1-4 inches by then. We have about 4" right now. SO COOL!!!! The bad part, is the weight of the snow on the branches is breaking them, and hitting the power lines and killing power in some areas. Keewee has no power, and she only lives about 20 miles down the island. We do though Thank Goodness.

I bundled up really well then took the wheelbarrow out and loaded it up with wood, and wheeled it into the garage. Then I built a roaring fire, and settled in to watch more movies. Did you know that snow storms block the signals from the satellites? I didn't until this afternoon. PAH! So I turned on classic King and listened to music all afternoon while I putzed with my Blog template.

I got reception back around 430 just in time for the local news, then the Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie. I laid down on the floor with all the animals and watched it with a box of Kleenex within reach. Good movie!

My tiny little Lopi Stove only takes two pieces of wood at a time, so I started the fire, and when it caught good I put one more piece in and the little thing GLOWED! The cats even got two warm! I only use 4 pieces of wood a day, and my house is so warm I have to open spare rooms to cool it down. Good stove, Tight house, NICE DAY!!!! And another one tomorrow. (I'm SO SORRY Dick!) :)

tis the Season!

snow


Why Do Christmas Caroles make me cry?  I have thought about this all day as I watched the Hallmark Channel Christmas marathon.  I LOVE the Christmas movies and the hokey Christmas cartoons, and the choir songs on all the movies.  I sat there with a box of Kleenex and a diet rite soda and snorfed all day long.  The Christmas carole that really gets me going is Silent Night.  It is and always has been my very favorite carole.

When I was a lot younger and a lot more sincere in my Church attendance, I would love the night services, with the Christmas lights on the altar, and on the Christmas Tree, and the really hokey lights criss-crossing the street on Pioneer way.  The town was really really small, and everyone waited until after Thanksgiving to even begin thinking about shopping or decorating their houses.

One of my favorite memories was sitting in the living room with all the lights out and just the tree lit, and listening to Christmas Caroles.  I was always in a choir, and I always had a Christmas show to sing in.  It has been many years since I have been in a choir.

Tonight there is a movie on the Hallmark channel called Silent Night, and that just brought the memory back again.  The song makes me cry.  I didn’t used to cry when I sang them, but now I do.

Maybe it is remembering my long lost childhood.  Maybe it is remembering the innocence of youth, and maybe it is just aging hormones.  I think it may be a combination of all of the above.  I do love the Christmas season.  

Happy Turkey...gobble gobble gobble

T'was The Night of Thanksgiving
(Author unknown)
Twas the night of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't sleep
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep
The leftovers beckoned - the Dark meat and white
But I fought the temptation with all of my might.

Tossing and turning with anticipation
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door
and Gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
Til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.
But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees...
Happy eating to all, pass the cranberries, please.

May your stuffing be tasty. May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes ' n gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious. May your pies take the prize.
May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.

Have a safe and Happy Holiday everyone!! FOr those of you that dont have Thanksgiving this week end, Have a safe and Happy weekend!!

Shamelessly stolen from RAIN...

I LOVE quizzes, and since Wanda stopped blogging and Leigh cut way back, I hardly ever find any any more. But today I stopped by Rain's place and she had this on her blog.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

It is funny that us out here in the pacific Northwest do not have an accent per se.
I have a tendency to flatten my A's a bit, but I have no idea where that comes from. Some of the idioms that I use, I picked up from my Mother, who was raised in Oklahoma. But she did not have an accent either. (that is either with a Hard E)!

I could tell Canadians by their eh's and some of their idioms, but for the most part they sound like us too. I was amazed when I went to Virginia and discovered that they say about like the Canadians did...A BOOT!! Course that was 35 years ago. things do change.

We had another Windstorm come through and with it more rain. We are 1/100 of an inch away from breaking the all time wettest month EVER in Washington. Yep, we are gargling here. Even Lint stops at the door and peers out carefully before he runs outside. 50MPH until about 300 then it calmed way down, but there are more storms out there waiting to be swirled in by the jet stream. I think we are in for a really wet winter. Now if it would only get cold enough to turn it all into SNOW! ah well.

IE 7 gone...

I had to restore my computer to an earlier time tonight, as everytime I tried to open a new page, it would freeze up. TOTALLY! I would have to end task, and then turn everything off and back on again. THen it would kick me off, then when I reconnected, it would freeze trying to open IE7. SO until I get my 'puter fixed, I am back on the old IE. ANd Have given up on Blogger Beta for the time being. I know it was IE7 because the same thing happens when I try it on my laptop. It freezes, and it is really slow anyway!

I get so stressed out when I cant go where I want to go to. ANd when I keep getting booted off line I SCREAM!

So for the time being so much for improvements.... PAAAHHHH!!!

Tim

I received a letter from Tim yesterday and he was talking about the work that they are doing with Dept of Natural Resources. He says that he is getting used to the saw, that at first he was worn out using it because it is so big, but he caught on quick, and found that if he left the saw to do the work, it was a lot easier. They are way up in the Hoh Rain forest, thinning trees and cleaning up roads and windfall.
Tim says he feels really funny about cutting down trees in a National forest, but the DNR tells him that it needs to be done to protect the forests. They practice replenishment thinning, in that they take out only those that are diseased or too close to each other. They have to leave 12 trees in 100 feet, and the thirteenth they can take down as long as it is as big as his helmet. (at least I think that is what he said) He said that some of those trees are so big that if they were stumps, he could lay down and stretch and still not hang over the edge, and he is 6'5 with LOOONG arms too. SO those trees have to be awesome. He is loving his work there.

He is also starting to get the classes and treatment that he has requested , so he feels so much better about things now. I sure hope this works! Being a mother is sure the shits sometimes!

Donna came home for the first time in several months! Has not been home since the floors were finished. And naturally, I had not cleaned house, so she did not get to see it in it's best light. But it still was fine. She was impressed! New floors and carpets really do help make a house look nice!

I have to crawl under the house tomorrow, if I can anyway. I have a rat as big as a horse living and gnawing under my utility room. That sucker is LOUD! SO I bought some stuff guaranteed to kill them, that I have to nail in place on their run, and away from the pets. Then I guess I have to put up with the stink of decaying rat bodies until they are fully returned to the elements. YUCK!!

I Know, If I would quit feeding the birds and squirrels, the rats would go away, but I LIKE to watch the wildlife. I was even fine with the RATS until they started chewing and making noise, then I said ENOUGH!! You would think with a house full of cats that they would not want to live anywhere around here, but they are not threatened enough I guess. HMMMMM Maybe I should throw Lint and Loki under the house, close up the crawl space entry and not feed them. That should take care of the problem huh? HMMMMMMm Here Kitty, kitty...

Beta Blogger...yes or no?

How many of you with blogger have switched over? I am afraid to after hearing Joanie talk about the problems she was having. I dont want to lose my haloscan comments, as they are easy and you dont have to sign in to use them. I have been VERY fortunate with no S*A*ing in three years! I decided tonight to try to use Beta by making a NEW Blog. Uh-uh! Wont let you unless you have a totally different email too. JEEZ!!! All I wanted was to see how easy it was to use, and if I really wanted to switch my regular blog over. ANy input appreciated here. I did however upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 and after fighting with Google over which toolbar I was gonna use, I think I am going to like it. When I run adaware I usually have upwards of 30 critical objects to delete, today I only had 9 so IE7 is catching quite a few of them.

I wish I knew someone that could come tell me which programs I can safely delete, and which ones are tied to something else. My C drive is running out of memory, it has 15 GB and only a few MB left to use! I need to repartition the drive because D has 65GB and I only use it to store work on. I thought when I bought it that they were two different drives, but obviously not. I hate being IT challenged!!

Let 'er BLOW...

The wind blew in from the South  which is highly unusual.  Normally we get our wind from the West or the North.  This Southern wind means that the Low pressure system has gone ashore below the Olympic Mountains and is moving up the Sound.  This can be a bad thing for us.  The Olympics keep the weather off of us here on Whidbey Island, by splitting the systems that hit the Southern face of the Mountains.  It sends the winds around the Eastern edge and Around the Northern Edge.  Sometimes they meet in the middle.  This is what has happened today.  The Winds from the South are fierce, but it is the winds that will soon hit from the West that will bring us the danger.  When they come around the Western side and then turn and head East into the Strait, they meet the resistance of the mountains on both sides of the strait, and the wind gets funneled through the gap between US and Canada, and increases in wind speed.  Tatoosh Island on the North Western edge of the US clocked winds of 91 MPH.  That is about 30 miles as the crow flies from my front door.  

Yep, we got hammered!  We lost our power about 230 AM on Tuesday night,, and left is in the dark.  I could hear trees and branches breaking all around me, but nothing hit the house.  The alders in the back were bent way over in the force of these winds.  I am afraid of the dark, and my night light went out too.  I grabbed one of the 25 flashlights I had beside my bed and headed in to get the candles and the lanterns.  I peeked out the front door and it was BLACK out there.  I could see the lights of Port Townsend peeking around the edge of the big white monster they built across the street, so I knew it wasn’t EVERY one.

I got the candle lit (a big apothecary candle from Yankee Candle) and put it on the bathroom sink to give me light.  Then I pulled the covers over my head and tried to sleep.  The wind was whacking pretty loudly, and it made it hard to sleep.  I kept hearing garbage cans rolling down the road.  (Garbage day was Wednesday, so all the cans were out early. )  

When I got up the power was back on, so I jumped up and made a pot of coffee, and then it went out again.  I sat at my desk and looked out the front window, and read the latest Gourmet Magazine.  All the leaves are now off the Maple tree, and the Robins have found the tiny crab apples left on that tree, They were clinging with their little feet all hooked around the branches of the tree.  They would grab a tiny apple berry in their beak, and then try to swallow it all while trying to stay up right on the tree.  The back feeders are all empty, the wind has blown all seed onto the ground, so the rats and squirrels can find it easier.  The doves are happy too, as they like to ground feed.  

I had to get out the Coleman stove and lantern, and cooked my breakfast and lunch sitting at the dining room table.  There is just something about cooking on the camp stove that makes it taste so much better.  We did not lose our pump, so water was no problem.  I built a fire in the woodstove, and turned my chair around so that it faced the fire, and tried to relax.  The Phone kept ringing.  People checking up on each other.  I have a cordless phone everywhere but in my bedroom where I have an old fashioned Princess style phone beside my bed.  

I moved into the bedroom, layed on my stomach and propped my self up on my elbows, and was doing crossword puzzles.  Then it hit me, That this is not the fun that I remembered it to be.  We used to all gather around the fireplace with lanterns and play games, Cootie, Parcheesi, Scrabble, War, Books, etc. and roast hotdogs and marshmallows.  It was exciting!  We were camping in the livingroom.  I carried this tradition on with me and when we lost power when my kids were still home, We would camp in the livingroom too.  It is not the same when you live alone.  It is boring.  It is lonely, and when you are in dire straights, or feel that you might be, you want someone there with you.  At least I do.  So at 845 I glanced over at the lantern because it was sputtering, and then I noticed that my clock was flashing…HUH?  So I got up and turned on the lights…VOILA!!  Power.  I called Phyllis and said “Please tell me the power JUST came back on…”  Nope says she, it had come on about an hour before!  ARRRGHH!!

I got up, went around and turned on the needed lights, caught the last 15 minutes of JERICO, and came in to check email.  I had used my laptop until the battery had gone out, but I still had over 68 spam mail.  

I have rambled on long enough, But I just wanted to tell everyone that yes, we are fine.  Whidbey was the worst hit, but we are fine.  I guess it made national news because a long lost cousin called.  LOLOL  What  a way to get back in touch with family!  LOL

More storms coming,  so cross your fingers that this will dump tons of snow on us!  Now THAT is fun!!!

Somebody has a BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy BIRTHDAY dear CritterChick!
Happy Birthday to you!

I was gonna put a pretty birthday cake on here, but my memory is full, or something in my RAM, and it wont let me. :( Send Carl Please!!

Everybody slip over and wish Leslie a WONDERFUL Happy Birthday!

And they still are dumping...

Last night I went to bed thinking that today would be rainy, and windy, but it was just grey and drippy. Typical NW weather. Bob came over and finally finished the flower bed, so Now I can get these bulbs in the ground before they all rot.

Tonight the rain started, and it is raining, and raining, and raining, and the rivers are starting to flood again. The wind is s'posed to start about 4AM and go all day Monday, up to 65 MPH. Then MORE rain! And then MORE wind! The ground is saturated now, and with the winds, the trees will start to blow down. Our typical Douglas fir trees and Cedar trees, do not have a deep root system, they are very shallow rooted for being as tall as they are, and they all have a symbiotic relationship with one another...In other words, they all keep each other upright. When one goes down, another one will and another until all along the road, you have downed trees and downed wires. Why they do not bury these wires I have no clue, but they just spent tons of money replacing all the poles along hiway 20 in Oak Harbor. The poles will be fairly deep, but they have been known to blow over in these winds too.

When the wires go down, the lights go off, and if it is a strong storm, there will be downed trees everywhere, so it may be DAYS before power is restored again. We all live with our camping supplies in a closet, and water jugs all filled and ready. We will be fine, just terribly inconvenienced! They have really been touting this storm, and asking us to prepare for it so it will probably fizzle!

there is 1-3 feet of snow expected in the mountains down to 3000 feet, so all the cross state roads will be closed off and on. Then the next system is warm, so it will melt all that snow, and send the water into the rivers to flood again.

this ladies and Gentlemen is what makes the Pacific NW so beautiful and green. BUT it also makes the dumb shits that come up and cut the trees down and build their mansions on the lovely little river banks cry and moan about not having flood insurance.

I like living on my island! I am up high enough that a tidal wave should not ever get to me, and the water all runs down hill, so I wont flood, and the trees are all leaning away from the house so I am safe and secure. For the time being!

Tim called me Friday night and told me to stay home again, as the Hoh river was washing out some of the road that I would be driving on. So I did, and It probab;y wont be for a few more weeks until I can afford to drive over again. As he said, "Well Mom, you know where I Am and I have 3 hots and a cot and I am not going anywhere for a while." Yep! He's right.

I built a fire in the wood stove today, to take the chill off the house, and dry it out some. I usually have Sadie sitting on the top of my chair when I am crocheting, but all three cats and Sadie, were all stretched out and as close to the fire as they dared get. They are so funny!All with in a 3X3 area rug. Can't lay on that cold floor ya know.

If you don't hear from us in awhile, do not worry! We are fine, and may be without power for a few days. We may not, depends on the Fates I guess.

Ya'll have a great week!!!

why do widows live in FLorida?

THey grow on trees there!!!!



I think I just may move to FLorida....my palm tree died!

Change of pace....

smile

I just thought I would post something fun for a change. The rain has let up for a day or two gathering strength for round 3 on Friday. SO since the sun actually shined warm on the deck, I am in a fairly good mood.

(I think I suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) )

I got this in an email from my friend Barb, and I thought why not. Most have seen it already, but I think it is cute. Rusty needs it, Donna needs it, and Brenda needs it.

uh, Lord?...What's a cubit?

I am telling you! We have had a few days of rain! I don't mean just a drizzle, it has dumped on us. The Eastern 1/2 of the state is still dry, but everything West of the Cascades is soaked and then some.

I woke up this morning after a terrible night sleep, and the sky was gray. I had been up at 400 and the moon was bright, and the stars were out. Not any more. It started raining again, and dumped water on more water. Then the sun came out and it was beautiful. The humidity was a very high 93 % and the temp was in the high 50's low 60's. Then the temp dropped like a rock when the sky cleared up, and it got chilly!

On the way in to the playhouse tonight, it started clouding up, and then as we were in having our meeting, it started hailing! BIG hail stones, then it rained like We hadn't seen in years! So hard and all while the hail fell too. Then we watched the water rise, up over the curbs in the parking lot, down the sidewalk and headed towards the basement steps where the lobby is. We grabbed kitchen towels and any kind of material we could find, and stuffed them under the door to keep it out of the lobby! Then it started thundering and lightning, and it was right over our head! We had all the weather in one day!

As I left the playhouse, and walked across the parking strip to get to my car, I stepped in a big hole all filled with hail and water, lost my shoes in the muck and fell right down on my knees. I am in the parking lot with just my socks on, trying to see how badly I am hurt, and cant find my shoes. I finally dug into the hole, and down into the mud and found them. I drove home with my shoes and socks off, and the heater on full blast on my feet. I started getting some feeling back in my frozen feet about half way home.

Coming around the OLF Field almost home, and ran smack into FOG! So yep, we had everything! Not all of the rivers have crested yet, and it is really serious flooding! Some of these rivers have never been seen this high. But then we have never seen this much rain either.

Sadie was up against the house as close as she could get and was staying dry. She was sure glad to see her mommie finally get home too!

Now on to the election returns. Just does not seem like elections without Wanda, does it? Maybe 2008...

Glub, Glub!

Washington State has been slammed with a very wet weather system. Coming straight in from Hawaii, and called the pineapple express. It is actually 4 or 5 systems all in a string, and loaded with tropical moisture. Last week when our weather was unseasonably COLD, this week it is unseasonably wet and warm.

We have had almost 7 inches of rain in 4 days. This is more than we usually have all month in November. We really needed the rain, but we need less of it, more often. Our ground dries out if it does not get rain daily, and then the rain when it does come just runs right off and into the streams and rivers, taking the topsoil with it.

right now our state is in a State of Emergency, and all of the Western side rivers are flooding in a 10 year flood rate. SOme of them are higher than they have ever been. Urban flooding is getting worse and worse every year, as more and more un settled land is built upon, and paved. THis leaves no where for the run off to go except into the streets and into the basements.

In the Mountains, we usually end up with tone of snow this time of the year, which piles up and saves all the water for the spring runoff into the reservoirs. Right now, we are losing all of this potential snow pack into the rivers and right out to sea again.

My backyard would support a flock of ducks. The birds are all hanging into the wisteria vines and the pussy willow bush, just to keep from drowning! THey run into the feeder grab a sunflower seed and run back to the bushes.

THe squirrels have found the suet feeders hanging on the deck, and they have robbed it down to the bare wire basket. The woodpeckers are still using the ones hanging off the eaves, but it wont be long until the squirrels find those too.

I am glad that I stayed home this weekend, as the rivers are all at flood stage, and I most likely would have been stranded. THe highway 101 around Crescent Lake in the Olympic National Park had a rock slide and was blocked for a day. No way around it.
THen 101 down south by Shelton had a mudslide and now it too is blocked, with a 50 mile detour around it. I will go next weekend, by then the rivers will all be full, and the roads all blocked, and another storm blowing in. Im serious!

The things Mothers do for their young!

It actually has stopped raining at this moment, but there is more expected tonight and tomorrow. Then it will clear up and the temp will drop and the snow level will drop in the passes, and we will start the cycle all over again.

As a side note, DOes anybody know what the logic is for still changing from daylight savings time back to standard? Why was it started in the first place? Let's get e referendum out there to keep it all the same now. The whole world is on a 24 hr day, and there is no need for it. It just screws up my sleep patterns, and for that alone we need to stop the MADNESS!

EVERYBODY GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!!!!!!

Rainy day...

I have done absolutely NOTHING today! I have sat at the window all day, watching the rain pelt the leaves off of the ALders. I have watched the wind blow, I have smelled the fresh air as it blows in off the sea, and I have drank a whole pot of coffee. Oh and I wrote a long email to A friend. That is the sum of my day.

THese November fall days are usually dark and stormy, and today is no exception. I was planning on catching the Ferry over to the Penninsula and going to see Tim today, but there were wind advisories out for the Strait, so I talked to him last night and told him I would not make it. I could just see getting over there and getting stuck because the ferry was not running for the return trip. It happens!

So instead, since I had no plans other than that I decided it was a rainy day and a great day to sit and watch it rain. SO I did. It rained and rained, and the 40 acre wood got wetter and wetter...

Frost on the Pumpkin...

Usually Halloween in Washington State, at least in the Puget Sound region, is a wet drizzly night. You wear your costumes, and then cover them all up with sweatshirts and coats and mittens. When we were little, we lived out in the country, so Dad would drive us in to Navy Housing in Oak Harbor, and we would go through Victory Homes and fill our pillow cases with all the candy.

Mom and Dad would stay at a friends house while we walked all over the housing area, then walk across the street to the regular civilian houses. Oak Harbor was really small back then, and we could trick or treat for several hours and walk back to the house where mom and Dad were waiting for us.

there was no checking our candy to make sure it was safe, we knew it was. There was no throwing out the homemade cookies and popcorn balls and apples because no one thought of hiding razor blades or ex-lax in them.

We wore old clothes and usually dressed like hobos, or pirates or a princess. Sometimes Mom would cut holes in an old sheet and we would be a ghost. We always wore our costumes to school, and after school we would hurry home, eat dinner fast and then go to the church for a Halloween party and then the trick or treating would begin.

Hardly any time were we rained out totally, and only a very few times was it cold enough to freeze.

This year it Froze. It froze hard! The past two nights the temps have been way below freezing, down in the low 20's F. The newscasters were talking about having to really bundle the kids up good so they would not get frostbite. It is COLD!

the nights are clear, and the stars are twinkling brightly. Yesterday morning at 630 I was up and looked out the front door in time to see the sun rise and shine it's purple/pink/mauve light onto the Olympic Mountains. It was gorgeous! The same this morning, only there was a low fog on the sound, so the fog was turning pink. The frost on the car was pink from the reflection, and the birds were all huddled on the telephone lines trying to get as much warmth out of the rays as they could.

Soon the sun had cleared the alder trees out back and the frost started dripping off the poles on the deck, and the branches of the peach tree were clear. The frosty morning was waking up. I LOVE it!!!

Fall...

adak baby

This is a picture that I took 14 years ago when I was stationed on Adak Island in the Aleutians. The Eagle pictured here is an immature eagle, probably about 2-3 years old. Eagles are to Adak, like crows are to the Mainland. EVERYWHERE. They sit on Dumpsters out side the commissary, and wait for the garbage to be thrown out. They beg. They will swoop down and steal your hamburger out of your hands! Pesky critters they are, and thriving on the island. You can tell when the salmon are running, because they sit along the banks of the streams, creeks and lakes, and pick out their breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are fascinating to watch, and I got tons of eagle pictures while I was there, just not too many in a picturesque setting.

Last night I went to bed and the wind was blowing like crazy setting off the windchimes. It increased during the night, and by day break this morning it was bending the alders over. The sun was brightly shining in the bedroom window at 730! OOOO I like that! But by the time I got up, fixed and drank a pot of coffee and was ready to head outside, the dark clouds blew in with a ferocity, and then it started to rain, then sleet, and finally hailed!

Sadie and I decided that we would sit inside and watch it hail, and finish up some of the projects I had on the agenda for this weekend. I put up 10 jars of Applesauce, and baked a double batch of Oatmeal Scotchies cookies, with choc chips too. Then I stuck the picnic shoulder in the oven and cleaned up the kitchen.

Fall makes me want to be a homebody! I want to bake, I want to cook substantial meals, I want to have a fire in the wood stove, I want to prepare for winter. I should have been born in a previous century, as I LOVE to camp and read by lamp light. Not good for your eyes though.

This afternoon Suzie had three of her babies to the feeders. She was trying to get the suet feeder and everytime she tried, one of the babies would jump on her and try to get to her titties. She has weaned them, but I think this one must be a boy. You know how males are fixated to boobs! I took all the apple peelings and cores out to the feeders and they LOVE it! There was a lot, so I put most of them into the compost garden, and followed them with the tomato stalks, after I got all the green ones off for chutney!

Tonight's dinner is baby red potatoes roasted with the picnic shoulder, gravy and cornbread, with a side dollop of cranberry applesauce. Any takers?

YAWN.....

fall

Our first real storm of the fall blew through this week. Monday and Tuesday were dark and wet, and today was windy and wet. These are the types of days that I LOVE. I love the wind, I love the rain, I love watching the birds at the feeders, I LOVE listening to the wind chimes in the storms. I sit on my bed with my elbow on the windowsill, watching the critters at the feeders. ANd smelling the fresh wind and rain. The smell of the first fresh wind and rain of the fall is so intoxicating. It makes you sleepy. it relaxes you.

It also gives you wheezy lungs! I sleep with my head hanging out the window every night of the year, and I woke up this morning with a heavy weight on my chest. What woke me up first though was the noise I was making as I was breathing. Not snoring, just wheezing. I sat up and coughed up green cottage cheesey stuff, so I figures it was time for a Zyrtec. Have not had to take any in several months, but I did today. Man they work great, but they just flat ass knock me OUT! I slept most of today, and I will most of tonight too. I just know it.

The autumn leaves have been turning brighter colors than usual this year, brighter reds, oranges, yellows. It is like they are saying "enjoy the colors while you can, because Mama Nature is gonna dump on you this winter". We shall see.

I do know that we are in a cycle of really good weather. Last winter was record snows in the mountains, and this early spring we had tons of rain, and this summer it was the driest on record, and they are predicting drier and warmer winter for us.

I personally would love to see a lot of snow fallowed by a week of cold crisp clear weather, then more snow, then more clear weather. Then rain, to clear it all off and then start all over again. But Mama does not listen to me at all.

The grey squirrels are hitting the feeders several times a day now, and the woodpeckers and chickadees have gone through 3 suet blocks in a few days! I even have two Stellar Jays that are appearing at the feeders, and they are rare up this far on the island. THey are all over the south end though.

It feels good to not have to go anywhere for a few days. I can just hunker in, turn up the electric blanket and hibernate. I LOVE fall.

An Apple a day...

Tomorrow, among the other things that I should be doing, I need to make applesauce. My dear darling most beloved daughter LOVES her Mom's applesauce, and I am out. SO I mentioned getting apples, and Judy my new friend from the light booth, brought me in two bags of them. They are really small apples, but My bloodsugar was crashing last night and I needed to grab something quick, so I grabbed one of those red apples and bit into it! It was the SWEETEST, JUICIEST, CRUNCHIEST apple! SO I had two, and a glass of milk. Brought the glucose back to the staying alive levels.

There are green ones in there too, so I will have to see how they cook up. I make spicy applesauce with cloves, and cinnamon, and whole cranberries. YUMMY. I do not puree the apples either, just leave them really chunky. Basically I peel, core and slice them all at one time with the magic little machine I have, then dump them into the pot, cover with water until they are tender and then drain and stir really well with the sugar and spices.

I Love to can! I don't know why, it must be that feeling of pure accomplishment that comes with putting something in a jar and on the shelf and having it sit there for the rest of the year. I made a ton of pickles one year, and had to give them all away when I moved!

Today was another jewel in our crown of gorgeous days stuck in the middle of autumn!
It was not hot, just warmish, and the fog lifted about noon so the grass dried out enough to run the lawn mower over it so Sadie has a place to pee. Tomorrow if it doesn't rain, I need to get the rest of the back yard done, and save the apples for a rainy day chore.

Know anybody close that has an over abundance of apples? I'm looking!

Another one in the bag...

We struck OUR TOWN tonight. Easy set to strike! We only had the five back flats and 3 side flats to remove. We had minimal scenery and props, so I vaccumed the balcony where Me and Judy spent our time with the show, and straightened it up for the next show, and then I cleared off the bulletin board and boogied. My back was in such pain again. I seriously think it was from that nasty old chair I had to sit on for 6 shows.

Last night I almost had a heart attack because Fil who was playing the Stage Manager, jumped a few pages in the 2nd act and started right in on the soda fountain scene, meanwhile everyone else was cued in for the breakfast scene. SOme how he pulled it out and we went right on as if nothing had happened. THen He skipped the most important part of the play, in the 3rd act where he is expalining how the dead people are waiting for something eternal. Just jumped right over it, and into the next scene. We made it though. THestage helpers put the soda fountain in the wrong place totally out of the light I aimed on it. SO I am putzing through the light board finding lights that put the two actors in good light. I did it, but it was an obvious goof!

THat is one of the things that is fun about COmmunity THeater, We are all volunteers, and no one gets paid any money. So we have to learn to laugh at the boo-boos.

We closed it down with a great show tonight, only one or two minor goofs, and a great audience. That is what makes it all worth while, the audience! Last night I swear the 37 or so people that did not go to the last home football game of the season all fell asleep during the show. THey were DEAD DULL!

I am going to sleep in tomorrow. I am wound up right now, and probably will not go to bed until 3 or 4. I have to try and figure out what is wrong that my computer does not recognize my dvr drive! I need to copy 20 cd's full of cast pictures and I can not get it to copy at all. Says the F drive is not accessible!! arrrghhh. Like I said before, I know just enough about computers to know that I dont know enough! I am sure it is a simple fix. I think I will just bite the bullet and call the Computer Clinic and have John come out and take off what I dont need, and re partition my hard drive, and install a new modem and optimize it. THen I can save money for the next two or three yearil I have enough to by a new one!

Next show is FOREVER PLAID, in June, so I will have a few months off. Have to read quite a few plays for the season committee for next year. SO I will be here and there, and if you need me, I am at dreamer (at) galaxynet (dot) com and of course posting on here when I can.

HAve a great Sunday everyone.

Raining cats and dogs...

cd

One of the things that most people think about when talking about Washington state is the rain. We have Rain forests, where the rain falls equal more than 150" a year. We never use umbrellas, They just get blown inside out in the wind. We always know exactly where our sunglasses are, because when the sun DOES break through, it is blinding.

We have been so very fortunate, (or not) to have just gone through the driest summer on record. We had very little rain from May through Sept. However it is now October, and man do we have RAIN! It has not stopped in a week! It has rained and rained. We need it though. Our reservoirs are very low. We also need the snow pack in the mountains to keep those reservoirs and lakes full during the next dry spell.

I was very worried about the critters being able to get enough water, as there are no creeks, puddles or lakes around here, just the sound, and it is salt water. SO all summer long, I have kept the birdbaths full. I have tow of them with a board between the two for the squirrels to perch on. Now the bird baths are overflowing, so I guess I need not worry any more.

this morning I heard the very distinctive EEK, EEK, chu chu chu EEK, coming from the alders, which means that the grey squirrels were heading down from the canopy. They are a very social animal, unlike Lola, the Douglas Squirrels, who are very territorial. The grey ones made their way in a train like fashion, down the trees, along the fence top and up into the feeders. 2 young ones and an older one. The young ones are skitterish yet, but the older one knows that when the door knob turns, it means Sadie is loose, so she yells, and runs, and the little ones run up a tree and hide. Sadie was sitting in the window just quivering at them. Tough!

the rain has not curtailed the critters, in fact if anything, they have increased. Maybe they know something we don't. Maybe We ought to take heed and store up for the coming winter. Sposed to be warm and wet, but the way these guys are scarfing it all down, I'm putting my money on COLD and dry! Well maybe...

Technology...

I bought a new printer last month. An HP photosmart 3150, and it is an all in one, scanner, copier, printer. It really is nice, the printing is crisp and the photos are really sharp. BUT the stupid thing SUCKS down a color cartridge in 1 day!! I printed out 36 pictures 3X5 and it is almost 3/4 gone! It was brand new yesterday! My Photoshop 1000 was great too, but I could print forever with one cartridge. COst me 59.00 a shot but It would last. THese are teeny tiny little things, and only cost 21.00 but if it only prints 36-40 pictures, it aint worth it! My other one had over 20,000 pages through it, and the rollers were getting worn out. I had to push the paper into it to get it going. Still works though, may go back to it.

I notice that blogger is really pushing its new version of beta blogger. Has anyone out there tried it? I read it all, and they said if you convert, you cant go back, and I am not sure it will take haloscan. I like my haloscan, I like Blogger, and if they would just get the one they have to work correctly all the time, and take jpeg files like FTP, then it would be perfect! ah well. Let me know what you think if you have tried it.

I stayed in bed until almost noon today. I went to bed early last night, and could not sleep, so I laid there and read, laying on my stomach. My back did not hurt as long as I did not move. I finally fell asleep around 330 AM. Bob said he came in at 845 and Sadie and I were both snoring so loud, that he didnt want to wake us up. Turd did not even make a pot of coffee for me either!

He finally has his stove in and working, but now he is trying to figure out how to build the fires for the different jobs he needs it to do. Cook, heat soup, warm the house, bake biscuits, use the wok, etc. So since he is working with this new toy, I will probably not see him for the rest of the winter. He is worse than Rube Goldberg! comes in handy at times though.

Well the trash is at the road, for the first time in three weeks, (I keep forgetting), the floors are swept, the rugs are vaccumed, The kitchen is fairly clean, SO tomorrow I can do fun stuff. I took on the responsibility of making the kids program scrapbook, so I have to put Alladin in it, then I will be done until Christmas. I still have SHerry's scrapbook to do, but it is really hard when you dont know the people. I will leave her lots of room to put in her own journaling.

I need to go see Tim, probably the weekend of the 28-29! He is on bedrest right now as He got bit by a nasty spider, and his knee is all messed up. Poor baby!

Simpler Times...

In doing the play OUR TOWN, we thought we could put it on fast and cheap, as there is very limited scenery, and all the props are imaginary. The story itself is a plain and simple story of life in a gentler time, life in a small town in upstate New Hampshire, in 1901.





It starts out with a man called THE STAGE MANAGER, walking on stage and telling us to use our imagination and see the town as it is laid out, with the drug store over here, and the bank and post office over here, and the jail and the library over here. Then he takes us down stage, and asks us to imagine the Gibbs’ house and garden with Julia Gibbs’ heliotropes giving off their strong aroma. And then Editor Webb’s house with his wife’s garden just like Julia’s but with sunflowers instead.

The factory whistle blows, and the school bell rings and the kids all run to school before the 2nd bell. The Train whistle blows to let us know that the train is on time. The milkman comes through carrying his imaginary milk bottles, and leading his imaginary horse, 17 yr old Bessie, who wants to keep stopping at the Carter’s, even though they quit taking milk.

The Town Constable does his early morning walk through town, and his late night walk to assure all is well, the Newsboy delivers his imaginary papers, and the Doc delivers twins across the imaginary tracks to an imaginary family in Polish town.




THE costumes are real, the people are real, and before the 1st act is even underway, your mind has taken you there, and the props are all real, the French toast is real, and you can smell the heliotropes and Lilacs blooming. Life was simpler then, There was no Television, no electricity, no telephones, very very few fords, and lots and lots of LIFE!

I sit in the light booth every night running the light cues, while Judy runs all of the Sound cues. We bring that town to life. So much so in fact, that I really put myself right into the story. I start thinking back to when Life was so much simpler for me. Back when I played outside every day, rain or shine. We would play red light green light, until way after dark; we would play Simon Says, Red Rover, Red Rover send Sally right Over, and we would ride our bikes until the tires wore out!



We came in for Supper every night, and sometimes we could go back out to play, but mostly we would play games or listen to the radio until 8:00 which was bedtime. I am not going to tell you that we woke up every morning to a home cooked breakfast, not with our Mother! We would get our own cereal and get our selves off to the bus stop, where we would wait for the school bus to stop and load both high school and grade school children in for the ride into town.

The second act is all about falling in love and marrying, and during one scene Julia and Doc Gibbs are talking and Doc remembers his wedding day, when he saw Julia for the very first time in his life. Julia said it was awful for her too. Mrs. Webb, then tells about crying while thinking about Emily getting married and what she did not know yet, and how innocent they all were, and how awful it was to put our daughters through this ritual.



Imagine, not knowing what was going to happen on your wedding night, and imagine not even KNOWING your husband! Times really have changed, as now days, most couples have actually LIVED together for a few years before they married.




When I first came to Oak Harbor, the population was under 3000, and now it is closer to 45000! We had Parks, and schools and Churches and the Farmers co-op, and a bus station, and three cafes, and an ice cream parlor. We had a jewelry store, and a pawn shop, and two groceries and not much else. Today we have the typical electronic Menu up and down the high way, with both a K-mart and a Wal-mat, a Home- Depot and 4 big box grocery stores. Not to mention all the strip malls and businesses, and car lots! Times really have changed, and not always for the better.

I liked living in a small town where everyone knew everyone, and looked out for each other. There was not much in the way of crime, a few drunks and the local bad boys, that’s it.

The play ends in the Cemetery where life is chronicled on the tombstones, and the Dead all help each other cope with the newness of being no longer alive, and watching their loved ones grieve over them. They have no emotions, and look at the stars and wonder at the beauty of them. No more sorrow, no more joy, just stars. And memories.

You all need to see it!