What I Am Missing . . .

Oh, the beauty of a New York winter!  The quiet that you hear (or not hear) after a new snow, when there is very little going on outside.  The snow sparkling at night under moon glow in dark blue sky!  I love the way the powder snow absorbs all the stray sounds.

 This photo was taken at the golf course near where we lived for over 30 years.  A fun place to go sledding or tubing or tobogganing; fast and furious!  I remember the wind!!!

And I remember this!  Up in the morning, bundle up, shovel out the car, back in to shower after sweating under all those layers, dressed and out the door for the fun drive into work.  Ah, sweet memories!

Back in the late 70s I worked in the building on the right in this picture.  (All of these pictures were taken during the recent snowstorm in the Northeast.  Thank you to Bryan for sending the links!)

Oh yes.  I remember taking the bus in this weather too.  Sometimes on the morning commute, the bus hadn't heated up inside yet.  Sigh.  How I miss that.

It's not easy, but someone has to do it.  I'll just have to be satisfied looking at photos and living vicariously via my friends and family up North.  Enjoy that magical, sparkling snow!  OK, so go ahead and make a snowman in my image and fire some snowballs at me.  I can take it.  As I was saying to Russ as we were chatting this morning, the only shovel I want is a small one for scooping beach sand.

B-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!!!

Can you believe it???!!!

Well, not exactly. On my way back from doing a little shopping at Publix tonight, I noticed that the temperature on the Rabbit was registering around 50 degrees! And when I stopped at the light, I did notice a little smoke coming out of the tail pipe...

I broke down: Put flannel sheets on the bed on Sunday. Actually have my heat on now. I still think it's funny to see people every now and then, with gloves and a scarf on.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Another Universe. I was thinking back to St. Patrick's Day 2007 up in Albany.
This was my Jeep parked in the neighbor's driveway. They were in Florida for the month of March and said I could park in their driveway to get it off the street. I had gotten up early to shovel it out from it's parking space in the street and parked it there while I went in and showered. It was Saturday and my last shift as a part time teller before moving to full time in the operations center.

This was the view from the front porch of my apartment.

This is the view from the front porch of my apartment here in St. Pete. Hmmmm? That's my Rabbit parked there. No need to shovel it out. The thermostat read 84 degrees while I was on my 5 minute drive home from work.

To celebrate St Paddy I thought I would have some Pistachio Paste on some Brick Oven Italian Toast. OK, so it's from Mazzaro's and it's Italian. It's green, isn't it?

Here's a pic I just snapped in the back of my apartment building in the alley. I wish this weather would last. You know I'll be complaining come July.

Charlie Chaplan The Bank Teller

This week at Grow Financial has been designated as "Smile Week". Each day has a different theme. Today was dress like your favorite celebrity or famous person. Well, we got this good deal on bowler hats, so we all dressed as Charlie Chaplin. As I was getting ready to go to work, I thought for a split second, "should I shave my moustache to look like Charlie's?" Nah! Most of my co-workers (all females) used eye brow pencil to paint on a moustache. It was a fun day. Almost all of the members did end up smiling! One even said..."Why are you all dressed up as Charlie Chan?" Duh!

Tomorrow is "Green Acres Day" I'm trying to find some wheat grass to chew on.

On another note: on my way home I passed a house with the front door open. It was interesting to see the lighted tree thru the screen door, and the ceiling fan on. Reminded me of others not so fortunate. So Here's a shout out to my brothers freezing their butts off up in Albany.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

ANSWER: It was taken TODAY!

And we're being told to brace ourselves for a Nor'easter. Oh, joy! Oh, rapture! And yesterday was a nice sunny, pleasant day!

I finally took a good portion of yesterday to clean my apartment. Not that it was dirty, I mean how dirty can it get in a couple months? Only kidding. But I dusted and vacuumed. I guess many experts say to dust first (brush the crap to the floor) and then vacuum. My grandmother's words echoed in my brain, however. She was a firm believer in "Dust last because vacuuming raises dust." This was from a woman who every week had every piece of furniture moved out of place to dust and vacuum behind it. I remember seeing her end table lamps moved to the dining room table while she tackled the living room. I didn't do that good a job, but I think I'm good now until October.

Just as I was finishing up and about to take a shower, my friend Y-OH-Y called me to see if I had plans for the evening. I had mentioned to him a short while ago that Lisa Lampanelli would be coming to the Palace and tonight was the night! So we decided to take a trip to the box office to see about tickets and seating. Online told us that 2 seats together would be way at the top of the balcony, or near the back of the orchestra seating. We ended up getting 2 single seats, one behind the other, orchestra right, rows GG and A. Nice seats! Close, but far enough back so as not to be in her target range!

She came out with both barrels smokin'! Pow! Pow! Pow! She spared no one within her sights and some not within her sights....(those in the balcony). I won't attempt to review the show; I'll leave that to Y-OH-Y's expertise. She's not known as the Queen of Mean for nothing! I don't think I laughed much and so loud at a live show! It was nice to relax after my fourth week back to full time work. I guess I'll save that for another post.

Well, I'm going to go dig out my boots again.

Happy Easter! or is it Merry Christmas?

When I opened my front door to get my newspaper I thought maybe I was dreaming of a white Christmas!

I'm going to brunch this morning with some friends and then to my brother's and sister-in-law's (I know, I think it's supposed to be sister's-in-law!) for dinner this afternoon. I'm bringing this dish of dark chocolate covered strawberries, yogurt covered blueberries and dark chocolate espresso covered hazelnuts. I'm a regular Marcus Stewart! Thank you Target!

Have a Happy Easter and a Happy Spring!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I had to start with a greeting of Erin Go Braugh! When I was in the sixth grade, our class put on a St. Patrick's Day play with Miss Becker's second grade class. I played McNamara and wore a plaid vest sort of like the one in the above illustration. I paraded around the auditorium/gymnasium, leading a rag tag band of second graders. (Should I add that I probably wasn't much taller than they were?) And, I got to dance the Irish jig with the washer woman!



Because of the snow storm hitting the area last night and this morning...some events were cancelled or postponed. Among them was the St. Patrick's Day parade in Albany. Of all year's, when the holiday falls on a Saturday...what a perfect time to celebrate! (Actually, for many, any time is a perfect time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!) So now we have next Saturday (and some balmy weather) to look forward to celebrate the drink fest, er St. Patrick's Day yet again. Aretha Franklin was to play at the Palace last night and that was to be rescheduled too.



Today was also my last day at my part time position at the credit union branch. I have been there for exactly one year and one week. On Monday I start a full time position in the operation's center of the same credit union. I will be going from setting my alarm clock on one morning a week to five mornings a week. WHAT was I thinking???



I had to set my alarm clock for 6:30 am this morning to allow me enough time to clean off my car and dig it out. Luckily, this storm wasn't as bad as the Valentine's Day Massacre, er Storm. Now, the joy comes in watching it melt! My next door neighbors are in Florida for the month of March, and they told me that I could park my Jeep in their driveway if I couldn't find a spot nearby on the street. Usually I can find a spot right in front, but with the street still awaiting a good clearing, I figure I'll take them up on that!



Well, I hope you enjoy your day. I'm off to eat a big bowl of Lucky Charms!

Feast, Famine, Withdrawal and More Snow

I was so happy when LOST came back with new episodes. And I was 'lost' without my weekly fix of Ugly Betty and it's great to have Betty and her posse back.





I found myself laughing out loud last night...that Claire Meade is a riot!







But now Heroes on hiatus??? What's with this? Whattaya mean I have to wait till late April???








Oh, and I'm just soooooooo happy we're slated to get more snow!

How I Spent Presidents' Day

That old cliche goes, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Well, when life gives you snow and ice and freezing cold, make a cozy habitat. I didn't want to waste the day away huddled on the couch, so I decided to make the most of an arctic situation.

Here I am in the construction phase. I'm sure glad that the sun was shining.







After it was completed, I wanted to make it warm and inviting so I decided to light some of my Yankee Candles. I figure "Jack Frost" would be the perfect fragrance and provide the ultimate in ambiance.




But then I committed a faux pas. I went to heat up some milk for hot cocoa and left the candles burning unattended. And when I returned, to my horror, this was the scene that awaited me.

So the moral of the story is: "Never leave a burning candle unattended, even in an igloo." (I have to thank my one arm neighbor for that lesson.)

Day 2: A city under, er, um, under some white stuff

This picture was taken in Cobleskill, NY at 12:45pm. See that lump in the center? That car was parked there at 8:00am that morning. Cobleskill is about 45 minutes from me and got a little over 32" of snow yesterday. We lucked out with only about 17" or thereabouts. The following pics were taken this morning when I went out to assess the damage from the wind during the night. Actually, I made out pretty well.

I didn't have much to shovel before work this morning. And speaking of work...it was freezing in the branch office today! Our hands and toes were frozen! Plus, the computer system went down for a few hours in the afternoon, and our phones were down too. They probably were suffering from hypothermia.

When I got home from work, I wasn't quite sure where to park my Jeep. My next door neighbor told me yesterday that we need to move out cars to the opposite side of the street at 8:00pm tonight. Most of the cars were still parked on this side of the street. Just to be certain, I rang his doorbell to make sure I was moving the jeep to where it should be. He said, that this happens every year and eventually all the others will get the idea. Apparently, the plows are supposed to go thru tonight and clear this side of the street. So, I moved my car to the opposite side. Shortly after I did, I heard a horn beeping. I looked out the window and saw that a car couldn't get past my car because someone had left a snowblower running in the street near my car. I hope my Jeep survives this winter! Ah, the joys of street parking.