A Holiday on Thursday.

July Fourth is one of the holidays associated with the date that didn't suffer the modern Modayization. It's falling on Thursday this year presented a problem. Three days on, a day off and then back to work for one day doesn't feel right.

And it's summer here in New England. It's in the 90's with humidity that has a assumed a physical presence.

Not good work weather.

Who am I kidding. I work in an air conditioned office. I despise the out of doors.

It's just being home and not answering to what used to be a clock, (Now a Nexus7)

What I am building up to is I took the day off. Four straight days. I like that idea. Reality bites in that I will only have one day off next week.  Karma or Ying Yang? Either way, it all comes out even in the end.

Or it doesn't.
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Everyone else on the web seems to be contributing their bitcoins about this "revelation" that the governments's information collection agencies are doing their job.

Honestly, who amongst the mob didn't think those people were doing that already? We live our lives if not accepting it, expecting it

We see it on crime shows formularies. We have been programmed to  believe the police can instantly know where we are, what we ate and our menu choice when they open their smart phones.

It's come to the point where we expect them to know if we washed our hands the last time we used the rest room
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Where I have a greater concern is the unfettered collection of personal information by blind bots run by, hold your breath, corporations.

I live my life knowing that my image is being recorded hundreds of times a week. I expect what I write here, what I say in emails, SMS, chats and even on the cell phone is being recorded somewhere.  Why am I not concerned?

I've worked for the Federal Government. The level of competency and cooperation it would take to do anything of lasting and meaningful effect with the flood of information isn't happening in the near future.

They are collecting and indexing. Some intelligence guru  has said there are numbers, names and words that should be flagged. This they will do.

So, don't worry, the Government is not watching your facebook page.

TheChive.com is. But they are not the government and trusted by many more people.
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Ginger Keyboard

Check out Ginger! http://www.gingersoftware.com/ Your #1 grammar and spell checker for social media, e-mails and more!

New Grazing Blog - Keeb Grazing

It has been a while since we added a blog to the Grazing stable of blogs. Keeb.com seems to have come up with a novel way, similar to Tumblr, to save items to a blog.

Keeb Grazing 

People always come up with a new twist.  Most blogs are running a little stale these days. This is especially so for personal blogs about blogging.

If you have been following my cancer adventures, we went into Dana Farber with me expecting the worst news based on the last visit. The oncologist walked in with a big smile on her face and said the tests were "unchanged."  That means no scan in six months, just a check up.


This is good.

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New phone..

Traded in my old EVO for a HTC ONE. 
When I went into Google Play to carry over my apt I was shocked by the number of them that have been on & off of my phone.

Some were pure crap but the core ones I used the most are now all loaded.

Everyone of them seems to need a password.  Thank the stars for Evernote & LastPass.
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________

It's not a good idea to piss off Boston.

The enormity of what was done over the last few days in Boston is starting to settle down for me. They closed the city, the greater city. I'm not saying they closed the businesses and schools,

I am saying they closed the entire freaking city. They stopped all transit, above and below ground, they closed the airports, all public, and get this, private buildings. Everyone just went inside, closed the doors and stayed put.

It's the practiced New England tradition of hunkering down.

Then they brought what appeared to be every law enforcement person from the state. There is a plan where each of the over 400 towns and cities sends in a representative crew. Our town sent five PO's four firemen and one of the town's three ambulances. Percentage-wise, that's like NYC sending something like 10,000 officers.

They searched every block in Watertown and most of Cambridge.

Imagine NYC doing that hunting for one bad guy.

It's not a good idea to piss off Boston.

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Reviews ‘n’ Tips reviewed

Through the magic of Twitter @DanielSharkov brought his blog REVIEWS ‘N” TIPS to our attention.

We want to compliment him here on the timeliness of his clearly written pieces on the joy and science of blogging.

In just a few pages he went from technical to social lists.  (We are suckers for lists.)

We were drawn with the lead article about reasons to get of social media for a few days and were hooked  with

8 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Sidebar’s Effectiveness .

If you read the Famous Grazing blogs you have an interest in the mechanics of blogging.  Mr. Sharkov’s site is worth a visit, a browse and probably a subscription.

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The Last of the Snow Just Melted.

I was looking out of the second story office window this morning and commented that there was still snow piled along the west side of the driveway.

I looked again after getting home this afternoon.  Mindlessly looking around I noticed a robin playing in the grass along the same side of the driveway. Then I noticed: No Snow!

It has been a long winter.  I hope I didn’t just jinx it.

The snow tires come off on Saturday!!!

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The Poetry of a Pompous Twit

Occasionally, when a fit hits me and I reorganize my home office; I come across long buried memorabilia.

This time is was a wire ringed notebook of poems I wrote just before leaving for my stint in the Marine Corps, during same and a few years after.

What was I thinking?  With what was I thinking, (Don’t go there!)

Who was this self-importantly bloated bit of pure pomposity?  Certainly not me… Can’t deny it.  It was handwritten in my once readable handwriting.  Dribble,  Dribble, double-Dribble.

The temptation is to burn it, or shred it first and then burn it. 

Did I? Of course not.  I put it back in its layer, like a bone, for some future archeologist to find and THEN shred and burn as they mumble to themselves, “Dribble,  Dribble, double-Dribble.”

The moral here is to never clean the office again. Who knows what might be find in this box or that?

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The Art of Asking

LiveJournal Tags: Gaiman,SpEd

In a day and a half over half a million people have watched this talk, at the TED website and on YouTube.
I am so proud of her.

The Art of Asking
Neil Gaiman
Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:59:00 GMT

Above is the beginning of Neil Gaiman’s latest blog entry.  I have great empathy for him because I am as well very proud of my wife in the good work that she does in supporting children and the families of children with special learning needs.

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View from my window - Winter Storm Nemo

Though it's hard to tell, that's a color photo taken from my studio on the 2nd floor.

That's my car.

That's a tree bent over with heavy snow in front of my car.

When the snow melts; sometimes the trees bounce back.

Sometimes they don't.
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While we still have power…

So far this well touted blizzard has been very well mannered.  Two PM was its scheduled time.

I find seeing questions on the various weather related sites as to the “scheduled” time for this natural phenomenon to arrive.

We are so attuned to seeing the world through the eyes of one lens or another, and there are SO many more lenses out there of late, that we have come to see the world as a scheduled event. 

The close-by passage of an asteroid in the very near future is being posted with the times it will be visible with hand held magnification.

It takes away a little of the wonder, a little of the mystery of the world. Consider the mythology that would be written if our less electronically connected ancestors looked up and saw a rock flying really close to the earth. Now our reference point is it will pass inside not only the orbit of the moon but inside the orbit of communications satellites.

The glad tidings reported is that it isn’t “scheduled” to hit either the earth, the moon, and most important, any communications satellite. And we go about our business sure in the veracity of that information.

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On this bright but very cold morning I am riding the Amtrak Acela; going south to The City.

I am meeting friends there for a exotic lunch followed by attending the performance of Fiorello at the City Center.  It is somewhat sad to go watch a musical about one of NYC's greatest mayors so soon after the death of another.

Edward I Koch &  I closely interacted twice when I lived in NYC.

We bumped into each other several times, from when he was a congressman not supporting Eugene McCarthy to the day I retired from city service but those moments weren't all that memorable for either of us.i

The first time we interacted more profoundly was in the rear of an Italian restaurant on Pleasant Avenue, an enclave surrounded by Spanish Harlem.

The second time he came to visit me with a box of cookies and to ask, paradoxically, how I was doing instead of himself.

Both of hiz honors were heroes of a sort to me. The first because Fiorella read the funnies to the children of the city on WNYC radio during a newspaper strike and the second, I will admit selfishly, for the cookies.

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Rarely does a movie disturb me

Rarely does a movie disturb me enough to warrant a comment on Belltower News.

Django did.

Christophe Waltz’s performance was worthy of praise. If only…

If only there wasn’t an amount of violence and blood that would make Sam Pekinpah blanche.

As Billy Crash, Walton Googins was worthy of praise in demonstrating a broad character repertoire going from Shane Vendrell to Boyd Crowder to Wells Hutchins in Lincoln to this castrating character.

The scene with the glowing Bowie knife was another stretch taken by Tarantino. I said if he does that, I’m leaving.  I don’t know what kept me in the theater. 

The fascination of watching the scene of a horrible disaster, I suppose.
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Going back through my OhLife.com entries for the past few years I found that I have had an upper respiratory malfunction of some sort every year around this time. This year is no different. Well, it is in that it's a weird kind of cough only and only once and a while kind of thing.  I don't recall having something like this before.

My son has the exact same thing. We seem to have both caught it from the same source.  Another wonderful   holiday tradition!
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This is the first Christmas in many years where the family didn't come to our house. Instead, we are gathered in Maine, along the rocky coast thereof. It is currently a balmy 29 degrees F.

Our friends from Sydney send us photos of the visits to the beach, suffering scalding sunburns and having Christmas dinner dressed for a luau.

Our friends in Westchester complain or rejoice about the coming snow.

The pjs have been exchanged and it is off to nyquil induced sugar-plum land we go.

We'll always have Cuenca!

Merry Christmas.
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Done

It's always the little stocking stuffers that give me the hardest time.  We finished with gathering them just now.

After a moments relaxation, it's on to the wrapping!
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Following the Patriots-Texans Game on Google

Without having to explain why, just understand I have to follow each Patriots game on Google before we can watch it on TiVo.

I am listening to Dean Martin singing Ain’t That a Kick in the Head? on Pandora at the same time. 

If you know the score at this time, 2333, you would see how this is the most ironic song I could be hearing right now.

Two minute warning!  It looks like we have a chance to win…

No. Wait. The Texans scored? Nail biter?

Not yet…

Nope! Now we can watch it.  Wait… where did everyone go?

Oh, to bed.

There’s always tomorrow.

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#Blogchat

A hashtag on twitter is an indexing tool that allows users who don’t normally follow each other to open a discussion, add to a poll, or just add to the graffiti/noise. Don’t get me wrong here. Graffiti can be art and noise can be music when mindfully created and presented.

Paper.li is promoting the ongoing hashtag #Blogchat on twitter this month. They’ve broken the topics down starting each Sunday. The one beginning this Sunday  is” Email + Blogging – This is always a fun topic, we’ll explore ways that email can help us grow our blogs.”

The one thing this hashtag has done is inspire us to take a poke at setting up a Paper.li newsletter.  We did that at Belltowernews Daily.

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Skipped September??

When I just posted the semi-rant on Apple support, I noticed in the left hand column that there were no entries in Belltowernews.com for the month of September, in 2012. 

Wow!

It has been a long time since I have not at least made one blog entry in an entire month.  I’ll try to be better.

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After Two Hours with Apple Support

I am inclined to through the one MAC computer we have in the house in the trash can. 

They instructed me to download this, and then that because I needed that installed before this would work.

Then this said I needed this other that before this would work.  Finally I went to chat support.

They asked me a zillion questions and finally said, oh, you have THAT mac.  You have to buy an entirely new machine for this and that to work. GAHHHHHH!  No where did it say anything about what machine or other would support this and than, only I couldn’t get this to work without that, but once I had that, then this would work.

All of the above was just to get the bleeping iCloud to work. A posh on iCloud.  I’m sticking with SkyDrive.

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I think they should change the day after Thanksgiving from Black Friday to You're Welcome Day to honor all of the caregivers out there.

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Happy Birthday

I was on the road and was unable to wish the United States Marine Corps a happy birthday.  We take the birthday very seriously.

Semper Fi.
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Windows Live Writer Updates

The good news is it didn’t loose the previous settings.  It did unpin the icon from my Windows 7 screen but I can live with that.

And while we’re up here, we would like to remind you to change your Amazon password.

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__________________________________________________________________________

Very Distracting, This Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 has pretty much parked my Google Fire on my nightstand. 
Except for work related activity; it's pretty much replaced my laptop as well.

We will be ensconced at our summer retreat in Maine next week. I intend only to bring my Nexus 7 & no other technologies.
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It arrived.

Windsor Locks gave up the goods. At 1745 the UPS man came up the pathway with a small box in his hand and a tired beaten look on his face. I wouldn't want to be driving in those open dark brown trucks in the over 90 °F. weather we've been suffering the past few days.

This is being written with my new toy.
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Windsor Locks, CT.

It’s a town near I-91 between Hartford and Springfield.  I have probably driven though it on the Interstate no less than a hundred times, maybe a lot more.  I never noticed it.  Never needed to.  Now UPS tells me my Nexus 7 is sitting in their depot there.  All of a sudden I have noticed Windsor Locks, CT.

Are they waiting for the canal boat?   It’s about 4 hours from my house.

Just saying…

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__________________________________________________________________________

An Awkward Fourth

Now that most holidays have been cornered on Mondays having a “You must take the day off” holiday on Wednesday is a tad confusing. Not confusing as to whether or not to take off on that day, but to which weekend it should be associated.

The previous weekend, which started in June, was called the “July 4th Weekend” by many in the media.  But now, the day before Independence Day, the same media is referring to next weekend as “July 4th Weekend”.

As I think of it, perhaps having a holiday on a Wednesday is not that bad an idea after all.  Instead of one, you get two weekends.

But…

That means you have to take Monday and Friday off.  Which leaves your work days as Tuesday and Thursday… Oh, dear…

Happy Independence Day!!

LiveJournal Tags: Holiday

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A Few Thoughts About Facebook

Time stamping expressions of good will.  I just sent Anniversary and Birthday wishes to my two sisters on Facebook
. 
One, I know has a page but never looks at it. The other may have one but hasn't invited me to it and her married name brings up way too many choices.

But, I did express positive emotions about this day in their general direction.  And it's dated and time-stamped to show I was thinking about them.

As a person who generally avoids the company of human beings, this is such a  happy medium. It beats the mail, the telephone and even email in general.

It's a can of spray paint on the digital wall.  If you happen to walk by and see these nice things about you it should make you smile.  If you missed it, you may
hear about it from a friend.  If you don't at least the positive thought is out there enriching the galactic dharma.

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_________________________________________________________________________

Back to Opera.

This jumping back and forth from Chrome to Opera is making me a little dizzy.

We're back to Opera now that the version 12 has become stable. It's much faster than Chrome and the screen UI is much more intuitive

The more important thing is Scribefire is now working again. It wasn't for a while.

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On Which One Does it Have a Greater Effect?

It is of course monumental to the HS Senior, the last June of his Secondary education. But is it more so to their parents?  In this culture to advance to adulthood really starts when one leaves High School, whether by graduation or quitting.

My three brothers all left early, each for their own reason. It is without doubt their adult lives began at that moment,  They needed to find work or go into the military.  One even started his family upon leaving.  I stuck it out and finished before going into the military.  I know I, and am pretty sure my brothers, didn’t think for a moment how our leaving school mattered at all to our parents. They were done parenting us.  Very done.

That was 43 years ago. Things have changed.  Though we’ll be attending a graduation in two weeks, or so, I don’t feel there will be that abrupt disengagement.  No “Thanks for all the fish” song.  But still, there will be the change.

Neil Gaiman’s recent speech was to a college audience.  I think this recording of it should be mandatory viewing for all High School graduates as well.

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Saw Two Movies This Holiday Weekend

The first movie was a second choice made due to a full theater.

We walked in intending to see Men in Black 3, MIB3, but they were sold out.

Instead we chose to see J. Depp in Dark Shadows. It was a movie very loosely based on an awful television show I am old enough to have watched in its virgin state. That was a strike against it going in.

Going out, I was very happy. It was a fun movie with enough humor and surprise to qualify as entertainment. The egg shell skin and the animated home decorations were worth seeing alone.

We reserved seats today to see MIB3 – IMAX with 3D.

This sequel to a movie was really no more than a very good ScyFi quality television show enhanced, thankfully not distracted by, 3D-IMAX.

As with all sequels a comparison with the predecessors must be made. Will Smith was, well, Will Smith. He seemed along for the ride. Josh Brolin was just about brilliant playing Tommy Lee Jones.

We love Emma Thompson. She was wasted in what was somewhere between a cameo and a walk-on.

Perhaps here, as in the most recent JB movies, they were trying to show a strong woman can run such an agency.

Alice Eve, the woman playing the younger Emma Thompson, in comparison to Brolin’s homage to Jones, though born in London, appeared to be faking a British accent. It didn’t work.

The gem was Michael Stuhlbarg as Griffin.

The gem in Dark Shadows was, as he usually is, Jackie Earle Haley

Before this becomes too much of a spoiler, one last thing. Don't wait through the credits for either movie. No surprises.

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Yesterday’s Visit to Dana Farber

Just a quick note:

We went in for our scheduled consultation with my oncologist at Dana Farber yesterday. 

“See you in six months.” was what she said.

We liked that.

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Tomorrow is Evacuation Day!!!

Aren’t you all excited about Evacuation Day in Boston tomorrow?  Well, it really isn’t tomorrow, it’s really Tuesday but Monday’s are a much easier day to holiday and run a marathon. No! Wait, that’s Patriot’s Day.  No! Wait again.  That’s Marathon Monday. Jeeze Loo Ease!

Evacuation Day is really a disguised St. Patrick’s Day.  Though it is the day the British left Boston, rather causally in 1776 when they woke up finding a whole bunch of canons from New York pointing at them from Dorchester. It was not an official day off until 1938 when the then Celtically dominated General Court was looking for a way to get the day off. (Don’t get me started about June 17th.)

What this generally means for us common folk is I-495 will be a mess for the morning commute and I-95 for the afternoon.  Forget about I-90 from 495 to Boston for most of the day.  Come to think about it, that’s normal for a Monday any way. 

In the immortal words of the late Roseanne Roseannadanna, “never mind.”
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Sprung Spring???

We were driving back from the Berkshires the other day.  When we got off the highway, I lowered the window.  After about a ten minute drive through the Southeast Massachusetts open spaces, I remarked, "Is that Spring I smell?"

After a short discussion on how the word "smell" is not grammatically correct usage, we came to the agreement that indeed, the scent of Spring was tentatively making itself known.

With such a wimp of a Winter, there was the fear that Spring itself would be rather brown.  With very little, meaning no, snowmelt or flooding, a drought is feared.

The good news is the lakes and reservoirs appear to be cresting full, but for how long?  Stay tuned...

This too will pass.
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Don’t Forget The Batteries!

When we fall back an hour tonight, don’t forget to change the batteries in you smoke detectors!

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Ping.FM Post

We're trying to get Ping.fm and Windows LiveWriter to work together. So far, not so good.
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We’re attempting to post to Tumblr using Windows LiveWriter

The Cross Pollinate add on is supposed to allow us to post blog entries to Tumblr using Windows Live Writer. 

We did some searching and the solution seems to be to use that add-on with Ping.fm

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Book Reviews

The Charlestown Connection by Tom MacDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whenever I hear an author interviewed on NPR, I, with few exceptions, open up my Kindle Fire and download the book. I would say NPR is batting around 600. Not bad in Major League Baseball, even better in minor league book review.

Tom MacDonald seemed to be the real thing, a local who wrote about his own streets, his own people. I live and work not far from these same streets so my interest was certainly captured. In fact we recently had visitors from Australia who rented a house boat in the same harbor where some of the action takes place.

While reading The Charelestown Connection, it can be said Mr. MacDonald knows his streets and the people who occupy them. Each of his characters are well represented by his writing. From the IRA to displaced Native Americans to the FBI, he has created an interesting crew.

Then there is the plot. Far fetched is being kind.

Not to be a spoiler I won't go into at all. Suspend disbelief, enjoy the writing and hope Mr. MacDonald can find a more grounded and fulsome plot for his antagonist and the surrounding supporting players in his hopefully soon to be published second novel.

View all my reviews

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am going though a bit of Harry Dresden withdrawal. John Taylor the primary character in The Bride Wore Black Leather is not Harry Dresden, but he does fill the gap a bit. I read this book on the chance that it may have something of the irk found in the Dresden books.

I was right in many ways and wrong about the equal number.

This volume is the latest in a series that goes back several years. When I finished it, I looked up the series and am currently half way through the first book. That says something about the author's quality.

Nightside, the part of London where most of the action is set, reminds me a bit too much of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. That was published in September of 2003. The first Nightside book, Something From the Nightside, was published in May of the same year. So, both of these very entertaining authors, both English, were inspired by something permeating from London in 2003.

Gaiman's Neverwhere is much more subtle in a well made horror story way, while Mr. Green's Nightside is set in a lively, no holds barred, whatever I can fit in here fits, let's twist the plot till is screams, because the plot is probably alive, kind of place. Very entertaining.

Before you read The Bride Wore Black Leather, I suggest you go back to Something From the Nightside and start there.

View all my reviews

Brave Companions by David McCullough
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Let me begin with expressing my unbridled respect for David McCullough.

If I haven't read everything this man has written, it wasn't for the lack of trying. He made the building of the Brooklyn Bridge one of the most fascination moments in American History. Because of all this pre-established respect and admiration; my disappointment with Brave Companions is very hard to express.

I thought it must be me, my mood, the weather, the tinnitus, anything but David's writing. I read it twice, then downloaded the Audible.com copy and listened to the man himself, a narrator's narrator, read his own work.

Eh!

That was my overall reaction. I felt as if this was all written just to write something. This is a similar experience to when I read Vidal's 1876. I loved his Burr and Lincoln but 1876 seemed to me to have been written just get out another Vidal version of America history.

Don't get me wrong about the writing. It is of McCullough's quality, well done and well researched. I don't doubt for a moment the veracity of every word.

I just don't care.

I need to be grabbed by at least one character, one event, one conclusion either historical or philosophical. I grasped here and there and nothing pulled me in.

All in all, I can't say this is a good read. I am so very sorry to say that.

View all my reviews

They’re Back

The family has been away for almost a week.  I had to stay back to work.

How do did I know things were wrong?  I forgot both of my cell phones yesterday. Can you imagine going though an entire work day without a phone.  I have a landlines phone.  I don’t recall the last time I picked it up.  Everyone seems to talk to everyone else via either cell, text or whatever newly developed method of communication there is out there.

When will the phones we still have hardwired to the wall go the the way of the box crank-phone  with the separate earpiece hanging on the wall? 

Before we have small devices with atom sized transistors embedded into our developing skull bones before birth?

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Why Do Microsoft Updates Require a Reboot but…

With very few exceptions every update for today’s software seems to be done in the background and quietly.  Why is it then Microsoft, the company in my case that built the bloody OS, with very few exceptions, requires a reboot whenever their software is updated?

Is this backwards DOS compatibility, (if that exists.  It does sound good, though)

This would go unnoticed if I didn’t spend so much time now interaction with my three Android based devices, an EVO 4G, a Droid X2 and Kindle Fire.

Except for the memory card self destruction on my EVO on  a regular basis; each of these devices seem to know when to update and how to do it without getting in my way.

Take heed MS.  You’re not the only kid on the block by a long shot. Think buggy whip and journalist…

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Treated Myself to Sushi!

This was a day that was expected to go one way.  Of course, as most expected days go, it went on its own way with little regard.

I won’t say it went bad. I won’t say it went good.  It pretty much went in a neutral way.  I didn’t shine or stink.  But it isn’t over.  This day is going to take three days, two more, to feel done.  Perhaps that explains the neutral feeling.  When the race hasn’t finished running, no matter what the odds, you can say the results for certain.

I’ll try not to be so obtuse about this in the future.  If you know me at all, you know the odds of that are very slim.

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with the cancer.

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SGTRET.NET

Besides having many of the Famous Grazing domain names; in the early years of domain registration we also picked up the sgtret domains Sgtret.com has always defaulted to the JDK Communications of New England (Special Education Consulting) web page. 

Sgtret.org was parked at GoDaddy.com.

Not being pleased with the behavior of some of GoDaddy’s owners, we left it there to rot, pretty much.  Whatever we wanted to do to the page, the hosts seemed to think rated a charge. I can understand they need to make money, but once a site is hosted they shouldn’t be nickel & dimed.

We lost sgtret.net due to neglect. We had to wait four years to get it back without paying a bloody ransom.  Now we have redirected it to the Google vanity page where we are listing the seven active Famous Grazing blogs.  We’ve totally abandoned a dozen or so.

You can still find them if you search.  The web preserves pages forever, we are told.

The question now is: do we update the Twitter and Facebook pages to reflect this?  Perhaps. 

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Could it be all of the settings were lost?

I was expecting my Windows Live Writer to have retained the setting for all of the Famous Grazing blogs.  I was wrong.  I was very wrong.  Most of the programs that we migrated from the old servers to the news ones picked right up where we left them

Not so Live Writer.  It would appear we now have go digging for URL’s and passwords.  Lord knows where we put them.

What the hey?  I have a day off.  Might as well go searching now.

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This is not a blog where I delve into politics or religion.  It is, however, a blog.

As such, this story being reported by the Huffington Post about Hamza Kasgari being sent from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia where he could be executed for the content of his tweets applies.

I haven't a clue what the man wrote. It could be entirely inane or horribly provocative.

I know too he is not a citizen of the United States where a person's right of expression are relatively free.  There are limits, as there probably should be. Hopefully where the line is crossed the punishment fits the violation.

Execution can never be the punishment to fit the crime of expressing opinions. Never.

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The Gill House is for sale

A little over 18 years ago we moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to a New England town of approximately 15,000 people.

Today the town, with almost the exact same square miles as Manhattan Island, has grown to just over 27,000.

There are many many wonderful things here: a State park and a large wilderness area as well as over 4,000 acres of town controlled open space.

But then there is the Gill House. It is old.

It hasn't been touched for many years allowing it to fall into ruin. The rurination has progressed slowly over the 18 years.

First the porch roof, then the porch itself.

The roof near the chimney caved in. The entire rear collapsed soon after.

The entire structure, made of very old and very dry wood, sits only a few yards from a busy state road.

It has been a wonder to me that a stray cigarette from a passing motorist hasn't ignited it.

This morning on the way to work, I noticed a Real Estate Company's sign in front of the house.

The first thing a new owner would do is tear it down. We'll have to find something else to watch decompose as we travel to and from town.

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LiveJournal canceling?

A tweet flew by me saying the tweeter had just received notice his LiveJournal had been canceled.  He said 'what LiveJournal account. '

Earlier in the month we got a notice from LiveJournal warning inactivity would close our FamouGrazing blog on LiveJournal.  We took them seriously.  It helped when we found a LiveJournal app for Android.

It sits now next to the Blogger, SquareSpace & WordPress Apps. 

The blog lives!

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Book Review

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

A day at Dana Farber

It was today I was due for my CATT scan at Dana Farber.  If you have been following this blog for the past two years you will know I started being treated there for NH Lymphoma.

The good news is today's scan and blood test came up negative.  Negative in this case is good.

After each visit, when I get this news, it feels like a temporary reprieve from the Governor. You exhale and drop your shoulders.  It will take another three months for the shoulders to ride up again and the breath to shorten.

There is no complaint here.  Two years ago I was getting my affairs in order.  It's a good thing I've lasted this long because I  haven't finished.

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.

The New Year (Scots and Klingons)

Hogmanay is what Scots call the First Day.  And Quaaltagh means First Step.

We Scots are generally a very superstitious people. (How else can we explain...?)

It is on this day we concentrate more superstitions than apply to the rest of the year.

I grew up in a house full of ginger topped Scots.  We were forbidden by all others of our own nationality from being the first person to cross their threshold after midnight on New Years eve.

They wanted a tall dark haired man with blue eyes.  It made me feel slightly rejected.  Now that my hair is entirely white, I'll have to  research if that ban still applies.

Knowing how long we Scots remember things, I am sure it still does.

Happy New Year!

-30-

Boxing Day

For our traditional Boxing Day Chinese dinner we all went to China Rose in Brunswick, ME. 

The last time we were there in late Summer the food had gone from mediocre to barely edible. We stopped going.

When we read in the local paper it was under new management we thought we'd give it another go.

We're sorry we did.  This time the food was not even edible.  When I tore apart a conglomerate of chicken slices in black bean sauce I found the meat inside to be raw.

When I pointed this out to the waitress she laughed and took the dish away.  Leaving soon after I told the management. 

They said "raw chicken!" &  laughed some more.  In the middle of this conversation a woman came in to warn of the icy conditions in the parking lot.

He laughed again and said "No much I can do about it. "

Then I told him he just lost business from 2 regular customers. 

He frowned that.

-30-

Things change by remaining the same.

Nine years ago I met a man who I thought held a certain position.  It took me three years to discover that he didn't.  As of today, he now does.  Amazing what can happen if you wait around long enough!

-30-

Does Scibefire for Opera work?

If you're reading this on Belltowernews.com, it does.  This is a much underused blogging tool I made great use of when Chrome was my primary browser.

Now that I've started up a new laptop and, in an attempt to keep things simple, I am using opera for browsing, reading and all my email, it's good to know It can be used now to also write to the blog, a habit I would like to more than I have been of late. 

A caution here:  I just went to my Picasa online photos and was very surprised to find a copy of picture I took with my EVO.  I thought I sent the picture, which was of a document, to Evernote only.  It surprised me to no end to find it sitting there all nice and exposed in my Picasa Gallery.  The good news is it was in my not public, but how not public these files are is anybody's guess.  I need to check settings on the phone and with Evernote to see that this doesn't happen again.  Taking pictures of information for later use is too convenient for me not give it up.

-30

Talk about taking a long time!  It was my intention to make the simple modification to the template of this blog that put back up in the style we preferred.  We took a minute away from our Thanksgiving dinner, between the pile and the pie, to bring up the template and fix it.

Now I wish all of you a very happy and fulsome Thanksgiving.  Don't get trampled tomorrow.

-30-

This was a surprise.  Because I edit most of my posts outside of the online blogger interface and ignore most of my emails, the sudden, at least for me, change in the layout of this blogs page came as a bit of a shock.  I know I backed up the old template somewhere, perhaps not on this computer, perhaps somewhere in the cloud, but somewhere.  I will find it and try and reload it.  If not, I will consider two things, moving this blog to one of our servers, where most of the other Famous Grazing Blogs reside, or just trudging on and hope for a better design.

Because this blog has been sitting here for so long, it was started in May of 2004, the early days of blogging, it makes little sense to pull it from Blogger.

Standby.

-30-

Another One Down!

The anxiety waiting for the tests results at Dana Farber is alien to me.

More potent was the discovery of the extended anxiety from my family.  As a 'moment' approaches I tend to deal with it then. I was convinced early in life not to dwell on things over which we have no control.

But these tests every 90 days can feel like waiting to hear if the Governor called.  When the doctor comes into the examining room and says. "It all looks good." the weight is lifted and you feel your digestive track restarting.

Then she says, "See you in three months."

-30-

The Quick Reference Code For This Blog.

I used the QR Generator mentioned in our twitter account to create this Quick Reference (QR) code.  It links from here to Belltowernews.com.

Now that I have it, how do I use it?  I am thinking of making this my default user photo when signing up for the million or so sites that allow an avatar.

It should probably go somewhere on Belltowernews.com as well.  Let me think about it.

-30-

Sitting in a railway station...

I knew Malika vicariously in NYC in 1970.  I've known her personally, meeting again in San Francisco, since the early 80's. 

Now I am sitting in Union Station near the State Capitol in Providence waiting for her train to arrive from Virginia.

We don't have much time.  She and her daughter are going south from here to be with family while I will be going north to be with mine.

But,  we'll always have the Cheesecake Factory a block away from the train station.

-30-

Just a short comment in support of the people of Vermont.  We lived in the town of Charlotte in 1993-94.  The biggest weather burden was the blizzards.  Our house overlooked Lake Champlain.  I can honestly say, hurricanes were the last thing on our mind.

They happened off the ocean.  Vermont is inland with no thoughts of the ocean.  It's neighbor, New Hampshire, has Portsmouth, a good harbor, but the only real harbor we ever saw in Vermont was at the end of Ferry Road.

This was a left hook from nature that no one could expect.  My sympathies to all who lost their loved ones, their livelihoods and their beloved covered bridges.
-30-

Only 1200? It seems like more...

The new Blogger interface tells me we have blogged 1200 + times since Belltowernews.com opened.  It seemed more than that, but I am most likely combining all of the other shouts made to the now bottomless social media.

The editors here have a combined Twitter count of over 5000.

Had Twitter never appeared, many of those comments would've landed here.  Facebook & Google Plus are also now taking a lot of our expressive output.

The tweets are brought up in the sidebar of this blog, and the blog entries, at least the gist of them, make it our the @sgtret Twitter account.  I know there's a way to ling the Google + account as well, but, at least while it is still in beta, we will keep that account off of the radar.
-30-

Sitting Here With 4 Screens...

On this sultry Summer night after a heavy rain, I'm sitting in my cave with floor fan on high.  There are two laptops running different pieces of work.  The home laptop has an additional two screens.  Combined with the other; there are now four screens in front of me.

So,  what am I doing?

Reading a Jim Butcher short story in the collection entitled Urban Fantasy on my HTC Evo as it rests on its kickstand.  It starts with a story by Jim Butcher, which after reading his latest Harry Dresden book, Ghost Story,  I am apt to buy anything written by him.

His illustrated novel, Welcome to the Jungle, is very tempting, but $15.00 for what is essentially a high class comic book goes against the grain of someone who remembers getting a comic book, soda and candy bar for a quarter.

-30-

Clear!

One year, four to go.

-30-

Blood Work Done.

Now we wait an hour before CT.
-30-

Dana Farber tomorrow morning

Three months can zip by when you'd rather it drag like Summer twixt 1st and 2nd grade.

This is a full body scan. Though the lymphoma manifested itself in my neck, because of the nature of the nasty, it can crop up again anywhere in the lymph system.

I need to drink some awful stuff on the way there to expedite my getting into the machine.  My doctor won't be there but her very-very competent NP will be.

I have extreme faith in these people.  They are no nonsense - tell it like it is.  My favorite.

-30-

The New Blogger Editing Page Didn't Work.

It worked in Rye Cake but wouldn't let me edit Belltowernews.com.  And, when in Chrome 12, every time I hit the shift key and a letter, if that letter is the same as the first letter in any of the Chrome add-ons, it brings that features screen up.

Very odd.
-30-

Lost Four Dogs in One Year

Though we have only a cat now, in our extended family at the beginning of this year there were four dogs. A Belgian shepherd, a golden lab and two standard poodles.

This morning the last of the them, a joyous standard poodle called Cirq, had to be taken to the vet and put down.  She belonged to my wife's mother and son's grand-mother.

Now our cat is the last pet in the extended New England family.

He's called Booger.

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Civilization on Hold

If I step back for a moment and look at the state of the world, it's looking oh so uncivilized. The thing is it probably is much more so than it was 50 years ago.

Our ever widening ability to catch a glimpse in real time of it all, instead of through the filtered delay of weekly or even monthly magazines, is what's making it seem so wild.

If The Queen spit out of the window of the Royal Carriage as it crossed the Thames I'd hear about inside the hour followed soom by the opinions of everyone for river ecologists to organizers of the spit championship.
There would too, I guarantee, be footage of the act on YouTube.

To escape all this, we will be on the coast of Maine for the holiday weekend..
-30-

Really, I Was Just Sitting There

With no apparent aggravating activity my middle back suddenly screamed OUCH in the worst way.  As a person with a lot of experience with pain, I must say this was an 8 on the ten scale.  

I live daily between a 4 and 6, so when the meter tilts into the red, I respond quickly.

As quickly as I could, I sprang into action, using the methods I've learned over the years that help, each in a small way but when combined usually knock me back to the manageable 5 or 6.  Getting there, getting there...

-30-

A quiet weekend in Maine

Unlike the physically draining visit to DC, this shorter visit to Maine has been more of a battery charger.  If only the mosquitoes would give us a break, this would be perfect.
-30-

What a Week for News!

I wonder what the people who follow the stars are saying about this week.  The global attention span was sorely tried with the tornado, the wedding and the assassination.  The second ripped the first, and the third blotted out the second.

Than like rats in the morgue at night, the pundits came.

Bloody pundits!

-30-

Been in DC For Five Days

April is living up to its reputation for us.  Today was a gorgeous day to visit Mt. Vernon.

The last few days were taken up with Museums. Holocaust, Spy, American History, National Portrait Gallery,  Hirshman - so far.  Tomorrow we finish with my favorite - The Newsium!

-30-

Resetting Android Blogger App

We cleared not only the cache,  but all of the stored Blogger data with the hope it would clear up the problem.   Here goes.

-30-

We Are Having Problems With the Android App

It is only at Belltowernews.com where this problem is occurring.  We're posting this directly from the Blogger website to see if it's here or with the Android itself.

-30-

The New Building was marvelous

My treatment today was at the new building at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

It's called theYawkey Center for Cancer Care.  At the Dana Building everything was jammed into one room, now we begin on the second floor, go to the third, then the eight, return to the second and finally to P1 were the free, (to patients) Valet Parking is top notch.

I will be returning there in July for further tests and treatment.

-30-

A Blustery Day.

Driving my Scion xB all winter was a joy - the excessive snow was not the challenge I thought it would be. 

But then came Spring!

For almost a year, my wife & I drove a 36 foot class A RV literally around the United States.  I could feel the wind hit our side as we crossed bridges or through storms.

It may've been a bit difficult, but we always stayed in the lane.

Not today.  Driving what my son calls a breadbox on wheels down the interstate,  I crossed over the bridge into Rhode Island and was hit by a gust of wind that pushed the car into the break-down lane.

There was nothing to hit and the car quickly recovered the road, but it was a heart stopping moment.

This blog entry was started to inform that I will be going into Dana Farber for my 3-month check up on Thursday. 

-30-

Too Many Ways to Present the Moment

It was exciting in the beginning when Android apps started to appear along with keyboard apps that made it easier to type on a smartphone than my office keyboard. 

But now there are too many ways to present the moment on the Internet. If the moment is visual, I open Picplz, social, Gowalla, universal, Twitter, etc.

Rarely anymore does it occur to me to post to one of the Grazing Blogs.  The exception is during reflective moments like this.

Then a squirrel runs by me and I'm off chasing bits of information such as Ken L.  revealing he lived once with Candy B.  How titillating, for a moment...

-30-

Just When We Thought...

...We were out of the web page creation business a new way to post a web page came our way.  We are avid fans of DropBox.  If you don't have a DropBox account, simply, get one.  It is useful in so many ways.

While browsing through the commentary on the utility's many uses we saw mention of one we never thought about, web page hosting.  We went to the link for DropPages and saw it was a rather simple thing to do.

It was so simple that it took a while for us to drop down a few gears to see it.  Having designed hosted pages in HTML then XML with CSS, we were looking for all of the language we needed to learn.  Nope, none.  Just do what the instructions say and zing, you have a website.

We got to make use of a four letter .com that's been lingering around our list of owned URL's for a while.  A few years ago, it was attacked by spam monsters, so we took it off the track, covered it with white cloth and closed the door.  Now it's back up and hosting a list page of the Famous Grazing Blogs.

We may never change it again, now that we put it up, but it will be there to be found by those with an interest in what a free website hosted on DropBox.com look like.
-30-

Thanks For the Tweets!

We are back up as Belltowernews.com thanks to the hard overnight work of Brian and his coworkers at directNIC.com.  Their @directNIC.com Twitter page kept us all informed without having to panic.

Panic is never a good thing.
-30-

directNIC not redirecting!

If you came here using belltowernews.com that means directNIC has resolved the problem.  Please go to twitter.com/grazingportal and leave us a tweet.  It is too late for us to stay up and worry over this.  There is just too much real chaos in the world right now to worry over keeping a blog up.
-30-

A Friend's Blog - @spedteacher

It Isn’t In the Air « Education On The Plate
This is a link to @spedteacher's blog,  Education On the Plate.

I've known the author for,  let me see, 42 years.  We were fuzzy faced teenagers, ready to hit the streets & make the world a better place.  We worked for reform, attended demonstrations, some that turned into riots, others into moments of communal bliss.

We grew up but still each of us tried to make life better for people on a more personal level, one person or family at a time.

Read this story & the rest of the blog to see how @spedteacher hasn't given up on the world yet.

-30-

They're Saying New Blogger

I usually write blog entries using software outside of Blogger.  This is because the Blogger interface leaves much to be desired.  Old hat, so to speak.  When I saw this page on TechCrunch, I rushed right over here without watching the film...

To be somewhat disappointed at seeing, as Nicely  Nicely would say, same old-same old.

Ahh! but careful examination does show there have been subtle changes, in the composition, template set up and the general interface with the writer.  What we need now is the fancy-dancy interface, portal so to speak, they are calling the Dashboard.

Back to the page creation software, but I will visit the Blogger homeland more often.
-30-

Happy Thought Motorcycle Adventures: The Day my Husband Fell in Love....with his Kawasa...

"How could something so boring looking require so much love, be so much fun and have all the boys drooling over it..." My niece @HappyThought1 wrote in her blog below:

Happy Thought Motorcycle Adventures: The Day my Husband Fell in Love....with his Kawasa...:

I commented that she had entered into an epiphany when she answered the question above by embracing the joy her husband found instead of rejecting it out of hand as a danger to him, which it certainly is, or as competition to her, which it is no longer.

Until I saw them in person for my recent six decade birthday, I was still a tad worried, as all good Uncles should be.  But now I too have embraced their honest joy.  My wife, er.... not so much.  We can work on that.

You should go there and watch the videos they've made of their drives through the beauty that is Washington State.  If you have the time, don't miss the pieces she did going for a her licence.  Some very funny parts there while being entirely education as to the process.
-30-

Freezing Rain is Never a Good Thing

Several times in my impetuous youth,  & before the blessing of anti-lock brakes, I've touched my brake while driving in freezing rain only to find the ton of so of metal containing me floating effortlessly in a circle off the road, connecting with nothing more solid than a fresh snowbank.
So far.
When I once asked my uncle why old people drive so slow.  "How do you think they got to be old people? " He answered.
Now that my beard is white, it seems just the right thing to do when I drop 5 mph below the speed limit when I pass the first car that has slipped off the road, falling victims of the freezing rain & black ice.
-30-

We're Having a Heatwave!

When I looked at my HTC Evo screen and saw it was 50 degrees F.  I was shocked.  Glancing out the window,  a winter landscape of white still greeted me. But I was also surprised by the smokers standing in their shirtsleeves.

The view is sending me conflicting information.

Should I replace the torn winter coat of wait another year? It's the Scot in me combined with living the last 20 or so years in New England.
-30 -

Second Dog Down

Last week our mother's dog Maya gave up the ghost.  Today it was our sister's golden lab Hopi.

Sadness continues. 
-30-

You May Not Believe This

It came as quite a surprise to me,  after seeing them on CBS Sunday Morning, I am not a fan of Black Eyed Peas.  The super bowl half time show was 90% hype & 10% blinking lights.

Thank the stars for TiVo.

-30-

Lassie Spoof So Far the Best Commercial

I wonder, though,  how many in the audience will see the connection?

Even if they don't, with the volcano, the laughs came freely.
-30-

National Anthem Massacred

The young lady who "sang" The Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Super Bowl caused me severe pain. Just saying...
-30-

The King's Speech

That was a most enjoyable movie!  Good company at dinner followed by a movie with no explosions or car chases, (unless you count the man they followed in fog), and yet I still cheered and clapped.  See it.
-30-

A Night Out on the Town!

I think Randolph is a town. Dinner for nine at NYA JOE'S,  reservations made online followed by all of us pulling a u-ee to go see The King's Speech.

Though not one to normally enjoy large crowds involved in social circumstances, I am determined to kick Winter's butt & enjoy myself tonight.
We'll see, won't we?
-30-

We Have a New Barber!

For the past 17 years I've been going to the same barber.  Around the new year she moved to Florida.  This is a traumatic thing for a man of my age. 

After letting my hair grow for three months, to the point where it was attracting comments, it was time to find another Barber. Not a hairdresser mind you, but a real barber who would cut my hair & not style it.  I did and his name is Dee.

Hello Dee - have fun in Florida, Barbara!
-30-

Feeling Overworked

Every once in a while a Friday comes along & I ask myself why do I continue working.  This was one of those day. 
-30-

Droid App For Blogger

Just when I was wondering if I'd ever find time to bring Belltowernews back to the vibrant, almost daily discourse it was in the beginning, we are saved by @neilhimself when he twittered Blogger has a Droid app.
Watch out world!  We are back in the saddle!
-30-

Booker T & the M G 's - Green Onions (Original / HQ audio)

If I was going to pick a funeral song, this one would be near the top of my list.

-30-

Three Month Reprieve

For those who are following the lymphoma adventure: Dana Farber CI scanned me yesterday.  The oncologist came into the examination room with a huge smile on her face.  I have seen the other face.  She said it looked good but she had to wait for one more opinion. UP-down!!

Then UP again when she came back, thumbs up, saying "See you in three months!"

Another reprieve from the Governor.
-30-

Bizzard Backyard

My family where there is no snow think it would be wonderful to come play in this snow.

My family who are here are out shoveling the driveway.

-30-

Merry Christmas

This was a very pleasant morning.  Just the stocking and core family gifts.  The major gathering is tomorrow.  That will be fun.  This was pleasant.  They are different in subtle ways with neither being better, but more appropriate to the time, place and people.

The gist of the matter, this is a holiday, last year, I didn’t know if I would make or not.  I am so happy I did.

Love is good.  Don’t waste it!!!

Hogmanay!!!

-30-

Boom! December!!

My friend, the highly talented M. F. Conklin is sharing on Facebook the horror story of her returning from a holiday in the country to find her city apartment without heat or hot water.

"On the Fritz" New Yorkers say.

Anyone have the origin, of the fritz phrase not my dear Friend's freezing.

Around the same time we found water in the basement laundry of our most New England shack.

At first we thought it water coming up from the ground.  We checked the pits wherein lay our sump pumps. (plural)

Amazingly dry.

Further investigation found the water to be coming from under the wall dividing the laundry from the boiler room.

We were hoping it was a leak from the water heater.  Nope....

To be continued....