School Closing

1.  When I was growing up in Fargo, ND, I don't recall school being closed very often for bad weather.  It only happened during an actual, meteorologically verifiable Blizzard:  heavy snowfall, high winds (35 mph), 1/4 mile visibility--something like this: 

2.  Fargo had enough of these, but if one happened on the weekend, we were out of luck. 

3.  Almost nobody rode to school on a school bus in those days.  Because I lived half a block from the 1 mile cut-off for ridership, I had to walk.  So people who decided to close the schools didn't have to worry about the streets being closed.  But when I woke up on a school day, and I could hear the weather stripping HOWLING,  chances are it was a blizzard, and if so, there would be no school that day!!

4.   Huzzah!!  So, what did we do?  We went outside to play in the snow!!  We built snow forts, dug caves in the biggest, tallest drifts, and slid down them, too.  The snow was too dry to make good snowmen or snowballs, but we had fun.  And we were out of the house.  Some of us shoveled our walks (and our neighbors's walks).  Nobody drove a car during the WWII years, so we didn't have to shovel any driveways.   The only traffic was the city bus, which ran about every hour/half hour, and we would catch rides on the ice-covered streets by grabbing the bumper when it stopped for a stop sign.

5.  Here and now, there is no snow outside, no wind. I can see way across the street, and the schools started 2 hours late.  This is what it looks like now:

Check the volume first!

1.  I've been opening my junk e-mails so i can go down to the small print where it says  "UNSUBSCRIBE".

2.  So today, I clicked one, and all of a sudden, I hear this jazzy music.  wondered if it's my cell phone, whose sound I have not yet been able to identify. Looked around, didn't see it (it's in your POCKET, dear), then a voice breaks through the crappy tune and announces for all my building
to hear:

3.  HI...THIS IS _____ _____, INTERNATIONAL LOVE COACH....

4.  Gaaah!!  This ad is something that has snuck into my EFT newsletter.  I do not want or need an international (or just national) love coach.  But now my whole building has been treated to this
announcement because I didn't check the volume on my macintosh keepsake/laptop.  So I turn the sound down and off.  

5.  Then...I go out to move my laundry from the washer to the dryer.  One of the building's
eligible bachelors (i.e., male, walking upright) is sitting on the steps outside my
door to watch for the mail delivery.  He looks at his nails carefully as I walk past him.  Not to worry, Mr. _____. 

2015....is it me, or have the Republicans gone totally nuts??

1. If you have been voting for any Republicans, please don't do it again!!

2. Who cares about Republicans? 

3.  Not even Republicans care about other Republicans.

4.  Yoo hoo, Margaret and Helen....let's have another post from you.  Sen. Warren can't do it all by herself.  And good luck to Wendy!

5.  Gotta get back to my dreams....ciao.

 

end of the month.....

1.  Happy birthday day after tomorrow to my youngest daughter, Katie! We've had our ups and downs, but it feels to me now that it's all been an up.  She's a beautiful, smart, talented woman, and we've loved her to bits since she arrived the day before New Year's Eve back in the middle of the 1960s.

2.  Just finished reading Laura Hillenbrand's amazing book Unbroken.  My NJ grandchildren's dogs gave it to me for Xmas, and it was a revelation.  It also made me very thankful that none of my brothers, who were all in the AAF during WWII, never got sent to the Pacific theater and were never killed or injured in an accident in training--surprisingly prevalent and deadly.  My pal Cathy's dad, too, was in the AAF and was sent to the same place in Florida for training as my oldest brother, John.  Dunno if they met or knew each other, but he escaped the accidents, too. If he hadn't, there would not be a Cathy.

3.  Was talking with C yesterday about Westphalia, where my mother was born.  We got to reading Wikipedia about the various treaties named after that place. When I studied History of
Modern Europe in college, I got my one F on an exam in that class.  Could not figure it all out.  Holy Roman Empire and all of that.  Amazingly complicated! I would love to find a really good book that covers that place and time.

4.  Time to turn off the lights and get back to sleep. 

Not only Feng Shui! Ideas for closet in wealth corner:

1.  Tidy it, using principles found in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.  (The following idea is from this book, too.)

2.   Decorate it with photos and posters that I love.

3.   Another intriguing day yesterday.  Moved the art around, so much more lively and restful here at the same time.

4.   Back home, and it's Christmas Eve.  Have to get to the supermarket in case my friend can make it
for dinner.  Also, I am still OUT OF BUTTER!! Sweet Jebus....Of all times of the year to run out of
butter, this ain't it!!  Can't bake cookies, make a pie crust.  Yes, I know you can use other substances
for this, but I don't.

Questionz...questionz....re interior design.

Feng Shui issues:  

1.  What do you do when your Wealth corner is a CLOSET??

2.  What do you do when somebody gives you some paintings and expects you to hang them, but you feel they are depressing? 

3.  Remind yourself that keeping bags by the front door may be handy, but it can lead to CLUTTER!

4.  And what in the hey is Internal Feng Shui?? Sounds like something I need, but what is it??

Christmas Decor, 2014

1.  This is IT for my house this year, absent a lovely poinsettia from Cathy and a wreath on my front door from my neighbor Shirley and her family. 

2

2. The tree and lovely decorated letter (framed and hung on the l.r. wall) are from Mary Zdon, my brother Paul's 4th child, and the card to the left is from Katy Gorghuber, my brother John's oldest daughter.  The wee figure of Wallace is a household favorite here. Katy has three grandchildren--Charlotte, age 3, and twins Anna & Hattie (age 2).  

3.  I love to hang up photos and memorabilia on my walls.  In fact, I've been thinking of redoing the walls by adding some cork tiles in every room to make it easy to do this. Scotch tape folded so it's double-sided is fine, but it doesn't always last long. 

4.  I may string up some lights on the rubber plant now that it's off the porch till spring.