Not Quite Time for Rabbits

I  have been feeling so bad for my family and friends up in New England with all the snow they have had this winter. My son had to get someone to clear the snow off his roof because ice dams were starting to form. My sister has a very steep driveway, impossible to shovel and their snowblower broke. Poor Steve! I know it's been just terrible and I hear another storm is on its way!

My brother's grill. Massachusetts this week.

I told y'all that a couple of weeks ago we had seven inches fall in one day, an unheard of amount. Due to the unusually cold weather it stuck around for a week and that was even more of a rare occurrance. They shut down the schools for a whole week, we didn't get mail for 3 days and there was nothing on the news except cancelations and pictures of people making snow angels.




Yippee! Snow!

But, for us here in Ooltewah, it seems the winter's on its way out. The pansies are standing up and blooming again. The sun is shining most days. We had temps in the 60s yesterday and again today.

There are catkins on the Bradford Pear trees (those things that look like pussywillows); the snow's long gone and some of the lawns are greening up a little.  While it's not quite time to go out and sit on the back deck in the sun, that's coming soon.

The headlines this past week were no longer about the weather but for three days running they were all about poor Hank, the 42 year old chimpanzee, mascot of the Chattanooga Zoo who had been found dead on Monday. Yesterday they announced they are launching a complete investigation.

Poor old Hank.

So, life goes on, for the rest of us and take heart, spring is on its way, albeit in a few months for my folks up north. And so, with y'all in mind, I have composed a little ditty for you. Ed and I went to see The King's Speech last night, incidentally a fabulous movie. So inspired by something in the movie and by your plight up north, I wrote these lines, which can be sung to the tune of Camptown Races. 

 All the ladies sing this song,

in Oolt’wah, Oolt’wah

Winter’s lasted way too long

In Oolt’wah Tennessee.

Goin to snow all night,

Goin to snow all day,

Seven inches on the ground

Someone get out the sleigh!

Now the snow’s a memory

In Oolt’wah, Oolt’wah.

Spring’s a comin’, yesiree!

To Oolt’wah Tennessee.

Goin' to snow all night

And all the day on through

Way up north but not down here.

We’re lighting the barbecue.

New England’s buried 5 feet deep

Not Oolt’wah, Oolt’wah.

Come on down, the flights are cheap

To Oolt’wah Tennessee.

Goin to snow all night

Goin to snow all day

Groundhog won't see any sun

Spring's not far away.

My sister wrote me yesterday

In Oolt’wah, Oolt’wah

She said inside she’ll have to stay.

Not in Oolt’wah Tennessee.

Goin to snow all night

It’s really not a joke.

She said she’s had it “up to here!

And now the snowblow'r’s broke.

My son said their expecting more.

Not in Oolt'wah, Oolt'wah.

They can't get out their own front door.

Not in Oolt'wah, Tennessee.

Goin to snow all night

Goin to snow 'til noon.

Get that shovel moving, son.

That baby's coming soon!

Down here feeling all your pain

In Oolt’wah, Oolt’wah.

Maybe you could take a train

To Oolt’wah, Tennessee

Goin to snow up north

From Maine down to the Cape

Keep your chins up. Could be worse.

Think of Hank our Ape.

I hope you all don't mind me making a joke of your situation. I really do feel for everyone and pray that you will soon see a break from all of this. Be careful shovelling and driving. Almost time for your rabbits on Tuesday. Maybe if y'all say them it will stop snowing up there!

I love you guys, so take care of yourselves. But the bottom line is that you really do need to think about moving south!!!

Love,

Suz

 

Snow in Ooltewah

As pretty much all of you know, I moved here to Ooltewah, TN 4 years ago from Massachusetts, delighted by the warm weather and lack of snowfall. We have a few little inch or two storms from time to time and I have stayed inside and laughed at everyone going berserk because there was snow! And I mean beserk. Even when there's a flurry. They close the schools almost immediately and if there is enough snow to pick up in your hand, they will all build snowmen. Itty Bitty Snowmen.

But, last night and this morning 7 inches fell. It was like it was manna from heaven and everyone had to get out and get theirs. It was a sight to see, everyone outside with cameras on our normally quiet little street at the end of the subdivision. On TV, all network programming was preempted as they said the same thing over and over, how this was the most snow since 1993 and they showed camera shots of various highways and downtown. Today we had no mail delivery, despite the USPS claim, schools of course were closed early last night before the snow even started. The grocery stores were even closed. It was crazy!

Now, to put things in perspective, Chattanooga is a city of about 170,000 and is about 143 square miles. They have 11 snow plows. We live outside the city limits in the county and I have no idea if they even have a plow. The website for the county DPW says that they are responsible for clearing the streets but they depend on the citizens to call in and let them know if they need someone to plow, since so many subdivisions have private plow contracts they don't plow unless you ask! So, we called about 3:00 this afternoon and we were the first ones to call from our subdivision, home to thousands. They said they'd put us on the list. It's now 9:30 at night and we still haven't seen a plow.

But, this morning, we were looking out the window when two labs, one black and one yellow, came frollicking by our dining room window, snouts down, plowing through the snow giving Maggie quite a scare. We looked across the street and the man who lives there and his wife were out in their front yard taking photos, which everyone does when it snows here. But it was really funny because he got on his knees like Tim Conway does when he's doing that character Dorf. With his hands in the air and his knees in the snow, I guess he was trying to make it look like it was up to his knees. It was quite funny.

Dorf

So outside Ed and I went out for a walk, camera in hand, and met up with our good friends Kathie and Ron who live next door, lots of folks we'd never met were out there, a few we had met and lots of dogs and kids. They were all sliding and sledding down the streets, which are all very steep hills. This is Tennessee so there were lots of 4 wheelers out there, too.

This was where it was all happening, the steepest street.

My friend Kathie in the foreground. Someone's 4 wheelie thingie in the back ground.



That's Ed on the left in jeans with a Pats jacket, and our friend Ron is next to him. On the far right is Rick, another neighbor who we know and Victoria who we just met today. I have no idea what the dogs' names are.





More sledders on their way to the steepest hill.

 We had a lot of fun chatting for a while, and then Ed and I continued our walk.  Then another neighbor drove up with his 4 wheeler and he was towing a large rubber raft behind it with his friend on it. He stopped and told us to get on for a ride. So, one lady we just met and Ed both jumped on and they went off on a tour of the neighborhood.

I don't know who the guy waving is. But he was friendly. That's Ed with the 'toboggan' on his head. That's what they call stocking caps here. Isn't that weird?

And there they go!

They were gone quite a while and I found out that they had to stop and help dig someone out who had gotten their car stuck in their driveway. He had a blast. I have to admit, the excitement was contageous and it was really kind of fun out there.  

Later this afternoon, Ed took a drive around the neighborhood and he was able to get down off the hill and back up again. It took him a long time as he had to go very slow just to get through the bunches of sledding people and various all terain vehicles. So it was a relief to know that if we have to we can get out. They cancelled school for tomorrow this afternoon and I don't know if we will be able to get to the store or if they'll even have them open. I hope so, though, because Maggie's almost out of kitty litter and that makes her cranky and me crazy. 

Yes, it's inconvenient, but it is kind of pretty, too. 

Home sweet home.



Have a great day.

Love,

Suz

The Perfect Winter Morn

It's about 7:00 in the morning. Ed left for work about a half hour ago, wishing me luck with the full day of preparations I have ahead of me for our Christmas visitors arriving tonight.

Ed's younger son Joe and girlfriend Caitlin are coming to spend a few days. They live way down in Wilmington, NC and are coming in time for the Pats game at 7:00 tonight. They'll stay a few days, help Ed celebrate his birthday tomorrow and head off to Caitlin's parents' home for a few days in South Carolina. We are really grateful that they are traveling all this way and can't wait to see them.

We have the tree all decorated, and it looks really nice. But the big job of putting out the many Santas I  have for the annual Santa count we do with the grandkids hasn't even begun. Along with the other decorations for Christmas, the Santas are all still in their big plastic bins on the back deck, waiting to be freed for their big day. But back to this morning.

The scene is set. It's beginning to get light outside. I bypass the timer and turn on the lights on the tree which sparkle in the still, shadows of the early morning, reflecting the green and red ornaments. Christmas music is on the Bose, Rosemary Clooney singing I'll Be Home for Christmas is on now. There's a loaf of cinnamon chip bread in the oven and the aroma is divine. I pour myself a cup of steaming black coffee in my favorite Salmon Falls blueberry basket mug and the anticipation is building. There's nothing like a little bit of delayed gratification to make something even sweeter, and I don't mean the cinnamon bread. And now I am ready to begin...

...ironing the table napkins.

There is very little I like about housework, which probably comes as no surprise to most people who know me. But ironing table napkins is my favorite of all chores.

I only started using cloth napkins a few years ago, at Ed's request, who liked the idea of taking them to work in his lunch. Since then, it has become a guilty pleasure to go look for them in stores like Homegoods, Tuesday Mornings, TJ Maxx, etc., to search out the normally-expensive-on-sale-due-to-limited-availability-or-odd-lots, etc. cloth napkins. As a result, I have drawers full of beautiful and plain, dressy and everyday napkins on hand.

We don't go through them that fast here, just the two of us, and so they pile up in the laundry and then in the ironing pile. Some don't really need to be ironed, like Ed's gingham ones that practically iron themselves. But some really do need to be ironed and they sit folded in a canvas bin in the laundry room until just the right moment.

Other things sit in the laundry room waiting to be ironed may never make it to the ironing board. Like the summer blouses I still have hanging by the dryer. They have been waiting months, but between you and me, they will probably just go in the closet in the guest room all wrinkly until next spring when they'd need to be ironed again anyway even if they had been put up wrinkle-free.

Now folding warm towels right out of the dryer comes close to the satisfaction I get from ironing my table napkins. The pile of warm fluffy towels right out of the dryer, in which, I admit, I do sometimes bury my face and breathe in deeply, is something to be proud of and looks very impressive. (Hint for everyone out there, if you want to make your significant other happy, just put a towel in the dryer for 10 minutes before you hand it to her/him as he/she exits the shower/bath. What a luxury!But I digress.)

However, the process of ironing the napkins is all of that and more. It's transcendent and spiritual and very therapeutic. First, I dampen them with a spray bottle of water, thinking about that shaker bottle my mother used to use. But now, with a plastic spray bottle from the Dollar Store, I spray them all at once so there is a chaotic pile of slightly dampened napkins, from which I get to choose. And I choose the white cotton ones first. There are more of them than the others and they offer a certain challenge that I like.

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I really get irritated when folding fitted sheets or things that don't line up just so. But, after a few washings, inexpensive table linens do lose their squareness. It becomes difficult to "kiss the corners" as my Godmother instructed me when teaching me how to fold laundry. But, laying the clean, white imperfect napkin completely unfolded, flat on the ironing board, I apply the steam iron, hot and ready, first to the center and work my way toward the hemmed edges. The steam wafts up to meet me and softly comes a scent similar to Clean Cotton, Fresh Linen and all those other scents we pay for at Bath and Body Works or Bed Bath and Beyond. But those aren't quite the same because the warm smell of freshly laundered, damp cotton just can't be duplicated.

I fold the napkin in half, horizontally, noticing that the right hand corner of the top layer doesn't meet the same on the bottom layer. But, not to worry. A bit of an adjustment, ironing the fold to a crease as sharp as a knife, and folding in half once again, the short side is invisible and there in front of me is a perfect, warm, slightly damp square.

One by one, they pile up and soon I have a lovely, satisfying, pile of perfect white squares. Then, I take on the others, not so often used, but delightful to look at. They are more square and less of a challenge to be sure, but nonetheless, satisfying in their completeness and in their numbers. I even iron the gingham ones, just to prolong my meditative state.

And while I iron these lovely singularly perfect hemmed squares I start to think of Deepak Chopra's radio show yesterday, which I seldom listen to because it's altogether so bizarre, usually. But I think of how he believes that we are all connected, one big collective consciousness, like a bee hive. And I think I may understand his theory better now. And maybe that's why piles of perfectly ironed and folded napkins are so satisfyingly wonderful and seem to speak to me. It's all of these individuals that alone aren't that great, but when they're all done, in one collective pile of napkins, it's something to behold.  Finally I can make some sense of Deepak.

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is on the Bose.
The kitchen timer just went off and the bread is out of the oven, all beautifully browned and ready to sample.

My coffee needs refilling now. The mood is slightly broken, but I look at the pile of napkins and think about all those bins on the back deck waiting to be tackled. And I wonder...

...which one has the Christmas napkins in it?

Have a fabulous day!

Love,

Suz

When Holidays Collide

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

I don't know what is going on, but something happened to the month of November this year.  I have no idea where it went. It was as though I was knocked unconscious for 30 days. I remember changing the month on the calendar because orange isn't my favorite color, but I really liked this picture in spite of the color. But that's the last thing I remember with any clarity.

November by Janine Moore

I am sure that we had turkey at some point, and pie. And I have a vague recollection of going to Florida and of sending out birthday cards to the November birthday people. But I don't remember much else.

Tree is up. Boxes of ornaments outside on the deck.

Ed has been nagging me for a week to get the tree up but I kept resisting. "What are you talking about? I still have the pumpkin and the dead mums out front!" I finally gave in and we put the tree up yesterday, although it hasn't any ornaments on it yet. But in my own defense, I did begin the transition from Hanukkah blue to red and green claws on Maggie. She will look lovely by the time Christmas comes around.

She just has to shed one more blue nail before Maggie will be decked out for the season.

Our very thoughtful next door neighbor, Ron, brought us 2 Christmas CDs yesterday, just out of the blue. Wasn't that nice? We are lucky to have these folks as neighbors, that's for sure. Anyway, the CDs are great and they are peaceful and soothing and calming. In fact one is called Peaceful Christmas. No Ho Ho Hos or Grandmas Getting Run over by Reindeer on these. Just nice quiet instrumentals, great for reflecting on the season. Combined with the lighted tree and the poinsettias I bought today, I definitely felt the Christmas spirit starting to percolate.

Then Maggie started chewing on the poinsettias and as I chased her into the next room, I noticed the Halloween decorations still in the guest bedroom windows. That sort of blew the mood for the moment while I stood there shaking my head trying to figure out if I had blacked out for a month.

This evening, I changed the calendar again, albeit a week late. December already seems to be flying by. Only 17 days until Christmas. Sheesh! So, tomorrow, I will get rid of the pumpkin and the dead mums, find a place to hide those Halloween decorations and maybe finish my on-line shopping. I suppose we should decorate the tree now that it's up. Maybe Thursday, after I write my Henrietta blog. I am beginning to wonder if this will all be a blur by the time it's over or if I can figure out a way to live in the moment these next 17 days.

December by Janine Moore

A friend of mine once told me that you know you are getting old when Christmas seems to come twice a year. I wasn't sure what he meant at the time. But now that it seems like Halloween and Christmas come in the same month, I think I know what he was getting at.

Have a great day and let me be the first to wish y'all a Happy Valentine's Day.

Love,
Suz

*I buy this art calendar every year, one for me and one for my friend Ruth who was the first one to buy it for me years ago. It's by an artist from Maine named Janine Moore. I think I did a blog about her once. Anyway, you can get one by clicking HERE. There are several choices by a few artists, but I love the flowers. They make great gifts, too.



*I buy this calendar every year for me and my friend Ruth who was the first one to buy it for me years ago. It's by an artist from Maine, Janine Moore. I think I did a blog about her once. Anyway, you can get them by clicking HERE. There are several choices on this site by a few artists, but I love the flowers. They make great gifts, too.



Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit and Catalogs Catalogs Catalogs

Morning Folks and Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit!

Ed and I returned home last night from 8 days of visiting relatives and friends in Florida. It was a whirlwind trip but we were able to see Ed's brother Bob and his wife Susan, in The Villages, Ed's sister Kathy and her husband George in Kissimmee, our friend Ruth in Sarasota and my Dad and Inez in Naples. Ed got in 3 rounds of golf, I did some shopping and we both got to Siesta Key beach for the day with Ruth.

We couldn't fit in all our Florida friends and fam, but we squeezed in what we could. I don't really want to talk about the food we ate all week. Let's just say we were thankful for it while we were eating it, but not so thankful this morning on the scale.

Something else that appeared in large numbers upon our return home, was 7 days of catalogs! Now, I do order a lot of things online but only occasionally from catalogs. And, I know that I have never ordered anything from half of the companies that send them to our home.

I guess I started to notice the catalogs building in numbers around Halloween. Could have been a little earlier. But come the beginning of December they all come crashing in like a Tsunami every week. They end up on the kitchen counter, precariously stacked, each one a different size prohibiting a neat pile, waiting for us to go through them. And they are slippery, making them unruly and unmanageable when they reach that tipping point. Do I stack them by size or by company? Always a problem. I don't want to throw duplicates away, even though I have 4 LL Bean catalogs, just in case something on sale in one of them isn't on sale in another.

I do like to look through Wireless, Brookstone, Plow and Hearth and all those gadgety ones. And I always look at the food ones like Figi and Harry and David, The Popcorn Factory and Dancing Deer, but seldom buy anything from those companies. This year we got one from National Geographic that looks intriguing. And a new one from The Red Box and Pajama Gram. Can't wait to look at that one! Fine Jewelry from the Danbury Mint is always a keeper. LL Bean, Land's End and Vermont Country Store are probably responsible for a good percentage of the pile. I guess those companies are headquartered in states with lots of trees.

But, some of them just go right into the recycling bin like Victoria's Secret. They never have very good sales and besides, I have all the thongs and teddies I need. I don't think most of my friends would want me to send them a bra or a pair of panties. (I threw that word "panties" in just for niece Joanna. She hates that word. And so do I. Let's see if she responds. That way I'll know if she's reading my blog.)

So, I bought these fabulous fabric bins that work really well in my laundry room to hide things like the Bounce and spot remover and all of Maggie's stuff. I can even hide my ironing in them on the shelf above the washer and dryer. Anyway, there's one size that works really well for these catalogs. And now, that's full to the brim.

I just don't know when we are going to get the chance to go through them all. I guess I will have to put them in a strategic location making them convenient whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Have a great day!

Love,
Suz

Genealogy Weekend

This past weekend I attended a Family History Expo in Atlanta. As some of you know, I have a mild addiction to genealogy, thanks to my good friend Rick who got me hooked about 15 years ago. Actually, I can be pretty obsessive about it. So, when I found out there was a conference just a few hours from here and that the registration was pretty inexpensive, I just HAD to go. It was every bit as informative as I thought it would be, too.

They had hundreds of workshops available and there were probably 50 or more vendors set up in the main exhibit hall featuring huge organizations like Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com to little companies that help you publish your family tree in fancy little books.

There was one vendor who has developed this little system where a plaque is attached to headstones. When you see one of these plaques, you aim your smartphone at it and it sends all the information about that person to your phone. This can include all your family tree information, photos of the deceased and who they are related to in that cemetery as well as family memories or whatever information the loved ones have loaded into the system. Click here to see their Web site.I thought that was kind of neat, although I am not sure it will catch on.

The classes included everything from Blogging to DNA research to searching for people using tax records. I didn't get to go to the DNA one, but the tax records one was cool. Census information is a basic resource for genealogists, but they only took them every 10 years. Taxes, on the other hand, are assessed every year and those records tell us where the people were between census years and even more information like how many cows they had. I got some valuable info on how to go about getting information on our Scottish ancestors which I have already started to use. I also attended two different classes about looking for Civil War ancestors.  If there are Civil War soldiers in your ancestry who were eligible for pensions or whose widdows were eligible you can write for your ancestor's pension files and find out all kinds of things about their lives after the war including medical information. If they didn't survive the war, there are sometimes personal effects available, like letters from home. One fellow found there was a pocket watch in his ancestor's effects that he was able to recover. How intriguing is that?



My new friend Suzette and her husband Bob



I also met some really nice people. One woman I met who, along with her husband, owns and operates a commercial bee keeping company in GA. Her name is Suzette and her ancestors are from France, surname Ouellet. Probably at some point related to our Willett roots way back in the 10th century or something. We have emailed a few times already. Click Here for Suzette's Web site 

Some folks I met were even from New England. At dinner Friday night where I first met Suzette, I also sat with one couple from Springfield, MA and another woman named Suzanne who now lives in Florida but was from Manchester, NH her whole life. But there were plenty of southerners and lots of folks from Salt Lake City, too. All obsessed as I am. Maybe more so.



Bridget's Website. Click here.

Another class, right down my alley, was given by bestselling author M. Bridget Cook, who recently appeared on Oprah with her book which she co-wrote with a woman who was the daughter of a serial killer. She also recently published a book telling the story of a former neo-Nazi and how he turned his life around. It tells of his journey that leads him from a leader in the skinhead culture to working with the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance. I bought both of her books and had a nice chat with her about writing. She was also the keynote speaker for the Friday banquet. She has quite a story herself and had some great suggestions about making your family history an interesting read.    



c. 1953 Suzie, Chuckie, Johnnie, Larry, Valerie

And the highlight of the weekend for me fit right in there with the Family History theme. I had dinner with my cousin John Hammack and his wife Shelly who only live a few miles from the conference location. I haven't seen John(ny) in 40 years! He looked the same as he did the last time I saw him. John is my Dad's sister Edith's son. His wife Shelly is lovely and we hit it off right away. We are going to make our visits much more frequent. I feel like we have a lot of lost time to make up and since they're only a couple of hours from here, it should be easy!




With Thanksgiving coming up, all y'all who are visiting with your folks and grandparents have a wonderful opportunity to ask them questions about their families. And if you do, write it down!

How I would love to have both of my grandmothers and grandfathers around to get more stories and find out about their ancestors. So much information is lost now.

M. Bridget Cook said to us during her class that we should think of each person in our family as 'a library on fire'. All those stories and all that heritage must be rescued before it's too late.



 

Have a great day and a Happy Thanksgiving!



Love,

Suz