Polkas In The Morning, A Walk In The Afternoon.

February 23, 2013. 

It was cool and breezy this morning, and I was in my kitchen most of the time, listening to my favorite, EVER, polka program. I used to listen to several of them when I lived in northeastern Pennsylvania, and visiting or staying with Gram B in Michigan. There are so many polka lovers all over this country, some of them in certain areas that were settled by many of the eastern European immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This program is from KSPC 88.7 fm, Claremont, California. You can get it on the computer at KSPC.org. 

This morning was a good show as usual, and the DJ played quite a few new-to-him old LPs that his son bought at a large sale. Most of these songs were familiar to me, from listening to those long-ago programs, and dancing with my friends at polka dances in the 1980s and 1990s. The program runs for three hours, and how happy I am that it does! 

I was puttering with my breakfasts (actually one prolonged breakfast) and taking care of some snail mail while in the kitchen. After one o'clock, I felt quite tired, and took a short power nap, but kept lying there resting, and finally it was almost an hour. I went outdoors to get the mail, and picked some of those adorable, lovely intruders, the dandelions, that try to get over here from my neighbor's. Plucking the blossoms off them and some of the leaves causes the dandelion plants with their extremely long taproots to devote a lot of attention on making further attempts to grow more leaves.  

Googling 'getting rid of dandelions' I discovered that they indeed have such long taproots that it is quite impossible to pull them out for good. One has to use a special tool to loosen them all around, and then it is easier to get the entire taproot. If part of that is left in the ground, that little forceful root will eventually produce many more plants.  

While outdoors, I noticed that it would be a good time to walk, so I put the key and ID in my pocket and set out with much pleasure. I went a short distance down the street to the side street that would take me on a little different route, and walked briskly. I did stop from time to time to catch my breath for about thirty seconds. I saw a young apparently middle-schooler throwing a basketball on their driveway. The net is tattered and torn, probably from his older brothers' use, but still useful. I waved a 'hi' at him, and went on. 

I turned the upper corner and headed home. It was pleasant to take this different route. I stopped to study the very curly bark of an unusual birch tree. I would stop now and then to see an airplane rise in the air from the nearby airport.              

How lovely to see that metal bird fly 

Into the gorgeous azureous sky!  

I'll see you at the Corner Post ... 

Three Notes On The Staff.

February 9, 2013.

Just a few minutes ago, I looked out the front door to see what kind of day it might be. The Saturday Ad paper had been flung out of the delivery vehicle, and they were lying near or on driveways in the neighborhood. I went out to pick mine up. It is nippy outdoors this morning, but so very pleasant, with a pale azure sky bearing a lot of wispy little sheep on the meadow up there. 

As I was admiring and adoring such a lovely sky, I noticed a few birds sitting quietly and still, on the telephone wires. I like to call those telephone or electric wires my ' heavenly music staff '. The way the birds were situated was really noticeable ~ there were three of them, equally spaced along one of the wires, with the dove in the middle, and on each side of him or her about eight feet away was a single black bird. 

They were not moving one iota, and I quickly went back to the door to get my camera! Oh, if they would just keep sitting still, what a picture that would make! I stood on the little shallow porch and didn't go any farther for fear they would fly away. 

I snapped several shots (as good photographers do so they would get at least one good photo) and then suddenly one of the black birds departed. He must have had the thought, "Oh, I'll bet she is going to shoot me!" and then flew away to escape. 

But that didn't matter to me, because I did take enough pictures to satisfy my desire. I couldn't zoom in on the three of them, because they were so neatly separated at such a distance. 

I wonder what kind of meeting they were attending ~ was it a seminar, voting session, conference, or discussion? 

What a lovely beginning to a good day for me!  

I'll see you at the Corner Post ...

My New Novel ... ; Tornado Warnings.

January 30, 2013.


As is done in the Charlie Brown strip, my first sentence is already in my head: "It was a hairy, scary night..." 

With the coming severe thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, it seemed to me that I could handle things. My son had emailed me saying he would pick me up to go to their house to weather out the storm. 

I emailed back that we could just see what happens before we made that decision. I really felt rough and tough, that I could handle the situation. Thunder is usually all right, 'cept if it is right over my head. 

But then, as I was staying home and the evening wore on, suddenly on the computer weather graphic, I saw "Tornado Warning" coming from the southwest, appearing to come right up my street. 

I got my hand flashlight, put it in my pocket, and prepared my mind to listen for the tornado siren, be ready to go right into the laundry room and shut the door. 

I kept looking at the computer graphic, praying that those tornadoes would dissipate 'right now'. As I was getting more and more tired and wished to go to bed, I thought I could leave my working clothes on, lie on top of the bed and cover with my fleecy throw. 

Dozing off now and then, I finally got up at two-something, and saw that the tornado warnings had gone east of Memphis. I then put my jammies on, and slept under the covers ...   UNTIL 8:25 a.m.!!!!  Doggone, the day is almost half over!  But I am safe and sound, Thank You. 

There must have been floods of water, because some of the new mulch is sitting on the front sidewalk. When it dries, I shall sweep it back under the bushes. -- And work on my 'new novel'...  

I'll see you at the Corner Post ...

No Rain Yet; My Squished Little Stuffed Elephant; Broken Glassware; Reviewing.

January 24, 2013.

Well, today turned out to be better than I thought it would be. There was supposed to be drizzly rain today, but now it's been put off until past midnight tonight. Bet your bottom dollar it won't even rain then...

This morning after I had breakfast, I just kind of dawdled out into the garage to see what I could see. Hmmmm, I hadn't done much work in there opening boxes, for quite a while. 

So I 'accidentally' did two hours' worth of work out in the garage! I kept coming in to have a drink of water, or to change the radio station, or to put something in the sink to wash, from the boxes. It gives me more exercise, walking to and fro. 

It turned out to be quite a nice couple of hours, except for my poor squished stuffed elephant! He's only eight inches tall. He looked so funny, so thin, his legs were not where they should be...  It seemed so whimsical to me when I found him. I hope his trunk gets a little loose and goes back into place ~ I'd like him to trumpet a hello.

His buddy Koala Bear was also in the same group. Koalas don't have much of a protruding schnozz anyway, and this fellow's nose was quite flat. I am working on him now and then to get his nose to relax and come out a bit. He's sort of 'bug-eyed' (which means wide eyes in amazement or something) -- he just can't believe what happened. 

The third in the group is a four-or-five inch light tan Teddy Bear with a little plaque about 'friendships', and a cute little flowered cape. He's also got a golden string on his back to hang him up somewhere so he can observe what's going on.  

Oh, I also found two flat lazy-susans. One is tan and 12 1/2 " across, the other is beige and 10 " across. I like them quite a bit, and plan to use them. It's good to see some of these belongings again. 

And, oh, yes, - ahah! - some broken pieces of dish ware, cups, etcetera. There's been a great deal of that along the way. 

I did find a few books, and other things that need going over, so that's where I'll be this afternoon if you need me... ;-)  


Be well, be happy, and remember your New Year's resolution. 

I'll see  you at the Corner Post...

It Was A Lovely Afternoon!

January 20, 2013.

My family brought me back to my house from Church, in the early afternoon, dropped me off, and I began to do some relaxing things. Like listening on my computer to the European music programs on WPIT, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from Fayette City, where my Dad was born in 1904. I like the shows they have, of Slovenian, Ukrainian, Carpatho-Rusyn, Slovak, and German music during Sunday afternoons. 

I was also checking my emails, nope, nobody wrote to me. I was eating a cookie, and looking over some letters and birthday cards from earlier years. Then the phone rang. It was Anne Marie. She and Clay have gone to Wyoming for the weekend. Clay was outdoors, and indoors, and then puttering outdoors, while Anne Marie and I had a good chat. A long chat, to be truthful. We talked about so many things, because we hadn't chatted for quite some time. 

Then after we hung up, I decided to go for a walk, it seemed rather nice outdoors. I walked all the way to Rasco, and turned around and came back home. All the while, there were FedEx planes flying out on their regular routes and times. There must have been at least twenty or more, and I wished I had taken my camera with me. 

When I got back to the house, I took my camera and waited for the next plane to come, as they were quite regular with a few or several minutes between departures. I tried to take some photo shots, not many were good, and I did take one shot of an airplane and the half moon. This was at 4:35 p.m. Farther up the street it would have been better to get a good shot of the airplanes. Next time I'll do that, if I have it on my agenda.

My walk was fifteen minutes long, and then I stayed outdoors in the front yard for a full half hour! I sat on the concrete bench and faced the east, where the moon was, and enjoyed the crisp air, the gorgeously azure sky, and the many birds that kept flying around between me and the moon. There are several very tall deciduous trees out behind a few houses, and the birds would alight at the tops of the branches and twigs. The autumn leaves have mostly fallen from the trees, so it was easy to see the birds on their perches. 

I saw one bright red cardinal, away up in the top of the tallest tree. There were many other kinds of birds, perhaps about four to seven birds alighting in each tree, sitting for a while, then going somewhere else. There were always about fifteen birds in the tops of the trees, that I could see between the houses and over rooftops. Those birds kept coming and going, waiting, I believe, for the sun to 'go down' behind the homes on the other side of the street.  

It was such a delightful time, bringing contentment to my heart. Then I came in and am thinking of what to have later for dinner. 

I'll see you at the Corner Post...

All About Beautiful Snow - An Email to My Family.

December 31, 2012. 

 

Hello, folks, and Happy New Year! This broadcast is coming to you from central New York state in a suburb just north of Syracuse. The subject is Snowstorm Freyr which arrived earlier this week.

It is still snowing, sometimes large fluffy flakes which I like, sometimes fine snowflakes -- of which there seems to be no end, and sometimes the snowflakes are coming down at an angle, sometimes just gently falling straight down. There are no sparkly-like-diamonds snowflakes today, because the overcast sky is hiding the sun.

The snow keeps building up on the backyard patio and deck, and the posts of the deck railing are looking so handsome with their white caps.

No one is disturbing the snow on the railing, or the deck, or the barbecue grill, and the two or three steps from the kitchen sliding door down to the deck are so odd-looking with their big humps of snow looking like curvy mountains.

Even the weather-beaten bird houses have snowy tops. I am so glad that the wind isn't blowing the snow off the bird houses, nor the railings, nor the huge deciduous and coniferous trees. The deciduous trees have enormous bare limbs, branches, and twigs, making them so interesting to study. I keep walking to the sliding doors to see the huge back yard with all of its snowy delights.

The coniferous trees are so very tall, and big, and the snow is making them so lovely to see. There are several of these trees in the neighboring back yards. The designs made by clumps of snow on those needle-y branches and twigs sometimes look like miniature mountain ranges with interesting foot hills.

I am deliriously happy to be visiting here. Now do you understand why I love snowy winters?

I'll see you at the Corner Post...

Visiting for Three Weeks in North Syracuse.

After living most of my life with snowy winters, I spent a few years in sunny climes. I began to miss the beauty of autumn leaves losing their green and turning into magnificent colors, and the first snowfall coming thereafter.

As each year went by, I missed seeing snow on the ground, drifts of snow after the wind displaced the fallen snow, and the swirling snowflakes of a blizzard.

This year I was lucky to spend three weeks with one of my daughters in North Syracuse. The weather hadn't been wintry for them in the north, and they were a little disappointed about the possibility of not having a White Christmas.

The year I went to Pasadena I had somehow caused it to hail, which was a very unusual happening. Then the time I went to Memphis, I brought some snow, which was very surprising to the residents. They even made a snowman with the snow that happened to come with me. So it wasn't surprising when I brought some lovely snowstorms to North Syracuse.

There was most certainly a White Christmas, with plenty of snow that made central New York state as white as could be. What a thrill that was for me! At last I could see the first snowfall, and I would ooh and aah as I hurried to the window to admire it.

The trees soon were laden with so much snow that the branches would bend a little. Every limb and every twig had a dressing of white. Roof tops began to be covered with a foot of snow, as well as front lawns and back yards were buried under a foot of snow. Fences were topped with that white stuff that I like so much.

Even birdhouses had their little roofs topped with snow, making a whimsical picture. I clicked my camera at so many beautiful sights.

The way the snow fell was quite interesting, too. Sometimes it would float down softly and slowly, sometimes fast and furiously, depending on the wind. At times the snowfall would be vertical, sometimes almost horizontal, depending of course on the speed of the wind.

I shall tell you some more of my love for snow, another day. When you go out tomorrow, don't forget your boots. The snow is rather deep...

I'll see you at the Corner Post...