Breezing out . . .

Today should be a State Holiday. Today should be celebrated throughout the coastal US. There are slightly more than six hours left until the end of hurricane season.

This is our weatherly watershed for the year. Our continental divide of winds. The end of having to duck and cover when named storms take aim.

We can give a heartfelt sigh, but not all together. We don't want to start any major wind moving . . .

Just a bit early . . .

Our Black Friday turned out to be pale gray. Target ran out of the three dollar, 1.5 quart slow cookers that would have been handy for keeping gravies and sauces warm. Things improved when we went to the tall and big man's clothing store. BigEd received his January birthday gifts early and he got to try them on, too.


Having a birthday two weeks, more or less, after the New Year is poor planning from a gift standpoint. The selection is abysmal and sales are non-existent. So this year, for the first time, we decided to gift him early. Not a bad idea if the recipient doesn't mind.

And he didn't . . .

Eat now, sleep later . . .

Thanksgiving was spent at Zeta's and M's. They absolutely do know how to throw a great party. There were contests and a raffle, too. I won a box of sugar-free Russell Stover which I forgot to bring home. That is an indication of absent mindedness which is almost painful. Me? Forget candy? The only excuse is that the blood needed by my brain was elsewhere entertaining all the other goodies.

Those included turkey, ham, and beef, with the attendant fixin's, including Zeta's much demanded Broccoli Casserole. Choices? have a little of each!

So I did . . . thanks to BigEd.

As good as a mile . . .

There was a small, black and white feline hunter stalking across Zeta's and M's back yard. Their grass is carpeted with small, pale lavender floral cups which make the grassy expanse look like a meadow. A butterfly was swooping over the little flowers as if trying to decide which among those spread below was the most appealing.

There was a puddle of black fur spread in the butterfly's erratic path. With an explosion of effort, the small cat launched itself up and clapped its front paws over the space where the butterfly had been. It was a near miss. The butterfly knew. It flew away in as straight a flight as it could manage.

The little black and white hunter strolled away. Happy Thanksgiving Day, butterfly.

And to everyone else, too . . .

Forget driving . . . try walking

Our supermarket has flexible plastic strips that slide out sideways and across the end of a closed checkout aisle. The word "closed" is clearly stamped in large black letters across the face of the strip, on both sides of it.

I was standing in line at an adjacent register and happened to notice two young women coming up the closed aisle toward the store's interior. The first one skipped a little sideways and slipped through the opening at the end of the strip. The second one, who was texting, walked right into the strip, bent it into a right angle, and almost fell over it. Truly slapstick.

But, Lord help us if she ever gets behind the wheel.

U-what?

Today, I got to see what U-verse looks like. Learned what all the fuss is about. Now I know what the installation process is and how one finds the various services and tutorials in the system.

It was fun. It was instructive. Too bad that it was not at our house. We are still not eligible because of "distance from the box" issues.

It was a vicarious thrill, however. We are happy for those who do have it . . .

Plaid shirt, no sleeves?

Now, I'm not taking the Cable Guy for a role model, but this time of the year, "Git 'er done" is becoming a mantra.

Black Friday, anyone?

Camry express . . .

I must plan a campaign. The library is holding five books for me to come and collect. We are almost out of paper towels and need black, plus color, ink cartridges for the printers.

We have in hand, a $5 coupon for Pet Supermarket which Mew demands we put toward toys for her use. We are on our last bag of cat food. I used up all of the apple cider vinegar. I saw an ant on the counter so it's time for new Combat to be put out for them.

The front yard needs mowing. No, that one is on BigEd's list.

Thank Heaven . . .

Gobble-de-alas . . .

There once was a time when, because I had brown hair and brown eyes, I was sometimes addressed in Spanish by those who did not know me. Now that the brown of the hair has been replaced by another natural color closer to that of pale limestone, it seldom occurs. Today, I did it in reverse. At Publix I addressed the butcher in Spanish asking if he, " . . . tiene alas de pavo."

He looked at me doubtfully and said slowly (in English) that he thought soooo.

"Turkey wings, I clarified, do you have any turkey wings?" Yes he did, taking me to the part of the meat case where they were and extending his open hand as if he were demonstrating a product on television, he beamed at me. I am stll not sure whether he spoke only English or if my execrable accent in Spanish confused him totally.

I know the word alas means wings because when I order a bucket of the Colonel's fried chicken, I always ask for no alas.

I need these alas because I intend to put them into our largest crock pot and cook all of the liquid goodness out of them and use that goodness to make stuffing and gravy. I have four packages of alas, meaning that there are some turkeys, somewhere, who are strangely minus some limbs. Or alas . . .

Useful life . . .

I have been thinking back to those days when I used to occasionally install new computer equipment and troubleshoot software before I retired. I was a first responder, so to speak, who did triage and dealt with things like dire lockups and blue screens. I was the one who called in the experts when things were beyond dire.

Those days are long gone. Now we can have new drivers for the asking. Just visit the manufacturer's web site . . . unless. Unless a new operating system comes along and compatible drivers no longer exist for older peripherals. Sad. Really sad to see perfectly useful things like our deskjet have to be surplussed because it doesn't have USB capability.

I am beginning to identify with it. I don't have USB capability, either . . .

Mew waiting . . .

BigEd has gone upstate with friends for the weekend. They left yesterday and Mew was in the back bedroom asleep when the luggage left the house. She was unsettled by its appearance when he pulled it out of the closet. She knows when those close-able, fancy boxes get filled with stuff that they mean change is coming.

She misses BigEd and has been just inside of the front door Saturday, curled up and waiting for him to come back.

It's not only dogs who are faithful . . .

The ice, not tagged

During hurricane season, our freezer becomes less fully stocked than it is the rest of the year. We are inclined to ignore the buy-one-get-one-free sales until we are pretty sure the winds will not start to circulate around us like a Tilt-a-Whirl gone mad. We store extra ice, pack rat style.

This year, because the season was quiet for us and is nearly over, I released the extra ice back into the wild. Of course, now we are watching the progress of a storm in the Caribbean. The meteorological models don't really show us under threat. But the weather people probably did not factor in the state of our freezer.

You never know . . .

Da what?

Our nearby Blockbuster Video rental store was replaced by a Pet Supermarket. We are not too happy over the switch but Mew is ecstatic. You see, because I asked about it, they now stock Da Bird.

It is a cat toy that mimics the flutter of bird wings as it swoops through the air. She absolutely loves it and has lost at least six ounces of weight due to increased exercise.

Now, I have to admit that for the first two days, I did not realize it had a string which was wrapped around the whippy wand. I was merrily waving the wand around and she was chasing it just fine. Then I realized there was a navy blue string wrapped around the navy blue wand and secured by a navy blue piece of tape. When I undid the tape, the (excuse me) da bird was liberated to fly. Now we are doing feline ballet and human wand wielding in sync.

Much better . . .