What'll y' have?

The image above is all about being safe: bags packed in case a quick getaway becomes necessary; umbrella at the ready in case of an indoor shower; looking sleepy while being totally alert

May your New Year's celebrations be equally safe. Y'all have a:

HAPPEH NEW YEAH!!!

(She's a southern cat.)

Crack and the kitty . . .

We used to keep Werther's candy in the house more frequently than we do now. And, occasionally, we used to find one with the wrapper torn off and the candy sticking to the floor. We finally identified the guilty suspect by catching her furry self in the act of thievery. She had torn apart a whole, unopened package which I can tell you is difficult.

Once a year at Christmas, we buy a package. This year, I forgot to do it until today when, in the pharmacy, I was lured to the candy aisle. They put those pharmacists in the rear just so we have to stroll past the good stuff to get there.

Mew had not forgot about her kitty crack.We hold it for her so she doesn't carry it off somewhere and stick it to the floor. Her tongue should be tired after this:

The lost mid-week . . .

This week is a no-mans-land. The days between Christmas and January first seem less important, less weighty, than other weekdays. The emphasis on the bookend holidays seems to make the days between them a slippery slope down which we slide toward the new year.

My inclination is to write the coming year on this year's last few checks. I have to stop myself from doing that this week. It seems that time is englobing us like an amoeba ingesting a mote of food.

A soft pop, some fireworks, and there we are: eligible for another birthday . . .

A good time was had . . .

What a get together we had on Christmas day. Excellent food, better than excellent company, watching five, squeaky-clean, little dogs plus one visiting puppy playing, sitting by the screened pool and feeling the evening come down while the breezes rose to meet it.

It was a Blessed day, all round.

Thank you Marcia and Ron for hosting this year's gathering. Thank you Zeta and M for seeing that we made the trip in one piece.

Most of all, thank you Jesus.

Merry Christmas
May God Bless Us, Every One!

Label goes here, no there . . .

Who needs re-positionable labels, I asked myself. I did this quietly because I was standing in front of the label section at Office Depot.

The four digit number used to identify my labels has been changed to a five digit one. And the newer labels are re-positionable. The catch in all of this is that my software does not have the new five digit identifier.

But the Avery people are smarter than I thought. The new labels worked just dandy with the old four digit identifier. Actually the new labels have the exact same last four numbers as the old labels did. You just have to intuit that they might work.

Also, I have actually lifted off one and placed it elsewhere. They really do re-adhere.

I have become an adherent, pun intended . . .

For the iPhone enabled . . .

The following information is target specific. I am not one of the targets, sadly.

For users of the iPhone, there is a new (free, always a good thing) app called Dragon Dictaton. I just saw it demonstrated by David Pogue who is, among other things, the New York Times technology columnist.

He called up the app and spoke into his iPhone inserting punctuation as he did so by saying the words comma, period, etc. His voice was turned into a perfectly spelled and punctuated TEXT message. Honestly.

And this is free? It is made by the Dragon, Naturally Speaking people who make speech recognition software. Free! Did I mention that?

Now, I don't have an iPhone or even a 3G phone at all. Being retired, I have access to the internet most of the day, anyway, from home. (That's my rationale for being cheap). So if I am so excited by the demonstration I witnessed, imagine what the iPhone user will be like.

Just had to share. Consider this a public service announcement . . .

Who are you and why am I?

Today, I actually did become take on some vampire-like characteristics. Well, one characteristic. Sunlight did not kill me. It just blinded me so that two pairs of sunglasses were needed. One of the two was a stylish pair of the old-guy, goggle-like, heavy sunglasses similar to the ones that cataract sufferers wear post surgery.

I was delighted to be able to peer at the world through them without my eyes watering. All this whining is the result of having my eyes dilated and then having one of them dilated again. I feared it might be stuck in the open position like a broken camera.

The world around me is slowly assuming its usual appearance. It seems that the tripped circuit breaker has reset itself.

Phew . . .

Changes . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

01 DOC

Mphmphm years ago, my life as the only living heir was disrupted by the birth of a baby. This event put me off playing with dolls and started my appreciation of the role of a pest in one's life. A pest will follow even if unwanted at the time. A pest will teach patience whether the spoiled only child wants to learn to be patient or not. A pest will always be there for you and will morph into a best friend for life.

That's the way it happened for me. I still miss my other self, living just down the street. My other kitchen, my tea buddy, my shopping companion. I miss the person who would listen to everything I had to say, no matter how foolish.

Life has changed, the neighborhood, the city, the state, all changed. There is one constant.

01 Doc is still the person she always was. And even though distant in miles,

Love is unchanged . . .

Vampire shopping . . .

A new hobby? A better way to buy? PiccPipper said it first. Zeta confirmed her opinion of the idea.

Vampire shopping (an hour or two before closing time) will ensure that all the normal people who shopped earlier in the day are tired out and have gone home. It means that the store is stocked out well in anticipation of tomorrow's opening hour. It means that there are no crowds and that a pleasant meander through the aisles is a possibility. Even a probability.

It also means that two large pork shoulder roasts (@ 39¢/lb.) came with a price tag of seven bucks plus change, and came without our suffering long lines and crushing crowds.

It also means that the possibility of sun-caused skin damage is diminished and that it is cooler. Where we live in the semi-tropics, these are positive side effects.

Shh, this is a piece of knowledge to keep to oneself - like a good fishing spot, say. Fellow shoppers just don't have an urgent need-to-know.

Do they . . .

Why us?

We were among the forgotten, yesterday. We were the missing ones. Our E-Z Go cart was placed streetside, wheels toward the house per instructions, on Sunday evening. Today, it is still there, stuffed and sated. It can eat no more.

Poor thing. I would feel even more sad about this situation if it were lonely. But, it's not. It has the company of like-minded carts all up and down the street.

So, not one of us received the gift of an empty E-Z Go cart yesterday. We all were skipped. I have a confirmation number from the department which is supposed to pick up the gar-bahj.

That is some consolation but I'd rather hear the big trucks a-comin' round the corner.

Come one, come all . . .

We have been monitoring, off and on, the razing and rebuilding of a shopping center at Bird and 87th. The closed, leveled, and now rebuilt Office Depot opened first, larger and much modernized. Later, we drove by and saw trucks loading merchandise into an airy, arch-fronted supermarket. We received a flyer in the mail, in due time, and decided to check it out on our way back up Bird.

We really should have known. The flyer listed things like pork shoulder at 39 cents a pound and loads of buy-one-get-one deals. We didn't even try. Both entrances were backed up with cars sitting on both 87th and on Bird, waiting to get into the full parking lot.

Cars making a left in front of us at the light kept turning after the green arrow became a firm red one. They parked across the intersection in two lines of determined bargain hunters and ignored the horns asking them to think about what they were doing.

It took us two light changes to get through the intersection.

That pork shoulder is tempting me, though. It would be great for barbecue in the slow cooker . . .

Reflective . . .

For a while, life is not as fast moving as it was just before T-giving. There is time to reflect. Time to savor the gracious life.

Okay, that's enough savoring. Time to gear up for Christmas. Twenty minutes between holidays is all the down-time we will get.

Two major family-gathering events weighted at the tag end of the year is just poor planning. One would think the Pilgrims might have been thankful in, say, late September. That's after the harvest, isn't it? What were they thinking?

The only household member who has any leisure wants to play with her bird toy. And now, please. Da Bird is her new obsession. Mew is on her third refill of feathers for it.

It's such a gracious and reflective gesture for Pet Supermarket to have sent us those $5 coupons . . .

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?