Anniversaries

We are coming up on our fourth anniversary here at this house in the Poconos. We moved in April 1, 2006 and a part of us is amazed that we do not miss more of the things that were a part of our everyday life in NJ. This coming Monday is also the 29th anniversary of our first meeting at the St Patrick's parade in Philadelphia. My, how time seems to escape us, but I know we have not circumvented it. I look at pictures of us in our youth and realize that in many cases, the years have not been kind. But I look in my husbands eyes and the young man I married is still there - I hope he sees the same thing in mine.

But as the snow is finally melting and we see our lawn again, I was pondering what I miss about NJ. Bagels! Nobody up here makes bagels like they do around our old home turf. Some are close, but it must be something with the water or whatever. Yet I know there are many people who will insist that NYC has the best bagels - it is all what you know and grow up with, I imagine. There was one bagel place near where I grew up that made the bagels every night for the next day's deliveries to local restaurants and, if you went there after 2 am, they would sell you a fresh baked bagel right out of the oven - great after a night of clubbing, etc. Now one of my friends in NJ makes a point of bringing me bagels when she sees me; takes pity on the poor soul who cannot get a good bagel!

Another thing is pizza. For some reason the favorite version of pizza in this area appears to be what is called 'Old Forge Pizza,' named after the town the other side of Scranton that calls itself the 'Pizza Capital of the World.' Please! American cheese has no business being in the cheese mix used on top of a pizza unless you are making it at home for a child! Crispy crust, mozzarella cheese, fresh sauce (not ladled from a can), oil dripping down your arm - that is a pizza and it is something we just cannot seem to find up here. Again, must be this cool, clean water in the mountains!

But in the scheme of things, I guess I miss the ocean the most. We never lived more than an hour from the beach in NJ (by the way, people who grew up near the NJ shore tended not to call it 'The Shore' until it became the jargon used by the tourists. We went to the Beach!), and when we needed to clear our heads and get perspective on life, we would drive to the ocean and just sit and look. The ocean never changes and yet is constantly changing. Very zen. We are not hurting badly for the ocean view, we have our beautiful mountains, but about twice each year, I need to look again. Just to be sure that life continues, the air is still salty and the breezes can chill you to the bone. I tend not to go during tourist season - learned that from growing up near the shore area - but usually about mid-winter and autumn, I convince my friend to go to the beach, to sit and just look.

I also miss just walking around the corner to the store or a restaurant. I miss that particularly during a heavy, snowy winter. Used to be if I did not feel like cooking, we could just walk around the corner for Chinese, Fried Chicken, Pizza, Bagels - selections were practically endless. Most times we could not decide which kind restaurant to order from - too many choices. I admit that we eat healthier now.

The Storms of February, 2010

We thought we were pretty lucky this winter. We had some snowfalls of 6 to 8 inches, one time a foot of snow was recorded, but Philadelphia and Washington, DC, etc. always seemed to get it worse. We were almost through February and it would be a downhill slide into the warmth of Spring. Stupid Groundhog! I had a feeling when Punxitawny Phil saw his shadow that there would be trouble. We got socked the last week of February, setting snowfall records for our area, as well as Scranton and Wilkes Barre. Yes, I know - Philadelphia set new records for the season. We set new records for largest one day amounts in February, as well as records for most accumulations for February - all in one week.

The good news is my car is in the garage - the bad news is my car is probably going to stay in the garage for about another two weeks. Five foot drifts would test the will of anyone going anywhere if they do not have to. We have my husband's car, which we parked down by the end of the driveway before the snow hit - wise move. After the snowfall, getting to the car was another matter. Neat foot path - we may drive the car up to the house in a couple of weeks too.

I am thinking more about Spring than I normally do, but what I am really looking forward to this year is painting our living room. It has taken us 4 years to figure out what color we would like and it is - beige! A cop-out to be sure, but we have paneling all through this house and, as I have said before, we are afraid to pull it down for fear of what is behind it. For example, if there is no drywall, then we have to put that up first, then paint or whatever. So the idea of what color to paint, or wallpaper over the paneling becomes a major conundrum. So we are going the easy way out with a pale beige so at least this tired paneling is covered and if we have to paint again, we are not trying to cover a bolder color. Four years - cannot rush these things.

We also need some other things looked after around the house. After all this snow - oh, yes, the total is about 3 feet and it is snowing as I type this - I am sure there will be many surprises awaiting us under this white covering. I would like to have some electrical problems resolved, as well as some steps added to the walk behind our house. And the garden again - this year we hope to grow more than squash, or at least I hope to grow other produce. There is always hope...

Reflections on Joy

I am not sure why I have been thinking about the concept of 'Joy' lately; maybe because we had so much sorrow over the Christmas with the sickness and consequent death of two of our cats; or maybe it is the doldrums of winter. Our winter has not been that bad, so something triggered this pondering of feelings.

Joy, to me, is something more than happy or even happiness. Joy is something that is accomplished, or anticipated. For example, the Biblical concept of Joy was experienced upon the birth of Jesus, as that was anticipated and desired. Not to compare ordinary life with the Joy involved in the Savior, but a feeling of Joy stays with you and does not come around often.

My earliest memory of feeling Joy was when I was 4 years old (yes, I remember back that far - it is last week I have a problem with). My father brought home - what looked to me then - a huge two-wheel bike that someone had cast off. He fixed it up, painted it, and never put training wheels on it because he said it was time for me to ride a two-wheeler. So I excitedly went with him onto our dead-end street and got on the bike that he had fixed up for me. The basket on the front was bigger than me! My feet barely reached the peddles! But I was going to ride, because my father said I could. He held on to help me get on, then pushed - yes, pushed - me up the road. Fell on the front curb, but I did not cry (wanted to). Back up on the bike, then he pushed and yelled for me to peddle - peddling might of worked, but now there was this telephone pole in front of me - hit that! Try again, but now that my mother has realized what was going on, my father runs beside me and gets me to peddle, gives with a little push (enough of the pushing!) and I go into the neighbor's hedge. At least that was softer... Two more times into the hedge and now my father is threatening to put the bike away until next year - a whole year? So, one more time and I avoided the hedge, the pole, the curb and I was riding! Turning and stopping - not so much (my father had to catch me) - but I was riding! Joy!

The next time I remember Joy was the day my brother was coming home from Viet Nam. The anticipation, the praying, the watching my mother age before my eyes while he was there, were all resolved when he walked off that plane. Damaged in so many ways, as we found out years later, but at that moment - Joy!

Our wedding day, in spite of the threat of rain and a rampaging mother because of a messed-up catering order, proved to be a day of exhaustion and abject Joy.

The last time I have felt real Joy was for my 50th birthday party. I was happy to live to that point, happy to have my husband healthy and next to me, happy to have my friends share my happiness. Things got all screwed-up when I went back to work the following Tuesday, but that night I experienced Joy. I hope those people who were there that night saw that - they really have not seen it from me since.

I am happy. I love my husband, our Pocono home, our cats. I feel a thrill watching the moon, the stars, the sunsets and sunrises. The mountain and lake views we experience take my breath away. I am not complaining, I am just reflecting. I hope you do as well.

Ready for Winter

NOW we are ready for winter. Almost half-way through the season and the house is much more comfortable. The nice young men from the county weatherization program did a wonderful job finding the air leaks, the poor fits on doors and windows, insulation. Cute young men - if I were younger, thinner, single - who am I kidding here?

Some embarrassment occurs when strangers start fussing about your house, at least for me. Finding dust bunnies, cobwebs, grease spots - I swear I went around this house looking for those issues before they arrived. The guys were nice about it; they said that the blower they used to test for leaks knocks stuff out of the smallest corners, etc. I can imagine some of the things they have seen. Our most memorable incident for them was finding a dead snake in our fireplace. The one guy said "I don't want to upset you, but we found this snake..." To which I said, "Another one!" He was expecting the 'girly' response; I know he will be talking about that to the 'guys.'

What really impressed me is these guys were working very hard, squeezing into tight areas, moving heavy equipment, including a refrigerator that did not fit into the door very well - and they never cursed once! Not even a sincere "darn!" We had snacks and coffee and donuts for them, but they insisted on eating their lunch outside in their truck each day. We told them to come inside, etc., but I have a theory - they were talking about us and getting any cursing/cussing out of their system during that break.

It was really cold each day they were here, so of course they had to keep the outside doors open to weatherstrip them. We had snow, so of course they were outside putting a new storm window up. It was slippery, so that would be the perfect time to bring in a new refrigerator (nice one, too). The only damage we sustained was a latch on our back storm door when the refrigerator caught it. Not bad.

So now that is all accomplished, the weather has broken and we have had 40 degree temperatures today with no wind. My husband and I took advantage of the warmer weather and did some additional weatherization, such as covering our exhaust fan and fixing some plastic we had on the windows. I wish we were as efficient as those young men were - what would take them 1/2 hour at most takes us two hours to complete.

Winter will be back soon, so I am sure this will show how well the improvements function.

New Decade

As I am writing this, the weatherbug on my computer says it is 8 degrees outside. Now the windchill is probably minus 10 - yippee, winter in the Poconos! We are getting used to this - we may not like it, but this is not an unexpected event. This weather is why they sell insulated underwear and warm sweaters and coats. The usual - dress in layers, warm the car, stay out of the direct wind - oh, and the wind is whipping out there at a constant 20 MPH, with gusts up to 50 MPH. Good thing we used bungee cords and wire ties on the Christmas decorations! And we gave up on the inflatable balloon things - seen too many of them laying deflated on the ground because to inflate them is to invite them to travel - maybe to the next county!

It is nights like these that shows how little insulation is in the walls of this house built circa 1930. Back then they probably heated with coal, which was cheap , and an air-tight house was not necessary. I feel the breeze coming in in places that I thought we had covered already.

This week we are going to be visited by the county home energy program for three days to winterize our house. They are supposed to blow in insulation, wrap windows, replace some storms doors, and give us a new refrigerator (the one that came with this house is an energy beast - I wish they gave new ranges too.)

Being under-employed can work out sometimes, as we meet the income guidelines for this free service. Yay/Boo. Still, I am so looking forward to this and I wish we could have had this done before the cold hit. We had to wait for PA to pass their budget, then we had to wait for the materials to be ordered. Still, I am not complaining - really. We wanted to do this on our own, but if someone offers their expertise, who are we to say no?

This cold makes me very happy that we cleared a spot in our garage for one of the cars. Not real warm in there, but out of the wind. Of course it is my car, not my husband's - my car is more finicky about the cold, being a Toyota. Wish we could put both cars in our 'supposed' two car garage, but the one bay is really too narrow. Never noticed the difference until we fixed the doors. Guess we need an even smaller car? We could pull the car in, just cannot open the doors (oh, shucks). We needed workspace anyway; to stand out in the cold, but out of the wind.

Checkers

Things get busy around here during the holidays. Our friends know why and I will not go into details here. But on top of our usual hub-bub, we have had an issue with our cats all getting sick at once. Very confusing to us, and life has become miserable for them. Humans understand when they are sick with a cold to ride it out; animals just want to hide from it.

Checkers

About 12 years ago we have a nasty storm around Christmas time (sound familiar?), with winds and blowing snow. More wind that snow, and bitter cold. We had decorated our house for Christmas with a large plastic light-up Santa that I had purchased with one of my first paychecks as a teenager (that is another story). We tied it up on top of our porch roof, but it could not stand up to the winds that day and blew off the roof with a tremendous crashing noise - at 5 am, of course. My husband ran outside as the sound was so loud, we thought a car had crashed into the house. The news of the 'death' of my Santa did not go well, but even worse was our front door did not shut all the way against the horrible wind when he came back in. When the door blew open, one of our cats, Scottie, ran out. We spent two weeks searching for Scottie, going door-to-door, posting fliers - the usual. We purchased a humane trap, set it in our back yard and put in his favorite food to temp him. That is how we got Checkers. (We caught Scottie the day after.)

We could have let Checkers go, since she was feral, but she seemed so calm in the trap that we brought her in and confined her to a bathroom until she could acclimate to her surroundings, and until we could get her to a vet to be sure that she did not have anything that would hurt our other cats. I would go in to visit her, and she would come up to me very shyly, full of trepidation, but willing to be pet and held. These little visits were very precious to me.

We took her to our vet and Checkers was in perfect health, about 6 months old, and, of course, ready to be spayed. She came home and took up residence in the bathroom until she was healed. Having sniffed each other through the bathroom door, there was very little excitement when she joined the rest of the group. Then she met Ike, our pure white deaf cat. It was love at first sight on her part and our little cuddle sessions were now over. She bonded to Ike and I guess she figured she only needed him and the female human was now unnecessary. I was disappointed, but she became Ike's hearing buddy, so I did not push the issue. The only times I got to hold her again were when I was able to trim her claws, or when we moved. These escapades consisted of corralling the poor cat into a small space, donning oven mitts, and wrapping her in a towel or shoving her in a carrier.

The minute she arrived here in the Poconos house, she laid down her boundaries: feed her, let her buddy up to Ike, and let her hide when we come near. We tolerated all this because she was the world's best mouser. No fooling around with the prey, like the rest of the cats; she would just whack it! We started calling her Ms. Soprano.

I believe, and our new veterinarian agrees, that one of those mice that dared come into our house brought this bug that they are all suffering from now. Checkers, being the real assassin, got it the worst. We were able to catch her to take her to the vet only because she had grown so weak. She had pneumonia.

The vet told us we would have to medicate her everyday and really subject her to some intensive care. We knew that once she got her strength back, if she did, she would fight us. It would all be torture to her. She was so sick and she had no fight left in her. I know she told me it was time to go. I know, silly, talking to a cat, but I swear when I told her what we thought about doing and that Ike would be joining her soon (he is 18), she relaxed and gave me a final gift. She let me hold, cuddle and caress her beautiful fur one last time. No more fight.

We buried her under the magnolia tree where we have the others who have passed since we moved here. We have a spot next to her for Ike when he chooses to go. I think he misses her, I know I do.

I know this is a self-indulgent posting. Thank you for reading.

First Snow

So we had our first snow for the season this week. We received 3 to 4 inches, no biggy, and it was 'fairy tale' snow - it only gathered on the trees and the grass and melted on the roads. No hard freeze that night, so we have a Camelot situation. Pretty good. Now, the bad news - our beautiful fall foliage was still on the trees, so the heavy, wet snow caused some damage and power outages. And we all complained, boy, did we complain. Nothing cheerful about getting snow on October 15. Especially with all the foliage tours and Oktoberfests planned for this weekend.

In the scheme of things, it was not as bad as the first snow last year on October 28. This was predicted, unlike that one, where a few flurries turned into approximately two feet! I noticed many people had a more resigned aura about them. It is going to happen, we will complain, and life goes on. Are we prepared? The stores rushed the snow blowers and salts out front, moving aside the Christmas decorations. (Halloween, Thanksgiving - that stuff is in the back marked down already. One town has their Halloween parade today - not like Halloween is on a Saturday this year - just get it over with!) But I think most people figured this would melt and we would be okay, depending on how many snows they have seen. Now the one that was predicted for tonight into tomorrow is another matter. This one may cause a little panic, as it is associated with a "classic Nor'easter" - batten down the hatches, matey!

On another issue, the flu (scream here). My husband got his flu shot last week - not the H1N1 - and the vaccine was administered into his arm and shot right back out! The pharmacist giving the shot had never seen that happen before - neither had my husband, of course. The two men just sat there and looked at each other for a while, after the original exclamation of "huh?" "What now?" The pharmacist examined the needle - nothing wrong - he examined the arm - nothing wrong - he harrumphed and mumbled and my husband is asking "Well?" No bone was hit, and no offense to my hubby, but his muscles are not that pumped. So, we have to go back in 1 month for another flu shot, for free, because we are not sure if any vaccine got in at all. Weird. Can hardly wait for whatever the H1N1 vaccine brings.