Friday, December 25, 2009

This Years Haul

Well no Mercedes but a good day.I received a great hooded sweatshirt from the Wellfleet Beachcomber,A Fenway Park,Red Sox long sleeve T-Shirt,a four CD set on the Philly Sound,a mutli dvd set of Charles Kuralts On the Road series,The hardcover book on America's Natl Parks from the recent Ken Burns Series,A jug of NYState maple syrup,A nice framed photo of an old barn in Naples,NY,a 2010 calender of old Rochester,NY photos,A Bluto Pez dispenser and several other gifts.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Let it Snow

I've been watching the Weather Channel a lot and they had a Guaranteed White Christmas contest going on and the winner turns out to be a family from Summerland Key which is down in the Florida Keys*.I'm thinking snow in the Keys,gee that's a novel thing but it isn't the straw snorting kind of snow so I can't wait to see what their backyard looks like when the Weather Channel gets done spraying the snow all over.*back in the early 90's we rented a place in Middle Torch Key down near Big Pine and each night we would walk down to the beach waving lanterns hoping to entice a coke boat to drop a load.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A X-Mas wish?

About nine days ago while waiting for the bus out front of Saint Timothy catholic church on the corner of Beverly Glen and Pico I was looking at the statue of Mary that is carved into one corner of the building outside.Someone had placed what looked like a bible on the ledge at her feet.Now it rained for four days after that and the bible got a bit wet but it was still there.So imagine my surprise this morning when waiting for the bus again I saw a wrapped gift box with bow on top sitting on top of the bible.It got me to wondering if the same person placed both items there or was it two different people and is it just an empty box or is something in it?While folks are leaving gifts at Saint Timothy up the street at our building some is taking gifts.For the second time in three months someone has walked off with one of the beautiful potted mixed succulents that graced our front steps prompting my neighbor to remove the other two up to the entrance door area.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Driving fun

On sunday I was waiting for the bus to go to Trader Joes and as I'm sitting on the steps of Saint Timothy's an asian woman in a large SUV pulled up to the light.She had her left hand on the wheel but in her right hand she had chopsticks.Now I've seen a lot of foolish things folks do while driving but this is the first time I've seen chopsticks.She was dipping down to the center console to whatever she was eating and I was hoping a police car would show up to set her straight on her really really dumb driving habits.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

A new Book Jones

So I rejoined Quality Paperback Book Club about ten days ago and today I received my five books for like 20.00.I now haveH.W. Brands"Traitor to His Class" about FDR,"down at the docks" by Rory Nugent about New Bedford and it's fishing industry,"The Last Fish Tale" by Mark Kurlansky about Glouecester and it's fishing industry,"The Virago Book of Ghost Stories" edited by Richard Dalby and last but best a coffee table sized hardback "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:the illustrated edition" which is a 40th anniv edition of a book I love and this illustrated edition is a beaut.New essays also included though I prefer one of my smaller paperback editions for bedside reading.The ghost stories book is all by female writers of mostly the past like Wharton,Nesbitt,Riddell etc.These are literate stories not the vampire type nonsense rampant now.I can't wait to read the Nugent vs Kurlansky books because they both write not only the history but the everday things.Kurlansky is much better known but I loved Nugents"The Search for the Pink Headed Duck" some years ago.Nugent is much more offbeat.So my to read pile is now approaching the National Debt but I blunder on.

Friday, December 4, 2009

It's a beautiful tree

I was wandering the frozen aisle at Ralphs Grocery on wed afternoon when I looked up at all the Xmass stuff for sale on top of the freezers and spotted"The Charlie Brown Xmas Tree"So I bought one and brought the box home and when Sweet Pea and Knuckle Sandwich came out on the patio I gave it to them and they scampered upstairs to pull it out of the box and put it together.It looks just like the pic.I see other ones online that don't come with Linus's blanke but that was the clincher for me.

It's a beautiful tree(pic)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tis the Season

I was up at the mall today looking for my XMass cards after a Kung Pao chicken lunch and man cards have gone up.I picked up one box and it was 32.00 for 14 cards.For that price I could give a few friends a pack of smokes for XMass like they do in Canada.I found a box of 20 smaller cards that I picked up to send to a few friends and stay in the good graces(wills) of several aging Aunts and Uncles.Passing by the post office sub-station at the mall I was surprised to see them getting a mail delivery from a letter carrier.Who knew the post office got a mail delivery? I wonder what they do with the junk mail.Finally my buddy did his Naples Run today and picked up two more jars of Sour Cherry jam for me.Oh and before I forget has anyone else seen the PBS special recently of Ed Sullivan and the music acts on his show.Some really good stuff and some of the nights I can recall where I was watching these for the first time.I swear though Mick Jagger is stuffing his pants when they do"I Can't Get no Satisfaction".