Today

 

Today is a special day. 

Today we are called to….

We had a special event at our house yesterday.  A hawk was spotted under the bird feeder (and subsequently kind of under the porch)!  

At the same time, it was eerily quiet in the back yard. The other birds were in hiding!

I think this hawk was actually holding a squirrel, ensuring that it was deceased before consumption. It was still enjoying dinner when we left the house for date night. 

This morning all hubby could find was a bloody bone. 

Hawks are good for keeping the rodent population down.  For this reason, we are always happy to see them in our yard. 

They seem to take no delight in the kill, and the prey usually don’t have long to suffer. I tend to think that most of the time the prey don’t even know what hit them. 

But, like us, hawks need to eat, and this is what they do. 

On this fourth of March, I hope you are able to march forth today in spite of any challenges you may be facing. (We all have them!)

Jan 26

 Peter's brewing experiment yielded excellent results.  

However, this has opened a can of worms.  (Not literally.)  

He now wants to duplicate the recipe but with purchased hops, 

as opposed to his home grown hops.  

To do this, we needed to make another trip to Wyoming, RI, for supplies. 

Following that, we drove south to Watch Hill.  We had a "car picnic" with a nice view.  

As we drove home, we passed the Watch Hill Fire Department, 

where I noticed a large number of fire hydrants to the side of the building!

I quickly Googled it and found that they will be in the Guinness Book of World Records, 

with over 226 fire hydrants in their collection!  

They are hoping to reach 300.  We turned around to take a closer look.  

It was so cool and interesting to find this little gem!

The Watch Hill Fire Department's Multi-Colored Hydrant Collection - WESTERLY RI

The Watch Hill Fire Department's Multi-Colored Hydrant Collection - WEST... While not yet, perhaps someday the Watch Hill Fire Department’s unique and colorful collection of fire hydrants ...

It was nice to get out on a sunny day, 

even though we couldn't be outside of the car much due to the cold and wind.

Not much else going on as I await my turn for a vaccine.....which will be a while!

So I'll end with a smile for today:

Geologist Finds Rare Formation Inside Rock That Looks Exactly Like Cookie Monster on Sesame Street

Geologist Finds Rare Formation Inside Rock That Looks Exactly Like Cooki... Geologists have found a rare formation inside a rock that looks just like the Cookie Monster character from Sesa...

Take care,

Barbara

Crazy times

 Here is a video to watch when you think everything is going wrong.

https://media.rainpos.com/4417/cheeryouup1.mp4

Holidays 2020

 We made it through Christmas!  Welcome 2021!

We actually had a fun Christmas after the stress of distributing gifts and food to everyone.  I cooked a spiral ham, made skillet potatoes, gluten free rolls, and gluten free pierogi (with Peter's help).  We portioned out some frozen veggies.  Add to that my gluten free fruitcake and biscotti.....and I finally managed to snag some Torrone, with a combination of Amazon and Stop and Shop.  

On Wednesday, we drove north to bring food and gifts to Katie.  She gave us gifts for others.  

On Thursday we dropped stuff off for my brother, George, then drove to John's, who gave us a gift for George, so we then visited our good friends in Newington and dropped off their gifts, then went back to George's to give him the gift from John.  

We were home with time to relax before watching Mass online.  

The good part in all of this is that on Christmas Day there wasn't much cooking to do!

I assigned the virtual celebrations to the kids.  On Christmas Eve, John hosted.  We ate dinner together, then he gave us a virtual tour of his house (now pretty much set up).  After that, we opened presents.  It was all fun although a bit difficult to see everyone's presents very well.  

On Christmas Day, Katie hosted our "brunch."  We weren't very hungry yet so we settled for cheese and crackers.  Our Newington friends, Marcin and his daughter Vivienne (6), joined us.  (Gosia had to work.)  

Katie treated the whole thing like a virtual classroom....and we began by creating 5-minute Christmas drawings from a simple angular line.  Here's what mine looked like:

And here's what Peter "drew."  It shows how children have reached a new record "excitement level" as Christmas approaches.  You can see that there was a low in April, presumably from Covid.   As always, additional research is needed on this....

We also played a Christmas movie trivia game and cut out snowflakes.  In the end, we had little packages that we had to smash with our fists.  This set off a chemical reaction inside which generated a gas.....probably CO2, and the package POPPED.  Out came an inflated ornament!!!

All the while Katie had on her "teacher hat" and coached us.  It was fun to see her in action!

The fish story

 Once upon a time, as a young college student  

walked to and from classes at UConn, 

she looked down and spotted a fish.  

Well, no, it wasn't exactly a fish.  

It was a squashed beer can top, 

but it looked exactly like a fish!

Fascinated, she picked up the fish and put it in her pocket.  

When she saw a friend that lived in the next dorm over, 

she turned it so it looked just like a fish and asked, 

"What do you see?"

"A smooshed beer can top!"  he responded.

"Doesn't it look like a fish?" the young woman asked.

"It looks like a smooshed beer can top!" he insisted.

So much for that.  

The young woman asked another friend or two, 

who provided similar responses.

What, was she the only creative thinker here?  

Maybe she was just nuts.  

Soon she would be seeing her boyfriend.  

If he didn't see it, perhaps she was being silly.  

She pulled out the smooshed beer can top, 

set exactly so that it looked like a fish, and asked,

"What does this look like to you?"

"A fish!" he exclaimed, without hesitation.

The young man got points that day.  

This is not to say that correctly identifying a fish 

was the reason the young woman eventually married him, 

but the event stuck with her.  

He identified the fish.  

The young woman kept the fish in her jewelry box forever.

Covid Chronicles, Week 34

 The coolest event from this week is my "Coffeepot story". 

It's a bit long, but a heartwarming story for me:

We'll start with my parish priest, Father Mark.  

Father Mark is awesome.  

He came to us a few years ago, with his two dogs, Harry and Oliver.  

Father Mark is inspiring when he gives his homilies.  

He gets your attention with his understanding of events and feelings.  

Father Mark has attracted many new parishioners, built up many of our programs, 

and created a true sense of community.  

Father Mark built up a website, a Facebook page, 

and set us up with an app that provides all information anyone might need 

at the touch of a finger.  

He's probably the best parish priest we have ever had!

When Covid hit, Father further showed his forward thinking and innovation.  

We were quickly able to watch Mass at our parish via either Facebook or directly online.  

He has been giving weekly video messages in addition to the recorded homilies.  

The Coffeepot story begins about two weeks ago, 

when I was getting shipping notifications about some sort of mystery box.  

I couldn't figure out what might be coming from Walmart!  

I don't even have an account there!

Perhaps something I ordered from Amazon was coming via Walmart?  

Who knows these days?

A large box was parked on my doorstep.  I opened it to find......

a coffeemaker???

Oh, rats.  Gotta spend my time fixing this now.

I first went the route of the online chat.  

What's your order number?

I don't have an order number!

Oh, what's your email?

I can't see why they need my email, but I give it to them. 

Etc.  

I learned that the item was ordered by 

an obscure one-truck shipping company, 

and I learned that they paid for it.  Not me.  

(I've never heard of them before this!)

In the end, I was supposed to get a shipping label 

and it would be picked up by the USPS, to return to Walmart.  

Well, I never got the shipping label 

but I did get an email from the USPS that they were picking it up.

What do I know?  

I set it out BEFORE our mail came, with the email attached.

I left it out all day.  We were away for part of that day.

We came home and it was still there. 

It got dark and it was still there.

I figured that I'd better bring it inside.

(Who wants their house to look like no one is home 

with a big box on the doorstep, anyway?)

The next morning, I got an email from the USPS 

that they attempted to pick up my package but it was not there.

No mention of when this might have occurred.....

Oh, no.  

I got on the computer and found a phone number for Walmart. 

What's your order number?

I don't have an order number!

What's your email?

Good grief!!!

After talking to TWO people there, 

my second person said that if I didn't hear back, 

I could keep it, donate it, or do whatever I'd like.  

The box sat in my TV room for 10 days, awaiting its fate.  

Finally, we decided no one was going to call us.  

We don't need a coffeemaker.

On a daily basis, we use the low-tech Mellita filter method.

With company, we already have a different drip coffeemaker.  

I opened everything up again and took a picture of the item.

I sent the picture with an offer to Father Mark:

Did he want it?

Did he know where it can be of good use? 

Well he took it!

I think it's for his use, but that's FINE with us.

He certainly deserves a break!

Peter dropped it off at the parish office yesterday afternoon.  

Well, I'm sure you have experienced the happy effect of giving away something.  

I'm grateful for that opportunity!

Covid Chronicles, Week 33

 The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting chillier.  

We attempted to take our weekly picnic last Friday at the Jones Winery in Shelton.  

When I researched the website, it was apparent that they do not allow outside food.  

Wine is served by the glass with a reservation.  

However, you can stop in and purchase just wine bottles without a reservation.  

We packed up our little cooler, coordinated our driving with some other stops that needed to be made (which included a free boxed lunch from Yale-New Haven Health for pharmacy week), and pulled in just as it started to drizzle a little.  (What?  No, that was not in the forecast!)

Two bottles of a chianti-like wine.  Can you please open one?

Believe it or not, the answer was no!  

Note to self:  Keep a bottle opener in the cooler from now on.  

We drove to a nearby state park, named "Indian Well."  

(Okay, I'm sure it was named a long time ago!)

It was drizzly, but we parked by the river and enjoyed a "car picnic."  

We talked about how "car picnics" might be fun once December hits.

(Gotta do something to get out!)

We got out of the car to walk around after we finished our lunch. 

It was beautiful!  

(Except for the wet grass, which resulted in wet socks under my sneakers.)  

Here are some photos:  

I was fascinated by the glittering effect of the raindrops on the clover!

Finally, here's a cool thing I found.....

Glastonbury, Connecticut - Fall Drone Tour

Glastonbury, Connecticut - Fall Drone Tour

It's a four minute aerial tour of Glastonbury in the fall.