Posts

Since We're All Talking About It...

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  I know its 2026, but it's feeling like 2020 a bit again with all this brouhaha over Dr. Fauci.  Useless and time wasting brouhaha, in my opinion.   Do you remember 2020?  March 2020 when it all began.  It seems like a long time ago, but it really wasn't. Remember the chaos and the confusion? We were only going to be out of school/work and over all this is for a couple weeks. Perhaps we all knew on some level but that wasn't going to happen? Two weeks to eradicate this deadly virus that had taken over the entire world? That was going to take a lot of planning, a lot of work, and a serious medical solution.  Do you remember how terrified most of us were? How people were dying faster than medical professionals could keep up with him? The portable freezers which they kept the bodies? People going into the hospital and not coming out? Medical professionals covered head to toe and protective gear doing their best to save lives? The hopelessness they mu...

Dear Mom & Dad: August 1st

  Well it's the first day of August.  It's also a Saturday.  It's a summer Saturday which means sailboat races on Barnegat Bay .  And today is the 50th annual Sanderling Regatta which was renamed in your honor 4 years ago. Usually this particular race would fall on a Saturday in July, but this year...well the only reason I knew it was happening was because I got an email from your friend (and mine...sort of) Mrs. P which notified me.  Otherwise I would have had no clue.  I wouldn't have even known if it still existed.  I'm glad it still exists; even though on the club calendar it gives the time as 10-11 AM and we all know that it takes much longer than that.  Additionally there is " Fiesta Night " which starts at 5 PM (supposedly), which I know would thrill you mom.  (Is my sarcastic tone loud enough here?)  After all, eating and drinking must take precedence over sailing, right?  (Well I'm old enough to remember when it did...

Rainy Days and Flooding...

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Always bring me down.   Yes, I know that's not the right lyric.  (Maybe you didn't know...unless you are of a certain age you might not know the Carpenters and that's a darned shame.)   This month has been an exceedingly strange one.  Hot.  Wet.  Cold.  Clammy.  Windy.  Rainy.  Soggy.  Moist.  Damp.  Totally unpredictable.   At the start of the month (and how can it almost be over already?) we had horrible heat and rain.  Storms that flooded areas and brought down trees.  (Yes, we still have the two downed trees that take out part of our driveway and the street.  I've got to call the tree guy again today.  I knew it was going to be a while due to the massive amount of damage that had gone in the area, but it's been nearly 3 weeks, sigh...)   Last Tuesday when I drove back to PA, I left the office early.  I left early because there had been storm warnings.  Warnings that incl...

Dear Kim ,

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I'm writing this blog post to you because I don't have your email address and I blocked the number that you sent a text to me on. I had a few things I want to say to you so I thought I'd start here.    You, a person that I don't know, or perhaps you are a bot, sent me a text last week asking me if I'd be interested and discussing the property I own in New Jersey. You, some random person or AI creation, just decided send me a text? On the off chance that I might want to sell you, someone I don't know and doesn't even have a last name, my house and land. Who would do that? Well I guess you would! (Whoever or whatever you are.) I suppose it might seem like a good idea to somebody to randomly text a person and see if they might want to sell you, a random stranger, a plot of land.    I am sure you got my name, number and address from public records. You probably just searched the public record and saw that the property officially became mine in 2022. But let ...

Chips & Pickles (Pickles & Chips)

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I like food. I am fat. Even when I was at my absolute finished, which wasn't that thin, I was still fat. Now I am not at my thinnest, which I doubt I will ever be again, and I am still fat. And I still like food.  I can't decide if I would be thinner or fatter if I didn't have the multitude of food allergies that I have. Would being able to get anything I wanted to make me more discriminating and/or eat less? Or is the fact that I am restricted to certain things that makes me eat more of what I can eat? This question will probably never be answered.  I do have questions about two food items that I can eat and that I really like. Maybe someone out there can answer them for me. Let's give it a go shall we?  B&G bread and butter pickles : In my book these are the best pickles out there. I prefer the chips over the sandwich slices but will take either. They used to be relatively inexpensive. And so did their sweet relish. That changed around th...

Morning Observations from the Mountains

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It's another summer day here in the Poconos. As usual I got up early to go for a walk before it got too hot. Thankfully the temperature here at 5:00 in the morning was only around 66 degrees.  Today is supposed to be a little cooler (but not that much) than it has been over the past several days where temperatures came close to hitting the triple digits. Not at all what you want in the mountains in the summer! (It’s SUPPOSED to be cooler here!) As a matter of fact, it was so hot and humid that are pest control company rescheduled our maintenance appointment due to the heat. However the heat didn't stop the company that asphalted the driveway at our next door neighbors. Are they crazy? Hot asphalt on the nearly 100° day? Glad that's not what I do! (And I really am glad that my son is working in retail. Yes there may be annoying customers, but at least he's inside and an air conditioned building.) Anyway, here are some of the things that I saw, smelt, and heard at this ea...

Who Was John Kilbury?

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  Since America has turned 250 it's been a renewed interest in those who served during the American Revolution. I have known for most of my life that I was a descendant of a man who fought in the revolutionary war. His name was John Kilbury. (And no, that's not him in the photo above...You should all KNOW that would have been impossible.  It is  however a photo of my grandfather,  Clinton Kilbury, who is the reason I am related to John.) I know all of this because I am a member of  the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). I joined as a young woman (perhaps even a teen I can't remember), because my mother told me I had to. Yes, I did what my mother told me I had to do.  My mother was a member and also served as a chapter secretary because her father's sister (that would make my mother’s aunt), Bertha Kilbury Latham did all the research and became a member of the DAR. So I guess I owe a debt of gratitude to great aunt Bertha!  I never met the ...