Bfth's Boring Blog

Background:  For 2+ years there has been a battle within my town over the development of a property close to my home.  Extreme nutshell version (because the whole story would is so detailed and convoluted that I can't even begin to try to explain it all):  the developer needed to get several variances in order to proceed.  Last night after countless meetings, the public was able to speak.  Here is what I said: I am a lifelong resident of this town.  My family has resided here before it even was incorporated into a town.  From childhood to adulthood I've seen this town grow and change, for better and for worse. I haven't come here to ask you to approve or deny this application.  What I'm asking is much more difficult.  I'm asking you, before you make your decision on theses variances, to think.  You've heard from the applicant.  You know why all of these residents of the town are here today.  It is time for you, the pla...

...air conditioners.  To be more specific, I don't like window units.  They are loud (even the quietest of units), they never get the room to the temperature they're set at and they don't last long. I admit that I've got some sort of strange phobia about them.  I never even thought it about it until I moved out of my family's home and on my own.  The house didn't have air conditioning.  It had been my grandparent's house and they had lived there for nearly 70 years (or at least my grandmother did) without any air conditioning.  (The house also had no shower either, just a bathtub, but that's another story.)  The first summer I didn't have any a/c.  My husband (than fiancé) would visit on the weekends in the summer and all he got was a fan.  But when he moved in that September, he brought his window unit with him. It was a good unit, but an old one.  If I recall correctly it lasted from the time he moved in (late 1995 so we would...

Today would have been my brother's 42nd birthday.  Here are 42 facts/memories/things about the boy I grew up with. His impending birth was the reason my family started going to the Jersey shore.  Prior to that my mom, dad and I went to Cape Cod.  But because my mom didn't want to be far from home we went to the Jersey Shore instead.  Twenty two years later my mom would finally be able to buy a house at the NJ shore. He was born during the day.  My mother left for the hospital while I was watching Sesame Street.  Don't think I paid much attention when they left. He was a scrawny runt when he was born.  They had to put him in a light box My mother got terribly sick after he was born. They both came home after a few days in the hospital (because that's how it was done), but my mom went back in after a day or so.  She left in the middle of the night and I don't remember much of that time frame. ...

In previous blog posts, I've admitted how financially tight things are for my family right now.  To be honest, "right now" has been going on for two years (when I was downsized).  Since August of 2012, I've been struggling financially as finding a new job with a similar salary proved impossible (at least just far) and finding a job period was a long and painful journey.  While I once considered myself middle class, I know now that I am part of the struggling class. (http:// bfthsboringblog . blogspot .com/2014/06/the-struggling-class.html)  In trying to be a realist, I'll admit that this status is most likely not going to change.  That is unless I suddenly hit the lottery and since the odds against me on that one (especially since I rarely use the dollar to try for the dream), I'm not counting on it.  While we are surviving/struggling on a single income there are things that we used to enjoy when I had a better salary and my husband had a job.  (Shame...

Life is good.  I try to live and breathe that.  I try to be positive about things because to be honest, being negative doesn't change things and only makes you more miserable.  That's not to say that I don't get down or negative.  (Although I wish I could say that was the case.) Life is good. I have a job that I am comfortable in.  I like the people.  I like what I do (thus far; I haven't been there that long).  The commute isn't bad (which is a big plus).  Of course I am making a salary equal to what I made 8 - 10 years ago and back then I was only supporting 2 people instead of 3 and the prices of things (like gas) wasn't quite what it is now. I have a great son who will be entering 4th grade. Of course, I haven't seen him that much this summer because he's been off at sleep away camp (courtesy of his paternal grandparents) or at the NJ shore/Marine Science Camp (courtesy of my parents). ...

My son just turned nine a week or so ago and it wasn't until my father happened to mention it that I realized that was born less than a week after his namesake.  Thus begins a tale of two   Jimmys . The first was my uncle.  He was my father's younger brother.  My childhood memories of him are of quick visits and then he was off again.  The army was his career and he did several tours of duty overseas.  I knew that he had been stationed in Germany (where he met the woman who he would marry) and then later did a year long stint in Korea (a deal/sacrifice he made so that his family could stay in one place for the rest of his army career.)  I remember what stuck with me after his time in Korea was his telling my family that you had to be careful when you went to the bathroom; apparently rats had invaded the toilets (at least wherever he was stationed).  Definitely an image that stays with a kid! My final memory of my uncle is at my wedding. ...

I love our feathered friends.  With my allergies, birds were my pet of choice.  As a really young girl, we had ducks, then later we had parakeets (Birdbrain, Aves and Farley) and lastly 2 canaries (Eastman and Ono --they were canaries that DIDN'T sing.  Seriously!  Don't ask me.  They were the only pets that I did not pick out myself; they were given to me as a gift.)  As a Jersey Shore girl, I love the ducks, swans and various other birds that paddle into the lagoon at my parent's house.  When we go out boating on the bay, I am also looking out for the osprey nests.  And sitting by the ocean, watching the seagulls and terns as the waves roll in is delightful. But then there are the dreaded poop monsters.  You KNOW what I am talking about; Canadian Geese.  (Also known as Canada Geese, although Canada has nothing to do with them; you can't blame this one on them as the geese are native to the northern US as well as Canada.)  The...

I LOVE cherry tomatoes, but not just any cherry tomatoes.  The kind you find at the grocery store are just so-so and even the local produce market only comes up short.  The absolute BEST cherry tomatoes (or any tomatoes for that matter) come from my father's garden.  Maybe it has something to do with the salt air and the dirt (mixed with local sand?) that makes them taste so great.  (Even better than the ones my dad used to grow in North NJ.)  I love to pick them fresh off the vine and eat them.  Delicious! This year he's had a bumper crop.  They are growing and growing.  There are little orange tomatoes lurking everywhere. My son spent the past week at the shore at Marine Science Camp (http://www. marinesciencecamp .com) and stayed with my parents.  Friday, he and my father went out and picked as many tomatoes as they could.  They came back with an entire bucket full of them.  (And this was a BIG bucket).  As much as ...

"Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. You'll wish that summer could always be here." I DO love summer, but this year has been anything but lazy.  There has, however been plenty of CRAZY. I have always associated summer with a slower time of life.  Even though I no longer get a summer vacation or summer break, summer always was a time to sit back and relax.  The weekends were slow with not much to do. But that has changed this year.  We are more than halfway through summer (as defined by the school year; not by the official calendar) and I've been running amok! For the most part, I knew what summer was going to bring me, and that there it would be a little bit more  hectic   than usual, but somehow this season has been spinning out of control. Not that I regret any of the things my family and I have done (or plan to do before the summer is over), but I think I'm going to need a break after this summer break! It goes some...