Tax time

The dreaded time of year is here. Time to do my taxes. Each year I vow to do them on Jan.31st. the next year but that never happens. I have to spend so much time looking for all the info that I need and then fill out a lengthy set of papers for the tax man's perusal and then drive them out to his office and then still wait a week or so to pick them up.

Last night we went to a chilli cookoff at the Bonnycastle Club. It was fun. Paul's chilli came in first but the fellow that sat at our table told us (while Paul was not at the table) that Paul paid off the judges. This guy swears that he personally heard Paul buying beers for the judges! Do you believe that? Scott was in the running also and his chilli, named Bambi's Best or something like that, used up some of his deer meat. I'm not sure my innards would take well to deer,so I abstained. However, his chilli got rave reviews. I did eat Paul's ,The World's Best Chilli, and tried some of the others too. I was a little concerned about the reason behind the naming of the "Wounded Chilli. " People complained that the "Arizona Chilli" was not hot enough but I really liked the "Fowl Chilli" It was quite good. Almost anything that you can put grated cheese and sour cream on is bound to tast good. All in all it was a good evening. I always enjoy going to the BC's affairs.

338 days left till the new president takes office.

Quote for today:"Because he's hiding."
_President Bush, explaining why 911 mastermind Osama bin Laden hasn't been apprehended,Jan 16, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day

I didn't do a blog yesterday because when I got home from school I had no power. Even the phones did not work. JoAnne A. came over when she saw my car and said she had already done the calling to report it. LG& E had crews of men in the area trimming the trees out in back and they accidentally felled one of the limbs across the wires. There was a minor explosion, JoAnn said and it seems a fuse burned out in the transformer behind JoAnn's house. The tree cutters called LG&E and reported it so they came out pretty quickly to repair it and get the power restored. The house got cold in a hurry with the power out.

Today Klondike had a "sweetheart luncheon" for all of the residents and their spouses. They had a rose and a small heart shaped box of Russell Stover Candy for the guest spouse.. By the time I got there Doc had already eaten the candy. He didn't exactly act the part of a sweetheart. He refused to eat the lunch except for the cupcake and a glass of coke along with the small box of candy and he would not go to the activity room where the party took place. I guess he considered the "sweet" part meant he should eat all the sweets he could get his hands on. Linda had brought him a couple of Hersey bars last time she came and he vowed not to eat them because his blood sugar has been so high. I check each day to see if they are still in his drawer and have been proud of his restraint but they were gone today so I guess we can add those to the sugar binge he indulged in. He has been getting an insulin shot every day for about two weeks and today's intake of sugar will probably send his sugar count off the chart. Woe is he!

341 days left till we get a new president.
Quote for today:
" More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than--I say more Muslims--a lot of Muslims have died__I don't know the exact count_at Istanbul. Look at these places around the world where there's been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill."
_President Bush, making the complex issues sound so simple.
January 29,2004

Snow at last,Snow at last, Thank God,it's snow at last.

We haven't had this much snow for the last three years! I was elated to see the forecast finally come through. We had three to six inches they said on TV but we didn't have much more than three on Mamaroneck. However, I am not complaining. It is a sandwich type snow. Snow layer, then ice then more snow. then more ice. I was sitting in the living room and I could hear the mailman crunching across the yard before he got to the porch. I am really enjoying it. It is so beautiful. I was awakened at 5:30 AM by the snowplow going up and then back down our street. I heard on the news that they had spread 7 tons of salt on the streets. WOW.

I did make it to the Nursing Home. I called ahead to see if the hill that you have to go up to reach the parking lot was de-iced and they said it was all cleared so I went. That 's one of the good benefits of having a Day Care facility on the same property as the Home.

Did I mention that we had no school!

343 days until we have a new president

Quote for the day: "I am not going to give you a number for it, because it is not my business to do intelligent work."
_ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ,when asked at a congressional hearing how many Iraqi insurgents there were. February 16, 2005

Slow Lane News

Back in March or April I talked with one of the residents at the Nursing Home who is 93 years old. At that time she was wondering why God was letting her keep living. She said she tries to figure out why she is still here. I've talked to her often since then and I love her take on what goes on around her every day. When I pass her room she is always sitting about a foot and a half from the TV watching all the shows. Today she was sitting in her doorway and I stopped and greeted her. She can't see me very well but she knows my voice and will always say, "Is that you, Betty?" She said she was waiting for one of the therapist to come and walk with her. She said ,"I walk every day but I don't think I get much better. I walked into this place but I haven't been able to walk alone since I had my surgery." She wondered if she would ever be able to walk again. She said, "I guess my legs are shot." I said I think it's better to have the legs shot and still have your brain working. She said she thought I had a good point there, and she said "If I did learn to walk again, where would I go?" We both got a good laugh out of that. She is a remarkable person. She is still as sharp as a tack and still has her sense of humor. Great!

344 days till we have a new president.

Quote for today:
"I understand not everybody agrees with the decisions I've made,but that's not unique to Central or South America. Truth of the matter is, there's people who disagree with the decisions I've made all over the world."

President Bush , November 1,2006

Just a quote today.

There are 345 days left until we have a new president. The quote for today is lengthy.

Quote: "We know there are known knowns:There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: That is to say we know there are things we know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."

-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during a Department of Defense news briefing, February 12, 2002

Shoe Tree

Each time I go through the park, I check the Shoe Tree. As you go up one of the hills, there is a tree on the left side of the road that has a number of tied together shoes dangling from the limbs. I would love to either see someone throwing their shoes or I would like to take a shot at it myself. I wonder how many tries does it take to finally score. Could it be a tradition? Or are they just random shoe tossers ? It could be an anual event, "Let's all gather in the park and throw our shoes up into the tree! " Maybe they have to have so many miles of running, or walking or whatever to qualify as being worthy of tree hanging. I like the whole idea of it. Could be that someday I will go test my skills at throwing the tied together shoes so that they will remain blowing in the wind until they rot or whatever. Could small birds build nests in the shoes?

346 days until we have a new president.

Quote for the day:"It turns out, in this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis. You don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kinda asking different portraits,' How do you think my standing will be?"

President Bush, waxing wistful, March 16,2005

TGIF says it!

Tuesday night, actually Wednesday morning at about 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning the sirens starting ringing warning all of us that there was a possibility of a tornado. I went down to the lower hall with pillows, blanket, flashlight, and dog treats (for Fergus) and turned the TV on to see what was happening, I stayed there until the all clear. I could hear large branches hitting the roof and hear the roaring wind. It was a little scary. Fortunately, we didn't get any major damage and we did not lose our power but many in the area did. It was later determined that four small tornadoes touched down in and around Louisville. St. Matthews suffered a lot of damage and as near as Bowman Field there were air planes turned upside down and tossed around. Lots of trees fell on cars, houses and garages.

When I went to see Doc on Wednesday around noon, he was very agitated and could hardly wait to tell me how he had been treated during the early hours. He is not always aware of the time so he was sure it was about 5:00 in the morning when one of the aids came in and told him he had to get up. He did not have his hearing aids in so he had no idea why he was being rousted out of his bed at such an early hour. He assumed it was for breakfast and he kept insisting that he did not eat his breakfast until 8:00. The aid struggled to get his pants on him and finally made him put the hearing aid in. He still did not know what was going on and told me they put him out in the hall with all the other people and they put his pants on with his catherter on the outside of the pants and he was totally offended and outraged! He said they did it because they were short of help! All the residents were out in the halls in their wheel chairs! He said they finally changed their minds and put him back to bed and then brought him breakfast at 8:00 as usual. He was still offended and said he was tired and would have to go to bed for his nap early. I listened to his whole story and then calmly tried to tell him why they acted as they did. He yelled "Bull....

I have the paper for him everyday and even though he has read about and seen all the pictures of the tornadoes he still doesn't think that had any bearing on his rude awakening. He is still telling me about it. He is less angry about it now and said, " You just have to go along with whatever they want you to do, I guess." Good! Otherwise, he's doing well!

347 days till a new president takes office.

Today's Quote " I'm occasionally reading, I want you to know,in the second term."

President Bush ,who once declared his favorite book to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar, March 16,2005