Merry Christmas!

Since it is again likely that I might get around to sending out Christmas cards by maybe the end of April (at which time I figure it's too late and don't bother after all), I thought I'd put a message up here.  Anyone I know is, of course, hereby wished a lovely holiday season and the best of everything in the new year.  If I don't know you, that goes for you, too.

All I really want for Christmas is that people would find a way to get along.  We're all in this life together, we ought to help each other whenever we can, and put down the hate for good and all.

If anyone really desperately feels the need to give me a gift (aside from doing what I suggest in the paragraph above), please don't.  Instead, you can make a contribution to one or all of my favorite projects (links to their websites are in the parentheses):

On Site Opera Inc  (osopera.org), where we have a matching grant that runs to the end of December, and we could  love having your help in meeting the challenge!

Monmouth County SPCA (monmouthcountyspca.org), a great place to find a furry friend.

Westside German Shepherd Rescue (sheprescue.org), because DOGS!

And now a short picture show, because you have a lot to do in the next few days, and don't need to spend time on pictures.  But....

On a quasi-religious note, I give you "Madonna and Child:"

If you don't get the joke, shoot me an email and I'll explain.

And something more civic-minded:

And no, I didn't mess with the sky, it really did look like someone with a paintbrush had colored it in.

And now, I leave you with best wishes for the holiday and every day. 

It's that time of year, I guess....

But still too early to be this cold.  And I'm hearing of snow in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, as well as Boston and northeastern PA.  Feh.

But we dug out the doggie hoodie this morning.  Even with, Pablo wasn't interested in being outside for very long.  Fine with me, I'm having the "we just closed the windows and I'm allergic to closed windows" syndrome with my sinuses, and being out in the biting wind is not fun when you already can't breathe too good.

Be that as it may, a couple of pictures from this morning's venture into nature.

And we've got a lot of beach, all of a sudden.  The rearranging that was done by the nor'easter a couple of weeks ago resulted in this.

I was standing at the water line, almost (had to keep my sneakers dry) when I took this one.  My house is almost dead center in the picture.  It was a long way away.  The dropoff we had all summer is gone now, and a lot of sand got added to the dunes by the storm.  And at low tide, we have all this beach.  You can see a couple of high tide lines, pretty much where the color of the sand changes.  But the tide pools are actually gone now, at low tide.  And the piece of our jetty that was exposed all summer is now a lot closer to being covered up again.

That's all you can see of the jetty now.  Enough to not notice the outliers, and trip over some rather solid granite if you're not watching where you're stepping.  Not so long ago, the jetty looked like this.

Mother Nature's been redecorating.  Always interesting, sometimes scary as hell, and different every day.

Sometimes you can get too far ahead of a trend

I was thinking about trends in things like real estate.  You want to be on the leading edge, but not so far out in front that the trend veers off and goes somewhere else after you've committed and it's too late to change.

This is an example of being too far ahead of the pack:

I sincerely doubt development will ever catch up with this project.  In fact, it'll likely be wiped out by the next high tide.

Or you could be too far behind, and miss the boat entirely.

My real question here is why this dock was built so high up to begin with.  The ground is where the ground is, you can see it in the picture, about a foot above the water level.  No clue how anyone ever got onto the dock in the first place.  Then it all sort of goes downhill.  This is actually at the river edge where Hartshorne Woods goes down to meet the Navasink. 

The other day Pablo and I took a walk on the paved sections of the trails in Hartshorne, he having exhibited a dislike of the unpaved trails.  I told him it was steep, and he nevertheless went down the hill enthusiastically. 

Going back up was another story.  Spurts and stops and starts and trotting and barely dragging along.  He's quite the actor.  And when we got home, he conked out for a couple of hours.  Not surprising.  That's my motto now, a tired dog is a good dog.  I know for sure if I can tire him out, I've gotten enough exercise.

9/11

As I was saying

It looks different every day.

Yesterday -

Today -

What a difference a day makes

24 little hours....

That's I suppose the best thing I like about the beach and ocean.  It's different every day, and different every few hours, in fact.  This morning:

This was actually about an hour later than the picture I posted yesterday.  So 25 or so hours difference. 

Cooler today, nice breeze, a bit less humidity.  Wish it would stay like this, but no chance, by midweek it's supposed to be hitting 90 again.  Tired of summer, ready for fall.

Did someone pull out the stopper?

The ocean looks oddly empty today.

Interesting evening lighting

We have these sunsets here that are not direct sunsets, this is looking kind of northwest rather than straight west, but I think the light is refracted by all the water, bent by the hill, and voila, here's the result.  If you flew directly over the hill and kept going, you'd be over water again in a short distance, the bay is up there.  So you get these fire in the sky kind of moments.

I like how it turns the water red.  Sort of biblical.  And those spots where there's no color, like the one that puts a water colored stripe between the red parts of the river.  And it's different every time.   New show every day, twice a day.  With some awesome moments in between.

On the other side

I post a lot of pictures of the beach, so you might think there's only one side of the town I live in, the one that faces the ocean.

Well, there's another side, and that one causes probably more problems around here than the ocean does.  The other side is a river.  Or perhaps more accurately, an estuary.  It's salt water until you get pretty far inland, where it peters out - or actually, begins - in a number of marshes.

It runs north to south, and of course that creates other issues, like when dolphins get trapped in it because they naturally think to get out they need to go south, but they hit a dead end and don't know what to do.

Anyhow.  We went for a second long walk this morning, after our beach walk, and Pablo took me around a block where I've never gone before, which I really didn't know was there, and which has a mini park fronting on the river.  He wouldn't let me stay long, but I got a couple of shots of what's on the other side of town. 

This one looks northish.  The bridge is the Highlands bridge, which is the end of town I'm closer to.

One of the parks I've been walking in is on the hill on the left side of the picture.

 

Looking southish, towards the Rumson Road bridge and downtown.

 

Across, part of Rumson, and one of the little islands that take up the juncture between the Shrewsbury and Navasink rivers.  The wake is from a small powerboat that had just passed by.

Mostly this is powerboat territory.  The current is very strong and fast, so you need to be a power kayaker to manage it without a motor.  It has lots of sand bars, and those move around a lot, so you often hear of boats getting grounded in various places or getting their bottoms messed up.  Deep enough for larger boats, if you're careful and watch your depth finder.  Those guys generally head out for the bay to do whatever it is you do on a boat.

I don't do boats.  I like to be near water, but not on it or in it.

Today is (was) Cid Day

I just wasn't able to get to it this morning.  I put something on Facebook, but not here.  So here I am now to do it.

This was Cid in 2000, when I first brought him home from the shelter.  He was not quite 10 pounds of squirmy happy pup, debatedly German Shepherd and Rottweiler mix.  He looked like "generic dog" except for his marbelized coat (one of the neighbors used to call him Marble), and was probably the happiest dog on the planet.

He was born probably in late February of 2000.  He died on this date in 2009.  Nowhere near a long enough life for my liking.  I still miss him terribly, six years later. 

He was my first dog.  He can't be replaced, but Pablo does a darned good job of filling in, and even has some Cid-isms that he does on occasion, that make me think Cid's spirit might have moved into Pablo in some mystical way.  I'm glad about that.

speaking of light

This was at about 6.30 this morning.  The rest of the day will look burned out, literally and figuratively.  By the way, this is straight out of the camera, no retouching except to level the horizon just a smidgen.  Crooked horizons make me nuts.

Some days we get interesting effects at dusk.  Dusk over a large body of water has a particular color to it that you don't see anywhere else.  On occasion the sunset brings more color to the east, away from the sun, than it does around the sun itself.

And the problem with getting up early enough to catch the good morning color is it makes the day far too long.  Especially since I think I am part vampire.  I don't feel well if I have too much sun, and actually sitting on the beach in the afternoon gives me awful headaches.  Has since I was a kid.  I remember downing far too many Alka Seltzers when I was a kid.  Plop plop fizz fizz, it was the only thing that could take away the pain, but drinking it made me nauseated. 

As I was trying to explain to someone a couple of weeks ago, the people who live here full time rarely go to sit on the beach.  I don't get the "sit" part, for one thing.  Beaches are for walking, not sitting.  We walk, we ride the bike path up into Sandy Hook, we go to the parks and walk in the woods, but we generally do not sit on the beach.  That's for bennies.

I really prefer the beach in winter.  No people, no noise, just me and the dog and nature.  That's when it's best.

The light is difficult today

Even after the thunderstorm, it's promising to be very hot.  The light is just too much, making colors look thin and watered down.  Not a good photo day, except for this:

Hard to get him to stay still for a moment, enough for the camera to focus (if I were focusing manually it would be even more impossible), but I caught him in a contemplative moment when we were climbing on the sea wall and I stopped for a sit down to get a stone out of my sneaker.

Made it home minutes before the storm hit

Timing is everything.  As I was walking in the door this afternoon, the rumbling started.  A little while later, all hell broke loose, torrential downpour flooding the street.  Power went out.  Half hour later the storm was done, power back on in a bit more than an hour, and the street is slowly draining.  I still hear cars making that big wooshing noise as they drive past, so the puddle is still big enough.

At least I got my grocery shopping done today, I don't have to go out tomorrow or on the weekend.  The store I prefer is near Monmouth Park, and the Haskell (it's a horse race) is there on Sunday, and they are expecting zillions of people, so some roads will be closed, and the ones that are not closed will be bumper to bumper (or so the organizers hope). The Triple Crown winner (what's his name?) is here for the race on Sunday, as are some apparently notable competitors.  I don't follow these things, so don't ask me for details, Google it yourself.

It was nice this morning, and got heavier with humidity as the day went on.  Like summer days are supposed to go, I guess.  Then the thunderstorm late afternoon, and poof, it's nice again, if a bit soggy.

We went out very early this morning, so we actually caught some nice sun's still going up type pics, helped out by an interesting cloud formation over the ocean.

Sunday morning on the beach with Pablo

Pretty morning.  May get hot later, but it started out nice.  Cool breeze from the south, usually keeps the temperature reasonable.

Couple of pictures....

Ok, so three is more than a couple.  Let's not get so technical.  The clouds were pretty awesome.  That fisherman has been here since 5 am or so.  This was around 7.30.  I don't think he is here to actually catch anything, just to be alone and quiet and doing something that lets him think.  Or maybe that's just me putting ideas on him.

Then there's Pablo.  We ran into his buddies Coco and Maddy again, they did their play thing, then took off in different directions.  Coco gets to a spot where he just sits down and stays there, unless he is bribed with cheese to follow his human.  Maddy was hyper this morning, racing in circles a lot.  She's a cool doggie.  Pablo was most interested in peeing on everything.   As usual.  Sometimes I wonder what he's thinking, then I remember it's probably just that he's trying to remember if he peed on that spot already, or if he needs to do so now.

Maybe what he was looking at was this:

Someone has started a new beachhenge structure.  Pablo hasn't gotten over to pee on it yet....it's beyond the usual scope of our beach wanderings.  I like this one, it has a native American flavor to it, as well as the pyramid concept.  We'll see if it has a chance to develop further.  It's kind of exposed, so there's a chance a high tide might wipe it out, or the people who destroy nice things might knock it down.  I've noticed the ones that are built closer to the dunes tend to be left alone longer.  No dunes at this area, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Not much to say today

Just a couple of pictures I wanted to post.  Fuzzy headed today, yesterday was better, and the pictures are from yesterday morning on the beach.  Hope you enjoy!

We're still (or again?) having very low tides in the morning.  I like the colors, the tans and blues in many shades, and the sparkly water makes happy happen.

Chicory in review

Took this pic yesterday, morning sun lighting up some chicory growing against a bridge support.  I know, real romantic exciting subject matter, right?

Here's the original:

Playing with it in PSP ( I can't afford Photoshop), here's what I got:

Not that I'm any good at post-processing, but what do you think?

3 H's today

Hazy Hot and Humid, in case you're not familiar with the terminology.  Yes, it's even bad at the shore.  "Cooler at the shore" is not in effect today.

Beach this morning:

Our jetties are coming back.  Not good, we haven't seen them since before the 1995 beach replenishment.  Too much erosion lately.  Does not give me a safe feeling.

Went out this afternoon and tried to buy a pair of shorts, since if I still have any, I have no idea where they might be.  Failed miserably on the shorts quest.  However, and this might also be considered a fail, depending on your point of view, I found a Lindt Chocolate "outlet."  They have a club card, which I now have one of, which collects points that are good for a discount on future purchases.  You know darn well I'll be there again at some point in time, their truffles are my most deadly vice.  The shop also sells them for WAY cheaper than the little bags at Shop Rite.  And they come in bags of 75, instead of the usual 12.  So the two bags I bought (peanut butter, and ultra dark chocolate) are in the freezer, to be doled out over time.  I hope.

They also gave me two chocolate with cherry bars for free, for joining the club.  This place is dangerous.  I'm glad it's a ways away, so I won't get there too often.

So having visited Jersey Gardens outlet mall for my first time ever, I bought chocolate y nada mas.  Fits with my usual shopping pattern.

I must say I was disappointed in their food court.  Nothing there I would consider eating.  Then again, I don't eat fast food types of things unless I fear I might starve to death otherwise.

Also stopped at a place that sells all sorts of I guess you could call them health appliances, and bought a cold pack I can use on my tendonitis-afflicted elbow.  It's a slide-on ring that's full of blue stuff that holds the cold.  Ought to work better than trying to hold the ice core from my big water bottle against the sore area, like I did last evening.   The icing helped, even tho it was clumsily accomplished.  I may have to stop carrying my tablet with me to work for a few weeks, tho.  The extra weight in my bag is likely a big part of the problem. 

Modern technology has it in for us all.

3rd of July

Today is actually the official holiday here, since the 4th is on a Saturday.  No work today, and yesterday's going home commute was the train from hell ~ kind of sounded like a night club without the music or booze. 

One would think I might have been able to sleep late.  It might have been nice.  But no.  Pablo woke me up at 5.45, and up we have stayed.  Well, he's actually hiding under some furniture, probably because of the construction noise from across the street.  They're running a generator, power saws, and maybe on and off a tile cutter, from the sounds of it.  They started making a racket at the legal 8 am, and look to be at it all day.

There's so much construction going on around here that I noticed one of our mocking birds is now making power tool noises.

Being up way too early, we were able to take an illicit walk on the beach, before the bennies got here.  Here's what we saw, no further explanation required, I think.

 

Ok, so a bit of further commentary is happening here.  I can't help myself.  1.  Pablo proceeded to pee on the post, of course.  2.  So far noone has taken down this version of beachhenge, and in fact more, smaller models are beginning to spring up.  3.  The fishermen get here before the sun does, and mostly leave before the beach sitters arrive.  4.  Can't say there's not a cloud in the sky.  But it's a lonely cloud.  5.  Someone unknown put a rocker on the seawall deck.  Various people take turns using it.  I suspect it might be a community project of some sort, I've noticed assorted chairs on other public access decks, too.  I think it's a nice idea.

Waking up too early makes the day awfully long.  Especially when I've got nothing much to do.  Maybe I'll make some more trash.  That's always fun.  

I'm kidding, of course.

Been spending (wasting?) too much time on Facebook

But at least there I can anticipate feedback, which rarely seems to happen here.  But there are things I would say there that I can't say here.  And vice versa.  So maybe it balances in some weird mystical way.  The jury is still out on that.

Don't have a lot of time to write at the moment, my realtor is coming over in about an hour, we are having a realtor open house today, and a public open house (again) on Sunday.  I doubt I've ever seen this place so clean and organized ~ aside from my office, which is always a jumble, but then, creative minds are often less than tidy. 

Yes, still trying to sell the freaking house so I can get out of here.  Can't seriously look for a new place until I have this one in contract (well, around here they call it under contract, means the same thing), so I have an idea of how much I can spend on a new place, and have some assurance it will all actually happen.

For a person who likes to have the next move mapped out and planned to the nth degree, this is excruciating.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the gig in NYC is about reaching its natural ending point, I think.  The entire situation there is not good for my health.  I don't think I'll miss it.  I don't know what I'll do for money, but if I can sell the freaking house, it won't be quite so critical an issue as it is at the moment. 

Can you spell STRESS?  I'm doing my best to ignore it for the moment. Sometimes that actually works.

As a consequence of all this, plus some other random factors, I have no plans to go anywhere exciting any time soon.  Gotta hoard what little money I'm bringing in to carry me across whatever transition is going to be happening.  It's times like these that make me think I am dead broke, and I get afraid to spend a penny on anything.  It's that Uncle Joe gene acting up, I suspect.  If you didn't know my Uncle Joe, ask me about him sometime.  He was an interesting guy.

On a positive note, I have been out looking at houses, and what I'm seeing gives me hope for what I'm trying to sell.  It's not so bad, it's just that we have a sort of rocky relationship here (me and the house, I mean).  It compares nicely with some of the places I've seen lately.  So there is hope. we just have to wait for the right person.  I hope to heck he or she gets here soon.

Early afternoon on the beach

The tide was WAY out, so we had a tidal pool and sandbar complete with a lot of gulls.  Nice, not quite warm enough to be beach weather, better IMO because that keeps the people away.  I like my beach empty.

Happy tax day!

End of crazy season.  Had a nice day, no stress, nice relaxed lunch, and we were done by 3.00.  Came home and filed my last couple of clients, and done.  No, I was not in the NY office today.  They're probably still there now, screaming and yelling at each other.

Stuff in the yard is finally starting to show green growth.  May even have some tulips and such coming out in a week or so, if it stays warm.  The prickly pear cacti are beginning to perk up.  There are buds on the lilac and Montauk daisies, and the roses are sprouting.  Spring will get here later rather than sooner, but it will get here eventually.  I hope we don't fast forward directly to summer, like we sometimes do. 

My forsythia is about dead, tho.  It has about five tiny yellow buds, and nada mas.  I'll have to dig it up carefully, my crystal is under it somewhere.  It's the wealth and prosperity corner that doesn't exist in this house.  Neither does the love and marriage corner, come to think of it.  Interesting how accurate fung shui can seem at times.  The forsythia didn't make it (it's been struggling for years), but the wealth and prosperity have been almost adequate until recently.  The love thing has never quite worked out in a traditional way.  Then again, that crystal didn't actually get buried until after Sandy made the corner accessible.  Oh well. 

Next house needs a better bagua map.  Gotta refresh my knowledge of the subject before I go shopping again.

I've been very close several times this week....

No, not close to ditching everything and running away, tho that thought has crossed my mind.  Close to writing something.  Then getting distracted or interrupted or not having something to write on or with, or running out of battery on the tablet...whatever.  It didn't get written.

So instead, here's a visual that kind of embodies my general state of mind.  I swiped it from someone's post on Facebook.  A lot of the time the stuff on there irritates me, pisses me off, or bores me to tears.  Once in a while something there really resonates with me.  This one resonates.

it's raining, it's pouring....

ALL the snow is gone.  Finally.  And my car almost looks black again - it's been looking kind of grey lately, from all the road salt and snow-crud caked all over it.  We needed a good rain to get rid of a lot of that stuff.

I checked yesterday after work, and did not find any of my bulbs to be sprouting.  My prickly pear cacti are all still shriveled and slumped over, too.  So spring has not yet reached into my micro-climate, even tho it is showing signs in other people's yards.  I already knew I have an odd micro-climate here, tho, so no surprises.

The grey day has made me droopy, like my cacti.  Took some extra vitamin D - gummies! - to try to counteract this.  I'll have a nice salad and an early bedtime.  Tomorrow is another day, and like Annie sings, the sun will come out tomorrow.

I'm still doing that - everything anyone says or does, a song pops into my head to fit.  It started getting really intense on Weds, and has not let up yet.  I wonder if I can count that as a sign of spring?  Or maybe just a sign of impending lunacy.

One hell of a week

Ok, I had a great time in LA last weekend.  Went to LA Opera, saw Ghosts of Versailles, saw Barber of Seville. Went to the beach, did some roaming.  I always enjoy roaming, I discovered a few nice places that were new to me, and revisited a couple of old favorites. 

Funny that I always seem to feel better near large bodies of water, and I enjoy looking at boats.  Mind you, I don't want to be in or on the water, and won't get in a boat except in extraordinary circumstances.  So being near the ocean was nice, and seeing boats of various purposes was nice.  And staying on dry land was nice.

San Pedro, CA waterfront

Coming home, the flight actually arrived in EWR an hour early.  Then, supposedly due to weather conditions (a little bit of snow) we couldn't get a gate so we could get off the plane.  That took more than a couple of hours, and involved the plane driving around the airport quite a bit, from one end of the United terminal to the other, and back.  Then when we finally did get a gate, and were able to get off the plane, it took over an hour for the luggage to be offloaded and reach the carousel.  I guess that's not so unusual in EWR, but as I don't normally check luggage, it was a new level of annoyance for me.


Got on the train to MetroPark, which was running late (always is, tho, so nothing new there), and found more snow, some ice, and noone with shovels to clear anything.  Walking on ice for several hundred feet to the garage, pulling my rolly bag, is not my idea of fun.  The Parkway was a slushy mess, and slow going.  Local roads were more snowy than slushy, and that generally doesn't bother me overly much, just making it a slower than usual ride home.

Next morning, got up for work, found the world covered with ice, and after sliding most of the way off my deck, decided to stay home.  Called to tell them I wasn't going to be there, after the hour when someone is normally in the office, and nobody answered.  Called back a while later, same result.  Left a message.

Sometime later the admin called me, and said, oh, you didn't hear?  - Didn't hear what?  - The other guy I work with a lot died on Sunday.  In the office.  Of a heart attack.  The EMTs took almost 15 minutes to get there.  They are just a couple of blocks away, and it was Sunday afternoon, so you'd think no big traffic jams. 

This is NYC, don't ever have a heart attack there and think you might survive it.

So if the travel delays weren't enough to kill the happy buzz form a lovely weekend, the Monday morning news was more than enough to snuff it out entirely.

Had to re-imagine my work week, as the newly deceased and I were going out on an audit together on Weds, and now I was doing the whole thing myself.  Had to put up with the "I'm more hurt by this than you could ever be" thing from the admin and company owner, who couldn't figure out how to work with this guy for the year and a half he had been with us, but all of a sudden it's like he lost a brother, yada, yada, yada.  Got a call from the deceased's fiancee on Tuesday evening, asking for help getting his possessions out of the office, since the owner wasn't interested in turning over the guy's laptop and accessories, and had told the bank the guy died so she wasn't able to cash his last check.  Had to endure an attack by the admin when I asked about these issues, and was accused of "being on the wrong side," to the point where I said I would quit if she didn't lay off the vituperative bullshit.

Then the owner started in on the "you promised me three days this week, you've only been here two" line of crap.  Yes, but I can't control the weather, asshole, and when travel is not possible on one of your days, you lose.  I have a schedule to keep, and I can't rearrange it on a moment's notice.  

I still may quit, but probably not for a few weeks, at least.  I've had it with these idiots.  Bad karma.  I have a policy of removing bad karma from my life.  It's past time to do so.

I did have two very nice, calm and productive days with my other boss in Red Bank.  Also saw a couple of my own clients, also nice and calm and productive.    The bad karma has got to go, and sooner rather than later.

Between all that and the shoveling - we had a shitload of snow on Thursday - I'm exhausted.  It's supposed to be warmer for the next week or so, tho, so all this ought to melt, and we can start all over.

Someone I know assures me that this was the last snowstorm of the season.  I'm hoping he's right.  The birds are singing, and in spots where the snow has melted off, you can see bulbs sprouting, so maybe he is right.  Fingers crossed.

and here's what it looked like at dusk

icy river

Not so cold, actually, but it looks like it is.  I always like when the river gets icy, it reminds me of the scene in Pikovaya Dama when the soprano is about to throw herself into the river.  I guess it was the Met production (I've seen a few different productions, love that opera), the river looked a lot like this.  Really awesome how they got a stage to look like a river with ice flowing in it....

The Shrewsbury doesn't freeze solid here, the current is too fast.  Up in Red Bank, tho, it can get pretty solid, and then the ice sailors come out to play.  The weather has been running frigid and not so, alternately, so when the sun comes out, the ice melts down and it hasn't gotten solid enough to go out on it, in most places.  There's still plenty of winter yet to come, tho, so maybe I'll be tempted to get skates and give it a try - but not right here.

It's been a LONG time since I've skated....do I dare?

Cold out there

Not the temperature, low 20s isn't so awful.  It's just that they're throwing it at us at 20 - 45 mph.  THAT is cold.  Without the wind, and in the sun, it's nice out there.  I'd love to go out with a camera.  But that wind.

Pablo is doing pretty well, all things considered (he doesn't do cold, or snow, and especially not wind).  We just went out and made more yellow snow.  He wanted a longer walk, which works for me, except there's only so far you can walk around here, unless you don't mind walking in the street.  If it is a bit warmer and sunny for a couple of days, we'll get the splashpad back.  Meanwhile, it's got drifts that turned into ice mounds, making it impassable.  Drat.

It might be less windy tomorrow, maybe we can go into Sandy Hook and have a bigger walk.  Maybe find where the river ice goes when it's not in the river, or see if there are any seals around.  Fingers crossed.

Depends on where you're coming from. I guess.

Got a kind of weird comment from someone today when we spoke briefly about my wanting to move.  This person suggested I ought to move to North Carolina, and she would come visit me  and go to the beach.  Ignoring the fact that I really need to get away from the beach.  It's one of the primary reasons I need to move.

I've lived at the beach for 17 years.  How many times has this person come to visit me here?  I can think of two occasions.  And on one of those, we didn't go to the beach anyway.  And this is not for lack of invites.  Not to mention it's only about an hour's drive from where she lives.

Am I missing something here? 

Again, my edit function worked.  I didn't point out the conflict between her statement and actions. I'm getting good at this. 

But I'm certainly not going to move anywhere thinking people will come to visit me.  I'm doing it for me, not for anyone else.

No sympathy from me

I have a problem with one of my relatives.  Well, maybe two.  Relatives, I mean.  I'm expected by one to feel sorry for another who is "all alone" and had "waist deep" snow drifts in her driveway.  She has a husband.  They both have jobs that pay real folding money and give benefits and paid time off.  They live in a huge house whose property taxes are more than my net income for the year (after business expenses).  They can afford to hire a guy with a plow on his truck to clear the driveway.  Why they don't is a mystery to me.

I've been alone for real for 17 years.  I don't get paid time off.  I don't get benefits if I can't pay for them myself.  I can't afford to hire anyone to do my shoveling for me.  But I get it done without making a major sob story out of it.  I don't ask for help.  I don't ask for sympathy.  If I did ask for help, it wouldn't be coming from this particular relative anyhow, she's not one to help anyone except herself.

So why should I be expected to feel anything for her in her "predicament?"  I honestly don't give a damn.  Yeah, I'm being pissy.  But I'm tired of dealing with the smugness, the superior attitude,  and the inability to see beyond the end of their own noses.

What maybe irks me even more is my first impulse was to toss my shovel in the car and go over there to help.  Lucky for me I've learned to edit before acting.

weird holiday

Wound up staying home from work today with a sick stomach.  Seems everybody around here has it, so maybe it wasn't caused by the herring fillets in white wine sauce I had for dinner last evening.  Still, note to self, next time, if there is a next time, wash off the white wine sauce before eating the herring.

I was aided in my decision to stay home by the fact that I missed the train this morning, and the next one was not happening until an hour later.  Forgot this is one of the holidays when NJ Transit goes on weekend/holiday schedule.  Every train is a local (adds about 25 minutes to the ride, one way), and they only run every hour.  I could have gotten to the office by 10 or so.  But I would have spent most of the ride, and a good portion of the day, in the rest room.  Not good.

Did manage to get a lot of stuff done, tho.  So that was a good thing.  Even cleaned up around the house, the realtor is showing it to someone tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed some more, maybe this will be the one who wants to buy it.

Update on Comcast issue

I never did hear back from the Comcast person who commented on my post of 27 December.  About what I expected.  I have moved on, and will move on from Comcast as soon as I can get this house sold and go somewhere else.  Bottom line recommendation - use gmail or Yahoo mail or any other mail, never never never open an email account associated with the company that brings you internet access.  Of course, 15 years ago I did not know this.