Earth Day in Verona Beach

It's a good thing that we are hearty souls here on the prairie.  Weather-wise, it's a cold morning with 26 degrees and a double whammy of both heavy frost and dense fog. Being close to a lake, we are used to the fog here. But above that fog, there is a beautifully clear sky and I can smell a lovely day ahead.

Yesterday was Earth Day and was a pretty slow day around here by my standards. I tend to be a goal-driven person, but wow, I was REALLY tired.

Venus the Wonder Cat was at it again with her chills and spills of trying to defy the laws of gravity at one in the morning. The husband, of course, was once again totally unaffected by the cat's screams of delight as she sent the dish drainers, the butter dish, my spoon holder and the bathroom soap dispensers crashing to the floor. I mean, c'mon, I can't take EVERYTHING off the shelves, can I? Lately, Venus has been taking on the challenge of trying to nudge the coffeemaker off the kitchen counter. This is my Cuisinart coffeemaker, the one that I bought one week after I arrived home from brain surgery. I figured if I was going to be home incapacitated for months, the least thing that I deserved was a decent cup of coffee. And boy, has he ever delivered. Notice that my coffeemaker has taken on a gender. I'm surprised that I haven't named him Fabio or something like that. Delicious coffee, coursing through my veins, gently massaging that sweet, sweet caffeine to the depths of my very being. And the aroma.... oh, it justs envelopes my soul with ecstasy. Is coffee important to me? I would KILL this cat if she ever destroyed this machine which is vital to human existence. I sip, I sigh, I moan. Hey, that sounds like that stupid Jeep commercial that's on television right now. Have you heard the jingle? "I live. I ride. I am," all on monotone and it's repeated over and over again. I hope Jeep didn't pay the composer of this very much money. Trust me, if this was a commercial, and it had a woman slowly bringing a cup of coffee to her silicone-injected lips and saying in a deep, throaty whisper, "I sip. I sigh. I moan," the line to buy a coffeepot would run out of Walmart's door, right past their welcome wagon.

Back to Venus, I am still convinced that if she was human, she would be a person with special needs (see "Alphabet Soup", an earlier blog). She would be "R", or autistic or perhaps A.D.D., at the very least. This is the kitty who, a couple of weeks ago, decided that the muffin basket which I had placed on the kitchen table at dinnertime looked like a pretty good place to take a break from the action. I was getting ready to put the cornbread into the basket and when I turned around from the oven with the bread, lo and behold, there she was. Cute, isn't she? But behind that adorable little face is the very devil.

Anyways, back to yesterday's Earth Day. I went for a walk at our nearby state park which is on the eastern shores of our lake. It's just beautiful there, and I spend a lot of time walking there when the weather permits. But it was so raw and windy that I decided to cut my walk short and go home and tackle putting contact paper on my kitchen shelves. The shelves have been on my honey-do list, except I'm the honey, plus I'm the do. So yesterday was the day that I decided to tackle the shelves under the kitchen sink, in honor of Earth Day. These are the shelves that traditionally contain all the household chemicals and mine are no exception. Four containers of Lysol? Three cans of Pledge? Oh my God, I found twelve kitchen sponges and three bottles of Windex, brass polish, silver polish (Do I OWN brass or silver????? In a word, no.). So not only did I get new contact paper down, I was able to clean out many of the nasty chemicals that are so hazardous to our environment. I must say that getting the shelves done was quite the feat on my part- I have arthritis in every joint of my body except in my hips, which are $50,000 worth of titanium, plus i am wide of height and girth. Besides, have you ever worked with contact paper? It sticks everywhere except where you want it to go. It took some doing on my part, but I got the stuff in place. And when I finally managed to get myself up off the floor, I could hear the Rocky theme song playing in my head. Some people climb Mount Everest, I do bottom shelves in my kitchen. But it's all the same to me; it's called accomplishment, and being able to take that pencil and cross it off the list. A honey-do of an Earth Day, if you ask me.

Assorted Stuff

My blog fans have asked and asked why I haven't written anything of late. Ok, then, for the past year. Well, I've been VERY busy playing Mafia Wars and stuff. But I'm through with that foolishness, and now will return periodically to writing about my exciting life and thoughts. I'll bet that you can't wait!


This morning, it's 38 degrees here with a wind chill of 34, but I'm not complaining as it isn't snow. Things like this excite you when you live in a snowbelt. Just before I started writing this, I ran outside to my rain gauge and emptied over a tenth of an inch of water from the tube. When I couple that with yesterday's rainfall, we are a smidge under an inch of rain. You know what THAT means, don't you???? It's time for PUDDLEMANIA!!!! Our resident geese are in the process of sending out party invitations to all of their fowly friends, advertising free food and drink for all, a pond where the feathers fly, and thirty five acres of puddled dance floor where they can all strut their stuff.


Yesterday, after getting up to report my weather findings to the TV stations and the CoCoRahs (a group of dedicated weather geek volunteers), I just went back to bed. I never do this; I'm always up at 5:30 a.m. and that's just the way it is. But it was just so yucky out and the bed looked so toasty and warm. By 9:00, I decided that enough was enough and got my Big Bertha Butt in gear. I did my cleaning and also I met up with this guy from a small neighboring town and I sold my drum set to him. He refurbishes vintage drums, and was thrilled to get his hands on the Rogers Holiday bass and tom. One may ask why I was selling these beloved drums, the very same drums that used to belong to my dad. Well, for one, my arthritis really didn't allow me to play anymore without being in a lot of pain. And two, my husband has been going on and on about all the STUFF in the house lately, and I had to admit that they did take up a lot of room in the basement. At his request, I first sold thirteen boxes of duplicate baseball cards. He next suggestion was the drum set. After selling the drums, I asked my husband, "What stuff are YOU going to get rid of?" Mind you, this boy has more stuff than our couch has stuffing. I suggested that he could get rid of one of his THREE kayaks. Well, he couldn't do THAT now, could he? What if there were people here and we all wanted to go kayaking???? OK, there's his mountain bike AND a racing bike???? The last time i saw his racing bike in action, it was years ago when my brother was visiting from NYC and before his feet even touched the pedals, he tipped himself and the bike over. Lance Armstrong doesn't have a thing to worry about.


Anyway, so I cleaned the house and sold the drums. Did a little artwork, listened patiently while hubby informed me that the cardinal that I drew looked like it was wearing a bonnet from outer space. Next, I finished planting broccoli seeds into little jiffy pots. I LOVE jiffy pots. Then we went to the city, where i bought cracked corn (supplies for today's goose party); went to the library where I volunteer and took care of my shelves. I'm sure getting pretty good with those Dewey decimals! Next, on to Big Lots where I bought nothing because my husband might ask me to sell it.

Lastly, we stopped at Lowe's to buy electrical supplies. And I found just the most delightful Jim Shore resin bunny. I like Love ADORE bunnies, which maybe I'll explain in a later blog, and I have been looking for one to plunk on the front porch, next to my retirement rocking chair. There he was- Aristotle the Rabbit, complete with a walking stick, which reminded me of my cane. The thing was SCREAMING my name. He now stands on the front porch, heralding in the geese and ducks. Came home, I did email for a half hour or so and then we watched the first half of the latest Indiana Jones movie. It's pretty good if you can get past all of the confusing mumbo jumbo.

Today for me is really, really up in the air. The sun is really trying to break through all of these stratus clouds. The geese have cranking up their party music, the disco ball is turning and all of their feathered friends are starting to migrate into the yard. I'm by myself today as the husband is heading to just outside of NYC for his annual astronomy convention. I haven't decided what I am up to yet. I could just hang here and read or do art or baseball cards. Clean the bathroom. Watch a Yankee game. I could be sly and put a bike or a kayak on Craigslist. Nah, he'd KILL me. Or I could simply enjoy the Puddlemania going on out back. Sip a pina colada, supervise the geese and offer them a little pate de foie gras.