Time Sensitive Snow Alert

Now... if you do not or have never lived in snow country, you may not see the humor in this.  Just a warning also, that I may be making fun of those of you who stay home when it sprinkles a wee bit from a passing dark cloud or if there is a lone snow flake in the air… or even the potential of one.  You know if I am taking about you.  No offense. I just find your behavior to be humorous and perhaps a bit wimpy.  Remember we Snow Belt NW Pennsylvanians take pride in our ability to survive. We know how to knit stuff to keep warm. We do things like lay in supplies and carry and stack wood. We know how to build fires and how to use all different kinds of shovels. We have a bunch of different words to describe all different kinds of snow. We know people with generators. We live in Snow Country.

Today, the day before Halloween, when it is drizzly, damp to wet, in the low forties and I was moving around outside with no coat for a while thinking nothing of it, I received a screen shot of my son’s phone.  He lives a bit west of Indianapolis in a lovely town called Danville, Indiana. It's the County Seat of  Hendrick's County. So nice there! They don’t really know there about winter though -- not the way we do. I mean their annual snowfall averages around 20 inches and they get a lot of sun there... unlike here where we average around 150 inches and have been know to get half that much in one single storm. Further , we are not known for sunny days.  We notice them when we do get them. We do not take them for granted.  Anyway - The following is a direct quote of his screen shot:

TIME SENSITIVE

Snow Alert

Danville: A brief snow shower will begin around Mon, Oct 30 9:59 EDT.

Really – a time sensitive weather warning about a “brief snow shower”?  Of course it was issued by The Weather Channel – which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.  What do they in Atlanta know about snow really? I once witnessed them freaking out about potential for 6 inches of the white stuff in Boston.  We had six feet in 24-36 hours at that same time and not even a mere mention of us.  Erie ran out of lake to push it into and didn’t totally dig out until the following Spring. Seriously -- I have great friends who didn't celebrate Christmas until April that year.

Anyway – not sure how my son was reacting to this “alert”. I would like to think that he was making fun of it, but I didn't know how to interpret his accompanying emoji.  He has lived in Indiana for a long time now and maybe now has wimped out from lack of exposure to a real winter. I'm not sure he even has a real winter coat now. But -- I mean he was the kid who used to dig snow tunnels all day long, downhill ski and more than once went trick or treating in a foot or more of snow – who had to plan his costumes every single year to include warm outerwear.  He was a child of snow country, a boy who once drove from here to Stowe, Vermont in a blizzard to ski. Is it possible that he may have become one who even notices a brief snow shower? I find it amusing. I mean he lived in Rutland, Vermont and went to school in New England. He knows what snow is. BTW – I told him I was going to write about his screen shot.  He laughed.  He finds me amusing.  I am thankful for that and for him.  I find him amusing as well.  It’s a mutual thing. Actually I am blessed with an entire family of funny people.  

Note -- The forecast here today is for the possibility of snow for the next 4 days.  I will believe it when I see it. I can guarantee you that The Weather Channel will not be sending out alerts  to us... ever.  

Moments in Time

Don't know if it is age related or if it is just that the older a person is, the more time they find to think about things and the more memories there are to think about.  Moments in time just sort of pop up -- good and bad.  It's interesting. 

The other day, out of nowhere, a moment of my Dad and I walking through the woods popped up. It was a warm Summer day. We stopped at a stream and he cupped his hands together, dipped them into the water, and offered me a drink. The water was cool and ... salty.  That was probably over 65 years ago. Wow....

We all have historical moments frozen in time as well.  I was sitting in a 9th grade English class when JFK was shot. I was a Freshman in college, on my way to the dining hall, when I heard that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.  I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV putting rollers in my hair as I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969. I was standing in a high school hallway watching students pass by in between classes when I heard that the Twin Towers had been hit by terrorists in 2001. 

Then sometimes moments with my kids when they were little drop in.  My son used to like to drag his little sister around in a wagon complete with as many sticks as he could fit in around her.  She never seemed to mind. My daughter spent time with her Boxer puppy in what we called the fat cupboard.  I always knew they were playing in there when I found all the pots and pans scattered all over the kitchen floor. Both children loved to dress up their dogs. Lots of fun memories of patient Boxers there.  I remember every detail of the first moments of seeing my children for the first time. I remember their first smiles, steps, moments of laughter and tears. Brief glimpses of my childhood moments pop in for a visit as well. So many.... I remember the last moments with my parents and my sister ... poignant beyond words. Memories just appear unexpectedly - moments in time.

It seems to me that life is full of little moments  -- each significant --sometimes beyond words. Some are just plain hard; some are just plain wonderful. I know that I, for one, am thankful for the memories whenever they drop in for a visit. Sometimes it is the small moments that are the most important over time. I am thinking/knowing that you definitely know what I mean.

Ferris Wheels, Graham Crackers and more...

Acrostic puzzles are fun ... pleasantly and painlessly educational. Those are nice qualities. They make me feel like I am not totally wasting my time while I am working on them.  Actually, I enjoy all types of crossword puzzles. Spending time with a good puzzle can be relaxing and usually is also stress reducing.

Anyway -- I was working away on a "quiz acrostic" puzzle this afternoon.  That’s the kind where you figure out some phrase or tidbit of information by solving the two parts of the acrostic. The answer to the quiz question is then revealed by reading the first letter of each word in the first part of the puzzle.  Triple fun.  It’s hard to explain. You sort of have to be there to see what I mean. The point is though ... the following tidbit was the end result of all my work.  Here is the acrostic phrase:

“George Ferris’ first wheel was twenty-six stories high and had a capacity of over two thousand people.  For its first ride, a forty-piece band squeezed into one car. (Then the quiz question…) Where did Ferris introduce his extraordinary amusement ride?

Now the thing about all this is that I never knew that the Ferris Wheel was named after the inventor.  In fact, I never even thought about it. I totally skipped over the facts that I cannot even picture a twenty-six story Ferris wheel or that a forty-piece band crammed themselves into one car. I went right to the idea that I bet there are a lot of things named after people ... and  I didn't know it.  We should acknowledge them.  Right?  So… of course I had to hit Google.

 

Mason Jar     John Landis Mason

Saxophone     Adolphe Sax

Graham Crackers      Sylvester Graham   

Jacuzzi     the Jacuzzi brothers

Braille     Louis Braille

Heimlich Maneuver     Henry Judah Heimlich

Salisbury Steak     James Salisbury

 

Also Cardigan, Nachos, Tupperware, Leotard and I simply cannot leave out Ford.  The list goes on and on. ...not sure why I find this so amazing. 

By the way – the answer to the quiz question is Chicago.      

 

Smile.... You're on Candid Camera...

 

A few years back, my son thought it would be a good idea if I had a Google Nest aka “Ring” doorbell.  Technology challenged, it took me a while to have it installed and then to figure out how to link it to my phone. For quite a long time, I found it annoying, because the camera is panoramic and is so good, it goes off if a deer crosses the lawn at 150 paces or if a particularly large snow flake floats by. One particularly startling time I opened the app to see what was going on, and there was the face of an insect looking right at me – up close and too personal. After I caught my breath and realized that it was not an alien presence, I just turned off the sound on the app and went back to sleep.

Now, however, I have found that I can watch delivery of packages from my reading chair and answer in all honesty that the item was delivered with care.  I also have watched the driveway being plowed and the porch shoveled early in the morning when I am still all snuggied up in my fleece sheets. I confess that I have been tempted, from time to time, to turn on the sound and speak to people on my porch, but have not yet done so as I think that would be rather startlingly intrusive and not welcomed -- especially in the early morning quiet. A particularly interesting thing is that I can see what is going on at my house even if I am hundreds of miles away. 

Now I am thinking that I may install more cameras all around including one my barn – just so I can see what critters are doing during the night.  I know I have a bear visiting my pasture, but I haven’t caught sight of him/her yet and it is almost time for hibernation. I also have seen an 8-point and a 4-point buck eating my apples early in the morning and at dusk. I think they sleep in the tall grass on the sheltered side of the barn. What’s nice is you can easily "screen shot" and save the photos to your phone and then edit them. 

Then there is also the safety issue.  I wonder if the person who banged on my door in the middle of the night and ran, knows that the camera was there --awake and ever vigilant. Smile.... You're on Candid Camera.

Just so you know – in all fairness there is a sign in my yard and a decal on my door that tell a person that they are on camera. Nowadays there are cameras everywhere – a condition to which I have become so accustomed, I never even think about it.  Sort of scary, isn’t it? And along the scary lines, I also have decals on more than one door that indicate that my home is protected by Smith and Wesson. Fair warning. Have I mentioned lately that I have at times shot better than my Grandson in our shooting classes and he shoots on a champion trap team? (... a fact that really amuses me.) But seriously -- these are the times we live in. Times of security cameras and handguns. Sort of sad, isn’t it?

"Shout Singing..."

 

Just saw the term “shout singing” in a novel I am reading and wondered why I had never thought to write about that.  I mean – it is a thing that people do – usually when alone – especially when they are not recognized for their singing ability… like me.  It’s versatile… shout singing can be done anywhere, preferably when by oneself in a car or shower, but it can be and has been, in my experience, a fun collective effort as well -- especially in an impromptu situation.

I am a classic shout singer.  I started very young with songs like “You Are My Sunshine” and “Jesus Loves me”.  From there I moved on into the 50’s when “Hound Dog” and “Tom Dooley” were easy to pick up from the radio.  The 60’s offered “The Twist” and “It’s Now or Never” and in the 70’s, I shout sang an impressive “I’ll Be There” or “American Pie”.  Did you know that … a levy is a prom in New England?  Gives “…drove my Chevy to the levy and the levy was dry….” a whole other meaning.  And then – my 70’s fave – “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”.  Now there is a song made for shout singing from the heart.

I liked “Every Breath You Take” and “Billie Jean” in the 80’s, but then I experienced a bit of a drought in the 90’s and the early 2000’s  -- had other things on my mind and reverted to songs like “You Don’t Own Me”.  2018 brought one of my all time faves  in “Uptown Funk” and then with the confinement of the damncovid, I was moved to belt out “Rise Up”, a poignant song that was experiencing a bit of a come back at the time. Still is.

Perhaps the thing I find most interesting about shout singing is that it is multi-functional.  It works to let happiness burst forth and to release sadness, or sometimes even anger.  Like I said multi-functional.  Most useful.

Now in thinking about all those old songs, I realize I may be singing all day – at least in my head.  You?  Not sure I remember shout singing in a while.  It’s time. Actually, the whole world could use a pressure release valve.  What better than a good heart-felt song?

Ah , Northwest Pennsylvania...

 Ah, Northwest Pennsylvania... the land of flame orange in the Fall, lake effect snow in the winter and towns with names like Beaver Dam, Spring Creek, Horn Siding, and Hatch Hallow. It is welcoming. It is hill country where curvy, rough two-lane roads that are chewed on the edges are the norm. There is a certain charm in it all and a certain pride in knowing that you can survive here -- all the while scoffing at those who fret about a mere threat of snow.  Ha.  True grit.  Survival of the fittest. 

This is the time of year when I feel the need to check my sock drawer, and to make sure I have mittens and warm boots at the ready. Time is limited now to cut back plants before Spring when they will be slimy and even harder to deal with. Icky.  It is also a time of vivid blue skies providing a backdrop for leaves that are turning from deep green into vibrant colors... each day becoming a different postcard worthy scene. It is the time when walking paths and sidewalks include the bonus of the sounds of leaves under foot.  It is a time of mums in bloom, squash and pumpkins in all kinds of colors and sizes. It is a time of raking while wearing a sweatshirt and cozy fires. Harvest time is coming to an end. Barns are full of hay. Too bad Fall is so short lived in Northwest Pennsylvania.

The quiet cold grays of winter will be here before we know it. There is a beauty in those days as well.  But for now...

Enjoy these lovely Autumn days.