Keeping pets in check

Owing to the fact that I have been out of touch since May I thought that some of you might be interested in our pets update. The photo is of Randy [the Goldendoodle] and of Boo [the Black Lab] frolicking in the snow, this past winter. You might remember that Dale and I partially raised Randy after Daughter and her son went shopping and brought him home to us as they lived with us at the time. You might also recall that Randy ate two pair of my glasses [$500] and he and I had a couple memorial mornings after he devoured a bag of apples two nights in a row. [I'm a really slow learner, as you might have already deducted from the fact that it takes two times for me to learn]. You may even want to go and reread earlier posts as I reported these events. Boo and I never got to fully bond as he came along after Ellen and Mike married and then eventually moved out of our rather cluttered digs taking dogs and Sam with them leaving us Simon [the Shiatsu]. The next photo is of Boo swimming in the Westfield River, just what a Black Lab would be expected to do, fetching a ball.

The next photo after that is Randy swimming in the Westfield River doing what you would expect a Goldendoodle to do. I don't think Randy likes water.

Moving those two dogs and trying to provide for them has been a real adventure for Ellen, Mike and Sam and their escapades should yield several really great postings. Boo is the escape artist but once he gets out he doesn't go anywhere as he waits for Randy to join him. When the two are out together the great adventure starts and we all go out looking. Stay tuned.

We couldn't stand being alone in the house with only Simon so we got Purrsey [the Siamese rescue cat] to keep us entertained along with Bridget [the 1/2 Shiatsu and 1/2 Yorkie]. As I speak, Bridget is chasing a plastic ball, that makes music as it rolls, around my office, crying at it and growling at it. Purrsey is outside killing mice and squirrels I guess. He hasn't quite lived up to his expectations. My wife used to hold Purrsey, pet him and tell him "Your the most beautiful cat in the whole wide world". Since he started killing things and bringing them home, I have not heard her saying that?

Anyway, now that I am up to speed with all of you and the animals I can start telling more stories

I'm sad to report that we had to put Simon down two weeks ago. He was 14, almost stone deaf and blind. He had become obsessed with being locked in the dog run [40'x50'] and was doing everything he could to escape. On his last escape he hurt himself very badly and was in pain so we sadly and tearfully made the decision. He is missed by all of us.

Growing Grass the Ted Way

"What is so important about watering?" you ask. "Everything"! Here at our old cemetery we are slowly running out of room for graves and so we get creative about getting more grave sites so we grow them. Our cemetery, in 1843 was laid out in a grid or grave plots holding 12 to 16 graves with each row two plots wide or 40' wide and about 300 feet long, bounded on each side by a road called a carriage path. Today cemeteries are laid out with roads hundreds of feet apart as they found that there was little use for such close roads and it was a maintenance headache. We are slowly removing those roads and converting them to grave sites and prolonging the life of our cemetery. Over the years these carriage paths have been pounded down, first by the wagons and carriages that traversed them and now by trucks and cars. First we must bring them up to the grade of the surrounding land so they no longer look like roads. We use the excess dirt and gravel from excavating graves for burials to do this. After the gravel is leveled and compacted we bring in about 6" of topsoil, level, compact, seed and cover the future graves with mulch. We use Scotts seed and their mulch product which contains more seed, starter fertilizer and chewed up paper dyed green. The mulch provides a very important benefit in that it holds the moisture and also provides shade for the new germinating seeds.

The first picture is day #5 after planting and it is a huge relief when you see that. The first grass seeds germinate and push up through the earth in 5 days if you do everything correct. If you don't see them in five days it probably means you have not been keeping things wet and the grass seeds are dying. That happens to me a lot because of the demands of the job and sometimes we just can't get back to water. New grass requires to or three trips back, with the garden hose, each day to be successful. Sometimes we have to rely on mother nature to supply water to the newly seeded graves but rarely does that happen. Just because the little shoots of green show you have grass growing does not mean you can stop watering. More seeds, different varieties and depth are still germinating and still need just as much water for at least another week. The second picture is of the same area but on day four and you can see in the background that we are also working on the continuation of that road for more graves. This area will hold about fifty graves and the next area will hold about 150 graves. It took about 30 minutes to water this road 2 to 3 times a day. The next road will require about an hour and 15 minutes each time. Time to get my grandson Sam on the payroll for some money towards extra games for his Wii. Thought you might be interested!

The secret to this process is water, water and more Water!!! You don't want to flood those little seeds but if you don't keep them damp, they DIE. Our topsoil is Brown when dry but it is Dark Brown when it is damp. We keep it Dark Brown and we always send it to bed at night dark brown cause overnight is when the grass grows and to grow it needs water. My last tip is do not fertilize, do not put down a crab grass killer. A little bit of starter fertilizer [the bag must say STARTER Fertilizer] is OK but fertilizers usually have other ingredients such as weed killer [Scotts Plus for example] and this kills the tiny, tender shoots of grass. Read the bag!! So ends Ted's secretes to a new lawn!

Vintage Base Ball

I have just watched my first Vintage Base Ball games and loved it. As a family, we are members of a group called WOW whose duty it is to promote Westfield and bring non-profits together in that effort. We chose to participate in this Vintage Base Ball thing ever since reading the book. My wife and I participated in all of the 4 games of the first weekend as purveyors of band-aids and cold packs to all that needed them.
We had one lady cut her toe as she got out of her car and needed band-aids. We had a player attempt to catch a ball between two fingers instead of with his hand and broke a finger (ice pack time). There were other minor scrapes, cuts and boo-boo's but I won't bore you with the details. The slow times, during the games, were filled up with a Barbershop Quartet, a strolling banjo player belting out tunes from the turn of the century, Keystone Cops tossing out drunks [pretend] and rowdy patrons. A group of Suffragettes made a few appearances to broadcast their temperance, tolerance, and women rights messages and a few "dandies" strolled around adding to the flavor. The Westfield Boys and Girls club donned period attire to hock programs, food and drink. The game was played by the equipment and rules of the late 19Th century. It was quite a spectacle and all of the games were well fought to add to the enjoyment.

In the tinted photo above are daughter, son-in-law and grandson dressed in 1890's dress as they ready to head out and volunteer duties on various parts of the game.

We had Jim Bouton, pitcher [1962-1968 NY Yankees, 1969 Seattle Pilots, 1969-70 Houston Astros, 1978 Atlanta Braves] as the organizer of the event. Jim had started the Vintage Base Ball Federation and they were the sponsors of the playoffs and the World Series. Our own local team The Westfield Wheelmen were one of the World Series contenders and on the 1st week

end they played a demonstration game against Bill Lee's Green Mountain Boys from Vermont. You baseball fans will remember Bill "The Spaceman" Lee, lefty pitcher [1968-78 Boston Red Sox, 1979-82 Montreal Expos]. Bouton pitched the last several innings for the Wheelmen and the Wheelmen beat the Green MT. Boys quite handily even without Bouton pitching. The Spaceman lived up to his billing as he became upset with some heckling from the Wheelman dugout and very accurately threw a pitch into the dugout, bouncing off the back wall, next to the heckler and a bit of a nose-to-nose confrontation ensued but without punches. Bill Lee is in the right-hand picture in the green, Jim Bouton is in the black vest standing behind a vintage era cop who had just come out to stop the game because it was being played on Sunday. He gave in to the fans protests, finally and allowed the game to go on

When Jim Bouton was asked "How is vintage baseball different from the modern game?" his reply was: "In vintage baseball the games are a half hour shorter because there was no Velcro in the 19th century. And there are other modern improvements it does without. Besides no batting gloves, there are also no helmets, wrist bands, elbow pads, sunglasses, logo shoes, pajama pants, gold chains or earrings. No arguing with the umpire, stepping out of the batter's box, calling time out, charging the pitcher, posing at home plate, curtain calling, chest bumping, high fiving, pointing to the sky, or kissing jewelry. Just base ball." This was a tremendous endeavor with thousands of man-hours from the volunteers, thousands of dollars from Jim and the Federation, as well as much from the various sponsors of the games. Jim's goal and that of the Vintage Baseball Federation is to build a permanent base ball stadium in Westfield and we sure hope that works out.

Boomer and Bernie

This next story is too good for me not to post it. My lifelong friend, Signa Jean, forwarded it to me today. It is a window into the world I left behind 25 years ago. Signa Jean and her family have been our best friends for 40 years and all are now part of the family because their son married our daughter and the happy twosome live a few blocks away. We were part of that cowboy community in South Dakota, when we left for greener pastures 27 years ago. We made a brief stop in Odessa Texas, for two years and then on to New England for the rest of our lives. This story was from Cowboy Historian and Poet Baxter Black and I am sure he is a friend of Sig and her husband Dale. I've become a bit of a stuffed shirt since moving to NE and this story brought a bit of it, The cowboy life, back to me. Enjoy!


Boomer and Bernie
There's been a gradual change in the way we cowboys do things. It's come over a period of years and coincides with anti-smoking regulations, a healthier diet, mandatory seat belts, bull riders wearing helmets, gentle horse training, improved cattle handling techniques, and now allowing our dogs free run of the pickup bed when we go to town.

It was a long time before I conceded that chaining my dog in the back was the right thing to do. It was about the time I quit speeding, chewing Copenhagen and started taking an aspirin a day. As the loss of my individual freedoms began piling up, I felt less need to let my dog enjoy one of his favorite things: riding unfettered in the back of the pickup.

Bernie, too, had faced the same decisions to do what is begrudgingly safer, but usually not as much fun. In his case, he lets his good cow-dog Boomer ride in the front of the cab with him. Boomer liked it as long as he could have his window down far enough to hang out his head. One fine New Mexico morning they were driving down the Dexter highway, Bernie on the cell phone and Boomer taking in the scenery. Traffic was busy and Bernie was smack dab in the ;middle of a verbal therapy session with his banker. Suddenly the cab filled with a blizzard of old receipts, magazine scraps, ear tags, Maalox pills and a roll of survey tape.

His first thought was that Boomer had hit the electric window all the way open at 45 mph! But no, Boomer's hindquarters from the neck down ws a furious flailing of limbs scattering everything on the seat and dashboard into the air! He realized immediately that Boomer had stepped on the electric window button, but he had closed it on his neck! Bernie fought for control of his vehicle, the cellphone and the mad dog amidst the hurricane of trash that filled the air!

Then, Boomer lost control of his bowels. Digested dog chow, in several stages of viscosity joined the airborne contents in the dog blender. Swerving on the shoulder, Bernie jumped out, raced around and jerked open the door. Boomer was still attached and smacked him on the face! As Boomer dangled momentarily, a passing motorist screamed "Dog abuser!" and made an obscene gesture.

Well, Boomer got saved and Bernie now chains him in the back. He bought a gross of air fresheners to hang on the rearview mirror that smells like cooking broccoli and he is a changed man. Kinder and gentler, but more practical. Yet, the profound question that lingers in his mind every time he climbs into the pickup is, "Why didn't I lower the window from the driver's side?" Maybe it was some deep man-animal bonding conflict, or perhaps simply his vision was blurred.

Fencing is for the Dogs!

Recycling helps save the environment, especially when it comes to fences. My daughter and I have been doing that for the last 23 years. Our latest venture illustrates our efforts. We have a large side lot to our house and it is so large there is room for gardens, the carriage house, a fireplace with a covered table area, large English garden, all of our firewood storage, 50% of the parking for the office and still about 1/3 not used.

My daughter and her son lived with us about 8 years and towards the end of those years she decided that they needed a Golden Doodle for a pet. For those of you that are not familiar with those words it is a cross between a Golden Retriever and a large Poodle. Golden Doodle #1 , Golden Doodle #2 , These hyperlinks will take you back to Dec of 04, when the Golden Doodle came to my house. I wrote about Randy a lot during Dec of 04, and Jan 05, and off and on throughout the years. There were a lot of stories to write about him. Ellen got remarried and soon we had her son Sam, her new husband Mike and Randy the Golden Doodle all living with us. I build a large run for Randy and it enclosed the Majority of our side yard. Went to the Home Depot and bought 4 foot high sections of wooden fencing. Took every other fence picket out and nailed them to 2x4's making another section of fence as the fencing I bought was solid with pickets. This was my second dog run as we also had another 2 dogs at the house. Both dogs were rather small and the run wasn't very large but I took those fence sections to built the new run along with many more sections.

Eventually Sam, Mike and Ellen gathered up Randy and moved to their own house but they needed a dog run for Randy at the new house. We didn't have much use for a dog run as all we had left was Simon, a shiatsu, and there were no fences around that could contain Simon. He found a way out no matter what we did but it really didn't make any difference because when he got out he never went anywhere. So down came the fence and off to Ellen, Mike and Sam's with it. Some where along the line, Ellen and Mike picked up Boo, a Black Lab, as company for Randy. Boo has turned out to be the real escape artist. He has tunneled under the fence, gone over the fence, tunneled through the hedge that is actually part of the fence, ate his way through the fence and has escaped through every door in the house. He's good! His escapes have provided me with reasons to keep bringing more fence sections to their house instead of mine. Recently they have changed their design and made the dog run area much smaller and much easier to control but that has allowed them to store many more sections of fencing. They have a Plethora of fencing sections, you might say.

Along comes my wife and we buy a new dog. A cute, little Yorkie/Shiatsu mix who now needs a dog run at our house. My wife lays out the boundaries and I make a phone call to the kids asking for my fence back, at least the sections that they are not now using and it all magically reappears in my back yard. They even brought back the sections of pickets that Boo chewed up. Must have figured I could work it into the new design or something? Friday I started digging fence post holes again and today I started putting up fence sections. I had to completely rebuild some sections, taking off the pickets and adding them with others on new 2x4's to make a complete 8' section. I am about half done. I am never going to put this fence up again because if ever we need another I will hire some one to make and install a new fence. I purchased 24" high, green, garden wire to go around the inside of the fence with the hopes of containing Bridget but if she turns out to be as adept at the art of escape as the prior inmates have, this will turn out to be a wasted adventure on my part. Lets hope not. She probably won't be any good at escape cause after all she is a GIRL!

This is not my first foray into fence recycling as 23 years ago my daughter and I built a fence at another house we had. All in the hope of containing Cody, a master pain-in-the-butt, 1/2 rat terrier and 1/2 what ever crawled under the fence and master escape artist. Cody has since passed on but Simon apprenticed under him. We built the fence out of 1x3's with Ellen operating the radial Arm saw cutting the points and I ran the cutoff saw for length. She was 14 at the time. I can't remember how many times I moved that fence as designs and needs changed. I moved it so many times the fence just fell apart and it ended up as firewood for my wood burning stove that heated the shop. That is probably the best way to end the recycle. That brings up the point that used fencing materials make very excellent kindling for a wood stove.

Feet

Today one of our Board of Directors was in the office signing checks and our little pain-in-the-butt, Yorkie-Shiatsu, named Bridget attacked his shoes. He was wearing work shoes with laces and Bridget was trying to untie the shoes and he just ignored her. "Oh don't worry about her, my girlfriends little dog eats all of my shoe laces up, whether my feet are in the shoes or not" he ventured. "The problem is replacing the laces as 1st of all they are hard to find and secondly the colors don't seem to match," he finished. It got me to thinking about the problem of replacement laces and I too have that problem. The obvious choice is Wal-Mart or K-Mart and it doesn't usually work out. The problem is that there aren't very many shoe stores around anymore as the "Big Box Stores" have ran them out of business. JC Penny's and Sears come to mind as having shoe store within their stores and they are definitely not a good option. When was the last time you walked into a "pseudo-shoe store" and saw a foot X-Ray machine? The shoe fitting fluoroscope was a common fixture in shoe stores during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. A typical unit, like the Adrian machine shown here, consisted of a vertical wooden cabinet with an opening near the bottom into which the feet were placed. When you looked through one of the three viewing ports on the top of the cabinet (e.g., one for the child being fitted, one for the child's parent, and the third for the shoe salesman or saleswoman), you would see a fluorescent image of the bones of the feet and the outline of the shoes.

You just can't find a good shoe fitting fluoroscope anymore so what else is there? How about a good foot gauge along with someone that really knows how to use it. When my wife Dale and I moved to the State Capital in Pierre, SD, so that I could work for the Division of Criminal Investigation, she found work in a local Shoe Store. She knows how to use a foot gauge because they taught her. In fact she knows a lot about shoes and proper fittings. She even had her feet fluoroscoped when she was a little girl. I always wanted my feet fluoroscoped but my mother would never allow me to have it done. Didn't believe in them I guess.

I have friends out in South Dakota, at the Rushmore Mall in Rapid City, that own a real shoe store and have for years. They do really well with it. I'll bet they would have the replacement laces that I need and in the correct color. Wonder what a round trip flight would cost?

I really don't know much about shoes and I definitely don't have a foot fetish but I thought this was a good subject to write a story about. All I know about feet is that when I was 14 and a counselor at a Boy Scout Camp [Camp Old Broadaxe], I slipped on the side of the pool and ripped all of the toenails off of my foot and boy did that hurt. Said a lot of non-Boy Scout things. and 2 weeks after that I had to be in my Brother Bill's wedding. My Mom had to buy me two pair of shoes because one of the shoes had to be large enough to hold the lambs wool that protected my toes. 2 weeks after that football started. Jeez!

More Hair

It is amazing how much mileage you can get out of a little hair growth. I start most conversations with “Have I told you that I am growing new hair?” and it seems to get an interesting conversation off and running. My wife is getting tired of hearing it but she did suggest “Lets ‘spike’ your hair for a different look and I’ve got some hair gel upstairs that you can use.” I was all for it. I told my grandson Sam that “when it gets long enough I’m going to wear it in a pony tail”. “no you won’t”, he intones before glancing up from his ‘Game-Boy. “What makes you so sure?” I ask. Shaking his head in disgust, he coolly responds as he goes back to his game-boy, “Because your from South Dakota”.

Went to my Dentist yesterday because I was getting some false teeth fitted and he said that he would be more interested, in my story, if I found a way to grow teeth. Looking at my mouth it was pretty obvious that I hadn’t found a way yet. I don’t like false teeth but I will admit that it looks better than no teeth. I’m only missing three in front but I need to have them adjusted because they hurt a little bit. Guess I will have to get out my Dremel tool and go after them.

You will notice, by the photo, that we have a new addition to the family. This one is a she and her name is Bridget. ½ Yorkshire and ½ Shiatsu and there is absolutely nothing she can do. Scarred to death of her shadow and every noise that there is. We have her enrolled in “Puppy Kindergarten” and she has been to four classes and can’t do even one trick. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Her one redeeming quality is that she hassles Purrsey, the cat, on a constant basis.

I'm growing hair again

Yup, it's true. I'M GROWING HAIR again. I have not had any hair, to speak of, for the past 20 years and here I am growing new hair on my head, right out of the blue. We all just noticed my head, yesterday, so it is a rather new phenomena and I feel that I should share it with the world. My sister-in-law is a Barber and for the past 25 years has cut my hair and she gave me my last hair cut on Sunday but didn't notice my new follicles but my wife did. There is so little hair, up there, that she cuts if for free. My wife said that she noticed my hair was 'fuzzy' since my last cut. My daughter said my hair appears thicker. On the front of my head I have one, long, hair that is definitely Brown in color, not white like all of the rest, and it is constantly hanging down in front of my eyes. I constantly have to toss my head to keep it out of my eyes. Sometimes I just sweep it back with my hand but it falls back in front of my eyes. Long hair is such as hassle.

I don't know where this sudden growth is coming from but I would bet it has something to do with the medication I am on. Who cares, just as long as it is growing. The past 40 years, people have always had something to say about my fading locks and it was usually someone with a full head of hair. Well I will not stand around and let people kick sand in my face any more. Mr Nice is taking the gloves off. I am going to go out and find a few of those "tricksters" who have since had their golden locks fall and kick a little sand of my own.

At supper tonight, we were discussing my situation and I asked my Grandson Sam what he thought. Sam is now 10 and he looked up from his gaming device and slowly perused my head and at the end he switched his gaze back to the gaming screen and casually said "Hope your hair comes in full by the time I leave the house!". I think it is coming in quicker than that.

I know that most of you don't find this as earth-shattering news but just realize what I am going through: I have to spend more money on hair care products; Plugging the bathtub drain might sometimes be my fault; Tomorrow night I think I will spend the evening comparing hair blowers; I am actively comparing hair colors. Oh ya, that first picture of before and after isn't really me. I don't think I have that much hair yet. We're doing our own before and afters and will post the photo's when there is a difference to show. Shouldn't be very long.

Maple Sugar time again.

Last year at this time we traveled to the Pomeroy Sugar House on the other side of Westfield, for Breakfast. On last years trip took along Flat Stanley for an adventure. You might want to take a look at the Flat Stanley link because I included pictures last year. Pancakes with sausage and homefries, all covered with lots of Freshly made Pure Maple Syrup and lots of coffee to wash it all down. What can be better than that? Its really great to live in New England.

Pomeroy's Sugar House is on line if you want some information about them. Just click on the Sugar House Hyperlink. In case you might want some more Maple taste I am providing one of the Pomeroy's own recipes. I have tried it and it was excellent.
Maple Cream Cheese Pie
1 9" Graham Cracker Pie Crust
1 8oz. package of cream cheese
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/3 cup Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup

Beat Cream Cheese until fluffy; add Condensed Milk, Lemon Juice and Maple Syrup. Beat well. Pour into prepared Pie Crust and chill.

Topping:
1 Cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Water
1 Egg
1 1/2 tablespoon Corn Starch mixed in 1/4 cup of Water.
Bring Maple Syrup, water, beaten egg and cornstarch (dissolved in 1/4 cup of water) to a boil. Cook until thickened. Cool and spread on top

of Pie. Garnish with chopped nuts. Chill and serve.

Photo is Randy feeding the firewood into the evaporator. I hijacked this phot0 from the Pomeroy's web site.

Neat Photo

Thought that I might throw this picture in today. This is what my windshield looked like this morning at 8am. Yesterday at 8 it was 0 degrees and this morning it was 40. The sun was rising directly behind my truck so even though the temp was 40, the windshield was not directly in the sun. This was all ice crystals and it all quickly disappeared with one shot of windshield washer solution.

MSU or Uof M, what gives?

This posting is because I was challenged on what I said in an older posting "My Bear Killer": It was a gun posting about my Colt single action frontier scout .22 LR and in it I said "When I was off to college at Montana State University at Missoula, my Colt went with me." Then today I got a comment from Kerry who said "Just a technicality...but MSU is and always has been Montana State University in Bozeman. It is the rival school of University of Montana in Missoula. Because we are rivals we are a little sensitive about the common mix up". I sat in front of my computer screen trying to figure that out for a while and so I Googled Montana State University and it was obvious that MSU was in Bozeman Montana, not Missoula where I went to school. I went to school there 45 years ago and memories do fade and maybe I am getting the early stages of "Old Timers" disease just like my wife is always saying. I know 45 years is a long time but... So I went searching for my yearbook and there it was, right on the cover "Sentinel '62 Montana State University Missoula", on page 11 was The MSU-MSC Game at Bozeman. I was there as I took the pictures as yearbook photographer. The photo's were Extchrome taken with a 4x5 Graflex 'Press' camera. They were the first large format color photos I had taken as each slide was very expensive. MSU (Missoula) lost by one point to MSC (Bozeman). I was vindicated but what happened. We were the proud MSU GRIZZLES of the old Skyline Conference and someone came along and took all of that away and gave Missoula a different name, University of Montana. I remember a basketball game when our center, Steve Lowry battled "Bill the Hill McGill from Utah" in a classic basketball game. Is that gone also? They took Bozeman's name, MSC, away and gave them another name. Both MSU and MSC probably did something to tick off the state legislature and they then showed them by changing their name. Who became MSC if MSC was changed to MSU? Back in the "Old Days" State Legislatures worried about having three or four types of schools of higher learning spread across their state: State Teachers College; State College which held the Agricultural College; a University for a broader based education; a forth type would be a school of mines. Maybe that explains it. If you know what happened how about dropping me a comment.

Ghosts in my Belfry

A wee bit of background is necessary in this story or you might just get the idea at I am a bit whacked, which I am not. Old but not yet whackey. My wife would have something different to say about that, I think. Last year I wrote an article about our cemetery being haunted or not and you might want to revisit the posting. My wife and I are cemetery superintendents and live across the street from the cemetery. Both of us are very skeptical when it comes to ghost stories and haunting. We have our share of Wikens and Warlocks that visit our cemetery on a frequent basis and all claim the cemetery is haunted. I don't think so but...

Our house was built in 1830, or there about, and is a two story. The house is actually made up of an original house and two more houses that were added by being moved in and attached. Hardly any rooms have the same heights for floors and ceilings as a result. One of the move-in houses came from the same street as David the Ghost's house, mentioned below.

We have several people buried in the cemetery that are reportedly haunting the homes in which they died. That must mean they are not haunting our cemetery. A few years ago I was the Maintenance Supervisor for a large area company and one of my buildings was a beautiful, turn-of-the-century old mansion. It was owned by a very prominent family and we have lots of plots in the cemetery that holds them and their relations, including one that holds David who committed suicide. David was a third generation member living in the family estate and was basically alone in the home. He was also broke, as the story goes. One night David crawled into the upstairs bathtub and slit his wrists. A housekeeper found him the next day. Supposedly, David's body went to Pine Hill Cemetery but his spirit stayed at the house, roaming the halls and rooms, always looking for something. On at least 20 occasions, young women reported, to me, the difficulties that they were having with David's ghost. Lights were turned on and off, doors were left open or closed, and on occasion, David could be seen rocking in a chair in the cupola. One night we had a security problem with one of our locked rooms and I was notified of the problem. The office had been trashed, files thrown everywhere, and the desktop had been wiped clean. I found out that one of our Engineers had been in the office a few hours earlier. When I confronted him he admitted unlocking the office but when he found it trashed he simply locked it back up and returned to his office. I asked him why he didn't report it and he replied, "Because David did it". The next morning I had the young engineer, his boss David and another person in the office trying to sort it all out. I told them that this was a very serious event that had occurred and I told David that his young Engineer had implicated him and did he have anything to say. After several pregnant seconds, the young Engineer blurted out " not this David, the ghost David did it"! Foolish me. I went into a tirade and was very disrespectful to young Engineers and to ghosts.

Little did I know that David would eventually come to my house and haunt it. I'm trying to show him the way to his grave but I don't seem to know how to do that. It appears that I am the only person that sees these apparitions and when I mention to my wife that I just saw someone walk into the parlor or saw a car go by our window she always replies "Of course you did dear". The apparition never stops and visits but it is always later in the evening when I experience this phenomenon. I don’t really know if it is David or just another run-of-the-mill ghost because we never talk. May be there is something wrong with my eyes and I should go see an eye Doc. I am just assuming that the specter is David. The only way that I know how to get David to where he belongs is to hold a séance. Hmmm…

We get our vaults from a company called Wilbert Vault out of Springfield. We order them one by one, as the need arises, and when they come with them they place them in the evacuated hole for us. The driver with this one arrived to early and we were still just defrosting the ground to be able to dig. He wanted to know where he could leave it until we were ready for it. I told him "anywhere along the road as we are not using the area for burials". He chose this spot, on top of a dirt pile to be funny, I assume. Looks kinda like the New Orleans area after a flood. The driver that came later to set the vault was not very amused as he had a really tough time getting it off the pile.

Drug Store musings

A Drug Store is still a Drug Store,Right? Does this one look like one you had in your home town? Looks just like the one we had and it was called Urton's Rexall Drug. We had another Drug Store in town called Sturgis Drug and it was owned by our next door neighbor. We never went there but I don't know why. Urtons was our drug store. Being a budding young photographer, I purchased my first 35mm camera at Urton's and they developed all of my photographs there. Before I bought my camera I was in to developing Black and Whites and then to enlarging and everything was bought at Urtons including my enlarger. From the Pharmacists I got excellent advice about how to develop film and printing pictures. It was all part of his job I guess. At this time I also had my basement chemistry set up and running and so my buddy Steve and I were always in the store soliciting information and advice, such as making explosives. The ingredients for gunpowder are charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter and we bought it all from our friendly Rexall Drug store as well as buying glass wear and other chemicals. Prophylactics were kept on shelves next to where the druggists worked and it was where I would always stand when I came in to visit. The prophylactic corner. I spent hours there.

Urtons was always on my Christmas shopping tour as it was a great source for everyone. After my wife and I were married, I purchased hair car items for her at Rexall as Christmas presents. 1st year I purchased a plastic box that had a cord you plugged in and it heated up the hair curlers inside. Next I purchased a portable hair dryer, just like a professional one, and I remembered it looked like a space helmet. I also bought a ton of Auqua Velva and Old Spice for my Dad and Brothers. It was a great store. I can still, in my mind, wander up and down the aisles. Rexall in the U.S. disappeared around 1977 but still remains strong in Canada.

Today, Dale and I went to a grand opening for a new CVS drug store in town. We had an existing CVS that was OK but someone decided we needed a fancy smancy CVS so we got a new one. Back in the pharmacy area, I stood watching the three pharmacists hastily filling orders still trying to figure out the new system and I noticed that there was no where that I would be able to go to visit with one of them for a couple of hours. The only area that was available was at the counter that had a huge "CONSULTATIONS" sign over it. There wasn't even an area that had prophylactics on the shelves where I could stand but those are kept up front now days any way. Everything changes. They sell food in these "new" Drug Stores, just like a grocery store. They publish the good deals in a flyer for the Sunday papers. I watch it a little bit, and did you know you can buy Jello for about 30 cents a box when it is on sale? Not bad. They also sell clothing and have specials alot, on T shirts. They all compete very strongly with their photo departments and it makes picture takin pretty cheap for all of us and I do appreciate it. I have been transferring some of my slides from the 60's over to regular prints so I can scan them and put them in this blog for all the world to see. Our Drug Store is Walgreens and the last time I went in with some slides, the kid behind the counter said "give me 5 minutes" and when I came back, he handed me my prints. Super!!

All of the aisles were well lit and airy but I felt like I was on camera. There was one of those up where you came into the store. You know, one with a screen right beside it so you can see the top of your head as you come in. That is probably there as a customer courtesy so you can check your hair to see if it is wind blown or something. I don't have much hair but what I do have tends to blow easily and stands straight up in the air. People are always running their hand through their hair and looking at my hair as if they want me to do the same. I usually comply and then we all laugh nervously and say something stupid about my hair. I appreciate those cameras and monitors. They did have nice furniture, in the pharmacy area, so I could sit down and wait if I chose. I chose to leave as suddenly the entire thing didn't sound or look right. May be I am just getting old. I miss the orange and blue and the old Drug Stores. May be I'll go over to The Home Depot and whine a bit.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea is a condition where you literally stop breathing. "Apnea" is a Greek word meaning "without breath".Those with apnea literally stop breathing in their sleep. Typically the soft tissue, in the rear of the throat, collapses and closes the airway so that victims of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during sleep; as frequently as a hundred times an hour and as little as five to seven times an hour. Snoring is a cardinal sign that Sleep Apnea may exist. Consequences of untreated sleep apnea include: Falling asleep during the day-at-work, driving a motor vehicle, etc; Morning headaches; Loss of energy; Trouble concentrating; Irritability, short temper; Forgetfulness; Mood or behavior changes; Anxiety or depression; Decreased interest in sex; Death. I am not trying to sound like a billboard for Sleep Apnea but before I was diagnosed I couldn't even pronounce Apnea let alone know what it meant. according to my Doc, what happens is you go to sleep and your tongue etc all relax and close off your throat. Your body sends a signal to your brain that you need air and it in turn fires up your adrenal gland which sends out adrenaline which wakes you up which unrelaxes your tongue, etc. and opens up your throat letting air flow. You are now awake but you won't remember it. Something like that happens anyway. My Dr. said that my sleep test showed me to be as high as 70 times per hour. He said I had a severe case of sleep apnea and CPAP therapy was necessary and had anyone ever told me that I was developing Cataracts. Just what I needed, something else wrong with me. What a day.

The photo is one that I got off the net and shows a typical mask and user. This should drive my wife away for sure. The thing is she has sleep apnea also and is taking her Sleep Test next week. We should look cute, in bed, with our matching masks. Intimacy might be a problem. She found out she had sleep apnea when she had her last breast surgery. The Surgeon didn't realize she had it and told her afterwards that they thought they were going to have to jump start her as they had just administered an anaesthetic to her and she stops breathing. Little bit of panic there.

My Dr. said I was pretty old for just being diagnosed and wanted to know how my Dr. figured it out. My Dr. is really a Physician's Assistant and during one of my appointments we were talking about dreams and I told him I often dreamed about drowning and being in a tunnel of sand and it was slowly collapsing. After that session he set me up for a sleep study. My Apnea Dr. said he did very good picking up on it. My PA also picked up on my heart problems when I came in for a shoulder injury because he thought that some of my pains were a little close to the chest and he made me go see a cardiologists. Good PA! I am just now getting treatment for the shoulder injury, but that is a different story.

Rudely Awoke

This morning at 6am I found myself napping on my recliner in the living room. Normally I am up at 5 for the day but today I woke as normal and decided to catch a few more hours of sleep. I didn't need to do things until 8am and a few extra hours wouldn't hurt me. I covered myself with a blanket that my daughter had given me for Christmas. Suddenly a dog landed on my stomach and it was Maggie. Well isn't that cute, she wants to sleep with me? I slid over, in the chair, to make room for her as I petted her. It was at this time that she went "eurppp" and threw-up on me and the chair and my blanket. She then jumped down (wise choice) and threw up on the floor. I retrieved a roll of paper towels from the kitchen and started the clean up process. I heard a noise and looked over at the couch and there was Maggie, curled up in a ball, sound asleep and snoring.

If you look back at a couple of earlier posting you will know that Maggie is not ours but a friend's who is vacationing in Arizona. The dog is a little bit different and has been fun. She wears a full dog collar and still doesn't really like it so as she wears it she shakes a lot trying to get rid of it. She starts with a slow roll to the left and then a slow roll to the right, it is almost like she is winding up to shake. Then shakes so hard she sometimes falls over. Funny! Since she has been here she has learned to get along with the cat, Purrcy or is that the cat has decided to let her live. Anyway the two like to chase each other. This picture is a chase photo as the cat is stalking the dog and as I took the photo the cat attacked batting the dog in the head about 10 times before the dog could respond and then the chase was on. Time to come back and claim your dog Georgette.

Maggie is back for a while

Maggie is back for a while. His Mom left on vacation for a couple of weeks and we are providing an alternative to the Kennel. Simon likes the new arrangements but Purrsey is being a bit standoffish. Purrsey has taken up residence at the top of the stairs where he can survey his kingdom even if it means flashy red eyes while on Maggie watch.

Simon has done much better sharing things. The next photo shows the two greeting each other again. Went OK as no one got hurt. This new dog is spending her time searching the house, looking for Mom, I would judge, all the while letting out little yelps. {Sorry Georgette} She will get over it by tomorrow and start settling in. When she normally travels around the house she makes more noise than three dogs snorting, yelping and breathing hard. The only problem we have seen so far is that she constantly travels in a cloud of gas. Anyway, welcome Maggie, if you get too lonesome or restless we can always take you down to Sam, Mike and Ellen's house to spend the day with Randy and Boo.

Teeth problems

There is no better feeling than when all of the pain goes away as in "Teeth". It starts out with and abscessed tooth that causes terrible pain and you fight it with all sorts of things such as aspirin, Tylenol, Advil and maybe even all three at once as you work up to the old wives tales looking for a solution that will allow you to concentrate on something other than your tooth. You even contemplate pulling the tooth yourself. I had a friend that did that for real. He, also, was going to deliver their first baby because he had already done it 100's of times with cows, so how tough could that be. You can guess who won that discussion. They used to always do that in the "Good Old Days" and that was before Novocaine. So whats the big deal? I'm just as tough as they were so I should be able to do it myself, also. Right? Its called hallucinating. Hell no you can't do it yourself. You would pass out when you saw the extraction tools and the doorknob trick only works with kids teeth. Hopefully your dentist is as accommodating as mine was and gets you in right away to at least look and give you a prescription to take the pain and the poison away, i.e. Tylenol with CODEINE and penicillin tablets.

As I sat in the waiting room at 9am the following morning, I started to get the cold sweats. I wasn't worried about the tooth as the pain was almost gone but I was worried about the upcoming procedure. No. 1, I knew I was going to get a lecture from the good Doctor for missing my last few scheduled cleanings and canceling my visit to have a small filling. That small filling was probably this big problem I have right now. #2, I have had teeth pulled before and I kinda knew what to look forward to and I knew these two were going to be problems. As you probably can guess, by this time I was sweating more and more in anticipation of the doom awaiting me in the next room. My mind starts flashing back to bad, older, dental experiences. I dwell for a while on my first dentist in his office with the slow speed drill. The drill was a series of pulleys with leathers going from pulley to pulley starting at a motor on the floor and ending at the dentist drill. The motor turned a leather string up to the first pulley and then on to the next pulley unitl it reached the actual drill. It was a horrible machine as it slowly ground away the decayed parts of my teeth. My dentist was a nice man as he would always tell me a few stories about gun collecting. He collected guns associated with historical characters. He personaly owned one of Wild Bill Hitchcock's colt 45's. The drill sounded like a slow speed Dremel tool and it would slow right down as he started drilling and then almost stop so he would pull it away from the tooth until it got back to speed and then start again.

The next dentist that I could roll around in my mind was a young Dentist located just off campus, where I was going to college. He was about the only one it town that was taking new patients and I soon found out why he had openings. He decided that I needed a root canal for my decayed tooth and I don't think he had ever done one before mine. During the drilling process of removing the roots of my tooth from the inside, he hit something that caused me the most pain I have ever endured. It caused me to break out in a 100% instant sweat and as I laid in the chair completely soaked he said "that shouldn't of happened because you don't have any roots left down there." When he was finishing the root canal, he filled the tooth and put a temporary cap on it and sent me home with a prescription for codeine and a phone number list of where he would be that evening in case I had problems. I caught up with him at the movie theater and he came back and drilled out the filling that night as I couldn't stand the pain. Must have left his watch down there or something. Twice during the drilling process he lost drill bits. He;d say "Freeze, don't move" and go and retrieve the bit. The second time he had to grab it with a magnet as it was partially down my throat. I have never even considered a root canal since. Dr Bonkowski didn't do any such thing. He simply pulled the offending teeth with the minimal amount of pain possible and sent me off with good scripts to alleviate any future pain and to speed healing. Thank heaven for good Dentists.

As I set here writing this I am completely pain free and except for a big hole in my mouth all things are back to normal. When I started this post I said "There is no better feeling than when all of the pain goes away as in 'Teeth'." As I was researching this posting I came across a neat article on "Tooth Jumping" that is interesting reading. Just click the Mountain News hyperlink. Smokey MT. News, Mountain News .

Buddies

Just waiting for some action outside so that they can start barking, meowing and scratching to go out!

07 A better year?

I thought for sure that 2007 had to be a better year, especially for me with a 06 heart attack. The weather has been glorious as we have yet to see a real snowflake and tomorrow is to be 64. It has made it possible for us to get lots of work done in our cemetery and we are even still getting new grass on graves to grow. Health wise it hasn't been as rosy as today I spent my morning having my teeth pulled. Two of my front teeth are abscessed and had to come out. It kinda sneaked up on me because of the medication I was taking for my heart, my sleep problem and prostate problems. I had one day of bad pain and my Dentist agreed to come in today [Friday is normally his day off] and pull the offending suckers. The two teeth were side by side and the 1st one came out with very few problems. The second tooth was a different animal all together. The root was about 1" long and the tooth had a lot of decay which lent it very capable of breaking at the gum line and would require major work if it did. Dr Bonkowski kept loading me up with more and more Novocain as I kept getting very intense pain as extraction was attempted. Finally, at one point, I said "go ahead and pull it Doc as I am sure I can tough it out for a couple of intense moments". Brave of me as I am the biggest wimp ever when it comes to teeth pain. Dr Bonkowski replied "no patient of mine will ever go through all of that pain with what we have available to deaden the pain". I don't know what he did but he managed to deaden the pain source and pull the tooth without me crying. There are good dentists in this world and then their are great dentists. Joe is one of the greats. He wrote me a prescription for 10 Oxycodone tablets and sent me on my way with a handful of 2x2 absorbent pads. I just had a bowl of soup and a bowl of chocolate pudding when I received a call from the good Dr. checking up on me.

This whole incident set us back $400. A few minutes ago my wife called and said that she was stopped at a stop light for entrance to the Mass Pike and was rear-ended by a 3/4 ton Dodge pickup. The rest of the family was in the van as they were heading out for supper and no one was hurt. The hell with worrying about what 07 brings us and I think we will just worry about what tomorrow brings. Maggie's mommy brought her by today so she could poop and pee on the office floor and spend time getting to know Dale and I think she is coming to stay for a week or so next week.