Everyone must be reading or sleeping today. The phone has been quiet. I've had little traffic to the "blob" and no email from my posse. I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I did my taxes this morning - that was kind of lovely as we have a refund coming.

I received a wonderful note in the US Postal Service mail from my dear pal Holly. She writes the most wonderful letters and notes and they are always decorated with great stickers. She's a rarity these days. Not many letters grace my box. It's always a special day when Holly writes.

She wrote to tell me how she is enjoying my "blob!" It's so nice to hear from my readers - sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading this. But she gave me encouragement to write more and post more photos. So thanks Holly! I miss you (and your baked goods) and I'll write with pen, paper and stickers soon! Here's another of my favorite pics just for you!

I woke up this morning and opened the blinds to a gray sky. A cloudy day always reminds me of a black and white picture, I love lying in bed watching the snow on the trees. However, I'm already looking forward to spring! Last night was supposedly our last -20 night for a while.

I found this pic - one of my all time favorites. Bailey was just a baby and I had bought my mother one of her favorite plants for Mothers Day - a Martha Washington geranium.

Today, it brings us a little color and makes me look forward to buying myself a Martha Washington for my Mother's Day celebration. I'll do it in memory of my mom. I'll get a new pic of Bailey with it.

It's Friday

Nice refreshing morning in the Adirondacks! Our digital thermometer read -36 when I got up to put wood in the stove at 7:30 am - the regular thermometer read -24 - - it gets that cold who cares which is right. 82 in the kitchen is what works for me.

I hope everyone has a safe and warm weekend. I've sent out my Friday joke to my joke posse and I thought you might want to check it out too. Busy days with nurses, PTs, OTs and home health aides parading through. It's so nice to have all this help with my Dad. The Essex County nursing program has been great for us and happily they will be discharging my Dad from their care next week. He's lots better and continues to get stronger.

Oh yeah, the jokes!

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day.He inquired of God. "Where have you been?" God signed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael, look what I've made."Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?""It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it.I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance." "Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused. God explained,pointing to different parts of earth. "For example, New York City will be a place of great opportunity and wealth. While Upstate NY is going to be poor."God continued pointing to different locations. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice." The Archangel, impressed by God's work, the pointed to a land mass and, "What's that one?" "Ah," said God. "That's ADIRONDACKS, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, streams, hills,and forests. The people from ADIRONDACKS are going to be handsome, modest,intelligent and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking and high achieving and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace." Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed,"What about balance, God? You said there would be balance!!!"God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I put in Albany."

Thanks to John for forwarding the following from Meredith to me...

Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on beds next to each other, outside the operating room.The first kid leans over and asks, "What are you in here for?"The second kid says, "I'm in here to get my tonsils out and I'm a little nervous." The first kid says, "You've got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up they give you lots of Jell-O and ice-cream. It's a breeze."The second kid then asks, "What are you here for?"The first kid says, "A circumcision."And the second kid says, "Whoa, Good luck, buddy, I had that done when I was born... Couldn't walk for a year!!!

I've often thought it would be interesting (to me at least) to make a list of all the concerts/shows etc I have seen. This is going to make my brain work in overdrive. I'm sure it will be a work in progress for a long time to come. There's been many. I've been very fortunate in having enough income for most of my adult life to pursue a bit of travel and leisure. Not rich but certainly blessed with enough to pay the bills and have some fun. That's a darn good thing these days.

That's changed a bit now. Income is about 1/3 of what it used to be so I'm glad I had a good time while it lasted! I'm still quite content and blessed with a good life. No complaints.

Now post your concerts!!!! I want to see who you have seen. I understand that you won't spend the time I have compiling a total list but perhaps you can list your highlights to share.

So, anyway...those shows/concerts.

The first major one I remember is The Who at Saratoga in 1971
Chicago (Saratoga)
Supertramp/Jean Luc Ponty (Jarry Park Montreal)
The Kinks (Plattsburgh Field House)
Talking Heads (Plattsburgh Field House)
Robin Williams (Plattsburgh Field House)
David Johansen (Plattsburgh Field House) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Johansen
Talking Heads/Peter Tosh/The Police/Stevie Ray Vaughan (Olympic Stadium Montreal)
Jethro Tull (The Forum Montreal)
Neil Young (Saratoga x2) (Molson Arena Montreal)
Stevie Ray Vaughan/Joe Cocker (Essex Jct VT) I made a WIZN banner for this show and won the complete Joe Cocker collection. Sadly SRV died shortly after this show.
Neil Diamond (Nassau Coliseum, Buffalo and Caroline Rhea Show)
Buddy Guy (VT x2 and Montreal
Bryan White/Vince Gill (Essex Jct VT)
Blind Boys of Alabama/John Hammond (The Flynn Burlington VT)
Shania Twain (Lake Placid $10 ticket when she kicked off world tour - we got upgraded to front row! - saw her in Albany - won tix from radio station)
Alan Jackson (Lake Placid - M-A won tix from Ch 5 - complete with limo ride, tour of Alan's bus and front row tix - she took me with her - thanks pal - another highlight)
Nashville Trip went to Fan Fair/Grand Ole Opry/Always Patsy Cline at the Ryman - saws ton of artists and attended fan club parties (Bryan White/Trace Adkins). Three or four days of music and fun - one the highlights of all time and shared it all with my pal M-A. I can't even begin to list all the artists we saw. We saw almost everybody! BR5-49 played in the Opry Parking lot with Junior Brown one night - that was way cool.
Alison Krauss & Union Station (countless times I've seen them in Burlington at Flynn Theatre and took my pals Sheila, M-A and Steph out back to meet the band and Dan's Mom - what good times!)
Delbert McClinton (David and I went to Montreal Jazz Fest to see him and talked to him for a bit after the show)
Broadway Shows
Jersey Boys with Original Broadway Cast - Tony award winner and my pal John Lloyd Young starring as Frankie Valli Lucky, lucky me - saw it twice!
Mama Mia
Cabaret
Chicago
Altar Boyz
The Lion King

The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular in NYC

I think we saw The Pretenders perform on Caroline Rhea the first show of hers we went to. Mary will remember.

Well, like I said, this is going to have to be a work in progress. I'll update it as time goes on - I need to look at my cd collection to spark some memories....

Lawlessness and DisOrder CSI

It was a dark and stormy night (actually a sunny afternoon but that just doesn't cut it) and I walked into my living room after a game of Skip-Bo or two with my dad - we are tied one-one. The living room had an odor, not unpleasant, and it looked like someone had the stuffing kicked out of them. All over my rug and from one end of the room to the other, balsam needles. Lying fatally injured was my beautiful red pine cone pillow sham, purchased years ago in Keene, NY at a Festival of Life event for North Country Life Flight. This was my first association with that fine organization, little did I know that they would wing their way over the Adirondacks to fly me one day. The front of the pillow sham is intact, the culprit (born in Alabama) sliced the black velvet black to release the tender balsam and then shook it all over while I unaware got beat in Skip Bo. Crime scene photos follow. The perpetrator has been caught but goes unpunished. She wouldn't know what I was talking about if I scolded her now. I have to learn to not leave things at dog beak range. Some good came out of this caper - my vacuum cleaner smells wonderful now. Thanks Coco!

Happy Birthday Melissa!!!

I want to wish all things wonderful to Melissa - my friend, mentor, former boss and yes, fellow ground team volunteer for North Country Life Flight, on her birthday today. Melissa covers a lot of ground in her travels but I'm happy to have her as part of our ground team and I know we can rely on her for great advice and ideas. We had lost touch over the years but got reconnected in 2008 and it means the world to me. Good luck in all your pursuits Melissa! I know you will enjoy every minute!

Here's a birthday "bouquet" - a photo of my dad's flower garden. I can't wait to put him to work this spring in my yard!

It's Friday!

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to stay in touch! Understatement of the year....

But I decided last year that some of my hard-working pals could use a laugh now and then and I began to search out a joke or two to send out to them every Friday. As people learn of it, the list is growing and I sometimes work quite hard to find a suitable joke. I try to keep it clean, although sometimes it might be a bit suggestive... Folks seem to enjoy it and have begun sending me jokes back. Here's a couple I sent out today to my Friday friends, wishing them a safe and restful weekend and reminding them to "enjoy every minute!" Thanks to my pal Darlynn for sending the jokes for this week.

A priest, a rabbi and a minister decided to see who’s best at this job. So they each go into the woods, find a bear and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins. "When I found the bear, I read to him form the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his First Communion."
"I fond a bear by the stream," says the minister, "and preached God’s holy word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him."
They both turn to the rabbi, who is wrapped in a body cast. "Looking back," he says, "maybe I shouldn’t have started with circumcision.

A French doctor says 'Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks.'A German doctor says 'That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.'The Russian doctor says 'In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.'An American Texas doctor, not to be outdone, says 'You guys are way behind, we recently took a man with no brains out of Texas, put him in the White House for eight years, and now half the country is looking for work.'