Peace

In sweet memory

Of a dear friend's mother today

And a most cherished uncle Friday

~~~

xoabb

may you both rest in the serenity of your lives being very well lived!

Stella-Dog the Great Protector...

On her way to protect our bird feeders.
From the birds.
I don't think she gets it.
At all.

But she does a very good job scaring those birds.
Much to my irritation.
(sigh)

~~~

xoabb
here birdie birdie!

A Palindromic Kind of Day!

Kathy, who blogs at ~Skippie's Vegetable Garden~ (do take a moment to scroll down to her 12/31/09 post - beautiful photos of everything she's harvested from her gardens this year) pointed out that today's date ~01/02/2010~ is a palindrome (whose definition is: a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc., reading the same backward as forward). They're fairly rare - the last one was on 10/02/2001 and the one before that all the way back in the 13th century, 08/31/1380! You can go here or here for articles on palindrome dates.

Here's Kathy's list:

No Garden, One Dragon

Potato idiot atop

Step on no pets.

Vegetable was I ere I saw Elba, Tegev.

Yo basil is a boy.

No lemon, no melon.

May a moody baby doom a yam?

Lisa Bonet ate no basil.

Flo, gin is a sin. I golf.

Dee saw a seed.

And below is my list I got here:

Don't nod
Dogma: I am God
Never odd or even
Too bad – I hid a boot
Rats live on no evil star
No trace; not one carton
Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?
Murder for a jar of red rum
May a moody baby doom a yam?
Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog!
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
A Toyota! Race fast... safe car: a Toyota
Straw? No, too stupid a fad; I put soot on warts
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
Doc Note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod
No, it never propagates if I set a gap or prevention
Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna
Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus
Kay, a red nude, peeped under a yak
Some men interpret nine memos
Campus Motto: Bottoms up, Mac
Go deliver a dare, vile dog!
Madam, in Eden I'm Adam
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
Ah, Satan sees Natasha
Lisa Bonet ate no basil
Do geese see God?
God saw I was dogSenile felines
Dennis sinned
~~~
I tried and tried to author one, but alas, it was hopeless! :-(If my name was Anna instead of Ann, I'd be all set! :-)
xoabbHappy Palindrome Day!

I Am The Walrus

On this first day of the new year, may I remind everyone that

sometimes those that think they are a walrus...

are not...

~~~
xoabb
coo coo cachoo!*

*Just looked up the correct spelling for, as I spelled it above, ~coo coo cachoo~
It's actually ~goo goo g' joob~
Go figure!

"A Candle in the Wind"

I remember my grandmother telling me to savor every hour of every day you personally are here on this earth, and also the hours you have with those you love, because one of two things inevitably will happen. Either you will live to be a ripe old age with no clue where the years have gone and why you're not still young. Or life will come abruptly and tragically to an end at a much too young age, and there will be no more hours together. Ever.

Last Sunday we lost a wonderful young man who will be missed every day by all of us who loved and still love him. Sending up prayers for my friends, the Rochlin's. And everybody else who mourns or weeps or grieves this day. We will say goodbye to Charley this morning at 9:00 am. With full military honors.

On a cold, breezy Monday afternoon in Westport, friends and family of the late Charles "Charley" Rochlin filtered through the same Meeker Road residence where the 24-year-old native was raised and returned to when he wasn't serving his country overseas as a U.S. Marine. Seated together around the kitchen island were Rochlin's three younger sisters -- Taylor, 9, Kendall, 12, and Brittany, 21. Slouched in their stools, the three girls said little; their necks glimmered from the personalized diamond pendants their older brother had given to each of them on Christmas morning, less than 48 hours before he was killed in a Sunday morning car accident on Greens Farm Road. Rochlin was traveling in a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by his childhood friend Matthew Packer, 25, of Westport, when wet and foggy conditions forced the vehicle off the roadway and into a tree at about 2:45 a.m. on Sunday. The collision, which produced severe damage to the passenger side of the vehicle, killed Rochlin and sent Packer to Norwalk Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Westport police said. Rochlin's parents described their son on Monday as a family-oriented young man, honored to serve his country as a Marine and happy to live life as an American. "My Charley was dedicated to his family," said his stepmother, Lucretia Rochlin. "A huge, huge part of his life were his three sisters. They adored him; Charley was their hero." So much in fact that when the young Marine returned home in September after a seven-month tour in Iraq, the youngest of the three brought her brother to Coleytown Elementary School for show-and-tell, Lucretia Rochlin said. Whether it was answering questions for a room full of elementary school children or helping his blind, 91-year-old great-grandmother navigate the house, Charley Rochlin had a way of relating to different personalities, she said. "He loved to help people, he was the least selfish person you would ever meet," Lucretia Rochlin said. Born in Westport on Sept. 14, 1985, Charley Rochlin played competitive sports since childhood, taking home junior golf championships and numerous pee-wee hockey trophies, said his father, Scott Rochlin. He attended Fairfield College Preparatory School for three years and played varsity ice hockey, helping lead the Jesuits to two state championship titles, Scott Rochlin said. He went on to graduate from Staples High School before spending a year at Norwalk Community College and another three years at the University of Colorado. In March of 2008, he sat his parents down and announced his intentions to act on his dream of becoming a U.S. Marine, his father said. The family was proud of his intentions and supportive every step of the way, Scott Rochlin said. "I was obviously nervous what with everything that was happening," he said. "Those seven months he was away (on tour in Iraq) I can tell you I got very little sleep." Rochlin had only recently returned home for Christmas break and was scheduled to ship off in early January for a second tour, this time in Afghanistan, his father said. Scott Rochlin awoke Sunday morning expecting to celebrate his own birthday with his wife and children. Instead, there was no celebration; Charley Rochlin was gone. "I was really looking forward to spending my birthday with (Charley)," Scott Rochlin said. "We never quite got there." The funeral will be held on Dec. 30 at 9 a.m. at Saint Luke Church, 49 Turkey Hill Road North, Westport. Interment with full military honors will follow in Willowbrook Cemetery, 395 Main St., Westport. The accident is still under investigation and the Westport Police Department is requesting that anyone who may have witnessed or has information about the accident call the police department at (203) 341-6000.

WESTPORT

By CHASE WRIGHT

Hour Staff Writer

Winter Light

Well, it's turned out to be pretty much an awful month of December for a lot of the good folks I know and love. Deaths, major illnesses, loss of jobs, major operations, you name it, it's happened this past month.

I cannot tell you how very much I'm looking
forward to this month - and year - ending.
Hope springs eternal for 2010.

Ok! I'm now done being morose and am off to find
~my happy place~.

~~~

xoabb
expecting only goodnesss for the people she
loves this coming 2010!

Sunday Serenity

Christmas is over
Fun was had by one and all
Crazy blond lady?


Well, she did OK!
P. S. - With a ton of help from her family!

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!

Photo taken 12/18/09. Our first snowfall.
And the colors of our flag? Appropriate for any holiday!

Twas...

...the Night before Christmas
And all through the House...
The only creature stirring was a
rather crazy blond lady really
trying to keep it all together
so the fam, et al, can have a
MOST EXCELLENT
Xmas day.

She's pretty sure this approach will work!
Result to come.

~~~

xoabb
love all of you!

Winter Solstice

Another season...

Days will now become longer

Happy? You betcha!

View from the 7th Floor

Our view for two days.
The Care? Beyond the norm.
Norwalk Hospital.

~

My GB had cervical spine surgery last week. It was a long and arduous road getting to the point where we knew only surgery was the answer, but we got there! And it was a good thing we did. Not much longer and a wheelchair would have been GB's future. I am so very thankful for everyone and everything that got my GB to where he is today. He's certainly not back in tip-top shape, but headed in that direction.
Let's see....tho GB had been to many doctors and had had many MRI's, EMG's and other tests, no one ever caught on to what was really going on. It was only after GB was sent to physical therapy that someone finally started getting to the bottom of what was truly happening to him. After GB's second session, his physical therapist, Vlad (thank you, you wonderful man!) said to GB - "You need to see a neurologist." I asked GB what that meant, and his reply was Vlad said something weird was happening to his right hand. Of course, I had to call Vlad and ask him what the hell he meant by that. He told me that what he was seeing in GB's hand was stroke-like behavior, though he wasn't saying it was a stroke. Um...that scared the hell out of me.
After a lot lot lot more BS, GB was finally sent to a Neurologist (Daryl Singer - can't sing his praises loud enough - he's the best!). And after some tests he did, he immediately sent us to a Neurosurgeon (Javed Shahid - a total and complete life-saver).
Bottom line, my GB won't require a wheel chair for the rest of his life. He might not ever be 100%, but, by golly, he'll have quality, and a good chance his golf game will get back to a single digit handicap.

May that be the only handicap he ever has.

Tho they'll never see this,
Blessings to Vlad, Singer & Shahid
My GB has a mobile future because of the 3 of you...

~~~

xoabb
thankfulness abounds