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April Showers

O.K., if “April showers bring May flowers”, what, in the name of all saints are we going to get based upon our most recent weather extravaganzas? Gonna be some flowers! Speaking of which (Great segue, eh?), I’ve got all sorts of things coming up around here. As usual, I don’t know what most of them are until they’re in full...

Are We There Yet?

And just where are we going again? By the time that we get there, I’m going to be so out of shape that someone will have to haul me over the line in a wheelbarrow. When the Y closed, it so disrupted my self-designed fitness routine that all of my muscles have declared a national holiday and I’ve had...

Henry V

So...I’m sure that everybody gets the reference, right? Oh yeah, we all go around quoting Shakespeare to all and sundry who will listen. Anyway, what came to me as I sat down to take quill in hand to write about what’s going on, was this famous line from the Bard, encouraging his soldiers to take heart, make the great...

Fist Bump Anyone?

Holy Schmoley!  Isn’t this something? The empty shelves at the grocery--even Wal-Mart--the panic buying of all sorts of things( some necessities, like toilet paper, some not), the cancellation of a myriad of events and programs all over the country...Whooeeee! The cancellations and reschedulings of everything from Broadway to baseball seasons and basketball madness is just stunning, across the board. When the...

All That Glitters

Thought for today : “All that glitters is not gold.” And, just for good measure, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” Thoughts to be thunk when you get a phone call purporting to give you large sums of money that you did not know you had even signed up for. Just sayin’. How do I know this? Thereby hangs...

Feline APB (All Points Bulletin)

Well, IBM (Irresponsible Bad Momma) has just had her call letters, so to speak, changed to RFPM (Retired Front Porch Matron). Having had “the Operation” just this last week, she seems to be perfectly happy to not be putting up with the various traveling salesmen who have been showing up forever around here with a line of goods that...

God Rest Ye

Well, rest is just what I’m looking for about now, lemme tell ya. I think that we’d be planning to petition somebody for an extra day in the week or an extra hour or two in the day, if we’re ever to get all of the stuff done that needs to be done. How about it? Who’s going to...

A Boardinghouse Reach?

The new boarder has apparently settled in...as if there were any question about that.  She seems to have figured out the daily routine and grasps the fact that at certain times of the day, she can caterwaul as loudly as she likes, it still won’t get her whatever it is she wants.  On the other hand, she’s terminally cute...

Three Old Guys Walked into a Coffee Shop…

Mantua - While it may sound like the lead-in to a bad joke, it was the start of a fun and enjoyable evening held at Restoration 44 Coffee shop in Mantua. The event was held in conjunction with the Mantua Historical Society, and got its start last year at a local Christmas party when Dottie Summerlin listened in on...

Weirdnesses Revisited

Years ago--I’m dating myself here--somebody...Art Linkletter maybe...put out a book titled ?Kids Say the Darndest Things?.  And that’s what it was all about, taken from his television show where he talked to children of various ages on an array of topics intended to get many levels of entertaining and/or embarrassing responses.  Well, I haven’t been on television for a...

3 Ways You Can Benefit By Giving Your Smartphone A Rest

America is saturated in smartphones. A Pew Research Center survey reported 81% of Americans own the versatile — and some say, addictive — mobile device.  With the smartphone’s capabilities for internet access, social media interaction, running all kinds of apps, and texting, its screen has become the nation’s preoccupation — while face-to-face human conversation seems more of a second option.  “Everywhere...

Giving Back Gives Back to You

For my family, summer means daytrips to the Lake Erie’s many shores and beaches as often as we can manage it. And while you can’t beat a day at the beach enjoying the sun, the surf, and the sand, one thing we don’t enjoy much is the trash we often find there. A Rochester Institute of Technology study notes that...

Rant # ‘leventy-two

Parking lots are my nemesis, as far as attempting “live and let live”, so to speak.  I get really cranked out by people leaving their shopping carts abandoned willy-nilly all over the place instead of putting them in the cart corrals or back in the store.  It’s also irritating to go to pull into a parking spot only to...

Another SummerFest Goes Into The Books

Quite the affair this one was. A meteorological potpourri for at least two of the days--Sunday was very nice, actually. The on-again-off-again showers kept everyone on their toes through Friday and Saturday but the fireworks were uninterrupted and the shows seemed to go on just fine. The tractor parade was missing some of the ENORMOUS machines...

Spring is Leaking

Well, there was a weekend. Did the Easter Bunny manage to hop out of town wearing galoshes on Palm Sunday? Hope that most of the Easter egg hunts/rolls/parties got off O.K. on Saturday, which was certainly fine, if occasionally chilly. Little ones were likely to be able to spot colored eggs from quite distance. ...

We’ve Been Fooled Before!

Spring has sprung Some grass has riz We wonder where the boidies is.  Well, actually, the boidies is here all right.  I’m hearing them in the mornings, and while I can’t tell a nightingale from a yellow-bellied sapsucker( The only bird that I can reliably identify is a killdeer.), there certainly are more of them out there before the sun comes up. ...

The Firsts of Spring

In walking outside this morning I heard my FOY red-wing blackbird singing. Saw the FOY turkey vulture, and read that the FOY blue herons have returned to their nesting colonies around north east Ohio. The term FOY has many meanings, but in this article FOY will be used to describe an occurrence in nature, an acronym for First of...

Long Live Rock & Roll

We try to make sure our kids knew there’s more to music than the latest artists they listen to or watch on YouTube, so my husband and I expose them to various musical genres in our cars and while at home. While cleaning the house, we’ve been know to subject them to artists including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Motown hits,...

The Latest…

O.K…, I’m gonna describe my latest trip to the Great Big Home & Garden Show, but first there’s this snippet from ?The Week?, one of my news magazines,  (actually, there are often some neat snippets in there on all sorts of topics...but I digress...as usual) that I thought was a hoot.  Think that I saw it somewhere else too. Anyway,...

The Amazing Woodpecker

One of the most common birds that are seen at the feeders during the winter in Northeast Ohio are woodpeckers. Ohio is home to seven species of woodpeckers, the Downy being the most common. The largest is the Pileated with a wingspan of almost 30 inches. The most majestic, in my mind,  is the Red-headed. All seven species are...

Vermiform

I’m thinkin’ that I may have worms. Now, now, you can stop planning to boil the cushions on the sofa where I last sat at your house. I’m talking about “earworms”, you know, those tunes that get stuck in your brain and won’t go away, even if you don’t really like the music, it’s just there and repeating,...

Your Attention Please

This is your last warning! The response to our request for personal recollections about Garrettsville--the village itself and, ahem, Greater Garrettsville, the surrounding area--has been, shall we say, underwhelming. John Porter, our very own senior version of the Energizer Bunny, came through with some highlight events, some including his home stomping grounds in Hiram. He also mentioned...

Wacky Weather

The first frost of the fall occurred in the middle of October at my house which was not unusual. However, since then the weather HAS been very unusual…or maybe the new normal? Even though the days are getting longer since December 21, we should be gripped by much colder temperatures and several inches of snow. But I was raking...

Here We Go Again!

We should be running some sort of a pool featuring everyone’s best guess as to what season we’re REAAaaaaaLLY in and what the weather is going to be like for the next hour-and-a-half. The prize could be a set of mukluks and/or a half-gallon of suntan lotion. The ?Old Farmer’s Almanac ?wasn’t real helpful in maintaining a...

Season’s Greetings!

Looks like it’s well and truly winter, even though, astronomically speaking, we’ve got to wait until December 21 to be legit. Weather adventures already! Power went out Friday morning somewhere around 3:00 a.m.--the increasing chill in the house woke me up--and stayed out until about 9:30 a.m. Coulda been worse : Ohio Edison told me when I...

Is it Spring yet?

Yeah, yeah, I know, we’re not quite there yet, but I can hardly wait. Know why? Thereby hangs a tale. A small but intrepid group showed up for the first annual (?) Make A Difference Day work event on Saturday, October 27. Not exactly surprising, since it was plenty chilly and plenty rainy and not looking like your standard “Hey,...

Biscuits and Beyond

All right! Consider yourself warned. If you missed the Chicken and Biscuits Extravaganza at the Garrettsville United Methodist Church last week, you will have another chance in the future, because it got such a good reception that there will likely be a rematch and the dessert table will feature a Greatest Hits tour with...

A Pretty Fair Day

Have I got a deal for you! IBM (Irresponsible Bad Mamma) cat had kittens on the back step, in a specially-designated box—with lining and cover, and just as the little mites were beginning to open their little eyes, she hauled them off somewhere unknown and they were not seen or heard from again. End of story? Not on your tintype! I...

Mantua-Shalersville Fire District News

Mantua - At the last regular meeting, Chief Matt Roosa informed the Fire Board that the department would be holding emergency vehicle driver training class in mid September. The education and training team from Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services, Inc. (VFIS) will facilitate the two-day event. This annual training exercise will include classroom work and hands-on driving training exercises, according...

Party Central

There’s got to be a time limit of some sort on Spring Cleaning. I just finished mine…in time for Party Central in the neighborhood. Whoo-whoo! Luckily, the rain held off until after the throngs had ebbed and the clean-up crew was packing up the detritus left by the crowds in attendance. Said crowds were able to sit on chairs that...

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