I HATE WINTER..OK..JUST THE SNOW PART

So, yesterday, the day after the Blizzard of 2005,I was
scheduled to work a noon to 9pm shift. I went out around 10:30
am to start digging out my car, little realizing my landlord's
plower had left about a 9ft patch of snow behind all the cars,
apparently not wanting to get too close and hit one. Another
tenant was already working on his car next to mine,and we struck
up a conversation. I thought to myself somewhat facetiously that
this was a good thing, because if I had a massive heart attack
from shoveling at least there was someone nearby.

Then my new friend told me he'd be right back, he needed to
get himself another beer.

10:45 a. m. and he's drank at least one beer, about to pop
another, and he's about my age.

I then had this vision of TWO middle aged men having heart
attacks simultaneously.

Eventually, I got myself shoveled out and away I went to work.
The main street outside my apartment was ok, but the others were
poor until I reached Rte 37, and even that was not at it's best.
Side roads are still mostly not bare and the snowbanks at the
street corners are a hazard to seeing oncoming traffic.

I reached work on time and then the real fun began.It was a
slow day as one might expect but on such days the more..umm..
unique customers tend to appear. I had a few, including the
pair I think of as The Russian Classical Imposers.

The Imposers are in fact two Russians, a middle aged woman
and her elderly father. They might show up in the store once or
twice a year looking for a cd with a Russian opera performer
whose name the woman usually cannot recall entirely.Yesterday,
the search was for a singer named Nicholi(or something close to
that in spelling) and whose last name sounded like Gurov.

I asked the lady if she knew how it was spelled and she said
no,so I began a computer search for Nicholi or Nicholai or any
other variation of the name I could think of trying.

No luck.

I asked if they knew how the last name was spelled. This started
what I was afraid would happen from the last time I'd waited on them:
a conversation in Russian with the father with much gesturing,a few
guttural words I am sure meant no nice thing, and a disdainful glance
at my pitifully ignorant Americanski self. At any rate when the flood
subsided he wrote out on a piece of paper how he thought the name
was spelled.

In the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.

After the daughter translated it into English, we tried Guryov,
Guriev, Guryev, ..and so on. Finally, I had to tell them I could
find no such artist and perhaps he wasn't available in the US.

A half hour later, I was walking off the sales floor for my
lunch break and stopped as I oculd hear someone calling "Sir! Sir!"
behind me. The father had found the artist as a performer on some
music collection. Nikalai Guriaff. (I think.It's all a haze now)

I nodded, told them that I was on my lunch break and if they
went back to customer services whoever was there would help them and
then I walked as fast as I could without looking like I was running
to the break room.
If I'd spent another 45 minutes with the Imposers, the American
and Russian post iron curtain detente might have gone "Pfffft"!

SUZY SNOWFLAKE SUCKS ICICLES

Well, the storm is nearly over and I'm still hunkered down in my hobbit hole.

We got about 2-3 ft of snow judging by the depth of the snow where the landlord

came through on the walkway with the snowblower. The National Weather Service

says parts of the area might end up with up to 40 inches of snowfall and drifts of

3 to 6 ft.

I listened to my Inner Chicken and decided to let the landlord take care of the

shovelling on this one.After he came through, I went to the end of the walkway to see

how badly the car was snowed in. (We were asked to park further down the parking

lot to make the plowing easier). While it's not too bad, I decided I'd wait until tomorrow

when the wind would be down and the windchill less.

The heat is struggling along but I have the stove going to add some more warmth.

So..that's where I am. As usual when it snows, I get sleepy.

Hopefully I'll stay awake for the Pats game!

Go Pats!

IF EVER TWO WERE ONE

One of those strange little coincidences at work today.

I was waiting on a customer who was looking for a book for
her 70 yr old aunt. The woman picked up a book from the new release
large size paperback table and asked me if I knew anything about it.

The title was : "If Ever Two Were One: A Diary of Love Eternal"
by Frank Ellingwood Abbot

This piqued my curiosity. I have Yankee ancestors named Ellingwood and
Abbot, and a quick glance at the back cover told me that this Abbot was
from Beverly, where my ancestors lived.

So tonight I googled him and, yep..he's not a direct ancestor but a
cousin. Our common ancestor was Ralph Ellingwood, waaaay back in Salem,
but where my line descends from Ralph Jr., Frank E. Abbot's descends from
another son.

The same is true of our Abbot ancestry, although there are several other
incidents of relationship through marriages of brothers or sisters into
both lines.

Seems Frank was a Harvard man, a Unitarian minister, and a contemporary
of Emerson and others. I haven't read everything I found as yet, but it
seems he had some small influence on American philosophy.

At any rate, the book is the story of his romance and marriage with
Katharine Loring of over 40 years and the subsequent 10 years after
her death, ending with his suicide on her grave in 1903.

Think I may buy the book. Strange to think that while he and his wife
were having tea with the Alcotts and Emerson his cousins, my ancestors,
were plowing fields up in Maine.

Never know what you might find on the family tree!

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

Man, I hate winter.
I'm sitting here with about 6 layers of shirts on..and no socks..go figure.
And wouldn't you know that a week after I get a haircut, the temps nosedive?
The back of my head feels a constant draft.
Anywho, I ran the car for a half hour around 7pm, taking it out and around the
loop from Abington Center to North Abington Square and then got back
inside as soon as I could. I threw a pot of water on the stove to boil and help
warm the place up, then figured what the heck and made spaghetti for dinner.
I've left the cold water trickling in both sinks and turned the heat up higher, so
hopefully the temps won't burst the pipes at least in my apartment

And gee, thanks Mary for scheduling me for a 9am start tomorrow..
So..off to bed..


.

WHAT I DID FOR VACATION

And the days whittle down to a few more...before back to the book mines on
Monday. Good thing I called today to check, otherwise I would have gone in
at my usual 10 am instead of the 12pm-9pm shift I am scheduled for.
Went to see "Million Dollar Baby" with Pete last night. We had a pizza at
Bertucci'sbefore the show and I enjoyed the film although it is a bit of a sad
one.Well written andacted.

As those reading this well know, I lived up to past performances installing
software and spent the better part of two days fixing the problem by reinstalling
the install. I should have listened to my Inner Chicken.
Thanks to my Tech Team! (you know who you are ).

I am however, still without a printer, so the quest continues. I have until mid
April anywho before I absolutely have to have one, just so I can print out my
tax returns when I file online.

But..I have installed Firefox..and now I can do italics ! See?
And color, see?
Now if I can figure out the adding blog links stuff, I'm hunky dory!

CARPE DA DA DUM

Well,another January, another vacation.
So far I've managed to successfully hibernate
from the cold outside. Well,ok. It's not that
cold and I'm just being lazy. And I did go out
once for food shopping.

As for where Cams is at the moment, we've had
some fun the past few days and hopefully will
continue to do so. Despite rumors to the contrary,
we haven't banned any of the Citadel folk and
I'm not dictating where someone can or cannot
play. There are times something like that might
be necessary but I don' think it is in this
case. As long as they aren't rp'ng some sl that
compromises what Camelot stands for, I wish them
good luck and god speed over there.

What I'm going to try to do is get multiple story
lines going that will not be overwhelming but be
something anyone can drop into at anytime. So
the intrigue in The Hook will be an ongoing plot
for a while,I hope,with two threads that will
eventually come together. And I'm mulling over
how to build on the Hundredth Tear plot when it
reaches its conclusion. I'd like to make use of
the myths and legends of Camelot and the Middle
Ages in the rp. There's lots of "Little Mysteries"
we can use rather than going for the grand epic
orc invasions all the time. Besides,we must have
killed damn near every orc within a hundred miles
by now. There's also the actual history of the
period we can draw on for inspiration. This period
in English history was a time of plotting and
alliances that eventually leads to a civil war
and the age of the Plantagenet kings. Who knows
what sort of plots other races might have going
for their own reasons at the same time?

On another front, I'm contemplating installing
Win98.I've been running Win95,but damn near
every spyware or virus update won't support Win95 anymore. Then there's the nice folks here at
Blogger who have made all the bells and whistles
compatible with IE6 and Foxfire which require...
yes..Win98 to run. I'd like to add links I used
to have to other folks' blogs but it appears I
can't make the changes necessary since I changed to
this template.

We'll see. I'm notoriously inept at software
installation. ((Grins))

TENNYSON....GOTTA LOVE IT...

"On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
To many-towered Camelot..."
-THE LADY OF SHALOTT