Stationery Quote

In advance of writing thank you notes, I took out some notecards that came in this pretty little box -- oh yeah, I am a sucker for that type of thing, and although I've had these for a number of years, I noticed a quote on the box for the first time.

It reads:

Happiness leads none of us by the same route.

I interpret that to mean that it's OK for Mary to have her ungodly desire for salmon which I can't stand. It's also OK for her to seek out a movie about a blind orphan in the tsunami who finds a broken flute and charms people with his music as he searches for his twin sister and her dancing turtle. Portugese movie with subtitles.

So who said this? Charles Caleb Cotton. Never heard of him.

He was an essayist and British cleric who had a sad ending. According to Wikepedia:

He continued  gambling, however, and lost his French fortune. At the time of his death, Colton was living on funds received from his immediate family. An illness required surgery, but Colton dreaded the operation. He eventually killed himself rather than undergo the procedure.

Never Mind...

I have to laugh at myself the nunber of times I do this. I get alerts from Citibank about how much money I have in my various accounts. And today I had way less in my checking account than I thought I should. Of course, my mind jumps to being scammed, robbed, burgled, embezzled, etc. When I went to my online account to look at the activity, I saw the culprit. Oh yeah, I paid my American Express bill. Never mind.

Official Life Decision

I was catching up with a stack of mail today and one of the pieces was from a class-action law suit over World Comm stock that I swear has been going on since 2006. I dutifully filled out the forms; over the years, I'd be notified and as I opened this envelope and took the piece of paper out, I could see by the peforations that a check is attached. Or maybe I can just smell checks when they arrive!

AT LAST!!
Wowsa, I am now $10.54 cents richer. But it's not even that -- because it's from my retirement account, I have to deposit it there which means mailing it to my broker with a letter.

I stopped filling out the forms two or three years ago -- but this check today convinced me I will do it no longer... well, maybe that I will do it no longer GUILT FREE.

Many Moods of Milo

Faithful blog readers will recall Mary's sun porch project -- that was just this year, right? Anyway, it's one of Milo's hangouts and here he is soaking in the winter sun.

Favorite Place

A grade school friend sent me this photo of one of our favorite places. This is the "Neighborhood House" in the town where I grew up. It hosted the public library, a community room with a stage, two bowling lanes in the basement -- back then, you could play for an hour for fifty cents, setting your own pins. It's where Girl Scouts met and all sorts of activitiess took place.

Since it was built in 1923, there was no air conditioning, but I recall the big windows open in the spring and summer and a gentle breeze coming in, no matter how hot it was. There was also this huge grandfather's clock and it was such a quiet place that you could hear the clock ticking.

The place needed renovation, but I expected it to be sensitive. I remember my shock when I walked in for the first time after the renovation and the place had been butchered. I never set foot in the place again.

This is one of the places where I developed my love of reading and I have many fond memories of browsing the shelves.

Stuck in Traffic

Mary is trying to work her way home from Pennsylvania, but is stuck -- she thinks there may be an accident ahead. I always feel so torn -- I sort of *want* there to be an accident so we can get by that and resume normal speeds, but then I don't want to wish an accident on anyone.

 

 

Later, that same day... here's the update where Mary shows it was definitely an accident. Let's all send a good thought these people's way:

 

 

Poignant Christmas News

It seems like everyday news stories take on a sadder or happier slant at Christmas. I heard two stories this week that I can't get out of my mind. One is so tragic -- a father of a three-year old in a custody dispute threw the child off the roof of a 10-story building. Then the father jumped. The child survived the fall, but died within a few hours. Think of the number that did on the medical personnel working on him. The father died right away. The news made a big deal about its happening in a nice area -- it was somewhere on the West Side by Lincoln Center -- as if we expect this of poor people, but not of people who live in "nice" areas. So sad.

Then I heard a story -- don't know where it took place, not in New York -- where a woman knowing she was going to die recorded a request for some contest a radio show had -- I missed the opening details... but I think she gave the tape to a friend to hold until she died and her husband remarried. So now she's dead, he's remarried and the friend submits this tape to a "make my Christmas wish come true" at the local radio station -- and the dead woman, speaking on this tape in the kindest voice asked the radio to give the new wife/new stepmother for her children a day at the spa and said how taking care of four boys is hard work and she deserves a day to herself. Then she asked for a family vacation for all of them, and so the station also gave the family a trip to Disney World. Her selflessness was just stunning -- not a total antidote to the first story, but close.