New York Renovator

I am definitely not one to watch viral videos, especially all the goofy “talking” or “singing” animal videos out there.

BUT.

This one is hilarious! Whoever made this video did an exceptional job! Not only is the video entertaining, the creator really captured the personalities of the various animals (especially the cats, LOL). It’s a little lengthy, but waiting until the end is worth it. I think this is the best animal Christmas video. So to all my animal-loving pals, this one’s for you!

We’ve only got two more weeks left! By mid-December, I am ready to relax and enjoy the holidays. We don’t celebrate Christmas like most people do (gobs of decorating and presents). When the kids were small, I decorated and we gave gifts. But we all wanted the holiday to be more low-key. I personally love the traditional Christmas– you know, Victorian carolers in fur muffs gathered around Victorian pedestal mailboxes, Meet Me in St. Louis-style, you know? I have always loved the Victorian era– the architecture, the art, the sense of family, Jingle Bells, old-fashioned Christmas cards bursting from the Victorian wall mailbox! I have a Vistorian boot scrape on my front porch (quite rusty, now, but it was beautiful when I got it). I love Victorian mailboxes situated on enormous painted ladies (Victorian homes) with their colorful, ornate swirls. I always dreamed of owning a Victorian house. It was not to be, but I am pretty happy with my pre-Victorian Greek Revival.

So are you ready for Christmas? Will yours be an old-fashioned one with a big family gathering and caroling?

My cat Livvy has been BEGGING and BEGGING to go outside with the rest of us. I feel sorry for her, because she is such a good cat, and loves our company. She’s more like a member of the family, and not *just* a pet. So, I’ve been bringing her along on brief car trips around town. She doesn’t like the motion of the car very much, but she loves looking out the window. She’s such a smart kitty, she loves the change in scenery and her curiosity is boundless.

It was not even 10 degrees one day, and she was BEGGING us to take her out. I kept trying to explain to her that it was too cold, she wouldn’t like it, but she didn’t listen to me! (CATS these days!). Plus, I was wildly busy, writing articles about choosing bridesmaid dresses and such… but when she planted herself in front on my computer monitor and would not budge, I decided to take her out. She’d find out just how unpleasant it was…..

First reaction as soon as her dainty toes touch the frozen ground.

She is momentarily distracted by a critter (“Squirrel!!” -remember that from Up, LOL).

But then the wind started blowing. Ooooooooooo….

Immediately after getting a lungful of that icy air, she made a beeline straight to the door.

I told you she was a smart cat.

…in the snow.

Here’s the “snowpow” coming through… ha!

The boys like to play King of the Hill, where the opposing forces duke it out on top of the mountain, to see which one is worthy of the honor of securing his address plaque to the mount….

We made some videos, too, but I’m too busy to edit them today. These kids are just hilarious! They must have inherited their wacky sense of humor from their father! I don’t dare publish my address sign on my blog– my neighbors might read this blog, and they think we are weird enough already! LOL

Sorry I haven’t posted here very much this week. I’ve been horrendously busy, doing a billion and one things for work like writing articles about everything under the sun, like honey locust trees, gas dryers, address plaques and etc, doing school with the kids, taking care of the husband who has been under the weather, and etc. But then again, YOU guys seem busy, too, with Christmas preparations and etc. I like the Christmas season, but I don’t like the busyness of it. It messes with the normal routine. I miss everyone’s regular blog posts and comments– it seems that everyone is away during this time.

Well, at least it gives me time to fool around with the kids in the snow, eh? Livvy took a jaunt out there, too. Hang in there, I’ll have photos!

Had to go to the post office this morning. Since The Hubs took the vehicle, I decided to walk. It’s not too cold (25F) and was only a little windy. My coat and boots are warm, so I eagerly loaded up and headed out the door. I decided to take the camera to snap some shots to share with you.

A view of down the street. There used to be magnificent elm trees along the streets here (so I heard). They were giants of trees, and made the houses look teeny-tiny. It must have been so beautiful. But the elms were stricken with Dutch Elm disease, from a little bug, in the 1950s and 60s. So all the elms were cut down. And nothing was planted in their places.

Snow decorations. Cute. It’s nice to see a splash of color on an otherwise very gray day. Although I personally think those inflatable things are tacky, lol, especially when they are deflated. They look like Frosty and Santa have been shot and collapsed on the snow or something, only to pop up in the evening….

The local mailbox, winter edition.

Some of the houses have very nice Classic Mailboxes, even pretty Keystone Mailboxes. Some serve merely as decoration. We don’t have house mail delivery in my town– you either get a mailbox and stick it out on the edge of your driveway, or purchase a postal box at the post office. So while the various Gaines Mailboxes and etc are so pretty and give a nostalgic look, they are not used.

Snow prints on the sidewalk.

The folks around here have a very bad habit of a.) not shoveling their sidewalks, and b.) plowing the driveway snow ONTO the sidewalks. It makes walking down the street very hazardous, for you either have to clamber over the mountains of cold snow on the sidewalks, or walk on the edge of the street with the cars. I wish folks would shovel their walks.

Which way do I go? Which was do I go?

The snow shoveler. (She’s shoveling some of the walks, by the way!)

When I was home, I sauntered into the backyard. Rabbit tracks in a figure 8! Looks like he’s a little confused, lol.

Snow caps on my cabbage in the garden.

We’ll be getting about 5 more inches tonight, looks like.

Ooo the first snowfall is so exciting! I was so happy to see it that I went outside in my bathrobe to snap some photos. I thought I’d share them here, so you southerners can see what you are missing! Cuz winter and cold temperatures are NO FUN without snow!

Here is my very weedy garden. I’m so glad the snow is covering the ugliest weeds. I seriously neglected the garden this year. Next spring will be a doozy for us– we’ll have to yank out all those weeds that are so well-established and happy in my garden beds. Ugh :S

The grill casts a lonely figure in the snowscape. The only thing I don’t like about winter is the lack of color. Everything is gray. But other than that, I do like winter a lot. Notice the blue tarp covering the snowblower and the lawn tractor. *sigh* I TOTALLY forgot to bring them in before the snow hit. I thik they may be iced to the ground by now, sheesh. I wanted to get all these chores done while we still had good weather, in November. Oopsie! Too late! Now, I’ll have to pull out the great handwarmers and dig the machines out of the snowbanks.

This is my little juniper shrub. It’s a dwarf something or other. I can’t remember what it’s called. :S I like the way the snow clumps on the fringed branches, like wispy white petite clothing.

Here’s a raspy bed of Black-Eyed Susans. I didn’t have time to deadhead them before winter. It’s nice to know that perennials can serve as artistic visual “interest” for those of us too lazy or busy to attend to the gardens! LOL

Does it snow where you are?

I don’t even mind walking in it. My poor husband has to deliver mail in this stuff, though. The postal vehicles are marvelous inventions, but for some reason, they do not have any heater vents for the feet. His feet are almost frozen solid after driving around all day, and tromping through snow to deliver packages to doors. I’m going to invest in some kind of Toasti Toes footwarmers for him, and maybe some other warm winter gear from Northern Outfitters.

Please be kind to your mailman– shovel out your mailbox and your driveway if you are expecting mail and/or packages.

It’s always so thrilling to see the first snow.

We got our heaters installed– hallelujah!!! They are terrific, they keep the house INCREDIBLY warm and they will cost half of what it cost us to run that forced-air furnace (and keep us warmer, to boot). The Hubs did all the plumbing for the lines– he did a remarkable job. Hallelujah, hallelujah! I feel like Aesop’s ant, finally ready for the winter. What a relief.

I’m also starting to conscientiously improve my health. It came crashing down during the renovation. I am on a high-nutrient diet, and am taking probiotics and iron and flax seed and all sorts of wonky pills. No acne pills yet, although my skin is so poor that I probably should. Today was the first day I started to feel a little energy creep back in. It didn’t last terribly long, but for a while there I actually felt almost healthy! It’s a big start. The renovation took an awful lot of out me. I wasn’t eating right or sleeping much, and besides the renovation I was also working my job part-time and managing the kids’ school work. But the hard part is over. The house is entirely wired with updated electrical. The water supply is new. The old furnace and toxic ducting system is out. We have heaters, we have a kitchen that works— ALL is WELL. It was so worth it.

Anyway, let it snow! Let the cold come! My house is insulated and has heaters! WHAT a great feeling.

We’ve got rain.

Rain rain rain.

I hate rain. Rain is my enemy. My property lies in a low spot, surrounded by asphalt parking lots. The water table is very high here… so when it rains, all that precipitation usually goes into my basement. I have suffered through some serious flooding here. The years 2004 through 2008 were terrible, where EVERY SINGLE TIME it rained, we got water measurable in feet in my basement. I just can’t handle the flooding. Things have improved since we rigged up a super-duper double sump-pump system with large pipes of PVC dumping water into the town basin.. and the kids and I built a French drain outside, which helped immensely. So PRAISE GOD we haven’t had such severe flooding in a while. But if the pumps are unplugged, the basement fills fast. And if we get torrential rains, like we’re getting now (2+ inches an hour, all day)…. I get nervous. Talk about how to remove dark circles under eyes– eep, you should see mine!

Everything is sopping wet. Everything rots. I am tired of all this rain! It’s December, for crying out loud! I want snow!

I do like snow. I enjoy the muffled stillness, the white nights, the cozy evenings cuddled in blankets, sipping hot tea and talking with the kids. Now that we have a better heating system, I expect the heating bills to lower, which will increase my ecstasy all the more.

But it’s raining. *sigh*

Almost all of it.

If the photo above looks horribly gray and gloomy… that’s because Upstate New York has been horribly gray and gloomy! We were blessed with sunshine about a week ago, but I wasn’t able to enjoy it (was sick). But spring IS on the way, I know it is. Carole blogged about her irises peeping up… I don’t have any iris coming up, but look! Snowdrops!

My gardens all bloom a good two to three weeks after everyone else’s, even my own neighbors’. I cannot figure out why. When all the neighborhood day lilies are ablaze, mine are still just buds. It’s WEIRD. I must be in the middle of some watery micro-climate here.

Here’s my forlorn-looking flower bed.

Oh it looks really bad right now, but in a few months it will look like this:

And then this:

*ssssssighhhhh****

*****sighhhhh****

Pardon me as I recollect…

Can’t you just smell them?

I wonder how my new bed in my Secret Garden will turn out this year. I’m so desperate I don’t even care about how ugly that sump pump pipe looks.

Ah, to see green again….

It’s been so gloomy this winter. I haven’t had cabin fever like this in a long time. The skies are always overcast, always gray, we are pale and in desperate need of something to remove dark circles under eyes. How about Mr. Sun again? Hello? Still there?

How are you doing? have you got cabin fever, too? Only TWO more months!!!!

We haven’t had hardly ANY snow this year, but the snowplows have gone wild! There are three road signs along the front of my property, and two of them are fallen on the curb, the victims of the maniac snowplow driver. One of them (a “No Parking” sign) is horribly mangled, as if the snowplow dude ran over it back and forth with sadistic glee. I hope the town gets the sign repaired before spring, or we’ll be inundated with parked cars all summer. Then again, we usually ARE, because the drivers practically ignore the sign, anyway.

My husband is a mailman, and he’s had his share of reaching for mangled mailboxes. People seem to like those new-fangled Rubbermaid plastic mailboxes, but I think they look like those Little Tykes toys… and I doubt they’d survive the Sadistic Snowplow Driver!

How about this sweet baby? CAST ALUMINUM! Now that’s what I’m talking ’bout! He hits that, and he’ll hear a “DING” all right! It’s a pretty penny– over $100 at Buy.com. May want to wait for it to go on sale, though. Knowing Buy.com, it wouldn’t take long… they are such a cool store! I always check them first before any other retailer now. Their deals are so sweet!

So what do you think? Do you think it would stand up to The Snowplow? Or at least make him think twice before slamming into it?