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That’s a New One

19 Mar

While I was waiting in the doctor’s office this afternoon, I overheard a conversation between one of the receptionists and another patient.

“Ma’am, do you have your new Medicare Card?”

“This is my card.”

“No, there’s a new one that doesn’t have your Social Security number on it.”

“Oh, that. I got it and tore it up. They’re only using those for illegal immigrants who don’t have a Social Security number. I’m a citizen so I just use the real card.”

I could almost hear the receptionist rolling her eyes.

Highway Robbery

7 Mar

I found this photo of my dad a while ago. I have no idea when it was taken or by whom, but it is lovely. It shows his spirit and his joy in so many ways. I found a nice square frame, and made a mat out of a piece of five-inch cardboard with a three inch circle in the middle.  I took my sample to one of the Big Craft Stores yesterday afternoon.

“Can you make this up in red for me? Do you have something to match the color of his stole?”

ERMP-glowThe clerk allowed as how they not only didn’t have a small red piece of mat board, but they couldn’t do round cuts. That would have to come from their supplier. The cost? Well, I’d have to buy the entire sheet of board, and then there’s the cost of cutting it and shipping it, and, oh, probably $30 or so.

Good Grief! Great Coogamooga! And so forth and so on. I’ll find me a bit of red construction paper or card stock and take it from there! I love ya, Daddy, but for cryin’ out loud. . .exorbitant doesn’t begin to cover it.

Back to St. Alban’s

6 Mar

Resurrection isn’t having their Ash Wednesday service today until 6 PM, so I trotted up to St. Alban’s for my annual visitation. Again, it is so soothing to have the words of the 1928 BCP wash over my soul!  I can tolerate the new Rite I, but our current Priest in Charge has announced he will be doing Rite II and Prayer D during the Easter season. If I want to do penance, I’ll have it before Easter, not after, THANK you very much.

Ahem.  Where was I?

Ah. In spite of all the things I like about that little church, I had to take the rector to task over his sermon, which was primarily about the “nonsense” of Ashes to Go. I asked him to take a look at the congregation he had this morning: retires, younger women and two school aged children. There’s not a church – of any denomination – in the area that has an early morning service. If you are a working adult, or even a high school student – it’s either Ashes to Go, or nothing at all. “You don’t know what’s in people’s hearts. If they didn’t know what they are about, they wouldn’t even want ashes.” 

Here endeth the sermon.

Going to Australia

3 Mar

AustraliaMy dad’s grandfather was a Scots Presbyterian domini who went to Australia to serve the convict population there. He developed a bad habit of going after reluctant converts with an axe, and they had to lock him up. As you can imagine, Daddy took a fair amount of teasing when he decided to go to seminary himself.

Oh, Wonderful . . .

28 Feb

We just received a notice from the Maryland Transportation Authority that they are closing the road near us to widen I-95 and rebuild the bridge.

They are notifying/warning us that “activities or equipment you may notice will include: Pile driving, Milling or Grinding machines, Cranes, Backhoes, Back-Up Alarms, and Night Work”.

If you follow I-95 through Maryland, we live within a half  mile of where it crosses the Harford-Baltimore County line. Back-up alarms and nightwork is such lovely combination. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Oh, Deer!

23 Feb

Last Thursday morning we woke up to find a deer had been hit and was in the ditch in front of the house. The Squire called the County to have the critter picked up, and they told us they’d be here “when they had a crew in the area”. It’s been a week, and frankly, there’s nothing left for them to collect.

By Saturday, the vultures had found it, and there wasn’t enough left oDSCN0641n Monday for the County to worry about. Now, the birds have decided to drag what’s left of the carcass onto the lawn, so they don’t have to worry about being hit by cars themselves. The deer was originally in the ditch by the mailbox, and what’s left of it is now about halfway between the road and the pond. The Squire walked out to get the mail, and said there is nothing left but the spine, the ribcage, and what looks to be most of the pelt. And, like Lazarus, it stinketh. Lovely. Just lovely.

All we need is for Blazer to discover the joys of rolling in the carcass.

 

Fickle?

21 Feb

So, Ms. Garfield suggested out weather might be “fickle”. Huh. Imagine that.

It snowed yesterday, and we got about five inches. Places a few miles north of us got up to eight. It reached 56°F today (13 C) and the entire county is awash in puddles and slush. There is a chance of snow tomorrow night.  It is a mighty wonder we don’t all have pneumonia.

The snow was bad enough, but the cretins out there who were driving without headlights added to the “fun”. You might as well be inside a milk bottle, and some fool comes hurtling toward you out of nowhere. And stay on their own side of the road? Ha! They can’t see the lines. When I get to be in charge of things. . .

ficklefingerThe old Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-In show had an award they called The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate.

Welcome to Maryland

Thirty Pieces of Silver

17 Feb

Last Sunday evening a young man who lives in our town was shot and killed while he was delivering pizza. The police do not know if he was targeted, or if somebody saw him and figured they could make off with his money or his car.

Several local businesses have set up fundraisers for the young man’s fiancée and young son.  Our rector announced this morning that we would be making a donation from the church’s discretionary fund, and if anyone wanted to add anything, he would be grateful.

Three males were seen running from the crime scene, but they managed to elude the police. Based on the number of deliveries in the area, the young man was probably carrying about $100. Three crooks, and all they got $100.

It seems a man’s life is still only worth thirty pieces of silver.

Oh, Verdun!

15 Feb

Have you ever seen pictures of the mud in the trenches during the Battle of Verdun? Sticky, viscous mud that sucks at your boots and steals your work gloves. Men actually drowned in that mess.  That was pretty much the way the front yard looked today. The Squire and a young man from church who goes by the moniker “Jason the Mason” started at the well, and dug a little over thirty inches deep for ten feet until they finally found where the pipe had been repaired in 2007.

Which wasn’t leaking.

We have no idea where the leak is. At this point we are completely stymied.

In other news, The Squire had to remove the top from the well to locate the outlet, so they knew how deep to dig, and discovered there are a LOT of fine, hair-like tree roots in there. Isn’t that a revolting development?

We also found another spring in the front yard, bubbling up near where the walk meets the drive, at the top of the hill. Other people have springs at the bottom of their yards. Only the Rice Paddy gets them halfway up the hill.  Jack and Jill went up the hill, and so, apparently, will we.

My mum often remarked that she did not want to be buried at sea. “I’ve had so many water problems in my life, that would be the ultimate insult.” I know ‘zactly how she felt!

Oh! And we have a mosquito in the house. It got up to 65°F today, and apparently that was all that critter needed. Argh! We also have ants again; the rain and warm weather have awakened them.  Well, it’s supposed to go back down to the lower 40s tomorrow and snow again on Sunday.

Low Bridge, Everybody Down

12 Feb

Coming back from a meeting this evening, I – along with dozen other cars – was greeted by a huge tractor trailer (articulated lorry) blocking the road between Joppatowne and Beautiful Downtown Bradshaw.

The driver was backing up and pulling forward, obviously trying to back into a lot on the side of the road. After waiting what seemed to be ten minutes, but was probably only one, I got out of my car and asked what the problem was. The truck was too high to fit under the railroad bridge. Lovely.

I asked if he’d stop dancing around long enough for the cars behind me to see if they could go around him. He was sort of “Kitty-Wumpus” but there was enough room on the shoulder for me to get past in my little Nissan. I walked back and told the man in the car behind me, and then drove off. I did roll down my window and called to the people on the other side that “he’s too tall to go under the bridge” and let them make their own decision to “turn around or go around”.

It is, as Roseann Rosannadanna said, “always something.”