When will it be spring?

Nature continues to pull cold air into our space and will not let it go easily. Soon, the eggs will stand on their edges, the equinox will be here and there will be much rejoicing and shedding of clothing.

Today though, nothing but sickness. A malaise that all of the juice, cold medications and Girl Scout Cookies cannot cure.

It stays dark, even as the days brighten longer.

When this old world starts getting me down...

We knew buying the house 11 years ago that the roof was serviceable, not old or new. The past few years, especially after a summer wind storm more and more shingles were being blown off. Never a good sign.

After the tree was pruned in the fall you could really notice the green spots in sections. No, there should not be algae on a roof.

There was some money for me after my Mom died and well, she's still keeping a roof over our heads.

The roofers were supposed to show up last Wednesday to do the install. As evidenced by the footprints in the snow all over my yard, they did, but decided there was still too much ice and snow to do the job. This was fine, I do not want anyone hurt.

It rained all day Thursday so no one showed up.

Friday morning at about 7:45, right after my son got off the bus I heard noises in the yard. The roofers had arrived. It was still a bit windy but they went to work, as did I. Stressed out at work all day and waiting for a call that would tell me they had to replace the boarding under the shingles, but that never happened!

When I got home, they were still going. The main roof was finished but the back porch was not done. I was told there were three layers of shingles on the main part of the roof, which was a lot of extra work, and an incredible mess.

They finished up on Saturday, and did a terrific job. They did a great job cleaning up and even fixed the back gate, which they knocked off kilter a little bit when they moved equipment back and forth. They left a few things looking better than when they got to it, very impressive work by Able Roofers.



So now we have nice, shiny shingles that should last a couple of decades. It also made us realize how badly the house needs a pressure wash. Next!

Now if there really was a Swear Jar millions would be made

I was on stage at Kafe Kerouac reading a poem. It had a few very naughty words in it. Mid-poem Rachel R. got up, came on stage, looked around and asked, "Where's the Swear Jar?"

Not quite sure what happened after that, but it threw me off. Lost the second page of the poem and was not happy about it. At all.

You know, I could picture her doing something like that. Heck, I could picture several people doing that.

There's your fund raising event. Swear Jar night at Writers' Block.

Everything is awesome

It was a holiday yesterday so my son was off school. I took the day off to look after him and decided that we would have a father/son outing. It's been grey and cold here, with more snow than usual so I chose a movie. The Lego Movie.

A lot of people had the same idea as mine, the theater was packed with kids, which was fine as I had one, too. It's always hard to decide what to expose your son to, what does he know? What will he get out of it?

He did well but was not really interested in the happenings on screen. He watched, then looked around the theater, babbled a bit. Who knows if he had a good time? When the movie was over and the credits started he was instantly out of his seat and wanted out of the theater. I thought that he would be interested in the credits as he always watches them intently at home. Not the case.

The film itself was a visual freak out of nostalgia. Certainly entertaining, though I'm not sure who the target audience is. Having read no reviews I had no idea what to expect, or who did the voices so there were pleasant surprises for me.

Later that evening TCM had a premiere of a little seen film of Jackie Gleason's. Gigot was made in 1962 and to my knowledge is not available on home video in any form. It's also directed by Gene Kelly. It's set in Paris and Gleason plays a mute who works as a janitor. He's picked on and ridiculed by people in the neighborhood regularly and with great cruelty. Then he meets a prostitute and her daughter and finds a friend in the kind daughter.

I wanted to root for this film, but some of the sentimentality and pathos was so over the top it's hard to take Gigot seriously. Reviews were mixed, and remain so. Was Gleason trying to be Chaplin in the Kid, or Tati? His ego was all over the opening credits as his name appeared several times in very large font. Still, it's quite the ambitious film and the effort is certainly there, even with execution that is deeply flawed.

lyudstrawbery@gmail.com and faithful realtions

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One long pair of eyes to see you

Yesterday I went in for my first eye exam in three years. This one went better than last time, when I had an ultrasound done on my right eye. Did get to see the picture again, it was in my chart. My right eye is weakening, but I guess that's what happens with age as the eyes are still healthy, and unusually long, and have some weird pigmentation to them in there.

The student/physician who did my exam was easy on the eyes too, even after dilation.

Took a good six hours after dilation for my eyes to get back to some form of normal. I hate losing control of my eyes like that, they're bad enough without my glasses. Did not drive to the exam, but got a day pass from COTA, who got me where I needed to go with no real difficulty or delay. Even with my shades, the glare from the snow was irritating.

Before my exam, I went into the optometry room where the glasses are sold, and picked out a new pair. This was easier than doing it after the exam, a recommended tip.

Ended up going under budget on the new frames and lenses and gave an online site a try for prescription sunglasses. One site was unable to fill my strong prescription so I tried another. Never did this before and hope I'm not going to be disappointed. I'll know for sure in two to three weeks when both sets of glasses arrive.

At night the stars put on a show for free

When you live in a 85 year old house and find shingles on the ground from your roof after a summer storm you know it's not going to last much longer. Already knew there were two, maybe three layers of shingles up there. Having come into a modest amount of money, the time to get the roof replaced is now, while there are no major holes or leaks to worry about.

It was a tough check to write, but an investment that will be to our advantage when we do put the house on the market - whenever that will be.

After the rep left, my wife said it was wine time, and we toasted my Mom, who is again putting a roof over our heads. Thanks Mom.