Murphy

In his Grampa's arms.

 (7 lbs, 2.6 oz and 20.5 inches long) 

(3.25 kilos and 52.07 cm)

Merry Un-Christmas

   
      

Christmas week in Little Pond.




Bring in the whirl-
wind!


Little VM begins to remove the ornaments one by one.


No big deal.  A lifetime of living in households full of kids taught us to place only unbreakable ornaments along the bottom.


In fact, if we shift our thinking, it might even look as though VM is actually placing the ornament!.


Happy Holidays from the Little Pond.

For all my internet buddies.

A Christmas Riddle:


How long did Santa spend in front of the Fireplace?


Answer:


He can't remember; he didn't keep a log!


From a Hallmark Peanuts card.  Thanks Sharon!

It's that time of year again.

And as far as Ellie is concerned, "Bah, Humbug!"  She hates the extra clothing, and isn't nuts about a run down to the Chemung.  She will go, and she will enjoy herself, but she will steer us back to the car when given half a chance.


Enjoy the season.


pb
Little Pond

Hope you weren't offended by my last post.

I hate flying, and will only fly in an emergency.  
The last time was to return home for my godfather's funeral.  I hated every minute of it and upset all the people around me by looking like death warmed over.  To call me white-knuckle doesn't begin to describe my fears.


But I wanted to be there for the widow, my Godmother, and my Dad, who lost his baby brother.  My eldest uncle was wandering around saying he should have died first, and really needed all of us to assure him that we were thrilled to have him still with us as long.


Nevertheless, my dearest, darling, loving, accepting, sometimes funny and always good-humored Godfather had died.  By the end of the weekend, I was depressed and self-medicating.  Needless to say the trip back to Little Pond was wrapped in an alcohol-laced melancholy.  That is to say, I remember nothing about it.


If I need to fly again, I willingly will submit to the scan.  After all the MRI's due to MS, and the many mammograms due to a family history of ovarian and mammary cysts and tumors, a few more zaps ain't gonna amount to much more than a p-sshole in a snowdrift.  And if I had to get groped, well, I guess I would request a cot so I could just lie back and enjoy it.


You see, when and if I am ever next to the religious-crazed nutbag who begins to light a match (or whatever), I will scream bloody murder.  And I want everyone else around me to do likewise.  I intend to go down kicking the $#!+ out of anyone who begins to look suspicious.


I'll deal with the legal ramifications later, if I'm wrong.
No one's likely to suffer unduly at my hands, but then again, with MS, I can take a few hits to the hands without feeling a thing until a tad later.  By then, the other passengers can take over.


Who's with me?


pb
Little Pond

C'mon guys, man up!

The airline security procedures are invasive?  Of course they are.  The Christmas would-be bomber was hiding explosive in his underwear, for God's sake.

Don't like it, don't fly.

OR BETTER YET...
How about a non-secure flight for those who like to gamble?

They can pay extra for insurance, and sign waivers.

Then they can all fly together, crybabies and terrorists.

Let's see who wins.

pb
Little Pond

Not so sure about that fellow...

My readers and friends already know my position on gay rights.  Nonetheless, I admit that I was put off by Craig Wilson's column in Sunday's paper.

Of course, I had suspected it all along.  Still, I was a tad disappointed when he openly declared it in the last four paragraphs of the piece.

Some people should learn to keep controversial personal information to themselves.

pb
Little Pond

If you can stomach it

...head over to the MS Companion for a short complaint about abbreviated underwear.

Sound Familiar?

I've been planning to post witty sayings that occur to me about getting old, but I keep forgetting what they are.


pb
Little Pond

Dragon Lady will ride again!

I only recently realized that I have begun to compose my latest Dragon Lady book in my head.  I had been too busy and unwell to follow through in the past year and a half.

Josephine is now closer to my own age, and will have to adjust her libido accordingly.

That is to say that she's feeling randier than ever, and has the means to carry her romps not only around the planet, but back into the past.

Hope our ancestors are up to it...

pb

We are back from Blogger Limbo

We had an ugly hiatus for a while, after a nasty malware was stuck to Pats Pond.

I cleaned it up and we seem to be back in business.

Rest assured, I will watch carefully for those weird comments that seem to be non-sequitors.

What the frig?  Who has nothing but time and the will to ruin other people's sites?

pb
Little Pond

Please, be gentle.

Just found out that Sasha Cohen will play Freddie Mercury.


On the one hand, I am thrilled that we've finally gotten to the point when someone will play Freddie.  On the other hand,  I'm scared that Sasha will blow it.


Can he play it straight, so to speak?


What I feel for Mercury is almost religious, and is certainly reverence.  I can never forgive him for being so careless.  And on  top of the infection, he didn't take care of it.  If Magic Johnson can survive, Freddie could too.


Please Sasha:  revive Freddie Mercury for those of us are still mourning.  Bring us joy, not more anguish.


pb
Little Pond

Hive Collapse?

Two years now, we've been hearing about hive collapse and the loss of honey bee colonies.  Yet during those two years, there have been plenty of honey bees around the Chemung River.

The two bees in these photos are typical of any visit in the summer here.  I worry because my childhood included a beehive tended by my Dad.

If you look in the top right, you will see a jealous Ellie, waiting none too patiently for me to throw her toy into the River.  She's not interested in bees, except when they sting her.

More pics from today's River Visit here.

pb

Little Pond

Knocked flat!

Was it right about this time last summer we began to hear about Swine Flu?

I am seated ramrod straight in front of the keyboard, trying not to turn my head.  The absolutely worst neck pain since the neuralgia of my first diagnosis.

Much better since yesterday, though.  I spent half the day with a corn kernel bag against my neck and shoulder.  And last night's sleep simply wasn't, period.

Today is another day, and the Grandchild will visit with the GrandDogs and MamaDog herself, carrying the next Grand.  She may have been the one who transmitted the nasty bug to me.

Babysitter Bubba

No matter.  Better to have bug and a visit with the grand, than no bug and and no grand.

pb
Little Pond

Riverdog goes home soon.

Ellie visits the "mud flats" in West Elmira.  Soon she will be heading for the hills of Big Flats, returning to MamaDog and thier new home.

In the meantime, she's getting plenty of exercise during our River Visits.

pb
Little Pond

Enough is still not enough!

What the frick?

The Itawamba County School District must now pay $35,000.00 to Constance McMillen, as a settlement to a suit brought in her behalf by the ACLU.

You may remember that the school district simply canceled her Prom, rather than allow her to attend it as an openly gay lesbian.  She battled on, hoping to reinstate the prom, but to no avail.

The bigots in the school board would rather have no prom at all, than allow the girl to attend.  Well, they got more than they bargained for.   The ACLU wanted damages, and they got them.

Before I could open the champagne to celebrate the decision, the final line in the USA item (in my hometown paper) caught my eye.

"District Officials said in the settlement offer that they don't believe they violated McMillen's rights."

Did those officials never study the Constitution and its Bill of Rights?

pb
Little Pond 

To the River, Ellie!

The Chemung River is very low.  The sites we usually visit make my little buddy stink.  We head just down-river from Elmira, where the water is shallow but still clean.

These geese don't give a darn about a little HuggaMutt.  Ellie is paddling about in the shallows where Huge Dogs generally plow their way through the flocks.

Come visit the River.

pb

Little Pond

De Facto Evidence

For all intents and purposes, I am on disability. For those interested in the legal, financial, and work aspects, check the MS Companion, for past and future details.

And there were certainly struggles. The worst enemy was my own ignorance. I have been tilting at windmills in the workplace arena. Gannett has been very cooperative since the thing became official. Especially Luann in HR, who has patiently explained --again and again-- anything I did not understand.

My living expensives have been met by Gannett short-term disability. They will end shortly, and long term will take over, along with Social Security payments, to cover my needs. Unfortunately, those need include many bills, most not related to my illness, but to the everyday troubles generated by raising teenagers and living through good and hard times.

The RiverBlogs will rise again. For now, I must rest, do some healing, homemaking, mothering and grandmothering, until the creative juices compel me to grab the keyboard and blog for dear life.

Bear with me a few weeks while it all coalesces into my new lifestyle.

Love to all.

pb
Little Pond

Getting really soured on Blogger.

Now there are "commenters" that are really just spammers.

And Blogger is protecting them!

I can delete all the comments on any of my blogs, but there is one below that can't be deleted, because Blogger doesn't even recognize it.

Please don't tell me this is a glitch. Everything else works fine.

And I know only too well that Blogger makes money from these ads/fake comments.

I only wish I knew just what in the post is triggering it.

And I wish I knew another place to blog for free, because I am sick of the spammers.

pb
Little Pond

Flox on flocks

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

pb
Little Pond

Still unable to remove spamming "comments"

Slowing down a bit...

Just Violet, Jake and I, sitting and enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon.

Looking forward to future days along the Chemung with my little river rat.

pb
Little Pond

Finally! A positive ID

If you follow any of my blogs, you are sick to death of my whining about this tree. The whining is over! Finally got a really close shot of the blossoms, although I never quite got a proper setting on it. Don't really know why not, either. Just never happened.

But this is the Buckthorn Blossom. I got a shot before the NYSDEC comes in to chop away all the lower hanging branches. Buckthorn--or Alder Buckthorn--is considered an invasive species in some states. Maybe it was considered a nuisance here also.

This is the only one I have ever seen in my life. But it is now identified and I can stop obsessing over it.

pb

Little Pond

And the inevitable conclusion.

Waiting for me in the email this morning:


"Hello,

Please could you go and visit The Wheel of Fortuna and leave a supportive message for Steve.

http://spinfortunaswheel.blogspot.com/

His partner BobRobert has just died in the local hospice.

It is not so long since his diagnosis in 2007 which makes it all even more sad.

Thanks for your support.

Love,
Herrad"

I'm not much of a praying person these days, but please visit the site and send your prayers, too.

pb
Little Pond

Loving relationship.

Got a note from Herrad today. Usually anything from Herrad is a morale booster to make my day happy. Today is not that day.

Herrad directed me to this post on another blog.

Anyone who is living out the last days of their partner needs all the support anyone can offer.

She wanted me to visit and leave a comforting comment. I complied.

Now I am asking you to do the same.

pb
Little Pond

BTW--attack of Violet!

Here's the naughty little girl, eyeing my camera, and simultaneously poking at it, just before she globs up the lens. Just spittle and spitup, that glob.

Got that look her mother always got just before she got naughty enough to send herself to the emergency room. Same naughty look her second cousin used to get just before she attacked the family dog, who let her do it.

Glob is an anagram of blog. I suspect there will be lots of these.

pb

Little Pond

As you can imagine, this was really just a photo op for the whole family. Here are a few of my favorites.

Less cute, but more normal post, just below.

Learn something new each day!

Well! I finally--after a couple of years!--figured out why one of my posts in a photoblog of a local nature site was collecting ads for a certain men's drug, both legit and ripoff.

The first comment was "Where can I get a (mythical creature that looked like a white horse with a narwhal's tusk)." I don't even dare to type the word, which begins with "u."

This morning it dawned on me that the darned word must be slang for (a certain men's mating display). You can bet your life I don't want to type THAT word, which begins with "e."

Sure enough, when I Googled the word, it came up just exactly that!

All along, I thought it had to do with the title of the post, although for the life of me I couldn't understand why.

Older and wiser, as they say.

pb
Little Pond

Response to the Prom

That was the title of the piece buried in the back of the first section of our newspaper. Here is the original article posted to their local newspaper.

The brave girl, who took on the local school district and won, is a lesbian who just wanted to attend the prom as herself. In a tuxedo. Prom dresses and tuxedos are de rigeur, for proms, aren't they?

The school board told her she couldn't. Then she sued for discrimination and won.

Now the parents are unilaterally scotching the prom. They are refunding the other couples' money. Just like that; it's over.

In case you think the girl is simply looking for her fifteen minutes' fame--you know, the one promised by Andy Warhol:

The girl, Constance McMillen, asked for and got only what she wanted: the decisions and court costs.

Now the parents have organized their own private prom, designed to exclude the sort of people they don't like. Sound familiar? This sort of thing happened when the bigots decided they didn't want anyone but Caucasians to attend.

The new bigots, of course, are now what we used to call homophobes.

Heaven forbid there should be more tuxedos than prom gowns at their little social! Then life surely would be out of whack.

First it was people of color, now it's alternate lifestyles. What or who is next? They will find something to make them feel superior, you can bet on it. A bigot needs to exclude someone, or they can't face their puny little selves in the mirror. The new bigots are just old bigots who lost the earlier battles.

Please God: don't let the bigots win this one.

pb
Little Pond

Finally back to business.

I am back to my usual shutterbuggery, even daring to go out alone to the Chemung.

Also, check out the new header, courtesy of Digital Karen, my very own blogsis, at the MS Companion!

pb

Little Pond

Look towards the light!

Step-granddog Jake, left, and the HuggaMutt Ellie bask in the warmth of an open door. The sunlight makes them sleepy and quiet. Not their usual.

Spring is on the way, folks.

pb
Little Pond

Any help?

An earthquake shook Chile earlier this morning, with its epicenter 250 miles below Santiago.

Our Brian Alegria, our foster son, lives in Valparaiso, closer to the coast. My brother-in-law's family, his mother and siblings, also live there.

The last I heard, there were 78 dead in Chile and the first tsunami has already hit.

At this time they called off the tsunami alert.

pb

First Crawl

Update: I finally gave up on trying to get Blogger to accept this video. Webshots (and Facebook, for that matter) had no trouble at all.

Overly-cute-ness alert! On the other hand, it's not even two minutes and full of baby chortles.

The seal pup.

Wish I could find a way to get it to my parents, who refuse to get a computer...

pb

Little Pond

Midwinter thaw 2010

As much as I love to see the river flowing again, I can't help but remember that these presage scary days for those who live where there are no levees to protect themselves from the Chemung.

These massive blocks can clog narrow channels and cause flooding. Right now, though, they provide a lovely haven for waterfowl seeking a sheltered area for the night.

pb
Little Pond