THUNDER SNOW

Woke up and YUP... still snowing, doesn't matter how much now cuz its a lot!!!! One thing weird up here in the North Country, we get what they call "Thunder Snow"! It flashes, brightens up the snow and then a big crack of rolling Thunder! "AWSOME" to see and hear. I am still Thankful, I don't have to shovel snow or go outside if I don't want to.

But being a true "Northern New Yorker" we do have one sport, "SNOW SNORKLING" which I enjoy so am going out shortly and do some, you have to have green flippers so you can be seen by Snowmobilers and don't get run over!!!!!!

Went down and got the mail and everyone at the dinner said what a great "Thanksgiving" meal they had. The Local news showed the "Black-Friday" shoppers out and lined up at 4AM.

Thanks for all the emails wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Honey is down with her back again, pretty rough shape today. Right now shes zonked out on pain meds and muscle relaxers she hates to take!!!

We Snacked, watched it Snow, put in a movie and watched "Scrogged" with Bill Murry and watched it snow some more. Right now its a little rain, hail mix but mostly snow Lightning and Thunder.

Hogger the Squirrel, *(I call him Hogger cuz he empties the feeder) called again today and brought a friend, finally drove him off and finally our birds came in to feed, chich-a-dees, the woodpecker arrived for suet along with the Ass-ups, there really a Nuthatch but always feed upside down so thus the nickname!!! LOL.

Hogger really likes Bird Food and Suet.

The Birds really feasted today in large numbers, hope everyone down south is enjoying their green Grass and Warm Gentle Breezes, hope you have a great week-end!!

Colossians 3:15 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

I indeed have so much to be thankful for. Wife, Home, Children, grandchildren, family, friends, Health, Happiness.

It has snowed for 2 days, hard and steady wet packy snow, last night we lost power and everyone went down to the Community Room, *(we have emergency generator that runs elevator, hallways and community room). We sat around for a few hours, watched it snow, played cards, watched it snow, talked and finally power came back on long enuff to get home and get to bed before it went back off.

This morning I got up, had to clean off car of about 2 feet of snow, did we ever get snow, trees down, branches broke off, wires down, and lots of accidents and a "No Travel advisory posted", I went down and put the "big ole Ham" in the oven at 9AM, Me and Honey sat and watched it snow and snow and snow. NO BIRDS OUT THIS AM!

Weather was so bad the birds stayed hid in the evergreens!!

We set up dining room at 11am with some help, most roads were not plowed very well BUT in the old jeolopy we headed off to pick up the donated dinners for Thanksgiving Dinner today, we got back at 12;30, unloaded the Turkey, taters, squash, dressing, cranberries and pies donated from the 7th Day Adventist Church, set up the tables, our tenants that were going to be alone or just wanted some social time with others started coming in AND in came fresh squash, a green bean salad, fresh baked carrot cake, homemade biskits, after a prayer we had a feast, good conversation and desert.

I ate BUT very carefully and very lightly so I didn't end up sick again!!!

We were "Snowed In", we have had power outages, no phone service, no internet and hopefully it has blown itself out now.

Hoping you had a great "Thanksgiving".

Let us never forget those here at home and in far off places protecting us so we can enjoy days like this.

I"m alive

WELL, we had our Wednesday Turkey Dinner on the 19th, we had almost 50 people and a great meal and fellowship. That night following dinner at 1AM yours truly got sick, I bloated up, swelled up and puffed up, sweat, had cold chills, I mean sick enuff to go to the Doctor, off to the Hospital and tests, cat scans, pills, enema's, stuck, stabbed, poked and prodded. SO we spent 3 days in bed, went on heavy anti-biotics with pills so big ya had to choke em down and will twice a day for the next 12 days, finally up and around and moving, DIVERTICULOSIS flared up and almost killed this poor old man!!! OH WELL, made it thru thanks to My Honey's care and a good Doctor.

Missed Church on Sunday which was a bummer as it was our Turkey Dinner we put on for the membership--- but it went over great even without me!!!!!!

Weather was cool BUT it has changed, started snowing and hasn't stopped, we are in a storm watch today, tonight, tomorrow and may get up to a foot of snow.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to cook a ham in the morning and we are going to share our Thanksgiving Day with those who are going to be here alone, right now there's about 12 of us..the 7th Day Adventist Church is donating the dinners & Dessert, all we have to do is go pick them up.

If you have not read it, "STICKY" is a great book, my wife is reading it now and enjoying it!!! You can find it by going to "SHIPSLOG".

Right now its snowing and blowing that wet packy snow and it is piling up!!!!!

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

In your prayers dont forget our servicemen and women here and abroad!!

TIRED SAD

Cold day, high of 35 degrees, but the snow fell south of us!!! They got 3 feet of snow, glad it was there and not here again!!! Yesterday*(Wednesday) we had our Turkey Dinner & all the trimmings & Desert. Our building has 50 Units, we had 46 for dinner in the community room, Great Meal. Everyone assured me they got plenty to eat, then tonight, *(Thursday) we had Turkey Left -Overs and everyone ate their fill again. *(SO MUCH FOR DIETING FOR SURGERY) ***(Burp)***

Sunday Morning at 8am I'm cooking 3- 20 Pound Turkeys and making gravy and the Chrch Members will be bringing the fixings and deserts for a nice dinner at 3PM. The left-over turkey will be frozen and I will use it to make Soup for the Christmas "Hanging of the Greens"!



On Thanksgiving Day I am cooking a Ham here and we are going to share Thanksgiving with the residents here that are going to be alone and we will pick up the Turkey Dinners at the 7th Day Adventist Church who have donated the meal!!




26 years ago Today I lost my Father, He was born in 1908 and passed away at age 74. He was a good man, worked for the same company for 44 years, I cannot remember him ever being sick or missing a day of work, Dad worked as an Operator at a Hydro-Electric Plant on the Black River, Dad worked shift work, 7-3, 3-11 & 11-7 and it was not uncommon for him to take one of us boys with him to work. He married a young lady who was a neighbor.




He built our house in the country, the foundation for our house came from stone from the lot, the well was hand dug, cut the logs that framed in our 2 story log house with a garage and out-house with the help of neighbors and bartered work with others. He put in a big "Kalamazoo" wood and coal stove and cut his own fire wood and trucked his own coal in the trunk of the car. The house was finished after the birth of the the 3rd child and along came 5 more for 8 of us!




Life was good, we all survived.

Super DAY

Weather did not cooperate Saturday Morning, We got to church at about 6:30AM, cooked up Sausage, and the girls started cooking up Eggs and real Home fries, We started the pancakes and at 8AM in the door they came, We served breakfast till 11:00AM, all you could eat and gave out free coffee all morning, the BAZAAR went over well and the BAKE SALE and CRAFTS went flying out the door... The Holiday Parade started at 11AM and it rained Cats and Dogs on them but the kids loved it:

Church today was busy and we had a nice Coffee Hour afterwards.

I tuned up the old Guitar and at 6;00PM tonight we had a "Christan Country Chatter" at the Chatterbox Diner. We had coffee and sweet snacks of all kinds, we had the Ministers from the Church of the Nazarene, The Episcopal Church and the Baptist Minister ..a former *(USMC) (SEMPER-FI) and our UCC People and the 7th Day Adventist Church and the Methodist Church people in attendence We belted out some good uns tonight. Singing "Because he Lives" from the Gaithers to Hank Williams --"I saw the Light" and a mixture of Hymns, gospel, I did my best to blend it except they stuck my up front!!!! We had em clapping, singing, laughing, praying and enjoyng an otherwise dark damp rainy night, we overfilled the diner and glad they didn't check the occupancy load as we had 87 people packed into the little diner. It was a nice evening!!

Tomorrow I have got to get into the Legion to catch up my paperwork and then wednesday the 19th we have our Thanksgiving Dinner here at the Senior Citizen Housing!! I'm glad I like Turkey!!!!

Hope your week is a good one!

Busy Busy Busy "LOVE IT"!

THANK YOU TO ALL VETERANS, PAST AND PRESENT!!!!!

Well Veterans Day went off well, The weather cooperated, it was cool but nothing long johns and heavy coat wouldnt fix, We Marched *(Sort of) .. Marines one way, Army another way and the Navy walked!!to the Monument with a Police Escort and our fantastic- Sharp Color guard leading the way, I opened the ceremony at 10;50, at 11.11 at 11AM we did the prayer, I even managed to keep peace and Harmony between the American Legion and VFW; speeches went well and readers did their parts and we went back to our respective Posts for lunch!!

Wednesday was a meeting at 4PM at Church, ran from there back to home, made it to the covered dish Birthday Party here, then shot out of here to be at Church at 6PM for Alpha Group and practice my 3 songs.

Thursday and Friday we got the items togeather we needed for this Saturdays Holiday Parade and our Pancake and Sausage Breakfast at church, Pancakes, Sausage, Scrambled Eggs, Real Home Fries, Juice and Coffee and FREE coffee all morning for the public, Parade is at 11 AM, it can not be called the "Christmas Parade", must be politically correct and its the "Holiday Parade" with fire trucks, police cars, legion, VfW, scouts, bands, Chamber of Commerce, local Business's and "SANTA and MRS CLAUSE and elves"!!!

We will be at church at 6AM to start cooking so we can start serving at 8AM and we also have a "BAZAAR" set us with crafts, Christmas Items, and hand made baby clothes, blankets,mittens, touques, a TV to Raffle off and some really nice items.

Sunday Night we will be playing at the ChatterBox Diner at 6PM for a night of song, praise and prayer. Last week their were 61 who showed up and packed the place to the rafters.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Veterans Day Message

For the past 6 years I have had the Honor of submitting an article to our local papers on Memorial Day and also again on Veterans Day, I would like to share this years article with you:
This Veterans day, which In November of 1919 President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Armistice Day, started as a celebration of the peace that followed the conflict of World War 1. In the following years, it became Veterans’ Day, a day to honor those who have served and now serve in uniform, as well as those who died in service to their country.

In 1954, Armistice Day became Veterans Day to honor all men and women who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, during peacetime and war. Veterans Day honors living veterans for their sacrifice and service in protecting the freedoms and principles on which this country was founded. This year and every year it is important for all of us to remember and honor all past and current veterans by showing our support for them.

Veterans Day is about those men and women who have served in the Armed Forces, It's about their sacrifices, heroism, and unselfish dedication to their country, families and to you and I. It is about their willingness to lay down their lives for the ideals on which this country was founded. It's about the lines of white crosses and rows of simple bronze markers in cemeteries scattered throughout our country and also here in Carthage and the surrounding areas, marking the graves of brave men and women. It is about the graves on foreign shores where so many died in the name of freedom, but were never able to come home. For them "Our Freedom" was not free.

Veterans Day is a day where every one of us needs to thank those who served this great nation, both the living and those who have passed on. Those of us who served will never forget them. We as veterans need each other, but, more importantly, our country needs our veterans. Not all veterans have seen war, but a common bond that they share is an oath in which they expressed their willingness to die defending this nation.

But how do you thank a Veteran ? When you ask young men and women and their families to endure great hardships, drastically change their lifestyles and possibly give their lives for you and me the words “thank you,” seem insufficient. The true appreciation to Veterans is expressed through deeds and words. Veterans day, is an opportunity to thank those who made the choice to serve their country. For some, it meant WWI , WWII, or conflicts or peacekeeping missions, or the cold war. Others found themselves in the jungles of Vietnam or in Korea , Panama , and other conflicts and of course we can’t forget that today, for many of our own local Fort Drum 10th Mountain Division men and women it means multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan or where ever they are called upon to go.

So on Veterans Day, to honor that debt we owe, I would ask you to take time to honor service members, past and present, attend a Veterans Day service in your hometown, say a prayer for those in harms way, fly your flag, walk up to that man or woman in Uniform and say "Thank You" . For all veterans, thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

Gary B. Wood
Carthage American Legion/Public Relations Officer

Weather

Weather sure goes to extremes sometines up here, we had some nice T-Shirt weather. Warm and sunny, today is rain and cold! I held my first meeting as President of our Tenants Association, it went pretty well, we had most of the tenants who were able to attend be here, covered our monthly business and set some FIRM rules into place to help with the petty things going on!

We made our Association plans for Thanksgiving Dinner, Christmas decorating and New Years Eve Party. We have a large Turkey Dinner here on the 19th with all signed up and its being catered. On Thanksgiving Day me and Honey are going to do a Turkey Dinner for those tenants who will be alone and cook it here and use the community dining room, last year some tenants were all alone.

We will be doing a Church Dinner for the membership on November 23rd and will cook about 50 pounds of turkey and trimmings, then on the 21st of December we cook a Public Turkey Dinner for those needy and alone. As you can tell, I like to cook!!! The DIET is still working, SLOWLY, I would do all right if I didn't have to sample everything I cook!!!

Veteran's Day is all set, speech is done and Program written, flowers ordered and the newspaper once again published my letter to the Editor on what Veterans Day means to me.

Well, we have a "President Elect", Hopefully with "Common Sence" and "Open Honesty" and some help from the "Good Lord up above" we will move forward, we have to "Pray"!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!!!

#############################################################

TRAVELING

Waiting for this Election to get over, I'm not much of a TV watcher!!! I went thru some old discs and floppy discs and did find the pictures of my "Old Traveling Rigs", The first one was a hump back, at night you had to unflold the bed and fold it back up in the morning, I rewired it and had to do some major plumbing but we left New York in October of 1988 with a fresh foot of wet packy snow and headed south, the Old Ford with the 5 speed tranny had a small Oil Leak in the Rear Main Bearing, but did get about 500 miles per quart of Oil. We went thru the Virginia, Carolinas, over into Georgia then down back roads and finally ended up in Florida at a Trailer Park on the Peace River just up from Punta Gorda. Fishing was great, people nice, our neighbor GAVE us a nice Boat and Motor to use when ever we wanted, I did some Crabbing and lots of fishing, we ate "High on the Hog" for quite a white!!!!! We bartered and traded the Camper in on a bigger one that had a BedRoom and shower which we loved and it had an Orange Tree and Grapefruit Tree which was nice. Come summer it got TOO HOT and we moved on!

We left Florida and came back to New York and stayed at my "Camp Adirondack" for awhile. It had a big ole "Generator" for lights, coffee, and always had a woodfire all day long, Inside I had a Ben Franklin "Wood-stove which kept it toasty. We went there a lot.

We packed the Tent and went to Myrtle Beach, SC for a while, I lived there for 2 years and revisited some old friends BUT we came back to New York cuz it was TOO HOT!!

We bought a "POP-UP which we traveled with and hated it, Traded it in on a nice one we took to Lake Bonaparte. Traded this one in for a bigger one to have more room.

We went to Florida and had a Nice 5th Wheele set up on Lake Okeechobee, NICE, I fished every day, relaxed and it was a nice fall, winter and spring BUT it got TOO HOT, soooo we came back to New York!!

We went Back to Lake Bonaparte and I jacked up the Trailer, built a deck and wooden awning an we just stayed there for summers and closed it up in the fall. We were there for about 20 years and finally gave that up as things changed my health got worse.

Right now we are pretty settled down in the "Old Folks Home" still involved in church and the Legion and we kind of like our sedentary lifestyle.

WHOEVER GETS ELECTED, GOD PLEASE LET HIM DO WHAT IS RIGHT, JUST AND FAIR!!!!!.

There comes a point in your life when you realize:Who matters,Who never did,Who won't anymore...And who always will..So, don't worry about people from your past,there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future..

God doesn't give you the people you want,
He gives you the people you NEED.
To help you, to love you and to make
you into the person you were meant to be.

NEVER FORGET, REMEMBER THE VETERANS, THEY HELPED GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO VOTE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lesson 2

Fast Freddie:

I know your feeling of frustration in trying to get some things on line, I did another set of infos for you, You have to get on line with windows, then you have to get on line again so you have 2 online sites open so you can go back and forth to your blog and the site you want to get an item from. Its simply copy and paste, *WELL, IT WASN'T THAT SIMPLE FOR ME!!! My first entry disappeared, my next one the computer lost it and then I got a simple post up and running and then just kept at it, There is not a lot to do here at the "Old Folks Home" at night and I am not a TV watcher so I sit here and plug along and My Honey sits a few feet away doing cross stitch.

You wanted to know why I Blog, its simple, I miss traveling like we used to do!!!! I get to read about different people I would not normally meet, I get to see places where people have been and I will probably never go to, when I visit Blogs I click on the people who commented, go visit there site and sometimes get back nice replys and info on them. So far I have been to ALL OVER THE COUNTRYin my ARM CHAIR TRIPS.

Hope this helps:

BLOGS

TO Fast Freddy;

I got your email, I got mine up and running from trial and error and redoing it, here is the info you wanted, hope you can understand it cuz I barely do!!!!

Click on the above slideshow and it will give you some of the info you asked for.

The sites for http:// just type into your browser bar and it will take you to their site, you have to open your browser in 2 windows to go back and forth from the Picasa page or the HTML Code pages to copy and paste into your blog. You also have to have 2 windows open to put other things in your blog,

On the PICASA Page on the right side it will say ***Link to this Album and you click there, then underneath it will say**Embed Slideshow, go to your left and click on the yellow box and it will turn blue, right click on it and hit COPY, then come back and paste it in your blog after you click Edit Html. after you embed the slide show go back to icasa and click DONE button. Hit Publish post. To tweak your blog go to the top on Edit Posts and click on it and then go to the edit box on that post.

When you enter HTML Code first click on the top Edit Html, copy and paste in the code, then you have to go back up and click on Compose button to go back to text to type in what you want.

I am not an expert on this, but here at the "Old Folks Home" ya have a lot of free time at night to practice and practice on it, if ya don't like what ya get just delete it and start again, thats what I did more times than I care to remember!!!!!

Hopes this helps ya.