Category: Local

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A Chance of Snow Tonight

Its been cold for a couple of weeks but we have not had snow yet. But I just heard the dreaded four letter word on tonight’s news – there is a chance of snow tonight. I don’t mind the cold weather, but I really do not like the sleet and snow that comes this time of year. I try to avoid driving in the bad weather and just stay home if there is any way to arrange things to allow that.

Last year we only had snow on the ground for a few weeks. It never caused any big problems for my house and my neighborhood, thank goodness. Sometimes we have bad snow storms that leave people stranded in their homes for several days, as shoveling heavy fresh snow is very tiring and not always productive when you spend hours out in the cold clearing your car and then a snow plow comes along and shoves a wall of snow back into your driveway or around your car. That always makes me very angry, and yet I know the snow plows need to keep the streets clear. I just wish they would remove or melt the snow instead of just shoving it over and packing it around the cars parked on the street.

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Only 6 Groups of Trick or Treaters Tonight

When I first moved here there were a lot of children in the neighborhood. Every holiday was a big deal to the neighbors. We all decorated our houses and yards with lights and yard ornaments and people used wreaths and yard flags to decorate. Halloween was a big deal with a lot of small groups of kids and parents going house to house collecting candy. I loved seeing the different costumes and happy, expectant faces of the kids as they held out their Halloween bags and buckets for their treats.

I guess most of those kids have grown up and there are not a lot of new families moving into the area. I was a little disappointed to only have my doorbell rung six times with trick or treaters. There were two groups of very young children, with parents and strollers walking down the street. The rest were older kids, and to be honest, one group of teenagers seemed to be a little too old to be going out trick or treating this year. i hope they did it just for fun, maybe their last hurrah, and didn’t cause any mischief for anyone in the neighborhood. The older kids make me a little nervous about causing trouble when it gets late and people stop giving out candy for the night. I hope that the fact this is a school night will send those older kids home early with the rest of the kids and that there is no trouble with vandalism and other tricks tonight.

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Getting home repair grants

Everyone could use help with home repair grants and it’s relatively easy to find them if you look in the right place. A friend of mine just moved to New Jersey and bought one of those kinds of homes that is in need of some big time TLC. When she called me the first night she stayed in her new home, she had a slew of things on a list that needed to be done before she could even begin to move fully, let alone get the house prepared for the winter months.

After doing some asking around, looking on the internet and then talking to the people in the neighborhood, she found that there is assistance with home repairs there and she is going to indeed find out more about this, so she can do the big repairs that have to be definitely done before winter hits. My friend is working a steady job, but it took quite a bit of her savings to not only buy the house, but the move there was  pricey also.

I asked her if she could get insulation assistance in NJ, not only warmth for the winter, but also it helps the house stay cooler in the summer as well. I found that my friend, Sandy was right on the ball so to speak, about getting the information and the help she will need with improvements. I’m very happy for her and can’t wait to visit her in her new house, once she is ready to have guest.

 

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Cold weather has moved in

Most people are saying the chilly weather we are now having feels great. I say I’m very cold and not enjoying it at all.

I believe if it wasn’t rainy and damp, this may be a refreshing change instead of having 105 degree temperatures for weeks, but it feels down right like a rainy fall. This rain has come too late for the farmers crops though. It’s sad

I can imagine what grocery prices are going to be like come winter…as if they weren’t high enough. It’s going to be a frugal winter.

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A break in the heat

Being outside today was a treat compared to how unbearable the the weather has been for nearly two weeks. 104 degree temperatures is just too dangerous and even the pool feels like bath water.

Yesterday we finally got some respite from the heat. It felt like it to us, though it was still 88 degrees. There was a nice breeze blowing and it did cool us off a bit.

My front yard looks brown and I can forget about even watering my flowers. They scorched from the sun and died. It’s sad to me, but I could have watered for hours and it would not have made much of a difference. The lawn is brown as is everyone’s around here and in town unless they had a good watering system, which is pricey. Next year I’ll do my gardens over and hope for the best.

 

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School Christmas Craftshow

The start of the Christmas craft show at the school is today. I usually have my crafts finished and already set up to sell at the event, except this year I won’t be taking any. It’s the first year in a long while, but so much has been going on this year, that I haven’t had time to work on crafts like I used to. I’ll go to it and see what is new though. Some of these women are really talented and should promote their crafts. Others do have small shops or sell out of their homes. It’ll be nice to see what others have created.

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Flooding and then ice

It’s been raining for days and our back yard now looks like a pond. This isn’t an exaggeration either. Yesterday the temperature dropped drastically and it all froze. I know if the kids were younger, they would be outside ice skating and having a riot. Me? I’m going into hibernation until the warm weather comes again.

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A busy week ahead

I don’t know what woke me up so early, but here I am at 5:00 wide awake and have been for awhile. I’ve got lots to do this week, including working in town and then lots of errands and appointments. I dropped my favorite camera and now have to have it repaired, if it can be. I don’t go anywhere without this camera and I’m hoping that it can be fixed. There is only one repair shop even remotely close to this area and this is NOT a digital camera, so I’m wondering if it indeed can be fixed. So between a lot of appointments and working my butt off, it’s going to be a busy week.

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It’s heating up

It seems the weather is doing some drastic things all over the US. Here it’s starting to heat up and we really need the rain. I’m feeling very sorry for the farmers all over, as first around here it was too wet to get into the fields, so crops were planted late. Now, the corn is “reaching” for rain and it’s sad to see that the crops are not doing well at all. It also makes me really worry about what the prices of groceries are going to be in the year to come. I can’t believe how high prices are now anyway. I’m glad I watched my Mom cook while growing up. She can make something really good out of nothing, as we tell her. 🙂

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Wet plans

With the rain that we have had all day it has made our plans to go and watch the fireworks downtown a no go, I am sure glad that we went to the lake and watched the fireworks at Nashville Shores last night. They are calling for severe storms tonight so I think we will just stay in where it is dry and watch the fireworks on TV, maybe next year we can make it downtown to see the show live and in person.