Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween Night - Trip to Walmart for Pants for my NOLA Vaca

First, it's Halloween morning. For my daily salad, I went out in my garden and growing in the wheelbarrow garden were the above green scallions.

All you do is plant the roots - the white roots - from the bought scallions.

Next photo please!

I
After lunch drove over to the Jacksonville Road WALMART to buy pants. Tried on 8 pair and bought 3.

Also bot Dr Scholl black sneaks with the gel pads on the bottom which I'm testing out right now, this Halloween eve, for my trip to NOLA.

Can't believe that at 8:30 pm, the tricker treaters have ceased - ah! Tucker, from down the street is back.

I told him to return and I'd give him THE REMAINING CANDY AND PRETZELS.

Before I handed over the candy, I said, Wait a minute. I think I'll take one.

"That's okay, Miss Ruth," he said. Tucker is home-schooled and very polite.

I'll tell ya. There ain't nothing better than a Hershey's. Milton Hershey was a prince of a man. I never buy Nestle products bc the company introduced infant formula to third-world countries encouraging women to stop breast-feeding.

My pet tiger, Richard Parker, greeted the guests on the front porch.

I put Tucker's candy in a gray Walmart bag and he carried the Herr's clear plastic container home to the rousing cheers of the folks in the Upper Moreland H.S. Football Stadium we can hear over on Cowbell.

As he left, I heard him yell, Hey Patrick! I got the pretzels.

Oh, how I wanted to eat one but exhibited that rare quality - will power.

On my FB page, I had wrin about a tea they ordered for me at Nature's Harvest. So my friend from CT, Iris Arenson-Fuller, mailed me a shoebox full of tea!!!

I selected the Twinings Chai Apple Spice, and sipped on it, here at my couch desk, while awaiting the treaters.

During the Treating Hours, I finished reading a NY Times mag story on an American who found himself captured by a group of nihilists - terrorists - in Syria. Read it here if you wish.  

The comments are always interesting to read.

The Times has a great influence on me. They just published an article about a new film by Christopher Nolan and amazingly one of his films appears on Netflix.

It got great reviews. Please don't interrupt me as I watch

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Getting ready for The Big Easy, NOLA, and Cruise up the Mississippi River

A week from tomro, Friday, 11/7, I'm leaving home and hitching down to New Orleans Louisiana. I ain't never been there. In all my born days, and I ain't that young anymore, I've never seen that exciting city, home of the Mardi Gras and hard-hit by Katrina, when ole Georgie Pie Bush was the head of our country.

Oh, as a young lass, I did read Raintree County by one Ross Lockbridge, Jr. I loved the book, but poor ole Ross was dead as a doornail as the book climbed up the charts.

His wife wrote: 

Raintree movieposter.jpg

Wiki - "I walk past people," he confided to his wife, "and I wonder what they think." And, more ominously: "Whatever made me think I could get away with it?"[15] 


Here I am heading out to the Giant Food Store, traveling behind the gorgeous rear end of a white Porsche.

Errand Day began by meeting with Robin Franklin, Community Room Coordinator, to get rooms for our Saturday Programs at the Giant. We booked six rooms for 2015.

Robin and I always have nice chats. Didn't get a photo of Suzanne, who was also there. Helloooo Suzanne!

Then I picked up another batch of meds for my trip.  Will need meds and insulin for the 11 days I'm gone.

Wanted to buy a 'travel size' toothpaste but they didn't have any. Must I make an appt with my dentist so I can get one?

I believe Tom's just introduced this kid-sized tube.

Forty cents off at the Giant. They changed their method of payment, so I have to put on my thinking cap and READ and PUNCH BUTTONS in order to get gas.

A sign reads 'extra long gas hoses' so I pulled in at a rakish angle and filled up.

 The VW is front of me had a license plate that read UNDINE.

Undine (novella) - cover - Project Gutenberg eText 18752.jpg

 Read about the novella here. 

My dad told me that Audrey Hepburn did a play called Undine. Indeed she did. 

Look at the workout my mind gets when I do some simple errands.

Construction work on the way to


The Sox Lady in Furlong, PA.

The only problem with their website is it doesn't show the location of the place, so I had to call em up.

I told owner Diane that I hadn't been here in 10 years b/c the socks hold up so well.

I bought socks of many colors, like Joseph's coats of many colors in the Bible. None of them has elastic. Her brother makes the socks down the road. He doesn't sew up the toes; that's Diane's job.

There are many wonderful gifts on sale there, given to Diane by some friends. There were beautiful and inexpensive pocketbooks. Great gifts for Xmas, she said.

I told her I was not going to be tempted.

 When choosing Halloween candy last nite, I thought "Let me get things I would like to eat."

I wanna tell the little beggars, as my ex used to call them, take two things. One are pretzel rods. We have so many kids around here.

Scott and I had a scrumptious meal of scallops on a bed of whole wheat noodles. Get me my Novolog Pen!

Then I drove over to the Hatboro Union Library to hear Allan Heller talk about his latest book about Pennsylvania Cemeteries. Read about it here.  

Allan M Heller gives upbeat talk about the dearly departed in his cemetery books

Allan M Heller has always found cemeteries places of relaxation and serenity.

With a slide show at the Hatboro Union Library, he told fascinating stories about cemeteries he has known, documented in his four books, including the one below.


People poured into the library to hear him speak. Many lined up at the end to buy his books. Said Allan, "I want to come into the library with a big stack of books and leave with very few left."

 View from the rostrum.
Many people, including Martha Hunter, shown with husband Dave, came from our Saturday writers' group.

Allan also attends a group at the Union Library and those people came as well. So did the Mayor of Hatboro, Norman Hawkes, and his wife Dorrie.
Finally got to meet Allan's bro, Lawrence and his wife, who hail from Doylestown.

Allan put up a sign at Moreland Towers, in Hatboro, and many people arrived from there.

One woman Regina arrived in a wheelchair with bright white socks on. On my way home, I saw Regina rolling down the sidewalks of Hatboro. What courage!

Allan's mother, Cynthia Jones, bears a resemblance to her son. She and her husband live at Ann's Choice.

Cynthia's husband David Jones is a writer. He just published a guest column in the Courier Times. Love Letter to Megacorp from an Ardent Admirer.


Beatriz and Linda were there from our Saturday group. B came with friend Fran in the background. Nancy rolled the slides.

Since I didn't get a photo of the slides, lemme show a few of my own. Allan remarked there are two cemeteries in the little town of Hatboro - one is The Hatboro Cemetery, next to Stutz Candies - the other at the Hatboro Baptist Church. I'm quite familiar with them both.


I had mentioned there are quite a few gravestones of Muslims.

Allan mentioned the first black slave killed in the Civil War is buried in The Baptist Cemetery.

Famous architect Louis I Kahn was buried with wife Esther in a Jewish cemetery in the area. Here's his famous Norman Fisher House in Hatboro, PA.

The Union Library honors its centuries' old furniture.

Stepping into the room where Allan gave his talk is like entering the 18th century. 



Note the tall ceilings.

Kotecki Memorials

Allan mentioned that many of the grave stones were made by the Kotecki Family in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The family business goes back to 1896.

"But Daddy I don't wanna go into the family business."

"We'll talk about that later, son."

They made a huge cross high atop a hill that can be seen for miles.

   "Son, are you sure you don't wanna help your daddy build something like this?"

"Okay! It's better than Legos!"

Allan's mom, Cynthia, and I chatted a few moments after the talk. She and Dave live at Ann's Choice. She's on the Board of Directors at the Warminster Library.

I told her about the wonderful Poetry Program I attended there. They have a new librarian, she said, who schedules all these wonderful programs, esp. children's programs.

Surely they can't be better than Mr Jim at the Upper Moreland Library. They won an award last year.

  Allan Heller gets my award for a fun and entertaining talk.