Choices

             Choices.

          I have soooo many choices for today's letter blog title. I could call it New Baby or some variation of that because I want to introduce you to the newest member of our family. I could call it Poppin' or some variation of that because stuff is blooming all over up here on our mountain. Or Birds because I've got bird pictures to show you this week. Or Bridges because I have a couple of bridge pictures. Or I could call it Not Safe because your piles of junk and open doors are not safe from this girl and her camera! I'm gonna show it to the whole world! So, as you can see, I have a lot of choices this week — too many choices!

          You know something?

          "I know lots of something's," you say.

          Well, did you know that last year, last August, I had a grandnephew born?

          "No! You didn't tell us," you say.

          I know, right! I didn't. I asked the baby's mama if I could announce the baby's birth here, on my letter blog.

          "What is that?" she asked. "Who has access to it?"

          That question kinda surprised me. I've been friends with this gal for years. I post a link to my letter blog on FaceBook every week — and she's not once seen it? So I told her. "I post a link every week. It's mostly friends and family."

          She reluctantly gave me permission. "As long as there are no pictures."

          Seriously! She's been posting pictures of the baby all over FaceBook since the moment the baby was born! Who has access to that! I'm sorry to say that I took a pissy attitude and said, Screw it! She can announce the birth of her baby herself! But that didn't happen because no one ever sends birth announcements these days.

              But I'm not bitter!

          Being shot down makes me gun shy. I had another grandnephew born this week. With trepidation in my heart, I asked permission.

          "Absolutely!" Farley said with no hesitation and I smiled.

          Farley is the first born to my handsome younger brother Paul.

          Baby Wesley Lewis made his way into our world on March 9th at 2:20 pm. Isn't he the most precious baby you ever saw! He weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and is 21 inches long.

           "We love the name you gave him. How did you choose it?"

          "Well, we have this whole LEY thing going on. Julie, Farley, Kinsley, Riley. We didn't want to leave him out. Then we found out my dad's grandfather's name was Wesley. Then later found out Julie's grandfather was named John Wesley. So we were like, okay, Wesley it is!"

          "John Wesley the famous evangelist?" you ask.

          I know, right! I asked the same thing but no, not that John Wesley.

          "And Lewis is a family name on our side as well," I told Farley.

          "No way! See, I love to hear things like this."

          I like what Julie posted on her FB page.

          "And just like that we are a family of five."

          Just look at this beautiful family.

          The pussy willows are out.

          And so are the crocus.

          Down beside the road I spot the bright yellow blooms of the Coltsfoot.

           We could still get a snow but for now it looks like spring has sprung!

          Oh my gosh! Look at this! I snapped this picture as we were driving down the highway at 55-60 miles an hour. It's an eagle! The grandest of all raptors! I saw him in time to get my camera up and snap away. You can't tell but he's sitting right above the Susquehanna River. For all the rest of that trip I looked for other eagles — and saw none.

          Another day I spotted two hawks in time enough to snap a picture.

          The first one was just a quick drive by snap.

          The second one I saw was while we were on a back road with no traffic.

          "Can you back up?" I asked Mike.

          He did but it freaked the hawk out and he took off.

          And those weren't the only birds I have pictures of to show you this week. I snapped a picture of one of nature's cleaners having breakfast.

          "What's he eating?" I asked Mike when I spotted him. Then I raised my camera for a picture — NO! Don't do it! Don't ask me why! — and I could see what it was. "Awww. Someone's going to be sad." Cats who live beside a road don't generally have long lives

          I wasn't necessarily going to show you this picture and I didn't crop it so you have a really close up look of him pulling the guts out but it wasn't until I saw it on my 'puter that I realized it's a Black Vulture.

          "Is that significant?" you wanna know.

          I remember when we lived in Missouri they were asking us to report sightings so they could track where the vultures were. I wonder if they're tracking them here? It's the first one I've seen in our area. I called... who did I call? DNR? No. I called the Game Commission because I found their number first. If it was wrong they could direct me on who to call.

          "Are you tracking the Black Vultures?" I asked.

          "They're protected," he said. "I don't know what you mean... tracking them."

          "To see how far north they're coming."

          "No. Not as far as I know. Let me check with my supervisor." I waited while he checked. "No, we're not tracking them."

          Black Vultures are the only vulture that will actually kill animals. The farmers lose newborn calves to them and they'll kill other small animals that are sick or dying.

          "Peg, what's the difference between a vulture and a buzzard?" you wanna know,

          I'm so glad you asked! In North America a vulture is a vulture, a buzzard is a vulture, and a hawk is a hawk. In the rest of the world a vulture is a vulture, a buzzard is a hawk, and a hawk is sometimes a buzzard, although there are still other birds with the name hawk that would not be called buzzards. Got it?

          I took pictures of my birds at the feeders.

          "Really, Peg?" you say. "I thought you liked the wild stuff better."

          I do. I really do. But I wanted to show you that the Redwing Blackbirds are back.

          "The Redwing Blackbirds are a sure sign of spring," Miss Rosie told me.

          "I thought that was robins," you say.

          Some do say that too. I haven't seen any robins yet though I know they're here. My beautiful friend Jody told me that she and her husband Michael have seen them.

          Speaking of Jody...

          We went for her very first interval run. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it," she later confided in me. Not only was she able to run the 30 seconds with a 90 second recovery period but she enjoyed it too! I let her control the stop watch and call out the runs and walks. I know from my own experience that seeing I only have 10 seconds left on a run helps me to push through and do those 10 seconds. Jody and I have different running styles. She runs like a gazelle with long, graceful strides. I'm more like a Yorkie with short little choppy steps.

          "I'm not carrying ten pounds of equipment," Jody said when I pointed this out to her.

          She's sorta right. I always take my camera and I had my phone, a pack of gum, and my pepper spray. "I doubt it's ten pounds." So, as I write this, I decided to see what my camera does weigh. It's just under three pounds — that feels like ten!

           I admire her running style. I wanna be a gazelle!

          "That'll give you something to aim for," you say.

          Dang tootin!

          But, I took a little side trip there. I wasn't finished with birds. I was standing at my kitchen sink and saw all these finches at my feeder. I was tickled. 

          I went to the table for something and when I glanced out the door I saw all the finches on the ground under the feeder. I had no idea there were so many there, then I was really tickled. "Look at them all!" I exclaimed and Mike came to look.

          The last picture of birds in this week's picture file is this road picture.

          So. I have a bunch of road pictures for you this week too but we'll get to them later.

          We traveled roads I've never been on. One of those roads was Covered Bridge Road.

          "I bet there's a covered bridge on this road," I told Mike. Then I thought about it. It could be gone. But it wasn't. Mike let me out when we were on the bridge and I walked across. "How did I not know this bridge was here?" I asked when I got back in the Jeep but Mike doesn't know why I would.

          A little farther down the road was this old iron open-grate bridge.

          And we didn't spend much of any time at the construction site of our new bridge, or rather the new bridge on the lower end of our road. We did go down one day but they'd already gone for the day. I walked down to the edge, turned around, and took a picture of Mike as he waited for me on the golf cart.

          On my glass table this week I completed several projects. A baby girl with a purple bonnet I made for my handsome son Kevin and his beautiful wife Kandyce. This is a commemorative to the last little girl they lost. Morgan Rae came and left us on the same day. Oh my gosh! I didn't expect that! I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about her! She was so wanted and so loved. We lost Morgan this past November and I'll put her name and date on it before I send it.

          I made two hearts and a gnome too.

          And now I'm working on this. The dragonfly isn't attached and in fact I'm not sure I like my dragonfly. The wire I used to make him with is thin and pliable whereas the rest of the piece has big ol' honkin' pieces of wire. Do I want consistency? Do I want all the wire throughout the piece to be the same? I got more wire from my stash, straightened it, stripped it, polished it, and tried to make a dragonfly. Three times I did that! Three times I failed. I'm not having any luck. The wire is much too stiff to make sharp turns with.

          "Peg, I like the delicate look of your dragonfly," you say.

          Yeah. Well, we'll see.

        

          I had my hair cut this past week. This cutie patootie cut it for me. I shouldn't call her that. JoAnna's a beautiful young lady.

          "I want it really short on the sides and back and longer on top," I told her. I was thinking of my beautiful sister Phyllis. She had hers cut that way once and I really liked it. She also had it dyed red red but I'm not going there. "And don't worry about making it too short. It'll grow back."

          JoAnna laughed. "I wish all my customers had your attitude. What makes you want your hair so short?"

          "I've actually worn it that short for a long time. But Miss Rosie doesn't like it that short so I thought it would be a good compromise to leave it long on top."

          "Who?"

          "Miss Rosie. My neighbor."

          JoAnna laughed. "That's funny."

          "I know, right! But she's the only one who ever tells me what they like." I pointed to the chair next to us where Michelle was cutting Mike's hair. "He doesn't care."

    

     

          Cruising FB one day I see a recipe for Hot Buttered O's, a Classic Throwback Snack. Wait! I'm classic! Classic means old, right? Why have I never heard of these before? So my question to you is, how many of you have ever had or made this snack? 

         

          A couple of days later another recipe comes up. "Sponge candy," it says. "A hidden treasure, a vintage treat your great-grandmother used to make."

          Wait a minute! I'm vintage! That means old, right? Why have I never heard of this before!

          "Peg, it's also called Honeycomb, Sponge Toffee, Cinder Toffee, Puff Candy, Hokey Pokey, Fairy Food, or Sea Foam," you say.

          Nope. Never heard of it. But then again, I'm not really surprised. Our mother was too busy filling us up with good healthy food — and I bet these aren't! But they do look yummy.

          Okay. I think the only thing left is road pictures.

 

          Check out this old church. It sits in the middle of Scranton. "I'd have that if it was out in the middle of nowhere," I told Mike. I could live in that. Aren't the windows just fabulous!

            "Do I turn here?" Mike asked.

          I've never been a good navigator and GPS's aren't necessarily any easier for me. Especially on city streets. "I think it's the next one."

          "Recalculating," the GPS says.

            Oops. So we missed our turn and had to go around the block.

          "What is that?" I asked seeing the red and white lighthouse-type building ahead of us. We got closer and once I stopped focusing on the building I noticed they actually had a sign, "Oh! It's Coopers!"

          Coopers Seafood House was made semi-famous because it was mentioned in several episodes of The Office, which I never watched anyway. The Clinton's have eaten there as well as a host of movie stars.

          We turned the corner and see this. "Who died?" I asked like Mike would know. "They must've been loved."

          We got gas at Sam's Club for $2.29!"

          "I haven't seen that since we left Missouri," Mike said.

          "Peg, the sign says $2.39," you point out.

          I know, right! We expected to pay $2.39 but it was $2.29 at the pump. Isn't that a nice surprise!

          The State Hospital in Clark's summit. Judging by all the broken windows it must be closed.

          With the recent hysteria of corona virus and everyone clearing out the shelves of toilet paper, all of these semis are lined up, for as far as you can see and then some, to pick up toilet paper from our local P&G plant. (Not my picture. It's been in the paper and shared so many times on social media that I don't know who took it. I'd give them credit if I knew.)

          Honestly, I don't get it. Why toilet paper? But my husband has bought into the craze. We already had more than 70 rolls on hand due to a buying error. Nonetheless, in an abundance of over caution, Mike bought 18 more rolls.

          "People aught to be stocking up on the stuff you need if you get it — and you will get it," one person posted on FB. "Things like NyQuil and acetaminophen."

          Thankfully, I don't have to worry about empty shelves on that stuff either. We bought a three pack of NyQuil a couple of months ago when we needed it and have plenty of pain relievers. So I guess we're all set!

            Let's call this one done!