Now, We're Rolling...
I always have my "fixed" dates for Christmas decorations...dunno why, just always did it this way.
Now that it's AFTER the 7th of December, it's time to deck those halls around our "fortress".
And, when it comes to taking them down, we wait UNTIL after Epiphany (6 January).
It just seems to be a "good fit" for the season for us.
But, there comes those times when you have to hold up for a spell...
*** Today, one of the cats found (read chased) another mouse in the house.
In the family room to be exact...NOT in the garage (which leaks like a sieve when it comes to air), NOT in the basement (where if anywhere this could occur, it would be THERE), but in the damn family room addition!
And I discovered a 1/2 inch breach in the base of the siding of the house where they must be coming in.
So, after using a SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT of that wonderfully sticky EXPANSION FOAM to fill the gap (I checked outside as well, and yes, it's FILLED out the ass), and checked for other such anomalies along the base of the room, I proclaim this job finished (for now).
If this is the SAME mouse, he didn't take the hint last week, but if it's another member of the "family" looking for their sibling...oh, well.
If you were in that hole when I filled it...that's where you'll remain entombed.
But, if you got out...good...STAY OUT.
If you're still IN the house...well, you can run, and maybe you can still hide...just not forever.
I'm a CAT OWNER....
Anyway, we've not been lacking for other things happening around our fair city (and all points North).
Such as THIS:
*** Gunmen Rob Credit Union
(( Published: December 8, 2011 3:00 a.m. - The Journal Gazette
Two men with the help of a lookout robbed a credit union Wednesday morning after ambushing an employee and forcing her into the business at gunpoint, Fort Wayne police said.
The robbers were hiding in bushes behind Three Rivers Federal Credit Union at 5005 Bluffton Road, near Winchester Road. The employee arrived and had just gotten out of her vehicle when the men approached her, police said.
Pointing a gun at her, they made her enter the credit union, police said, and they took an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing.
Officers were sent to the scene at 7:05 a.m. On Wednesdays, the credit union’s drive-thru opens at 7 a.m., and its lobby opens at 9 a.m.
No injuries were reported. The region’s bank robbery task force is investigating the holdup.
Both robbers were described as wearing all-black clothing. Both were black and one stood between 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-6 and was concealing his face with a red bandanna, police said.
The other man was said to be 6-foot. He was also obscuring his face, police said, but a "slight beard along the suspect’s jaw line" was seen.
A description of the lookout was not available, police said. ))
Now how much you want to bet that these thugs are from Willow Creek (that's actually CRACK) Crossing apartments?
No REAL job (or anything else productive) to go to...BUT these bucks can rise early enough to commit crime...astounding!
Welcome to Entitlement Nation.
*** This was one of those "WTF?" stories that I just could NOT pass up:
Woman rescued after walk in high water
(( Updated: Wednesday, 07 Dec 2011, 8:17 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 07 Dec 2011, 8:17 PM EST
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) -
A Fort Wayne woman had to be rescued Wednesday afternoon as she tried to walk to a friend's house through high water.
Around 2:30, the woman began walking through the water near the intersection of Parrott and Nail Roads. That area has been flooded this week and impassable by car.
When the water went past the woman's knees, she says she got scared and cold and decided to call police for
help.
Rescue crews used a raft to retrieve her and medics took her to the hospital. ))
I just gotta ask myself (as did Mrs. Bobby G.) WHY did she go into water that was THAT deep in the first place?
If you got HIP-WADERS...fine, but anything LESS, and you're asking for a whole lotta WET, followed by a case of hypothermia.
Not to mention, you're working on a case of the STUPIDS! (big time)
Was there NO other way to go? Could she walk AROUND it?
Any way you shake it, this WAS D.U.M.B.!!!
*** And then, there's this from the Philly files:
(( Published: December 8, 2011 3:00 a.m.
Death penalty dropped in police-killing case - Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA – Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year push to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther convicted of killing a police officer and whose claims that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause célèbre.
Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison.
Flanked by police Officer Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the white patrolman’s killing.
He said that continuing to seek the death penalty could lead to "an unknowable number of years" of appeals, and that some witnesses have died or are unavailable after nearly three decades.
"While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs," said Williams, the city’s first black district attorney.
Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death. His murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals, but his case won notice from celebrities and activists.
In 2008, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading. ))
Still can't get anyone to sign off on "pulling the switch" on Abu Jamal...can we?
(I'll volunteer, but I know tat line is ALREADY long)
Nice to know the judicial system is as FLAWED as ever.
Misleading? how can instructions be misleading on a case THIS important?
That's a REAL stretch, even for ME to believe, and I've been around long enough to know what's BS.
And TOMORROW marks the 30th anniversary of Officer Danny Faulkner's death at the hands of this toad.
Justice?
Not seeing all that much these days...wonder why that is?
*** Also from the KEYSTONE STATE:
(( Thief smashed Pa. store door for egg nog
Updated: Wednesday, 07 Dec 2011, 4:09 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 07 Dec 2011, 4:09 PM EST
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Police are on the lookout for the burglar who broke into a Pittsburgh liquor store and made off with some holiday spirits.
Police say someone smashed the glass door of a state liquor store early Tuesday and made off with two bottles of alcoholic egg nog.
WTAE-TV reports the break-in was captured on surveillance footage.
The city's burglary unit is investigating. ))
Well, I certainly HOPE they're investigating.
But, you have to remember, it IS Pittsburgh...where the air is brown, and the people are as smart as house plants.
'Tis the season...right?
*** Lastly today, a bit more about those Christmas decorations.
I am NOT my mother's son when it comes to decorating...that's a given.
She would have everything touched by the holiday spirit...from coasters to doilies, to place mats, and even pictures frames.
Think of a shop that does nothing BUT Christmas displays, and you have the interior of our house (at Christmas) when I was growing up.
I swear, if Dad or I sat in a chair LONG enough, we got decorated, too.
Come to think of it, I DO remember mom tossing some GARLAND on Dad while he napped one Saturday afternoon before Christmas.
(wish I had a picture of THAT)
Mom REALLY got into the holidays...she was the quintessential decorator.
Of course, those were ALSO the days when we ran the Christmas card down the banister of the stairs, and many years, we had them ALL THE WAY DOWN.
Must have been that whole USPS, cheap stamps, and people communicating via the REAL MAIL in those days.
We've become a lot less personal, as well as personable over the decades, thanks to technology.
I know I can count the cards I SEND in the mail on both hands, but at least those folks KNOW they're special enough to receive a card.
Mostly a few relatives (still alive), and some good friends...that's about it.
And, as far as the lighting for the house goes...only blue-bulbed candles in the windows.
(don't wanna attract any UNDUE attention from the local aborigines)
Maybe some colored mini-lights around the patio door and a decorated shrub nearest the house, and that's it.
We do have an animated deer our late uncle gave us (and I managed to get working 100% again)...but I don't want it to "wander off" into another person's yard, if you get my drift. Things have a NASTY habit of doing that around here.
Welcome to Entitlement Nation (again).
Mrs. Bobby G. has her Santa collection that she puts up, as well as ALL those Christmas plushies (Beanie Babies and Puffkins), and naturally, we have ALL the K-Mart Christmas Bears we've purchased since we were married (1997).
We're definitely need a BIGGER sofa...or another one to hold all of them NOW...LOL.
Then, there's all the "bric-a-brac" (as I call it)...smaller plaster or resin figures, candle holders, angels, etc.
And you HAVE to have a snow globe...or music box that plays a Christmas ditty...(we have both).
I have a SNOOPY porcelain music box that rotates with him sleeping on top of the decorated dog house...goes back to the 1980s...and the last one I saw online was going for close to $100 bucks!
We have a nativity set, too. Unfortunately, we have no "manger", but just the figures. (which are the same 1:6 scale as my 12" G.I. Joe figures....)
But somehow, I don't think Baby Jesus would want a couple of SWAT officers (the uniforms they current have on) guarding the camels, sheep and also keeping a close eye on those "three wise men" from the Middle East...just a hunch.
(I didn't see any IEDs among those gifts from the Magi - it's still, the gold, frankincense and myrrh)
And why would ANYONE give MYRRH (and embalming oil) to an INFANT, anyway???
Yeah, it's gonna be looking a lot MORE like Christmas around the house soon enough...mouse or no mouse.
And it will be tasteful...and sincere...
In that, I think my folks would have approved.
(Mom would have added MORE, I know she would)
Still, the real fun comes in putting up the tree...and we'll be tackling THAT chore soon enough (and in another post).
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.