'Last Night The Old Gringo Smiled'

jjorge, I am planning to be in RI in July. In Amherst to attend the Annual Gathering of Friends which is being held this year at U. Mass. So I hope I will be welcome to drop by the neighborhood and say hey.

jjorge, it is confirmed, registered and paid for I will be in Amherst July 3-10. So we must meet. While I was at the Friends (Quaker) website I noticed this: http://www.noho.com/sojourner/

Have you ever visited. I find that I will have so much to do I plan to be in northeast the last week of June and stay one week after the gathering.

JD - maybe the pears will be ripe by then!

And get ready to meet LOTS of neighbours!

Joanne,

You are welcome to drop by the neighborhood and say hey.

(jjorge to self)

hmmm...this thread's been sitting here unused for ten months!

...have to dust this old baby off and get it ready to go again....
...promised msolga that I'd start it up again on March 18th after this year's WYTSI thread is done.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47113&highlight=

...guess I'd better get some jumper cables...battery must be dead by now....have go over it from end to end...make sure it's running by March 18th.

And about time, too! :wink:

It's standard shift transmission, isn't it, jjorge? Need a push?

<standing by to assist by steering while the lovely strong manly ones <flutter flutter flutter eyelashes> do the heavy pushing>

I hope to see this thread running on all two cylinders this coming week, jjorge.

lurking here, too!

<lurk>

I finally got to meet these folks. Mostly I see the father and one of the adolescent sons (Miguel and Miguel ) in their driveway, shoveling snow etc.

We waved for awhile until one day the son hailed me in English and I answered back in Spanish. It was a Sunday around noon and the whole family was getting out of their car. My answer stopped them in their collective tracks. I could read their minds: " Did I hear what I think I heard? Does that American guy speak Spanish?"

Anyway, they are very nice, polite, hard-working people. One evening last week, father and son helped me carry a heavy piece of used furniture from my truck to my basement. We chatted awhile. I think they're Pentecostals or some other group that doesn't drink. (it was something about the facial expression when they politely refused my offer of a glass of wine)

I told them I'd like to invite their family over for hamburgers and to see my flower garden etc when the weather is warmer and my yard is shaped up. They don't really have much of a yard so I think they'd enjoy it.


Well we've had a long winter in the neighborhood, too many snowstorms and snow still on the ground.
...but... The first day of Spring is only two days away and the daytime temps have been in the 40's this week.

Yesterday, after taking in my trash barrells (Thursday is collection day on my street) I noticed that the ground was bare in most of the areas where I had planted tulip and daffodil bulbs last Fall. A closer look revealed several 1-2 inch shoots that had poked up out of the ground.

Funny how a little thing like that can touch your heart somehow.

Later, when we're swamped with nature's abundance, when everything is green, green, green and flowers are everywhere, we'll be quite blase' about one more shoot, one more little plant........but after the long cold Winter, to see stirrings in the dead ground...it's.....well...stirring!

The return of the Gringo!

Oh, more please!

Stories of shovelling snow, while the neighbours are doing the same, are strange, even exotic (!) to my Oz self. Never had such an experience in my life! And speaking Spanish at the same time, even!

Awesome thread jjorge!

I am very happy to see it's revival at just the perfect time! Spring!
Your tulips sprouting up remind me of when I was a child growing up. After the very long, cold winters, I used to begin looking out at the front planters in front of our living room window. Day after day, I'd look and look and look and then eventually one day, sometimes even with snow still covering them, I could see the tiny sprouts of the tulips coming up!! It didn't matter to me if spring had officially arrived or not. That first sight was spring to me and I would always run in the house shouting. "Spring is here! Spring is here!"

I share your sentiment completely on the stirrings Spring evokes. Both in nature and in ones heart.

I envy you, jjorge. You're no more than 60 miles or so south of me, but I haven't seen a single green shoot anywhere yet. Maybe this weekend. The temps. here have been in the 40s every day now, all week. But down to significantly below freezing each night, which tends to retard the greenery.

We lose track of that special feeling in Houston, where winters are short and often pretty warm. Growing season is much extended over the northern areas. Spring has here been on the move for a number of weeks.

Hi msolga, thanks for the warm welcome back.

funny how something one takes for granted (shoveling snow, raking leaves --?hunting crocodiles? ) can be viewed by someone else as strange or exotic.


Lady J,

The story of you as a child, watching and waiting was delightful and painted a vivid picture in my mind. I could really SEE you doing so.

Funny, I had to wait until I was a grown man in my forties before I was captivated by the same experience.


M.A.

You know every yard has its own array of micro-climates. The daffodil shoots I described above are on the sunny, eastern side of my house while on the western side there is more snow and even where there isn't snow, the buds have yet to poke up above ground.

Today I was at my late Mom's house in Avon. (which is sold and scheduled for 'passing papers' on 3/31)
The Avon house is forty miles North of here, and only eighteen miles South of Boston yet it too, had a number of daffodil shoots showing on its sunny, more protected, eastern side.

Edgar,

Nice to see you young fellow!

Am I right in surmising that this is a very nice time of the year in Houston? My only experience of Tejas so far, was a week in San Antonio in January of 1981. Let me tell you, that was a welcome respite from the New England Winter!

BTW ...Houston... that's the home of Mr and Mrs pdiddie too, isn't it?