What made you smile today?

George - Adaptive ski school?

We actually have snow - some nice, classic winter weather. Flakes, not rain, not sleet (knocks on wood), just big beautiful flakes.

Six inches of snow were forecast. Less than two arrived. Twenty-four days to springtime.

She's 19 and just cute as the dickens.

Yup, a wonderful group of folks who teaching skiing to folks with various
handicaps and disabilities. God bless 'em!

two days in a row when i did not have to wear my winter boots !
that's something to smile about !
hbg

There used to be a thread called What Made You Smile or Grimace Today.

About 11 am I walked out into the parking lot of my store on West Main Street. I noticed this guy sitting behind the little bus shelter in what appeared to be , at first glance, some sort of yoga position. Charlottesville VA is not San Francisco, so this seemed a bit odd. 15 minutes later he was in the same position and then a minute later he toppled over. We tried to talk to him, one of my employees tapped on his shoes. But he was not at all responsive. I called 911.
Grimace, I knew how this was going to go because I have done this before:
Me: I am John at the corner of 11th and Main. There is a guy lying unconcious in my parking lot. Could you send a police car or the rescue squad?
911: Is he breathing?
Me: (Johnboy bites his tongue, wondering what the hell that has to do with whether or how fast they will respond) I don't know. He is lying in my parking lot.
911: How old is he?
Me: (grr-I am getting pissed) He's 37.
911: So you know him?
Me: No, I am making that up. There is this guy lying unconcious in my parking lot. I don't know who he is, how old he is or whether he is breathing.
911: Okay, we will issue a dispatch.

A UVA police car drives past as does a car from our fire department. Neither stops.

The rescue squad comes in two vehicles. And they behave very professionally. They check him out and they get him to respond a bit. The supervisor goes through his pockets and finds a yellow piece of paper. He reads it for some time and then uses his cell phone to make a call. Perhaps this guy had a reaction to some medication that he had gotten at the UVA hospital just a few hundred yards from my store. They carefully load him on to a board and then a cart and then into the back of the rescue squad wagon. And I will never find out what the story really was.

Hope that guy's OK, rjb.

A couple of things.

1. At the end of this week's column, someone asks Dan Savage (of "Savage Love") about a website for men to meet transsexuals that had been mentioned in a previous column. Dan replies, "that tranny website I mentioned was, I believe, freerepublic.com."

2.) I got a coupon at the grocery store (one of those back-of-your-receipt dealies) for "a free french fry" with an order of a sandwich at Dairy Queen. I was imagining using it and, with great ceremony, being presented with a single solitary greasy french fry...

that is a great coupon..

The incentive bonus came through.
That's a couple of grand after taxes for me and my clan.
(Especially good since we misestimated our withholding and owe Uncle.)

Happy news indeed, George.

I was standing out in front of my store today next to Andy, one of my employees (he of the goth band). We were waiting for the tractor trailer driver to move a few dozen boxes to the back of the truck for us to unload.
A pickup truck went by on Main St with some piece of exercise equipment. And then, just a minute later, another pickup with a piece of exercise equipment.
"Ah." said Andy who goes to the gym every day, "It is the season." He said that after a flurry of activity at the gym after the first of the year, traffic has dropped off dramatically by March 1st. And the exercise equipment? The treadmill or exercise bike. It really is in the way...and the New Year's resolution to get in shape can wait until next year.

It's true. Going to the gym right after new year's is annoying because it's packed with everyone who made resolutions. Then a month goes by and they start dropping off. Resolutions are stupid...if you have the willpower to do something, you do it, not set a date months in advance to start.

My niece made me a little booklet of coupons in school titled - What I'll Do For Love. She has always been very attached to her mother and has been broadening her affections to the rest of us over the last year or two. Every drawing, every project, every letter, every valentine was for her mother. Not her dad, not her grandparents, not me, and then when her brother came, she started opening up to the rest of us, starting with him. The coupons she thought up for me shows she knows me very well:

Lots of Drawings!
1 hour of masag
10 minuts of Quiet
2 hours of sleep
Berecfest in bed
1 hour of watching C (her brother)
a progect for you

I remember making these for my parents. I was always sad because they never redeemed the coupons. Now I know they wanted to save them.

Well, more like "laugh hysterically" -- but then, it was late, and I was sufficiently hazy to appreciate it.

The llama song

LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA

Heard from my son and daughter today. They both sounded so good. A combination of a smile and a sigh of relief.

There was no ice on the driveway and I could safely walk down for the mail.

Mail was the phone bill, the township tax bill, Time magazine and two paperbacks I'd ordered.

Heard a record on Jazz Record Requests, by a British band, which they called "Bike up The Strand".

Hah!

It was 60 degrees here today!

enjoy!

Waking up to hear nothing at all. The house is completely silent for the first time in a month. (((knocking on wood)))