songbird's crazy world

Feline traffic on the front lawn  

  Do you think they’ll eat my pumpkins?

On Sunday  I took a walk through the neighborhood.  Covered almost 3 miles, my personal best. Halloween is all but gone.  Well, except for this guy. He was a late addition to my neighbor’s display.  They’ve taken everything else down, but left this guy on the lawn. Some of my neighbors still have pumpkins and scarecrows, things that are more “autumn” than “Halloween”.   But a few houses now have those inflatable turkeys. I previously showed you this one. And this one So now let’s add a third You’ve seen my display  A few houses already have Christmas lights (can’t see them in daylight, of course), but not lawn decorations.  Except for this house. Fall foliage is past peak now. Thinking of lyrics right now.   All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray …I’ve been for a walk … And yes, the skies were gloomy. Did you notice how dry the lawns are?  We are in a drought.  It barely rained in September and it didn’t rain at all in October.  We got some rain Sunday night, but not nearly enoug

Guess the theme.

 

 Drew and I usually go out Saturday night.  Sometimes we go to local places, sometimes to chain restaurants. We didn’t go out last night, though, because Jen came over Saturday afternoon.  After she left, Drew and I ordered Chinese take-out. Too many restaurants have closed lately.  A lot of chains seem to be having issues — Boston Market, Red Lobster, Wendy’s  and most recently TGI Friday’s.  But what makes me sad is the loss of a very good local place, Taco King.  I actually blogged about this place in  2013  and  2015 .  The food was always fresh and delicious.  We were craving Mexican last week and drove over there, only to find the place permanently closed.  Sigh.  We wound up getting pastrami at the deli.  We know several good Mexican places around here.  They’re all sit-down restaurants, but they all have take-out menus.  So we aren’t totally bereft.  But I will miss Taco King. Looking forward to hosting our annual Thanksgiving— we host on Saturday. Drew is making the classic gr

 

  Saving All My Love for You Welcome to   Saturday 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: Saving All My Love for You (1985) Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it  here .  1) This was Whitney Houston's first big hit, her introduction to a mass, national audience. But music was not her first career. While she was still in high school, Whitney was a model and   Seventeen  magazine covergirl. Is there a print magazine in your home right now? If yes, who is on the cover? I do most of my reading on my iPad or Kindle, but I have the print edition of Prevention.   No

 Shadow playing peek-a-boo in the kitchen window. Our orange visitor was back. The battle of the cat tree … I bought it for Duchess in 2020, when I was staying at Drew’s during the pandemic.  When Drew and I moved in together in July 2023, Shadow fell in love with the cat tree and Duchess abdicated…But recently Duchess has become more …assertive. Will I have to buy another cat tree? Sigh.  The life of cats is so simple.  Everything they need and everything they want — food, a clean litter box, a warm place to sleep — is right here in this house.  

 Another walk.  Lots of fall color. This house still had a Halloween inflatable, but also one for Thanksgiving. More Thanksgiving. And this door … I think that’s for Diwali, a Hindu holiday.  Hicksville has a significant immigrant population from South Asia. We had several neighbors shoot off fireworks for Diwali. Interesting house.  I love the wraparound porch. The Hicksville part of this neighborhood has lots of houses that were not built by Levitt.  Some were built after Levitt developed the area, but some are pre-WW II.  I have no real interest in the split levels and raised ranches of the 50’s and 60’s, but the older homes … This one was built in 1930. I’m really enjoying this neighborhood. And I seem to have a few of these neighbors 

 Racism, misogyny and xenophobia won. Gaslighting, fear mongering and corruption won. I am terrified.

 I was 8 years old and my sisters were 7, 1 and 1 (yes, twins) when my parents sold the house we’d outgrown and moved us to the house we grew up in.  I remember looking at model houses (there were three, a ranch and two different colonials).  I remember driving down a dirt road so my parents could choose the lot they wanted, and then choose and customize the house they wanted.  I remember watching the construction crew slowly build the house, I think it took 2-3 months.  And then, one day in November 1968, we moved into our new home.   The house next door was identical to ours, the other house next door was a mirror image of ours, to keep all the houses from looking too much alike.  The  houses across the street?  Two ranches separated by a colonial.  That wasn’t the experience of folks who bought Levitt houses in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.  The houses were built quickly, assembly-line style, and were virtually identical. If one house on the block was the ranch, then every house

 The orange cat was back  The reason he was looking over his shoulder? Yeah, another visitor. First time I’ve seen this cat.  I’m sure he was following my orange friend.  The bushes in front of my house are a real feline gathering place. Later the newbie investigated the back yard. This alert said there was a “person” in the yard, Starting to plan the menu for our Thanksgiving.  We host a dinner the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.   Must have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes …maybe I’ll make an interesting appetizer. Did you know that Hanukkah comes late this year?  We light the first candle December 25.  Christmas Day. That’s the latest it’s ever been.  That means we light the 8th candle on New Year’s Day.   Back in 2013 we celebrated  Thanksgivukkah .  That was when Hanukkah coincided with Thanksgiving.  Remember my menurkey? Yeah, a menorah in the shape of a turkey.  That was fun. Turkey dinner and latkes, an interesting combination . Won’t happen again until 2070.   I haven’t be

I voted early.  First day of early voting was October 26. Took an hour an 45 minutes because of the long lines.  That’s kind of rare for New York.   Had to keep the jacket buttoned in the polling place, of course.  On  Election Day 2016  I wore a pantsuit. Today I will wear chucks and pearls. I hope to cry like I did in 2008.  Not like I did in 2016.

 This motion registered as a “person” Apparently birds are people too. And apparently we have attracted yet another feline visitor.   First time I’ve seen this one,  I think we’re becoming the neighborhood hit spot.

 Time for a dose of  patriotism! And what is more patriotic than exercising your Constitutional rights?  Election Day is tomorrow.  I’ll be wearing my chucks and pearls. We are not going back. So let’s start with a parody song from one of my favorites, Randy Rainbow (includes a commercial, he monetized his channel). And then there’s Laura Benanti Ok, enough politics.  Let’s play a few that we can all appreciate. Ray Charles at the 2001 World Series We were so united then. Not like today. Here’s Whitney Houston Kelly Clarkson Next up  (you guessed it) Billy Joel And let’s end with a poem

  I’m not a football fan …Drew and I love baseball and fortunately we root for the same team …