More ramblings

 My Ring cameras … I have the video of every cat that came to visit, all the squirrels, bunnies, birds, a spider, even the raccoon.  What I haven’t shared … every car that drives down our street, every person who walks past our house, the bicycle riders, the lawn care employees, our mailman, the FedEx guy…there are days I feel like Gladys Kravitz, watching the neighbors …

But these cameras really do serve a purpose.  My neighbors on the Ring app have posted about strangers stealing packages, trying to break into cars, etc.  They’ve helped reunite lost pets with their owners,  alerted me to robbers in the neighborhood, a very useful tool.

We had a Ring doorbell at the old house, too.  We left it there when we moved.  My walk last week took me all the way to the old house.  Someone  — either the landlord or the current tenant—  took the Ring down.  Their loss.

We had lots of animal visitors at the old house, our neighbors’ cats were fond of our back yard.  But I never captured any of them on video.  This house has been far more entertaining in that respect.

Speaking of entertaining…still trying to decide which recipes I want to make.  Haven’t decided what I want from the gluten free bakery yet.   But yesterday I learned how to turn on the electric fireplace, so our living room/dining room will be so much cozier.

I’m glad we have the electric fireplace.  The house has a real fireplace but we’ve been discouraged from using it (it’s behind the electric one).  Shadow once crawled into the fireplace, so we covered it up.

Just as well … we are still in a drought situation, so preventing fires is now paramount around here.  At least we don’t have water restr.  New Jersey just imposed restrictions.

I decorated the mantle for fall back in September.

I’m already thinking about what I’ll do for Hanukkah.   Last year, after much angst, I decorated the lawn, but didn’t do much inside the house.  But the fireplace offers such possibilities…

I’m nervous, of course, about displaying Jewish symbols in an increasingly antisemitic world.  But if my neighbor can do this

then I can do Hanukkah.