Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the picture below -

Make yourself at home why don’t yeah…

Fit To Be Tied!

Folks I’ve run into my first major challenge since arriving in Tennessee, see above -

Yup, this little strip of tape is the culprit!

I bought a loaf of bread and a package of Asiago bagels, my favorite, at Krogers yesterday.

These packages were sealed with the above tape, NOT the little twist ties I’m used to from up North. Well, I struggled and struggled just trying to get that darn tape off and open the packages! I resorted to using a steak knife and about lopped a finger off!

Phew, I finally got them opened but I was hangry at the time so things were a bit amped up as I’m sure you can imagine.

So, now that they’re opened, how do I reseal the bags?!

Seems I got a bit of learn’n and adjust’n to do to this southern liv’n!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

And the clock keeps ticking…

New High Score

But who’s counting, besides me -

So, this posting makes my blog entries for 2025 the most I’ve ever posted in a single year since I began blogging!

This makes 366!! That’s a whole lotta nuff’n and hot air for sure.

And there’s still a couple weeks left in December too.

Rise And Shine

 Good morning from Johnson City Tennessee!

It’s not the view I’ve had for the past 26 years but this sunrise view from the kitchen sink window here in Johnson City is just as awesome!

Welcome to day 1 of my new adventure!

Moo Moo Cows

I drove over 600 miles before I saw my first cow! I mean, I’ve seen cows before but on my journey from Massachusetts to Tennessee, it wasn’t until I crossed into Virginia till I saw my first. After that, they were constant throughout the rest of my trek through the state.

I’m sure in passed some in New York and Pennsylvania and West Virginia but missed them.

However, I did see oodles of deer, sadly they were all roadkill! I’d guess close to a dozen! Matter of fact, a big does ran out across our SUV when we were returning home from lunch this afternoon in downtown Johnson City. That one survived…

Noah Start Another Ark

This was my 5:00AM wake up alarm this morning here in Hagerstown,MD!

It’s pouring and coming down sideways, as the wind is ripping, UGH!

Was hoping to venture out to find a coffee but not in this. Hoping it stops, as I would prefer to NOT have to start the second leg of my journey in this…

Damn Hard Acre To Sell Is An Understatement

Well my friend the time has come.

I've made the difficult, heartbreaking and bittersweet 💔 decision to sell my house - the paperwork has been signed, my belongs have been packed and I'm headed south!

I've called this place home for the past 26 years. It's been my safe space and the place that SO many wonderful memories were made.

Fell in love, raised a family, entertained family and friend, met and made some of my best friends here, even buried family too, and created memories that mean the world to me!  Although, I will not be here physically, I will carry ALL the memories with me, as I move onto the next chapter of my life.

The kids and I slept on the floor in the living room on our first night here as new homeowners back in 2000.  It was special and the beginning of a 26 year run!  I plan on recreating the same on my last night here, to close the circle, and will be sleeping on the floor in the living room one last time but this time it'll be just me and Ms. Trixie.

But time marches on and there have been many changes in my life these past several years, so it's time.  It's time to change things up, take that chance and jump to see what life has in store for me in my next chapter.

I'm scared. I'm sad. I'm heartbroken but I'm proud and oh so thankful for what I accomplished here these past 26 years and for all I have!

Click to listen - -> Cooper Alan - "Hard Acre"

"It ain’t easy, yeah it’s bittersweet. Handing somebody else the keys."

Saw it as I was driving by 

An old man tapping in a for sale sign

So I pulled into the gravel drive 

And said “whatcha want for it?”

Well if ya got time I can show you round 

It’s got good bones and solid ground 

I said “sold” so he pulled a bottle out

And he started pouring 

He said as he shed a tear 

Son you’re gonna love it here

I thought I’d be here til I died 

But the money ran out before my time 

Without her here it’s too much by myself 

If it’s as good to you as it was to me

Then you’ll fill this house full of memories

And end up with more stories than you can tell

And if you’re lucky as hell

It’ll be a damn hard acre to sell 

Buddy you ain’t seen a view 

Til the woman you love’s holding onto you

Kids running round the front yard together 

She leans in and whispers I could do this forever 

I thought I’d be here til I died 

But the money ran out before my time 

Without her here it’s too much by myself 

If it’s as good to you as it was to me

Then you’ll fill this house full of memories

And end up with more stories than you can tell

And if you’re lucky as hell

It’ll be a damn hard acre to sell 

It ain’t easy, yeah it’s bittersweet 

Handing somebody else the keys 

But I can tell

That you’re gonna treat it well 

I thought I’d be here til I died 

But the money ran out before my time 

Without her here it’s too much by myself 

If it’s as good to you as it was to me

Then you’ll fill this house full of memories

And end up with more stories than you can tell

And if you’re lucky as hell

It’ll be a damn hard acre to sell 

It’ll be a damn hard acre to sell

Not An Expressway

 Snapped this pic on rt.84 in Pennsylvania -

“Exit only” is an understatement…

The Missing Cat Toys

Oliver, the cat, went to live with Emilie over 6 or so months ago now. He’s adjusted fine and doing well. I would never admit it, especially I writing, but I do miss him very much! I think Ms. Trixie does too.

Look at all of Oliver’s play toys that were hidden under the curio cabinet in the dinning room -

The blue soft fuzzy balls were his favorites!

Emilie is planning to stop by in the morning before work and will pick these up and bring them to Oliver!

Safebound

They’re here!!

Arrived about 11:00AM.

One truck, two men.

Santa Came Early

Emilie and I went to La Familia, in Wrentham, last night for an early dinner. They make one of the best chicken parmigiana around and it was delicious!

 Emilie surprised me with a couple early Christmas gifts -

I opened them this morning, couldn’t wait for Christmas.

They’re perfect and of course each one I unwrapped made the tears flow more and more.

With all the chaos these last couple of months, the holidays just aren’t the same.  It’s gonna be a different Christmas this year, as I won’t get to host and spend an evening with both my girls and daughter in law.

Although we wont be together physically, I’ll be with them in spirit and in my heart!

They’re the loves of my life!

“Every Drop Tells A Story"

I had my final inspection this morning, the water meter reading -

“This reading closes a chapter filled with laughter, tears, and ordinary days that meant everything.”

Passed with flying colors!

Open Flame Cooking

When you realize you need, once again, to improvise in order to complete this mornings breakfast -

I took the old toaster oven, along with other metal and heavy plastics, to the Franklin Beaver street recycle center on Sunday morning and tossed them each into their respective recycle bins.

So, no toaster the morning, DUH!

No worries all was not lost, and once again I put on my MacGyver hat, and toasted up my slice of bread perfectly on an open flame.  Just like I was out camping and roughing it in the wilderness.

The "Inspector" General

I thought it was curiosity that killed the cat?!

Ms. Trixie has been curious with something under the kitchen sink.  I catch her snooping in there quite often, like this morning, see pics below -

Many times there's just a sign that she's been poking around, the cabinet door propped open.

She's been doing this for a while now.  I've made sure there was nothing under there that she could get into that would harm her but she's never been the chewy, eating everything kinda dog.

A this point everything has been removed from under there and wiped clean, so not sure what the attraction is but she only has a couple of days left to figure it out.

I Can't

I've tried but my vibe recently -

Third Times The Charm

Yup, I won another $4.00 in last nights Powerball drawing -

Again, there were no winners, so gonna let it all ride on tickets for the next drawing...

🙏

A Blanket Of Snow

Ms. Trixie's 5:00AM bathroom break this morning and it's snowing!

Because, why get to sleep in on a Sunday morning...

According to the experts, and I use that term loosely with all meteorologists, they're saying Franklin is in the 1-3 inch snowfall range.  We'll see...

That's A Wrap

And another unforeseen moving expense!

"Mattresses and box springs must be covered (plastic mattress bags)" -

Actually, this makes perfect sense. It's just with all the chaos, I never gave this much thought. However, and thanks to Amazon, I've got this "covered" (see what I did there, HEHEHE!)!

I Traveled Back In Time Today

Turns out I needed to make one more trip to my old home town of Westwood this morning.  One more goodbye I wanted to take care of in person.

I stopped in to see my Optometrist, who was on the way, to say goodbye.

Drove through Walpole and snapped the Gilmore's pic below.  The store is shuddered and has been out of business for several years now but this is where we bought our chicken, rabbit, goat, etc. feed when I was growing up. This was really the only place around that carried animal feed -

Once in Westwood, I drove past my old pediatrician's house/office, Dr. Fisher at 775 High Street.  The doctor who also delivered me -

Then a mile or so up the road to my old dentist house\office, Dr. McHale, at 965 High Street -

And of course, our old house, which still looks the same - 

A walk down memory lane, reliving some old memories and haunts today...

Mine Is YOU

A new, just released song by Trace Adkins says it all perfectly!

I dedicate this to my once in a lifetime, Vivian - 

To listen click - - > You're Mine

No regrets

Yeah, I wish that I could say that, but I can't

I wish that I could let go of the past

It don't take much

To remind me of the things I can't undo

And the feelin' I can't shake of missin' you

I guess everybody has somebody

That could have been that one and only once

In a lifetime love

Yeah, everybody has somebody

That's more than just a memory, it's a dream

You can't wake up from

A reason to keep reachin' back in time

You're mine

Never fails

Every time I hear that love song, there you are

It somehow finds the bottom of my heart

I guess it's true

Somethings you don't get over, mine is you

And though I try, there's nothin' I can do

I guess everybody has somebody

That could have been that one and only once

In a lifetime love

Yeah, everybody has somebody

That's more than just a memory, it's a dream

You can't wake up from

A reason to keep reachin' back in time

You're mine

You're mine

"We'll Leave The Light On For You®"

Tom Bodett is gonna leave the light on for me!

Hagerstown, MD and Motel 6 (reservation has been made) is my target destination for the first leg of my Tennessee drive.

That's approximately 460ish miles into my 860ish mile trek and prolly a good stopping point for the night.

Honestly, there's no real rush, so don't want to push too hard.  Fingers crossed the weather behaves and I don't run into any snow or freezing rain conditions along the way.

Also, I'm a tad worried about how Ms. Trixie does in the car for this amount of time and distance.  However, I did reach out to her vet and picked up Gabapentin Suspension, which causes mild sedation, and Maropitant Citrate used for nausea and vomiting. Just want to make sure she's comfortable and doesn't stress.

T minus 6-days and counting...

Soon To Be Orphans...

Sadly, it's unlikely the plants below will not be making the trip to Tennessee, alas.

I need to take another look to see if perhaps I can securely box up some, like the Oxalis and Pothos, but unlikely the Aloe, Snake Plants and the Bamboo (not pictured), as they're just to bulky -

I may need to just start from scratch once in and settled in the new place.

When the Frost Is On The Punkin

Well, we're past Autumn and the frost on the punkin has now turned to ice - 

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock...

What A Drip!

Another unforeseen expense that crept up on me the past week or two - a replacement kitchen faucet, GRRR

The old faucet began leaking from around the collar when the water was running.  Not a bad leak but leaking nonetheless. The other day I had the darndest time turning the water off, as the lever was stuck.  I'm guessing the rubber or plastic parts within the collar wore out or started corroding and this was causing the issues.  I sprayed WD40 in and around the seal of the collar and that eventually allowed me to turn the water off and on, and to continue to use the faucet.

I installed the old faucet years ago, guessing in early 2000s, so I got my use out of it and more, so it was time.  I didn't feel right leaving this issue behind for the new owners, so I picked up a new faucet.

I had a fleeting thought that I would tackle this repair and easily install the new unit but thankfully I chose to have a plumber do it.  Turns out the old hardware, underneath the sink, was rusted and the plumber had a hard time trying to get things disconnected.  He ended up using a Dremel-like saw to cut the old rusted parts out. Of course he made easy work of it and with the right tools it was. I would still be under the sink, bloodied knuckles and cursing up a storm, all the while making zero progress.

Before -

After -

Sometimes it's a well worth while investment to pay someone to do such tasks - money well spent!

Safe and Secure

I secured a nice 5'x10' storage unit to house some of Emilie's belongs.

The premise, in my mind anyway and which I relayed to Emilie, is this is a temporary solution. With the fast approaching and hard deadline I'm faced with to vacate my house, we needed a quick solution for her belongs.

Hoping this will allow her more time to sort through her stuff.

A BIG THANKS to my neighbor and his two boys for lugging the furniture from my upstairs, into the trailer and then into the storage unit.  They made it look easy.

Rise And Shine!

Good Morning all!

It's cold here this morning with high winds expected today and a windchill in the single digits, so I won't be venturing out too far.

The sunrise was another beauty this AM -

Again, I'll miss this but looking forward to Tennessee sunrises and sunsets!

#Blessed

Blessings Are Coming...

This popped up today as a daily highlight posting from one of the social media groups I follow -

The Internet doesn't lie, and the group I follow doesn't use tags, so if it found me it was meant to be! Clearly, the stars have aligned...so I'm hoping there's some truth to all this.

Honestly, and at this point, I'll be happy and welcome any blessings that come my way.

Say Hello To Mr. Bailey

Meet Bailey!

No, he's not caged and behind bars here, just relaxing on the stairs at a good vantage point to take "it" all in.

He moved in with Stephanie and Audrey (from Audrey's moms apartment) and is living large now!

There is somewhat of a power struggle of sorts between Bailey and Ms. Nala, the queen (cat) of the castle but they're working it out.

He's a good boy and, from what I saw while visiting over Thanksgiving, the epitome of a "lap" dog.

One Mile At A Time

My Jetta hit the 65,000 mile mark this afternoon!

A nice round number to begin my upcoming drive to Tennessee!

Don't Ignore Me!

Oh my gawd!

I literally just had a two minute argument with my Amazon Alexa device, I kid you not! So, if you happened to be passing by and saw an animated Stephan with arms flailing and spittle a fly'n, that's what was going down -

I recently acquiesced and upgraded my Amazon devices to Alexa+

"Alexa+ is Amazon's next-generation, generative AI-powered voice assistant, designed to be far more conversational, proactive, and capable than the original Alexa, handling complex tasks, managing smart homes, understanding context, and offering personalized suggestions."

I've not spent too much time with her since the upgrade other than the typical requests I ask, e.g. "what's the temperature outside?", "how do you spell acquiessed?", "turn on the bedroom light.", "what was the score of the Boston Bruins game last night?", "set an alarm for 5:00AM", etc., but will tell you that she is still "learning" according to our argument this AM and is slower at waking and responding than her predecessor and this is frustrating.

So, I gave her the "what for" and instructed her to respond quicker in the future. We'll see if that carries any weight or if I just pissed her off, alas.

Here's what happened first thing this morning and what lead to our argument -

At 5:00AMish I was awakened to the oh-so-familiar sound of Ms. Trixie "heaving". So, I shot up out of bed, a tad still half asleep, and yelled, "Alexa turn on the bedroom light!" but nothing happened!  No light turned on, seems she was "processing", that bitch! In the urgency, I screamed the command again and after a couple seconds pause the light came on, which was an eternity at that point and the difference between cleaning vomit from the bedroom carpet versus the bathroom floor.

In the couple of seconds it took for the light to come on I noticed two things; 1 - where Trixie was in the room and 2 - even in the darkness, I could see my breath! Man-o-man the homeowner is a miser and needs to turn up the heat, BRR 🥶

Good news, I was able to scoop up Ms. Trixie, rush her to the bathroom AND believe it or not, I held her over the toilet bowl where she completed her vial trajectory vomiting!  The only clean up required was a tissue paper dabbing around Trixie's mouth.

NOT the preferred way of waking up that's for sure!

Well, I'm wide awake now...

I Doubled My Investment

"Winner winner, chicken dinner!"

Ok, so I (sadly) didn't win the BIG Powerball jackpot last night, but then again no one did.  However, I did match one number plus the powerball number and that my friends is a $4.00 WINNER, which doubles my investment, CHA-CHING!

The 12/10/2025 jackpot is expected to climb to $930 million dollars!

So, in the words of the Lloyd Christmas (1994's Dumb and Dumber movie) - "So you're telling me there's a chance"...

I think I'm gonna take a chance and go ALL in with my $4.00 winner and purchase two tickets for tomorrows drawing 🤞

The Boy Scout Motto

While at The Home Depot to pick up new smoke alarms, I also bought myself an 1800 lumen Husky flashlight.  It cost more than I wanted to spend but I thought it was a good investment and good idea to have a solid working and bright flashlight for my upcoming solo drive to Tennessee!

You know, just in case -

"Be "Prepared"

Where There's Smoke...

The Franklin Fire Department was out this morning to test my fire and CO2 alarms, which is a requirement in order to close and sell on a house here in Massachusetts -

CO2 alarms passed with flying colors!

However, the (4) hardwired smoke detectors did not pass, UGH.

They failed because they're older ionization-type alarms, which are no longer supported, GRRR.

So, I ran out to The Home Depot and picked up the below Kidde (4) pack of photoelectric alarms. Another hidden expense of selling a home -

I removed the old ionized alarms - 

And installed the new photoelectric alarms -

The vaulted ceilings in the living room were a bit more challenging and required the use of my long extension ladder -

The new alarms all tested fine!

Now it's just a matter of having the Franklin Fire Department come back out to reinspect and issue their passed certificate, so the closing can be completed.

I Need A Time Machine!

Always but especially around the holidays...

What “Tine” is it?!

Wanted a snaky last night, Trixie too, so I made a bowl of cereal.

One problem, I completely forgot that I had boxed up all the spoons earlier in the day, OMG DUH!

Now what to do? The milk was poured and the cereal was getting soggy, alas. So, I MacGyver’d it and used the only utensil I had, a fork!

Scoop and slurp, scoop and slurp…

OMG, This Is Me!

Those Are NOT Christmas Lights A Glow!

A bit of excitement in front of my house last night -

Around 8PMish I heard an awful loud crash and bang, which got my attention.  I opened the front door to have a look but all I saw was a lone car with it's emergency flashers.  A couple cars passed by, slowed but kept going, so I assumed everything was alright.

Twenty minutes or so later my neighbor called to tell me what a truck jump the granite curbing in front of his house, took out his granite mailbox post and all and careened into a deep, open pit.  This open pit leads to a culvert that runs under the street to drain water into the wetlands on the opposite side, so when I say "open pit", believe me it's BIG and DEEP - why the town never had a guardrail installed is beyond me.

While on the call with him four police cruisers, the town ambulance, and two fire trucks arrived on scene, see pic above -

I did watch a bit from my living room, and although other curious neighbors made their way out to see what all the commotion was, it was too cold me so I stayed put.

I've not yet heard an update, so not sure how someone could loose control in that stretch of road, jump the curb and veer down in the pit, but hoping everyone was okay.

**** UPDATE ****

Seems the under aged driver was DRUNK!  He blew somewhere in the 0.2xx on the field breathalyzer!

In case you're wondering: In Massachusetts, the legal limit for intoxication on a breathalyzer is 0.08% Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) for drivers 21 and over, but it's 0.02% for drivers under 21

A couple pictures of the vehicle from the Franklin PD -

What a clown!