Sign of the times

Friday, 5:17 pm

By Kate

Mar

20

2009

This afternoon, I stopped by my bank to do some business. While the teller did my transaction, she asked if I’d be interested in opening a Christmas Club account. I was surprised—Christmas Club accounts seem to have gone the way of dinosaurs in the past several years. I mentioned that and she said, “Well, times have changed.”

I guess they have. In the past few years, the bank lobby and teller area have been plastered with posters concerning various mortgage, loan, and credit card accounts, along with the very competitive interest rates. I’ve noticed, recently, that all those posters are gone. You’d almost think that the bank doesn’t offer loans anymore. Instead, now there are a number of posters promoting savings accounts of differing rates and terms. There has definitely been a change in attitude and business model.

So. Would I like a Christmas Club account? It could be tied to my checking account and I could transact my business online. If I wanted. If I decided to take the funds out of my Christmas Club account at any time, I could, but the account would then close. No penalties, though. Would I like one? Would I?

I’m now the owner of a shiny new Christmas Club account. I’ve always liked them. I’m glad to see them making a come-back.

Some changes

Thursday, 10:24 pm

By Kate

Mar

19

2009

Alrighty. The blog got a facelift. The skins are gone (they were getting bloated). The sidebar is gone (for the time being). And gone are most of the gizmos and half a dozen behind the scenes scripts. I was tired of black and white. I needed some color. And a bit of simplicity. In internet terms, this is probably a bit retro, but I like the textures.

Depending on your graphics card and monitor, this template can range from rather subdued greens and taupes to eye popping greens and yellows. Pink, too. I put it together on my laptop and everything was subdued pastels. When I gave it a test drive on the desktop computer (which decided to work today), the eye popping colors made themselves known. I like both the subdued and more vibrant colors, so what you see is what you get.

The much abbreviated menu is now at the bottom of the blog. The blog title at the top of the page is now clickable to take you back to the front page from wherever you may wander.

Guess that’s about it. If you find anything that doesn’t work, let me know.

Excuse my dust

Thursday, 7:03 pm

By Kate

Mar

19

2009

I’m going to be rearranging and changing some things around here in the next several hours. I expect that some things might be broken for a while and heaven knows what the end result will be. Consider it an adventure!

Going nuts

Monday, 5:06 pm

By Kate

Mar

16

2009

The miracle is—I still have wood in my woodpile. The disgusting part is that I still need to burn it.

We have come to that time of year. I’m going crazy.

There is still a pile of snow on my deck. There is still a thick layer of snow in my front yard, my side yard, and my back yard. And the thing that really rubs is that the yards across the street are BARE. The women across the street have been outside doing YARD WORK. Not that I’m a huge fan of yard work, but at least they don’t have to put their hip boots on to walk across their yards. They even have the occasional green blade of grass to gaze upon. I’ve got...snow.

I want to open my door and smell spring in the air. I don’t want to open the door and get socked with cold air. I want to stop dressing in layers. I want to retire the long underwear and the scarves and gloves.

Getting darned close to certifiably crazy here. I am so not kidding.

My friend, the red squirrel

Tuesday, 2:05 pm

By Kate

Mar

10

2009

I noticed earlier that my red squirrel has discovered my car. I don’t think that’s a good thing. He has been scurrying around the driveway, picking up bits of I-don’t-know-what to nibble on and then scampers back to perch on top of a wheel. Periodically he disappears and then jumps down onto the top of the wheel and down to the ground again. Which leads me to think he’s found a place in the car somewhere to stash his goodies. I presume there’s a pile of stuff somewhere in the engine compartment. I hope this has not involved chewing on anything to make a better hidey-hole. Oh dear. Why did a red squirrel have to choose my stuff to mess with? I definitely need a dog. One that scares the absolute pudding out squirrels and instills deep respect for property rights in the rest of the local wildlife.

This is not a good enough reason to get a dog, probably. Since Terry has been gone, though, the critter population has exploded in my yard. In a couple of weeks, the skunks will be back and without a scary dog around, they’ll take over the place. And then the woodchucks. And the rabbits. With all that going on, I’ll be lucky to have anything besides bare dirt where plants are supposed to be growing. Have I convinced you that I need a dog yet? I think I’ve convinced myself.

You will be surprised to hear....

Monday, 3:11 pm

By Kate

Mar

09

2009

It’s snowing out. Again. We’ve had our 6 inches so it can stop now.

And, bless his heart, the snow plow guy scooped a huge pile right into the end of my driveway. Nice heavy wet stuff that will freeze into a solid block of ice tonight if I don’t remove it soon. Thank yew Mr. Snowplow man.

The rest of the snow might melt in the near-ish future. We’re having intermittent March daily temps and the sunshine is much warmer these days. So, there is hope that spring might arrive sometime in the next couple of months.

I was reading a lawn care manual yesterday. It said that I should be outside putting down lime and fertilizer and sprinkling grass seed this week. The earlier the better. That made me laugh. There is at least a foot and a half of snow still on my yard in the places where it didn’t drift to three and four foot piles. We’ve now added another half a foot with more coming tomorrow. I am absolutely positive that, underneath all that snow, the weeds are waking up and preparing to make a run for it at the earliest opportunity. I wish the grass was as determined.