Speedy

Lets just say I'm a 411.

Good Deed

Danny and I decided to take advantage of the relatively mild weather and went for a walk in the downtown area Sunday. Downtown Wilton is really a planned mixed use area with apartment complexes, office buildings, and shops meandering along the Norwalk River.

There was a lot of foot traffic today. Some people that we passed wanted to stop and pet Danny, some just smiled, and some crossed the street. Hey, everybody's not a dog person. As we were on one stretch of the sidewalk we approached a 50ish man pushing an 80ish woman in a wheelchair. When we got closer, the woman extended her hand and that was as good as an invitation for Danny.

"I have to take my glove off for this" she said after a couple strokes of his head.

Of course Danny ate it up like a Milk Bone. The fellow and I struck up a conversation and I explained Danny's story. I looked down and the woman was still stroking the dog with her eyes closed, smiling.

"I had one just like him" she said.

We parted ways and the man thanked us for stopping. As we continued on our walk, I wondered how long it was since the lady had her dog. What was his name? Was he really a Golden, or just a friendly dog? Did she rescue him, or was he a Christmas present for her kids that kept her company when they left for school? I know he was loved, and that made me smile.

Rounding the corner for home, I think Danny held his head up a little higher.

Bluebirds are back

I saw my first bluebird today. I have not seen any all winter long, so I hope this is a sign of an early spring.

I have also noticed a lot of hawk activity in the back yard. I wonder if that is due to all the small birds which are visiting the feeders. I just hope the hawks are around when the woodchucks come out of hibernation.

Enchantment

The bathroom has been repainted in Glidden's Enchantment! The window shade is on order and should arrive in a week. Of course, now I need to get some new towels and a picture or two for the walls.

Blue

This is our downstairs bathroom. It is BLUE, DARK blue, GLOSSY dark blue!! Sometimes you wonder what the previous owners were thinking. Every person who has been to our home has mentioned how blue the bathroom is. The only positive point to this color is that no one notices that the ceiling was painted with glossy white trim paint.

After a year of having to look at this every day I can no longer deal with it. We would love to remodel the bathroom but at this time, we will just repaint. I figure anything has to be better than this.

Apologies

Apologies to our RSS and email readers. I added labels to every post and you may have been bombarded with messages after the republishing.

On the positive side, now everything has a label. If you enjoy our wit and wisdom, you can continue reading Wilton Diaries just as before, on the edge of your seat anticipating every post. However, if you want to see all the posts about Danny, click on the "Danny" label at the bottom of one of his posts. If you want to see all the brilliant commentary about life, click on the "Misc" label at the end of an insightful post.

You get the idea.

Danny the snow junky

Danny is from Alabama and we assume that he has not seen much snow. On Valentine's day we had a small storm, more sleet than snow which left about 2 inches on the ground. The first day, Danny walked in the snow and snowballs formed on his paws. Danny stopped, chewed off the snow, took another step, chewed off the snow, etc. I thought that the snow was bothering his paws - instead it turns out Danny is a snow junky.


With the cold weather, the snow is now frozen and the yard is full of snow chunks (from the wind blowing the snow). Danny's favorite thing is to go into the yard and eat the snow chunks. He will do this until you force him inside.


I know he sounds so cute - until it is 10pm at night, the temperature is 18 and the wind is blowing at 20 mph. You put on your coat, hat, gloves and boots and go out with the dog, hoping it will be a quick trip. However, Danny has no interest in anything but eating snow, so you wander in the dark and wonder how many more days until spring arrives.

The great Sears heist of 2007

I've been wanting a roll-away tool box for some time now. It's nice having all your tools in one place when you need them. Getting them put away at the end of a project is a different story, but I digress....

I bought the top of this toolbox a number of years ago because I wanted to graduate from a two drawer box that I got while I was in college. It was enough for most of my hand tools, but as projects grew and time went on, I acquired more and more tools to the point I really filled up the top piece.


I finally made up my mind to get the bottom portion this year and put out the word for Christmas that any and all Sears gift cards would be welcome this year. I want down my local Sears to purchase a bottom chest, which they didn't have in stock and they had to order it. The guy at the counter said it would be in within a week.

I came back a week later, and waited 30 minutes while they tried to locate my tool box to no avail. After talking with the manager, I found out that the original clerk ordered it wrong and they had to re-order it. I wasn't happy, but at least this guy sounded like he knew what he was doing.

So I waited. Two weeks after the second order went through, we got a call from an automated system that said the box was there. Back down to Sears to pickup the goodies. Of course, I had to wait for another 40 minutes until I found out they didn't have it. Again. At this point, I had enough and got my money back.

On a whim, Valerie suggested we to to a Sears Lawn & Garden/Tool store kind of near us. On the way, I decided that I was going to take whatever they had in stock that was even remotely close to my existing box. We looked at their chests and decided on a red one with red drawers. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was close enough. As I went to fetch a sales associate (ie. a 17 year old that didn't know crap) I passed the clearance aisle. And there it was, the eight drawer. The massive eight drawer. For $121. That's right, over 66% off! I verified the price with my sales associate and took it right then and there before they found out it was the wrong price!

Well duh

Looks like I'm on a roll this week.

Once the tax documents start coming in at the end of the year, I stuff them into a folder for later. Then on Presidents Day weekend, I spend two days organizing and plugging in the numbers to TaxCut. I'm usually in a cranky mood all weekend because I look at that big number on line 63 and get very frustrated. As if I couldn't tell you from years past, this article comes out today.

Well, duh.

United Package Smashers

Got this package delivered from UPS yesterday. I couldn't believe the condition it was delivered in. There wasn't one side that wasn't smashed, cut, ripped, or retaped back together. At least it wasn't this bad.

100% Effective Birth Control

Have you ever seen Super Nanny? I wonder if the kids are really that bad or they're acting up for the camera?

Must be getting cold

You know it's getting cold when even the dog puts a thermal shirt on.

Personal Savings Rate

I read with dismay this article on excite.com.

C'mon people, save a little for a rainy day?

I understand you want a better life, but does that better life have to be measured in things. I know I saved some money the last 21 months, so that means somebody else spent 2.4% more than they made last month. The degree of waste astonishes me sometimes.

Do I have to get up?

When the alarm goes off at 5:00 am, even Danny does not want to get up! Given the chance he would happily sleep in the bedroom all day long.

Conspiracy Theory

Maybe it's deer...Maybe not.

Mystery Solved

Since I am usually rushing out the door in the morning, I fill the bird feeders at night, when I let Danny out to play.

I have noticed that the feeders are usually empty in the morning which is very strange, because birds (and squirrels) sleep at night. I thought it could be a raccoon or possum or perhaps the deer that are constantly in the yard. Everyone laughed at the idea of deer eating my bird feed.

The picture on the right is proof! As I watched, 2 deer came to eat the seed. They tilt the feeder and then stick their tongues in to pull out the seed. If it is tough battling the squirrels, the deer may be impossible.

Reflection on Forty

I don't remember the place and time, but somewhere in my 20's I read an article in a mens magazine that had a list of things to do by the time you were 40. There were a bunch of things on that list; some were reasonable, some made me laugh. One item I remember was "grow a beard". I'm not sure why I remembered that particular item after all these years, but for some reason it sticks in my mind. I'm normally a clean-shaven type of guy. When I was laid up a couple years ago, I tried to grow a beard, more out of necessity than a desire to change my appearance. The beard lasted about 6 days until my physical ability surpassed my desire for a beard. Check that one off the list.

I've known my wife longer than I haven't. Through life's trials and tribulations, she's been there. I've never looked back on that moment in 1986 where I knew she was the one for me and thought different. Not for a second.

I always try to do the right thing. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I let myself down. But I learn from my mistakes. I've left a job on principle, left a job under bad circumstances, and took a job for all the right reasons. I haven't made enough money to buy Miami yet, but then again, I didn't piss it away so fast either. I figure I'm kinda even.

I wish I could say I never experienced the pain of loss. Overall, not a lot, but more than enough. Life is precious and when a loved one is taken from you, it's hard to understand. I often think of those who have passed before me with a smile. I wonder if Danny is confused when I call him Jake?

My travels have brought me to the other side of the world as well as our own backyard. I've been in 27 of our 50 states. Granted, some were just changing planes, but I count that. We have a dream to rent a Winnebago and travel to the remaining states when we retire. I think we can knock off ten more states before then. No matter how far you go, though, there's no place like home. Except maybe Kiawah Island.

I don't know if I've lived up to my definition of successful. Then again, I think the definition of success changes as you grow older. It wasn't that long ago that I thought successful meant driving an expensive car, wearing the right clothes, and living in a nice big house. When you find you're the last leaf of Fall clinging to a tree, your perspective changes. That's the moment you find out that success means the love of family, friends, and strangers you've never met, coming to help for no other reason than you need it.

Will I be here in another forty years? I don't know and I'm not so sure I would want to know ahead of time anyway. Tomorrow is a gift; embrace it. Life is a mystery that I'm still trying to figure out.

This can't be legal

Running the wire for my second hallway light, I encountered this beauty. It's a piece of sheilded wire connected to Romex with a wad of black tape around it. I'm thinking this should probably be in a junction box, but looking for opinions.

Wanted by the USPS and IRS

Came home tonight and threw the tennis ball with Danny Boy for quite a while. Mind you, it was 17 degrees out, but he just couldn't get enough. As we were wrapping up, a sparrow flew into the garage and couldn't figure out how to get out. We tried to shoo the sparrow out, but he insisted on flying all around the garage except out the doors. Danny just sat there watching him fly around like the bird was there for his entertainment. We decided to back one car out of the garage to give the bird more room and he flew right out.

After that excitement, we came upstairs and opened the mail. The usual tax documents and junk mail along with a check I was expecting. We popped the pizza in the oven and headed upstairs to change leaving Danny roaming downstairs. On our way back down, there was Danny, ear deep in the mail. He had chewed through two tax documents and was starting on some junk mail when we caught up with him. Fortunately, my check was still intact.

After several serious BAD BOYs, we told him the next knock on the door might be the Postmaster General with a subpoena for destruction of government property. As you can see, he wasn't too concerned.

Uneventful Approval

Last night was the Wilton Inland Wetlands Commission meeting where our landscaping project was going to be discussed. I've been working for months with Brian Cossari at Hoffman Landscapes and Pat Sesto in the IWC to come up with a plan that everybody was happy with.

And was I prepared. I read the Connecticut Association of Wetland Scientists whitepaper on Vegetative Buffers. I also read and studied the Army Corp of Engineers Design Recommendations for Riparian Corridors and Vegetated Buffer Strips. I was ready for any questions.

A couple days beforehand, I prepared a brief two-minute talk explaining what we wanted to do. I wrote up some notes so I wouldn't forget anything and practiced it on Valerie.

Then the big day came. Of course, I was up at 04:30 because I had to be in New York City that day. And I'm fighting a cold. Still, I persevered and we toted our documents and landscape plans to the IWC meeting. We arrived at 7:10 and the meeting didn't start until 7:30.

As the meeting was called to order, we were the first ones up. I brought my notes up to the desk in the front, pinned my picture on the wall about 10 feet away, and started my presentation.

As I put the last push pin in my diagram, a horrible thought washed over me.

"Oh, sh%t, my notes are at the desk. I'll look like an idiot if I go back now."

So I winged it.

And it came out pretty good. Then I came to the point I was fearing the most:

"Any questions?"

You see, we've been to some IWC meetings just to observe the process. People come in and are asked a ton of questions which the answer is usually "Uhhhh, I don't know." Very intimidating, these IWC meetings.

But I was ready for the onslaught. The first question came and I swatted it down like a fly.

Then a commissioner spoke up: "I motion to approve with the normal special conditions."

Another spoke up: "I second the motion."

Boom, done. That was it.

Wondering today what the "normal special conditions" are and if they're normal, why are they special? Oh well, there are some things I'll never understand about local government.

I was almost disappointed that they didn't ask me about the Three Zone approach to vegetative buffer strips.

So now we get to start on our three day project that has taken 7 months to approve.