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.