Safety first

Pickup protocols. Safety first, I say. So when I placed our new large garbage bins out front for the Monday pickup this week, I plotted a different Sunday protocol. Knowing snow was in the forecast, I did not want to place them in the two corners of the driveway, as advised in the mailings we’d…

Overdue delivery

White blanket at last. I awoke on Monday morning to a new look around A Bitty Better. Snow had continued to fall as my dear wife Karen, cherished rescue mutt Ellie and I slept. I noted that it had not reached the three inches noted on our contract with the driveway plowing people. But is…

Split decision

Making room. It sure does seem, I think during my retirement month stroll, that this obviously been-there, done-that tree has found its own place for the wires that run through it.

Curious cat can get in a tight spot

Don’t go there, Ava! Do you think Ava can fit under there, my terrific daughter Elisabeth asked me when I visited here and George Three after they returned home from work on Friday night. I looked at their hutch that houses their widescreen TV, thought of the chubby rescue cat that now greets me with…

Fallow time

Resting mode. From my neighborhood walks in spring, summer and even fall, I have no doubt that this suburban front yard garden can return with some oomph when the months march past with me.

Quite an imposing marker

On guard. So not everybody in the neighborhood follows the instructions to put these new big garbage and recycling containers out the night before collection and wheel them back in after they’re emptied, I notice on my retirement month stroll.

Cold as ice

Careful on the corners … Walking the neighborhood blocks during my retirement month can lead to some slippery discoveries even when the lawns are bare. When the temperatures fall below freezing, puddles, they do go icy.

Can’t mistake a January sky

Toward the lake from the next block over. As I walk just because I want to walk during my retirement month, I decide that there’s something about a January sky that is unmistakeable. Perhaps the chill nipping at my cheeks and fingers has something to do with my mind set?

No outdoor hoops today

Not the current jam. My retirement month neighborhood stroll discovers an outdoor basketball game gone sideways. Can’t say I blame the players for deciding January is a month for other pursuits. Or maybe the wind made the decision for them?