'tis the season

Tuesday, December 15, 2008




First and foremost, has anyone ever seen a cuter face than this?












Well, these guys look pretty cute in the yard and it is fun to see people laugh when they walk by but definitely not even close to as cute as Ms. Sylvia.








I think I did 100% of my Christmas shopping on line this year. I finally got around to putting up the Christmas decorations today and the tree will come later in the week. I did throw away a lot of decorations last year, ones that really have no sentimental value but for some reason I had them. The Ikea-project-from-hell has an advantage because it has a lot of shelves and I can put all the stuff there without having to put away all the pictures on top.

Last night we went to a "town meeting" on the island as the NYFD has proposed removing our ladder truck at night. The numbers they based the decision on are pretty convincing that it is pretty low risk. But really, one fire is all it takes.

What was more interesting to me was watching the group dynamics. Jimmy Vacca, our city councilman, became a regular little spitfire up there. Excellent at revving up the crowd. We heard from the old timers, current active firefighters, residents, etc. Unfortunately, we lost some of our effectiveness, I feel, when people just kept getting up and talking about losing boats and yachts. What about lives?

I enjoyed remembering being somewhat of a political activist when we were trying to pass the ERA, protesting the war in Viet Nam, booing down Spiro Agnew, burning bras. Goodness. It has been a quiet life for many , many years.