The Tree House and Surroundings

As promised long, long ago...Here is the tree house!

And my desk...

Here's what I look out at...

Here's the view from the deck...

My coworker and I agree...it ain't a bad place to live and work.

countin' my lucky stars

I was witness to a pretty horrific accident just ahead of me on the highway, yesterday. Close enough to see it, not close enough to be involved. And boy am I feeling a whole lot of thankfullness today. I don't even know if "thankfullness" is a word, and if it is, if you can feel it, but whatever.

I guess that sort of thing has that affect. I'll spare you the details. But as I suspected (I received a call from a State Trooper this morning, since I called it in to 911 and the accident is under investigation), it involved a couple of cars of teenagers, messing around on their way to the beach. Thankfully, no one involved has died. The Trooper said that there were some serious injuries and there's going to be a long road of recovery for the two girls (both 16) that were in the car that sustained the most damage. However, doctors felt that if they made it through the night, they were gonna pull through. Neither of the girls was wearing a seatbelt. Enough said on that.

Anyway, life can change in an instant - we all know that. I've always tried to think positively and make the most of what comes my way. I received a paperweight as a birthday present a few years ago that sits on my desk, with this quote by Jonathan Swift, May you live every day of your life. Right on.

Lions and Tigers and BATS? Oh my.

Zack, I have to warn you - you may not want to read this one.

Adam and I arrived home last night after a weekend roadtrip out to the Berkshire's. This was a surprise birthday present from Mr. Adam and we had a kickin' time. Horseback riding both days through the hills. By the time we got home last night, we were beat though - and ready for bed. So we climbed in, just about ready to turn out the light and then I saw it. I got buzzed by a bat. In my bedroom.

So I did what any self-respecting girl would do - I stuck my head under the covers and screamed. Adam briefly thought this was a 'cute little bird' flying around our room. Briefly. He too eventually realized that this wasn't no cute robin - it was a blood-sucking, rabies-carrying bat. It was like we were under fire (which we basically were - the thing was dive-bombing us)..."Let's go, let's go - we gotta get outta here!" Adam said.

We ran out of the room, slamming the door behind us and started strategizing. "I think we should leave this to the professionals," I said. "we can just keep the bedroom door shut, sleep out in the living room and call someone to come and remove it in the morning - it'll be fun, like camping sorta." I immediately got the 'there is no way we're hiring someone to come and get this bat' look. "OK," I said. "How are we going to get it?"

"I'm going to make a net," Adam replied. And he did. He used one of our kayak gear bags, and a metal hanger. And then proceeded to get geared up. He wore a hooded sweatshirt, his motorcycle helmet, some huge boots and his work gloves. Then he went in. I heard some banging and a couple of choice words and then, "Amy, go grab the rake off the porch." I did, and threw it in the room, quickly shutting the door. I had no gear and was not going in there!

After what seemed like an hours long struggle, I heard the words I was waiting for..."OK, open the door - I got him." and then, "I think he's scared - he's actually kinda cute." Well, of course he's scared. He's got one big stormtrooper like creature chasing him with a net and a rake. And another one screaming.

Alls well that ends well, we released him outside. He's probably back in here somewhere, looking at me right now, planning round two. We have yet to figure out how exactly this little critter got in the house and until we do, there's no stopping him from coming back on in. Eek.

mp3 player

Alright you guys - I've been wanting an mp3 player for some time now. I keep putting it of and putting it off. But it's just getting to be too much of a pain to lug the old cd player and cds along when I travel. I don't know what to get though. Do you have any recommendations? If so, throw them in the comments section.

I'm leaning toward the ipod nano. Good choice?

Wow - What a Week!

To follow in the 'never a dull moment in my life' theme - let me give you a little glimpse into the week I've had.

I'm not sure how many of you know about the flooding we had here last week. But, we got hit pretty hard. In order to get to our house, you have to cross over a bridge (over Kobe Creek). Thanks to Mother Nature, that bridge was washed away and with it went our ability to get in or out of our house. No big...We found away around it and now the bridge has been fixed anyway. In addition to the wash out, the phone company's main station flooded out and we have been without phone/Internet since last Monday.

As you may have guessed, this has put a kink into my work from home gig. I've been working elsewhere ever since. The phone was finally turned back on yesterday, but curiously not the Internet. I placed a call to the phone company (you know the one). I went through the whole testing the line, unplugging all the doo-hicky's, etc. with the rep from the company on the phone. After no success, she declared that yes, a technician would need to be dispatched to the house. And, would I be home from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm to let them in if need be. Uh, I guess so, I responded. So I waited. And I waited. And waited. 7:00 pm rolls around. No technician.

I won't bore you with any more details on this one. Bottomline, still no Internet at the house - when I called back today to voice my frustration, I was told that they discovered the problem was on their end and a technician at the house was not necessary - service should be restored within 24 hours. Great. Thanks for letting me know this. Yesterday. As I waited at home. Sigh.

Anyway...I went to my company's HQ in NYC this week for a meeting. Great meeting, got a chance to spend time with folks I previously had just known virtually. Had a little bit of a plane scare - but made it home safely in spite of that (didn't help with that whole fear thing though!).

I'm looking forward to a nice weekend after what has been a nutty week. I'm hoping to do some paddling and will post pics next week.

Kindness

I was in line at the check out at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, and when it was my turn to pay, the cashier said, "Hello" and I responded with my usual, "Hey, how you doing?" - he looked at me a little shocked. "Wow, I can't believe you said 'hi' back?", "Huh?" I said. "Yeah, usually when I say hi to folks, I get silence."

When I got into my car and started the short drive back home, I really thought about the cashier's response to my simple "hi" back. What has happened to us? Are the days gone when people smile at each other?

It's so easy to make someone's day. Maybe if we all said a few more "hello's", we'd have less Cho Seung-Hui's in the world and more G.V. Loganathan's. In my opinion, the best way we can honor those lives that came to an end due to violence, is to be a little kinder to each other.

Fear

I think it's important to face your fears. It's the only way - I believe - to overcome them. I will be the first to say, it ain't an easy thing to do. It's a lot easier to keep your fears at a distance - just pretending they're not there. But, is that really living?

I have/had some silly fears - driving a stick shift (!!), and this weird fear of all things gas related - starting a grill, relighting the pilot light - I know - silly. But then I have the usuals such as flying and heights. My fear of flying really started to take over my life for awhile there. But I was determined NOT to be one of those people who never went anywhere because they are scared. Think about how many cool places you miss out on by refusing to fly. The more I fly, the more relaxed I'm becoming on a plane.

I really try to do *something* that scares me everyday. It doesn't always happen, but usually it does. For instance, one night this week, the pilot light went out on the stove (see paragraph above) and I was in the middle of making dinner. The stove was an essential part of this equation. Shit. Adam wasn't home yet and I knew wouldn't be for a while. He is having a long week this week - lots of overtime in cold temps - I wanted him to have a nice warm meal when he got home. He showed me at one point how to light the darn thing. I have to admit though - I didn't really pay attention because it freaks me out so much I thought I would never do it. Hoping he'd be home every time it needed to be re-lit.

I decided to suck it up, face it and light it up. I'm sure it was a really funny scene - I was thinking the entire house was going to blow the SECOND I flicked the lighter...I reluctantly sparked it up (with my eyes closed) and when I didn't go up in flames, I was pretty psyched. I hadn't even bent down to the stove yet. The whole process took a few minutes...I bent down, waved the lighter around (one little piece of info I happenend to remember from Adam's lesson was something about waving the flame in front of the stove first to make sure a lot of gas didn't escape). Eventually I got the flame close enough to light the pilot light. Well, you would have thought I had just cured cancer, I was walking around the house so proud of myself. Plus, I was able to check one off the list.

Got a "silly" fear? I wanna hear it!