This is a previous issue re-worked with Nvu.
Founded
December
17,1912 Ceased Publication Tuesday,
February 1,1951
Book 1
Volume
7
Saturday,
January 03, 2004 7:22 AM 41
deg at LVIA and 42 deg in the bus stop
This marks a New
Year and a new
beginning. I suppose
some New Year’s resolutions should be made. The resolve is OK but
the
execution is not so hot. For one thing, Queen wants me to go back to
the Iron Works. I hate those #%4&@ machines. However, I will
try it
in spite of my misgivings.
My blood glucose
was an unbelievable 109
and my
weight 206. It beats me. I feel just fine.
George and family
left town a bit after
10 AM, We
just got their two rings so we know they got home safely.
After they left,
we went down town.
Queen wanted to
do some shopping at the stores and then we walked from Keystone down to
6th street and back to the car. It wasn’t a beautiful day, but it
was
very comfortable walking and great to be out with my beautiful wife.
I am both glad.
pleased, and amazed at
the response
to my new web pages. I have many Palmerton pictures and I am always
looking for more. Perhaps a reader who has some will share them with us
all.
Queen’s
cousin, Bob
Greenawalt, who lives in
Rochester, New York, in the heart of state’s snow belt
wrote
us
an e-mail with some of his comments. All comments are
appreciated.
Here is a site I
just found on the Wall
Street
Journal’s on line paper. It is
http://www.edge.org/
As I looked
at it has some profound stuff in it. It appears as though it would
appeal to some deep thinkers. It might be worth some one’s time
to
look. I am going to bookmark it.
Tonight for supper
Queen had a bowl each
of her
homemade chicken noodle soup. She had a small piece of uncooked chicken
left from last evening’s meal and she used it in a delicious soup
just
enough both for us.
Sunday,
January 04, 2004 7:23 AM 52
deg at LVIA and 48.9 in the bus stop
It is a wet and
rainy morning. Butternut
is
attending to “business” without me. I shall have to check
it out.
Golly, but later in the week they predict temperatures in the teens for
the highs <Burr!!!!>
This morning my
glucose level was 122 and my weight
206. I think we
shall take down the Christmas tree today. The cold weather forecast
does not bode well for outdoor work as the week wears on.
Now at 10:39 AM we just returned from
our regular Columbia Ave walk.
This morning. not very many were out. We did meet
Romaine Biege also on
her walk. As we were going up Columbia we were greeted by our friend
and stalwart policeman, Tommy Wentz on his rounds in the Police car. We
chatted a bit and I asked him if he got a deer this year. He said, no
he never even fired a shot. I said that Mr. T. Pierce Davies got one.
Oh, he replied that was only a half a deer. I asked what did he mean by
that remark. Oh, he said,” they are easy to hit when they are
drinking
milk”!! Ha
I’ll
bet you don’t know what I am thinking!!
<11:52> we
just finished
taking down the
Christmas tree. Already
I am looking forward to next years tree. It will be just as this one
was and all our past trees have been, the most beautiful tree we ever
had.
Tonight we dined
at God’s restaurant
again. As
usual, Queen made her
own homemade spaghetti. It was one of her very best efforts. To quote
Mr. Davies once again, “If God made anything better, he is
keeping it
for himself.”
In last weeks
edition I made mention of
what I
called the Hansut house. Golly Steve Jensen, set me right on that one.
To Quote,”
“Bob:
The
house you identified in
the Palmerton
Press as the Hansut house [422 Columbia] is where I grew up until 1965
(and where the Elliston Brothers frequently repaired our
TV!). It
was originally the home of the Gearharts when it was a single-family
home. Mr. Gearhart was a superintendent of NJZ., making him
eligible to live in a mansion-sized house. I'd be curious who
originally lived in the house to the left of the Gearhart house across
from the Lendvays. When we were living there, it was the
Kleins. After we moved it was bought by the Radics (of Radics
Cut-Rate just right of the Citizens Bank) Steve”
I got this from
Bob Green. I laughed
until my sides
hurt. At first, I
was reluctant to put it in here, but it is just too damn good to keep
out. I must say that this comes as close to as what my Dad called
“telling someone to go to Hell in a nice way” as only the
English can
say it. It appeals to my English roots.
Speaking of which,
my sister Mary took
the picture
below when she
visited my other sister Dot, when they lived in England for an extended
period. Therefore, from the picture I know that, there are
more
Ellistons still in England. I see that Grandpa, George
Elliston,
who went over the hill, when his ship docked in America, during his
stint in the British navy was not the last of them. I presume the
British
naval authorities have stopped looking for him by now.
*********************************************************************
Subject:
British Letter of
Complaint: but doesn't it leave you
wondering how he REALLY feels?
What follows is an example
of British humor in a complaint
letter
sent to a British ISP. The piece suggests two things:
1) Americans and Canadians
are not the only ones who get poor
service from their ISP, cable, or alarm companies. (NTL is a
cable operator in Britain).
2) The Brits probably
write the world's best letters of
comlaint.
Dear Cretins,
I have
been an NTL customer
since 9th July
2001, when I signed up
for your four-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, telephone, and
alarm monitoring. During this three-month period I have
encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered
possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic
proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so
that
you can either pursue your professional prerogative and seek to rectify
these difficulties -- or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have
some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day
smoking, and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office.
My initial
installation was cancelled
without
warning, resulting in my
spending an entire Saturday sitting on my arse waiting for your
technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a
further
57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more
annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful
website. HOW? I alleviated the boredom by playing
with my
testicles for a few minutes -- an activity at which you are no doubt
both familiar and highly adept. The rescheduled installation
then
took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to
bring a number of vital tools -- such as a drill-bit, and his
cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not
arrived. After 15 telephone calls over four weeks my modem
arrived, six weeks after I had requested, and begun to pay for
it. I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35%
--
the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday through Friday, and
most of the weekend.
I am still
waiting for my telephone
connection. I have made nine
calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully
transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals who are, it
seems, also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been
informed
that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back);
that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a
telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be
transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answering
machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be
transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating
Scottish robot woman, and several other variations on this theme.
Doubtless you
are no longer reading this
letter, as
you have at least a
thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one
of those crucially important testicle moments to attend to.
Frankly I don't care. It's far more satisfying as a customer
to
voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold
music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.
I truly
thought British Telecom was
shit, and they
had attained the
holy piss-pot of god-awful customer relations; and that no one,
anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful, or more
obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's
why
I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is
there?
How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable
dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards
you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended
rectum
incompetents of the highest order.
BT -- wankers though they are -- shine
like
brilliant beacons of
success in the filthy mire of your seemingly limitless
inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my
futile
and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you.
I
suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment
from me for the services which you have so pointedly and
catastrophically failed to deliver. Any such activity will be
greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief and will quickly be
replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage.
I enclose two small deposits, selected
with great
care from my cat's
litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for
both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that
they
have not become desiccated during transit -- they were satisfyingly
moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable
disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and
delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my
feelings towards NTL, and its worthless employees.
Have a nice day. May it be the
last in your
miserable short
lives, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch
of twits.
Monday,
January 05, 2004 7:42 AM 36
Deg at LVIA and 35.4 in the bus stop
It is a wet and
chilly day this morning.
I took our
recyclables as well as the Lafayette Ave Elliston’s recyclables
to the
alley this morning. I also took the old Christmas tree up there for
eventual pick up. The park bench did not look too inviting this morning.
Since this is
washday, it means that
this week is
the dreaded sheet day. I got to bed this morning about 12:30
AM,
because I had to change my bedding. Queen did a bit of the wash
yesterday so that should ease her burden today.
This morning my
blood glucose was 115
and my weight
206. I plan to go to the “new Iron Works” this morning. I
promised
Queen that I would try it. <10:15 AM Later>Well, I went
down to
the “works” and I had to make an appointment for this
Friday for an
evaluation and orientation program. I brought home a bunch of forms to
be filled out and that should take care of it. We shall see.
This afternoon
Queen wants to go to
K-Mart. We
should be leaving shortly. <Later> We were down and back.
We also
went to Super Fresh, they had salmon on sale, and we got a filet. Part
of which I froze and the other we shall have tomorrow night. Hey, I
need all the brain food I can get.
Golly, but I
lucked out! Our friend and
neighbor
Mike was able to retrieve all of the stuff that was on those zip disks.
He burned a CD ROM for me, and I copied it. I was afraid they were gone
forever. Pictures such as the Palmerton Supply Company’s coal
shed seen
below and the old Mack railcar were all on them. There are a great
number of pictures now available to me. I thank Mike very much for his
efforts.
We were pleased to hear that
his new diet is going better
than he
expected. That is great news. He is indeed a good man whom we certainly
want to encourage.
Tuesday,
January 06, 2004 7:06 AM 30
deg at LVIA and 30.1 in the bus
stop
It is a clear cold
day this morning. As
soon as the
coffee is ready, I shall be heading for the park bench. This morning my
weight was 206 and the blood glucose123.
This morning I
availed myself of the
park bench
right next to the bus stop. It is a beautiful day today, but brisk.
Tomorrow it is supposed to get downright cold with high temperatures in
the teens and low 20’s for highs, Burrrr
This morning I
went to Rite Aid for my
B.P. heart
medicine. At the same time I spoke to both the pharmacist as well as
the store manager about the glucose meter I purchased last August. It
had a $30 dollar rebate on its purchase. I had forgotten to send it in
but when I showed it to son George he pointed out that the rebate was
out of date 2 months before I ever bought it. The manager
said
she would look into it. I told her I hoped she could help me but heck;
I was no worse off that before I spoke to her. As I was leaving, I saw
Queen’s swimming buddy, Helen Wisocky, as she was entering.
For some reason the Blood
pressure medication, that Dr.
Nicholson
had prescribed, for me for years, Covera HS, is no longer available. I
called the Doctor’s office, nurse Judy spoke with the Doctor, and
he is
changing my medication to a different one. The new stuff is Verelan PM
also a calcium channel blocker with the same active
ingredient.
We shall see.
9:42 AM I just had
a phone call from
David Williams,
Fritz’s brother, and another good friend. It was good to hear
from him.
He periodically keeps in touch. He too thinks the letters are an
improvement as a web page with pictures. Since he is not currently
using his Dell computer, I print them out and mail them to him. He
misses a lot because that laser printer only prints in black and white.
Before he called,
I was busy
straightening out a
mess with my speakers on my small home PA system. Honest to God I think
Rube Goldberg built that system. It enables me to pipe music all
through the house, basement, as well as the garage area. All this was
hooked up years ago, long before I got married and that was twenty-two
years, and I don’t remember how I connected them or where
everything
went. Of course, there is no schematic diagram. Ha!! Recently it was
necessary to replace the old amplifier due to age and lightning damage
from over the years. In so doing, I am forced to reconfigure the whole
works and finally do it right. <Sigh>. Usually I am
content to
let” sleeping dogs lay” however, necessity forced me to
change, I think
now, finally, all is well. Geez!!!
This afternoon
about 2:15, the doorbell
rang and
there was the crew from Strunk’s tree service. Sam Strunk is our
devout
Mennonite tree man. His prices are reasonable and he treats us fairly.
I have no complaints about his work and have in the past recommended
him to others.
They were here to take down the large
pine tree near the front of our
property. They will be back tomorrow to finish the job. Here are some
of the scenes from today.
Golly, but for a
time while Sam was up
in the tree,
it snowed like the
dickens. It didn’t last for long. If you notice, the yard is
white with
the stuff.
Tonight for
supper, Queen made homemade
beef
vegetable soup. There is enough left for another meal or to be used for
lunches. I put the rest
out
in our bus stop fridge.
While I am writing
this thing, Queen is
playing
solitaire on her computer. Since it does not have a mouse, she has to
learn how to use the touch pad on it. She is much better that I at
using that thing.
Wednesday,
January 07, 2004 7:23 AM 16
deg at LVIA and 14.4 in the bus
stop
This morning my
blood glucose was 131
and my weight
207.
Geez it is cold out there. Butternut
and I were out but neither one of
us stayed long. I sat up on the park bench viewing the half removed
pine tree. I suppose they will be back to finish the job sometime but
it is damn cold today for outdoor work.
In my e-mail, this
morning is a site
from son
George. He knows that I
am a great fan of the late great organist Virgil Fox. Some of his stuff
is now available. This is an interesting site for any who may be a nut
like I. It is at http://www.virgilfoxlegacy.com/welcome.html
It permits one to play entire
sections of some of his available stuff.
I think it is great.
I just discovered something about my
IncrediMail program that is very
good. I keep all my e-mails on the server since I read it on several
machines.
It has on the tool
bar, a box called “advanced.” Clicking on that, it checks
all the e
mail in a specific account and lets me know what it is on my server
without downloading it. If it is junk, it never has to arrive in my in
box I can delete it right there. Since I have several Prolog e mail
accounts, it is fine but what is even nicer is that it can be asked to
check ALL the email left on the server and if you wish it will
permanently remove them. Ordinarily doing that job through
Prolog’s
TWIG is a real pain. This is fast and very easy.
This morning I had to pay my Prolog
cable modem bill. I parked on
Delaware Avenue and went for a walk. Man, that was a big mistake.
Walking east to 6th Street was easy, but coming back, it was outright
painful. I stopped at the TN office to warm up and then came home.
Winter sucks!!!
Ah,
if only
Tonight, we had
the salmon filet we got
the other
day. In addition a
pair of small red potatoes, broccoli for Queen and Brussels sprouts for
me, and her famous Cole slaw with cottage cheese, as a side dish. It
was sure good!
I see that Sam did
not come here today
to work on
the tree. Yesterday
he had a ski mask on because of the cold. Today, that wind chill could
be dangerous I can say that just from my short time out on my walk.
Thursday,
January 08, 2004 7:32 AM 19
deg at LVIA and 17.3 in the bus
stop
The blood glucose
this morning was 125
and the
weight 206. This morning I used the lower park bench once again. It is
damn cold out there but I was comfortable. There is no wind along with
the cold and it was actually quite nice sitting there with my coffee.
When I get the car
out of the garage, I
shall have
to take the garbage up with me. I have an extra garbage container
outside the back door that is half filled with water. It is solid ice,
now. The other week I had to drag the bag through the snow and crawl up
the steps, next to the garage, At least that isn’t necessary
today.
Queen wants to do our shopping today so we will be busy kids.
Before we went, I went down to
the Borough Hall and spoke to
Roger Danielson, the Borough Manager. about what to do with this old
maple tree out in front of the house. When Sam Strunk comes again, I
want to ask his price for removing it. However, I am not keen on having
to put in a new tree. Roger said if I take it down, a new one must go
in, or he will not approve the removal. I must give this some
thought. I think Sam is also a landscaper so I want his
opinion
on this too. Sam is an honest man and will tell the truth. As you can
see below the tree is rather grotesque and not much left of it.
<Later> we
got back a bit
after 12PM. There
was a lot of hustle and bustle but it is done now. The crowds were not
too bad. We are both tired but OK. A rest felt good this afternoon.
Last summer Queen
and I were up at
Carbon Plaza
shopping in Giant, and
we noticed that there was health fair
underway set up
with booths of all kinds of health care providers. It was instituted by
our state representative, Keith McCall. It was very interesting.
There were retirement homes,
pharmacies, health insurance providers,
and even undertakers. I stopped at the hearing aid booth where the
technician placed a miniature TV camera in the ear with no eardrum.
Sheez, it looked like the Holland tunnel!! It just went on and on. No,
I couldn’t see the wall on the other side, Ha!!
It was aimed primarily, at us
geezers. Geez, I must have
collected enough pens to last for years!
We went up and down the display of
vendors. There must have been over a
hundred of them. Queen signed entries for practically every one that
was running a drawing for something. About a month after the Health
Fair, Queen got a phone call from an Insurance company in Stroudsburg,
that she had won a dinner out at any restaurant of our choice. However,
nothing ever happened. Tonight, she got a phone call from Harrisburg,
from the man to whom she had originally spoken. He must have been
transferred there. He found the letter of a meal offer on his desk. He
is going to mail it tomorrow. Queen offered him several opportunities
to get off the hook, but he said “no, fair is fair”. Golly,
one of
these nights, we will be going to the Terrace restaurant.
I just received a e-mail from
Queen’s niece, Jackie Clair, in Michigan.
In it, she gave me a web site that should prove useful to those
philanthropists among us.
http://www.give.org/reports/index.asp#H
It appears to be a
reference guide to reputable charitable organizations. We all
get
stuff in both “snail mail” as well as E mail. It is worth a
look. I am
always interested in stuff my readers send me.
Friday,
January 09, 2004 7:46 AM 19
deg at LVIA and 19.3 in the bus stop
This morning my
blood glucose was 138
and my weight
207. Today is “Iron Works” day. I must do down at 9 AM for
evaluation
and the beginning of the new sessions.
It is very cold
this morning and is
expected to get
colder as the day goes on. Burr neighbor, Mike, must be in his glory
with this stuff! I prefer to be concerned if it is too hot to
go
swimming today. Well that will happen in six months.
<10:02
AM>well I went for
my first session. I
met Nan Campton, Marylyn Ord, Connie and Bob Reinhardt who
were
all there. They all exercise regularly. Today, they
all
offered encouragement for the old Geezer. Nan said, you have been
writing about this and now I see that you are doing it.
<Grin>
The equipment
there does all that the
stuff at the
Good Shepherd “Iron
Works” at 2nd and Franklin does, but here there is much more in
the way
of specialized equipment instead of the one size fits all at Franklin
Ave. Most of what I will be using is for my specific needs. I want to
maintain my swimming muscles so that once again, I can go the distance
on opening day at PMPA. The young man who helped me was very good,
patient, and informative. As he adjusted each machine for my own
personal use, he wrote down my personal settings for each machine on a
clipboard, so that I will be able to refer to it next time.
These
pictures were taken at their Grand opening.
This afternoon
Queen was running the
plow upstairs
when she said she heard a noise like someone falling down the stair
steps. Well it was Butternut. He often lies on the landing at the top
of the stair steps and waits for her. Butternut is not at all
enthusiastic about the vacuum cleaner, so he often waits for her there.
He must have been near the edge and rolled over in his sleep. He has
often done that on her bed when the two of them are
“napping” but
nothing like this. What ever happened he was just coming back up the
stairs. He must have also knocked over a small card table
chair
at the bottom of the steps. It must have fallen over on him.
Apparently, he was unaffected by it. Me, I was out here at the computer
and never saw a thing. Geez!!
Tonight for supper
Queen is having
stuffed peppers.
That hasn’t been on the menu for quite a while. I sure does smell
good
in here as I am typing this.
I had best end
this for this week.
Please love one
another Mom and Bob [Queen and Bobby]
A man cannot be
comfortable without his own approval.
Mark Twain
An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done
before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't
been done before.
Mark Twain
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on
society.
Mark Twain
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
Mark Twain
