February 19, 2010

Death comes calling again

Death came calling again -- this time taking Steve Doochin, a former colleague at the Union for Reform Judaism.

Steve had had a massive heart attack ten years ago while at a doctor's office. Because of that close call with death he recognized more than most that every day is precious.  He did all the right things - changed his diet, exercised, and more -- but, more importantly, he made sure to fill each day with love and hope and laughter.

I last saw Steve about a month ago when we met at the Nautilus for breakfast. He was as optomistic as ever about his search for a new position, sure that something was "about to fall into place." The ultimate networker, Steve had spent his life raising countless millions for Jewish causes, and there were large minyons of folks anxious to help.

February 17, 2010

A community of bloggers

Who knew there were so many writers blogging away in our little corner of the world!

The Larchmont Patch throws a light on all of us with interests ranging from ranch houses to chocolate, design to language, and lots of other interests in-between. Kind of nice. Makes you want to curl up with your laptop and read on.
Enjoy!

February 14, 2010

The first robin


I'd only been awake for a few minutes and needed to rub my eyes a few times to believe what I was seeing. But there he was: A big fat robin, perched in my lilac bush, waiting with the sparrows for me to fill the bird feeder.

I grabbed my camera and got the best photo I could – not great, but proof that this harbinger of spring really was really paying a visit on Valentine's Day.

I couldn't recall ever seeing a robin with this much snow on the ground.

Surely the worms are still buried deep in the ground, far beyond the reaches of this brave fellow. So I did a Google search to see when robins normally reach the Larchmont area and found an interesting website that tracks sightings of birds. I posted my sighting and found that robins had been sighted on Long Island earlier this week.

I'm hoping this means the groundhogs were wrong.

February 9, 2010

Getting the Advil ready

Larchmont-Mamaroneck managed to escape the weekend's storm with nary a single snowflake. A welcome relief to us, who live on a corner and have an extra-long sidewalk to shovel, but a real disappointment to my California grandkids, visiting for the weekend, who really were looking forward to building a snowman — and a snowwoman and snowboy and snowgirl.

Too bad they're back in sunny California now. The storm that's coming promises to be a doozy, and it's doubtful we'll escape.

So I made sure we had a full stock of Advil and Aleve on hand before going to CVS this afternoon. I also brought in some firewood. My husband did his part as well —he picked up a case of wine.

We're all set for the long haul.