To market, to market, to buy a fat pig!

Debbie and I did our usual Saturday ritual this morning... we got up early and went to the market, The Boyce Farmer's Market here in Fredericton. I love the market. It brings back a simpler time... there's so much great food and merchandise there... we get up and are out of the house early and it's once a week that I get to spend a couple of hours with my wonderful wife alone. It's our Saturday morning date time. 

The market is so different during the different seasons, and I can't really say that I like any one time over another. Winter has set in here and it's Christmas season at the market right now. Other than the food vendors who cook and sell their food then and there and are in the same spots all year round, most of the outside vendors are gone. But, because it's Christmas, there are half a dozen or so vendors selling trees and wreaths and other evergreen decorations. There's a great holiday feel to the market this time of year that and I love spirit of the market.

After Christmas, the market slows down. It's quieter... easier to find a parking space and definitely doesn't take as long to go through, but it's nice to peruse with less people there. I love the quiet and slowness of the winter market.

Once the days start to lengthen, the mornings are a bit warmer and the earth is yawning in the spring, the market also starts to wake up. Slowly but surely, old vendors return selling plants, garden furniture and other fun things and new vendors come with the idea of selling me something that I have to have. The promise of spring also brings the promise that the market will return to its vim and vigor. I love the new growth of the spring market.

The long hot days of summer brings lots of freshness... no not the kid threatening his mother buy him a hot dog or he'll sell his baby sister... the freshness of fruits and vegetables. It starts off slowly with the early summer fruits and vegetables and ripens to stand after stand of a rainbow of colors. The colors of fresh... yellow and green and red and orange and blue and purple. I seem to eat better during this time simply because it's easier to. It's more crowded and harder to find a parking space, but that's okay because I love the freshness of the summer market.

As the circle of the season closes again, so do the seasons of the market. I think the autumn is my favorite time for market going. There are still lots and lots of vegetables and fruit being harvested and being sold and the change of the seasons is showing. I enjoy seeing the gourds and pumpkins and squashes... squishes... squash... and autumn crafts. The briskness in the air makes me want to wear a sweatshirt and the leaves blowing around makes me realize that the circle is completing. It's time to buy a pumpkin or two and get ready for the holidays. I love the nip in the air of the autumn market.

I guess it doesn't matter what time of year it is... the seasons of the market are all interesting and fun. I guess it's because I love my Saturday morning dates with Debbie which cause me to love the market.

Old Black and Whites

I love old photographs... all old photographs. Here are a few of my favorites:

This is my dad when he was in the army during World War II. He wasn't a very driven soldier and ended up doing KP a lot. The army actually lost his papers for a few months and he never spoke up that he needed something to do! He was actually demoted from PFC back to a Private.

This is some of my family in front of the Brownstone in Brooklyn, NY that my Uncle Willy and Aunt Emily owned. My Aunt Emily is the second from the right holding her daughter, my cousin Joanne. My Uncle Ralph is the one in the Army uniform. He must have been on leave during World War II.

This is a photo of my Aunt Ann. She was married to my dad's brother. I really like how shiny my uncle's car was and love the reflection of the people on the side of the car.

My mom and six of her friends were looking out the back window of a Newark, NJ city bus while someone took this photograph. My mom is the one in the very center. She must have been about sixteen years old. I love how the telephone numbers can still be seen. When I was a kid, the first two letters of a telephone number was first two letters of the exchange. The exchange in Newark was HUmboldt. It was my exchange too. This is my favorite old photograph.

My sister and I were dressed up for something here; I'm not sure what it was. The car that we were standing in front of was my dad's 1957 Ford Fairlane... it was a cool car. We lived in a four family house on a street in Newark, NJ with connecting yards. I used to ride my bicycle through the yards and hit the clothes on the clotheslines as I went through them. I remember the smell of the freshly laundered clothes and I remember getting yelled at by the little Italian women in the houses for riding through their clothes. I guess I was about six years old here, so that would make it about 1962.

Thanks for looking at some of my favorite old photographs. I always get such a sense of history when I look at any old photograph. I love to imagine what was happening at that instant in time when the photographer clicked the shutter. It is a moment in history. I'll share more as I keep blogging.

La la la la la la... Me me me me me me

My wife blogged today about being in her car when an old favorite came on the radio and how she sang alone in the car with wild abandon. You can read her blog post here and see what she had to say. I'll wait while you do. La dee dah... bum, de bum bum.. bah doo doo doooo... bam de bam bam bam. Okay, so now that you know what she had to say, I'll go on. I can definitely attest to the fact that she couldn't carry a tune "even if it had comfy handles", which is a saying that I've never heard, but I've come across many different sayings that are foreign to me since I crossed the border six and a half years ago. Anyway, she really can't carry a tune at all, but what she lacks in tonal quality, she certainly makes up for with enthusiasm. In fact, and I hope I am not sorry that I am publicly confessing this, I really do enjoy listening to Debbie sing when she's going at it full force as her enthusiasm is heart warming. She doesn't do it too often in front of me, but sometimes when we're in the car, she'll just let down her guard and bellow like an elk who found a mate for the first time in its life. I don't think she's let go while in the presence of our puppy, who has already let us know what she thinks of Seldon joining the band and learning the trumpet, but I think that the puppy will have the same reaction to Debbie's singing.

I too like to sing, but I rarely let go like Debbie does. I often sing along to the radio or a CD, but it's usually low enough to not drown out the music playing. I don't think I can sing very well, but I do okay. I've often wondered if I'd have been a decent singer if I had had some training. Deep in the recesses of my soul, I am a rockstar and I play a very mean air guitar, air drums and air keyboard.

I imagine I'll be hearing a lot more of Debbie's singing after she reads this blog, but I can handle it... I love her and I think that when you love someone, you think the things they do are a little sweeter to you than to others. Sing it Deb!!!

Happy Birthday Sadie

Happy Birthday mom!
Today she's 83... a very young 83. I know everyone thinks their mom is the best mom in the world...heck I guess even Charles Manson thought his mom was the best, but I really do think my mom is the best mom anyone could have. Small in stature, she's a four foot- six inch Italian woman with a heart as big as the moon. She really is very sweet, as anyone who knows her would say.

I'm so very fortunate to have been raised by two great parents and I have great memories as a kid. Sadie, my mom, is a great cook and an excellent baker. We always had home cooked meals growing up and we always ate together as a family which is something my family does now most every night. I learned many things from my mom growing up and now that I have a family of my own, I realize what an awesome giving woman she was.

I miss my mom a lot... I wish I could have been in New Jersey today to celebrate her birthday with her. If I had been, we probably wouldn't have done anything too special, but I would have spent time with her... very precious time. Happy Birthday mom, I love you.!

Balloons, Pumpkin Pie and Christmas Lights

This is Thanksgiving week in the United States. I find myself getting homesick this week every year and I miss living in the US more this time every year than any other time. Yes, we have Thanksgiving here in Canada, but it's celebrated on the second Monday in October and it's not nearly as big a holiday as it is in the US. It's just not that big a deal here.

This whole week is so festive where my family is... grocery stores are buzzing with people buying Thanksgiving Day supplies... stores are prepping for Black Friday... it's a three day work week for lots of people... one can feel the energy in the air. There's simply lots of anticipation as the beginning of the holiday season is here. I always remember enjoying being at work this week; it seemed like everyone was. I used to make sure I watched the news on Wednesday night to see the coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade preparations. It was always fun to watch the giant balloons come to life as they fed them with helium through what look like super-sized straws. Thanksgiving morning always meant a big breakfast and time in front of a television to watch the parade; it's something I always did as a kid. And then there's dinner... what can I say... what I wouldn't give for a piece of my mom's pumpkin pie right now.

I think the thing that makes Thanksgiving so different in the US is that it really is the official start of the Christmas season. Christmas lights seem to magically appear on houses and trees as dusk sets in on the third Thursday of November. As a kid, I loved driving home from my Aunt Emily's house, belly full of good food, seeing the Christmas lights on for the first time that year.

I'm missing being in New Jersey this week again this year. I wish my family had the chance to experience it as I did... I'm sure it would be fun for them too. Maybe next year we'll be able to go home and be there... we'll see. Until then, I'll just dream about the pumpkin pie.

Winter... blech!

Today reminded me why I hate winter. It snowed in Fredericton today... not just a few flurries, but enough to cover the car so it had to be brushed off... enough to make the roads slippery enough to show who the knucklehead drivers are... enough to freeze up the windshield wipers so that they only cleared two small strips at the very top and very bottom of the windshield... enough to cause me to fall flat on my gluteus maximus and hurt myself... enough to cause me to hate winter just a little more than last year!

It's cold and messy and slippery and... well, it's just not something that people should have to deal with. Yes, it's pretty... for a very short time and maybe if I had a job that was canceled when it snowed, I'd like winter and snow a little more than I do. What I'd like is to live in a place where the weather is about 68 degrees all year long and sunny everyday. I wouldn't mind some snow... it could start at about 8:00pm on Christmas Eve, stop by midnight and be melted by the day after Christmas when the temperature rises back up to 68 degrees. Is that too much to ask?

It's going to be a long winter... hopefully we all make it through with no injuries or car accidents and once again the weather will warm, the snow will melt and spring will show itself. Only 120 days to go and I can't wait.

Push button to activate vaporizer

On the highway today, driving to Seldon's basketball games, I was faced once again with my biggest, by far, pet peeve. The general rule of the road is to keep right and pass on the left. Simple enough, one would think, as most of us have learned our rights from our lefts by the time we're ten or eleven. I understand that some people have a problem telling their right from their left, but this is a very small sampling of drivers on the road.

I'm fairly certain that at some point in the testing for a drivers license, it's made known to every driver that on the highway, we keep to the right or the passenger side of the road, and pass on the left or the driver side of the road. While driving, nothing gives me road rage... nothing that is except having to sit behind a car in the left lane that isn't passing... or trying to pass. It's the left lane knucklehead... it's the PASSING LANE... the lane in which you move YOUR vehicle faster than the one beside you in the right lane... the lane you don't just cruise down the highway in unless you're about to pass ANOTHER FLIPPIN CAR THAT'S IN THE RIGHT LANE. IT'S EASY... RIGHT LANE FOR CRUSING... LEFT LANE FOR PASSING SAID CRUISING CAR.

Ahem... excuse me and accept my apology for letting my emotions get the best of me in the above paragraph. Now I'm not a reckless driver by any means and I usually stay at or slightly above the speed limit... most of the time. It's just that when I'm driving down the highway (in the right lane, I might add) doing the speed limit or slightly more than the speed limit as I said, and I come up on a vehicle going slower than I, I want to be able to move safely into the left lane and pass the car. This just isn't an option if the FLIPPIN KNUCKLEHEAD CRUISING IN THE LEFT LANE, WHICH IS MADE FOR PASSING, DOESN'T SPEED UP OR MOVE INTO THE RIGHT LANE WHICH IS MEANT FOR CRUISING. BOY THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME MAD!!!!!! Ahem... my apologies again.

I think the the car manufacturers should add a vaporizer option to their vehicles which would give a driver the power to vaporize the vehicle in the left lane standing the way of passing. I realize that in the wrong hands, a vaporizer could be used for less than honorable purposes, but my plan would filter out the drivers who cruise the left lane and don't keep right. Strict rules and testing to weed out those who wouldn't use it responsibly to only vaporize the drivers who deserve it, would be put into place. I'm sure this will help to alleviate the problem which plagues highways all over the world and I look forward to the day when all left lane cruisers are eradicated from the roads and my only pet peeve is no longer an issue.