OK, I have been back at my brother’s house for the past couple of days. He apologized for his behavior and asked if I was angry. That is something he has never done. Then admitted that the system has problems, verified by the guy who came to unclog the system. Like it REALLY needs to be updated and brought up to code.

So, it was back to winter camping. As I write this blog I wait for the space heater to heat up the rusty shower stall in the side of the house where the doctor’s offices used to be.

His has a double sized lot thanks to crookhaven, errr... I mean Brookhaven township stealing his lot by combining the two lots without his consent. The only town in America that will combine lots to make them one no matter how big. Gotta ruin the investments of the little guy you know.

Anyway, I suggested that he put a new cement caste cesspool there. Plenty of room (big enough for another house, which is what he had planned for mom when he bought it. Thank you Brookhaven for ruining the lives of the citizens, just to bust chops. People wonder why I hate this town). Anyway. Have all the pipes routed to go there with no elbows. Easy enough. New cesspools are only a grand. The bulk of the expense would be new piping, properly pitched of course.

I have spent most of my time on the computer, waiting. This laptop leaves much to be desired.

I will be happy to have a toilet that flushes without worry, heated shower and a normal American roof over my head. I have had enough of winter camping thank you very much. Flight 901 to Tampa can’t come too soon for me.

I have been spending the past couple of days at my friend Don’s house. His girl friend Janice was going to stay a bit longer but her sugar levels are through the roof now due to stress. Don’s heating system has been giving them trouble on this, the coldest week of the year. Janice was sleeping downstairs on the couch with a fire extinguisher in arms reach because of all the noise and fuss the furnace would make every time it cut out, which was usually 6 times a night. The lack of sleep and stress took it’s toll on her.

I have been staying with Don and doing furnace duty. A blessed relief to be able to use the toilet and flush (wow). I can also use a shower that has heat in winter. Honestly, I have been camping and have been more comfortable than at my brother’s house.

The furnace man came by again. I had to go downstairs and reset the furnace 6 times that night. He kept telling Don that the furnace and all it’s components are in pristine condition. The only thing it can be is the fuel tank.. This time he checked the line. Encountered some resistance and blew it out. Replaced the nozzle and filter. It has been running fine ever since.

I went to pathmark twice. My, how that store and shopping center has changed. The first time I was there, I found myself in ear shot of a women who has the same nasal, fresh from the trailer park, white trash accent as my Mastic Beach Next door X-neighbor Julie. Ack. Talk about bringing back bad memories.

Anyway, first night I made sausage and peppers. New years eve (last night) I made potatoes, carrots and pork. We spent new years eve watching south park as we each doodled around on our computers like a couple of geeks.

New years eve was another snow event of 2 inches. It made the roads very slippery. I had a hard time driving up the hill to get back. To make matters worse, when I woke up new years day a peered out the window, the whole area is covered with ice. I think Don is stuck with me for a another day. Good luck with getting a road crew out new years day. I need to get tot the chiropractor’s office tomorrow.

This is why I hate the north in the winter. The weather is brutal and has you by the balls. I HATE driving when it is icy like this. I am sooo looking forward to getting back home to Florida. If changing the flights to earlier was not so expensive I would be home by now.

My brother lives alone in a 9 room Victorian on Long Island. The house would be beautiful if he kept it up and did not have it cluttered with useless junk. He buys cat food by the case and anything else when it is on sale, whether he needs it or not. Not storing it in the garage, where he lets possums & other varmints use as a den and toilet, but to be strewn about the house. My god, what a dump he lives in. That is not the worst of it.

The inability to use the bathroom like anyone else is the problem. It seems to be OK when it is just him. Enter one other person. I am not much of a stress on a system. I do not eat that much. My sister, when dying of breast cancer noticed that even under he chemo therapy, I ate less than her. I do like to shower each day, military style when I stay there. Somehow, it seems each time I stay there he has septic problems.

There in lies the stress. I wanted to buy a camper, park it out back (he has a ton of land for LI) and use that. At least I know it is clean and I can get rid of waist as needed. Plus I would have a camper for my excursions.

Look, I live in a human body, and it’s operation requires the use of facilities. OCD germ phoebe or not, I really can’t stay with him. It is always my fault for destroying the septic system. Not that it is a 40 year old block cesspool that is partially collapsing with a spider web network of elbow joints. Noooo. It is my presence, and he makes it clear in a very nasty way. One would think a 9 room house could accommodate 2 people.

I suspect his dirty little secret is that he uses plastic bags for his tp and puts it in the garbage. Me, I would never do something so unsanitary or inconsiderate to the garbage men that service the area.

This would get the house condemned. If I survive him, the first thing that I would need to do is replace the entire septic system. Have all the pipes re done so it has proper angle pitch (they look level as I see them in the basement) and NO ELBOW’S! All straight into a new, precast cess pool.

No one lives like this outside of a homeless tent city.

Yet, it was my fault and he was very nasty. When I came back from dinner with friends he was asleep. Just as well with his inappropriate explosion. He had notes that a plumber could not come that night and to use the buckets in the sink to be emptied tomorrow. Not acceptable.

My friend, Don is having trouble with his heating system. His girlfriend has left for her home upstate. She is diabetic and her sugar levels are through the roof, so a doctor’s visit is in order. The idea of being able to use the toilet without my heart in my throat with every flush & take a real shower is not a luxury, but a necessity. So I plan on helping Don out with this problem by house sitting for the repair man and baby sitting the boiler. In this weather a few hours without heat could easily result in a broken pipe. This will get me get away from the insanity of my brothers house of horror.

I really need to make other arrangements for my visits up here.

You know it is bad when the howling wind wakes you up in the morning. Between the low temperatures and the wind blowing strong enough to shake the house, this Florida gal is COLD!

The locks on my car were frozen. The key did not want to go into the ignition. Shades of my memories of Mastic Beach winters, where I had to crawl into my festiva from the hatch because of the locks freezing. Then warming the car for 20 minuets before I dared to move it.

I find myself missing my Florida home very much as the wind bites through my coat and chaps my hands.

Taking a shower here is more of an adventure.  The only working shower in the house is in the side rooms (used to be an office).  There is NO heat there.  A space heater has to be wheeled into the bathroom with an extention cord to plug it in.  Usually I turn it down when done because it makes the bathroom to hot.  Not this time.  I had it on maximum and was still cold.

Note to self. Next year, come up before Christmas and leave just after.

Brrrrr. 

The trip started off as normal.  Gwen dropped me off curbside at the check-in with the words “I hope you packed a warm coat.”  That was when I realized that I had left my winter coat on the couch and was heading up to the icy cold NY airport in a T-shirt.  The coat I so carefully pulled out of the closet, laid out onto the couch. 

I checked in and called my brother from the ladies room & asked him to bring a coat.  OK it will be cold at first.  A bumpy flight, a bag of sunflower seeds and 2&1/2 hours later and I am back on Long Island.

It is COLD!  It has snowed a lot and it is COLD.  My brother has brought a coat I was going to give to good will because the arms & only the arms are too tight. I’ll take it at this point.  Shiver me timbers.  It is COLD!

Oh, and did I mention it’s cold?

The next day I spend messing with setting up the router and my local area network hub.  Christmas dinner is a favorite, reservations with my brother and his friend Wayne at the Chinese Buffett. (Yeah I do not like buffets but my brother dose).

On the way over was the exciting time.  It looked like he was exiting the service road to get to the shopping area.  Then I noticed that the snow that was piled to the left side of the exit to make a 3 foot tall, frozen peak was heading straight toward the center of the car.

All I could do was scream to watch the snow!  He veered left, but not before hitting a goodly portion of that area.  Maintaining control of the car, he took the next exit.  There was a noticeable shimmy in the front end, as well as some ice imbedded into the front grill bottom that was noticed when we parked.  We had to make a U-turn and he realized that the plough people did not push all the snow to the right as they always did, but created a thin snow pile in-between the other lanes and the exit lane.  Something that they never did before and with the road dimly lit.

When we met Wayne we found that he had a problem seeing the exit also, but did not hit anything.

Christmas dinner was pleasant and Wayne was quite charming. The morning after my brother has brought the car into where he bought the tires to have them check.  I am sure he has knocked it out of alignment and perhaps has a bent rim.

Me, I have installed the wireless keyboard & mouse on the laptop.  I find it almost impossible to type on that tiny keypad and my hands are small.  I can imagine what a normal sized man has to go through.

My plans for this week are to get caught up on my 200+ emails that I had let go.  Now that I can type.

But first, I would like to check up on Second life.  OK I am a addict.  Guilty as charged.

Dec 8 was my birthday.  A day I blissfully ignored.  I do not celebrate like a kid. I take my inventory on that day to on what I have done since I have one less year to walk the Earth.

Feelings about the death of my Sister via breast cancer last January I have held under.  Like a ball under the surface of my pool.  This year the ball came back up.  No goofy card from her calling me an old fart (She was almost 20 years older than me).  She missed her birthday by a week before we buried her in the family plot in Flower hill cemetery in North Bergen NJ.  Dad’s was a “2 seater” and she wanted to be buried with him since they were close.

My coping mechanism was to bury myself in Second Life.  A social, virtual world where everyone is young and beautiful.  Unfortunately there is no escape from death there, since 2 online friends have died in the year I have been there.  (Well that did not work).

I do miss my friends in NY. I will be with my brother for the holidays and might visit my Nephew and his family.  I do want to go back.  I have come to that conclusion.  Florida is beautiful and I will keep the house for half the year.  But I think I will be spending summers in NY or NJ.  I will be working on arranging this.  Time to go home.

Note to self.  Scheduling 3 MRI’s in the same day is a very BAD idea.

The brain one was not so bad.  I am sure with all the pharmaceuticals in there it made  it glow without the need of the magnetic field.

The upper abdomen was a bit worse, having to keep my arms over my head for so long, but for both the brain & upper abdomen, I could keep my legs bent for the 40 minuets.

The pelvic MRI was horrid.  With 4 herniated disks I had to keep my legs straight.  Feet strapped down so as not to move.  The pain was intense.  I had the alarm plunger in my hand the whole time, a hairs breath away from squeezing it.  I had not had a regular pelvic exam in years so this was warranted, given my family history of cancer.  By the time the tech pulled me out of the machine the blood was pounding in my ears.

Walking was most challenging for the next few days....

Not another learning experience.

Gwen and I went to an auction last weekend.  I saw it on the news and the fact that it was all theater supplies intrigued me.

It was crowded and took way too long I think.  It would have been better if they started at 9 AM and did away with the entertainment of having kids come out and model some of the costumes. While entertaining, there was just too much to go through.  I wanted one parasol but it was auctioned in a huge block.  Obviously for a dance number.

It was chaos toward the end, which ran a few hours late.

I was outbid on a lot of things.  Some folks were more willing to spend more than full price for items than me.

What I did manage to score was a box of fans.  Some paper for flamico numbers. Some beautiful peacock feathered fans.  I spend 55 on that box.  I know that one of those fans would go for 40 and I have quite a few.  I can now do a multitude of dance numbers.

I also bought a few cow horns, a decorative magnifying glass that you wear as jewelry, some shoes (one a bog shoe reproduction) a pirate cap gun and 7 capes.   Hey, they were 10 bucks each and gulf wars is coming up in March.

Gwen bought a huge pile of Styrofoam wig heads for her hat making class.  She gave me 4 and I now have a proper place for my wigs.

I decided that I would fill the pool to the top so I could get an idea of where the slow leak is (if there is a leak, still not sure).  If I do not run the skimmer and the level dose not change then it is somewhere in the skimmer system.

I managed to get it fairly clean, love the smell of chlorine in the morning, it smells of; clean pool.

Go back inside to get some computer work done. Honestly this computer is becoming more than a second job.

A few minuets after I sit, I feel a sharp jab at my lower glute. ???? Did I sit on a pin?  I haven’t sewn in many months and that hurt a HELL of a lot more than a pin. Jump up.  No, I don’t see anything on my chair.  I take off my shorts.

A wasp drops out!!

How the hell did that thing get in my shorts, of all places?  My pool is enclosed with a screen lanai. I have NEVER been stung by a wasp or bee in my life. My flip flop makes quick work of the assailant.

OK, now I am itchy all over.  The sting sight throbs and burns badly. I can’t take benidrill because of the meds I am taking.   

One itchy cranky Nova will be in front of the computer today.

Dull. We want dull and boring.  Honestly.

I think there is a leak in the pool

I just filled that dang pool a few days ago. It rained yesterday. Yet the skimmer was sucking air over night at intervals. That is just not right.

The pool boy came by and gave it a brushing. He promised to come by the next day to hose out the filter, but seems that instability is a requirement of youth.

Next week I need to call up a few pool leak companies. Perhaps Keith will know someone that knows what he/she is doing, that will not charge an arm and a leg.

He is getting a dumpster and putting it next door soon. He offered me the use of it and I think it will be a good time to clean out the garage. I have some stuff I have been meaning to toss. Some things that did not sell at the yard sale and really want to jettison my excess and get my stuff out of storage.

Odd. I cut back on my SCA activities to do just that. Yet I find myself spending time on the internet instead. That second life can be quite addicting IF you can avoid the drama. I know I hate to work on the house (especially out in the hot Florida sun) but really like living in a nice home. I could have a beautiful house but it just seems to never end and I get discouraged because it seems to never end.

Like my pool you get out what you put in.

Time to work on my online newsletter, ‘Nova’s Nibbles’