Cranky Swamp Yankee

I remember LOVING trick-or-treating! Oh! The bounties we'd haul home!!!! One neighbor always disappointed us and handed out PENCILS (ordinary, yellow, #2-lead pencils!) every year. You think she would have learned that they weren't a big hit when she ventured outdoors the next day to find broken pencils mashed into the pavement of the street!
Mary Ellen and are going out trick-or-treating with our two grandd daughters tonight! (Ages 7 and 4!) CAN'T WAIT!!!! (I LOVE being able to be a kid again!)

I loved Steve Allen, Allen Sherman (I think I had four of his comedy albums), and I LOVE the breath-taking Shenandoah Valley!.
Look forward to hearing about your trip!

We got torrential rains while you were getting the blizzard. I like rain a lot more than snow...less shovelling!

I'm going trick-or-treating tonight with my grandkids! (Ages 7 and 4.) CAN'T WAIT!

Sure sounds like you're in a not-so-good place right now. It is SO TOUGH being a parent. I really feel for you. It's hard to see your kid being hurt. It's also frustrating as all hell.
Sorry!

Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed, does it? The young ones can really throw things at us fast and furiously, can't they? You've got to be good at fielding their questions without discouraging them or disillusioning them.
I had that problem with my kids, and now I'm going through the same thing with my grandkids. Grandkids are easier though. They're a lot more fun with a LOT less responsibility! (Somebody once told me that grandchildren are our reward for not killing our own damned kids!)
Hope today is better for you!
(I've just added you to my Friend's List.)

I don't know why, but your post here brought tears to my eyes. Your description of the Kind Mary and the conversation you had with her was so beautiful, delicate and sensitive!
Mary Ellen's older sister died a year ago from complications with Alzheimer's disease. It was a long, slow deterioration of the mind and the personality. During the last two months of her life, Mary Ellen would visit Margie every day at the nursing home, even though Margie no longer even knew who Mary Ellen was.
Margie died on Saturday. Mary Ellen knew that her sister was breathing her last, so she literally crawled into the bed with her, held her, rocked her and softly sang "Amazing Grace" into Margie's ear. When Margie took one last, shuddering breath and passed away. Mary Ellen finished the verse of the song, kissed her sister on the forehead and said, "Say hi to Mom and Dad, Sis! I love you."
I was as much of a mess there observing that scene as I am now recounting it!
Mary Ellen's strength and capacity to love always amazes me and comforts me.
You're right, Mel; physical things like health and memory don't last. As we grow older, we must learn to gracefully relinquish the things of youth. That fact is becoming painfully obvious to me as I find myself looking in the mirror now and seeing my father looking back.
But, you know what? The IMPORTANT things DO last. Mary Ellen teaches me that every day. Love, caring, affection - they last forever. Look at Kind Mary. Her memory has gone south, but the gentleness and sweetness of nature is still abundantly present, and it will live in YOUR memory long after Kind Mary has gone.
Thanks for a truly wonderful and tender post, kid. You've just given this old man very, very warm feelings to start the day, and HUGE lump in his throat!

A friend of mine in Maine was a battered wife. When she finally got the guts to do something about it, she came to me, and I put her up in my house for two nights before I could get her into a shelter for battered women. One of those nights, her husband showed up in my driveway, calling her out and screaming obscenities. I rna out into the driveway and confronted him. Being the total, dispicable coward that he was, he immediately backed down and seemed frightened of me. (He was MUCH bigger than I was.) He screamed at me once, and, when I shouted back, he cowered and ran for his car.
The next day, I drove my friend to the shelter. (I, being male, wasn't allowed inside.)
Two months later, my friend was killed in a suspicious car accident. The police said that her car careened off a wooded back road while travelling at a high rate of speed. The car smashed into a tree, and she was killed upon impact. The police suspect that somebody was chasing her.

What is the "L" for? As usual, I think I missed something!

Move over, Brad Pitt! Here comes Ryley!!!!!

Hey Mary! Hope things have smoothed out a little for you!

I, like you, fail to see the infatuation with "my playlist". First of all, as you stated, the sudden burst of music often startles me and sends me scrambling for my computer's volume control and/or MUTE button. Secondly, what is the duration of time that people listen to the music produced? 15 seconds? (Isn't it like "hold" music on the telephone? I mean, it's just background noise that barrages the listener's ears for the length of time it takes for him/her to click on a blog post, right? Thirdly, most of the music selected...sucks.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was my father in this picture!

Come back, Meranda!!!!!

Great answers! I'm going to take this quiz when I get a few spare moments. (Tought to do this week. It's tech week for the show I'm directing.)
As far as #14 is concerned...is there ANYBODY who would want to know?