Ha!

I am finally poor enough to qualify for a local program.  Free smoke detectors! 

I filled out the form a week and a half ago.  Got a call within days. 

And tonight four very personable firemen showed up at my door.  They came in their firetrucks.  Hey, they were on duty.  What else would they bring?

Amazingly there was actually parking on my narrow half street.  Sure did make the neighbors wonder.

In they came, carrying a huge tote.  I signed a paper and off three of them went, clambering all over my house, installing detectors as they went while the fourth pleasantly answered all my questions.  The program began with channel 6 in Philadelphia.  Three years ago a WFMZ, a local TV station set a similar program in motion here.  They still do the advertising but the fire department has a grant to supply the detectors.

Not cheap detectors either.  These are long-lasting fancy detectors.  Ten years with no batteries to replace.  All in under fifteen minutes.  Some good has come from all those taxes I pay!

Call your local fire department and ask if they do the same.  If not, suggest they initiate a program.  Keep you safe, just like me.  Thank you, gentlemen!

Is It Worth It?

The instant gratification of today’s flowers.

Eons ago when I started gardening annuals were sold in six packs for not a lot of money.  Over the years the six packs became four packs.  For more money of course.

Today I went gathering pretties for the various yards I tend.  The same things I used to purchase for next to nothing in multi-packs are now sold in four inch pots.  For twice the price.

Yes, the plants are much larger and already covered with flowers.  As soon as I put them in the gardens looked like they’d been growing for weeks.  Pretty?  Of course.  But today is May 9^th.  There are potentially five more months to the growing season.  I’m not certain that the extra it costs to have instant blooming gardens is worth it.  Personally, I enjoy taking a tour of the new plants, watching them take hold and start to grow.  For me, larger flowers means I miss out on part of the enjoyment of planting pretties.

 

Just my opinion of course.  Happy weekend!

Customer Service Lives!

I toss my change in a jar and use it when I am in need of a treat.  Last Thursday the temperature topped 70 for the first time.  To me that meant time for my favorite summer treat, frozen limeade from Wawa, our local mini market that just celebrated 50 years in business.  With whipped cream that I mix in as soon as I’ve taken a few sips.

I grabbed a handful of change on my way out the door only to discover that the ultra nummy limeade has been replaced by peach lemonade.  Peach lemonade?  My first reaction was no!  Then I stopped to consider and decided to give it a try, loving peaches as I do.  Yes, I know, not all things processed that are supposedly peach flavored are good but I was there and wanted a treat.

Um.  Should have stuck with my first reaction.  It wasn’t awful  but it is not a flavor I will ever order again.  So I poked around Wawa’s website and found their contact information.  I emailed them with my disappointment and opinion on the replacement. 

Within two hours (and after 5:00) I had a very nice response from Brianna, a Wawa customer engagement sr. analyst since 2007.  She was extremely pleasant, thanking me for my input, stating she would pass it on to marketing.  She also promised a gift card so that I may try another flavor on them.

Today, less than a week later, the gift card arrived with a polite, upbeat letter from Brianna encouraging me to contact Wawa with my thoughts again.  Yes, I am impressed.  Someone remembers how customer service should be.  I knew I liked Wawa for more than their nummy drinks and fresh-made sandwiches.  No wonder they’ve made it this long.

Click here to see if there's a Wawa near you. And while you're there tell them to bring back frozen limeade!

The Best Thing about Spring...

Redbud Trees!!!

 

Welcome Elsie Hepner!

Today, I'm turning my blog over to fellow writer, Elsie Hepner.  She has a new book out, Furious Temptation, the second in her Furies Series. 

First, a little about Elsie -



Elise Hepner lives with her husband and two eccentric cats in Maryland. She spends the majority of her free time in her basement office concocting smutty characters and sinful situations that leaves readers satisfied. When not writing, she researches everything from automatons in the 18th century to gladiatorial rules in Ancient Rome. She prides herself on being an avid information hound as well as a blog reading addict--which is her favorite way to procrastinate. Her previous publications include books and stories with Entangled, Excessica, Xcite, Ellora's Cave, Secret Cravings Publishing and Cleis Press.

Some thoughts from Elsie on writing this series - 

Three years ago if someone told me I’d be writing paranormal novels about Greek Furies into BDSM I’m pretty sure I would have curled up in a corner and cried because of the idea of creating whole worlds from scratch. But after a year of research—and research on my research—I’ve learned that my World Bible is my god. Any little inconsistency or tiny detail gets chocked up in my bible until that file on my computer is as big as an actual Fury book. From the differences between demon made—demons who are transitioned from humans or dead human souls—to demon born, or demons who are born from two other demons, my Greek mythos can get a little complicated.

Writing a paranormal novel was one of the hardest things I’d ever undertaken and after writing my second one, Furious Temptation, I can’t say that it got any easier. Even with all my research laid out in an easy to find order, the genre still stretches my limits. I don’t know how everyone else does it, but for me, it involves a lot of hair pulling, a lot of desk banging, and many, many episodes of True Blood.

But it’s a task I’m glad I came to bat for because it’s been a wild ride. Filled with portals for mystical elevator travel, blood play, and voyeurism with a side of wood nymph—I never thought I’d create a world I loved on paper as much as I love it in my mind. Whenever I feel like doubting myself, I pull up my World Bible and marvel at my mastery, and it fluffs up my ego for 2.5 seconds until it’s time to write again. My research keeps me on task, keeps me writing, keeps me creatively reaching and occasionally reminds me how far I’ve come in the last few years.

So maybe I’ll go curl up into a corner now?

And now a bit about Furious Temptation - 

For millennia Megaera, a Fury, has functioned as Hades right hand by passing judgment on demons who break the sacred laws. Stalwart in her  moral compass, but harboring a curse triggered by rage, she walks a thin line between perfection and destruction. But when she digs into a case  uncovering a string of demon rapes, she incites a war with Mount Olympus that could ripple chaos throughout the ages.

 Omen Cole was demon made during the Civil War after repeated torture at the hands of his enemies.  Sentenced to an eternity as watchdog over  his emotionally frail, once human ex-wife, he’s haunted that he couldn’t save her from a brutal assault.

 Now it’s happened again. And Megaera needs his testimony. Omen will sell his body—and anything else—to avenge his fragile ex-wife. If that means  an alliance with Megaera, he’ll make it the most memorable of their eternity.

You can find Elsie at her website, on Facebook and on Twitter.  Click on anything in red or the book cover to get there.

Happy reading!

 

 

Wanted

Roofer

Proficient, reliable, willing to work with me on an inexpensive bill.

My roof is leaking.  Has been.  I thought I had someone to help but it turns out he is far too busy with his legitimate business.  Yeah, I’m not really family but I was promised the family discount and payment schedule.  Sadly that also gets   I can’t even manage a return call this week.

me the family work schedule.

In case you’ve been living in even more isolation than I generally do, it’s been raining.  A lot.  With more to come.  And, as I just mentioned, my roof is leaking.  Every time I go into the room below the leak I remind the ceiling it belongs where it is and that it would be very unhappy on the floor.  Perhaps not quite as unhappy as I would be to come home and find it on the floor but I’m certain it would not enjoy it.  From its current vantage point, it can gaze out the window, watch the comings and goings in the neighborhood, fraternize with the birds that fly by.  From the floor’s perspective it would see nada.  Yes, better to stay put.

Which brings me back to how this started.  I need a good roofer who will come and fix it.  SOON!!!  Before my head explodes.

A Confession...

I grew up in the middle of nowhere.  When I was a kid, there were no lights beyond our house.  There was an abandoned amusement park surrounded by woods so there was literally nothing in the direction one of my bedroom windows faced.  Nights I couldn't sleep, when there were no scary things stirring in the haunted house where I lived, I could lie in my bed and watch for falling stars.  I fell asleep to the sounds of nature, with an occasional train whistle echoing in the distance when the wind and mist were just right.

Needless to say, moving into the city changed all that.  It only took a few months to "destroy" my yard and replace the scruffy grass with flowers.  One thing I missed tremendously were spring violets.  So me, being me, went back to that original house and dug some to transplant.  Twenty-some odd years later there are violets all over the neighborhood.  A good thing as I see it.  Just because one lives in a dirty, downtrodden city it does not mean one must do without spring beauty.

I also got a Praying Mantis egg sack that first year and have seen many, many throughout the years, another very good thing.

Today's Dose of Cuteness

The Mighty Quinn

Kya & Beau

My Evening

I was happily lounging at my part-time job this evening, having reached the point where things were settled and I could read, Joe Coomer’s One Vacant Chair, a most excellent book, when I heard dripping.  Behind me.  

I looked and indeed, there was water coming through the ceiling.  A moment later there was more.  And more.  I arranged the three trash cans at hand, taking out the liners to have more coverage.  I moved the cardboard box holding the recycled newspapers.  I moved the plastic mail bin.  No, neither of those was watertight but they were better than nothing.

I called maintenance and apologized for disturbing his evening but there was water pouring through the ceiling.  By then it was A LOT OF WATER!  He doesn’t really know me yet so he called a coworker to come check if I was serious.  Honestly, the expression on her face when she saw the volume of water pouring behind me while I stood in the dark, having turned off the lights because by then there was water in them as well, was the most priceless thing I’ve seen in ages.  It was classic!  She turned and ran, I’m guessing to return his call and say, hell yes, get in here!

I also called a coworker upstairs and asked if she could somehow stop the flow.  Um no, not entirely.  There was at least an inch of water on the floor so I’d just have to wait it out.

I moved all the electrical gizmos and the project I had completed earlier.  And then I went back to my duties, since of course that was then people decided to call and need assistance.  In the dark.  With a LOT of water pouring around me.  (I found the pic online.  It's not bad but there was MUCH more water coming through the ceiling where I was.)

It was down to a trickle when he arrived.  After checking upstairs to ensure the source was definitely off he came down to deal with it.  He decided to risk the lights so he could see what was what.  And then was amazed by the amount of water I’d actually managed to contain.  As in GALLONS of it.

Heh.  I bet next time I call after hours he just comes, without bothering to get someone else to confirm that there is truly a need first.  So.  How was your evening?

A Question

In the wee hours this morning, Harry attempted to convince me that he needed to be fed.  They tend to eat early but not that early.  And there is dry food available at night so he was really not starving.  Generally, if I can snag him and hold on long enough, he will relax and snuggle with me for an hour until it really is time to feed him.

I managed to capture him before he got the others stirred up.  He was purring as I drifted back to sleep.  Good, right?  Perhaps.

I was dreaming that I was sleeping.  And Harry wanted to eat.  And that I got him to curl back up with me for a bit.  We were in my bed, in my house.  Only the covers were all wrong which is how I knew I was dreaming.

So here’s my question.  If you dream you are sleeping comfortably while you are sleeping comfortably do you get double the sleep as you would if you were merely sleeping?