Tera's Blog

After a flurry of medical appointments this week, I've come to the conclusion that I'm 33 going on 16. Why do I say this? Because I'm still getting acne breakouts (wasn't I suppose to 'outgrow' this a decade ago??) and now my dentist says I need braces. All I need to do now is to swap out my contacts for my old eyeglasses and I'll look like a bigger geek than what I was in 1988.

But dammit, I'll be smokin' at the prom!!! Err, wait...nevermind

When the dentist/orthodontist was running down my list options, he highly recommended the braces route and asked if I had any objections. I sheepishly asked what kind of time frame we were talking about because Dan and I are getting married next June.(just like the prom, but I'll be the only one wearing an overpriced dress...and the one footing the bill for the night). I really didn't relish the idea of have a mouth ful of metal for my wedding pictures.

The dentist had a bit of a chuckle and thought that I would probably have a retainer by then, if not, he could take the braces off for the wedding and put them back on afterwards. He also said he would throw in free teeth whitening as a wedding present (*SWEET!*).

Thank God for medical/dental insurance. Now if I could only get this *&^% pimple on my chin to go away...

Posted by at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Taking a slight detour from the rezoning issue...

Back in the fall, I was having a slight problem with the 'wildlife' that had taken up residence under the storage shed in my backyard. I hired a wildlife specialist who removed 3 woodchucks, a skunk and a possum before the weather turned cold and the little buggers were gone for the winter.

I was pretty sure the issue was solved, until the weather warmed up and lo and behold, there were 3 more woodchucks in the yard again. Dan borrowed a trap from a coworker and successfully relocated 2 of them. Thinking it was only a matter of time before we got the third, we were rather shocked to look out the window and see that the lone surviving woodchuck was now a mommy to another 3! Though, at this point, I think they've all moved to the neighbors property. The trap has been empty for at least a week. I'm officially calling it a 'draw'.

Now, I have a new visitor. A cute and fuzzy little chipmunk. I've seen him scurry across the driveway a few times, and he's even tempted fate by darting in front of my tractor while I was mowing. At the time, I didn't have a problem with the little guy. Like I said, he's kinda cute. Dan, on the other hand, wasn't too impressed. He referred to it as 'a mouse with better PR'. Dan offered to 'relocated' him along with the afore mentioned woodchucks. After what I discovered this morning, I may take him up on that offer.

Notice how nice and full his little cheeks are?? The little monster has been emptying the bird feeder! Not only that... He's picky!! He's only eating the sunflower seeds, and dumping the rest on the ground in a very large pile.

Grrr.... I hope he enjoyed the birdseed because he's next on my list...

Posted by at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Short Blog Entry -

The town board meeting was Wednesday night, and went on for two hours. Several of the neighbors that I spoke with over the last few weeks were there and made it very clear that they didn't want another business in the neighborhood.

We'll see what happens with the town board in 3 weeks.

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 9:07, the kids are off to school and I now have a hefty chunck of videotape of the traffic on my road. I took some still pics with my digital camera, just for good measure.

It's a beautiful, though getting a bit hot, day. Blue skies, sunny -- this is a rare event in this area. We're more use to rain that goes on for ever, thunderstorms that start and stop and have distinct boundaries (it could be raining at my house, and the house across the street is dry), and then there's the SNOW. Dear Lord do we get a lot of snow. That's when traffic REALLY gets interesting.

Anyways, back to the rezoning issue. I was outside for about an hour with the video camera. I even had a few visitors, the most interesting of which was the guy who runs the daycare center who drove south past my house, turned around in someone's driveway and then came north past me again to get a good look at what I was up to. And yes, I got all that on tape.

I'm off to import this video and send an email to the town board. Then I'm going door to door again to get more signatures for my petition and to make sure people know about the Town Board Meeting tonight. And yes, I tell everyone about the meeting -- whether they're for it or againist it (or "Too old to care" as one neighbor put it), they should have their opportunity to voice their opinion instead of being told later what's going to happen.

Posted by at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's 8:19 AM and I'm sitting on the wall to my flower bed in my front yard (Yes, wirless rocks!) and watching an insane amount of traffic pass by.

It's impossible for me to turn south (left) on to the road in front of house because of the traffic. I don't even bother to attempt it anymore. I wind up turning north, and then doing a circuit through the development on the block behind me in order to get back out on my road facing south. Half of my morning commute is just getting down this 1 mile strech of road.

Anyways, there's a proposal before the Town Board to rezone the lot that is 10 houses down from mine. It is currently zoned residential, and there's an old, admittedly ugly (but salvagable) house there. The proposal is to zone it commercial so a 6300 sq foot daycare center can be built there (note : the lots on this side of the street run between 1/2 to a full acre - long narrow lots that run almost to the street behind us.) I don't have anything against daycare centers. I sent my kids to one while I was in college, and paid a very pretty penny for it too. But it wasn't on a horrendously busy road that is an accident waiting to happen.

So, I'm sitting out here now with the video camera. I want the town board to REALLY see what the traffic situation is out here. I'll come back in an hour with another update.

Posted by at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)