Angle....       I never thought of what might happen if the cat box was in use....you did paint a vivid picture in my mind.

Patricia, I love Maxine.  Someone once sent me a whole slew of Maxine cartoons.  I don't know if I have them yet or not.  But she tickles my fancy!!!

My imagination works overtime sometimes and I could just imagine a cat on the litter when the smoke alarm went off.  Maybe that is not what you meant, but it is what I pictured when I read your sentence. 

Jenny, your pre-made meal sounded so good.  We could do that as our Fresh Food Markets have a deli where you can buy most everything. 

Marilyn, Robin draws blood from patients and she probably does more with the blood but I've never asked her.  There has to be more done than just draw blood. 

We will be going to the Cottage Bar near downtown and we'll eat about 5 pm because of Robin's schedule.  I looked at the menu and some things look like possibilities.  It is hard for me to eat out because the tables are too high; I can just about shovel food into my mouth.  I often have a sandwich, but I'll force myself to find something else to eat (they do have sandwiches there). 

Mary Ann

Mary Ann - I had the same thought about the cats and Smoke Alarm Testing.

Hi Rick!

We woke up to a cold, windy white world this morning.  I really heard a snow shoveler before I got up.  It is supposed to be this way all day.  I know what they say about March coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion, but is there anything about the last day of the year?  It is like a lion, anyway.

Reading the news this morning, yesterday they had 11-foot waves on Lake Michigan - and I'm sure the same on the other lakes - but they showed pictures of Lake Michigan.  Even now, there are high waves.

Mary Ann

Image riddle

https://www.seniorsandfriends.org/index.php?topic=766.msg166974#msg166974

A sunny but chilly day here in Northwestern Florida.  Hard to believe that tomorrow is the first day of 2020.  Where did the years go.  Time is moving too fast for me!

Jean - I'm also trying to figure out where these past 20 years have gone?  Seems like just a couple of years ago, that we rolled over into the new century.  Then came the shock of the World Trade Center, in 1001.  After that, the next nineteen years seem to be a big blur!!  The country has changed a lot in these last two decades.

Mary Ann - I looked at Grand Haven earlier, and saw those high, wild waves!  For a change no one was walking along the shore, or anywhere else.  Have a nice time tonight at the Cottage Bar, with Tom and Robin. 

Rick - Nice to see you checking in this morning.  I think we all had the same thought about the cat box and the smoke alarm!  Funny coincidence - I went downstairs to the basement last night, to get something, and was startled by the chirping sound coming from the smoke alarm down there.  I guess it was reminding us to put in new batteries?       

Good afternoon everyone. 
Well,  today is the last day of December,
and the last day of the year 2019...
and the last day of the decade begining
with 2010.   

Wow what a decade1  yIKES. 
I am  Hwppy to see it go and hoping
that this next decade starting with
2020 is going to be a better one.

I have spent the last couple of
hours replacing my desktop computer
with  the new Laptop that I got a couple
of months ago.

What a job that is but I
managed to do it and so far
things seem to be woorking
very well.... 

(Phew !!)

I hope everyone has a
wonderful new year...

Sandy

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Shirleyn
(Here I am Marilyne  )
(~_~)

Happy New Years Eve to all.  I may stay up until 12:01 and I may not.  Tom is meeting friends at the Casino for a while but he does not plan to see the new year in; he'll come home and may be in bed at midnight.  We sure are party goers (poopers?).

Tom, Robin and I went to the Cottage Bar which is a nice restaurant close to downtown.  It is nothing elaborate but nice.  We all had some variety of hamburgs; mine was a mushroom hamburg and it was very good.  True to my tradition, I brought half of it home because I could not eat the whole thing.  We also had some Cottage Fries which are chunky potatoes and you dip them in a sauce, also very good.  I'd go there again with Tom and Robin, but it's not a place I'd go alone, especially since it's downtown and I don't live near downtown.  After we left, Tom drove around town so we could see the Christmas decorations.  Tom felt there weren't as many decorations as in past years, but there were enough for me, since I hadn't seen them in years. 

Kendrick was glad to see me and I told him I would be here all evening and that seemed to please him.

I may be back and I may not.  So --

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.

Mary Ann

Join the celebration -
https://www.earthcam.com/newyears/ts/?cam=broadcast_ny2020
https://www.earthcam.com/newyears/ts/?cam=tsevent1_ny2020

Thanks, Rick.  I didn't know if I was going to stay up but I started to play solitaire and here it is 11:30 so I think I'll watch the crowd and stay up.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mary Ann

Happy New Year everyone!

Mary Ann, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Algonac webcam is back up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8usQ37GSg0Y I'll be watching Algocanada there in a few minutes. I saw her come off the lake early this morning but forgot to check Marine City when she went by there.

Happy New Year (a bit late today!) to all you Bait and Tacklers.  My friend Bonney picked me up to attend the Little Women movie which was playing at our local theater.  It was a beautifully shot film with excellent actors and of course a happy ending with the father coming home from the war.  It you like movies with good families, you may like to visit your theater for this excellent production.

Afterwards we went to a local restaurant for supper and then home.  We also drove through several areas which still had Christmas lights outside.  It was a nice way to end the year!

Happy New Year, Every One!
Sue

HAPPY NEW YEAR - again and again.

We're well into the first day of 2020.  At least the  year will be easier to type!  We are enjoying bright sunshine and 32 degrees.  Tom has gone to Holland for much of the day and Kendrick and I are batching it.  I just got my breakfast (!) but in another hour I'll think about something for lunch.  My lunch today probably will be the remainder of my mushroom hamburger from last night.  I also have some chili that Tom got last night.  While I'm not too fond of chili, I do eat it occasionally and on Tuesday Wendy's has them 2 for the price of one and Tom often gets them then.  He likes spicier food than I do.

I've been watching Indiana Harbor go through the Soo locks.  It is a long ship and may be one of the 13 1000-footers; I'll have to look.  The ship was moving out of the lock when I came here but following the ship is the Lee A Tregurtha.  Before Lee can get into the lock, they must refill it to bring it up to Superior level, then with the ship in the lock, take it down to Huron level.  It takes time. 

Today "I'm busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find something else not to do!"

Mary Ann

Happy New Year to all the "Bait and Tacklers"  ( as Sue has named us)  I hope the New Year will be a healthy and Happy one for us all !

Have a wonderful afternoon !!

Joy

Lake Michigan is showing off with lots of high whitecaps.

Mary Ann

Looks like we've heard from just about everyone who posts on Bait & Tackle?   

Shirleyn - so good to hear from you!  I was about to send out a search party, to find you and drag you back to S&F! LOL

Two members still missing from this folder:

BEVERLY! - We haven't heard from you in a long time??  I hope everything is okay with you, and Chape, and that we will hear from you soon!

JohannMc - It's also been a long time since we heard from you?  Let us know how you are and what you've been doing?

I'll be back later - now watching a rerun of the Rose Parade. It's playing on the Hallmark Channel, this year, with a minimum of commercials. I hope everyone is having a nice New Years day.

We stayed up and watch the New Year come in.  We heard a few firecrackers in the neighborhood but not much.

Our day started off cold but it warmed up by the afternoon.  We got all our Christmas decorations put away except my miniature village.  I'm going to keep it on the mantle for awhile.

Gigi is so excited about getting new bedroom furniture and lamps.  She has been wanting it for ages so she went shopping Monday.  She took pictures of it in the store and messaged them to me.  It is supposed to come Saturday.

My oldest grandson and family always goes home to Maryland for Christmas but he couldn't travel this year because of his illness.  So his Mom (our daughter-in-law) flew to Calif. to spend Christmas with him, and his brother (our second oldest grandson) and his wife and two boys flew to Calif to spend New Years with him.  Our son has MS and not up to traveling.

I've really been tired today and just resting.  Larry found an old Tom Hanks comedy on TV.  He's been laughing so I guess it is funny.

I sure hope 2020 is a good year for all of us.

As we face the starting of our New Year, please let us remember and spare a thought to all our loved ones of last year that we have lost, whilst we are still here to venture forward...To all our missing loved ones, never to be forgotten, you will always be in our memories, and forever in our hearts....

Edited: we have another on site funeral-cremation this morning, in an hours time, 11.30am..My only onsite friend Pam from down the bottom told me of it, and her hubby Nigel just phoned to see if i had decided on going as they would take me in their car but i have declined as it would be very hard for me in the same crematorium where my Richards cremation service was held...I have relayed a message that i will be thinking of her, ( Pat ) who lost her hubby...i did get to speak to Pat by phone a week ago after i heard of her hubbies death that i send my condolences on her loss, and how sad i am to hear of this news...

Good morning, Every Bait and Tackler!  Joy, I am sorry to hear of your friend's loss.  As we age, the more we hear of the loss of friends and family.  I pray that you are doing well and can manage to get through this new loss, too.  Thoughts and prayers from here in Alabama for you and your friend.

Sue

Good morning to all!  Let me see if I can get the new year started right by posting in here – maybe it will be an inspiration to make it a habit?  Our New Years Eve was quiet.  I fell asleep about 9-ish, only to be wakened by Danny to see the ball drop on the TV.  Now, is that exciting, or what?  Yesterday was not any more exciting.  I finished cleaning my house.  I have been trying to catchup on a dirty house – all year long I was not able to do anything because of the chemo treatment side affects.  I am better now, but my energy only lasts about 3 hours.  Anyway, I have gone thru the house thoroughly & now have to start on the screen porch and the tool shed.  Danny is not much better than me & HIS tool shed is a mess.  I am sneaking stuff out to the trash barrel, trying to get that place cleaned up.  Little by little – do not want him to catch me.  He is a bit of a pack rat.  You would not believe the stuff in there that he will not throw out.  So, that is the story of my life this past month or so.  I thought I would try line dancing, but I think I will have to give that up.  Just cannot do two hours straight.

I thing this is enough for a start – do not want to bore you all!  I hope you all have a great day ~
shirleyn
(~_~)

Happy New Year, Shirley.  Don't worry about boring us because many of us make the same statement, yet we write books about what we've been doing or did in the distant past.  I'm a prime example.

I didn't do much myself yesterday.  Tom was gone much of the day and I did not get dressed until mid-afternoon.  If he had not been coming home until after midnight, I might not have gotten dressed at all.  Not driving, I have no place to go and with the colder weather, I can't sit outside and you don't walk a cat like you walk a dog.  But I did get dressed anyway.  I am dressed now today. 

Tom came home from his weight-loss meeting and found over the holidays he had lost one pound.  Now, that is hard to do over holidays; I have trouble from Thanksgiving until New Years but I held my own. 

We are enjoying a sunny day and the temperature is 44 - this is January?  I know we will get ours yet, but I like this because I can walk to the car whenever we go somewhere.

The Soo will close soon, but Lakes Michigan and Huron may be open.  Ships won't be able to go much past Detroit because Lake Erie is shallow and known the freeze over.  I saw some traffic on the St Clair River this morning.  I am going to try to do something constructive today, but I don't know what.

Before this gets TOO long, I'll quit for now.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, I am watching someone fly a kite on the beach.......would dearly love to be down walking on the beach. Waves are really rolling in and I can just imagine the sound! Edited to add.....correction he is kite surfing!!

Shirleyn, don't beat yourself up, when my husband was having chemo he slept a lot!! I think one needs to rest and while doing that your body isn't in stress and is healing faster. As you know work will always be there........

SHIRLEY - so good to see a nice long message from you!  I won't have to send out a "search party" after all!  LOL  Looks like your New Years Eve celebration was about like ours. We watched a Sharks Hockey game, then some of the various variety shows on different channels, but didn't last long on any of them.  The new music, and all the hyper excitement everywhere is just too hectic for us.  I gave up and went to bed at 10:00, but AJ stayed up  to see the New Year in.  Neither of us is interested in the Times Square  show with the huge crystal ball dropping at midnight. I usually take a look at the crowd of revelers - packed in like sardines in a can, and always wonder how they can stand it - and what do they do if they have to go to the bathroom?   One of those mysteries in life, that I will never know the answer to?   

JACKIE - I can understand why you didn't feel like attending the cremation service, on New Years Day.  You went through much unhappiness in 2019, with the loss of Richard, so it was best to not start the new year with a funeral service.  I have spent a lot of serious thought the past few days, remember friends and relatives who passed away in 2019.  So many more, now that we are  growing older. 

MARY ANN - Good to hear the Tom lost a pound, over Christmas, instead of gaining, as most people do!   He is really doing a good job of sticking with his diet this time, and I hope he continues to lose until he attains his goal!   Like you, I mostly just sat around yesterday, and didn't even leave the house to walk in the yard, as I usually do.  We had plenty of easy to prepare food here, so I didn't have to worry about meals.  I've been keeping an eye on Grand Haven, the past couple of days, and like seeing those waves, as well as the walkers and kite flyers.    I'm glad your weather is sunny and comfortable.  Ours is about the same as yours, only a little warmer during the day - mid 50's. 

Jean - Good for you and Larry, both staying up until midnight.  AJ made it, but I gave up at 10:00.   Yesterday I took down the tree ornaments and put them away, and this morning packed up the rest of the decorations, while AJ took down the outside string of lights.  Last night we watched a couple of episodes of Mrs. Maisel, which is very funny, and as you probably know, takes place in 1960+.  I love to see the clothes on the women - authentic to the era!  Also the look of the kitchens, brings back lots of nostalgia.  If you have Amazon Prime, I think you and Larry would like it.   

So another year passes, and a new one has arrived. Here we all are, ready once again, to face the future?  A little scary to contemplate, but always interesting to see what happens.  The election next Fall, is one thing that should be very exciting!     

Kendrick and I just got up from naps.  During nap time, he sleeps at the side or foot of the bed and this would be in daylight.  At night, he clings to my left hip and stays until he decides to go elsewhere.  It is not unusual for him to leave, then I will get up to go to the bathroom and there he is, sleeping in kind of a nook.  If I don't see him upstairs at any time, he is downstairs.  He doesn't bother Tom but he often sleeps, so I am told, on the top of the hideabed.  I know he has other hideaways that we don't know of.  It's hard to imagine he will be seven in July and he's been with me for over four years. 

It really is a nice day for winter, 45 degrees now, but not normal.

Marilyn, I did make it past midnight Tuesday night, but not by much.  Tom was with some friends and said he was going to leave at 10 pm but he was not home when I went to bed.  I kidded him in the morning, saying he evidently had a nice time, and he said he did so stayed.  I didn't hear him come in, but I think he got home shortly after I conked out.

My TV is funny today; it isn't the TV actually, it's the server.  Many of the channels do not show anything, but HD channels do.  I listed to a music channel and it's nice because I don't have to watch that anyway.  The sound is on whichever channel I might want to listen to, just not watch.

I've looked at Grand Haven occasionally and I've seen the waves but have not seen any kite surfers or kite flyers.  I've watched a few boats on the St Clair River but there isn't much traffic there, either. 

Mary Ann

Marilyne and all, just dropped in to post a few things at the start of a New Year! I stayed up past 12, to await my Birthday Calls from my daughters.  They always sing Happy Birthday to me; 12:02 exactly!  Now I'm another year older in actuality.

Is there anyone here, other than me, that likes Braunschweiger/liverwurst? About twice a year, I get a hankering for it, slathered with Mayo on white bread. I think my eating habits are a bit strange sometimes, although I just love "FOOD".
I forgot my black-eyed peas yesterday.  I hope that doesn't bode for bad luck.

I went to my physical therapy session this morning, still trying to get me some range of motion in my shoulder, elbow and wrist from that awful fall I had last June.  At 80, broken bones are not an experience one would like to have!

I am so very sorry that Larry H. and Jane's friend, Frankie, are having medical problems.  Will add them to my prayer list.

I have not been reading as much as I usually do (Marilyne, you may chastise me for this).  Kind of been suffering from ennui, and even my TV watching has suffered from that.  I had my bff over yesterday.  She lives close and, as I, still in the grieving process.  I have been wanting her to see a movie that I simply love, I have the DVD and have watched it multiple times..."The Intern" with Anne Hathaway and DeNiro (not anywhere near his usual roles).  A sweet, funny, but also "deep" movie.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend!

Guess I've caught up on posting for awhile.  With best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous + Healthier New Year for all of us here at S&F.