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This is an article about my great-grandpa, from Ferndale, Michigan's local newspaper at the time.  He was my Grandma Peet's father and a real sweetheart.  My mother used to sit on his lap while he read the funny papers to her. 

Since I received this clipping in the mail from my mom about a week ago, I've been trying to find my inner Haller whenever I become impatient with customers at work or feel a little road rage.

This, combined with (some of) the national dialogue following the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, has me liking people a little more these days.  Monte Belmonte had a great series of discussions with local folks on his morning show about how we need to change our political mentality and be a little more compassionate toward each other.  It was hard to get out of my car once I arrived at work.

And, I didn't see the whole thing, but heard snippets on NPR of President Obama's speech to memorialize those who didn't survive the shooting in Tucson.  It's pretty difficult to find a favorite part, but here it is:

None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind. Yes, we have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do.

As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.

The end of procrastination for now

It's taken Michael and I around two and a half years to put together our wedding album.  We're not quite there yet, but we took the most daunting step: choosing around 60 photos out of 777 amazing ones (shot by Liesl Henrichsen) to paste into a scrapbook that Michael's sister made for us as a wedding present.  I can't wait to have actual photographs in hand so soon.

Birdhouse in the bushes

On a morning walk on Christmas day, Sully and I stepped out our front gate to complete silence.  Until then, I hadn't noticed that there's a pretty consistent hum of cars, trucks, and people in our neighborhood.  I stood and took it all in while Sully had her morning pee.

We headed across the street and I spotted a birdhouse hanging in the bushes.  I didn't get a chance to get a closeup look until today. 

Our apartment is in the orange house on the left side of the frame

A flock of sparrows or starlings, depending on the time of year, can often be spotted flying around and through the bushes.   Now they'll have a cozy place to rest during the cold winter months, thanks to one of the bird lovers in town.

Icy brook

If I take the way to work that takes me past Brook's Bend's sheep, I drive right along the Connecticut River further down the road.  There are lots of scenic New England-y vistas, but this has been my favorite this week.  It's a brook that runs alongside the river if water levels are high enough - otherwise it's dry. 

The river's water level must have risen, the brook froze, then the water level fell again.  This has created something like those sidewalk puddles that freeze over then are stomped on by passersby, but on a bigger scale.

Every time I drive by, I want to stop the car and stomp around on the ice...

2nd Street Baking Co.

2nd Street, TFMA

I try to make breakfast and tea at home to save money, but every once in a while I find myself without anything on hand.  When this happens, I often go to Turners Falls' trusty baking company (it's the first building in the photo with lots o' Christmas decorations).  In the two plus years that we've lived in town, the bakery has gone from a one-room cafe with a couple of cases of baked goods to a two-room cafe and lunch place with countless (I could count them, I guess) cases of baked goodies.

My most-visited cases are the savory croissant case (the morning pictured here I got a spinach and goat cheese croissant) and the breakfast pastry/muffin case.  My most memorable muffin purchase was a tasty peanut butter and banana concoction.  My most-often-purchased is probably the almond croissant.

The bakery was recently caught up in the whole Cooks Source debacle.  They hastily revoked their sponsorship of the local magazine, which was caught plagiarizing all kinds of articles and recipes, thus gaining 300 Facebook friends in 3 days.  Which is a lot for a bakery in a small town like ours.  All these new friends wanted to send them money for being so great with the whole thing, but they suggested instead that donations be made to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.  They also have different donation jars from week-to-week in lieu of tip jars.  Good people and good food.

rainy December day

As of last night we had a dusting of snow in some spots.  As of this morning, we have a thin layer of ice on the ground.  And it's raining...

Michael, Sully, and I are bumming around the apartment, listening to records - a little Emmylou Harris earlier.  Jason Molina's Pyramid Electric Co. right now, which fits this rainy day just right.

little flakes of snow

It either started snowing right when I left work today, or I just hadn't noticed that it had started while I was working.  It's a pretty light snow with tiny flakes which are starting to cover the ground just a little bit.  Sully's face was shiny with melted flakes when we came back from our after-work walk, on which we met a pug in a sweater who "barked" a little like this when Sully started being a jerk to him/her...