Nature's life cycle

Old poinsetta is shedding its luxurious winter leaves, but young amaryllo is budding just in time for spring.......
Posted by Hello

January woes....

For me January seemed to go out, tranquil as it came in, or so I thought! A life disrupting event was lurking under the floor of my apartment......

Today I found the parket tiles in one corner of my living room soaking wet and buckling!! My prompt discovery and the intervention by the building staff makes it possible to at least contain the damage temporarily during this weekend. The plumbers will fix the leak (that stems from 2 floors above mine) next week. It's a big job, since my wall had to be broken into, my furniture moved, and everything parked somewhere. It's going to be a while until I can get back to normal. Unfortunately this is not the first experience of its kind in the aging building.

The funny part is the temporary arrangement waiting for final repairs: rags are tucked into the hole of the dripping wall and changed twice daily, just like diapers.....:-)) !

NYC snow blizzard aftermath - Jan. 2005
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Snow Blizzard

The first real big snow storm of this winter has blanketed NYC in the past 24 hours. I had saturday night plans of joining friends for a birthday gathering at the French Culinary Institute, but am glad to stay home. Even this dining facility closed its place by midday because of the forecast. Its' a perfectly good time to catch up on accumulated paperwork!

The high winds are strangely blowing the snow sideways, ......I have seen many storms in the city, but don't remember ever seeing windows half covered by a thick white layer that is sticking to the glass, and not only accumulating on the window sills. Real weird scenery.

Chores

The 2nd week of this month was a busy, but a dreary one. The reality of the new year imposes a cleanup and reorganization of last year expenses, especially the ones related to all my travels with the handling of 3 different currencies! It's also a time for physical checkups and medical tests -- fortunately, all good so far!

Installed a brand new LCD flat screen monitor on my desktop without a hitch. It's 19" viewing area is great, but it's spoiling me. I now find it difficult to deal with the smaller characters when I need to revert to my laptop. Lots of cleanup and backups are also a must on both machines, in addition to the annual review for archiving of business files. All real necessities, but a monotonous and boring time!

Solutions

Well....a brand new monitor is on the way, and some pictures are posted next to the travel experiences of last year (see October and November postings).

There is a solution to every problem - it's just a question of putting the mind to it!

Hi 2005!

Trying, to no avail, to post some pictures from last year's travels using new software. Meanwhile, also lost the use of my desktop monitor, which just died. Thank goodness for my (backup) laptop. What a frustrating way to begin the new year, though, but must roll up my sleeves and persist to accomplish needed solution as soon as possible!!