Happy Belated Birthday, Pennydreadful.  I hope you had a blast

I was surprised by that bit about Liz successfully petitioning to have her property taxes reduced due to the fact that half of Collinwood was closed off (which says a lot about the Collins' financial situation, don't you think?).  Do you know if that's really possible there?  I'm about to pay taxes here on an addition that's not even built yet.  :-

     I met an old women recently at her home. She showed me her sunroom.  It was just a small roof outside her dining room.  Her husband had removed all the screened walls.  The city told him he could reduce his taxes by dismantling it every autumn.  I guess every little bit helps.  However, I don't think they would let you just seal off parts of your house to avoid the taxes.  One eldrely women came into see the assessor to plead with them to lower her assessment.  She had a four bedroom house.  The assessor callously told her to sell her home because she no longer needed four bedrooms.  I think she would have gladly sealed off the rooms rather than be forced out of her home of 40 years.
   After I moved to Maine 17 years ago, California tried to collect income taxes from me.  The letter stated something about how they still considered me a resident eventhough I owned no property and was living in Maine.  Can you believe the gall?

Happy Birthday, Misa

     Wow, Luciaphil.  What a Christmas treat and non-fattening, too.  I love the way you talk about the slow passage of time in Collinsport, Me.  I live in Maine and some winter days seem to take weeks to end.

     Thank you, D Friedlander for some history on this poor piece of abused fabric.  I am an avid knitter and crocheter.  Afghans take many hours of work to complete.  I have a knitted or crocheted blanket in every room.  Some color combinations that looked good in the past can definitely date the poor afghan.  My grandmother crocheted the many colored granny afghan that looked like the one some times seen in Maggie's living room.  She did it to use up leftovers from many other projects.  I hate working on granny squares because I hate to have to sew them together.  I currently have a granny square afghan completed sitting in four shopping bags because I just don't want to sew the darn thing together.  I finished it in 1995.

     From Mark's comment about eating a dead bird and Pennydreadful's cartoon,  my leftover turkey is looking less appetizing.  Here in Maine, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It snowed all day Wednesday and Thursday.  The poor souls in Hancock county lost power.  What do you do with a half-cooked turkey during a snowstorm?  Fortunately, my power only winked out once but at least the pie was cooked.  I have my priorities straight.

     I have a scary halloween story. The town nearby by has their own "Rev. Trask".  He says we are all paying homage to evil by letting our children trick or treat.   Of course, he is the same nut who gathered his followers in the park to burn "Harry Potter" books but the city refused to give them a burn permit.  They showed up anyway but brought scissors instead.  A bunch of local librarians showed up to counter protest the destruction of books(Go get'm, librarians. They are a feisty bunch when riled up.)
     My son and I intend to go out in evil costumes.  My son has a smiley face mask and I am wearing a bright orange sweatshirt with a kitty on it saying "Got Candy?".  We will collect as much evil candy as his evil bucket will carry and eat it until our evil tummies burst.  

     Now all we need is a video based on Leonard Nimoy's rendition of "Bilbo Baggins, greatest little hobbit of them all".  Does Dr. Demento still broadcast anywhere?  This is where I first heard William Shatner "sing".  My sister's friend has an album of Mae West singing Beatle tunes.  Too bad Shatner and West didn't team up and butcher The Rolling Stones music.