Update on The Epler Schoolhouse

Greetings, friends! This post is an update to an older post I had published back in May of 2018 regarding The Epler School house built back in 1847. This schoolhouse has resided down the road from me for many, many years. More recently; however, this historic structure was to be relocated to a new home at the Berks County Heritage Center where excavation was set to begin a couple of weeks ago.

Sadly, I read an article in today's local news that due to the corona virus situation, State funding has been cut off in order to save this lovely historic school house and move it to its' new location as originally planned. The only way to save it now is to raise the $110,000 needed to prevent the Berks County officials from demolishing it. This breaks my heart because it IS a piece of my  County and State's history after all! I really do hope that this beautiful old school can be saved!!

Stray Cat Strut ... and a Ginger-cat, too!!

Just a Sunday evening quick post. It appears that our little Miss Ginger thinks she is part dog - she began this cute habit of fetching her ball and dropping it into the palm of our hands! Her new nickname is "Puppy cat"  LOL!!

Fetching ...

Fetching ...

Wait for it ...

There we go ... now throw it again for me, Mommy! 😽😻😺😹

Have a good night, friends!!

A song for Saturday (and some other stuff) ...

Greetings everyone! Yesterday, immediately after I published my previous post, we lost our electric. But, fortunately Met-Ed was on it and quickly got us back up again so we only were out for about an hour. This is the perfect example of why I refuse to give up my land phone like everyone else I know seems to have done in lieu of a cell phone. Even though we have three cordless phones in the house, because they work off of the receiver they are all totally useless when we lose our electric! I am so glad I was able to keep at least ONE of our land phones set up downstairs (remember the black shoe phone Brett plugged in last year in the room that is now our office space?). Brett does have a cell phone; however, THAT is useless as well since we have an old house with a metal roof there is no way to get a cell phone signal inside and no way to charge it without electric if it needs to be. We must always go outside of the house to make any calls. My point? - cell phones also need power to keep them charged so ... I rest my case. 

And, since I will now have a few days off from work, I think I will take it easy and chill with the "kits". Perhaps continue cleaning up the house (not much else to do anyhow) and do more organizing. 

We have had nothing but cold and rainy weather here in my area for the past week or so. Yesterday was no exception and one of the poor stray kitties we have been feeding outside since last spring took shelter inside of our igloo in our backyard so I was able to get a pic of him/her from Merlin's catio window ...

Can you see the cat at bottom right-hand side in the igloo?

Speaking of cats, I just had to include a couple of new pics of my God-kitty (Aurora Skye's poly dactyl cat) Pumpkin - Oh, how I adore that kitty cat! ... Aurora tells me that Pumpkin never leaves her side since she is temporarily off from work ... 😻😸💗

Well, that is about all for now - take care ALL!

It is what it is ...

My entire life, when times were hard or something in life upset us in any way, my beloved dad used to always repeat those very words to us: "It is what it is." Well, I knew he was right - as he usually was even if I did not realize it at the time because I was just a kid. Things are crazy for everyone right now and times are extremely uncertain with all that is going on around us. I, myself, am currently still working which I can not complain about since so many folks are not able to and as a result struggling just to pay their bills. Yes, there is always unemployment BUT remember, that does very little to cover ones' life expenses such as heat, electric, rent/mortgage, food, taxes, and so on. Trust me, I have been there too many times in my own life to count through the years and the last time was only a year and a half ago! My only saving grace during that time was the fact that my last employer gave us a decent severance pay based on our years of employment as my husband was not working then yet either.

However, I am still pretty fearful of the fact that once again I could also be joining the many who are already not working and/or temporarily unemployed as I was not too long ago. I do not have the type of job that I would be able to work from home. Companies are struggling financially (my husband's as well as he was told he has to take three weeks without pay just to keep his job at this point). Talk about scared, yes of course I am along with everyone else, but 'it is what it is', right? I have always been a firm believer that we can never have total and complete control over our lives - there are still some things/situations in life which are simply out of our hands. That is when it is of the utmost importance that we have faith that things will eventually work out in the end.

My company is giving us today, next Monday and Tuesday off with pay, but I have no idea what the reason or reasons were for their decision to do this? I can surmise what they may be; however, we cannot know for sure. And, although I am grateful for this, still in all it makes me extremely uneasy about things and just how secure my own job is or will be in the very near future? BTW, why do I keep saying, 'it is what it is'? Well, oddly enough a co-worker also says those exact words ALL THE TIME at work. In fact, she says them almost every single day - lol!

That being said, this Saturday Brett and I had tickets to go see a British group Pink Floyd tribute band named, "Brit Floyd" which he bought for me as a gift last November. Needless to say, that show has been cancelled and is supposed to be re-scheduled for another date unknown as of yet. I had never heard of this band before, but apparently they have quite the following. So, I had YouTube'd some of their videos and WOW! I was really blown away! (Hey, 'it is what it is', right?) Have a great day, friends!!

Wordless Wednesday - a little glimpse of my youth

(My original 45 rpm record from when I was a kid which I still have to this day.)

Happy Wednesday everyone! Ever had a song come back to you after many, many years? Well, this song was and and still IS one of my all-time favorite rock ballads - "Beth" as sung by drummer Peter Criss from the 70's rock group "Kiss." This music clip is from their 1995 Kiss: Unplugged (or should I say 'unmasked'?) ... Enjoy!

Saturday night ...

Greetings, friends! Not too much new hapenin' here as of late other than the usual insanity! Hope you are all doing well.

Yesterday, my steampunk outfit arrived in the mail and it seems to fit okay. I also ordered some pretty white boots on WISH.com to wear with it. I hope THEY fit as I really hate to order shoes online - would rather try them on in person, but ...

This past week, I tried some more new food dinners on Chef Jesenia's menu ...

Lentil soup.

Shepherd's pie.

And for dessert, I decided to try something different - a Keto Chocolate cake ...

Kitties still chillin' as always ...

Today, I went to CVS and printed off my mom's pics she had me take from two weeks ago of her dog, Brandi's 14th birthday ... 

My mother treats it like a real "photo session" -  too funny - LOL!

Blessed Sunday!

HAPPY SUNDAY,  FRIENDS!!

"Just living is not enough - one must have sunshine,   freedom, and a little   flower."  ~ Hans Christian Anderson

Our first tulips of the year just SPRUNG! ...

 

A Saturday odds and ends ...

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you all are faring well. On the home front, while I get some things accomplished around the house when I am not working on the weekends, the cats are very much unaffected by it all as they are still "chilling" as usual ...

Sir Leo guarding my lap top.

Butterscotch in his favorite spot by the living room window.

Speaking of work, so far we are still able to work while our dictator Governor Wolf is just chomping at the bit to close EVERYONE and EVERYTHING down including our medical facilities which he "allowed" us to keep open for business as it is considered (and IS) an essential medical need! I will not get into politics here as I am not really affiliated with any particular party at this point, but working under the worry that Gov. Wolfs cronies will just show up at will and have the power to shut us all down creating  not only even more financial stress on our economy but allowing much needed eye surgeries to not be performed leaving many completely and totally blind  - he is a real moron in my book! Let's just say that he has upset a lot of people here in PA, enough to have quite a few lawsuits brought against him by businesses who have had to lay off their employees here (just what everyone needs more of - unemployed worker's like my family and many others in our already dying area) in Berks County alone. IMO, this is absolutely unacceptable. Okay, rant officially over now - LOL

In the meantime, we are all doing the right thing and abiding by the law and necessary regulations that are expected of us both while at work and outside of work. We were each given a personal thermometer to check our temperatures BEFORE work and we are also being checked by a security guard before we are allowed to enter the building to work ...

Along with the usual and normal cleansing/sanitary products, and gloves, fingers cots which we use each and every day while at work, we were given medical masks and these little hand sanitizers to carry with us ...

Well, enough about that - this  week I ordered another new item from Chef Jesenia's menu ...

Homemade lasagna with garlic bread.

And for dessert, some of her delicious blueberry muffins! Sooo good!

And, since I just got done paying our first set of taxes, I was finally able to order this dress for this year's Witches Masquerade Ball  2020 - the theme this year will be steampunk which is not quite my thing, but I did like the dress a lot so here's hoping it fits lol ... 😎

First nice day we have had in a few so I am heading out for a quick walk and then back to my house cleaning for the rest of the day. Stay safe ALL!

Monday This and That ...

Greetings, friends! I have been meaning to post sooner, but I am afraid that the weekend simply got away from me. I have been very busy still working downstairs - only this time I was cleaning up and re-arranging the altar room. While I was at it, I decided to begin setting up my Beltane altar as well for May ...

And, do you remember what the altar room looked like a few days ago? 

Before ...

After ...

)o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(

Last week, I ordered some more new dinner items from Chef Jesenia's menu ...

"Over-loaded Potatoes"

Batter-dipped fried chicken thighs with homemade macaroni and cheese.

And one of her desserts, Tiramisu!

Two side dishes of roasted potatoes and corn on the cob.

😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻 😻😻

While doing my weekly shopping with my mom yesterday, I just couldn't resist this little treasure I found at Petsmart - a new outfit for Ginger ...

Over the weekend, the weather was nice enough to go for my walks again - something that I have n noticed quite a few folks in my neighborhood have also decided to do! 👍