East Coast Happenings

Diane Amberg · December 08, 2013, 06:53:00 PM

WOO-HOO. It's snowing like crazy

5 inches so far. It's light and beautiful. This is supposedly going to change over to sleet and then rain, but I don't know when. The salt trucks and plows have not been out and the accidents are happening everywhere. Our one neighbor put the plow on his big pickup and just ran up and down all our neighborhood streets. A really nice fellow. All the critters have come in and are practically knocking on the door looking for food.
We had our big 125th fire company Christmas banquet last night. The big hall looked beautiful with all the lights, wreaths, garlands and three big trees. Had a wonderful time and the place was packed, nearly 300. Our company chaplin did an especially nice invocation and memorial for the members and ladies who died during the year. They also read the names of the origonal charter members who founded the fire company after the big woolen mill that employed a lot of local people burned.
We had stand by crews come from other companies and sat in our stations and covered our calls during the party.There were several calls, but the crews got paid very well...in food.. Catered shrimp cocktails and baked crab balls, fruit, cheeses and crackers, fancy sausages. Then buffet style prime rib, fresh crab stuffed flounder, baked chicken, rice pilaf, potatoes au gratin, baby green beans almondine, salads, assorted rolls and finally, little one bite pastries of many kinds and cheese cake.The prime rib was butter knife tender and had exceptional flavor. Yes, we paid for it all ourselves...no taxpayer money involved. The dance afterward helped get rid of all those tasty calories. Had a good DJ. A fun night was had by all.

Diane Amberg · December 09, 2013, 11:30:31 AM

The snow is over. The forecasters were really thrown by this storm. Our "snow showers to rain" turned into 6-12 inches,all snow. We had 6 1/2 on the picnic tables, with other parts of town having 12. Schools starting closing yesterday evening for today since there are narrow, hilly roads all over the area that the buses would have a hard time negotiating, especially since lots of people just walked away from their stuck cars.. The snow plows, once they finally got out, couldn't get around to clear the roads There may be more tomorrow. Certain personality types could get 6 months gripe and complain time ripping the weather folks for getting it wrong. I can just hear it now.

Diane Amberg · December 10, 2013, 10:04:36 AM

It's b-a-a-ck. It started snowing early this morning and has added several more inches to what we already had. There is not a breath of air moving, so the snow is stacked high on everything... just beautiful... looks like cotton candy. Might have more on Saturday and Sunday. Bingo was very sparsly attended last night.
As trees appear in front windows, and electric candles appear in all windows, it's really looking like Christmas around here. Al put the lights up on our little front porch yesterday and I'll do our window candles later today. The poor tree is still snow covered in a bucket in the back yard...should have put in the the garage! I have a laser procedure on one eye tomorrow afternoon. Not sure what all they are going to do.It somehow relaxes the blood vessels to bring the pressure down a bit. I'm just on the edge of glaucoma apparently. Time to fix brunch for Al. He is just getting up. Have a peaceful day everyone.

Diane Amberg · December 12, 2013, 01:15:36 PM

Another beautiful pre winter day. The sun is out, the sky is bright blue, the winds are calm and the snow is right where it belongs, on the yards and fields, not on roads and side walks. It's cold though, well below freezing.
My SLT procedure on my right eye went very well. They numbed the eye and then did 100 little green laser pops on the eye's blood vessels. No discomfort at all. Have two antibiotic drops for yesterday and today and that's it. Of course I had a post procedure visit scheduled for 9:30 this morning... went to start the car and got... click click click click. #@!!!%$#@! Al was still home, so he took me. The call back went well; pressure dropped from 22 to 16. YAY! I go back on December 27 for one more check.
My car battery is a good one and was just 17 months old. They did manage to get it to take a very weak, unacceptable charge and so replaced it for nothing.I'm just glad it didn't leave me stranded out some where since Al has the cell phone now. More messy weather due here on Saturday.YUK!

Diane Amberg · December 13, 2013, 10:17:02 AM

OK. New battery in place all should be good. I got an interesting message from the fire company PIO last evening. I'm to be interviewed by our local paper for a big article about the fire company's 125th anniversary. I asked " why me?" John told me it's because I've done so many varied things for so many years, from being first female member and all the ambulance work to so much fire prevention work and all the rest.I'm not the only one being interviewed of course, but I guess I'm pleased to be included.
We have company elections tonight...on Friday the 13th.That should be interesting.HA!

Maude · December 13, 2013, 10:31:40 AM

Diane,
Let us know what the name of the newspaper is and when it will be published so we can read it.

Diane Amberg · December 14, 2013, 12:11:06 PM

The Newark Post, but probably not for a week or two as he is still doing interviews. I expect my piece be short, just a few sentences. He has 125 years to cover.

Tuesday night we are having a big deal open house at our hall. It's the actual date when the founding fathers started the company 125 years ago. The governor,mayor and others are expected.I usually have 30 pounds of stuffed mushroom to make for our annual open house.This year they have upped it to 50 pounds! That's a LOT of fungus!
Maude, I'm sure you aren't really interested, but I'll play along anyway.

Maude · December 15, 2013, 06:36:17 AM

Diane, I was trying to be nice and you go making a smart remark.

Diane Amberg · December 16, 2013, 08:17:16 AM

If you are really trying to be nice, then I sincerely apologize. Usually I get nothing but criticism from you.

Diane Amberg · December 16, 2013, 03:14:03 PM

I will be so glad when this year is over... Lost another very dear friend on Dec.14.
Lou Angeli died of Hemorrhagic Sepsis. He was a firefighter and professional photo journalist for the fire service and was very well known world wide.
I met him when we were both just starting out back in the early 70's. He had come to our station 9 to make some air pack training film and used Al and several others as the "actors''. He was everyone's instant friend and helped a lot of young firefighters hone their photography skills.
He was very early on the spot at 9-11 and was the source of a lot of my "up close and personal" information about what was really going on there. Unfortunately he had health problems,especially lung, off and on ever since then. He was one of those special people who had free access and scene passes to cover most anything anywhere and knew most all the FDNY firefighters in every house.
He lost a lot of personal friends on 9-11. A number of them had been used in his films. He spent much of last summer commuting to Toronto doing a series for them. He had done a tape of the topping off of Freedom One, the new tower, and the lighting of the top lights and the flag raising, but I don't know if he finished his post production work before he fell so ill back in November.
He is the one who I asked to come to our 125th Memorial Day parade. He took photos of many of us and all our apparatus all spiffed up for the parade. I'm so sorry there will be no more. He'll be terribly missed.