Bunny Hop
Hello World,
And so here we've come to the end of yet another in a long and seemingly unending series of weeks, and before the next week is out, we'll be ushering in a whole new month, believe that or don't. The plain fact of it is that we're right at the brink of the last week in April, and although it might be premature to hope that we've left the 40-degree weather behind us at long last, it did seem equally preposterous to have days bordering on 80 degrees when it isn't even May, for heaven's sake. One thing you could say about April in these parts, it certainly couldn't seem to make up its mind what it wanted to do with itself, at least in terms of the weather. It reminded me of an indecisive teenager trying to get dressed, only instead of clothes, it had a closet full of weather conditions, and it just kept tossing them out one after another to see if anything fit. "Cold? I guess that would be okay .... oh, maybe not. Say, here's some rain, we haven't had that for a while ... Gee, that heat wave looks pretty good, I could probably pair that with some thunderstorms .... Hey, I forgot all about those snow flurries over there, that might be a nice change of pace .... That sunshine is still in good shape, but I'm so tired of the same old thing ..... Oh my gosh, where did I get all this fog, I'm never going to use all of that ..... I wonder what would happen if I tried putting high winds and hail together .... Whatever happened to that ice storm, I could have sworn it was back here somewhere ..... " Meanwhile, Comrade Mischka is at the bottom of the stairs, tapping his foot and shouting, "We haven't got all day, nyet?" At least, that's how it seemed around here, anyway.
However, I will say that all of the unconventional weather did nothing to stem the tide of spring flowers in our yard, as they put on a show in abundance of riotous color. They were like the Energizer Bunny, they just kept on going and going, everywhere you looked. There were even tulips, not just early tulips, but regular tulips, which is an innovation that I never expected to see in April, and certainly not in our yard, where our juvenile delinquent squirrels routinely chew the heads off the plants before they bloom every year. For some reason, we had a bumper crop of tulips, and in April no less, and I was just thinking to myself that it could only be the end of the world, because there was no other logical explanation. "Why, the next thing you know, there'll be grape hyacinths!" I was saying this to myself in an affronted manner, as I walked through the back yard past waves of red and yellow tulips, and just at that moment, I happened upon a whole clump of grape hyacinths, and looking like April was not a bit too early for them. Of course, everyone knows there are no standards anymore. One thing I was expecting early, but apparently isn't, would be our neighbor's beautiful dogwoods along our driveway, and which I look forward to every year. But when I wasn't expecting it, on the other side of the yard, the magnolia burst into bloom, with its snowy blossoms wafting their wonderful fragrance through the air. Right after that, the entire front yard exploded in a sea of violets, while the backyard was choking under a flood of garlic mustard, which is described by our newspaper as "a foreign invasive weed," and they're not kidding. No amount of crazy April weather was slowing those things down, not by a long shot.
This is normally where I'd be regaling everyone with tales from the Secretary's Day luncheon put on by our friends at the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, where every year is a fun and interesting adventure, and a good time is had by all. Not so fast! I finally called the lady who coordinates the event for the hospital, and told her that I hadn't gotten an invitation, and this was the first I found out that there was a decision made that the hospital would not be participating in the luncheon this year. Now, I've been working there since 1989, and this is the first year ever that the hospital didn't send dozens of people to this shindig, so I was simply aghast at this horrible news. No boring speeches by the mayor! No goofy plaques or proclamations for local legislators and council members! No raffle prizes, bad banquet food or goodie bags! The very idea was unthinkable, and the unthinkable had indeed happened. Oh, the humanity!
Of course, it must be said that I like the luncheon as much as the next fellow, and probably more than most, but missing the luncheon was not what bothered me the most. (Although historically, the hospital's employees take up most of the tables, so I can't imagine what kind of luncheon they could have had without us.) I understand that in difficult economic times, unpopular decisions must be made to cut down on expenses, and the luncheon was just another casualty, as the Christmas party had been in December. Mostly what I objected to was that the hospital provided no alternative to recognize the secretaries and administrative professionals on their special day. There was no party in the cafeteria, no banners and goodies in the lobby, no picnic in the parking lot. At the very least, I thought they should have invited all of us to the Auditorium, where the hospital President could have given a boring speech and thanked us for our contributions to the organization, then hand everyone a paper certificate or a key chain with the hospital logo, they must have a gazillion of them, for heaven's sake. Being neglected on the one day that was invented just so that the clerical workers would not be taken for granted, well, it was a bitter pill to swallow. I was very upset by the whole situation, and decided to take the afternoon off anyway, and entertain myself in spite of having no luncheon to go to, no thank you so very much not. Bill, who is chivalrous in the extreme, was gallant enough to take time out of his busy day and treat me to lunch, which was a fun and unusual outing for us in the middle of the day. But it certainly wasn't the same as the fabled Secretary's Day luncheon of lore and legend, and I ought to know, because I would be at the forefront of its legions of disappointed fans. Honestly, first it was HealthStream, and now this. At this rate, we're not going to have anything to make fun of pretty soon.
Speaking of things we can't make fun of, alert readers may have wondered why they never heard anything about my high school reunion in 2007. Remember this graduating class was so full of party animals that they had the first reunion in 1977, a scant 5 years after graduation, when most of us were still living with our parents and acting like, well, a bunch of high school students still. Talk about the Energizer Bunny of reunions, that was certainly us, and in spades. There was a reunion every 5 years, and here again, I ought to know, because I went to each and every single one of them, in 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 and all the way up to 2002, and I still have the party dresses to prove it. So, starting in 2006, I began checking the reunion message boards with our friends at classmates.com, waiting to get the early word on the 2007 reunion, so I could be prepared for it. Well, I checked early and often, all through 2006 and 2007, but it was all in vain, because there never was a reunion for our class, for the first time since we graduated. I would not have been surprised, if we had skipped other years along the way, or if the events were unpopular or poorly attended, but each one was a rollicking success, and all over the room, you could always hear people saying, "We should do this every year!" So for our 35th year to come and go with no fanfare, not even a smidgen of interest in having a reunion after the previous six, it was certainly unexpected and disappointingly so. I suppose we should be encouraged that the party animals from the Class of 1972 have finally grown up, but for crying out loud, did they all have to finally grow up at the same time?
These certainly have been the times that try mens' souls, not to mention secretaries, and it would be all too easy to find ourselves down in the dumps. Frankly, I've never found the dumps all that interesting, so I wasn't keen on going down there. After my "mini Secretary's Day lunch" with Bill, I decided to spend some time at Tony's Nursery in nearby Larchmont, just strolling among the beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees, plus attractive landscape elements, and enjoying a lovely day in the great outdoors. It was very relaxing, and I felt invigorated by all of the robust vegetation just bursting out all around me. In one section just outside the greenhouse, they have flats of various ground covers and low maintenance plants like vinca and clover, that will pretty much do well anywhere and no matter what. I admit that I did a double-take at the sight of pots full of Thorndale Ivy and Pachysandra, and I couldn't help but wonder if they were really selling that stuff? I happen to know people who have spent a lot of money, and countless hours of manpower, to have those eradicated from their yards, and often with mixed success, because once they get a toe-hold, they're practically impossible to discourage. It made me wonder if next, I was going to see a sign that said:
================
Now On Sale!
~*~ POISON IVY ~*~
For Those Problem Areas In Your Yard
================
Well, that would certainly be an idea whose time has not yet come, and in fact, might never come, although it must be said that just being a bad idea is no guarantee of failure any longer, heaven knows. After all, we may not have HealthStream, or the Secretary's Day luncheon, or my high school reunion to kick around anymore, but by golly, the poison ivy just keeps on going and going and going .....
And so here we've come to the end of yet another in a long and seemingly unending series of weeks, and before the next week is out, we'll be ushering in a whole new month, believe that or don't. The plain fact of it is that we're right at the brink of the last week in April, and although it might be premature to hope that we've left the 40-degree weather behind us at long last, it did seem equally preposterous to have days bordering on 80 degrees when it isn't even May, for heaven's sake. One thing you could say about April in these parts, it certainly couldn't seem to make up its mind what it wanted to do with itself, at least in terms of the weather. It reminded me of an indecisive teenager trying to get dressed, only instead of clothes, it had a closet full of weather conditions, and it just kept tossing them out one after another to see if anything fit. "Cold? I guess that would be okay .... oh, maybe not. Say, here's some rain, we haven't had that for a while ... Gee, that heat wave looks pretty good, I could probably pair that with some thunderstorms .... Hey, I forgot all about those snow flurries over there, that might be a nice change of pace .... That sunshine is still in good shape, but I'm so tired of the same old thing ..... Oh my gosh, where did I get all this fog, I'm never going to use all of that ..... I wonder what would happen if I tried putting high winds and hail together .... Whatever happened to that ice storm, I could have sworn it was back here somewhere ..... " Meanwhile, Comrade Mischka is at the bottom of the stairs, tapping his foot and shouting, "We haven't got all day, nyet?" At least, that's how it seemed around here, anyway.
However, I will say that all of the unconventional weather did nothing to stem the tide of spring flowers in our yard, as they put on a show in abundance of riotous color. They were like the Energizer Bunny, they just kept on going and going, everywhere you looked. There were even tulips, not just early tulips, but regular tulips, which is an innovation that I never expected to see in April, and certainly not in our yard, where our juvenile delinquent squirrels routinely chew the heads off the plants before they bloom every year. For some reason, we had a bumper crop of tulips, and in April no less, and I was just thinking to myself that it could only be the end of the world, because there was no other logical explanation. "Why, the next thing you know, there'll be grape hyacinths!" I was saying this to myself in an affronted manner, as I walked through the back yard past waves of red and yellow tulips, and just at that moment, I happened upon a whole clump of grape hyacinths, and looking like April was not a bit too early for them. Of course, everyone knows there are no standards anymore. One thing I was expecting early, but apparently isn't, would be our neighbor's beautiful dogwoods along our driveway, and which I look forward to every year. But when I wasn't expecting it, on the other side of the yard, the magnolia burst into bloom, with its snowy blossoms wafting their wonderful fragrance through the air. Right after that, the entire front yard exploded in a sea of violets, while the backyard was choking under a flood of garlic mustard, which is described by our newspaper as "a foreign invasive weed," and they're not kidding. No amount of crazy April weather was slowing those things down, not by a long shot.
This is normally where I'd be regaling everyone with tales from the Secretary's Day luncheon put on by our friends at the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, where every year is a fun and interesting adventure, and a good time is had by all. Not so fast! I finally called the lady who coordinates the event for the hospital, and told her that I hadn't gotten an invitation, and this was the first I found out that there was a decision made that the hospital would not be participating in the luncheon this year. Now, I've been working there since 1989, and this is the first year ever that the hospital didn't send dozens of people to this shindig, so I was simply aghast at this horrible news. No boring speeches by the mayor! No goofy plaques or proclamations for local legislators and council members! No raffle prizes, bad banquet food or goodie bags! The very idea was unthinkable, and the unthinkable had indeed happened. Oh, the humanity!
Of course, it must be said that I like the luncheon as much as the next fellow, and probably more than most, but missing the luncheon was not what bothered me the most. (Although historically, the hospital's employees take up most of the tables, so I can't imagine what kind of luncheon they could have had without us.) I understand that in difficult economic times, unpopular decisions must be made to cut down on expenses, and the luncheon was just another casualty, as the Christmas party had been in December. Mostly what I objected to was that the hospital provided no alternative to recognize the secretaries and administrative professionals on their special day. There was no party in the cafeteria, no banners and goodies in the lobby, no picnic in the parking lot. At the very least, I thought they should have invited all of us to the Auditorium, where the hospital President could have given a boring speech and thanked us for our contributions to the organization, then hand everyone a paper certificate or a key chain with the hospital logo, they must have a gazillion of them, for heaven's sake. Being neglected on the one day that was invented just so that the clerical workers would not be taken for granted, well, it was a bitter pill to swallow. I was very upset by the whole situation, and decided to take the afternoon off anyway, and entertain myself in spite of having no luncheon to go to, no thank you so very much not. Bill, who is chivalrous in the extreme, was gallant enough to take time out of his busy day and treat me to lunch, which was a fun and unusual outing for us in the middle of the day. But it certainly wasn't the same as the fabled Secretary's Day luncheon of lore and legend, and I ought to know, because I would be at the forefront of its legions of disappointed fans. Honestly, first it was HealthStream, and now this. At this rate, we're not going to have anything to make fun of pretty soon.
Speaking of things we can't make fun of, alert readers may have wondered why they never heard anything about my high school reunion in 2007. Remember this graduating class was so full of party animals that they had the first reunion in 1977, a scant 5 years after graduation, when most of us were still living with our parents and acting like, well, a bunch of high school students still. Talk about the Energizer Bunny of reunions, that was certainly us, and in spades. There was a reunion every 5 years, and here again, I ought to know, because I went to each and every single one of them, in 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 and all the way up to 2002, and I still have the party dresses to prove it. So, starting in 2006, I began checking the reunion message boards with our friends at classmates.com, waiting to get the early word on the 2007 reunion, so I could be prepared for it. Well, I checked early and often, all through 2006 and 2007, but it was all in vain, because there never was a reunion for our class, for the first time since we graduated. I would not have been surprised, if we had skipped other years along the way, or if the events were unpopular or poorly attended, but each one was a rollicking success, and all over the room, you could always hear people saying, "We should do this every year!" So for our 35th year to come and go with no fanfare, not even a smidgen of interest in having a reunion after the previous six, it was certainly unexpected and disappointingly so. I suppose we should be encouraged that the party animals from the Class of 1972 have finally grown up, but for crying out loud, did they all have to finally grow up at the same time?
These certainly have been the times that try mens' souls, not to mention secretaries, and it would be all too easy to find ourselves down in the dumps. Frankly, I've never found the dumps all that interesting, so I wasn't keen on going down there. After my "mini Secretary's Day lunch" with Bill, I decided to spend some time at Tony's Nursery in nearby Larchmont, just strolling among the beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees, plus attractive landscape elements, and enjoying a lovely day in the great outdoors. It was very relaxing, and I felt invigorated by all of the robust vegetation just bursting out all around me. In one section just outside the greenhouse, they have flats of various ground covers and low maintenance plants like vinca and clover, that will pretty much do well anywhere and no matter what. I admit that I did a double-take at the sight of pots full of Thorndale Ivy and Pachysandra, and I couldn't help but wonder if they were really selling that stuff? I happen to know people who have spent a lot of money, and countless hours of manpower, to have those eradicated from their yards, and often with mixed success, because once they get a toe-hold, they're practically impossible to discourage. It made me wonder if next, I was going to see a sign that said:
================
Now On Sale!
~*~ POISON IVY ~*~
For Those Problem Areas In Your Yard
================
Well, that would certainly be an idea whose time has not yet come, and in fact, might never come, although it must be said that just being a bad idea is no guarantee of failure any longer, heaven knows. After all, we may not have HealthStream, or the Secretary's Day luncheon, or my high school reunion to kick around anymore, but by golly, the poison ivy just keeps on going and going and going .....
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 8:54 PM
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