We are officially out of Massachusetts! The closing on the house went off as planned on 4 November and I slept in my OWN house that night! Granted, I was really camping in the master bedroom with my camp cot, but it WAS delightfully quiet!

The next few days were spent meeting my delightful next door neighbors and getting the telephone hooked up and the mailbox installed. Josh, the boy from next door, was EXTREMELY supportive in helping me install driveway markers and the heat tape for my water pipe.

His sisters are lovely and his little brother Chris shares a lot of Willy's interests. Oh yes, we're going to like it here!

Then we U-hauled back to New York with son Willy and our precious Siamese Skaba complaining bitterly, confined in his traveling pet container! All four of us "camped" at the house that night and in the morning, a friend of Walter's showed up and helped carry EVERYTHING into our rapidly shrinking new house. THAT night the snows came!

It looks like we made it in just under the wire! It's generally about 10 degrees cooler here than in Massachusetts. The snow makes things look very lovely and even Christmassy. These are my barns:

Willy wasted no time and met the neighbors. Here he is with Jess and Chris:

Willy started school at Sidney Middle School and HE LIKES IT! He says even the school breakfasts and lunches taste great! He's doing well and is looking forward to starting wrestling soon. Meanwhile, it got to be Thanksgiving. We were invited to daughter Heidi's house in Johnson City.

Here we are with Heidi, Walter, and grandkids Erik (8) and Rachel (3). I'm wearing that infamous "Grumpy" shirt which started my nick-name. Heidi put on a marvelous spread! The turkey was great and there were lots of side dishes as well as desserts. She makes the absolutely greatest pumpkin cheese cake! And then it was back to straightening up in the new house. We are still totally "boxed" in. Had a real hard time finding my file cabinet. Turns out it was placed inside one the library's closets and the door then blocked with BOXES! Soon, I will have to change my driver's license and finally replace my rapidly rusting '86 Celebrity wagon with its 127k miles! Besides, this is pick-up country! You never know when I'll have to haul some STUFF. Transferred my American Legion membership to Post 183 in Sidney, NY, the closest real town. I have to give a special Thank You to realtor Jim Wright, who performed "above and beyond the call of duty" to get this deal put together in as little time as it took. It seems that he was the only one who appreciated my urgency in wanting to leave the Heritage Gardens Penitentary! Perhaps this explains things a little more. This letter was sent to me after I gave my "Notice to Vacate." Nov. 1 1999 Dear Mr. Keidel: Nothing could have made my morning as bright as receiving your vacate notice. I have put up with your nasty comments and your rotten attitude for too long. It gives me great pleasure to put your apartment on notice - how nice it will be to have someone who is responsible and respectful living at 70 Heritage lane #B-1. I think you should be ashamed of yourself - what a disgusting word you had to use on your reason for vacating. But then again, I would expect nothing better from someone like you. (signed) Mary C. Bredin, Manager

Of course, Mary never explains exactly HOW and WHY she deemed me irresponsible or disrespectful or what she means by "someone like you." Oh, that disgusting word? After over three and a half years of CONSTANTLY being subjected to NOISE from inconsiderate neighbors, traffic, and early morning grounds keeping, I said that my reason for leaving was that the place was too fucking noisy! The upstairs nighbor will never know how close he came on more than one occasion to having me come up and seriously injuring him in a fit of exasperation because of his constant stomping and dropping things on the floor! Oh, we LOVE it here!

8 November

Uncle Grumpy,

You forgot to put my youngest on the list this month, just look at last year November: 25 Nov 1997 Adrian Michelle Odom D1321-5 born Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. She turns 2 years old on Thanksgiving this year. Congratulations on the new place (finally). I know that you are glad that it doesn't have anyone living on top, or right beside you. The same way that I'm glad that here in Ft.Bliss we got an entire "duplex" house to ourselves, instead of a "townhouse" apartment that has neighbors on both sides like before. Oh, other news: Christen- my 13 yr.old fell Thursday afternoon (Nov.4th) and broke her right arm. She was rollerblading on the street in front of our house. A friend yelled her name and she turned around to quickly and fell. She tried to catch herself and that's how she broke her arm. Shorty rushed her to the Army hospital Emergency room; this was around 5:00 -5:30pm. She broke both bones in the arm about 3-4 inches above One of the bones came through the skin. The Orthopedic Surgeon operated on her & put 4 pins in her arm to hold the bones together. Then they put a splint on the arm. She had to go back to the surgeon Monday (today) and the doctor put a hard cast on it. I'm going to bed now, I'll talk more later.

Love, Lisa.

There are no anniversaries among my special family friends though I would like to give a special thought to my mother who died this month on Pearl Harbor Day in 1992! Here we are in 1957:

These are my seasonally appropriate trees in front of the house. They should remind you that Christmas is right around the corner! To shop WITHOUT crowds, visit my cyberstore. Click on:Grumpy's "Store" Have fun browsing through my "star gates" and filling your shopping cart. You're bound to find something for everyone on your shopping list, including YOURSELF! We accept five major credit cards and ship promptly to all countries in the free world. Hey, don't laugh! Some lady on Park Avenue in New York City bought a Charles Berlitz German language course from me last month.