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Silver Woods now developing … garbage?

29 Apr

My husband and I were taking our after-dinner stroll through the neighborhood last night when we came across this pile of garbage alongside the road:

What was interesting about this pile was it was deposited nowhere near any residence, but in a common green space at the entrance to the Silver Woods development off of Hatch Road.  I asked a passing neighbor about it, who said she first saw it there on Friday.  As of this morning, when I took these photos, it was still there.

So here are my questions: Did some inconsiderate blockhead dump it there because they missed their own garbage pick-up day? I prefer to think that maybe someone had cleaned up the nearby woodlot and left the results there to be picked up. You’d think that whoever had agreed to do that (Silver Woods management?) would have done so by now.

Whichever the case, whoever is responsible for that land (Silver Woods management?) should get on the ball and pick up the garbage. If I lived across the street from it, I’d be rather annoyed.

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Thoughts from the Ridge

29 Apr

Heading to and from Barry’s Old School Irish last night for our weekly visit with good friends, good music and good drink, some thoughts came to mind:

The Firestone Store at 901 Ridge, between Five Mile Line and Hard roads, looks brand-spanking new. I remember getting a “Grand Re-opening!” advertisement in the mail from them recently. Might be worth checking out.

ESL Credit Union has apparently recently replaced their drive-up ATM machines. Make sure you get close enough, because otherwise you’ll have to be a contortionist to do everything.

There’s a house on the edge of the village that still has Christmas stars lining its eaves. Time to take them down, folks. With this week’s 30-degree temperatures, I can understand their confusion. Perhaps they should have taken them down in January when it was 80 degrees.

The gas price at the Sunoco at the corner of Five Mile Line is down to $4.00, while the village price is still $4.11.  WHY would anyone get their gas there?

Play It Again Sports has been gone from that little plaza for, what, many months now? Why does their sign still burn brightly at night?

And why, at 11:30 at night, why does the traffic light at the K-Mart Plaza/CVS still change to red for Ridge Road traffic without provocation? C’mon folks, that one needs to be taken off the timer.

I had the real pleasure of meeting Pat and Debbie Bush last night at Barry’s, the new owners of Webster Hots. I’ll be stopping by their place in the near future to see what they’ve been up to since buying the restaurant in December, and very soon will hopefully be able to help them spread news of some exciting changes they have in store. So stay tuned.

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Four years later and you’re STILL reading? Cool.

26 Apr

An anniversary of sorts slipped quietly by the other day.

Exactly four years and one week ago, I posted my first blog for the Democrat and Chronicle. I never dreamed back then that I would still be doing this four years later, and still be having so much fun.  It gives me an excuse to seek out the best that Webster has to offer, meet some great people and attend all sorts of great events.  I have made so many new friends since I began blogging that I cannot even begin to count them.

For someone who loves to write, this is the greatest hobby in the world. Not only do I get to write about the things I like to write about, it’s definitely fun to see my posts published, and very gratifying to know that a lot of people actually DO read them and DO enjoy them.  I’m particularly excited that I’ve almost reached 300 “likes” on my blog Facebook page.  That’s pretty cool if you think about it.

So thanks to the folks at the Democrat and Chronicle for allowing me to continue to blather on all this time. And of course thanks to all of my readers who enjoy what I write and who keep feeding me good ideas.

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These Thomas High kids don’t complain about their homework

26 Apr

Mary Heveron-Smith, a teacher colleague of mine at Webster Thomas, told me a funny story the other day which I just had to pass along.

It was the day before Spring Break, and Mary was working late at school, finishing up some last-minute tasks before leaving for a week’s vacation in Tennessee. They included collecting her students’ writing folders so she could grade papers while they drove (do teachers EVER take real vacations?) and posting the following week’s vocabulary homework onto her classroom website.  When everything was packed up, posted and ready to go, she and her husband headed off for a much-anticipated visit with their son and daughter-in-law.

Jump ahead to the Monday after break. Mary’s AP Language students were settled into their seats. Standing at the front of the classroom, Mary started discussing the vocabulary words she had posted, which her students were to have worked on over break.

But the lesson came to a halt when one of her most soft-spoken students interrupted, and said almost inaudibly from the front row, “You didn’t post vocabulary. You posted a cookie recipe.”

In her haste that Thursday afternoon before break, Mary had mistakenly posted not a vocabulary lesson, but a recipe for chocolate-orange cookies which was located right next to it in her computer directory.

“I was mortified,” Mary said, “completely embarrassed that I had posted a recipe instead of their homework.”

But she didn’t have anything to worry about. It became immediately clear that her students had taken her goof in stride, when one of them revealed a batch of chocolate-orange cookies she had made the night before. Five more students in her next two classes had also done their “homework” and presented Mary with plates filled with chocolate-orange cookies.

“I couldn’t believe what I’d done,” she  said, “but I loved my students for having a sense of humor about it.”

She added,

I am impressed that some students figured, well, when in doubt, just bake. And I was equally impressed with their baking skills. This recipe even called for orange zest, a step that puts this recipe out of the league of beginning bakers. Students improvised, using whatever did the job — substituting cheese graters for zesters and Clementine rinds for orange rinds! The cookies all tasted delicious and looked just elegant, with threads of orange running through the dark chocolate. All in all, this made for a wonderfully fun first day back for me.”

Naturally, the student bakers all suggested they receive extra credit for their efforts, something which Mary says she’s “mulling over.”

I am TOTALLY jealous that I never had a teacher who assigned cookies for homework.

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