New Year Fantasy

What a delightful way to spend New Years Eve!
Brazilian twins Flavio and Gustavo....

Happy Holidays!

This blog has now reached 30,000 hits; including almost 8,000 visitors from 101 countries during the last six months. To all of you, and especially to the wonderful men and women I call my BLOGMASTERS, I THANK YOU!



Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season filled with happiness and love!

PEACE~

DON, DAISY AND MUGGS

Peace

Yule

In celebration of the Winter Solstice ~ Yule ~

To some very special friends in blogland

I wish you Peace, Love and Joy!

Dondon009

2008

Publishing this photograph is in no way an indication that I will be volunteering to work on this man's campaign if he should decide to run for the presidency in 2008.
(wink)

Snowbird Invasion

There are disadvantages to living in a resort area, especially within walking distance to a beach......... especially in the winter, in Florida.

The snowbirds have arrived and it's estimated that 800,000 will be relocating to Florida during this season!

Driving the local roads for the next three months will be unbearable. This will be most evident in the evenings, just as we try to get home from a day of work. It's "early bird special" time in local restaurants, and damn how they love those early bird specials.

It will be easy to spot them. The ones with the tans, stopping by the local Hess station to purchase gasoline, and whatever....... 300 pounds of woman stuffed into a two piece bathing suit walking in barefoot while the locals are wearing sweaters, jackets, hats and gloves attempting to stay warm in misreable 68 degree weather; although I have to admit the weather today was a very comfortable, short wearing 82 degrees.

Accidents will increase as they become lost, disoriented, or in many cases are simply much too old to be driving. (true snowbirds usually stay in Florida for between 3 to 6 months and are therefore retired, age range from 65-95).

Mix all of the above with those here on vacation (1-2 weeks) who really have no clue where they're going, and those here for Spring Break who spend the entire week drunk, and it's easy to understand how happy we are when Easter comes along and the exodus back to the north begins.

On the other hand, things might not be a total disaster.......


I may just make a few stops at the beach!

Say it ain't so......

It seems that Project for the Old American Century - liberal news from unbiases sources - and one of my favorite reference engines has been hacked....


Please note that dondon009 and company (two pugs), are in no way affiliated with repuglicans. This household consisting of dondon009 and the aforementioned pugs have always been and continue to be proud DEMOCRATS!

This just in......

"A top general at the Pentagon said the war on terror could take 100 years to fight. President Bush was furious about the 100 year prediction and said 'stop setting a fixed timetable' ".

Conan O'Brian, host of Late Nite.

With less than two weeks to go until Christmas I haven't made any effort to purchase or/and send cards and have not had the motivation/energy to decorate. For the second time since Thanksgiving when I was sick and out of work for two days, I have a cold.

My nose is so red I could easily do a stand-in for Rudolph. Hot home made chicken soup, tea with lemon and honey, Nyquil, Alka Seltzer Plus, Vicks Vapo Rub, Tylenol severe cold medicine, saline nasal spray with eucalyptus, orange juice and three boxes of Kleenex super soft tissues; I've tried them all..... bed rest, I've been in bed for 46 out of 48 hours this weekend.

This has all put me in a very badddd mood, thus the previous post.

I'm tired....... maybe it's time for a visit to the doctor.

Changes

I woke up Monday morning and decided that it's time to make some changes in my life.... with the primary focus being on my relationships.

Although he doesn't know it yet, William, my "friend with benefits" is going to become my friend. I realized during the past few months that after six years, I seem to be caring about him more than when this relationship began. William will always have a woman in his life, I will remain the "friend with benefits". I'm tired of being the "other" person. It's over!

Al is a kind, loving, caring, twenty-six year old who follows me around like a lost puppy. Oh so cute...... but I'm tired of cute. I'm tired of immature. I'm tired, period.... Although he doesn't know it yet, It's over!

Get out of my way, I'm cleaning house.

Traditions

The Pobble wrote that during the Christmas holidays, she watches three different versions of A Christmas Carol, asking her readers about individual traditions.

Tradition in my home begins on Thanksgiving nite when after spending the day cooking, eating and watching football games, I wind down by watching Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas.

If anyone remembers the play/movie/book Auntie Mame and wished they had an aunt like Mame (I know I did), Sophie Kringle just happens to have a Mame, although this one is named Auntie Claus.

Auntie Claus lives high atop the Bing Cherry Hotel - in Penthouse 25C, of course! Her penthouse glitters with Christmas lights all year long and she serves Christmas cookies at teatime - even in July. That's Auntie Claus...so mysterioso!

As it begins getting close to Christmas and Auntie Claus prepares to head off to her annual business trip, young Sophie Kringle decides to find out the truth: "Who is my Auntie Claus, really?"

Go along with Sophie to a faraway world that leads straight to the heart of Christmas. Oh and don't forget your mittens!

In the second book by author/illustrator Elise Primavera, Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas, it's getting toward Christmas and Christopher Kringle, Sophie's little brother begins to misbehave just prior to Auntie Claus leaving on her annual "business trip". Sophie takes matters into her own hands and before Chris can say Ho! Ho! Ho!" he's headed for the North Pole. But when he arrives, the gates to Christmas are locked. In this companion to Auntie Claus, readers join Christopher Kringle on a magical journey--and discover that anything is possible as long as you have the key to Christmas! Both of the above books are read out loud to the PUGS!

The week before Christmas, the PUGS and I always watch The Muppets Christmas Carol. Miss Piggy has always been one of my favorite ladies and for many years, Daisy and I would visit the local nursing home on Christmas Day taking along our Miss Piggy doll dressed as Mrs. Claus. The nursing home residents loved it!

I never go out on Christmas Eve preferring to remain at home with those I love the most, THE PUGS. I haven't got the patience to wait until Christmas Day to open gifts, which means paper and clutter all over the living room floor; but not before I've read "The Night Before Christmas" with both PUGS on my lap.

All of this does not mean that I'm reclusive during the holidays. There are three parties on the calender, Christmas day with my family and New Years Eve with my friends....... It's that time of the year!

Let it snow.....

This morning, I took a walk into town to purchase my Sunday papers and overheard a woman standing in front of me telling the person in front of her how she misses the cold weather and snow and can't wait to move back to Buffalo.

I'm not certain how anyone can actually miss snow. I'm not certain why anyone would want to move to Buffalo. I remember cold weather, snow and Buffalo. I remember the freezing cold and the pain of frost bite on my fingers. I will never forget the freezing cold in Buffalo because according to my doctors, that frost bite is what initially caused the lifelong painful arthritis I now have in both hands.

I don't miss the snow and ice in Boston. I remember the fear of falling on the sheets of ice covering the sidewalks of Tremont Street as my friends and I were going to the theater to see the Nutcracker Ballet.

I don't miss the snow in Canada. I remember hosting my parents 50th wedding anniversary several years ago. I remember fearing that cars would go off the country roads on their way to and from the reception. I remember having to scrape the ice of the windshield of my car. I remember the cold sore I developed on my upper lip two days before the reception. I remember shaving it off just prior to the reception because it was just too ugly.

It was November and I stopped in Boston to visit friends on my way back to Florida. We were in a local pub when my friend Jimmy announced, "hey Don, it's snowing outside". I went outside to see my first snow flake in more than 5 years. I rentered the pub and announced, "nice snow, glad I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Florida"!

Let it snow all you like..... just not in my backyard!

It's 82 degrees here today. Meet me on Clearwater Beach.....

WORLD AIDS DAY 2006

AIDS is a story often told by numbers. 40 million infected with HIV. 5 million just last year. 12 million orphans in Africa. 8,000 deaths and 6,000 new infections every single day. In some places, 90% of those with HIV do not know they have it. And we just learned that AIDS is set to become the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide in the coming years.

These numbers are staggering and they help us understand the magnitude of this pandemic. But when repeated by themselves, statistics can also numb - they can hide the individual stories and tragedies and hopes of those who live the daily drama of this disease.

We must realize that the AIDS victim in Africa presents us with the same challenge as the gang member in South Central, or the Katrina victim in New Orleans, or the uninsured mother in North Dakota.

With an estimated 1.1 million HIV- positive individuals living in the U.S., and approximately 40,000 new infections occurring every year, the U.S., like other nations around the world is deeply affected by HIV/AIDS. Women of color account for 80 percent of all women estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.

We can turn away from these Americans, and blame their problems on themselves, and embrace a politics that's punitive and petty, divisive and small.

Or we can embrace another tradition of politics - a tradition that has stretched from the days of our founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another - and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA