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What's not to Love About February!

Ah, the month of February. Valentine's Day, my birthday and wedding anniversary all within 8 days from start to finish. On the one hand I can say, "It's all about me!"". But fortunately I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life who are also born in February.

I'll start with my beautiful mother, Loretta, who was born on her mother's birthday, Feb. 19. (Clearly a sign indicative of my lifelong impatience, I came 3 days too early to make the day a trifecta.) I never knew my maternal grandmother as she passed when my mother was only a toddler. Momma was the youngest of 6 children and was ultimately raised by "Mamaw", who had the unrivaled courage to marry man raising 6 kids! There's so much I've learned from my mom in terms of strength (which is a true test for me even today) and a grand sense of adventure. She has to realize she's to blame for me now living 2,000 from "home".

Next, is my phenomenal mother-in-law, Wanda. I must say, she was the originator of celebrating the "birthday month", which I'm more than happy to follow in this grand tradition. In reality, she celebrates all month long as it's impossible for her to fit into one single day all the lunches, dinners and long phone calls with friends and family whose lives have been touched by her constant caring and the long reach of her compassion for others.

And then there's other family members. Tara Davis, a spit-fire for sure, whose beautiful blue eyes just draw you into what ever she may be in the midst of. Melissa, my brother's step-daughter who's raising a beautiful daughter, both inside and out!

And then, there's my friends, Mary and Holly. We seemed to somewhat stumble into each other's lives almost 20 years ago and simply never missed a beat. There's many more to our little group, but they won't be mentioned by name as they weren't born in February! It's rare to form such strong bonds over one common interest, especially when that interest was "All My Children". And while our initial monthly get-togethers were solely for watching AMC, it wasn't long before that was last topic to come arise.

And so many others who share this month along with us. Too many high school friends to mention, co-workers and family members of friends! With a special shout out to Katie King, for without Katie, there'd be no Susan King in my life today!!!

So while February is the briefest month on the calendar, there's no other month that is so packed full of wonderful memories, special moments and all around festivities.

I Won the "2010 Erica Award"!

My acceptance speech is below. Completely unedited and uncut (because I don't know how) and unfortunately, unscripted!

My speech is garbled because it was a BELOW ZERO wind chill, not because I'd been swilling! Oh yeah, turn up your volume, the wind was drowning out my speech.

Graziella Dutreuille, a Child of Haiti

In the early 90's many Haitian children found themselves in tent cities on Guatanamo Bay without their parents. Many of these kids eventually found their way to relatives within the United States, and some just managed to get the United States, one of these children was Graziella Dutreuille.

I came to know her through Nortel Networks' affiliation with the local high schools, providing part-time employment to students, having hired her for my own department. Sadly, I witnessed first hand the affects of bigotry based solely on one's perceived lack of proficiency with the English language. Initially from a manager who came from the mid-west, who himself was adopted at an early age. Lastly, from a manager whose own family escaped to the United States when the Shah of Iran was run out of the country.

Graziella, a very wise, intelligent, talented individual who had to fight for survival even at Nortel, a company rife with multiple nationalities. A young lady so determined to make her way in the United States, that she lied about her age for the sole purpose of getting a high school diploma from the US, with dreams of obtaining a college diploma in International Relations.

I was taken aback when I learned that she was considerably older than the age she went by and perceived to be. However, as she confessed to me, she knew that those under the age of 18 had the greatest chances of surviving in the United States. She never asked for hand outs, only assistance. I need a bed, I need a small refrigerator, does anyone have an old sofa they want to get rid of. Who hasn't heard this from any college aged-student?

From my internet searches I believe Graziella is in still in the Dallas metroplex, however, I know the majority of her family remained behind in Haiti, a habitually poverty stricken nation, but I'm saddened that I'm not finding actual links that lead me to think that she has succeeded to the degree that she had hoped. So with that, I'm sharing an essay she gave me written on a typewriter on Feb. 14, 1999.

I hope you all take a moment to reflect upon her experience.
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"The mind is its own self can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven".

This quote is a good example that states that life is what one makes of it. We can feed our thoughts into believing life is a wonderful place-heaven or a dreadful depressing Place-hell. My attitude of life reflects just this. At the age of 14, I left my country (Haiti) in a boat to come to America. However, my journey was not easy as I spent eight months in a military camp at Guatanamo Bay Cuba; it was my vision of hell, but my mind empowered me to believe there was a heaven on earth and this hope made the future a journey to success.

I for example, am a very strong young woman who is ambitious and will strive to make things in life happen for me. We face many obstacles on the way which discourage us but to visualize the light at the end of the tunnel and to make our time on earth a beautiful existence, we can try to create our own heaven on earth.

My dream of heaven did come true. America was everything I dreamed it to be, but one things was a problem. I did not speak the language. I had to learn a new language, which was very difficult for me. Some people thought I was stupid; few seemed to pay attention to me. I lived a life having no family here to count on and hoped that it would soon be over. I tried hard to get through life by doing the best. Each day of my life I dreamt of living without loneliness. Sometimes things happen in life and there is nothing you can do to change it, you have to stand up and make it better for yourself. It can be hell but remember to turn it into heaven!

I lost most of everything that a person could possibly dream of in life but it did not kill me and I do not feel sorry for what has happened. This makes the mind and soul stronger. I take the rest of what I have left and I try harder. I dream of becoming somebody and that's one of the reasons I left my country. At this time America was the only solution to my dream.

In order to find the way to success and create my own heaven, I have to know where I stand and where I want to be, this makes me see clearly and I stay positive about life. In school I began to dream, to dream like an American, after all, I am living with the American dream. It is hard to hope for something when you do not see a way of getting it but you have to have faith and pride that it will happen.

Heaven to me is happiness and contentment. I aspire to have the opportunity to attend college, have a good job, and create a happy home and family. I know I will be in "heaven" soon here on earth and it is because I train my mind to make that choice.

Written by Graziella Dutreuille
2/14/99
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There are many ways, we as Americans can help, but first and foremost, is to not judge others by appearance or speech. Instead, take only a moment to get to know even the slightest bit about the the person in our midst. You never know, it may be another child that has came to our country without any benefit of family to catch them when they may fall.

Peeping Tom!

Here I was minding my own business, trying to get the yard mowed before dark. I had a small window of opportunity as the previous days had either been rainy or blustery. Before I began, I happened to grab my camera hoping to catch pictures of the foliage in the woods that back up to our yard. Suddenly I heard neighbors hollering at me and I turned around to find this hot air balloon lightly crashing through the tops of the trees.

Below are a two videos of the event. Click the arrow to play.


The Eagle has landed!
All the neighbors came spilling into our yard. The video below is of our neighbor Diane. She's a remarkable woman, recently diagnosed with MS. You'll rarely meet a more positive person!

The balloon basket was filled with 7 people standing shoulder to shoulder when it landed. Overall it was a big adventure indeed. Unfortunately Roger was on his way home and missed most of it. He did get home in time to watch them pack up, which is no easy feat.


You can see on the far right that I've resumed the initial task at hand as the sun has already set.

National Donut Day!

June 5th is National Donut Day and we couldn't live in a better part of the country to celebrate. New Englanders are mad for their Dunkin Donuts. The map above shows the locations near my office. SEVEN all within ONE mile.

However, its not about the donuts for these folks, its about the coffee. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, morning, noon and night. I've never seen anything like it before and it comes with its own lingo when ordering. I'm not talking about the fancy foreign language terms used by Starbucks. At Dunks' it's more like a loud-mouthed waitress yelling an order to the short order cook working in the back of a greasy spoon. Only the loud-mouthed waitress is instead a customer.

Back to map, if you're wondering where #6 is, its hiding behind #7. The two stores are located across the street from each other.

As an aside, this is actually the first I've heard of National Donut Day, but apparently the Donut/Doughnut is honored the first Friday of every June.

Speaking of Winding Roads

Roger buffed and polished each and every spoke on his Harley today. Click on the photo to see the detail. Sparkly!!!

Oh, and Guinness supervised!

And, they're off!

First, a very long overdue thank you to Tim (T.D.) Thornton who invited us to be his guests at Suffolk Downs as the horse racing season was winding down last fall. Thank you! We loved it and will be back for more racing.

As long time horse race fans, we were very excited to get our own private tour of the behind the scenes look at what goes behind calling a horse race. We first had to cross a catwalk that soared above the grandstands, then followed winding hallways that seemed to go nowhere. When we finally arrived at the offices for the officials it was truly a step back into time. While waiting for T.D. to arrive, we were seated in what used to be the press booth. There were many chairs and tiny, wooden windows that overlooked the track from high above the stands. It was somewhat eerie and exciting at the same time thinking of the cigar-chewing, bourbon drinking reporters who spent countless hours at Suffolk Downs covering the races.

In T.D.'s booth, a simple walk across plywood on top of the roof gets you there, where he alone sounds the bugle (a well kept secret as to whether there's an actual bugle) and then calls the race, there exists an old, heavy wooden desk. When you slide out a little panel above the drawers, there is an ages old, hand-written list of whom to call in case of emergency. My guess is most of these contacts are now watching horse racing from heaven. It's amazing to think of how many people have used that desk over the years, possibly going back to when Seabiscuit made his appearance in 1937.

Now on to today's action. We watched T. D. prep for the upcoming race, which involved color coding the entries on his race card and attaching a mental note to each horse. He then methodically rattled off in a mumble his notes and repeated them again, while we stood by very silently. It was amazing to see and hear him call the race. I'm still dumbfounded how he pulls this off.

Once a race is over, his mind completely clears and he moves on to the next race. He attributes his ability to not confuse horses from one race to the next to a potential "character flaw," his words, if I remember correctly. T. D. is able to completely forget what just happened. I'm thinking this has to be a nightmare for his wife if there's a really good argument going on. On the flip side, it could have its benefits as well!

Of course, occasionally there's a miscall as indicated in the photo below. T. D. seems to be a pretty even tempered guy, but as with any professional, you hate to screw up! As an aside, try to say "sitting chilly" (a term used when a jockey lets the horse do the work, thereby biding his time) three times and see what you get.
T. D. has been involved in horse racing for most of his life and has written for many publications, not only about horse racing, but other sports as well. He's one of the fortunate few to be able to eke out a living while following his passion for horse racing and writing.

In 2007, his book "Not by a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard Luck Horse Track" was published with many good reviews. This book follows the 2000 racing season at Suffolk Downs, which like many other tracks has seen a loss in attendance and revenue.

However, while attendance may have dropped significantly, revenues are only slightly down in comparison, thanks to Off Track Betting parlors and continuous links to other tracks across the world. The picture below is the server room where live feed from tracks across the country come in. There's a whole other bank of monitors and computers directly across from where T. D. is standing. Two ladies monitor the entire show from here.
While, it's great that there's other sources of revenue, for real fans of the sport itself, you just have to be there in person. To feel the power of the horses as they thunder either away from the gates, and inevitably, toward the finish line, is an truly an unbelievably awesome feeling.

Suffolk Downs may not be the beauty that it once was, as the lower level "frost heaves" can toss a beer from an unsuspecting bettor's hands in seconds, but it's still a great place to spend an afternoon outdoors with a racing form in one hand and a cold beer or hot dog in the other hand.

May 2nd kicks off the 2009 live racing season in conjunction with a simulcast of the Kentucky Derby. We may not be there this weekend, but will definitely find our way there on other sunny days.