Lights

Delayed compliments to the SECCRA landfill staff for their marvelous Christmas lights display! And I especially liked the single red ornament on the tiny evergreen tree just across Street Road from the landfill.

So much work to do

If you saw me at the post office, the gym, a party or the grocery store over the holidays, you may have thought, "My goodness, Tilda looks a bit harried!"
There's a reason for that.
In mid-November I had finished up all of my editing projects, so I sent out emails to my clients saying, "Hey, got anything in the pipeline for me?"
They all got back to me.
They all said, "YES!"
And I wasn't exactly in a position to turn them down, now, was I!
So in the past few weeks I've edited books on perioperative pain management, criminal procedure, the positive psychology of love, men's sexual problems (nice juxtaposition there!), musculoskeletal imaging, psychotherapy research, the American legal system, women in global politics, and a critical approach to the psychology of work. Next up is a 24-chapter book about "how we make decisions and how those decisions go wrong."

Sunscreen

My globe-trotting photographer friend Paul seems to be recovering appropriately from his four frigid weeks on a small sailboat in Antarctica taking pictures of penguins, seals and other critters. I received this email from him yesterday:

"Things are good here. We flew down to Los Cabos at the southern tip of Baja yesterday, and are staying in a lovely little casita by the ocean. Currently looking out at the deep blue Pacific and listening to a sea breeze in the palms. Very civilized, except for my white legs and sandals."

Red light, green light

Yesterday I was waiting at the jammed-as-usual intersection of Routes 1 and 202 en route to the Young Relative's chosen venue for his birthday dinner, Outback Steakhouse. I heard a siren behind me, looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the flashing lights of an approaching emergency vehicle.
Fortunately the driver had one of those devices that enable emergency personnel to change red lights to green so they don't have to wait in traffic while a house is burning down or a person isn't breathing. It was pretty cool to see it work.
I looked online and found out that to buy one of these nifty Opticom gadgets, you are required to submit your order on official letterhead, complete with a picture ID proving that you are a real emergency-services person and not just an impatient motorist.

Silence is golden

Last week, you'll recall, I made the idiotic gaffe of mistaking a masculine-looking woman for a man in the locker room of the Kennett Y. A young friend who works at the gym managed to top this embarrassing story. She said a man came up to her and asked her when she was due. She's not pregnant. In fact, she has lost a significant amount of weight over the past year and has a perfectly flat belly.
She said the man was mortified and apologized profusely, but it still shook her up. She said no one ever asked her if she was expecting when she was heavier!
Speaking of the Y, we old-timers are expecting the annual January onslaught of the "Resolutionaries," the people who join for a New Year's resolution, show up at the gym a few times and then are never seen again. C'mon, newcomers: prove me wrong!

For sale

That ultramodern metal-and-glass house that overlooks the Brandywine on Route 100, up from Hank's, is on the market. You know the one, I'm sure. Asking price for the 19,000-square-foot house, on 21 acres, is $5.450 million. Annual taxes are $53,000. You can see all the details, and three aerial photos, online; the street address is 1245 S. Creek Rd. in Birmingham Township.

Making it easy

I can't believe the detailed responses I got to my plea a few weeks ago for the most direct route from Dick's Sporting Goods on Concord Pike to the Wild Birds Unlimited shop in Hockessin. (I described the roundabout Route 82 route that I took and was sure there had to be a better way.) Thank you to all of you who sent me your favorite routes!

1. Robert of Unionville suggested a very sensible option: taking Route 202 south to Route 141 (aka Powder Mill Rd.), crossing over Route 52, staying on 141 (now known as Barley Mill Rd.) to Route 48 (Lancaster Pike), and turning north onto 48 until it runs into Route 41 (still Lancaster Pike). "This leads you to Hockessin and the intersection of Yorklyn Rd. & Lancaster Pike."
2. Shelley tweaked the 141-to-48-to-41 route: "The faster route would have been to turn off 202/Mt. Lebanon onto 92 which turns into Rte 100, turn right on 141 and then right again on 48, which turns into Rte 41. It would be interesting to time both routes to see which is faster. But the way you went is most direct and certainly very pretty."
3. Jim G. offered this route: Naamans Road (Route 92) to Route 100 to Rockland and Montchanin; then north on 52, left onto Old Kennett Pike (the traffic light at Winterthur), then pick up Snuff Mill Rd. to Creek Rd. (Rte. 82) to Yorklyn. He added parenthetically, "I agree that Wild Birds Unlimited is a terrific store and would add Dover Saddlery and Concord Pet Foods & Supply to the list."

4. Richard B. of Landenberg suggested a slight variation of Jim's route: Beaver Valley Road to Smith Bridge Road, cross Route 100, take Center Meeting Road to Route 52, north on Route 52, left onto Snuff Mill Road ("it jig jogs at Old Kennett"), down to Route 82 at the Red Clay Creek. "Turn right on 82; follow 82/Creek Rd. to STOP sign and a left turn and over bridge at Yorklyn ... now you're on Yorklyn Rd....Wild Birds of course is at the end of Yorklyn Rd." He points out that motorists taking this route get to see Granogue, the historic/restored Center Meetinghouse, and Smith's Bridge ("one of the two or three covered bridges left in Delaware"). A former English teacher, Mr. B also noted a grammatical error that I made a few weeks back.

5. Before giving me her detailed directions, Marietta of Unionville first offered her qualifications as a direction-giver: she lived in northern Delaware for almost 30 years and worked at AstraZeneca on Route 202 until last year. She too suggested the Beaver Valley Road/Smith's Bridge/Snuff Mill Road option. "This one is almost as straight a line across northern Delaware . . .well, as straight a line as you can get in hilly terrain like that," she said. "But there are other ways that are a lot more user friendly but take longer and go miles out of the way. I'm a straight-line person. "   

6. And finally, Helen W. mused, "What is it that causes one to send an e-mail about directions on Christmas night?" She said she used to take the route I took but now endorses the same Beaver Valley/Smithbridge/Snuff Mill/Creek Road route given above. "I’ve found it to be a shorter drove when needing to get from one place to another, but not as scenic as 82 from Hoopes."

Physical therapy

Several of my friends are getting rehab at the physical therapy place in Willowdale: one has a new knee, one has a broken leg, another has a crushed foot. The woman with the new knee says the place is like "Starbucks for the disabled": a warm sense of camaraderie develops because the clients see each other there a few times each week, socialize while doing their PT exercises and note each others' progress.
After I wrote this, I found out that a gym friend is going to be joining them shortly. She managed to tear her anterior collateral and medial collateral ligaments AND her meniscus when she came off her horse and is having repair surgery this coming week.

"Fancy a free milkshake?"

My dear friend George, who lives on the south coast of England, rang in 2013 by eating at Dean's Diner, an American-style diner near his home. Dean's, which overlooks the harbor at Port Solent, features a black-and-white tile floor, red-and-white vinyl chairs, a jukebox, American flags and a menu heavy on burgers and milkshakes. "Dean's Favourite," for instance, is described as "a double burger, crispy bacon, griddled egg and double matured cheddar."
George was there for breakfast and enjoyed their "Authentic American Breakfast": pancakes with whipped cream and fresh berries. The photo on the website shows the stack of pancakes silhouetted against Mount Rushmore.

Making it complicated

The other night the Young Relative and his grandmother, visiting from western Pennsylvania, went out to dinner at Floga Bistro. This is normally a simple 10-minute trip west on Route 1 from their home, but it was dark and Grandmother, being unfamiliar with the roads, missed the left-hand turn into the shopping center. They went to the Route 82 exit, turned around and this time made it to the restaurant.
After dinner, they headed home east on Route. Grandmother then overshot the entrance into their neighborhood.
I think the only answer is for her to visit more often and learn the roads!

Sick bay

It seems like every other person around these parts was sick over the holidays. I heard miserable tales of digestive ailments and upper respiratory tract infections, even among usually hardy souls, and a nurse friend says she has never seen so many people sick with the flu. I've been unscathed so far, but I've been washing my hands the instant I get home.
One young friend's GI bug hit her acutely while she was halfway through a mint julep. Now she fears she'll forever associate that festive concoction with the sleepless night that followed. She ended up needing two bags of IV saline for rehydration.
In one scary local instance, a family who thought they had flu turned out to have carbon monoxide poisoning! Fortunately they are OK. They sat in the back of an ambulance being treated with oxygen while the fire company aired out their house.