The morning news just reported today as the coldest morning of the year. February is like that, cold and dismal. "Death Month" my mother called it, because both her parents died in February, Poppy on Ash Wednesday (which we just had last week) and Grandma on Leap Year Day February 29. Timmy and I are off to Florida Thursday, Valentine's Day, so I can almost take this brutal weather. It did remind me of one of our winter Bus Entertainment skits. Bus Entertainment started and ended in school year 2001-2002. My granddaughter Atticus had started kindergarten and I would wave to her as the bus went by. Then we had 9/11 and the faces in the bus reflected the fears and uncertainties we all felt. I thought how hard it must be for the kids to understand this event, so I didn't just wave my hand, I waved a flag, and got a couple of smiles. Next day I waved two flags and got a little more attention. The next day as I was waiting, Timmy came outside, brushing his teeth. The bus went by, the kids spotted Timmy brushing his teeth and he became an instant hit. I then realized that we could do more than just wave and we invented quick skits, just seconds long as the bus went by. One day I dressed in Tim's suit, and he wore one of my dresses, complete with accessories, handbag, etc. We pretended to play chess, Timmy put a ladder against the tree in the front yard and waved from there. It went on and on as we became more creative with our few seconds of entertainment. One cold day, maybe even in February, we came up with the best skit yet, or so the school bus driver told my daughter Laura later in the afternoon. Tim and I had thought of a summer scene in the snow - Kiddie pool, bathing suits, beach chairs, beach balls, etc. Laura wanted to be a part of it - she said she could put Atticus on the bus in Tivoli and get to our house before the bus came to Clay Hill Road since it had to pick up kids all over in Tivoli first. So we got out the props, put on long underwear with bathing suits on top and the beach chairs were positioned in the front lawn in the snow. Laura drove up fast and approved of the scene. I asked if Atticus had any idea of what we were doing, and Laura said that Atticus had asked why was she wearing her bathing suit and Laura had told her she had run out of clean underwear! Anyway, we heard the sound of the bus and got into position. I was on a beach chair wearing sun glasses, reading a book, and Tim was in the Kiddie pool and Laura and he were throwing a beach ball back and forth. The bus came slowly down the road, the bus driver paused for a few seconds, and the kids all stared then off they went. I often wondered what the kids told their parents that night, or what the bus driver told the other bus drivers, but we never heard. Bus entertainment ended when one kid lowered the window and yelled "Get a Life" but we were tired of show business anyway. February does that to you, wears you down. Saturday mornings I go to the thrift shop in Tivoli with Sabra. This week the usual crowd was there and one person was writing a check. What day is it? was posed and we all had different answers.."I think it's the 10th", "No, I think it's the 17th", "Tuesday was the 5th"...on and on until a calendar was produced. It's just February, the month that wears you down so one day is like the next, not even worth given a number, just get us through Death Month one more time.

I'm a birdfeeder and yesterday's ice and snow storm brought out all the hungry birds. Today I only have the black oil sunflower seed left. I was afraid to walk on the ice so I just threw the seed on the deck off the living room and this morning had a total of eight squirrels and one deer, that stuck her head through the rails to lick the seed off the deck. The bird seed attracts all types of animals - possums, skunks, squirrels, deer- and the birds attract hawks and stray cats. I have one now, if anyone out there wants him, a handsome Blue Russian male cat. Timmy says I'm getting to be a weird old lady that feeds cats and ends up with 27 of them in the house. And I myself say NO MORE CATS. Our first cat after we moved to Tivoli was Kelly, a calico cat that I drove to Wappingers Falls to adopt. In the newspaper want ads under Animals there was an ad "Free -Rescued Cat from being drowned in nearby creek. Needs a home". The untold story touched my heart and I drove 30 miles to get her. No longer a kitten she went into heat soon after (I thought she had been poisoned from the way she was acting, called the vet, who told me what was going on) and on St. Patrick's day she had three kittens. This was the beginning of a long line of cats in the house, black one, yellow ones, all colors, but I still prefer a calico cat. Aunt Lillian said the riverboat gamblers used to keep a calico cat because they brought them money, maybe that's why I have this preference. We had many cats, but only one dog, Woofus, a beagle that came from the pound. We'll never know the history that dog had, but she was as neurotic as can be, pissed everytime you pet her and ate everything in sight. One Christmas when I took the kids to Christmas Mass, we came home to bedlum...she had eaten Paul's GI Joe to a chewed up piece of plastic, in several places under the tree. Maria's new earmuffs were destroyed and various other presents were gone. Woofus had two claims to fame...one she saved the Barrett's dog when someone shot her. Woofus apparently guided Blanka back home, badly wounded. The other episode was when my husband came home from work, looked upset and said, "I just saw the kids chasing the dog, and I think the dog had your wedding dress in her mouth." Yes, I had given my wedding dress to the kids to play in and I think Woofus's action (and mine) foreboded what was to come. We had chickens, but you wouldn't put them in the category of pets...or anything you would even want to be associated with. And we had Jennifer, a birthday present for Laura's 4th birthday, a baby lamb. Lambs are cute but it doesn't take them long to become sheep, and a sheep in your yard is nothing to fancy. She ate all the forsythia bushes, all the lilacs, anything you wanted to grow, she would eat. We finally found a farmer to take her...he said she had good lines and would be good for breeding and we often would look for her or a sheep like Jennifer at the Rhinebeck Fair. Last year we had red squirrels in the walls, a family of them, mother, father and three babies. They would chase each other up and down the bittersweet that grew on the chimney, get into the house and scamper in the kitchen ceiling. We trapped one baby and Timmy took him to Germantown and released him about 7 miles from the house. But we were told they come back, you have to take them across the Hudson and leave them in Kingston. So that's where the next one went...like criminals, we drove over the bridge, driving to a quiet place, opening the car trunk and bringing out the HaveAHeart and hoping no one who lived in the neighborhood saw us. The parents were harder to catch and I finally played the song Tiquila about 20 times, all the time beating on the kitchen ceiling with a cane. That did the trick. Timmy cut all the bittersweet down and Sabra got me a BB gun for Mother's Day that year so I'm ready if they come back. Today my children all have cats, and I know their cats almost like I know my grandchildren. Sabra has four cats, Paul has only one but he's had him for years, Laura has two, one name Snickers-foockers and Maria has two, one - Drew named after Drew Barrymore and a new one Hunter. Drew, like Woofus, is neurotic and on medication but still has uncontrollable bathroom habits. Also, last Christmas she threw up in the manger right on Baby Jesus. Like I said NO MORE CATS.