Hi,

One of my winter projects is giving the radiator in Chenille a fresh coat of paint and when I looked at the feet on the tub, I realized it was time for them as well.  I cleaned them up and when I went to paint them realized it’s not a claw foot tub but a fish foot tub:

Chenille & Oleander are my two most Victorian guest rooms.  A common complaint is they only have a full sized bed in them.  So I decided to make them kings, they didn’t have king beds in the Victorian era, so this took a little creativity.  I took Oleander’s bed apart and had my nephew hold the head board while I brought down the king bed from Lady Palm, right up the stairs.  It looked OK, so I’ve attached the head board to the wall and the new king bed arrives Friday from the Original Mattress Factory, I love their beds.  Also, they are delivering the king for Chenille and I’ll store that in the Ballroom until I get Chenille’s head board attached to the wall next week, second time should go smoothly next week.  I’ll post pictures on my next blog, Roy Engelbrecht my fabulous photographer will stop by shortly and take good pictures for my website.  I’ll store the side rails and foot boards in the basement, in case someone wants to put them back.

My campaign for 2020 is picking up a little steam.  I’ve never met Mike, he booked a room and sent me an email about my blog and asked about my campaign.  Here’s what he said:

I will be sure to check out the blog, but apparently the way to get elected president is to spout lies, engage a foreign power to interfere in the election and be a billionaire game show host.  I think you will start this Quixotic quest way behind the eight ball.   Perhaps you would consider hiring illegal immigrants to work on the Inn and stiff them on their wages to build your resume!

🙂

Speaking of civility, I went to a local watering hole and ran into Ed, I’ve known him for almost 10 years and John, I’ve known him for a few months.  This was shortly after Donald Trump claimed President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower in NYC.  It was on the news and I mentioned that I could support Donald Trump more if he quit just making these accusations with nothing to support them.  I meant it as a basically innocent observation.  I wasn’t condemning the man, just saying if he knows something, why not share it.  The two of them jumped on me with a ton of acrimony “That’s what’s wrong with American, no one is giving him a chance.”  Honestly, I’m trying.  I for one believe the generals know more about ISIS than he does, contrary to his campaign rhetoric.  I just waved my hands and went back to my wine.  Why even bother with someone that can’t be civil and have a civil conversation?

I think I said in my last blog, I’ve pretty much quit listening to NPR, I just don’t want to hear this stuff constantly.  I now listen to the local oldies station in the kitchen when I’m working on breakfast. A lot less stressful.  I was listening to them the other day and they were addressing how America has lost faith in our institutions.  It is true, it’s not just the “fake” news on Face Book and other outlets.  We’re tired of people lying to us.  It’s bad enough listening to criminals deny that they did wrong, like former Vice President Gary Schultz and former Athletic Director Tim Curley just pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the Jerry Sandusky case.  Spanier’s the one that should be nailed to the wall.  The DA seems to have emails that incriminate him about his knowledge of the atrocities of Sandusky and turned his back on those children.  PWSA has denied for months that there’s lead in our water and it turns out we do, not to the extent of Flint, MI, but of significant levels that it’s harmful to our children.  Maybe if we put some of these “public servants” in jail, others might wise up?  They are making six figures to run our water system safely.  Maybe because I make so many mistakes, I don’t have problem apologizing for them and what can we do to make this better?  I went to Wikipedia to look up some of our more famous federal scandals like Watergate, the Iran Contra scandal the ATF attempt to track gun sales that ended up putting guns in the hands of drug gangs and how the ATF tried throwing smoke and mirrors up to hide behind. and the list was so huge, I stopped.  We’ve had some scandals in print media like Roger Ailes and his inappropriate conduct at Fox & CNN and the attempt’s to cover it up.  When you bring in religious corruption like the Catholic church trying to cover up sex abuse by it’s priests, there’s not much left for us to believe in.   OK, I’ll stop now, I’m depressing myself.  🙂

We didn’t get the snow Armageddon the weather people were predicting , they could just say, we miscalled it, the system we expected to drop 1 – 3″ in Pittsburgh slipped by us last night, instead they were saying this morning, it’s snowing now, never acknowledging they errored.   It’s OK weather guys, I’ve made bad calls in the past.  So to end this post on a big lighter note, here’s Fester shivering in the cold (I can always tell fat Fester from the slim teenager Lester):

I wasn’t totally accurate when I spoke of the gerl’s weight loss.  She went down from 93# to 88.3# not an even 88#  I just weighted her after two more weeks and she’s 88.1#  So she’s still going in the right direction.  We’re calling her the green bean queen, she likes the title.  🙂

Have a good one and keep warm,

ed