Weighing in on Halloween Candy

The final count is in; after Sunday's grocery shopping added to the previous amount, The Dunne-Hosey Estates will be handing out 309.5 ounces, or 19 pounds, 5.5 ounces, of candy to kids from the West Side of Buffalo and elsewhere on Halloween tomorrow night.
Yes, that's right, folks; we will be handing out 3 pounds, 5.5. ounces more of candy than the weight of a regulation adult bowling ball to hundreds of ravenous kids, some very cute, some very creative and artistic, some a bit old and barely costumed and some who think they are pretty tough until either Walker Evans goes on a barking jag or I stand up to show them that if they try to fool Val or I into extra candy or intimidate anyone, that it is about 8-10 feet from our front porch to the ground.
Halloween has always been a favorite holiday for Val, and I am very happy she will be able to be home with me handing out candy and enjoying Halloween with most of the Trick-or-Treaters and their parents, who are in a fun, celebratory spirit.

Trees Gone, I Gotta Learn How to Face It ...

I got an e-mail at work from Val this afternoon, stating that the cleanup crews were finally removing the tree limbs, branches and debris from our lawn on Norwood Avenue. When I got home, it was great to see the lawns on our side of the street without tall piles of tree detritus, although we now have large piles of leaves on them. Walker Evans, on the other hand, is none too pleased that there are less tree parts to sniff or pee on during his walks.
The timing of the tree limb cleanup, the day before Halloween, makes things safer around here and elsewhere for Halloween, although the street light on our lawn easement remains out of service. Knowing that there are still people without telephone, cable and/or Internet service, we know we are rather fortunate.

The Storm Tree Debris Story, Continued

No, the tree limbs, branches and other debris were not collected from our lawn, or that of most houses on our side of Norwood Avenue, Friday. We are strongly hoping for a Monday or Tuesday cleanup of this tree debris, particularly with the one-side parking rules favoring our side of the road being clear during business hours.
At this stage, it is not a matter of beauty or neatness; with Halloween celebrated here in Buffalo on the actual holiday, Tuesday, October 31, we want the hundreds of children who will stop at our house and the houses on our and other streets to be safe and not have to contend with tree limbs, branches and debris either blocking the walkways or being something kids think they can climb.
On top of this, the streetlight on the easement at the front of our lawn, next to our driveway, has been out since around 1:30 a.m. the late evening/early morning of Thursday/Friday, October 12-13, when I was out shoveling and the wire connecting it and the streetlight across the street and diagonally toward Bryant Street came down. With less light than normal, we will have to be extra careful this year.
There is no unrest in the forest, so to speak, but we would like to have the debris cleaned up soon.

Please Don't Keep Me Waiting

Despite two large trucks being filled with tree limbs and branches working on our block yesterday and two workers closing off the street except for local traffic, as of this writing, our yard and several more here on Norwood Avenue remain covered with several feet of tree limbs.
A neighbor and I laughed that there are only so many trucks and so much room in each truck (neither of our yards were cleared Thursday), but the laughs were a bit forced. On the other hand, I am not mad at the workers who have been working hard for weeks at this return-to-normal job.
But there's no sentiment to wax poetic over this, either.

Still There

Sadly, as I drove home from work tonight, I saw piles and piles of tree limbs and branches, so no, the rest of Norwood Avenue, at least where we live, was not cleaned up; only 2-3 lawns have been cleared of this storm debris. Tony, the retiree who lives across the street from us, said he saw no trucks on our block today.
As a bonus, the Buffalo Sanitation Department did not pick up garbage or recycling material on our block today; the blend of tree limbs, garbage totes and recycling boxes is wonderful in the fall.

So Close, So Close ...

Tree limb, branch and other debris cleanup from the storm of October 12-13 continues here in Buffalo. On the West Side, Ashland Avenue, the street between us on Norwood Avenue and Elmwood Avenue, has been receiving a major effort since late last week, with signs posted on several of its blocks to not park on the street between basic business hours through Wednesday, October 25.
Several trucks were doing this work, as well as two trucks from Time Warner of Maine doing cable and Internet service work on Ashland, when I came home from work today. I was in a rush, having to take Walker Evans on his neighborhood jaunt, feed him and be back somewhere by 5 p.m., so I immediately saddled him up (Walker is limping on his right front paw for some reason) and took him. As we went near Norwood and Lexington, lo and behold, there were several city trucks starting to clean debris from Norwood Avenue.
By the time we got home, I fed him and left, one of the trucks had just crossed West Utica Street and was at the first yard past it on Norwood. Despite crossing my fingers and all appendages that weren't busy (well, minus one), the cleanup did not make it to our house; when I got home at 7:30 p.m., the trucks were gone for the day and the several feet of tree limbs and branches framing our and several neighboring yards and driveways were still there.
Let's see what Wednesday brings.

Everyday is NOT Halloween

I did an inventory check on Halloween candy in the Dunne-Hosey Estates last night; while I forget the number of bags, we have 267 ounces, or 16 pounds, 11 ounces, of candy awaiting the little nippers, er, uh, Trick or Treaters, eight days from today.
Quite frankly, this is not an enormous amount for us, certainly not the most candy we have had in preparation of Halloween (yes, the title is a paraphrase of the Ministry song, because I couldn't come up with a good one for the Dream Syndicate song "Halloween"). Indeed, we will be buying more before the actual night hundreds of kids, many trucked in from other parts of the West Side, North Buffalo and the East Side, descend on our Elmwood Village neighborhood for virtual tons of dentist-pleasing candy.
All told, we will probably have about 20 pounds of candy to hand out, and as usual, we will run out of it before we run out of trick or treaters.

All in the Family

If you watched WGRZ-TV News at 11 p.m. Sunday, October 22, you saw part of the lead story on the last lingering storm effects, the main ones being less than 1,000 Western New York NYSEG or National Grid customers awaiting the restoration of their power.
Among those spoken to in the Snyder portion of Amherst was Patricia, better known to us as Tricia, Dossinger, and her son, Jack, as they lived through 11 days without power, the last several with a generator, and how the power finally went on Sunday night; Tricia's idea of celebrating the return of power was to do a load of laundry.
Tricia is Val's sister and a real trooper; she, along with Jack and her husband, Brad, ended up in Batavia at a hotel for a little bit after the storm hit before returning to Amherst with a generator.

Another Musical Abomination

As readers here know, I hate it when songs from my musical history, especially songs from the past I enjoyed and were from my early punk/new wave days, get used and abused in commercials.
The latest one to make me cringe is the local automobile dealership (I'll be damned if I can remember its name) that is using the old new wave classic from the 1970s, "Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'n' the Tears. This prostituting of a good song from my past has me wearing my thinking cap for an award to devise to reward this yeoman's work in crapitude.

Neither Rain Nor Sleet Nor Snow?

With my birthday October 11, there would be cards coming in from a few counties away. My sister, Heather; her husband, Mike, and their children, Kristina and Tommy, live in Wayne County, New York, on the other side of Rochester. With the recent storm, I also knew that some of the cards would be a bit late; my mother Sheila's card got here from Depew Monday, October 16.
But today, Saturday, October 21, I got my card from Heather and her family in the mail; the postmark on the card is Tuesday, October 10. I know that the storm had its effects in many areas and I am not pissed off because there are lots of things way more important than me getting a birthday card on time. But I am amused and confused, because I could have walked from Wayne County to here in less time.

Top Performance by a Blackout, Short Form

This award goes to the blackout that hit parts of Norwood Avenue, Ashland Avenue, Bryant Street, Elmwood Avenue and no doubt elsewhere earlier today.
I got home from work at 4:15 p.m., and as I got out of my car, our next-door neighbor, Jim Whitford, musician extraordinaire who is being inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame tonight, and one of our neighbors across the street both came out and said we had just lost power on Norwood near Bryant. I was pissed off, but knowing that so many people have had it worse than us during this freak storm and aftermath, us losing power for the first time Thursday afternoon (we had previously lost and gotten back cable, Internet and telephone service) was not as bad as things could be.
I took Walker Evans for his walk and found out that down Norwood to Summer had also lost power, and Walker seemed to have to check out the neighborhood in greater detail as the rain intensified. Boy, I was looking forward to a night of cold sandwiches, darkness and rain.
After we got back from our neighborhood jaunt, I went back out to Rite Aid, because all of the flashlights I could find had dead D batteries (and no fresh ones in the house), except the unopened radio/flashlight my mother Sheila bought us a few Christmases ago. It took 2 C batteries, which did not come with the flashlight. Rite Aid's battery section was overwhelmingly picked over, with no D batteries and only a few C batteries left. I grabbed a few packages of C batteries and two small, high-powered flashlights that were ridiculously cheap (about $10 for the pair).
Getting home at about 5:30 p.m. and with no news to watch or Internet access to use, I made my lunch for work tomorrow, got things ready otherwise for work, washed the remaining breakfast dishes and, with no passion for a cold dinner, I decided to go ahead and start making our previous dinner plan, Mineo & Sapio chicken sausage, wheat penne pasta and tomato sauce. The overcast light situation was just bright enough that I figured I could get cooking dinner in before it got too dark, which would be about 6:15-20 p.m., the time Val gets home from work.
Cooking dinner went fine except that I underestimated how fast the kitchen would get dark, and had to get one of the new flashlights to help me see if/when the sausage was cooked and how the pasta was doing. Val came home at about 6:20 p.m., after I had started using the flashlight, and we talked about our days at work and so on as I finished making dinner. I had put the pasta on the plates and was pouring tomato sauce onto penne.

Val: Hey, isn't' that the heat coming on?
Kevin: (After a 5-second silent pause) Hey, the lights on the coffee maker are flashing.

So, at 6:45 p.m., the power came back on and Val and I were not pitched into the world of waiting for power to come back on, which Buffalo Pundit and Buffalo Geek have really had more than enough of this week among the many members of the Buffalo Prefecture of the Blogosphere (thanks, Jaquandor).

Closing in on Normal

Things are pretty close to a form of normal over here at the Dunne-Hosey Estates on Norwood Avenue. Almost all tree limbs and branches have been cleaned up from the front, back and side yards and piled in front of the house, the basement is dry, our house and cars are undamaged, my mother, Sheila, is back home in Depew after spending Saturday through early Tuesday night here (she had lost power but has everything back now) and Val has finally received her IVIG treatment.
But one of the other signs that things are not as bad as they were is one of the touches that makes our part of the Elmwood Village a true neighborhood. Tony, the retiree who lives across the street from us with his wife and one of his daughters, is one of the nicest and friendliest persons on our block, and someone who enjoys and celebrates all holidays. He had started to put up his Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations when the freak storm hit last Thursday.
With his side of the street out of power for several days (we luckily never lost power) and the street lights on our lawn right-of-way and on that of the house on a diagonal across Norwood out since early Friday, things have been very dark. But as I walked from the kitchen to the living room a few hours ago, I noticed the large, orange pumpkin and ghost on Tony's porch and the Pilgrim family, turkey and another ghost on his fence illuminated by a light.
Some people may find this a bit unnecessary, especially those either still without power or those who lost it for several days, but Tony has no mean bones in his body, and does it for the joy he brings all of us in the neighborhood, especially the children who drag their parents onto his porch and lawn to look at the displays.
Now, if I could just get a haircut and lose the extra gray hair ...

We're OK

Wow; little did I think that my birthday last Wednesday would usher in a "historic" snowfall and weather event here in Buffalo, which I'm sure you all know of by now. We JUST got our Internet access back.
I'll be writing more later, but Val and I are safe, add my mother, Sheila, is here with us in Elmwood Village on Buffalo's West Side. We never lost power or gas service here, but we did lose Internet access and cable television and, having Vonage telephone service, we lost that and had to use Val's cell phone. Let me tell you, we were damn lucky, because going without the Internet or cable television is nothing compared to losing electric and/or heat; it appears we were on the exact border/frontier of who kept power and who lost it. My mother, who lives in Depew, had telephone service, but that was it, so we brought her here yesterday. Val's mom, Janice, lost power, etc., in the Eggertsville part of Amherst, but she regained it last night.
Our house has suffered no structural damage and no flooding (yet), so we are like many others who had lots of damage to our trees, but nothing worse there, so again, we know how lucky we were when the neighborhood, like so many others, looks like a bomb went off here.
More later, but our prayers, hopes and good wishes go out to everyone affected by the latest storm.

Looking Forward and Back

With midnight making it my birthday, I am a bit more introspective, but I really don't want to turn this entry into navel gazing. I realize that about a month ago, I vowed to update this blog on a more regular basis, and while the frequency of my entries has increased, it has not been a major increase. More disturbing is that I am not satisfied with the quality of my writing or the content of the blog.
There are many reasons, some work and politically related, other personal commitment related, but this blog was not started to tease or be ambivalent toward either you kind readers or myself and Val. As a professional writer for more than 20 years and, counting college, a writer for more than 25 years, including more than 18 years as a full-time, professional, award-winning journalist, I am fortunate to have some ability as a writer, and have developed high standards for what I write, and I am uncertain whether recent writing has met up to those standards or not.
So I have to step things up and improve both the quality and quantity of my writing, and I hope you readers will let me know when something here moves you, good or bad.

You Snooze, You Lose to The News

Friday, Val and I paid a return visit to Squaw Island off Niagara Street, taking our dog, Walker Evans, with us. We had a great time as usual, walking along the shoreline and through some other areas, with Walker in particular enjoying romping up and down in the tall grass on the hillside of the bike trail; Val got to take some interesting photographs.
I planned to write a very long, almost effusive piece on Squaw Island over the weekend, but as we can all see, I fell behind on that. And when I saw the column on Squaw Island by Mary Kunz Goldman in The Buffalo News Monday, I felt a bit of puke rise up into my throat and put that idea away.
But I do want to mention two things; first, I strongly endorse Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and all the people supporting and fighting for the micro or pocket parks such as this. Just as single, large projects won't solve Buffalo's economic problems, single, large parks won't solve Buffalo's recreation situation or waterfront development, but small, less expensive steps like this will help.
Second, the only issue that pissed off Val and I Friday was the large amount of garbage we had to clean up, from bottles and cans to food containers, boxes, paper and so on, as well as an open bag of shrimp and other items used as bait for fishing. On a related note, none of the garbage receptacles had bags in them. And it only took about 5 minutes for us to wait for the draw bridge to turn and allow a U.S. Coast Guard vessel to sail by before returning to its original position and allowing us to pass.

By the Way, Sabres Fans ...

Just so readers know, Val and I like the new uniforms, including the colors, but still DO NOT like the new logo, which remains hideous.
In fact, with my birthday coming up Wednesday, I was looking for Sabres ties and hats in particular (I am almost ready to give up looking for a Sabres denim Oxford shirt). But I haven't seen any Sabres ties in a while of any kind, and I cannot bring myself to hold my nose and ask for a tie with the new logo. I would prefer to get either the classic old logo or the not-so-old black and red Buffalo head logo (no, I do not and never have thought it looked like a goat).
I am almost ready to ask for one of the navy blue or black hats with the three small logos or with the classic old and new logos, but I still may need some convincing. I did get to wear both my classic logo/medium blue and red and black Sabres' hats this weekend.

Long Distance Sabres' Interest

Val and I are thrilled with the Buffalo Sabres opening their season with three victories, but we're almost as thrilled with the people searching for and checking us out for Sabres results and uniform discussion.
We mentioned some of the people from out of state and the country who hit us for the Sabres new uniforms and logo, but Friday, a new record for distance in interest, as a person from the city of Denenchofu, in Kanagawa, Japan, reached us through the search "Sabres new uniforms."
As long as the Sabres continue to play this exciting and successful, as long as Kevin and Mark at Bfloblog continue to host an entertaining live thread during Sabres games, and as long as people from all over show interest in us, as well as many expatriates participating at Bfloblog, we will thoroughly enjoy the NHL season.

With Deepest Sympathy

Val and I join the many friends, relatives and especially the Buffalo/Western New York online community in offering our condolences to WNYMedia.net originator and driving force Marc Odien on the death of his beloved mother, Joyce, earlier this week.
We both know that while words cannot fully express our sorrow or fully lift the pain and burden Marc and his family must feel (Val and I both lost our fathers, both named Edward, in the last four years), offering comfort and understanding helps begin the long recovery and understanding process.
For more information on the services for Joyce Odien, and to read Marc's heart-warming tribute to his mother, visit WNYMedia.net.

Sabres Stuff

First, Val and I are very happy that the Buffalo Sabres opened their 2006-2007 National Hockey League season with a 3-2 overtime/shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes. No, it wasn't enough revenge to make up for Carolina knocking Buffalo out of the NHL playoffs last year, but it felt good, especially following the painful pre-game ceremony of Carolina celebrating its Stanley Cup victory.
While one game is too early to prognosticate too much on the season for me (for those more in the know, start with Kevin and Mark at Bfloblog, who again are hosting a great and really fun live thread during Sabres' games), but I liked the play of new defenseman Jaroslav Spacek, particularly on the power play, and of goalie Ryan Miller. The slow start the Sabres got off to could be largely credited to the Hurricanes' excitement following the ceremonies, so my main complaints would be the 0-9 on the power play and some dumb penalties. Oh, and the VS. broadcast remains bad at too many times and really suffered by comparison when we turned to the free TSN preview of the Toronto-Ottawa game.
There was a little bit of talk on the broadcast about the new Sabres uniform and logo, and a lot of action here; our visits were up 50-60 percent over normal yesterday and today, with Sabres uniforms the top visit link by far (more interesting was that several people got to us through the "Sabres ugly jersey" search). A good amount of the searches came from Canada, one from Los Angeles, but the farthest/most interesting visit came to us this morning from Paris, France, with the search words "Sabres new uniforms."
It looks like the Sabres Nation is going international.

Tax Rebate Exception

There have been complaints and questions on the fact that many/most New York State STAR tax rebate checks recently sent out to Western New Yorkers and other Empire State residents were sent to men only when a house was owned by and taxes paid by a couple.
Well, as I went to deposit our check this weekend, I noticed that I couldn't, because on the check itself in the "made payable to" area, as well as on the address on the outside, it read: "DUNNE VALERIE AND HOSEY." Val bought our house before we started dating a little more than 6 years ago, and my name was added when we refinanced our mortgage.
Only once in the Buffalo Blogosphere have I seen someone (Sally on Buffalo Pundit, I believe) state that the checks were made payable to the first listed property home owner. We hope to have a digital photo of the outside address area up soon.

Peter Case Returns to Buffalo

Former Buffalonian/Western New York singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Case returns for a show at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 5, at Mohawk Place, 47 East Mohawk Street, Buffalo. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Jon Dee Graham will open the show, with admission $10.
Case is an amazing songwriter and performer, first as a member of the Plimsouls (the band's best-known song is "A Million Miles Away," which appeared both on the Plimsouls' "Everywhere at Once" album and on the "Valley Girl" movie soundtrack, and was later covered by the Goo Goo Dolls), and for about 20 years as a rootsy, bluesy, folksy, rocking, sometimes acoustic, sometimes electric performer.
Val and I have been major fans of Case for many years, and have interviewed, reviewed and photographed him for our web site, Buffaloroots.com, as well as several publications, since the mid-1980s. The following is a review of his show about 4 months ago at the Sportsmen's Tavern, which was slated to go up at our web site but appears here instead.


Peter Case
The Sportsmen’s Tavern, Buffalo
May 28, 2006
By Kevin J. Hosey
The Peter Case show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern, with a serious backup band of Buffalo/Western New York musicians, was similar to and just as good and entertaining as the show Case and band played at the Sportsmen’s Tavern last year, except for one major change. While last year’s show had a good-sized crowd, this show was virtually wall-to-wall people, having a great time dancing, singing along with and cheering.
Val and I got there just after the show had started, and of course, missed him playing the Plimsouls’ “A Million Miles Away,” but we still caught two sets of raw, roots and R&B flavored rock and roll with good portions of folk and blues. Among the early favorites was a wonderful, beautiful version of “Two Angels” from the legendary “…Blue Guitar” CD. The band also played “Rise and Shine,” with Case on harmonica and guitar and guitarist Mark Winsick (whose Mark Winsick Band covered this song on the recent Peter Case tribute CD) singing. Jim Whitford, like Winsick a childhood friend of Case, played bass both here and with the MWB. The version was blues rock with some honky tonk, causing couples to start dancing. For the next song, Case picked up a Telecaster for some twangy blues. The band also turned in some raw blues with a bit of funk when Case moved behind the electric piano and Winsick sang again to end the first set.
To open the second set, Case alone played harmonica, acoustic guitar and sang the blues rock song I believe was called either “Scared of That Child” or “Too Young to Die” (if anyone knows the title, please e-mail me). The band, which included super drummer Rob Lynch, then joined him for a real fun, kicking version of “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda,” and moved right into a long, gut-bucket version of Memphis Minnie’s “Bumble Bee,” bringing on stage Mr. Conrad (The Cobras, Conrad and the Keys) to play piano. He kept Mr. Conrad on stage to launch into a frenzied version of Roy Orbison’s “Go Go Go,” with Case again strapping on an electric guitar. Mr. Conrad was kept on stage for another old song, a sloppy version of “Nadine” in which Case remained on electric guitar.
Whitford then stepped up to the microphone as the band played “Crash All Night” from his solo CD, “Poison in the Well.” Mr. Conrad, still playing, delivered a fine piano solo before he finally left the stage to applause. Case went back to acoustic guitar for “Something’s Coming,” a more soulful version with Case playing around with the refrain. Whitford took over the vocals for a hypercharged cover of Bob Dylan’s’ “Highway 61 Revisited” before Case sang two of his classic songs, a strong version of “Beyond the Blues” and “Icewater,” the latter of which was a bit more upbeat than the version on his debut self-titled CD; at one point, Case inserted “Wine Wine Wine” into the song as the set wound down.
After the set, Jeff Campbell spoke about Hungry for Music, a national charitable organization which “A Case for Case,” the three-CD Peter Case tribute, benefits. Hungry for Music is a charitable group that benefits underprivileged children by providing them with musical instruments and other positive musical opportunities and experiences. Hungry for Music can be contacted through Campbell at 202-479-2810, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, No. 384, Washington, D.C., 20006, or by e-mail at hungryformusic@att.net.