August 6, 2003 ... I just called the Baltimore City Public School system to give them my new address, well actually I called Blue Cross Blue Shield to give them my new address, and their voice mail told me to call the school system. This is about 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. The first two times I called, I got a busy signal. The third time someone answered and in the process of transferring me to someone else cut me off. The fourth time I called, I actually spoke with a person who said she would send me the address-change forms right away. I pointed out that the address they have for me is the old, wrong one. Her response: "Oh! What's your new address?" I told her, she assured me she would send the forms out right away.

February 13, 2006 ... We have SNOW! This is wonderful. I measured 15" on my deck. And once again I know I found the right place to live. My neighbor Wendell across the street shovelled my front walk from the door to the car and shovelled the driveway. Then the snowplow came through and of course plowed a snow barricade across the end of my driveway. Then he backed up and very neatly plowed the barricade off my driveway and safely deposited the snow in the space beween driveways. And it wasn't because we were standing there, either. He carefully unblocked every cleared driveway he came to down the street as far as I could see.