Your Weekly Antics, Taking Ducks from Strangers Edition...3/20/26

Well kids, here we are...we’ve survived day lights saving, the full moon, two Friday the 13th’s two months in a row and continue to stay afloat and go about our business. If you haven’t heard this recently, let me be the first to tell you that I’m proud of all of you and your continued efforts to stay above board, keep yourselves out of trouble and avoid getting arrested. With that said, be warned that our next full moon is on April Fool's day, April 1st...of course it is, we would expect nothing less. Here’s what I’ve got…

1. Spring is fighting hard to show its face and has given us a few nice days - nice enough to take the top of the jeep down, giving us a false sense of nice weather that isn't quite ready yet to be a regular thing and fools that we are, we get sucked in...some may even pack their winter coats and gear away for the season. Don't - Do - It. Don't throw those shovels in the shed or the garage quite yet, don't temp fate. Remain steady until May 1st people. Just because you look outside this time of year and see the sun shining, doesn't mean that winter is over. Mother Nature is a spiteful vixen, and this is her most favorite time of the year when she sits back and enjoys messing with all of us. Trust me. Don't pack winter away until May 1st.

2. Another sure sign of spring here on our corner is the neighbor who just can’t wait for things to happen on their own and starts shoveling their lawn…that’s right, you know what I’m talking about, there’s one in every neighborhood. No this is not us in the Kap house, and no this is not anyone from Lawn Mower Joe’s house, but I’ll tell you this…Jen from Lawn Mower Joe’s house and I have determined that this is better than the groundhog. If you want to know when spring is coming, hang out on Jen’s porch or my deck and watch the lawn shoveling commence…that’s the true sign that spring is on its way. You’re welcome.  

3. St. Patrick’s Day. St. Pat’s day has come and gone, as has St. Patrick’s Day parade day here in the Woo. I did not partake in this years festivities , but the middle Kap kid did, and kept the tradition going by wearing the much loved, coveted, vintage, tried and true, one of a kind Irish flag shirt. This shirt has been worn sparingly over the years, generally speaking, only seeing the light of day when partaking in St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Exhibit 1, yup...that would be the infamous Chris Neville with me in this photo.

4. Fast forward to 2026 and let there be no mistake about it, the decision to allow the middle Kap kid to wear the coveted shirt did not come lightly and underwent careful and stringent scrutiny. The kid did her homework and laid the groundwork leading up to asking the question of being allowed to wear the shirt, assuring me she was worthy of the challenge to make sure it came home in one piece.  There was some shmoozing involved and much consideration was had before I agreed to allow her to wear the shirt. It was taken out from way way way back of the closet, carefully inspected, examined even; photographed and all flaws and/or imperfections that it has fallen victim to over the years documented so that she could not be wrongly accused of any imperfections or wrong doing that could potentially fall back on her if the shirt was returned to me in anything but stellar condition. Contracts and agreements made, threats to her not jto return home should the shirt be damaged, and away she went out into the sea of St. Patrick’s day parade day goers - I’m happy to report that she and said shirt returned home in one piece, no worse for wear. Exhibit 2, the middle kid and "the shirt".

5. On only one other occasion has anyone else ever been allowed to wear the St. Patrick’s Day shirt, and that individual was none other than Ronnie Miller. I’m sure he doesn’t realize this and if he did would probably wish he had hidden it to mess with me. Now that I’m mentioning it, I’m lucky he didn’t lift it like the baseball glove he lifted from me about 35 years ago that I eventually stole back from not too long ago when I found it in a beach bag at Hampton Beach.

Exhibit 3, those are grapes. Tell me these aren't grown in a lab…

6. While some were prepping for St. Patrick’s Day festivities, I was being wife of the year and preparing a home made double chocolate raspberry cake for Al who celebrated his birthday last weekend. Please note I said homemade, as in from scratch, and I’ll tell you this, he was only able to enjoy a small portion of it because his dog ate it right off the stove. Do I need to tell you who his dog is? You guessed it, Gibson. The jerk did not get sick, and despite the overdose of chocolate, all he suffered was chocolate on his face, whiskers and no remorse. 

7. I’d like to say I was quickly over the cake incident, but that would be false. I was at a lovely event on Saturday. A proper, fancy baby shower to welcome my soon to be bestie Crew into the world. While we were celebrating the soon to be new parents, I mentioned the cake incident to another guest who began talking about also having an unruly dog. We commiserated over the chaos, anarchy and barking our dogs inflict upon us and she shared with me her latest successful efforts to get her dog under control, or at minimum, keep her neighbors from hating her, and that would be the bark collar. Now don't go getting all oh the poor dog...all she's going to do is shock him...I WISH....unfortunately, it is not a shock collar but sends an annoying vibration or a loud noise to get the dog to shut the hell up. They've proven to be very successful and help curb or adjust the barking behaviors of dogs near and far. Collar ordered with one click on amazon. Collar arrived. Per all the data and research, it's maybe 1 in 100,000 dogs it is ineffective for. Guess what? Gibson is the one dog. I think he actually likes it. ASSHAT.

8. While Gibson is living a life of crime, there are good dogs out there who are living their best lives. Take Porter for instance. Here he is, living his best life and eating his cake too…because he’s a good dog. You will never see me pulling Gibson in a carriage at the beach...ever. He and I are currently not on speaking terms and may not be any time soon. Exhibit 4, Porter living his best life on the beach.

   
   

9. When I haven’t been inspecting shirts and making cakes from scratch that only asshat dogs can enjoy, I was being approached by strangers with ducks at stop signs. I was out and about doing the work of the people when a lovely elderly gentleman approached my jeep while I was behind him at a stop sign. My first thought was, what did I do? Did I cut him off and he’s coming to yell at me? Did he break down? Does he need help? Alas no, none of the above, instead he was spreading cheer. This guy jogged up to my window saying, “you have been ducked” handing me a rubber duck to add to my Jeep duck collection. See, there are people out there who will approach your vehicle as an act of good will rather than with threats to kill you. 

   Exhibit 5, my newest duck.

10. Exhibit 6, my next job opportunity. Correspondence with an individual who claimed to be a representative of the U.S. Navy. Weird I haven’t heard back yet. 

    
    

And last but not least…don’t kill yourselves shoveling your lawns…give it time and it’ll melt on its own!

Have a great weekend!