Schuyler County -- Around & About

(Editor's Note: The following is one in a series of personal columns we publish from time to time by Bonnie Seeley of Odessa.)

By Bonnie Seeley

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012, family, friends, neighbors…Oh, fiddle-de-de!…Happy New Year 2012 to anybody who happens to be reading this! Did anybody else (besides me) make any New Year’s Resolutions? I am very happy to report that I have kept ALL my Resolutions, so far! One Resolution I made was to write something every day. I am also doing some journaling and daily devotions. Here’s my writing for today:

VIOLET & ME
My kitty cat, Violet, and I spent a quiet night at home, watching “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” as the clock wound down on the final day of 2011. I still -- a week later -- have a wicked case of laryngitis, which I had for nearly the whole month of December. I think Violet has either caught my viral laryngitis, or is mocking my condition by “squeaking” at me, instead of meowing. She was very insistent on New Year's Eve, since I was having New Year’s Eve T-R-E-A-T-S, that she must be given a delectable T-R-E-A-T, as well. (I have to spell it, because, if she reads it here, I’ll have to jump up and run out to the T-R-E-A-T cupboard to comply.)

She has developed some very strange behaviors in the past 15 or so months in which we have been living here alone. For instance, she has self-feeding dishes, given to her as a tiny kitten almost six years ago by our former neighbor, Roxie Doan.

She still has not learned to tap on the top of the food “tower” to make the Cat Chow tumble down into the dish. Every time she can see the slightest bit of the bottom of the dish, she comes meowing and squeaking, looking so big-eyed and sad that I run right out and show her, again, how to make the food cascade down into the dish. I even showed her an alternative way of flipping the hinged lid of the food tower open with her nose. (No, I did not open it with my nose, but I explained to her how to do it, in great detail!)

Then, there’s the water “tower.” I try to check it several times a day, but, inevitably, it sometimes becomes empty! She meows, squeaks and carries on as if her poor little kitty cat throat is as dry as the Sahara Desert! Then, to be more emphatic, she drags the whole empty dish, “tower” and all, across the kitchen floor! Of course, that prompts me to stop whatever trivial little thing I am doing to run to her aid.

If the litter box is in need of cleaning, she has still another combination of sounds and behaviors that she exhibits. Inevitably, the moment I have finished cleaning it, I guess she doesn’t like the way the undisturbed litter looks; she runs right straight over and does her “business,” expecting great amounts of praise and approval from “Mommy” for being such a good girl!

She opens the drawers in the bathroom with a paw or her nose (she’s really quite adept at it) then rearranges long johns, undies, or socks to suit herself! I have taken to keeping the bathroom door closed so that she can’t get in there, unless “Mommy” is with her. Thank goodness she hasn’t learned to open cupboard doors.

Picture this ... Violet went into the bathroom just the other day, nosed open the drawer containing long johns, jumped in, squiggled into the space under the bathroom sink, and then started to cry! I tried to prompt her to “push open the door with your paw or nose, you silly cat!” That did NOT help! I then opened both doors for her, and she sat down in there, smiling at me, as if to say, “Who is it that runs things around here?”

*****

Now, for my Neighborhood Column, “Schuyler County – Around & About”…

I have not, for various reasons, written much of anything for quite some time now. With the New Year, I decided to resurrect my old column. I did write an Odessa column, as well as some feature articles, for the Watkins Review & Express for about 10 years, more or less. After experiencing some creative differences with the publisher, I began writing “Schuyler County – Around & About” and quite a few feature articles for The Odessa File.

Odessa File Editor Charlie Haeffner and I have been friends for a long time. Charlie’s two younger sons, Jonathan and David, are about the same ages as my two younger sons, Peter and Benjamin, so that (and a love of writing) is a common thread between us.

For those of you who don’t know me, please allow me to introduce myself. I have lived in my home in Odessa for nearly 37 years. I am a retired elementary teacher. I spent my entire 22-year teaching career in the Odessa-Montour Central School District. Due to some serious health problems, I took a disability retirement in June of 1993. (It is sometimes hard to believe that I am in my 19th year of retirement.)

Since that time, I have labeled myself a “Professional Volunteer.” Over the years, I have done numerous volunteer jobs throughout Schuyler County, including coordinating American Red Cross Blood Drives in the county for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

I have worn various hats in helping out at the Dutton S. Peterson Memorial Library in Odessa -- Friends of the Library Director, Coordinator of the Annual Friends of the Library Membership Drive, Board Member, volunteer librarian, co-chair of the 20-year Anniversary Committee, and Assistant to the Children’s Librarian, Bonnie Schweizer, working with Pre-school Story Hour, after-school programs, and Pajama Story Hours.

I have also held several volunteer positions in the Odessa Baptist Church over the years: Sunday School Superintendent, Deacon, delegate to the Living Waters Baptist Association of New York State, active in American Baptist Women’s Ministries of New York State, Vacation Bible School, Prayer Chain Coordinator, and “Youth Advisor” to the Seasoned Seniors of Schuyler County. (I hope to be rejoining the choir, when I get over this laryngitis.)

Since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, I have been deeply involved with the American Cancer Society and the three big fund-raisers they have each year -- Daffodil Days in mid-March, Relay for Life in late May or early June, and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, held during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. I have been cancer-free for nearly 8 years now, for which I am grateful.

I have three grown sons -- Aaron, 35, who lives in Tennessee with his wife of nearly 8½ years, Terry, and my two grandsons, Ryland, 7, & Alden, 4; Peter, 30, living in Bradford, Pennsylvania, with his partner of nearly 8 years, Keven Collins; and Benjamin, 28, residing in Corning with his wife of almost 8 years, Paula.

I lost my husband, Floyd, to lung cancer on November 18, 2010. We would have celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on Father’s Day 2011. I miss him every single day of my life, but I know he is with me, in Spirit, always.

I hope to write “Schuyler County – Around & About” with some frequency…I like to write about good news, notable events and other things that folks would like to share. You can "snail mail” news you’d like to share to my home, 301 Church Street, Odessa, NY 14869; e-mail me at MAMASEELEY1@yahoo.com, or call me at home (607-594-2588) or on my cell phone (607-426-6025). So, in closing, I’ll say this: I’m in touch, so you be in touch…May all your wishes, hopes and dreams come true. May God Bless you and yours, today and always.