Nancy Williams

Might have gone to me.

HOW COULD I have known that that nice, out- of- tripping way place (behind the comfy living room chair) to stow my large carton of Thin Mints, was a disaster waiting to happen?

HOW COUD I not have conceived that Registers put forth heat/heat melts chocolate. My Thin Mints had metamorphized into Blobby Things.While I can't honestly remember the exact disposition/resolution of this Juliette Lowe- would- not -have- been- proud moment, I seem to remember that my allowance was mostly dedicated to rectifying it for a good long time.

Hopefully someone nice and reasonable and able to come soon. My family member lost the person she used to use and is fearful calling up just anyone.

Season's First Snow Today!!!

My Saturday schedule called for me to venture further south than my usual real estate stompings, and to "show" property in the Chambersburg, Waynesboro and Greencastle area, a neighboring MLS not my own. All homes were not so hard jaunts off Route 81, and all listing agents were super helpful with the showing set-ups.

I always start relaxing when I get into farm country. Red Barns, do you know how extra charming you look dusted as if with flour? Dear Camera, why were you in my back seat?--but then, my clients were following me in their truck, and quite rightly may not have understood my photo ops as relevant to their home search.

Despite the bit of anxiety arising from driving midst falling snow on not- so- familiar roads, the time was a reminder of how beautiful Pennsylvania is, and how much a nerve saver my GPS is.

On return trip northward (Dear Camera, you're now in the front seat!)--but I seem to have too many trucks and fast moving vehicles nearby to attempt to capture the dramatic black and white corridor before me of silvery trees, white fields, snowy highway and streaming chains of headlights in this 4 o'clock Saturday vignette that could be surgically implanted into some great black and white movie that no one will ever make, though I'm quite sure that had they done so, it would have won an Oscar!

I took this early Thursday morning just before a cavalcade of yellow school buses drove up. Soon children were sitting all around the fountain, teachers were snapping pictures, and the sound of "cheeeese" was audible across Commonwealth Avenue.

You can't go down Paxtang Avenue without admiring the many stately homes. They are a charming mix of Arts and Crafts, Queen Anne, Depression Bungalow, Colonial Revival, and variations on traditional--each and everyone a treasure and record of architectural history in its own right. One Queenly Victorian duplex, looking like it was helicoptered in from Cape Many and plopped ingenuously onto a high profile corner lot on the west side of "The Avenue" was saved last night from fire.

On the unseasonably cold and windy night of April 7, 2009, just two evenings away from the full moon, fire broke out on the second floor and spread to the third floor.

With true central Pennsylvania enthusiasm to assist and a remarkable response from area fire fighters and emergency, the blaze was put out in about 45 minutes, despite the windy conditions. The Grand Dame is saved! The Paxtang fire company, located only blocks away, was joined by fire fighters, trucks and emergency volunteers from Harrisburg, Lower Paxton, Lower Swatara, Swatara and Susquehanna Townships, as well as from Oberlin and Steelton, Lawnton, Linglestown, Salvation Army Disaster and others.

No one was hurt, and word of mouth has it that a brave cat stayed inside for the entire event.