Friends drove us into NYC the other day, and once past the mishap from
which the yellow umbrella helped save us*, we went on to have Peking
Duck in China Town and then desserts in Little Italy which was itself
dressed like a fancy confection with so many lights and garlands --
prettier to walk around there than near the Rockefeller Center tree and
better sounding in places, too, since some merchants and churches had
musicians in their squares. The city often has musicians -- that is one
of the joys of walking the L (elevated park) but these were very hand
selected for Christmas in Little Italy.

The extra duck came home with us. Pivot LOVES duck, but it was hard
getting the pieces to her because every time I offered one to her
Orville tried to steal it. Apparently, he loves duck at least as much
as she does. Their preferences are different, though. She loves slices
of the meat the most. He best likes to pin down a fatty piece of skin
with his paws and then lick off all the fat. Kessy watches them in
amazement then steals their toys while they are busy.

Today we went out to get pasteurized eggs from one of the local Kings
supermarkets. You KNOW the ferrets will get some raw yolks from those!
Talk about a loved treat. The yolk plate usually tends to look like
nothing was ever on it when I remove it from their attentions.

Remember the huge log that was stuck up way up in two much smaller
trees after someone tried his own trimming post-Sandy? It's on the
ground now with the trees still beneath it. They could not hold it,
which is no surprise.

With so many trees at risk some places have suffered structural damage
post-Sandy because the workers who take down trees are all overly busy
so some trees have fallen in bad places in the weeks since.

FEMA trailers have arrived in Southern NJ so the motels, hotels,
spare rooms, shelters, etc. can begin to be emptied. If the Congress
continues to not stop the cutbacks which happen if the so called
"fiscal cliff" (more a slope) is reached then there will be FEMA
cutbacks to help Sandy victims which could go into the high hundreds
of millions of dollars not able to get to victims. BTW, Jon Stewart
had a GREAT interview with Christie which touched on some interesting
aspects:
<http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-december-6-2012-chris-christie>

If all went right then limited service to our local train station began
today with a some of the limited stock of old diesel trains. If it did
not go right then that will happen in the next few days. They are
running two shifts of workers here getting tracks useable, and at the
current rate our line will be fully cleared by sometime in January.
Then they have to finish getting electrical towers and wires up for the
line which will probably take at least a couple of months. Five miles
of our train line have the wires up now so there is much to still do,
and of course NJ had much of the rolling stock destroyed by flooding,
anyway. A few days ago we heard our first train whistle since the
Superstorm hit. We got VERY excited!

Some people are getting excellent help from their insurance companies
while others with different companies are being told things like, "Well
you have flood insurance but we can not tell how much of your damage
is from flooding from the body of water near you and how much was from
sewers over-loading so we don't know which pot to pay you from, so we
won't pay you." In many locations rebuilding will probably be at least
a year, and in some just getting basic services up will take months
more. We are not near the shore so only had the extreme wind damage.

So, life here is gradually returning toward normal and mostly feels
normal now, and meanwhile the ferrets (and Steve and me) still are
getting spoiled in a number of ways.

You will see this post on 12/11/ 12. The following day there will be
12:12 on 12/12/12.

12/11/12 is only ten days before the 25th anniversary of the FML!

* for anyone who missed it:
http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2012/12/under-her-umbrella.html

Sukie (not a vet)  Ferrets make the world a game.

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html

"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

A nation is as free as the least within it.

[Posted in FML 7637]