I Just Renewed My Library Books Online!

With things going on I haven't been able to get to our local LaMott library. Actually I found out that its been some years since I have been there! But you have to face the fact that when things are going on in your life you can only do what you can do! Besides this gave me the most pleasant experience of re-visiting our local community library!

Of course our library is located inside the community center.

The LaMott Library

7420 Sycamore Ave.

La Mott, PA 19027

(215) 635-4419

Hours of Operation

Monday, Wednesday: 3-8:30pm

Tuesday: 2-6pm

Thursday: 10am-6pm

Friday: 3-6pm

Saturday: 12-4pm

I have to admit that even though the LaMott library is smaller than the other libraries I would never go anywhere else unless I really HAD to! The library is packed and filled to the brims with books, tapes, newspapers and other kinds of publications! I just LOVE it there!

There are also computers that the residents can use during the library hours. You must sign in before you can use the computers but even that you can do via the computer!

On my last visit there I checked out some books and I didn't realize that the due date was coming so soon! They sent me an email to remind me that the due date was coming up and in the email it mentioned that I could renew my books online so I decided to try it out! It was quite fun and quite convenient to be able to renew my library books from home which at the time just happened to be on a Sunday (when the library is closed) and a very hot Sunday at that!

If you have not been to our local library then you do not know what you are missing!

The LaMott Free Library Website

LaMott Firehouse #1 - The Sound Of Their Siren?

Someone new to this area who is was a new resident once remarked to me that they really didn't like the sounds of the sirens from the LaMott firehouse #1. I explained to them that the reason why the sirens sounded was to notify those firefighters (who are volunteers by the way) who were not yet already at the firehouse.

There have been many times when I have heard the sirens and then maybe a minute or 2 later I would hear the cars (of the firefighters - I assume) who were driving to the firehouse.

When I first moved up here the sirens bothered me too. I also believe that there was a time when the sirens would sound at noon everyday but I'm pretty sure that they don't do that anymore.

since then I have come not to mind the sirens because I know that the firehouse is sounding them for a very specific reason.

photo courtesy of
Historic Lamott, Pa.com

The Temple University School Bus?

Now don't get me wrong but I kind of like hearing and seeing the Temple University bus that passes through our area. But it makes me kind of curious as to why I can hearing it going past at almost 1 o'clock in the morning? I mean are there students that actually travel during that time of night? Is it part of the bus's reqular schedule?

Strange!

Telephone Service Not Working Since Tuesday!

Just in case you're wondering about this and decided to look online for more information our telephone service was out since Tuesday (2 days ago). As of arond 6:45 pm today it is back on - at least I have telephone service now.

This started Tuesday afternoon although I can't be sure of exactly when but I do know that I tried to get online about 8pm Tuesday night and couldn't do it. Later I came to find out from Verizon that there was a problem with one of the telephone cables.

Now I don't know if its a case of EVERYBODY's telephone service being off but I do know that my next door neighbor's telephone service was affected too. Plus he joked about the fact that he was using all of his cellphone minutes to find out what was going on.

From what I have been able to find out there was a telephone / network cable that required some work but according to a represenative from Verizon, she said that "they" (whoever "they" are?) don't tell them specifically what the proble is they just tell them that there is a problem.

So I get a call from Verizon saying that it may be until 9pm FRIDAY that the telephone service will be restored and the next thing I know - another half hour later the phone rings!

So if my telephone service is restored hopefully that means that the rest of the area that was affected has also had their phone service restored.

Taxes, Taxes And MORE Taxes!

Well I finally finished my 3 tax returns that are due by April 15th! All three of my the tax returns are in the mail! Just in case you want to know what the "3" are? Here they are!

• Federal Income Tax
  
• State Income Tax
  
• Local Earned Income Tax

Now after being happy about finally completing and mailing in all of my income tax forms, I find that I am now angry because now I have another tax form that I have to fill out, INCLUDE A CHECK WITH A TAX PAYMENT! and mail it in because it is due by April 30th!

This additional tax is courtesy of our own little local Cheltenham area! It is called the "Earned Income Tax" and it has to be paid quarterly! I guess that I should be happy that it does have to be paid quarterly because I don't think that I would be able to pay it in a lump sum at the end of the year!

If your employer already takes out this tax then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I believe that you still have to fill out the quarterly form though every 4 months! One of the things that makes me angry about this local tax (besides the fact that it is a tax that we have to pay and the form and payment have to be sent in on a quarterly basis) is that even if you make under $3,000 - which makes you exempt - you still have to submit your total income quarterly along with the tax payment itself and if you fall under the $3,000 income exemption then YOU have to wait for them to send YOU back YOUR money!

And don't even THINK about trying to get "by" them. If you don't pay the quarterly tax then you are assessed a fee every month that you are late with your tax payment.

Like I said I still have to fill this out and send it in by the 30th. I see where they mail you the forms and even provide you with stickers with their address on it so that you can put it on the envelope - the problem is they don't provide you with an envelope!

Basically I'm just ranting because I really REALLY hate doing this!

About the only way (I think) that I could solve this little thing that bothers me is to not have an income!

Our Local Post Office

Here is another picture of our local post office that I took with my cameraphone. Depending upon where you are located this post office is located at the top of a hill which makes it quite an effort to get there if you are going by foot! (And I have had the pleasure of doing that too!) However it is a good walk if you are into the "exercise" thing! If I were driving I might feel a little bit different about it.

Everytime I go there it seems to be quite busy! Lots of cars in the parking lot and there is always somebody who is parked right at the front because - I figure - that they don't expect to be there that long.

But all in all the post office is quite good with lots of postal supplies on hand and the people that work there are very helpful.

About the only complaint that I have heard about the post office is that there are times when the line is long and there is only one or two postal clerks - but I have found that to be true of almost any post office that I have been to - except for the one in Center City.

So plan to make good use of our local post office 'cause that's where our tax dollars are!

More And More People Are Asking Me About The Cheltenham Bus!

The last time it happened was when I saw one of my more newer neighbors at the Shoprite at the Cheltenham Mall. That particular day I was waiting for the Cheltenham bus to take me home from the supermarket but I saw my neighbor instead and they graciously offered to take me home. On the way home I told them about the local Cheltenham bus that goes all around the Cheltenham Area. It even has a stop at the local train station (the one in Glenside I think) and it has a stop at the Rowland Community Center.

I was telling my new neighbors about the Cheltenham bus and they seemed very interested in becoming riders. Since one of them is aged 55 or older they can ride the Cheltenham bus for FREE! So since they didn't know the scheduled times of the bus I volunteered to bring them a copy of the bus schedule. That also reminded me that I promised another neighbor that I would bring them a copy of our local bus schedule. The second neighbor I promised the bus schedule to has lived in this area for a very long time but didn't quite know the scheduled times of the Cheltenham bus routes.

Well that's 2 new recruits / riders for our local Cheltenham bus! The more people that ride our local bus the more it will likely stay for the area. There was a time when our local Cheltenham bus ran 5 days a week but due to the area's "budget" cuts we were at a risk of losing it altogether! But the township came up with the idea of splitting the routes with Abington so now our Cheltenham Bus rides 3 times a week now instead of 5!

I am very glad that we are able to have this local bus for our area and I know that a lot of the older residents appreciate it too!

LaMott Podcast

I should also mention that I'm working on a podcast for LaMott. You can listen to what I have on it now by going to the LaMott Page.

So far the podcast has some public service announcements on it - one which I produced myself is for our local Firehouse #1.

I'm working on including music in the podcast but the music that is chosen has to be of a specific type because of copyright issues.

I will post more about the podcast as I add more content to it.

We Had A Little Power Outage Today!

Last night I noticed that the lights upstairs were "flickering" but I really didn't do anything about it. I figured that it was just because it was so windy that something was messing with the electricity and I went to bed a little earlier than usual Then something woke me up at around 4am early this morning. The first thing that I noticed was that my little table clock wasn't lit up so I didn't know what time it was - so I checked my cellphone (that's how I knew what time it was).

Well it seems we had a power outage in the area. I call it a "little" power outage because I found out that not all of the electricity was out in the house. Some lights worked and some didn't. It seems we had a "partial" outage.

I don't know if anyone else was aware of it since it was so early in the morning. And then as a day went on it started to rain - a little heavy at one time. Around 6:30am I heard the PECO truck outside. It went away and then it came back.

Some time later the power was restored and I came to find out later that several other people had reported the outage as well. But I'm assuming that they reported it much later than 4am - because I wondered who would be up at that time since it was early on a Saturday morning.

Did you notice it or were you not affected by it?

Fishing In The Area?

I really do miss fishing! I haven't done it in quite a few years! The last time I went fishing was I would say about maybe 10 years ago when my mother and I went to the Schuylkill River to do some fishing.


Cheltenham has an annual fishing derby for the kids but so far I can't find anything about fishing for the adults. The picture that you see to the left was taken from another site that also talked about the fishing derby for the kids.

As it stands right now I'm just going to have to find out if I can find out more information about fishing in the area for adults. It's something that I really want to get back into.

Just In Case You Didn't Know There's Another Convenient Business In Our Area

Since we are right in the midst of tax season I thought that it would be a good idea to let you know that there is a copying and printing store located on the corner right near 17th and Cheltenham - right on the Philadelphia side.

They do copying and printing, business cards plus a whole lot more!

I have been in there quite a few times and the people that work there are very nice and friendly!






The Printing Word

1726 Cheltenham Ave

Phila., PA 19027
(their card says 19126 which was our old zip code)

(215) 224-4550

Wind Advisory For The Philadelphia Area!

So that means that the wind advisory is in effect for us too since we are so close to Philadelphia.

The wind advisory stays in effect today from 10am to 10pm and I noticed that the wind didn't really start kicking up until earlier in the afternoon.

I don't know about the others that live in this area but I can definitely feel the wind coming through the windows. I know that a lot of the houses in this area are older houses - more than one hundred years old!

I hear the trees brushing up against the house, I hear my windchimes out back and I will occassionally hear something rolling down the street.

Hold on to your hats - because we have a few more hours to go before the wind advisory is lifted.

Here are some links to our current weather conditions:

Wind Advisory

Weather - Philadelphia

In the meantime I'm inside drinking a nice hot cup of tea!

It's Still Winter!

The weather is oh-so-cold, the wind is blowing and yesterday we had a lot of heavy rain! But perhaps this picture will remind us of what we have to look forward to as far as warmer weather is concerned.

This is the area just past the LaMott Community Center. I took it some time ago and it was probably during one of my excursions to the LaMott library. The community center kind of takes up a whole block - sort of. In LaMott, Cheltenham its located on Willow Avenue, but also on Sycamore and I guess you could say that the back of it is on Graham Lane. I believe Graham Lane stretches from the LaMott Firehouse #1 all the way down to Sycamore and this picture was taken near Sycamore and Graham Lane - which is probably about 3 or 4 blocks long. All the houses on Graham Lane don't look like these houses. The houses in this picture are located on only one side of the street. As you go further down Graham Lane there are houses on both sides of the street.

But it does look quite peaceful doesn't it?

Sister City?

I do know that our Cheltenham has a "sister" city called Cheltenham which is located in Gloucestershire, UK.

I don't know too much about that area but was watching a program on BBC and just wondered if their area and our area had any similarities.

I do know that our township has a "twinning" committee that has to do with bringing our two townships together.

Here are a couple of pictures that I got off of the internet





Cheltenham, UK does have some very gorgeous areas. Some of the areas do kind of look like here in that we do have houses that are made out of those big stone pieces that look like some of the homes and buildings in the UK. It does seem that our houses are more packed together than they are in the UK but I'm sure I just need to find some more pictures of that area.

I did find out that their Cheltenham has a bed and breakfast! That would kind of be a neat idea for our own little Cheltenham area.

Hopefully This Will Provide Some Inspiration During The Next Few Cold Months Ahead!

Gorgeous Cherry Blossom Tree - isn't it?

I took this picture some time ago - probably during one of my walks to the store.

It is a very gorgeous cherry blossom tree and I kinda don't remember when I actually took this picture but it could have been during the early or late spring.

Hopefully seeing this picture will help us get through the cold winter months that we have ahead! For instance last night was the coldest night of the season and now later on during the early part of next week - Monday - we may hit 60 degrees in January!

But for right now it's cold out there!

Christmas Decorations?

I have to admit that I am just as guilty for not having any Christmas decorations showing outside my house but I wonder why not as many people have decorated their houses for the holidays. Something as simple as a simple wreath hanging in the window is better than nothing.

But like I said above I'm just as guilty for not having any Christmas decorations on the windows or doors. It's just that my mind has been on other things and before I knew it - it was the holidays! This is something I vow to remedy during the next Christmas season even if its just a simple wreath that I hang on the window!

I'm sure that time got the best of a lot of people when it came time to decorate their homes for the holiday season and there were some people that did decorate their houses. But it was like maybe 3 or 4 houses in a block that decorated and the rest were dark. I remember there was this certain house on the 1800 block of Cheltenham Avenue that had a big inflatable Santa right in front of their house - as a matter of fact the man was putting it up while I was walking to the store and we had a chance to chat. I didn't see the big Santa this year.

So next season I vow to have some type of Christmas decoration for the windows even if its just a wreath!

Seeing holiday decorations puts people in a Christmas mood - including the people that do the decorating.

Shopping Within Walking Distance

There is a RiteAid that is within walking distance of where I live. It's not a short walk but it is a good walk. And it's a good walk for exercise as well. As I have blogged about before, I have a chance to see a lot of people walking around the neighborhood and a lot of them tell me that they walk for exercise. (I even know of one neighbor that keeps her car parked and walks to do her shopping and errands.)

Of course you can't get everything at the Rite-Aid but they will do in a pinch! They do sell eggs and milk and bread. If you get their circular in the mail then you can find out about what things they have on sale. A few days after Christmas they had a lot of 50% off sale products in the store and by the time I got there they had sold out of a lot of the things that they had on sale.

You can also refill your prescriptions by email.

Here is the basic information about the Rite Aid in our area:

Rite Aid
1401 W. Cheltenham Ave.
Melrose Park, PA 19027
(215) 782-8950

Customer Service is

1-800-RITEAID

Trash Day?

As I was going to the store earlier today I noticed that a lot of people had put their trash out for trash collection. Normally our trash collection day is on a Tuesday but because of the Veteran Day holiday, the trash will be collected a day later.

Now the only reason why I know this is because our community sends its residents a yearly calendar that notes important dates on it. That is how I knew that the trash wouldn't be collected today. I was talking to a neighbor who was talking about the leaf collections that the township makes and I noticed that he had put his trash out today as well. He told me that even thogh he gets the community calendar in the mail (like the rest of us residents do) he said that he never pays attention to it.

So basically I guess that I am just saying that you really should pay attention to the community literature that you get in the mail because it has a lot of good and important information on it.

Did You Qualify For Your Free Thanksgiving Turkey Yet?

The Shoprite at the Cheltenham Mall has a promotional Thansgiving promotion where if you spend $300 or more then you can get a free turkey by Thanksgiving. Of course they have been having this promotion for many years now and now that time of the year has rolled around again.

People tell me and I have to agree with them wholeheartedly that its not too difficult to spend over $300 at the Shoprite if you have about a month and a half to do it. Many people (myself included) have gone shopping at the Shoprite to buy something and end up buying more than originally planned! The store always has a sale going on and sometimes there will be a sale (or sales) on an item that hasn't been advertised in their circular which is delivered to the immediate area. I get a circular every week since I am located near it and live in the near area. So I know that means that the residents in LaMott and Cheltenham get the circular in the mail and I'm sure that there are immediate areas like Wyncote, Mt Airy and maybe even northeast Philadelphia that get the Shoprite circular as well.

I know that the other area supermarkets have similar promotions. I'm sure that both Acme and Pathmark have their own Thanksgiving turkey promotions as well but since I mostly do my grocery shopping at the Shoprite, I'm mostly acquainted with their turkey promotion.

I do know that Shoprite is going to be busy for the next few weeks - those days leading up to Thanksgiving when everybody will be shopping for Thanksgiving. So the sooner you qualify and get your turkey the sooner you'll avoid the Shoprite "rush"!

November 13, 2007 - got my "free" turkey today!

It's kind of interesting because someone mentioned to me that the earlier you get your turkey you stand a better chance at having a better selection to choose from and this was certainly true when I picked my turkey today. There were a lot of turkeys in supply at the Shoprite this particular day and it will be interesting to see how it goes as the days go by leading up to Thanksgiving.

*By the way Shoprite will be open on Thanksgiving Day in case you have to do some last miniute shopping

Election Day In LaMott!

Here's a picture of the LaMott community center on Election Day! The LaMott community center is where my polling place is.

As you can see there are quite a few banners that were posted outside!

As the years go by, election days in the community are becoming more important than ever!