Dogs. The canine hearts of our lives. They make us crazy, then they make us laugh. They give us the unconditional love that no human being, especially in today’s world is even capable of.
I have one that is suddenly very ill and I don’t even know how to process it in my head. I want to be positive and know that he’s going to come home and I’ll be able to love him for a few more years, but I am equally parts terrified he just won’t.
He is one of the happiest dogs we have ever had. Always wants to play, always wants to bring you a toy. Or greet you with a leaf he picked up off of the ground. A fearless chaser of squirrels, chipmunks, deer.
He came to us at six months old when he was dumped with his sibling on the streets of Philadelphia. He is now 10. And right now he’s at VRC in Malvern as they try to fix what’s wrong.
And save his life.
Literally a couple of days ago it’s like he lost all control of like his motor functions. In other words imagine trying to tell your arms and legs and head and tongue and throat to move only they’re not. He has been initially diagnosed with a rare disease called myasthenia gravis…they think.
Myasthenia gravis is nasty disease…in humans and dogs. Myasthenia gravis is a disease in which there is a malfunction in the transmission of signals between the nerves and muscles. Dogs with myasthenia gravis exhibit extreme weakness and excessive fatigue. Sometimes dogs are born with it, but mostly they acquire it.
My dog appears to have the acquired version. He’s gone from being a dog who literally bounces, to one yesterday who was like a limp rag doll when he went back to VRC for the second time within 24 hours.
When they initially took him in they thought they’d be able to send him home with steroids pending the outcome of the rest of the tests. And of course this is a disorder that literally maybe has like one lab in the entire United States to analyze it.
Terrifyingly he had a few good minutes yesterday and then the rest of the day was a roller coaster for me….and him. He ate 3 tablespoons of canned food. He didn’t take in any water. He was having difficulty swallowing too. And then when I took his temperature twice he had a very weird temperature reading, so back he went to VRC.
More about the disease:
Some dogs diagnosed with myasthenia gravis require treatment in the hospital until their medication dose is stabilized. These dogs are treated with a class of medication that inhibits a nervous system enzyme called acetylcholinesterase. Anti-acetylcholinesterase medications will be required for the rest of the dog’s life. Because of their compromised ability to swallow, some dogs will actually inhale food, liquid, or vomit, resulting in aspiration pneumonia. Aspiration pneumonia is extremely serious and often requires aggressive intensive care including oxygen therapy, antibiotics, IV fluid therapy, and supportive care. If the dog is unable to eat or drink without regurgitation, a feeding tube may be needed until the dog’s medication doses are stabilized.
Ancillary treatment of myasthenia gravis is as important as determining appropriate medication doses. In cases where there is a thymoma, it must be removed surgically. Food and water dishes should be elevated, and these dogs often do best with smaller, more frequent meals of a high-quality, high-calorie food. There is no single “best” nutritional formulation for dogs with myasthenia gravis. It is important to assess what works best for the individual dog.
Most dogs with myasthenia gravis will limit their own activity based on the severity of their muscle weakness…..improved muscle strength is an obvious barometer of response to therapy. In addition, chest radiographs (X-rays) are evaluated every 4-6 weeks for resolution of megaesophagus. Finally, acetylcholine receptor antibody levels are evaluated every 8-12 weeks, and should decrease into the normal range with remission.
I am going to be honest I don’t know where to go in my head with this. I cry when no one’s around. To watch a dog that is so joyful suddenly be like a limp washcloth is just horrible.
This begs the age old question of how long do we keep trying and if it doesn’t work when do we say goodbye?
I lost a dog to cancer who was going through chemotherapy when I was going through radiation treatment. I made a decision back then I would never do that again. At the end of the day I feel like I should have let him go, versus what I put him through. So in a way I’m faced with that decision again.
I’m not making any decisions today, but I have to keep in mind as we try to go through this what is in the best interest of my dog. If he wants to try, I will try. I figure that’s the best approach I can have. I have a friend who had a cat with this who lived a few more years after diagnosis with a great quality of life. I’m hoping for that. But right now I’m just scared.
I have not heard anything since my husband took him back to VRC last night. I am sending up prayers to St. Francis like a house on fire to send my boy home with some quality of life.
This will probably be a very odd post for a lot of my readers to read, but it goes back to why I write a lot of the time anyway. I write for me. It’s part of my process. And I’m sure the people who love to hate me although they’ve never met me or had a conversation with me will be cheering that something horrible has happened in my life. I can’t control that. That’s on them for being miserable human beings.
But for those of you who are animal lovers, if you have a minute send up a prayer to St. Francis for my boy.
I’ve written several times about Chef Paul Marshall‘s Farm Boy Barbecue. We think it’s the best around and have since we first discovered it.
They were formerly in the spot at 29 and 30 in Malvern where the Three Crazy Ladies used to be at the gas station there. That was a good location I think for Paul initially as he was seeing how people would take to his barbecue and it took off and well, that was never supposed to be a permanent home, and he’s been looking for a while and where he’s ended up is he has taken over the old Friendly’s next to Public Storage at 43 Lancaster Avenue in Malvern, which is one block west of 29.
They are in the process of a building makeover, but they are still serving up the barbecue, weather permitting outside usually Thursday and Fridays, sometimes an occasional Saturday. They weren’t out yesterday because the heat was so brutal, but they were there today. The best thing to do, as they are rehabbing their space, is to check their Facebook page to find out if they’re going to be there. They are usually there like 11 AM to 2 PM on those days.
I was delighted to see that Paul and Julie were still out when I was coming by after being at my oncology appointment. I had not ordered ahead, which you can do on Toast Tab, so they were out of chicken and pork ribs but I got brisket (which is like a religious experience), pulled pork, and short ribs for everyone for the weekend. And when I was there I ran into our mutual friend Bob!
The building rehab is coming along and I took a peek at the plans and I think it’s going be really cool! It’s going to be a good size sit down restaurant and they are looking for a fall opening in this new location. But in the interim check for pop-ups at that location a couple of days a week, weather dependent. They also do catering if any of you are interested.
Anyway, #shopsmall #eatlocal
I am a very happy customer of this business I have not been compensated in any way shape or form for writing another post. It’s just the perfect solution for really stinking hot summer weather. Let Paul Marshall do your cooking because no one BBQs like him!
We haven’t talked about Anna Maciejewska in a while have we?
While most of us never knew her, we came to feel as if we did know her because she was a member of our community and a mother to a beautiful little boy who will forever miss having her in his life.
It’s like law enforcement (Pennsylvania State Police) and the Chester County District Attorney’s office just gave up on her or forgot her, didn’t they? And yes, I realize they’ve had a lot of stuff going on these past few years. But Anna still matters to people. And the community at large and her family, especially her little boy (who will never really know her other than a lady in a photograph) and family from Poland deserve answers and closure.
She’s missing /presumed dead/murdered 5 years as of this past April, 2022.
I don’t want to say our justice system and law enforcement has failed her, but have they?
The media hasn’t covered her in forever. Dateline NBC must not think she is newsworthy enough and she is quite LITERALLY “Missing in America”. There is a show on Hulu called Missing. Well producers, Anna is “Missing” and has been for 7 years. Unsolved Mysteries? Hey now producers of that show, Anna IS an “Unsolved Mystery”.
There is nothing more to add. Anna Maciejewska Gould is still #missing.
I have been re-reading the Delia Owens book Where The Crawdads Sing. The book was optioned for a movie and I wanted to reread it before I see the movie, which is now newly released. Not that I am going to rush to see the movie right away, but I will eventually because I love the book.
The cover of the book declares it “a murder mystery, a coming of age-narrative, and a celebration of nature.” That is practically a dumbing down of the novel. It is so much more than the obviousness pitched on the cover to sell copies to the masses. It’s also about isolation and acceptance.
This book took the author a decade to write and has been sitting for 168 weeks on the top of the New York Times Best Seller List. It’s a haunting book, and a twisty-turny one for sure. But there are so many nuances. The main character is Kya.
Kya is a product of a dysfunctional Southern family riddled with issues and abuse. Her father beats everyone and is a crazy alcoholic and World War II veteran whom today probably would have been diagnosed at a minimum with PTSD. Eventually, Kya’s multiple siblings and her mother leave. They leave a then rather little girl with a dangerously abusive man, her father. Kya is also treated horribly by her community at large, a victim of nasty small town gossip, prejudice, and bullying. She is a poor white kid in a small town who lives in a marsh.
This Kya is called all sorts of names. Marsh Girl, missing link, marsh trash, dirty. She goes to school for like a day and runs away from it because the kids are so horrible. She is an outcast, an outsider. A few befriend her including member of the small black community who know all well the reality of prejudice and racism, and that is how she learns to read, take care of herself. Through these people she is introduced to a book publisher as she gets older because of her nature watercolors and accounts of wildlife living in and around her on the marsh. Her life experience, what she knows.
A lot of the book shows you the aching loneliness of a human being who only wants to be seen and loved. Her friends whom she actually trusts are the wild things in the marsh. Kya grow up naïve, world weary, mistrusting. Always the outsider looking in and so alone. People like that live among us every day. The people most don’t take the time to get to know.
The undercurrent of any human being’s need for acceptance is something that flows throughout this book. That got me thinking.
I remember growing up, I often felt like I didn’t fit. And I was by no means an outsider or outcast. I began to contemplate it when I was at Shipley, which then was predominantly WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) and some of the people I went to school just came from these families with insane money and pedigrees going back centuries. I was average middle class and had a vowel on the end of my name and was Catholic. Where many were blonde and blue eyed with adorable figures and killer equestrian and other sporting related genes, I had dark hair and was distinctly average. And it wasn’t that people weren’t nice, most were even if some weren’t. But it was sometimes it was like, where did I fit? Or was I just thinking too much and over-thinking? Probably. It may have been the experience before Shipley that caused that.
I had experienced that whole not fitting most acutely and didn’t know really what it was when we first moved to the Main Line from the Society Hill section of Philadelphia. My parents plunked me in Welsh Valley Junior High School, part of the esteemed Lower Merion School District.
Welsh Valley in my day was a hot bed of some of the meanest mean girls who walked the earth to this day. I wasn’t called “Marsh Girl” but I was called “City Girl” with derision and often. And I was bullied a bit. Even as I made friends, I was bullied and simultaneously watched the girls who were friends with me get a hard time sometimes because of association with me. And for what? I was new, didn’t fit into their then molds of having all mostly known each other since kindergarten. It didn’t just happen to me, and I knew many girls and boys they were just as miserable to. These were girls who literally just did this for the sheer sport of it.
I actually didn’t buckle to those girls, although the one who went to school with me but was a year behind me did make me come close in Sunday school. Yes, Sunday school. We lived in the same neighborhood at one time, and everything was fine until my mother bought me a pair of French jeans and a narrow wale corduroy jumper from a store in Ardmore where young to mid- teen and tween girls shopped. It’s been so long I forget the name. It was down the street on Lancaster Avenue from the Army-Navy.
I had not seen the clothing on anyone. These were styles everyone was wearing, and pretty much every girl I knew or knew of then shopped at this store in Ardmore. So I wore the jumper to church and Sunday school one Sunday. This girl literally came after me during a break in Sunday school. I remember I just kept moving to get away from her. She was yelling at me, trying to hit me. She was taller than me too. Yelling mainly that I was a copycat (‘take it off”) and worse. Yes…she happened to be wearing the same jumper…in a different color. I had never seen her wear it. Our mothers must have bought it at the same time. She had a sister in my class. She was a quieter more calculating version of her younger sister. They left me alone in school, and came after me in Sunday school. I remember my mother thought I was making it up at first until other parents kind of said “Oh THOSE girls.”
This was just one example.
No one ever stopped them. The other mean girls were the Monday through Friday variety. They were even worse. They were especially delightful during lunch period and gym. I was grateful that my parents let me go to Shipley. There I found my fit and my footing, but sometimes I just felt odd man out, like I didn’t belong. But Shipley at least gave me the courage to see the junior high bullies for what and who they were. And I remember being very amused by some of the attempts of a few of them to quasi friend me when I was a junior and senior in high school because one of the cute high school jocks they liked to chase was my neighbor and we were friends. Of course, that was a foreign concept to them to be friends with a guy. For the most part, they were what my friend’s grandmother would describe as being fast and having round heels. I didn’t quite get the round heels reference at first. Like I said, I was naiive. But I knew enough to be amused by the false offers of friendship, and to keep my distance. However, I did learn a valuable lesson then: throughout your life there will people who will always need you more than you need them.
This whole not quite fitting at times doesn’t end with middle school or high school. It exists with adults and has become more prevalent in the age of social media. Take for example, this woman who is all over social media and in her business model about how important it is to lift up and support other women. Anyway, she is on this thread mocking another woman, a stranger to her, over a local fundraising calendar that was like the UK movie Calendar Girls. The comments are nasty, sexist, ageist, sizeist. Their target was a woman who is not size four skinny with Botox, breast enhancements, tons of makeup always, hair extensions, or Come-F-Me pumps. She is an actual real woman who is truthfully pretty, smart, and nice…but outspoken.
Outspoken always gets punished. Outspoken never quite fits and I know that first hand. It’s like yawn, why be so predictable…yet they are predictable and practically run off of a script. Similar to sniping at me, another stranger from a strange land to them.
These are the people in today’s world in general who seem to find it their mission to make everyone not them not fit. They are the only ones whose acceptance in this world should matter. Basically pick a year, a decade, a century and you will find people, especially women like this. They exist to wound. Be mean. You don’t fit in whatever notion they have of the big, wide word and society.
A couple of years ago I heard a story of a woman who was then a new breast cancer survivor who had horrible complications. Another survivor, supposedly a “friend”, offers her clothes she was finished with because she lost weight. But she was neither nice nor kind about it. More like “Here I won’t need these fat clothes any more.” Took my breath away hearing that. Just gratuitously mean, and again from a woman who supposedly likes to tell people how wonderful she is and supportive of other women.
As an adult, I have experienced the don’t quite fit at different stages of adulthood. First when I was among those who didn’t get married and procreate right away. It just wasn’t in the cards at first, and guess what? Some of those who were the harshest of that brand of critics are now all divorced at least once. And about the having no kids naturally out of my womb of it all? Couldn’t have them. Knew that early enough on in my life. It bothered me at times, but then it just didn’t because it was simply beyond my control.
Then I experienced the don’t quite fit when I moved to Chester County. At first it was because I was new and some folks had been around forever between their lives, and the lives of family members. Then it was because I was living with someone and not married. Yes, really. How do people have so much time on their hands to do this crap to other people?
Slowly over time, I have been accepted by some, not all. Ironically those who accepted me first are a lot of the people a generation or two above me who are long term residents of Chester County. Just nice, decent people. Also slowly over time you learn to let go of the negative feelings caused by the non-accepting. But you also learn over time it is O.K. to stand up for yourself and tell them what they are doing is not acceptable if you want.
But still, not everyone is accepting. It’s life. I ran into it again recently. Very hurtful, and caught me by surprise because it was unexpected. But it’s mostly because they have never met anyone like me that can’t just be put into a comfort category and left there. I am also outspoken. I stand up for myself. Standing up for myself is something I learned to do. You can thank Welsh Valley Junior High School in Lower Merion Township for that. When you are going to a school that is sometimes like a literal Mean Girls meets Lord of the Flies or bad Darwinian theory, you learn.
What it comes down to is simple: if you aren’t from someone else’s precise world, people may or may not be comfortable with you. It just is what it is. Where The Crawdads Sing definitely delves into this and the question of acceptance within a community and how isolating people changes them and you. That is also what I think plays into the realities of racism at times.
Today, in the USA we live in a world of extremism. Politically, socially, financially, and oh yes climatically. It’s sad and tiring. I wonder what other countries think of us? Maybe I don’t want to know because maybe it is just too embarrassing.
If you haven’t read Where The Crawdads Sing, you should. And before you see the movie because I am told sadly the movie still doesn’t capture all the myriad nuances of the book BUT that doesn’t surprise me. It would have to be a Netflix or Prime series, not just a two hour movie to capture it all.
What happens when you don’t quite know how you fit? In the end it just depends how strong you are and if you are willing to be human as well. People always say “be kind” but they should add also don’t be fake. Being genuine goes a long way.
A lot of times websites that pop up during political campaigns disappear. While Googling for information on a 6th District Congressional Candidate, to see what a certain “guy” was about in past political endeavors, I stumbled upon a gold mine of elections past. There was this website devoted to this “guy” running for Congress, only back then he was running for State Rep and the website never came down.
Given the way that Chester County Republicans behave and the way this “guy” and his campaign behave, I will undoubtedly get blamed for this too. Because if you can’t figure out someone to blame, blame this blogger, right?
Only in this case? I didn’t know it existed because this “guy” wasn’t somebody I had to contemplate voting for prior to this.
Allow me to post a brief excerpt so you can go check it all out for yourself.
It’s just so funny it’s like it’s been waiting for him to run again. And no I don’t know who did the website but it’s very amusing.
Election Day is almost here, and we believe we have told you what Guy refuses to tell you about his record.
We have told it to you in a truthful manner.
You have a choice to make this Tuesday, November 4th.
Based on the evidence, there is no doubt that Guy is an extreme partisan Republican. He has been for 28 years. He is trying to hide from it, because he doesn’t think he can win if he tells you the truth. Personally, we can’t imagine changing who we are for anything; particularly while deceiving tens of thousands of people. Guy is obviously ashamed of who he is and who he has worked for in the past, and if I were George Bush or Dick Cheney or Rick Santorum or Melissa Hart or the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I’d be a little offended.
Guy wants to be your State Representative in the 157th District. He wanted to be the State Representative in the 185th District as well. He also wanted to represent the people in the 19th senatorial district. Amazing how Guy cares so passionately for the residents and communities of both South Philly and our community. And in just a matter of years! We wonder if Guy is more interested in elected office, than he is in you?
We would like to tell you why you should vote for Paul Drucker. But, this is a site about Guy. So, we will leave you with this: Paul Drucker is not a career politician. He is doing this for one reason: because he truly cares about this community where he has lived for almost 30 years, and because he enjoys helping people solve problems. He has no further political aspirations. He will listen to you, and work hard for you.
You have to wonder if whoever did this site in 2008 is still around to update it to today? But it is a gold mine of public information publicly sourced if you are curious about one of your candidates for public office this coming November. If you’re not curious about your candidates don’t look at it.
But I’m telling you this is like a political Pandora’s box. And sadly for this candidate now running for U.S. Congress in the 6th District, perhaps still relevant?
#WhereisGUY ? Stuck still in 2008? Has this candidate evolved or is this “guy” still cut from the same cloth leopards don’t change their spots? Time will tell.
I wrote this in 2008. Not much has changed except my State Senate and State Rep districts and where I call home:
Politics fascinates me. It’s like watching a bad reality television show in secret: you just can’t help yourself sometimes in the guilty pleasure of it all. Will the bachelor or bachelorette get their dream mate and a ring of super sized bling? Or in this case, will the candidate survive?
Election Day 2008 is already shaping up to be one of those election seasons like no other. Is it merely a case of desperate times mean desperate measures?
What do I know? The full complement of cute buzzwords to nowhere including:
Change.
Solutions.
Experience.
I know the definition of these buzz words, but what do they mean to me in this context? As in me, one ordinary American voter? What change, solutions, and experience will a candidate bring to my life to rock my world?
I have asked that of several dialing for dollars telephone solicitors for U.S. presidential candidates and they have all gotten downright agitated with me. Why was I questioning the word from on high? Why couldn’t I just accept the platform?
What platform?
Buzzwords are not platforms. They are buzzwords. If you want my vote, here’s an antiquated idea: earn it. Tell me how you, the candidate, are going to make a difference in my life. What are your positions on issues important to me? Will you remember my name just like those millionaires funding your flight time on private jets?
But does anyone give me answers? No. I just get more spin and more regurgitated political rhetoric spiced up with au courant jargon. And repeated requests for money. Just because.
Well now, I might purchase perfume “just because,” but I don’t believe in purchasing elected officials like a random pair of shoes.
Here’s an idea: why don’t candidates pay the American people to listen to all of the rhetoric and spin we are all going to be subjected to between now and November?
Getting down to it more locally and regionally, I am also in a politically irreverent state of mind, and perhaps am adding a dash of political inconvenience as well. I am being asked to choose both a state representative and a state senator with my vote, along with a U.S. congressman whom I chose not to put up top with the 2008 Presidential Follies.
With regard to the U.S. congressional race for the 6th District, I am going to come right out and say it: if it is like last time, I am taking two ibuprofen and calling it a day. Period.
Next we move onto our state races. I will be curious to learn who the contenders for state representative are in my district. At this point they all seem rather invisible. But since I am not sliding on glossy candidate advertisements by my door, as of yet, perhaps I am secretly grateful to be blissfully ignorant of all candidates at this point.
With regard to our state senate race for our senate district: we know the players, haven’t even reached primary day yet, and already it’s amusing.
As Pennsylvanians, we are most fortunate in our state races to have buzz words and phrases to delight and assault our senses, as well as the aforementioned presidential buzz and spin. Spin-buzz like:
Life Long Party Member Experienced Focused Independent! More signatures! Oh goody, more excuses to be politically inconvenient and irreverent. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (After all, during election season we are all Bill Mahers on this bus, aren’t we?)
Let’s start with “life long” political party affiliations. I’m not sure that is something to brag about, is it? And to be honest, who hasn’t thought about switching their political party affiliation once in a while, and how many people actually have switched their party affiliations?
And then there are my other favorite political buzzwords: “experienced, focused, independent.” Wow, what three utterly fabulous, completely subjective, spinable words. Well, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so pass the hand mirror so I can have a look-see.
How about something else I have seen two or three times now? The issue of who had more nominating petition signatures? I have to ask: why and how is that crucially important to my decision making process?
What do I want from all candidates? More substance and real solutions to real issues. Don’t just tell me what the issues are; tell me specifically how you will solve the issues without creating new issues. Also resist the urge to tell me I should vote for someone just because they are of my own political party. That is sort of reverse psychology for voters who think.
Above all else, if you want my vote? Earn it.
~ BY ME 2008
And yes, I am still as irreverent about American politics.
I am still as irreverent about political parties.
I know the New World order only thinks I am picking on them, but this has been my opinion for many years.
And what is still one of the most important things today to me and other voters? If these politicians want our votes they need to earn them. And it’s not about pandering to certain political factions or special interest groups or Facebook groups with no basis in reality.
One of the great amusements is why some people are essentially obsessed with me. Not being egotistical, they are.
They can’t fit me in a neat little box they can understand, so I am bad.
I don’t see their perversions of well, life, as a positive, so I am bad.
I don’t drink their brand of Kool Aid, so I am bad. And above all else?
I have no real desire to interact with them, so I am extra bad AND a threat.
Why am I a threat? Because I don’t see their narrow view of the world? Why is that bad? Why does everyone have to think the same? That is so Stepford Wives of them, a reference they don’t understand.
They say I am “hiding” but I take to Twitter? News Flash, I have been on Twitter since the beginning, and choosing not to associate or interact with people is not hiding. None of us are expected to interact with everyone, that is a ridiculous and infantile notion.
You see, a lot of these people are the armchair tigers, the keyboard warriors who spend their lives pouring over the words, actions and deeds of others and spouting verbal diarrhea to boot. Why on earth do I or anyone sane want to hang out an have a conversation with them. And why does anyone have to?
Conversation. That’s a great idea….but not with the perennially self righteous. They are not interested in what you or I or anyone else has to say unless it’s reverberating off of their echo chambers on social media. These people are super upset to find themselves blocked by my blog’s Facebook page. Life is not a Cheerocracy, I can choose NOT to respond and how to express myself.
I can also choose with whom I am connected to on any level. I choose not to be connected to these people. Besides, they aren’t in the least interested in a conversation, they just want to perform a beat down so why would that interest anyone?
Yes if they want to say I am an ogre with purple hair and green skin, I can’t control that. But I can control whom I let into my world. They are not value added. On any level. Don’t want to know them.
My blog is libel say they? Honeys, that thing called the First Amendment is not subjective. Rights are not subjective. They do not have a right to tear me up, down, or sideways. Mind you these are the kinds of people that send comments into this blog that I am a fat slob, a bully pig, Far left gross lib, oink oink brainless monkey, commie, Marxist, Socialist, etc., etc.
I mean oh come on really?
One woman here, just one woman, i.e. me. I don’t get it. I don’t have to be like them and they don’t have to be like me only we all have to be like them? Very confusing.
And these are the people that regularly doxx and more others, but if you point out something THEY said publicly on their social media like Facebook (ya know that little wee globe) or said publicly in a Facebook group, chicken little the sky will fall in? But hey I am just yakking smack, right?
Ok pretzel logic.
You have to understand that most of these people who have a jihad out on me are super public in what they do, like and dislike, so if they didn’t wish to be discussed, why do they do what they do?
To my readers and friends who are so kind with regard to me, I am sorry they then rail against you with full blown word salads. I also know sometimes they just rail against you not having to do with me. Face it, these people just rail. It’s all do as we say, not as we do, right?
It’s kind of like dealing with the people who were looking for secret messages in Beatles albums way back when, and playing songs backwards. They will undoubtedly rip this post apart looking for hidden meaning or interpretation, bless their hearts. WWJD? Not my department, only God don’t like ugly is the refrain of the time in which we live.
I do not like billboards, I can’t even pretend to think this abominations to our landscape are okay.
East Whiteland is one of many communities in the region who was in the opinion of residents bullied into billboards.
Start at 14:55
Soooo….you can imagine how upset residents near the site are that the billboard company did some clear cutting of trees etc?? Ummm don’t recall clear cutting in the plan??
Here is a statement from Scott Lambert, Chair of the East Whiteland Board of Supervisors:
A statement pertaining to the Catayst tree removal On the evening of June 30th, a resident with a keen eye notified the Township that extensive tree removal had been performed around the Catalyst billboard site situated along Rt. 202 and Conestoga Road. The resident provided disturbing pictures of the tree’s removal.
Pursuant to previously signed documents with 202 (L)East Whiteland Land Holdings LLC (Catalyst), no trees were to be removed without prior review and approval from the Township. This was a point of extensive conversations during the initial review process and an element of the project which the Board carefully negotiated in order to minimize impact to the site and surrounding properties.
I notified the Board, Staff and Solicitor that I wanted to conduct a site visit Friday morning to view, document, and secure the site from further ecological damage. Despite being a holiday weekend with a skeleton staff, I was joined at 11:15 am by our Codes Department, and our Township Engineers from ARRO – who had a representative drive in from Reading to assist with the information gathering. Members of our Codes Department then notified the Chester County Conservation District and PennDOT of the incident. At the site, we observed topped trees, extensive pruning, and complete removal of trees and vegetation – not only along Little Valley Creek but also on the steep slope areas leading down to the creek from the approved construction area. At this juncture, the township solicitor had not determined if the could be temporarily pulled and all work stopped. We proceeded with an action plan and received a commitment from the Catalyst site manager for the following:
1) No additional tree or vegetation removal would occur until Township approval had been granted
2) All earthwork and debris removal would cease until all stakeholders had input on an ecologically safe removal plan
3) To protect the Creek and stabilize the site to prevent erosion of the now barren slope, especially with the forecasted weekend storms they were to install erosion control devices (such as silt sock) as directed by our Engineer by the end of the day (This was completed).
4) All engineer costs related to this issue beginning immediately are to be paid by Catalyst.
Following the initial site visit, the Township hired an arborist to assess the physical damage to the trees and determine the potential monetary value of the trees that were trimmed or removed.
On Friday July 11th, the Board of Supervisors, our Solicitor and Staff met to discuss our response and on July 12th the Township sent a notice of default to Catalyst pursuant to the terms of the lease .
The township provided Catalyst with six conditions that must be met to cure (remove)the default, including a $151,000 penalty, plus an additional $15,000 for expenses incurred by the Township. Additional details regarding the conditions of the cure were read into the record during the Board of Supervisors meeting on July 13th. Should the conditions not be met, and payment not made by September 12th, the lease is terminated and the Township will demand Catalyst remove the sign at their expense will be found in default and will be terminated.
More information on this subject is available by viewing the July 13 2022 EWT Board of Supervisors meeting
~ scott lambert chair of east whiteland board of supervisors regarding the clear cutting by catalyst/east whiteland outdoor
I will update this post with the meeting video when it is available. In the interim take a good look at those photos. Way to go East Whiteland Outdoor LLC, way to extra stick it to the community and now what? I hear East Whiteland Township isn’t pleased either, are they?
I am also including the rotting historic farmhouse with a fabulous probably rotting barn behind it at 310 Lancaster Avenue in Frazer (East Whiteland Township) which I have been writing about for years (like the Joseph Price house at 401 Clover Mill Road at the corner of South Whitford in Exton, West Whiteland Township.) 310 Lancaster Avenue is the Clews & Strawbridge property, which if I recall my research correctly is three parcels under the same entity name.
Historic farmhouse at Clews & Strawbridge 310 W. Lancaster Avenue, Frazer (East Whiteland Township)
What is interesting about the Clews and Strawbridge property is I found a website today for self storage units there. I hope the storage is an inside the historic farmhouse given its dilapidated condition.
What I don’t understand with this location like the other two in this post is why people can’t take care of them? Why the demolition by neglect? And these are hardly the only examples in Chester County, either.
Joseph Price House 401 Clover Mill Road, Exton (West Whiteland)
The Joseph Price House at 401 Clover Mill Road is so sad. That is a magnificent property, and it appears to be on still buy two old men in Ambler. I think at least one of them used to live around maybe? I also know they have had offers for that property for restoration/preservation but in this case it’s demolition by neglect meets greed isn’t it?
Today it looks like some kind of cheap roofing material was being thrown up to cover the holes in the roof and some of the porch roof. So is that because they’re trying to sell it or is there actually still a tenant/caretaker living there? There used to be but the more it deteriorated, people just wondered but Loch Aerie had a caretaker living there as that was rotting up until the end. And Loch Aerie is a prime example that restoration and a viable adaptive reuse is entirely possible. Loch Aerie went from a proverbial lump of coal for decades to a glittering diamond.
Joseph Price House, Exton (West Whiteland Township)
And the farmhouse at 105 S. Whitford is also legitimately historic. It’s even recognized by West Whiteland Township as such. It was part of the Oaklands estate. And was it also not once also a family home to a very popular former Chester County State Representative?
When I went by both houses along South Whitford Road today I was astounded by the condition of the property at 105. The farmhouse looks sad but not completely dilapidated yet. But give it time because if no one pays attention it will get that way.
Demolition by neglect is an old unpleasant thing in so many communities. A few years ago you even saw foreclosure versions of that when banks would come in and take over the properties and just leave ghost houses, or whatever the correct nickname was.
I don’t know what the future holds for that farmhouse but shouldn’t it matter somehow? Shouldn’t the condition of the property matter somehow? And that’s the whole thing: you get that not every historic house can be saved or every old house or every beautiful swath of land, but this whole demolition by neglect and chest high weeds thing is ridiculous. Don’t the people that live in the area already matter? Shouldn’t these property owners at least be respectful of the township in which they have these properties?
It’s just that in spite of how difficult Pennsylvania seems to make historic preservation because they just don’t offer nearly what a lot of other states offer, there are people who still want to restore these properties. It would just be nice if there was more restoration and less demolition by neglect.
105 S. Whitford Road Exton (West Whiteland Township)
