During the Open House, tours of the facility will be given. There will also be door prizes, refreshments, and tons of happy animals to meet.

If you bring an item from the shelter’s Wish List, you’ll get an extra door prize raffle ticket.

To read more about the Open House and see the Wish List, click on the newsletter page below:

To read “Bites from the Director,” Betty Peyton, and print out a “Membership Form,” click on the newsletter page below:

The entire February newsletter can be opened by clicking below:

February 2012

Joe and I and all of the staff at Plain City Druggist would like to send our condolences and prayers to the family of Candace Rucker, who died on Monday, January 23, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Anyone who knew Candace knows that she had the biggest smile and the most positive attitude of anyone you would ever want to meet.

One of our favorite memories of Candace occurred when she won an iPod during our Christmas under the Clock open house in 2008. She didn’t even really know what an iPod was (her kids did and they were very happy), but her enthusiasm and excitement over winning surpassed that of a million dollar lottery winner.

And that was how Candace approached life–with joy, excitement, and always a belief that she was a winner.

We will definitely miss her.

If you’ve ever had a medication dropped off at your home, you may have been visited by delivery driver, Larry Sparks, who spends many an afternoon hanging out in the giant white van with Joe’s picture on the side.

If Larry stops by your house this coming Wednesday, February 1, make sure to tell him to have a wonderful birthday.

If you are wondering why Larry is holding up a Zagnut candy bar in this picture, it is because Joe has an addiction to these oldies but goodies and Larry was teasing him about it.

For his birthday, Joe said he’ll let Larry have a Zagnut, too.

As sweet as a candy bar, Larry has been a blessing to us and our customers and we want to wish him the happiest of birthdays.

The Humane Society of Madison County (HSMC) is finally in their new expanded building located at 2020 State Route 142 NE, just off of I-70 at the Plain City exit. The new shelter has a West Jefferson address, but is only about 5-10 minutes outside of Plain City.

An article in The Madison Press gave some good PR to the shelter. You can read that HERE.

And there was also a nice story in the Columbus Messenger. Read that HERE.

The shelter does not have a permanent phone number yet. If you need to reach them currently, call 614-359-7560.

We have nominated or helped nominate three people from Madison County for the Hall of Fame: Paul Carpenter, our former delivery driver and good friend (2001); Richard “The Captain” Murray, Christmas decorator extraordinaire and husband to Ann, who worked for the drugstore until this past May (2005); and Mary Mitchell, a lady who can do just about anything she sets her mind to (2008).

If you know someone who is over the age of 60 and has made significant contributions to their community, COAAA wants to know about them. Any individual or organization may nominate a resident of Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, or Union County. The person must be 60 years of age or older and a legal resident of Ohio for the past five years. A married couple can also be nominated if they are both equally involved in the same activities and both meet the eligibility requirements.

You can request a nomination form by contacting the Hall of Fame Coordinator for COAAA, at 614-645-7250 or 1-800-589-7277 or by emailing coaaa@coaaa.org. You can also download an application from the COAAA’s web site HERE.

To find out more about the Hall of Fame, go HERE.

The Deadline for nominations is February 20, 2012 (it has been extended from the original February 1 deadline).

Dianne Christner is back with the second book in her Christian romance fiction series, Plain City Bridesmaids. Following the first book, Something Old, the second book is Something New.

As I mentioned in my first posting about this series, the books are set right here in Plain City and feature the tag line, “Fall in Love the Mennonite Way.”

Something New will be released on February 1 and you can pre-order your copy now on Dianne’s web site HERE.

The synopsis for Something New introduces many pitfalls on the journey to find love: Lil Landis envisions a life outside her Conservative Mennonite home. But when she pursues a culinary career, problems on the family farm beckon her home. Veterinary student, Fletch Stauffer has goals of his own which take him undercover at the Landis farm, where falling for spunky Lil will jeopardize his plans.

I actually had a chance to read an advance copy of Something New and I was pleasantly surprised to find the characters contemplating a visit to Plain City Druggist (yes, the drugstore is featured in the book!). Lil’s mom is told, “Over at Plain City Druggist, they sell some herbs that pep folks up.” We certainly do!

Beyond the pharmacy, Dianne also features a ton of local landmarks in the book, including Darby Creek, the Shekinah Festival, RANCO, Dublin Methodist Hospital, and Rosedale Bible College. It was exciting to be reading and suddenly recognize a location or a place. The Ohio State University and a couple of trips to Columbus also feature into the plot.

Besides being a romance and a sketch of life in Plain City, Ohio, Something New also looks at the premise of factory farms and many animal issues with a fictional farm animal sanctuary located in the Plain City of the book. One of the main characters (and Lil’s romantic interest), Fletch Stauffer, is an OSU vet student who loves animals and works tirelessly with the farmers in the novel on their behalf. As most of you know, I am a huge animal lover and this was a thoughtful story line that I found to be educational without being preachy.

Dianne got not only the flavor of Plain City correct, but the Mennonite characters, as well. Many of the people in Something New reminded me of customers and friends and even one or two of our employees (who often wishfully daydream about trading in their skirts for contemporary blue jeans). I loved the characters of Lil and Fletch, both of whom seemed realistic and like people you might meet on the streets of Plain City.

I want to thank Dianne for not only mentioning Plain City Druggist in Something New, but for allowing me to read it before it was even published. I found myself pulled in to the story and finished the book in just two days. I can’t wait to read the third installment.

The third book in the series, Something Blue, will be available in August 2012. You can read the intriguing synopsis HERE.

Even if you aren’t from Plain City, the Plain City Bridesmaids books will make you wish you were.

And if you are lucky enough to call Plain City home (like me), you’ll be happy to see our little village so lovingly portrayed. Plain City becomes almost a character itself in this series.

Dianne, who was raised Mennonite, draws on her memories to make the characters and scenes in her books vividly accurate. Her husband was raised on a farm in Plain City and attended a Conservative Mennonite church in the area. Dianne also writes about her former Mennonite life on her blog, which you can find HERE.

Check out Dianne’s Facebook page for Plain City Bridesmaids, too, HERE. Dianne features lots of neat contests and giveaways on her Facebook page.

Dianne will also be in Plain City in April on a book tour. I’ll let you know more details on her time in the area as April approaches.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. We are finally getting a traffic light at the intersection of Route 42 and West Avenue.

According to the Marysville Journal-Tribune and an article in the Saturday, January 14 edition of The Plain City Advocate, the traffic light will be installed in 2014. The cost will be $500,000 with $400,000 being funded by the state. Plain City will have to pay the remaining $100,000.

As anyone who lives in Plain City knows, the intersection at West Avenue and Route 42 has always been the location of many, many accidents. Traffic on 42 comes flying through the intersection and on some days it is nearly impossible to cross or get out on to the state route from West Avenue.

Since I drive this route almost every day to go to the post office and the pharmacy, I am extremely glad to know that a light will be installed. We still have a few years to go, but at least now, we know it is coming.

One day when I was waiting at the stop sign on West Avenue beside Der Dutchman, I witnessed a horrible accident. An older gentleman on a scooter tried to cross 42 and was hit by the tail end of a semi. He was thrown into the middle of Route 42, his scooter a crumpled mess. Luckily, he was okay, but a stoplight there would have prevented the accident completely.

From the pharmacy, we can see the intersection and hear the sounds when a collision takes place. It is always cause for alarm when the echo of screeching brakes reaches us. We always fear the worst–a death at that deadly intersection. Hopefully, everyone will continue to drive carefully until the traffic light is in place.

Joe laughed and said, “Finally, we are going to be a three stoplight town! First, we had more people than West Jefferson in the last census. Now we’re getting a third stoplight. What other great changes are coming?”

We’ll just have to wait and see!

Eldchrist Winery (8189 State Route 736) will have their weekly Ladies night on Thursday, January 12, from 6-9 pm. This Ladies night will feature Lia Sophia jewelry and our good friend from cat rescue, Olivia Brininger. Olivia has donated to Black and Orange Cat Foundation before with special Lia Sophia events just for the kitties.

I want to encourage everyone to go out and support Olivia just like she has always supported Black and Orange–with not only donations, but by adopting kitties from the group, as well!! You won’t find prettier jewelry at more affordable prices anywhere.

Besides the Lia Sophia jewelry, a consultant from The Pampered Chef will also be at the Winery.

Olivia promises lots of great deals, including a drawing for FREE jewelry. For the month of January, she is also offering a “Reverse Customer Save Plan”—buy one item at regular price and then choose two more expensive items to receive at half off! Additionally, there will be pieces that are retiring at the end of January which you can buy at fabulous prices.

Please join Olivia and Eldchrist Winery for a night of wine, jewelry, and tons of fun!

Last year, I was a bit late in wishing Veronica a happy birthday, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss her special day this year.

Happy Birthday on Friday, January 13, to a very, very lovely lady. We hardly know how Veronica has time to celebrate her birthday–she is such a busy woman. Veronica keeps the Plain City Lions Club rolling and gets the seniors at the Bickham Center involved in lots of activities. Not only that, but she always does everything with a big smile.

From Spanish lessons to Cuban sandwiches, Veronica has given a lot to Joe and me.  Most treasured among all her gifts, however, is her friendship.

We return that friendship and love to you this birthday, Veronica. Have a wonderful day, our dear, dear amiga.

For me, the arrival of a New Year is always tinged with melancholy.

Looking back at the year gone by, a year now filed in the annals of history, I am saddened by how quickly time seems to pass, by how many things change over the course of a year.

I didn’t always feel that way. When I was little, I couldn’t wait for a new year to begin.

Until I was ten or eleven, I used to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s at my grandma’s house in Hilliard.  I had a very important job to do during the week leading up to New Year’s Eve. I had to make confetti.

Positioned in front of a brown, paper grocery sack, I would sit for hours and cut up every newspaper and magazine in the house to make squares of confetti.

I don’t know where I got the idea that it was absolutely imperative to throw confetti at the stroke of midnight to usher in the New Year.  It was, however, a very important ritual for me. Since I didn’t know where you could actually buy confetti, I made my own.

My aunt hated the confetti.

“I was still picking confetti out of the couch last year in July.”

My aunt lived a few streets over from Grandma and we would go there to spend New Year’s Eve. Although she complained about the confetti, she always let me throw it. Then she would spend the New Year picking paper out of shoes and plants and from between chair cushions.

No matter how well I cleaned up, I always missed some of the confetti.

Grandma liked the confetti and she would toss a handful in the air with me, shouting, “Happy New Year,” along with all the revelers in Times Square on the television.

Besides the confetti, part of the thrill of New Year’s Eve was getting to stay up until midnight, a luxury I was not allowed the rest of the year.

Always afraid of the dark and the monsters I thought lurked in the veil of night, I was glad for any excuse to stay up with the grown ups in the safety of a lighted room.

I especially hated nights with full moons, even though they should have been better because they were not quite so dark.  I did not like the full moon nights because I thought I was going to turn into a werewolf.

I had read a book containing a poem that reportedly would cause the reader to become a werewolf if the poem was recited on the night of a full moon.  Naturally, I was so horrified at the prospect of growing fangs and hair all over my body that I reread the poem over and over in some type of fascinated disgust.  It was the same impulse that caused me to peel bandages back to look at bloodied knees and elbows.

After reading the poem so many times, I, of course, memorized it.  I discovered that the words were firmly embedded in my memory on the night of a full moon.  Playing outside with my cousins, I happened to look at the darkening sky.  There, just appearing on the horizon, was a newly rising full moon.  Of course, the werewolf poem raced into my mind.

I had to say the alphabet repeatedly to drown out the words from the poem.  I was successful at holding the poem at bay and never did become a werewolf.

I knew that when I got older I wouldn’t be afraid of the dark or of becoming a werewolf.  That was also why I liked the New Year.  With each New Year, I got to celebrate another birthday in March.  I got to be a year older.

I wanted to be ten (my first double digit birthday).  I wanted to be a teenager (so sophisticated). I wanted to be sixteen (driver’s license, here I come). I wanted to be eighteen (finally, no longer a little kid). And then suddenly, I was all grown up and I didn’t want time to speed by.  I didn’t want to get older and older and watch the people around me do the same.  I didn’t want those I loved to die and my life be irreversibly changed.

That is the crux of my melancholy at New Year’s.  With each year, there is always someone who is not around to ring in another January.  Grandparents. Uncles. Aunts. Friends. Always someone.

I think New Year’s also makes me sad because January first was Paul Carpenter’s birthday.  With Paul’s death in 2001, his birthday became a day that pointedly marked his absence from my life.

Paul, the pharmacy delivery driver and my dear, dear friend, always proclaimed himself a “New Year’s baby.”  He celebrated on New Year’s Day not only the birth of a new year, but his own birth, as well.

I spent this New Year’s Day celebrating Paul’s birthday, too.  While taking roses to the cemetery, Joe asked me how I thought Paul would make his presence known to me this year.  Because it seems that Paul always does send a message, a reminder of his love, to me each January first.

“I’m not going to look for Paul’s message,” I told Joe as we stood by Paul’s headstone.  “He’ll make me notice whatever it is he wants me to see.”

I went about the day, heeding my mom’s advice that however I spent New Year’s Day was how I’d spend the whole year; a warning I think Mom used on my sister and me when we were children to keep us from fighting and whining for one complete day (nevertheless, we went on to do those very things the rest of the year).

I ate sauerkraut for good luck, a bizarre tradition inherited from long forgotten German relatives.  I don’t eat sauerkraut any other day except on New Year’s Day and I only eat it then at my mom’s insistence.

“You HAVE to eat sauerkraut on New Year’s Day.  Just one bite, even.  You HAVE to.”

Then, as the afternoon lazily drifted away, I drove Mom and Dad home from our sauerkraut eating excursion.

Suddenly, ahead of us there were bright rainbows of color in the gray sky.  Two ultra-light aircrafts circled above us.  I thought of Paul’s headstone.

Etched on to the surface of the gravestone is the image of a man in an ultra-light.  Part machine, part cloth wings, ultra-lights combine the aeronautical engineering of a motor and of a kite.  They are a marriage of old aerodynamics and new.

Paul had been an avid ultra-light flyer when he was younger.  In fact, the card that was passed out at his funeral showed a photo of Paul in an ultra-light with the words, “Now he flies with angels,” written below the picture.

I knew those two radiant, whizzing machines were my New Year’s message from Paul.

Darting and whirling, the ultra-lights looked like exotic, colorful birds in the gloomy January sky.  With their giant wings casting shadows across the earth below, they looked like angels.

My New Year’s melancholy turned to joy.  If I’d had some confetti with me, I would have thrown it into the air in celebration.