Things are once again (still) quiet at work. I'm here alone today, as the boss is out of town for the day, the other f.d. is on vacation, the part-time guy only works when there are funerals, and the other person, well, she mostly works from home. Considering the lack of employees around here today, guess it's a good thing we aren't busy.
I've got vacation-itis something awful. I had hoped to leave a couple hours early today, as the boss often lets us do when we're getting ready to start our vacations, but as I'm the only one here, I've got to stay 'til the end. Bah-humbug!!
To help pass the time today, I brought an old, dusty video tape I had at home. One of my Perry Mason tapes I'd recorded waaaay back when. I popped it in and have been more entertained watching the old commercials than I have the movie.
I recorded this movie, "Case of the Brokenhearted Bride" back in 1992, just before Halloween I'd say, judging by the commercials. Also, just before the presidential election between then President George Bush, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and a squeaky little millionaire independent named Ross Perot.
I've had quite a laugh watching his political ads. Part of me can't help but wonder: Where would this country be today if they had elected Ross back in 1992? I wonder...
Some of the other ads I've enjoyed watching (even though they annoyed me way back then) are the Ocean Spray Cranberry juice that had the catchy jingle that flashed from one person to another (instead of todays commercials with the two guys standing in a bog), the KFC commercials with Lake Edna KFC owner Russ Beeler... whatever happened to that guy?... and Tiny Toones characters pitching for McDonalds.
Ahhh, the memories!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Oh to be a kid again!
It's times like this when I'd love to be a kid again... forget the Easy Bake Oven I never got, I want one of these!!
How much fun does this look like?
And many of the toys/games on this page look like a lot of fun too! I can remember using a parachute in phys-ed class in elementary school. It was a lot of fun! The inflated bowling ball and pins look like fun too, but the item that really is catching my eye... in the lower right hand corner. The big wheels you slip into and then slam into each other... WOW that looks like too much FUN!!!
Why didn't they have any of this fun stuff when I was a kid???
How much fun does this look like?
And many of the toys/games on this page look like a lot of fun too! I can remember using a parachute in phys-ed class in elementary school. It was a lot of fun! The inflated bowling ball and pins look like fun too, but the item that really is catching my eye... in the lower right hand corner. The big wheels you slip into and then slam into each other... WOW that looks like too much FUN!!!
Why didn't they have any of this fun stuff when I was a kid???
A true horror story
In July of 2007 (+/- a month), there was a family living at the end of our street. A man who sold cars for a living, his wife, and their teenage son. This family had moved onto our street perhaps a year prior, having moved from the other side of our neighborhood. The house they moved from they rented out for a short while, then the renters moved out, and it sat empty. To this day, that house is still sitting empty.
As for the house they moved into on our street...
These people kept mostly to themselves. The boy would come out and play with the other kids on our street, but I rarely saw the woman, and the only time I saw the man was when he drove up/down the street in one of his dealer's autos.
About a year ago, several of us on the street noticed that these people seemed to have disappeared. No sign of life in the house, no cars coming/going, hadn't seen the boy out playing with the other kids. When we stopped and thought about it, we realized we hadn't seen any of them in several weeks. The rumor-mill started, and there were so many theories as to what had become of them, that goodness only knows what the true story is.
So now there were two houses in our neighborhood sitting empty that these people owned.
Wierd!!
Months and months passed. It's now been more than a year and no sign of these people. The bank finally foreclosed on both homes. Their first house is empty of any belongings. The house they most recently and mysteriously vacated, not so. My husband and another neighbor got nosey a couple of weeks ago and walked down there and started peeking in windows. They reported back that the house was still full of furniture, appliances, pictures on the wall. For all practical purposes, it looked as if it were waiting for it's owners to return from an extended vacation.
Knowing that this house was up for sale at an auction at the court house, we wondered if the buyer (whoever that might be) would get to keep all the items in the house as well once they took possession. Lot's of speculation and anticipation for somebody to move in and fix the place up as it had fallen into a sad state of disrepair.
I'm not sure who kept the lawn cut over the past summer. It wasn't maintained nicely, but it was kept cut so that it didn't get out of hand. A variety of storms over the past year had done damage to the house. There were missing shingles, missing siding... a wayward driver had crashed through the fence and knocked part of that down I think even before they had moved out... it's still torn up.
Fast forward to Sept. 25th of '08...
I was less than a mile from home yesterday when my husband called to tell me that there were going to be fire trucks on our street as the persons living at 10207 had reported an odor of gas. I said, "that's JJ's house". I arrived home a minute later and saw JJ standing out in the street, but no fire trucks had arrived yet. When I got out of my car, I was assaulted with an odor. Didn't smell like gas to me, smelled more like the odor you encounter at a sewage-waste processing plant. I walked towards JJ, joking with him that he must've overflowed the toilet big time!
Here came the first fire truck which turned onto our cul-de-sac, followed by a command car. Two more engines showed up, staging near the entrance to our street. Firefighters started emerging from their trucks, geared-up, donning air packs and getting out their gizmos that test air quality for a variety of gases. They walked around, going in between houses, walking behind fences, trying to find the source. Finally they found it and came exiting from the area behnd the vacant house.
It was a breezy afternoon, and at times when the wind picked up, it carried the offensive odor to you, regardless of where you tried to hide. At other times, the odor just lingered in the air, enveloping everything, assaulting the senses.
The first report we got suggested that a sewage line had ruptured and was bubbling up out of the ground behind the vacant house. Nice. :(
As the story unfolded, several intities were called in, including Louisville Gas & Electric, Metro Sewer District, and finally the health department.
Apparently what had happened was, the house was purchased this past tuesday by some realestate broker. She'd gone to the house on Wednesday to inspect her purchase. She went down into the basement and as she decended the stairs in the dark, the small amount of light that shown in from the basement windows reflected off what she thought was the basement floor. As she was getting ready to step onto the floor from the staircase, she thought to herself, "oh, look how nice and shiny these floors are", and with that thought in her mind, took that last step and slipped in the muck (for lack of a better word). She landed in the muck, soaking her clothes and the much splashing up her nose.
She left the house and when she returned on Thursday, she had the power restored and with that, the sump-pump started working, pumping out all the muck that was in the flooded basement... the basement that was flooded with sewage and storm water, and who knows what else! And goodness only knows how long all that muck-water had been standing in that basement.
So now that the muck was being pumped out, it was being flushed out through a pipe that spewed it across the sidewalk that ran behind the house, and down into a drainage ditch. The muck was soooo offensively overpowering with stench!!!! If this is how bad one house can smell, I can't even begin to imagine how a whole neighborhood must smell after a river floods or a hurricane blows through!!
Honestly, I don't know how that realtor could even stand the smell once she initially opened the door to even have made it to the basement. There is mold growing all over the furniture in the living room, up the walls and the floor. The place is a major disaster area, bio-hazard! I'm wondering if anybody has bothered checking upstairs to make sure there aren't any dead bodies!
The smell lasted for several hours. Once the health department and MSD had done what they could to stop the pumping into the drainage ditch, the fire dept. opened up the fire hydrant located in our yard and let it run several hundred (probably thousands) of gallons of fresh water so that it would flush the sewage lines out and clear the offensive odor from the air.
Now the new owners have to have the proper clean-up crews come in and clean the house and decontaminate the place. Red caution "danger" tape is strung up behind the houses to try and keep people from walking through the area. I just hope nobody gets sick from breathing the air full of mold spores, methane gases, and goodness knows what else.
I can't imagine what possess a family to just up and leave one day, leaving all their possessions behind like that. Perhaps none of the things they left were truly theirs, in that they still owed money on everything. But again, I just can't wrap my mind around that.
I hope things get cleaned up and repaired quickly, so that the house can be sold to a nice family that will want to take care of it and be an asset to our neighborhood.
On the plus side, suddenly my house doesn't seem all that dirty to me, when I consider what is inside of that place.
As for the house they moved into on our street...
These people kept mostly to themselves. The boy would come out and play with the other kids on our street, but I rarely saw the woman, and the only time I saw the man was when he drove up/down the street in one of his dealer's autos.
About a year ago, several of us on the street noticed that these people seemed to have disappeared. No sign of life in the house, no cars coming/going, hadn't seen the boy out playing with the other kids. When we stopped and thought about it, we realized we hadn't seen any of them in several weeks. The rumor-mill started, and there were so many theories as to what had become of them, that goodness only knows what the true story is.
So now there were two houses in our neighborhood sitting empty that these people owned.
Wierd!!
Months and months passed. It's now been more than a year and no sign of these people. The bank finally foreclosed on both homes. Their first house is empty of any belongings. The house they most recently and mysteriously vacated, not so. My husband and another neighbor got nosey a couple of weeks ago and walked down there and started peeking in windows. They reported back that the house was still full of furniture, appliances, pictures on the wall. For all practical purposes, it looked as if it were waiting for it's owners to return from an extended vacation.
Knowing that this house was up for sale at an auction at the court house, we wondered if the buyer (whoever that might be) would get to keep all the items in the house as well once they took possession. Lot's of speculation and anticipation for somebody to move in and fix the place up as it had fallen into a sad state of disrepair.
I'm not sure who kept the lawn cut over the past summer. It wasn't maintained nicely, but it was kept cut so that it didn't get out of hand. A variety of storms over the past year had done damage to the house. There were missing shingles, missing siding... a wayward driver had crashed through the fence and knocked part of that down I think even before they had moved out... it's still torn up.
Fast forward to Sept. 25th of '08...
I was less than a mile from home yesterday when my husband called to tell me that there were going to be fire trucks on our street as the persons living at 10207 had reported an odor of gas. I said, "that's JJ's house". I arrived home a minute later and saw JJ standing out in the street, but no fire trucks had arrived yet. When I got out of my car, I was assaulted with an odor. Didn't smell like gas to me, smelled more like the odor you encounter at a sewage-waste processing plant. I walked towards JJ, joking with him that he must've overflowed the toilet big time!
Here came the first fire truck which turned onto our cul-de-sac, followed by a command car. Two more engines showed up, staging near the entrance to our street. Firefighters started emerging from their trucks, geared-up, donning air packs and getting out their gizmos that test air quality for a variety of gases. They walked around, going in between houses, walking behind fences, trying to find the source. Finally they found it and came exiting from the area behnd the vacant house.
It was a breezy afternoon, and at times when the wind picked up, it carried the offensive odor to you, regardless of where you tried to hide. At other times, the odor just lingered in the air, enveloping everything, assaulting the senses.
The first report we got suggested that a sewage line had ruptured and was bubbling up out of the ground behind the vacant house. Nice. :(
As the story unfolded, several intities were called in, including Louisville Gas & Electric, Metro Sewer District, and finally the health department.
Apparently what had happened was, the house was purchased this past tuesday by some realestate broker. She'd gone to the house on Wednesday to inspect her purchase. She went down into the basement and as she decended the stairs in the dark, the small amount of light that shown in from the basement windows reflected off what she thought was the basement floor. As she was getting ready to step onto the floor from the staircase, she thought to herself, "oh, look how nice and shiny these floors are", and with that thought in her mind, took that last step and slipped in the muck (for lack of a better word). She landed in the muck, soaking her clothes and the much splashing up her nose.
She left the house and when she returned on Thursday, she had the power restored and with that, the sump-pump started working, pumping out all the muck that was in the flooded basement... the basement that was flooded with sewage and storm water, and who knows what else! And goodness only knows how long all that muck-water had been standing in that basement.
So now that the muck was being pumped out, it was being flushed out through a pipe that spewed it across the sidewalk that ran behind the house, and down into a drainage ditch. The muck was soooo offensively overpowering with stench!!!! If this is how bad one house can smell, I can't even begin to imagine how a whole neighborhood must smell after a river floods or a hurricane blows through!!
Honestly, I don't know how that realtor could even stand the smell once she initially opened the door to even have made it to the basement. There is mold growing all over the furniture in the living room, up the walls and the floor. The place is a major disaster area, bio-hazard! I'm wondering if anybody has bothered checking upstairs to make sure there aren't any dead bodies!
The smell lasted for several hours. Once the health department and MSD had done what they could to stop the pumping into the drainage ditch, the fire dept. opened up the fire hydrant located in our yard and let it run several hundred (probably thousands) of gallons of fresh water so that it would flush the sewage lines out and clear the offensive odor from the air.
Now the new owners have to have the proper clean-up crews come in and clean the house and decontaminate the place. Red caution "danger" tape is strung up behind the houses to try and keep people from walking through the area. I just hope nobody gets sick from breathing the air full of mold spores, methane gases, and goodness knows what else.
I can't imagine what possess a family to just up and leave one day, leaving all their possessions behind like that. Perhaps none of the things they left were truly theirs, in that they still owed money on everything. But again, I just can't wrap my mind around that.
I hope things get cleaned up and repaired quickly, so that the house can be sold to a nice family that will want to take care of it and be an asset to our neighborhood.
On the plus side, suddenly my house doesn't seem all that dirty to me, when I consider what is inside of that place.
WTF?
What the hell is wrong with people?! Where have all our manners, compassion, and humanity gone?
I got an email this morning from my mother, letting me know that my sister had fallen yesterday while walking to her car.
Nobody stopped to help her as she sat in the parking lot. She had to crawl to her car.
Thinking she'd just severly sprained her ankle, she drove home in much pain, and had to crawl from her car and into her apartment. Did any of her neighbors in her apartment complex offer to help? Apparently not. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps nobody saw her...
She rounded up her two sons and drover herself to the Immediate Care Ctr. where it was discovered she'd actually broken her foot.
The only good thing I can say about that is that she's probably better off having broke it than spraining it. Breaks usually heal a lot faster than sprains.... take it from someone who knows!!!
I got an email this morning from my mother, letting me know that my sister had fallen yesterday while walking to her car.
Nobody stopped to help her as she sat in the parking lot. She had to crawl to her car.
Thinking she'd just severly sprained her ankle, she drove home in much pain, and had to crawl from her car and into her apartment. Did any of her neighbors in her apartment complex offer to help? Apparently not. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps nobody saw her...
She rounded up her two sons and drover herself to the Immediate Care Ctr. where it was discovered she'd actually broken her foot.
The only good thing I can say about that is that she's probably better off having broke it than spraining it. Breaks usually heal a lot faster than sprains.... take it from someone who knows!!!
Friday photo challenge - Respect
Another photo taken as I'm whizzing down the interstate. These three large crosses can be seen from I-71 northbound, I believe they're next the the Calvary Baptist Church, but won't swear to it.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
"What if?"...
I'd like to invent a gizmo, a crystal ball if you will, but not one that will foretell my future, but rather one that will let me look at how my life coulda-woulda(shoulda?) turned out had I made different choices.
We've all second-guessed ourselves. It's human nature... what if I'd taken this route instead of that?, what if I'd turned that job down instead of taking it?, what if I'd never dated "so and so"?, what if we'd moved into that house instead of this one?... you get the idea.
Just some kind of "I wonder...?" or "What if...?" answer-machine that could tell us whether or not we made the right/wrong choice.
We've all second-guessed ourselves. It's human nature... what if I'd taken this route instead of that?, what if I'd turned that job down instead of taking it?, what if I'd never dated "so and so"?, what if we'd moved into that house instead of this one?... you get the idea.
Just some kind of "I wonder...?" or "What if...?" answer-machine that could tell us whether or not we made the right/wrong choice.
Sharing
Sharing isn't something I mind doing, although to be perfectly honest, it depends on who/what I'm sharing "what" with. Make sense?
We generally don't mind sharing our time with a friend/family member, whether for leisure purposes or to help them accomplish something.
We share our "tools" to help one another accomplish a project, whether the tool is hardware (you know, "man toys"), gadgets from our kitchen, the use of a major appliance if theirs is on the fritz, or our brains (know-how) to help get the project done.
We share our food, whether it's when we invite them over for dinner, or perhaps we've cooked an excess amount of something we might take a portion to them so it doesn't go to waste, or if they're having a "moment" in their life we'll prepare a meal for them to help them get through.
These are things we share in our daily lives and think nothing of it. We gladly share.
Okay, so as long I've mentioned sharing our food, allow me to expand on that segment...
Many people share food off of their plate with their children or spouse. I see it all the time, and really, I have no problem with this.... up to a point. Spouses sharing, doesn't bother me (as long as they are married to each other!). Parent and young child, doesn't bother me. Parent and adult-child, this bothers me. Adult siblings, this bothers me. People that aren't related, this REALLY bothers me!
I will say this is one habit of my husband's that I truly dislike with a passion and I've griped about it for years. If we're having dinner with his relatives, he (and the rest of them) think nothing of reaching over and helping themselves to food on someone elses plate. Okay, can you say "Gross!" or "How RUDE!!!"???
I suppose it's one thing if someone asks if you'll cut off a small bite and allow them to taste what you're eating (I still think it's somewhat rude), but slightly more acceptable, but to just help yourself!? Nope, un-uh!! His family learned a long time ago not to reach their fork in my direction or they were liable to draw back a bloody stump. And no matter how many times I've argued with the husband on this subject, he doesn't seem to comprehend that he's eating their germs and diseases (should they have any) and then potentially passing them on to me should I allow him to kiss me afterwards. I'm sorry folks, it's just disgusting!!!!!!
My last bit on the subject of sharing...
I'm not a big fan of feeding your pets your left-overs, but I have been known to save some meat-scraps for our dogs from time to time. Under no circumstances do I allow them to eat off of my plate while I'm eating. If I'm completely done, then on rare occasions, I might (emphasis on MIGHT) let them lick the sauce or gravy residue from the plate/bowl before I put it in the dishwasher. That's the extent of my sharing with the pets.
So when a friend of ours, who is one of the most clean-freak, fastidious people I've ever known in my life was actually letting his cat lick the food on one side of his plate WHILE he was still eating, needless to say I nearly lost my own dinner. Then another time I saw him sharing an ice cream cone with the cat, I was just flabbergasted.
Can somebody out there in blogger-world tell me WHY you share a meal with your pet in that manner? These animals lick their own butts for Pete sake!!!!, not to mention they frequently eat up their own vomit. Why would you want to share a bowl of food with someone that does that?
To this day, my husband still occasionally mentions how grossed out he was when we saw that friend doing that. I wish I could make him understand how equally grossed out I am when he shares a meal with his family in such a manner.
Okay, so now that I've probably offended some people in blog-world, please share your thoughts on sharing.
We generally don't mind sharing our time with a friend/family member, whether for leisure purposes or to help them accomplish something.
We share our "tools" to help one another accomplish a project, whether the tool is hardware (you know, "man toys"), gadgets from our kitchen, the use of a major appliance if theirs is on the fritz, or our brains (know-how) to help get the project done.
We share our food, whether it's when we invite them over for dinner, or perhaps we've cooked an excess amount of something we might take a portion to them so it doesn't go to waste, or if they're having a "moment" in their life we'll prepare a meal for them to help them get through.
These are things we share in our daily lives and think nothing of it. We gladly share.
Okay, so as long I've mentioned sharing our food, allow me to expand on that segment...
Many people share food off of their plate with their children or spouse. I see it all the time, and really, I have no problem with this.... up to a point. Spouses sharing, doesn't bother me (as long as they are married to each other!). Parent and young child, doesn't bother me. Parent and adult-child, this bothers me. Adult siblings, this bothers me. People that aren't related, this REALLY bothers me!
I will say this is one habit of my husband's that I truly dislike with a passion and I've griped about it for years. If we're having dinner with his relatives, he (and the rest of them) think nothing of reaching over and helping themselves to food on someone elses plate. Okay, can you say "Gross!" or "How RUDE!!!"???
I suppose it's one thing if someone asks if you'll cut off a small bite and allow them to taste what you're eating (I still think it's somewhat rude), but slightly more acceptable, but to just help yourself!? Nope, un-uh!! His family learned a long time ago not to reach their fork in my direction or they were liable to draw back a bloody stump. And no matter how many times I've argued with the husband on this subject, he doesn't seem to comprehend that he's eating their germs and diseases (should they have any) and then potentially passing them on to me should I allow him to kiss me afterwards. I'm sorry folks, it's just disgusting!!!!!!
My last bit on the subject of sharing...
I'm not a big fan of feeding your pets your left-overs, but I have been known to save some meat-scraps for our dogs from time to time. Under no circumstances do I allow them to eat off of my plate while I'm eating. If I'm completely done, then on rare occasions, I might (emphasis on MIGHT) let them lick the sauce or gravy residue from the plate/bowl before I put it in the dishwasher. That's the extent of my sharing with the pets.
So when a friend of ours, who is one of the most clean-freak, fastidious people I've ever known in my life was actually letting his cat lick the food on one side of his plate WHILE he was still eating, needless to say I nearly lost my own dinner. Then another time I saw him sharing an ice cream cone with the cat, I was just flabbergasted.
Can somebody out there in blogger-world tell me WHY you share a meal with your pet in that manner? These animals lick their own butts for Pete sake!!!!, not to mention they frequently eat up their own vomit. Why would you want to share a bowl of food with someone that does that?
To this day, my husband still occasionally mentions how grossed out he was when we saw that friend doing that. I wish I could make him understand how equally grossed out I am when he shares a meal with his family in such a manner.
Okay, so now that I've probably offended some people in blog-world, please share your thoughts on sharing.
The characters in our life
Over the past X years (however long I've been at this blogging business), I've blogged about some of the "characters" in my life. By characters, I mean the everyday people I see, if not everyday, at least, very often. I don't know these people personally, but because they are regulars in my day-to-day life, they are some of the characters that make up my life's story.
**I've blogged about "Smiley/Happy", the woman that bounce-walks up and down the roads near where I live all the while with a smile on her face, going to one store or another to make some small purchase before bounce-walking her way back home.
**Then there is the woman who walks through our neighborhood everyday, ALWAYS dressed in the same color-scheme (if not the same exact clothes everyday) of black & white. Although recently I've seen her wearing some purple, so she's finally starting to branch out in her wardrobe choices.
**And the "Shuffler". The little old lady (and I actually DO know her real name) that shuffles through our neighborhood several times each morning as she gets in her daily 6-mile walk. Years ago when I first started seeing her, she carried nothing more than a kleenex in one hand and a stick in the other (I assume to beat off a stray dog or mugger), if there was a threat of rain, she'd carry an umbrella. Over the years, she's gotten more safety conscious and started wearing a brightly colored safety vest over her clothes with a big reflective triangle on the back (looks like she should be standing in traffic, directing it). Her stick has gotten much longer and now has a point on it for picking up items of value such as aluminum cans (I'm not making this up, as I saw a soda can speared to the end of her stick the other day). She also now carries a Nextel phone and stops every so often to check in with her husband, either to let him know she's okay, or to check and see that he's okay.
These women are some of the minor characters in my life.
**Now let me tell you about another one. I don't know his name, we've never spoke. I'm not sure of his age but I'll guess him to be in his late 40's. I feel confident in saying that he's single and has no children, and will most likely remain that way for the rest of his life.
There is a group-home across the street from our parking lot at work, whose adult residents all have some form of mental (and maybe some physical) disabilities, whether autism, retardation, Downs Syndrome, or whatever. I see many of them getting on the shuttle at various times of the day to go to some minimum-wage job, usually some type of piece-work factory job, bagging groceries at the store, or sweeping the parking lot at a fast-food place. I've never seen this particular man get on the shuttle, so as far as I know, he stays at the group-home 24/7. When I arrive at work in the morning, he's almost always outside, either sitting on the nice veranda the home has, or else slowly walking up and down the sidewalk that borders their property on two sides. On the occasions I go out during the day, whether for lunch or to run an errand, he's usually there, and when I leave in the evenings, same thing. This man is just... always there!
He seems harmless enough as he walks around, his fingertips together in front of his chest, and while I've never heard him speaking to any of the other residents, nor seen him speaking or waving to anyone else that happens by, he's become somewhat of a fixture in my life in that when I turn the corner from Main Str. onto 4th, I expect to see him in the vicinity. I didn't realize how much of a fixture he'd become until recently I noticed after a few days that I hadn't seen him in a while, and I wondered to myself if something had happened to him.
Okay, knock it off woman! You're worrying about a perfect stranger you have no connection to.
Yet I found myself somewhat relieved late last week when I turned the corner and once again saw him standing out in front of the group-home. Perhaps he'd been ill. Perhaps his family had come and gotten him and taken him on a family vacation with them. I'm glad he's back and as far as I can tell, he's okay.
Odd how a perfect stranger who bears a bit of a resemblance to Stevie Wonder can become such an important part of my daily routine.
**I've blogged about "Smiley/Happy", the woman that bounce-walks up and down the roads near where I live all the while with a smile on her face, going to one store or another to make some small purchase before bounce-walking her way back home.
**Then there is the woman who walks through our neighborhood everyday, ALWAYS dressed in the same color-scheme (if not the same exact clothes everyday) of black & white. Although recently I've seen her wearing some purple, so she's finally starting to branch out in her wardrobe choices.
**And the "Shuffler". The little old lady (and I actually DO know her real name) that shuffles through our neighborhood several times each morning as she gets in her daily 6-mile walk. Years ago when I first started seeing her, she carried nothing more than a kleenex in one hand and a stick in the other (I assume to beat off a stray dog or mugger), if there was a threat of rain, she'd carry an umbrella. Over the years, she's gotten more safety conscious and started wearing a brightly colored safety vest over her clothes with a big reflective triangle on the back (looks like she should be standing in traffic, directing it). Her stick has gotten much longer and now has a point on it for picking up items of value such as aluminum cans (I'm not making this up, as I saw a soda can speared to the end of her stick the other day). She also now carries a Nextel phone and stops every so often to check in with her husband, either to let him know she's okay, or to check and see that he's okay.
These women are some of the minor characters in my life.
**Now let me tell you about another one. I don't know his name, we've never spoke. I'm not sure of his age but I'll guess him to be in his late 40's. I feel confident in saying that he's single and has no children, and will most likely remain that way for the rest of his life.
There is a group-home across the street from our parking lot at work, whose adult residents all have some form of mental (and maybe some physical) disabilities, whether autism, retardation, Downs Syndrome, or whatever. I see many of them getting on the shuttle at various times of the day to go to some minimum-wage job, usually some type of piece-work factory job, bagging groceries at the store, or sweeping the parking lot at a fast-food place. I've never seen this particular man get on the shuttle, so as far as I know, he stays at the group-home 24/7. When I arrive at work in the morning, he's almost always outside, either sitting on the nice veranda the home has, or else slowly walking up and down the sidewalk that borders their property on two sides. On the occasions I go out during the day, whether for lunch or to run an errand, he's usually there, and when I leave in the evenings, same thing. This man is just... always there!
He seems harmless enough as he walks around, his fingertips together in front of his chest, and while I've never heard him speaking to any of the other residents, nor seen him speaking or waving to anyone else that happens by, he's become somewhat of a fixture in my life in that when I turn the corner from Main Str. onto 4th, I expect to see him in the vicinity. I didn't realize how much of a fixture he'd become until recently I noticed after a few days that I hadn't seen him in a while, and I wondered to myself if something had happened to him.
Okay, knock it off woman! You're worrying about a perfect stranger you have no connection to.
Yet I found myself somewhat relieved late last week when I turned the corner and once again saw him standing out in front of the group-home. Perhaps he'd been ill. Perhaps his family had come and gotten him and taken him on a family vacation with them. I'm glad he's back and as far as I can tell, he's okay.
Odd how a perfect stranger who bears a bit of a resemblance to Stevie Wonder can become such an important part of my daily routine.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Prune fingers
Last night I grabbed a pail and filled it with hot water and Lysol (industrial strength), grabbed a cloth diaper (yes, I have diapers even though we've no human-children... they make great cleaning rags and dog-slobber wipes). I started wiping down the walls in the hallway to remove dust and several dried dog-slobber loogeys that had dried after being flung there. Some came off fairly easily. Others took quite a bit of elbow grease to remove. In some places the paint came off with all the scrubbing I did. My house seriously needs a new coat of paint. I seem to recall a couple of years ago some friends were going to come over and help me paint, but then I got really down in my back and one of the friends got pregnant, so that project was put off indefinitely it seems.
Anyway, I scrubbed the walls and doors, door frames and wiped the baseboards. You wouldn't think a hallway would take so long, but I literally spent close to three hours on it, only taking a short break to walk Olivia then get right back to it, and I haven't even done the floor yet. The hardest part was taking an old toothbrush to the louvered door of the utility-closet. Hate cleaning louvered doors!! The floors will wait 'til either friday or saturday, assuming they get done at all.
I'm a professed non-cleaner, so why this sudden burst of cleaning you ask? As we're going out of town, that means my friend will be coming in to care for the cats while we're away. Granted, she's been in our mess of a house before. But now she has a tot. While my house will be far from sanitized or truly CLEAN, it will be considerably cleaner than usual. I didn't want the tot to come in and pick up a random dog-hair-tumbleweed and put it in her mouth. Granted, should she decide to crawl or climb on anything, she'll probably still get covered with pet hair, but maybe I can try to keep it to a minimum. I know she's likely to sit in the kitchen floor and pet the cats when they eat, so I'll get the kitchen floor mopped.
My fingers were majorly pruney when I stopped to walk the dog, and had just about returned to normal, only to be pruned up again when I returned to cleaning.
I was sooo tired when I went to bed last night, it was all I could do to stay awake to watch the season premiere of Law & Order: SVU.
This evening, it's either get the pool cleaned out and closed up or scrub the living room walls. Either way, it's more pruney fingers for me. :(
Anyway, I scrubbed the walls and doors, door frames and wiped the baseboards. You wouldn't think a hallway would take so long, but I literally spent close to three hours on it, only taking a short break to walk Olivia then get right back to it, and I haven't even done the floor yet. The hardest part was taking an old toothbrush to the louvered door of the utility-closet. Hate cleaning louvered doors!! The floors will wait 'til either friday or saturday, assuming they get done at all.
I'm a professed non-cleaner, so why this sudden burst of cleaning you ask? As we're going out of town, that means my friend will be coming in to care for the cats while we're away. Granted, she's been in our mess of a house before. But now she has a tot. While my house will be far from sanitized or truly CLEAN, it will be considerably cleaner than usual. I didn't want the tot to come in and pick up a random dog-hair-tumbleweed and put it in her mouth. Granted, should she decide to crawl or climb on anything, she'll probably still get covered with pet hair, but maybe I can try to keep it to a minimum. I know she's likely to sit in the kitchen floor and pet the cats when they eat, so I'll get the kitchen floor mopped.
My fingers were majorly pruney when I stopped to walk the dog, and had just about returned to normal, only to be pruned up again when I returned to cleaning.
I was sooo tired when I went to bed last night, it was all I could do to stay awake to watch the season premiere of Law & Order: SVU.
This evening, it's either get the pool cleaned out and closed up or scrub the living room walls. Either way, it's more pruney fingers for me. :(
Careers up to this point
I'll expand on my "career choices" blog from yesterday. Actually, I think I may have blogged about this several months (years?) ago... if so, forgive me for my partheimers is kicking in.
From 12 - 19, I was THE babysitter in our area of the subdivision as a teenager. Three families on a fairly regular basis, for an autistic boy that lived up the street on a couple of occasions, and another family a little further away a few times 'til they moved away.
I had a paper-route for a short time when I was about 14. It didn't last long though... too much work for too little pay. But then, doesn't that seem to be the case for most jobs? Guess that was a life lesson for me early on.
1985, the summer I was 17, I had my first "real" job at the EGA (Embroiders Guild of America), that's when their headquarters was at 4th & Jefferson in downtown Louisville. It was mostly filing and data-entry. It was intended to only last for a couple of weeks 'til school started. But a couple of weeks after returning to school, they asked if I could come back, so I worked there in the mornings on job-release before going to classes. I thought that was so awesome, getting a paycheck and getting class credits without going to school!! I did this for a couple of months, but eventually I was working two jobs and going to school and it just became too much, something had to give, so I kept the job that had more promise for my future. Turned out to be a smart choice.
I started working at Coca-Cola 10/25/1985, part-time. I was getting class credits for working there too. Life was sweet! I started out in Route-accounting, entering the daily sales orders and then printing out the invoices for the route drivers for the next days deliveries.
Jan. of '86 Coke made me full-time and promoted me to computer operator. I was still doing the route-accounting work, but now had the added duty of running end-of-day reports and backing up the massive computer system on large magnetic-spooled tapes. I became so efficient at my job (if I do say so myself) that I started asking for more duties to help fill my shift. They gave me the task of preparing the deposit for the armored-car that came each morning... All the money that the route drivers brought in each day after running their routes had to be counted and balanced to the end-of-day report and the deposit slip prepared.
It was during this era that I met my future husband (hence the wise choice for keeping the Coke job and ditching the EGA).
Late in '87 or early in '88 I moved out of the computer room (as that department was being eliminated... moved to the Minnesota plant), and I was fortunate enough to find a position in the distribution department as a dispatch clerk. This involved creating the drivers routes or itineraries for the next day, by batching stores/stops together in areas, but also taking into consideration the size of the orders (mustn't overload the trucks) and time-limits. It was actually a very stressful job, but I liked it. If nothing else, my time spent working in that office taught me one thing, the lay-out of Louisville and the surrounding areas. Because I sat and stared at a large wall map for several hours a day, I became very knowledgeable about our interstate system, neighborhoods and the out-lying areas. Plus a lot of other useless info floated around in my head... at one time, I could tell you where every single Kroger, Winn-Dixie and Valu-Market was located within 150 miles, their store number and most of the stores managers names. Useless info, much of which still floats around in my head to this very day. Useless!!
I was eventually promoted to Dispatch Supervisor and started doing some traveling to other locations to help set-up their mapping system for the new dispatching software we were getting.
Eventually, the 16 hour days got to be too much and I called it quits in June of '91.
I took a year and a half off, being a lady of leisure, before going back to work part-time in Dec. of '92 doing clerical work at LMGE cemetery. In Nov. of '96 I was finally made full-time and despite always having the title of administrator, I pretty much did everything but dig the graves and set headstones. I totally re-vamped the filing system while there, straightened out the mess that was in the lot-book (our bible!) that tracked what property was owned by who(whom?) and who was buried where. Did payables, receivables, entered payroll, did both pre-need and at-need sales of burial spaces, mausoleum crypts, headstones, etc. When the new cemetery software was being introduced, I was the "go-to" person for the state of Kentucky, in other words, I was the one all the other administrators called when they had questions or needed help. I did quite a bit of traveling for a couple of years around the state, in Tennessee, and Vancouver B.C. Canada.
They canned me in Jan. 0f '03, or as they put it "eliminated my position". What it boiled down to was the bosses son and I didn't get along and he whined to daddy and I was let go. I basically found a job 5 minutes after I got home that afternoon when I called a funeral home we'd frequently done business with. I had called to simply say good-bye and don't call me at home any more, but was informed their secretary had just turned in her two-weeks notice and they needed somebody. So I took a week off to get some things done and then started at my current job here at the funeral home, and here I've remained for 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days.
During my stint at the cemetery, I also held down two other part-time jobs. One as a sales clerk in the jewelry dept. at Walmart. I only stayed there for about 5 months. Hated working there!
I also worked at a BP mini-mart for about 3 and a half years. Yep, at one time I was holding down three jobs. Can you say "sleep deprived"?
Throw in the volunteer fire-fighter for about 18 months, the ladies auxiliary of same fire department for several years, and now stable-girl at the farm, and I think you could say I've worn quite a number of hats over the years.
And not one of them came anywhere close to the construction or librarian job my h.s. aptitude test suggested, nor the criminal justice or forestry job the current tests suggest. Okay, perhaps my work at the Luci Ctr. comes close for the agriculture, so perhaps there's something in my future there...
From 12 - 19, I was THE babysitter in our area of the subdivision as a teenager. Three families on a fairly regular basis, for an autistic boy that lived up the street on a couple of occasions, and another family a little further away a few times 'til they moved away.
I had a paper-route for a short time when I was about 14. It didn't last long though... too much work for too little pay. But then, doesn't that seem to be the case for most jobs? Guess that was a life lesson for me early on.
1985, the summer I was 17, I had my first "real" job at the EGA (Embroiders Guild of America), that's when their headquarters was at 4th & Jefferson in downtown Louisville. It was mostly filing and data-entry. It was intended to only last for a couple of weeks 'til school started. But a couple of weeks after returning to school, they asked if I could come back, so I worked there in the mornings on job-release before going to classes. I thought that was so awesome, getting a paycheck and getting class credits without going to school!! I did this for a couple of months, but eventually I was working two jobs and going to school and it just became too much, something had to give, so I kept the job that had more promise for my future. Turned out to be a smart choice.
I started working at Coca-Cola 10/25/1985, part-time. I was getting class credits for working there too. Life was sweet! I started out in Route-accounting, entering the daily sales orders and then printing out the invoices for the route drivers for the next days deliveries.
Jan. of '86 Coke made me full-time and promoted me to computer operator. I was still doing the route-accounting work, but now had the added duty of running end-of-day reports and backing up the massive computer system on large magnetic-spooled tapes. I became so efficient at my job (if I do say so myself) that I started asking for more duties to help fill my shift. They gave me the task of preparing the deposit for the armored-car that came each morning... All the money that the route drivers brought in each day after running their routes had to be counted and balanced to the end-of-day report and the deposit slip prepared.
It was during this era that I met my future husband (hence the wise choice for keeping the Coke job and ditching the EGA).
Late in '87 or early in '88 I moved out of the computer room (as that department was being eliminated... moved to the Minnesota plant), and I was fortunate enough to find a position in the distribution department as a dispatch clerk. This involved creating the drivers routes or itineraries for the next day, by batching stores/stops together in areas, but also taking into consideration the size of the orders (mustn't overload the trucks) and time-limits. It was actually a very stressful job, but I liked it. If nothing else, my time spent working in that office taught me one thing, the lay-out of Louisville and the surrounding areas. Because I sat and stared at a large wall map for several hours a day, I became very knowledgeable about our interstate system, neighborhoods and the out-lying areas. Plus a lot of other useless info floated around in my head... at one time, I could tell you where every single Kroger, Winn-Dixie and Valu-Market was located within 150 miles, their store number and most of the stores managers names. Useless info, much of which still floats around in my head to this very day. Useless!!
I was eventually promoted to Dispatch Supervisor and started doing some traveling to other locations to help set-up their mapping system for the new dispatching software we were getting.
Eventually, the 16 hour days got to be too much and I called it quits in June of '91.
I took a year and a half off, being a lady of leisure, before going back to work part-time in Dec. of '92 doing clerical work at LMGE cemetery. In Nov. of '96 I was finally made full-time and despite always having the title of administrator, I pretty much did everything but dig the graves and set headstones. I totally re-vamped the filing system while there, straightened out the mess that was in the lot-book (our bible!) that tracked what property was owned by who(whom?) and who was buried where. Did payables, receivables, entered payroll, did both pre-need and at-need sales of burial spaces, mausoleum crypts, headstones, etc. When the new cemetery software was being introduced, I was the "go-to" person for the state of Kentucky, in other words, I was the one all the other administrators called when they had questions or needed help. I did quite a bit of traveling for a couple of years around the state, in Tennessee, and Vancouver B.C. Canada.
They canned me in Jan. 0f '03, or as they put it "eliminated my position". What it boiled down to was the bosses son and I didn't get along and he whined to daddy and I was let go. I basically found a job 5 minutes after I got home that afternoon when I called a funeral home we'd frequently done business with. I had called to simply say good-bye and don't call me at home any more, but was informed their secretary had just turned in her two-weeks notice and they needed somebody. So I took a week off to get some things done and then started at my current job here at the funeral home, and here I've remained for 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days.
During my stint at the cemetery, I also held down two other part-time jobs. One as a sales clerk in the jewelry dept. at Walmart. I only stayed there for about 5 months. Hated working there!
I also worked at a BP mini-mart for about 3 and a half years. Yep, at one time I was holding down three jobs. Can you say "sleep deprived"?
Throw in the volunteer fire-fighter for about 18 months, the ladies auxiliary of same fire department for several years, and now stable-girl at the farm, and I think you could say I've worn quite a number of hats over the years.
And not one of them came anywhere close to the construction or librarian job my h.s. aptitude test suggested, nor the criminal justice or forestry job the current tests suggest. Okay, perhaps my work at the Luci Ctr. comes close for the agriculture, so perhaps there's something in my future there...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Good news for a change!
Well, for anyone that was following along back at the beginning of the year, just an update:
I just got a very excited phone call from mom... dad went back to the doctor today for yet another cat-scan. They removed the drain tube from his side and said the cat-scan looked good, and the doctor said he was free to go back to work anytime after Oct. 27th... he's just got to spend the next month building up his strength and stamina.
Best news I (we) have heard in a really long time! Go hit the gym daddy-oh and buff up!!
For those that have no idea what I'm talking about...
My father has been off work since last December. He started having some back pain and went to the doctor. Long story short, they found an abscess around his pancreas and adrenal gland. He had surgery on his Feb. 12th, (his 60th birthday of all things!). He's been in and out of the hospital countless times since then, mostly battling infection. There has been much talk about doing additional surgery to remove part of the pancreas, but now that looks like it will be unnecessary. He's had difficulty moving around since that initial surgery because the drain in his side has limited his mobility. He's been unable to turn over/lay on his left side, unable to shower (has had to make do with sponge baths for 7 1/2 months now), has been VERY limited in what he could eat... still is to some extent, but things are definitely looking up.
We've been very worried about if/when he'd ever be able to go back to work, especially as his benefits and long-term disability checks would go away at the first of the year if he didn't. So now that they'll have his paycheck coming in again, that certainly eases some worries.
hugs to all!!
I just got a very excited phone call from mom... dad went back to the doctor today for yet another cat-scan. They removed the drain tube from his side and said the cat-scan looked good, and the doctor said he was free to go back to work anytime after Oct. 27th... he's just got to spend the next month building up his strength and stamina.
Best news I (we) have heard in a really long time! Go hit the gym daddy-oh and buff up!!
For those that have no idea what I'm talking about...
My father has been off work since last December. He started having some back pain and went to the doctor. Long story short, they found an abscess around his pancreas and adrenal gland. He had surgery on his Feb. 12th, (his 60th birthday of all things!). He's been in and out of the hospital countless times since then, mostly battling infection. There has been much talk about doing additional surgery to remove part of the pancreas, but now that looks like it will be unnecessary. He's had difficulty moving around since that initial surgery because the drain in his side has limited his mobility. He's been unable to turn over/lay on his left side, unable to shower (has had to make do with sponge baths for 7 1/2 months now), has been VERY limited in what he could eat... still is to some extent, but things are definitely looking up.
We've been very worried about if/when he'd ever be able to go back to work, especially as his benefits and long-term disability checks would go away at the first of the year if he didn't. So now that they'll have his paycheck coming in again, that certainly eases some worries.
hugs to all!!
Career choices
A blogging buddy is studying like crazy of late to take a test and hopefully get certified in Microsoft software (I think). I wish him luck. I also admire his desire to improve himself and make a career change, if only to stay in the same line of work, just a more advanced level.
The thoughts of going to school, studying, writing papers or taking tests (other than for fun) aren't anything I want to do. Once I was handed my diploma, that was it for me.
Yet I keep finding myself taking aptitude tests on-line, mostly just for the hell of it. I've taken a variety of tests, administered by different sites, and they all keep coming back to the same career choices. (more on that in a moment).
When I was in high school, our guidance counselors as far as I can tell served no purpose. They did nothing to guide or counsel us. I remember talking to Mr. Tucker once, which made me very uncomfortable at the time as he was a short, bald, cigar-chewing, reminded me of a dirty-old-man kind of guy. Back then, I had visions of joining the military after graduation, I was thinking Navy at that time. But life had other ideas for me.
When we took our aptitude tests in h.s., I remember my results coming back suggesting I choose a career either in the construction industry or as a librarian. Hmm, those two things seemed at opposite ends of the spectrum. I never could figure out the construction choice, although looking back I can only assume it's because I like to create things, even if it's just creating a craft project or something in the kitchen. As for the librarian, I assumed it was because I liked to read and always did well in grammar and spelling (obviously I've lost a lot of those skills in the past 20+ years). Before thinking about military, I had always wanted to be either a veterinarian (doesn't every child at one time or another?) or a kindergarten teacher.
The one and only time I showed a flicker of interest in attending college, my parents (I won't say which one specifically) said, "why, you'd never make it." Gee, thanks, way to be supportive! That pretty much crushed my spirit at the time, and knowing you needed a college education to be a teacher or veterinarian, that killed those career choices for me. Is it any wonder I was secretly suicidal in high school?
So I've held down a life time of mostly clerical jobs. I was in management for a while when I worked at Coke, liked the company and the work I did, but hated the management aspect of it.
Okay, as for my new career choices...
As I've already said, I've taken a number of these tests over the past 5 years, and they all keep coming back to the same thing: 1)Criminal Justice 2)Forestry/agriculture, whether growing crops or raising livestock.
I love both of those fields! I love watching and reading true crime stories (as well as fiction) and trying to figure out "who done it". And I've always loved spending time in the forest, on the farm or in the garden. So needless to say, I agree with both of those choices.
So why didn't I think about those when I was in high school? For that matter, why weren't we ever told those WERE career choices back then? Seems like when I was in school, they only thing the teachers ever talked about or pushed us to become were doctors, teachers, accountants, computer programmers, etc. etc. Granted, I guess I should've come up with those career choices on my own, but once the "you couldn't handle college"-kill-my-spirit thing came along, I guess a sense of "I'll never amount to anything" took over and I stopped exploring my career options and instead settled for whatever came along.
Am I blaming anybody? No. I've only got myself to blame. I shouldn't have listened to the nay-sayers and pushed on, full steam ahead. And what's to stop me from going to college now? Nothing other than I've no desire to go to school, even if it means improving myself, earning a bigger paycheck, or being happier.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not wallowing in self pity. I just find it very intriguing that so many different tests keep coming back with the same suggestions.
The thoughts of going to school, studying, writing papers or taking tests (other than for fun) aren't anything I want to do. Once I was handed my diploma, that was it for me.
Yet I keep finding myself taking aptitude tests on-line, mostly just for the hell of it. I've taken a variety of tests, administered by different sites, and they all keep coming back to the same career choices. (more on that in a moment).
When I was in high school, our guidance counselors as far as I can tell served no purpose. They did nothing to guide or counsel us. I remember talking to Mr. Tucker once, which made me very uncomfortable at the time as he was a short, bald, cigar-chewing, reminded me of a dirty-old-man kind of guy. Back then, I had visions of joining the military after graduation, I was thinking Navy at that time. But life had other ideas for me.
When we took our aptitude tests in h.s., I remember my results coming back suggesting I choose a career either in the construction industry or as a librarian. Hmm, those two things seemed at opposite ends of the spectrum. I never could figure out the construction choice, although looking back I can only assume it's because I like to create things, even if it's just creating a craft project or something in the kitchen. As for the librarian, I assumed it was because I liked to read and always did well in grammar and spelling (obviously I've lost a lot of those skills in the past 20+ years). Before thinking about military, I had always wanted to be either a veterinarian (doesn't every child at one time or another?) or a kindergarten teacher.
The one and only time I showed a flicker of interest in attending college, my parents (I won't say which one specifically) said, "why, you'd never make it." Gee, thanks, way to be supportive! That pretty much crushed my spirit at the time, and knowing you needed a college education to be a teacher or veterinarian, that killed those career choices for me. Is it any wonder I was secretly suicidal in high school?
So I've held down a life time of mostly clerical jobs. I was in management for a while when I worked at Coke, liked the company and the work I did, but hated the management aspect of it.
Okay, as for my new career choices...
As I've already said, I've taken a number of these tests over the past 5 years, and they all keep coming back to the same thing: 1)Criminal Justice 2)Forestry/agriculture, whether growing crops or raising livestock.
I love both of those fields! I love watching and reading true crime stories (as well as fiction) and trying to figure out "who done it". And I've always loved spending time in the forest, on the farm or in the garden. So needless to say, I agree with both of those choices.
So why didn't I think about those when I was in high school? For that matter, why weren't we ever told those WERE career choices back then? Seems like when I was in school, they only thing the teachers ever talked about or pushed us to become were doctors, teachers, accountants, computer programmers, etc. etc. Granted, I guess I should've come up with those career choices on my own, but once the "you couldn't handle college"-kill-my-spirit thing came along, I guess a sense of "I'll never amount to anything" took over and I stopped exploring my career options and instead settled for whatever came along.
Am I blaming anybody? No. I've only got myself to blame. I shouldn't have listened to the nay-sayers and pushed on, full steam ahead. And what's to stop me from going to college now? Nothing other than I've no desire to go to school, even if it means improving myself, earning a bigger paycheck, or being happier.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not wallowing in self pity. I just find it very intriguing that so many different tests keep coming back with the same suggestions.
The high price of utilities?
For as long as man has had utilities in his home, he's grumbled about the cost of them.
In the past couple of years especially, it seems we've grumbled even more as the cost of heating our homes seems to have sky-rocketed. I keep hearing on the news about people having utility bills that are $300, $400, or more each month. And to me it seems some of the people they interviewed for these stories lived in the lower-income neighborhoods, which typically don't have big homes. But some live in our end of town, some have big fancy homes, and their bills were even higher.
When the big heating scare came about a couple of winters ago, I layed down the law at our house about the thermostat, and when we had the new Meatlocker-5000 a/c unit installed two years ago, it came with one of those programmable digital thermostats. That helped tremendously!!
So as I sat here paying bills this morning, among my stack was the latest utility bill. I decided to go back and look at the last 12 months of LG&E bills and see what I've been paying. I added up those 12 months worth and divided by 12 to get my average monthly cost. I was flabbergasted!
Okay, here is where I'm probably going to get struck down or something majorly bad is going to happen in our lives because I'm going to sound like I'm bragging. But I swear, I'm not! Hear me out!!
Our average gas/electric bill for the last 12 months is $98.15.
Our lowest was $61.52, our highest was $128.84. And that high one was for this time last year, when we were cooling the house, not heating it.
Okay, so many of you that personally know me are going to quip, "yeah, but you live in a small house" or "yeah, but there are only 2 of you living there".
True, our house is small, around 1200 sq. ft. I believe. But we also have a swimming pool in the backyard that sucks electricity, and we are one of the few homes that seem to religiously turn our front/backdoor lights on each and every night. And too, we've 5 critters living in our house that I don't want freezing too death in winter, or having heat stroke in summer. Our house isn't ultra-modern, it still has the original insulation from 15 years ago. It still has the crappy, chinsey windows that came with the house that don't close very well. And aside from the new a/c unit and thermostat, the only other thing we've really done is put those foamy pads inside several of the light switches and electrical outlets. Not all, but many.
In summer, every time the weather gets nice, and by nice I mean not s'posed to get above 82 outside and not pouring rain, I turn the a/c off and open the windows, air out the house and let Mother Nature keep us comfortable. In winter, if the weatherman says it's supposed to be above 60 outside, I turn off the furnace and may or may not open the windows.
Typically, I don't even turn the furnace on unless the outside temp is supposed to fall below 45. Trust me, you won't freeze too death!! Call me crazy, but you can always throw an extra blanket on the bed, a pair of socks on the feet, or a sweat shirt.
In winter, our furnace thermostat is set at 62 while we're at work and when we sleep at night, and 68 in the mornings while we get ready for work and in the evenings while we're at home.
In summer, our a/c thermostat is set at 78 while we're at work and when we sleep at night, and 74 while we get ready for work and in the evenings while we're at home.
We run our ceiling fans constantly to keep the air moving. We have a box fan we keep in the living room to help keep the dogs cool and a small oscillating fan by the bed at night.
I'm telling y'all, these things make a big difference!
I understand those with several people living under one roof, or more than one structure (barn, kennel, detached garage) are going to be spending more, but for those that are fairly close in size and number of residents, I'm not quite sure I understand why their bills are so darned high.
Sign me,
Not complaining about my utility bill.
In the past couple of years especially, it seems we've grumbled even more as the cost of heating our homes seems to have sky-rocketed. I keep hearing on the news about people having utility bills that are $300, $400, or more each month. And to me it seems some of the people they interviewed for these stories lived in the lower-income neighborhoods, which typically don't have big homes. But some live in our end of town, some have big fancy homes, and their bills were even higher.
When the big heating scare came about a couple of winters ago, I layed down the law at our house about the thermostat, and when we had the new Meatlocker-5000 a/c unit installed two years ago, it came with one of those programmable digital thermostats. That helped tremendously!!
So as I sat here paying bills this morning, among my stack was the latest utility bill. I decided to go back and look at the last 12 months of LG&E bills and see what I've been paying. I added up those 12 months worth and divided by 12 to get my average monthly cost. I was flabbergasted!
Okay, here is where I'm probably going to get struck down or something majorly bad is going to happen in our lives because I'm going to sound like I'm bragging. But I swear, I'm not! Hear me out!!
Our average gas/electric bill for the last 12 months is $98.15.
Our lowest was $61.52, our highest was $128.84. And that high one was for this time last year, when we were cooling the house, not heating it.
Okay, so many of you that personally know me are going to quip, "yeah, but you live in a small house" or "yeah, but there are only 2 of you living there".
True, our house is small, around 1200 sq. ft. I believe. But we also have a swimming pool in the backyard that sucks electricity, and we are one of the few homes that seem to religiously turn our front/backdoor lights on each and every night. And too, we've 5 critters living in our house that I don't want freezing too death in winter, or having heat stroke in summer. Our house isn't ultra-modern, it still has the original insulation from 15 years ago. It still has the crappy, chinsey windows that came with the house that don't close very well. And aside from the new a/c unit and thermostat, the only other thing we've really done is put those foamy pads inside several of the light switches and electrical outlets. Not all, but many.
In summer, every time the weather gets nice, and by nice I mean not s'posed to get above 82 outside and not pouring rain, I turn the a/c off and open the windows, air out the house and let Mother Nature keep us comfortable. In winter, if the weatherman says it's supposed to be above 60 outside, I turn off the furnace and may or may not open the windows.
Typically, I don't even turn the furnace on unless the outside temp is supposed to fall below 45. Trust me, you won't freeze too death!! Call me crazy, but you can always throw an extra blanket on the bed, a pair of socks on the feet, or a sweat shirt.
In winter, our furnace thermostat is set at 62 while we're at work and when we sleep at night, and 68 in the mornings while we get ready for work and in the evenings while we're at home.
In summer, our a/c thermostat is set at 78 while we're at work and when we sleep at night, and 74 while we get ready for work and in the evenings while we're at home.
We run our ceiling fans constantly to keep the air moving. We have a box fan we keep in the living room to help keep the dogs cool and a small oscillating fan by the bed at night.
I'm telling y'all, these things make a big difference!
I understand those with several people living under one roof, or more than one structure (barn, kennel, detached garage) are going to be spending more, but for those that are fairly close in size and number of residents, I'm not quite sure I understand why their bills are so darned high.
Sign me,
Not complaining about my utility bill.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Home again, home again!
After the farm Sunday morning, I returned home. The first time I'd seen the place since leaving there Thursday morning. I opened the door and was excitedly greeted by my three large babies. I got the usual obligatory hug from Bootsy. She wrapped her paws around my neck and we just stood there jumping up and down together... one day, I need to get somebody to film us doing that. Even Eliott gave me a hug, not something he does very often. Yeah, I think my fur-babies miss me when I'm gone.
While I'm sure they love John too, I can honestly say I've never seen them give him such a greeting upon his return from his little trips.
I got the car unloaded, a load of laundry started and a quick shower, then set about transferring my froglets from their mini-traveling home back to the 5-gal. aquarium. I successfully transferred three of them, but as I went to transfer the 4th one, he made good his escape. He jumped from the net onto my hand, which startled me and without thinking my reflexes took over and flung the little guy outwards where he landed in the flowerbed. Great, now how was I ever going to find a little green and brown frog amongst all the green and brown of my fauna? I tried to leap over the flowerbed out onto the lawn so I could search for him, hoping I wouldn't land on the frog, but nearly killed myself when my foot got caught on the antique garden plow that rests in the flowerbed. I tripped and stumbled seeing my life flash before my eyes as I fought to keep myself upright. By the time I finally got myself stabilized, I was sure all the commotion would've scared the froglet from the area I'd seen him land, but I got down on my knees and looked anyways.
Amazingly enough, I found him right away, sitting on a leafy frond of a day-lilly. I carefully poised the net over him and swooshed it down before he could leap away. Okay, pita, now you've got him cornered, how are you going to get him back to his tank without him jumping out of the net again? Blech!... Okay, I was going to have to suck it up and possibly touch the thing. Mind you, I don't mind watching frogs, I could do that all day, I just don't like touching them! I sucked it up and cupped my hand underneath the net and managed to transport him back to his aquarium.
So now all four froglets are once again secure in their tank. The last tadpole climbed out of the water Sunday morning and is finishing his morphing. He'll spend the next few days shriveling down to nothing, his mouth transforming from a tiny little opening to open up as wide as his head, and his color will change from a dark brown, almost black, to a green and gold coloring. Fascinating stuff these little creatures.
While I'm sure they love John too, I can honestly say I've never seen them give him such a greeting upon his return from his little trips.
I got the car unloaded, a load of laundry started and a quick shower, then set about transferring my froglets from their mini-traveling home back to the 5-gal. aquarium. I successfully transferred three of them, but as I went to transfer the 4th one, he made good his escape. He jumped from the net onto my hand, which startled me and without thinking my reflexes took over and flung the little guy outwards where he landed in the flowerbed. Great, now how was I ever going to find a little green and brown frog amongst all the green and brown of my fauna? I tried to leap over the flowerbed out onto the lawn so I could search for him, hoping I wouldn't land on the frog, but nearly killed myself when my foot got caught on the antique garden plow that rests in the flowerbed. I tripped and stumbled seeing my life flash before my eyes as I fought to keep myself upright. By the time I finally got myself stabilized, I was sure all the commotion would've scared the froglet from the area I'd seen him land, but I got down on my knees and looked anyways.
Amazingly enough, I found him right away, sitting on a leafy frond of a day-lilly. I carefully poised the net over him and swooshed it down before he could leap away. Okay, pita, now you've got him cornered, how are you going to get him back to his tank without him jumping out of the net again? Blech!... Okay, I was going to have to suck it up and possibly touch the thing. Mind you, I don't mind watching frogs, I could do that all day, I just don't like touching them! I sucked it up and cupped my hand underneath the net and managed to transport him back to his aquarium.
So now all four froglets are once again secure in their tank. The last tadpole climbed out of the water Sunday morning and is finishing his morphing. He'll spend the next few days shriveling down to nothing, his mouth transforming from a tiny little opening to open up as wide as his head, and his color will change from a dark brown, almost black, to a green and gold coloring. Fascinating stuff these little creatures.
All in a days work
There are so many different titles I could've used for this blog. In addition to the "All In A Days Work", I could've used: "Our Tax Dollars At Work", "Spackle That Crack", "Full Moon At Noon", "How Many City-workers Does It Take To ...?"
Recently, the street in front of our office was paved. When the paving was complete, they repainted the yellow lines down the middle of the road, but failed to repaint the handi-cap parking signs that were located in front of our office. Today, they finally arrived, pulling up out front in a big truck. Three men exited the cab, and I just sat and watched from my vantage point of my second floor office.
I wish I had grabbed my camera sooner and snapped more pictures so that it would tell the whole story of what I saw. First of all, I can totally understand and agree with there being two workers on the job, if for no other reason, safety. But do they really need three? Certainly not to do the job I witnessed, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here that they had other, more difficult tasks assigned to them today that did require more than one person....
From what I witnessed, it took one man to carry the stencil from the truck (and same man to carry the propane tank from truck), another man to bend down and open the box, and another man to heat the stencil onto the pavement.
My hats off to the man in this first picture. As far as I can tell, he was the one doing the dangerous, dirty work. He was the one standing in traffic and operating the propane tank-torch thingy.
This hotty was the one who carried everything. I really never got a good look at his face, he had a ballcap pulled low, and besides, I was more focused on parts lower south. I don't know what it is about a man dressed all in denim, a sleeveless denim shirt that shows off rippling tanned muscles. (inhale sharply and shake head to clear my senses). Mm-mm-good!
Honestly, I could sit at a construction site all day long and watch the workers. They don't even have to have good looking faces. There's just something about a guy that's working hard that doesn't mind getting dirty to do his job, the sun on his back and that can stand back at the end of the day and say, "I helped make that"... even if "that" is nothing more then a mess.
Oh well, I'm getting off track here...
Okay, this is where the full moon at noon comes in. I really had to resist the urge to yell out "Pull up your pants!" or "Spackle that crack!"
As it was, the only thing I yelled out was a loud "F**k!" when I lost my balance standing in the window and hit my head on the window-sill. I was trying to get a better shot of "hotty" and nearly killed myself in the process.
Darn, it's out of focus!! That's right honey, bend over just a little bit more!
Yeah, this was all in a days work for me. :)
Farm news
Late Friday I got an email telling me they were going to be short-handed at the farm on Saturday, and requesting my help. Since I'd just be sitting at G's not doing much of anything else, I jumped at the opportunity.
The farm acquired some new residents over the weekend. Actually, these creatures used to live at the old farm, but when they moved the operation to the new, smaller place about 3 years ago, many of the animal that belonged to the director and weren't an integral part of the Luci Ctr were either gotten rid of or else she boardered them out (is "boardered" even a word?). I'm not sure what happened, but her three alpacas were returned to her this weekend, so until she finds another place to board them, they're residing at the Luci Ctr.
The brown ones are the girls, although without seeing the two standing beside each other in a photo, I've no idea which is which!
The black one is "Jett".
Okay, now that they're side by side... The larger one is Chocolate Sundae, and the yearling is Chocolate Drop.
Usually the goats are lying down when I go to check on them, but for once they were all up and milling around. I've been going to the farm for just over a year now, and in all that time I've yet to learn all the goats names by sight.
A few are easy to pick out. The solid white one is Marguerite. The nearly solid black one next to her is Elliott. The two that are black and white took me a while, as they are so very similar, but I finally was able to focus on one difference that helped me distinguish them...
... their noses! This is Bernadette. I always think of Bernadette Peters in the movie "Pink Cadillac". Bernadette the goat has a pink nose. The other black/white goat is Matillda, she has a black nose.
Pete, Cappy & Johnny, just hanging out. **sigh**, another broken board. The horses keep rubbing their butts along the fences and breaking boards.
Well, I guess it was a good thing I got a double-fix of farm-time this weekend, since I won't be there at all next weekend. I'm liable to be having d.t.s come next Sunday afternoon. It will be hard to wait a whole two weeks before I get to go out again.
The farm acquired some new residents over the weekend. Actually, these creatures used to live at the old farm, but when they moved the operation to the new, smaller place about 3 years ago, many of the animal that belonged to the director and weren't an integral part of the Luci Ctr were either gotten rid of or else she boardered them out (is "boardered" even a word?). I'm not sure what happened, but her three alpacas were returned to her this weekend, so until she finds another place to board them, they're residing at the Luci Ctr.
The brown ones are the girls, although without seeing the two standing beside each other in a photo, I've no idea which is which!
The black one is "Jett".
Okay, now that they're side by side... The larger one is Chocolate Sundae, and the yearling is Chocolate Drop.
Usually the goats are lying down when I go to check on them, but for once they were all up and milling around. I've been going to the farm for just over a year now, and in all that time I've yet to learn all the goats names by sight.
A few are easy to pick out. The solid white one is Marguerite. The nearly solid black one next to her is Elliott. The two that are black and white took me a while, as they are so very similar, but I finally was able to focus on one difference that helped me distinguish them...
... their noses! This is Bernadette. I always think of Bernadette Peters in the movie "Pink Cadillac". Bernadette the goat has a pink nose. The other black/white goat is Matillda, she has a black nose.
Pete, Cappy & Johnny, just hanging out. **sigh**, another broken board. The horses keep rubbing their butts along the fences and breaking boards.
Well, I guess it was a good thing I got a double-fix of farm-time this weekend, since I won't be there at all next weekend. I'm liable to be having d.t.s come next Sunday afternoon. It will be hard to wait a whole two weeks before I get to go out again.
I'm happy to report...
Well, I'm delighted to report that since my "She Hates Me!" blog on Friday, Dreamer and I have since become friends. When I arrived back at the kennel Friday evening, things were starting off the same way and was feeling somewhat disheartened. I let the pups out to run in the fenced in area and went inside to finish fixing my dinner. Despite having washed my hands before returning outside, the scent of garlic-butter remained on my fingers, and apparently that scent was enough to ease Dreamer's fear/dislike of me. She and Mattie both were all over me. I welcomed their puppy licks and nibbles at my finger tips. We've been friends ever since!!
Not the most flattering picture of me, but puppy kisses around the ear tends to tickle a bit.
This little beauty with the "T" or "7" on her chest is Dreamer. She's the spitting image of her momma, Bella. Well, in the face that is. Bella doesn't have quite as much white on her, but their eyes! It's very easy to see they're mother/daughter.
And the little cutey that's lying down is Maddie. Maddie looks more like her aunt Bootsy, both their markings and the shape of their head and eyes. Even the little girls personalities seem to mirror their adult counterparts personaities... at least, back when we first met Bootsy & Bella. Not so much now, but when they were younger, definitely!
Only three months old and already such huge paws! I've got rather large hands for a woman, and these paws just about cover my hand.
And this little cutey is Sawyer. If all goes well, he'll be G's next showdog. She's afraid that one solid-gray leg will be a serious fault against him, but really, he's such a beautiful puppy.
This grand ol' gal is Desiree. She turned 13 back in May, quite a long life for a Dane. Bless her heart, she has this HUGE fatty tumor on her left shoulder. But at her age, it's pointless to put her through any unnecessary surgeries, and besides, she's allergic to the anesthesia, so it really would be pointless to try and remove it.
And this handsome fella is Corey. He was looking in the kitchen window at me. Don't you just love his one blue eye, one brown eye? While Corey never got to finish his show career due to an injury, he did go on to sire/grand-sire two champions that I know of (maybe more?). He is the father to both my girls, Bootsy & Olivia. Not show dogs, but champs in my eyes. But seriously, he fathered Sara, who finished as a champion, and ... drum-roll please!!... Grant (who is Sara's son/Corey's grandson) just won over the weekend, giving him enough points to finish as a champion. Way to go Grant!!!!!!!!!!! Now it's on to the Nationals next month, held in Louisville, where he'll compete as a specialty. Good Luck again Grant!!
Not the most flattering picture of me, but puppy kisses around the ear tends to tickle a bit.
This little beauty with the "T" or "7" on her chest is Dreamer. She's the spitting image of her momma, Bella. Well, in the face that is. Bella doesn't have quite as much white on her, but their eyes! It's very easy to see they're mother/daughter.
And the little cutey that's lying down is Maddie. Maddie looks more like her aunt Bootsy, both their markings and the shape of their head and eyes. Even the little girls personalities seem to mirror their adult counterparts personaities... at least, back when we first met Bootsy & Bella. Not so much now, but when they were younger, definitely!
Only three months old and already such huge paws! I've got rather large hands for a woman, and these paws just about cover my hand.
And this little cutey is Sawyer. If all goes well, he'll be G's next showdog. She's afraid that one solid-gray leg will be a serious fault against him, but really, he's such a beautiful puppy.
This grand ol' gal is Desiree. She turned 13 back in May, quite a long life for a Dane. Bless her heart, she has this HUGE fatty tumor on her left shoulder. But at her age, it's pointless to put her through any unnecessary surgeries, and besides, she's allergic to the anesthesia, so it really would be pointless to try and remove it.
And this handsome fella is Corey. He was looking in the kitchen window at me. Don't you just love his one blue eye, one brown eye? While Corey never got to finish his show career due to an injury, he did go on to sire/grand-sire two champions that I know of (maybe more?). He is the father to both my girls, Bootsy & Olivia. Not show dogs, but champs in my eyes. But seriously, he fathered Sara, who finished as a champion, and ... drum-roll please!!... Grant (who is Sara's son/Corey's grandson) just won over the weekend, giving him enough points to finish as a champion. Way to go Grant!!!!!!!!!!! Now it's on to the Nationals next month, held in Louisville, where he'll compete as a specialty. Good Luck again Grant!!
Friday, September 19, 2008
TGIF!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
I'll be at the farm Saturday (unexpectedly just found this out) & Sunday, so between that, my nephew's birthday on Sunday, and playing with the puppies this weekend, hopefully I'll have some decent pix to post come Monday.
'Til then, have a great one!!!
I'll be at the farm Saturday (unexpectedly just found this out) & Sunday, so between that, my nephew's birthday on Sunday, and playing with the puppies this weekend, hopefully I'll have some decent pix to post come Monday.
'Til then, have a great one!!!
A food meme
A Food Meme
1. How do you like your eggs?
Cooked. Preferably scrambled with fried potatoes and onions and melted pepper cheese over top.
2. How do you take your coffee/tea?
Not a big tea fan, but when I do drink it, iced with LOTS of sweet n low.
Coffee, again, not a big fan, but when I do drink it, lots of non-dairy creamer
3. Favorite breakfast food?
Well, if I'm not dieting, chocolate covered donuts from the Walmart bakery. But those are a rare treat. My usual breakfast is a Lenders Onion bagel with whatever flavor of cream cheese I'm into at the moment.
4. Peanut butter?
In cookie form, they're my favorite! If we're talking sandwiches, not so much.
5. What kind of dressing on your salad?
Ranch, ranch, and only ranch. Or maybe Light-ranch.
6. Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi? What's that? Remember, I'm married to a Coke employee.
7. You’re feeling lazy. What do you make? Dinner reservations
8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?
Tough one, depends. If we go out, then usually go to CiCi's or Mr. Gatti's buffet. If we get it delivered, then either Papa Johns or Dominoes. I prefer a cheese pizza w/fresh tomato topping, but that topping isn't always available at some places.
9. You feel like cooking. What do you make?
Usually something with chicken. I love to cook, we eat chicken a lot!
10. Do any foods bring back good memories?
Grapes. I was just thinking about this earlier today, I'd LOVE to have a grape-pie like my grandmother used to bake.
11. Do any foods bring back bad memories?
Meatloaf, mac & cheese, sauer kraut(sp?), bologna... is there a limit to this question?
12. Do any foods remind you of someone?
Again, the grape pie. Chocolate cream pies remind me of my other grandmother.
13. Is there a food you refuse to eat?
Lots of them, but liver and onions is one. My father used to get chicke livers, freeze them, then set them out in the sun for a few days to thaw and rot, then use them for fishing bait. Barf!!!!!
The stench was unimaginable!
14. What was your favorite food as a child?
Junk food.
15. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now like?
salads & salad dressings, mayo but only in recipes not on a sandwich
16. Is there a food that you liked as a child but now hate?
I don't know about food, but I used to drink just about any flavor of soda. Now the only things I'll even consider drinking are Dt. Big Red, Coca-Cola, and dt. Sprite or 7-UP
17. Favorite fruit and vegetable?
Tough one, there are very few veggies I don't like. But I'd say the potato is probably up at the top.
18. Favorite junk food?
Do I have to pick one?... probably potato chips
19. Favorite between meal snack?
snack?... you mean I'm not supposed to eat non-stop all day long? Okay, probably chips
20. Do you have any weird food habits?
Making a sandwich by placing a slice of dill pickle between two potato chips. Oh, and I usually lick the flavoring off of flavored chips or crackers before actually eating them (not in public though).
21. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?
popcorn
22. You’re off your diet. Now what would you like?
Donuts, potato chips, peanut butter cookies...
23. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?Don't order it at all!
24. Can I get you a drink?
Sure, dt. Big Red please
25. Red or White Wine?
Gross, neither!
26. Favorite dessert?
Strawberry refrigerator cake
27. The perfect nightcap?
Dt. Big Red
1. How do you like your eggs?
Cooked. Preferably scrambled with fried potatoes and onions and melted pepper cheese over top.
2. How do you take your coffee/tea?
Not a big tea fan, but when I do drink it, iced with LOTS of sweet n low.
Coffee, again, not a big fan, but when I do drink it, lots of non-dairy creamer
3. Favorite breakfast food?
Well, if I'm not dieting, chocolate covered donuts from the Walmart bakery. But those are a rare treat. My usual breakfast is a Lenders Onion bagel with whatever flavor of cream cheese I'm into at the moment.
4. Peanut butter?
In cookie form, they're my favorite! If we're talking sandwiches, not so much.
5. What kind of dressing on your salad?
Ranch, ranch, and only ranch. Or maybe Light-ranch.
6. Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi? What's that? Remember, I'm married to a Coke employee.
7. You’re feeling lazy. What do you make? Dinner reservations
8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?
Tough one, depends. If we go out, then usually go to CiCi's or Mr. Gatti's buffet. If we get it delivered, then either Papa Johns or Dominoes. I prefer a cheese pizza w/fresh tomato topping, but that topping isn't always available at some places.
9. You feel like cooking. What do you make?
Usually something with chicken. I love to cook, we eat chicken a lot!
10. Do any foods bring back good memories?
Grapes. I was just thinking about this earlier today, I'd LOVE to have a grape-pie like my grandmother used to bake.
11. Do any foods bring back bad memories?
Meatloaf, mac & cheese, sauer kraut(sp?), bologna... is there a limit to this question?
12. Do any foods remind you of someone?
Again, the grape pie. Chocolate cream pies remind me of my other grandmother.
13. Is there a food you refuse to eat?
Lots of them, but liver and onions is one. My father used to get chicke livers, freeze them, then set them out in the sun for a few days to thaw and rot, then use them for fishing bait. Barf!!!!!
The stench was unimaginable!
14. What was your favorite food as a child?
Junk food.
15. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now like?
salads & salad dressings, mayo but only in recipes not on a sandwich
16. Is there a food that you liked as a child but now hate?
I don't know about food, but I used to drink just about any flavor of soda. Now the only things I'll even consider drinking are Dt. Big Red, Coca-Cola, and dt. Sprite or 7-UP
17. Favorite fruit and vegetable?
Tough one, there are very few veggies I don't like. But I'd say the potato is probably up at the top.
18. Favorite junk food?
Do I have to pick one?... probably potato chips
19. Favorite between meal snack?
snack?... you mean I'm not supposed to eat non-stop all day long? Okay, probably chips
20. Do you have any weird food habits?
Making a sandwich by placing a slice of dill pickle between two potato chips. Oh, and I usually lick the flavoring off of flavored chips or crackers before actually eating them (not in public though).
21. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?
popcorn
22. You’re off your diet. Now what would you like?
Donuts, potato chips, peanut butter cookies...
23. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?Don't order it at all!
24. Can I get you a drink?
Sure, dt. Big Red please
25. Red or White Wine?
Gross, neither!
26. Favorite dessert?
Strawberry refrigerator cake
27. The perfect nightcap?
Dt. Big Red
My morning commute
Don't try this at home boys & girls. I know this ranks right up there with "texting while driving", but I can honestly say I was watching where I was driving. I just held the camera up and started snapping.
On a whim, I just picked the camera up that was lying in the seat next to me and started snapping pix for the last 2 miles of my commute (1 on the interstate, 1 in town).
As I head down I-71 south, approaching my exit...
Ads for local attractions and restaurants. Trust me, there's more in this town than KFC & whatever that other place is.
Local accomodations...
See, told you we had other restaurants. Okay, so they're the standard fast-food, next to the interstate places. Those not advertised: Applebees, Beef O'Brady's, Irish Rover Too, Red Pepper Deli, and Trackside, just to name a few. Can't forget the Fishbus (on fridays).
Sorry, a bit blurry. Gas is always high in this town. Right now out in Campbellsburg where I'm staying, it's $3.79
That little Jeep Liberty 4-sale in the lower right corner, I think it's been on that car lot for an eternity.
To the left, just out of sight is the local movie theater, Rite-Aid, and a Mexican restaurant.
As soon as you get past this gas station/mini-mart, you enter the historical section of downtown. They take a vote on every little thing. You practically have to get a permit to fart in this town.
The intersection of Main Street & First Street(Hwy 53). Railroad tracks run right down Main... it's kinda freaky at times, having a train pass within inches of you/your car.
This building has sat empty and for sale for about 5 years... I don't know if it's just that run-down inside or what, but it's really surprised me that it's sat empty for so long. The last business located there was the PVA office. I think (but won't swear to it) it was the original firehouse umpteen centuries ago (Junosmom, feel free to correct me on that one).
The DeHaven church. I still think if it was yellow, the steeple would look juts like a sharpened pencil.
Across the street from the church and over the r/r trax, is LaGrange's version of a skateboard park. Mostly it seems to be a place for the young to come, spray graffiti and leave their litter scattered about, as far as I can tell.
The backside of my workplace. One of the old, historic buildings on the edge of town. Three stories plus a walk-out basement. The top floor just has some old stuff stored in it, and probably a few bats. The boss lives on the 2nd floor at this end of the building. My office is also on the 2nd floor, but at the front of the building. The first floor is the chapel, lounge and arrangement office. And most importantly, the bathroom.
Until about 2 years ago, that area behind the trees had an inground swimming pool. How many funeral homes can brag they have a pool? Well okay, admittedly ours wasn't functional. It was so overgrown with weeds, even small trees. What an eyesore!! They funally bulldozed it in and planted some stuff over it.
That completes our tour of LaGrange, Kentucky for today. :)
On a whim, I just picked the camera up that was lying in the seat next to me and started snapping pix for the last 2 miles of my commute (1 on the interstate, 1 in town).
As I head down I-71 south, approaching my exit...
Ads for local attractions and restaurants. Trust me, there's more in this town than KFC & whatever that other place is.
Local accomodations...
See, told you we had other restaurants. Okay, so they're the standard fast-food, next to the interstate places. Those not advertised: Applebees, Beef O'Brady's, Irish Rover Too, Red Pepper Deli, and Trackside, just to name a few. Can't forget the Fishbus (on fridays).
Sorry, a bit blurry. Gas is always high in this town. Right now out in Campbellsburg where I'm staying, it's $3.79
That little Jeep Liberty 4-sale in the lower right corner, I think it's been on that car lot for an eternity.
To the left, just out of sight is the local movie theater, Rite-Aid, and a Mexican restaurant.
As soon as you get past this gas station/mini-mart, you enter the historical section of downtown. They take a vote on every little thing. You practically have to get a permit to fart in this town.
The intersection of Main Street & First Street(Hwy 53). Railroad tracks run right down Main... it's kinda freaky at times, having a train pass within inches of you/your car.
This building has sat empty and for sale for about 5 years... I don't know if it's just that run-down inside or what, but it's really surprised me that it's sat empty for so long. The last business located there was the PVA office. I think (but won't swear to it) it was the original firehouse umpteen centuries ago (Junosmom, feel free to correct me on that one).
The DeHaven church. I still think if it was yellow, the steeple would look juts like a sharpened pencil.
Across the street from the church and over the r/r trax, is LaGrange's version of a skateboard park. Mostly it seems to be a place for the young to come, spray graffiti and leave their litter scattered about, as far as I can tell.
The backside of my workplace. One of the old, historic buildings on the edge of town. Three stories plus a walk-out basement. The top floor just has some old stuff stored in it, and probably a few bats. The boss lives on the 2nd floor at this end of the building. My office is also on the 2nd floor, but at the front of the building. The first floor is the chapel, lounge and arrangement office. And most importantly, the bathroom.
Until about 2 years ago, that area behind the trees had an inground swimming pool. How many funeral homes can brag they have a pool? Well okay, admittedly ours wasn't functional. It was so overgrown with weeds, even small trees. What an eyesore!! They funally bulldozed it in and planted some stuff over it.
That completes our tour of LaGrange, Kentucky for today. :)
She hates me!
I arrived at G's yesterday evening, so looking forward to playing with the pups once I'd gotten my car unpacked and my clothes changed.
I hadn't seen the puppies since the last time I watched her kennel, back in early August. The pups were about 5 weeks old then, so they've grown quite a bit.
Once I'd parked my car and walked into the kennel, I was greeted with the usual round of barking, tail wagging and jumping up and down. Of course young puppies don't have the memory-capacity yet to remember people that pass in/out of their lives, so it was no surprise that they didn't remember me from the other two times I'd seen them. One of the little girls started barking and growling at me, and not in a very nice way. I thought, "Okay, she's going to make a great watch-dog when she grows up."
I let the first group of dogs out to run/play while I started unpacking my car. Every time I went in/out of the kennel to let a different group go play, that same little puppy barked and growled at me. I felt once I could take the time to stop and enter their pen and let her get to know me, she'd calm down and we'd be friends. Eventually it was their turn to go out. I opened their pen and the other two ventured out, but the wary one, "Dreamer", ran out the doggy door to the outside pen. The male, "Sawyer", declined going outside and went back to his bed and laid down. The other little girl ventured on out into the yard. I went around to clean the outside pen and Dreamer ran the other way, growling and barking the whole time. She eventually went out and joined her sister, "Maddie", and they went exploring.
When it was time for them to come back in, I called them, but of course neither came. I went searching and found them out on the property. I called them and Maddie came to me and we made friends. Maddie was now my buddy. Dreamer just stood back and growled. Maddie followed me back to the kennel. Dreamer kept her distance and refused to come in. At one point she hid under the front porch. I finally just walked out of sight and she ran into the building. I got the gate closed so she couldn't escape, but now she was hiding in an empty dog-run that was used for storage. There was so much stuff in there, I couldn't begin to climb over and get her out. I had to wait for her to come out on her own. The whole time she continued to growl and bark. This dog has some serious issues!
In all the years I've been around G's Great Danes, I've never, I repeat NEVER had a dog that carried on in such a manner. Yeah, there's the occasional dog that doesn't want to come in when called & will give me fits in that respect, but I've never had one bark and growl at me in an unfriendly manner, and NEVER had one that didn't warm up to me after it got to know me.
Once Dreamer finally did return to her pen she ran to the outside area. I shut the doggy door so she couldn't come back in and then went around to the outside. Since I had her cornered out there, I was bound and determined to let her know I wouldn't hurt her if I could get a hold of her. She ran past me once and I held my hand out flat. As she ran past, my hand ran across her back, in a petting motion. She yelped like I had beat her. I'm sure more out of surprise and fear and not pain. If that petting motion caused pain, then she truly does have something wrong with her. She went and huddled in a corner and I approached her, my hand held out. She cowered. I stooped to pet her, stroking her fur, rubbing her head, ears, throat... all the places my own danes LOVED to be petted. But she continued to cower. I gave up, not pushing the issue any longer and let her go back inside.
I thought perhaps this morning she might have a different attitude, having had time to reflect on the situation and see me interacting with all the other dogs.
Nope. Still she growled and barked at me. I purposely didn't let them go out onto the property this morning, in the event she decided to hide under the porch again or worse. While I could get by with leaving one of the adults out all day, I couldn't let the puppy stay out. I'm hoping this evening has better results, though I have serious doubts. As it is, she will be going out strictly on a leash whether she likes it or not. Same goes for Candy, who last night pulled her usual crap of not coming in when she was supposed to. Thank goodness none of the others give me any trouble!!
I'll have pix of the babes on Monday.
I hadn't seen the puppies since the last time I watched her kennel, back in early August. The pups were about 5 weeks old then, so they've grown quite a bit.
Once I'd parked my car and walked into the kennel, I was greeted with the usual round of barking, tail wagging and jumping up and down. Of course young puppies don't have the memory-capacity yet to remember people that pass in/out of their lives, so it was no surprise that they didn't remember me from the other two times I'd seen them. One of the little girls started barking and growling at me, and not in a very nice way. I thought, "Okay, she's going to make a great watch-dog when she grows up."
I let the first group of dogs out to run/play while I started unpacking my car. Every time I went in/out of the kennel to let a different group go play, that same little puppy barked and growled at me. I felt once I could take the time to stop and enter their pen and let her get to know me, she'd calm down and we'd be friends. Eventually it was their turn to go out. I opened their pen and the other two ventured out, but the wary one, "Dreamer", ran out the doggy door to the outside pen. The male, "Sawyer", declined going outside and went back to his bed and laid down. The other little girl ventured on out into the yard. I went around to clean the outside pen and Dreamer ran the other way, growling and barking the whole time. She eventually went out and joined her sister, "Maddie", and they went exploring.
When it was time for them to come back in, I called them, but of course neither came. I went searching and found them out on the property. I called them and Maddie came to me and we made friends. Maddie was now my buddy. Dreamer just stood back and growled. Maddie followed me back to the kennel. Dreamer kept her distance and refused to come in. At one point she hid under the front porch. I finally just walked out of sight and she ran into the building. I got the gate closed so she couldn't escape, but now she was hiding in an empty dog-run that was used for storage. There was so much stuff in there, I couldn't begin to climb over and get her out. I had to wait for her to come out on her own. The whole time she continued to growl and bark. This dog has some serious issues!
In all the years I've been around G's Great Danes, I've never, I repeat NEVER had a dog that carried on in such a manner. Yeah, there's the occasional dog that doesn't want to come in when called & will give me fits in that respect, but I've never had one bark and growl at me in an unfriendly manner, and NEVER had one that didn't warm up to me after it got to know me.
Once Dreamer finally did return to her pen she ran to the outside area. I shut the doggy door so she couldn't come back in and then went around to the outside. Since I had her cornered out there, I was bound and determined to let her know I wouldn't hurt her if I could get a hold of her. She ran past me once and I held my hand out flat. As she ran past, my hand ran across her back, in a petting motion. She yelped like I had beat her. I'm sure more out of surprise and fear and not pain. If that petting motion caused pain, then she truly does have something wrong with her. She went and huddled in a corner and I approached her, my hand held out. She cowered. I stooped to pet her, stroking her fur, rubbing her head, ears, throat... all the places my own danes LOVED to be petted. But she continued to cower. I gave up, not pushing the issue any longer and let her go back inside.
I thought perhaps this morning she might have a different attitude, having had time to reflect on the situation and see me interacting with all the other dogs.
Nope. Still she growled and barked at me. I purposely didn't let them go out onto the property this morning, in the event she decided to hide under the porch again or worse. While I could get by with leaving one of the adults out all day, I couldn't let the puppy stay out. I'm hoping this evening has better results, though I have serious doubts. As it is, she will be going out strictly on a leash whether she likes it or not. Same goes for Candy, who last night pulled her usual crap of not coming in when she was supposed to. Thank goodness none of the others give me any trouble!!
I'll have pix of the babes on Monday.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Prison break!
I meant to post this last week, but totally forgot. There was a prison break last week that resulted in two of the captives escaping into the wilds.
Prisoners at the local reformatory? No, not quite. I'm referring to my little froglets.
Let me recap my froggy stats:
I started off with three tadpoles in a variety of stages of development. Being a frog/toad novice, I had no idea they could climb so well (unless they were tree frogs I thought!), so I left the lid off the container I'd brought them home in. The more developed of the three made good his escape that first night, leaving me with two tadpoles.
One week later, I brought home six more, bringing my count up to 8.
Over the next week, one tadpole died and one froglet. Now my count was down to 6.
I had them in two separate containers. The ones that had finished morphing into frogs I had in the 5-gal. aquarium, that being 4 of them. The two remaining tadpoles were in the smaller container.
At one point last week, either the wind loosened the cover, or (and this is more likely) I failed to properly secure the covering, and through the night, two of the froglets escaped their prison.
I was now down to two frogs and two tadpoles.
But not for long!
One of the tadpoles morphed into a frog, so I'm now up to three frogs and one tadpole.
As I'm going to be out of town for the next few days, and I knew my husband would make NO effort to care for them, I had to gather them all up and put them in the small container so I could take them with me.
So right now, as I'm typing this, I'm looking at the little critters sitting on my desk.
I can't help but wonder how the three are doing that escaped. Have they survived? Did they hop away to the nearest body of water and take up residence or are they still living in/around my yard?... heaven knows I've got plenty of insects in our yard to keep them fat and sassy!
Prisoners at the local reformatory? No, not quite. I'm referring to my little froglets.
Let me recap my froggy stats:
I started off with three tadpoles in a variety of stages of development. Being a frog/toad novice, I had no idea they could climb so well (unless they were tree frogs I thought!), so I left the lid off the container I'd brought them home in. The more developed of the three made good his escape that first night, leaving me with two tadpoles.
One week later, I brought home six more, bringing my count up to 8.
Over the next week, one tadpole died and one froglet. Now my count was down to 6.
I had them in two separate containers. The ones that had finished morphing into frogs I had in the 5-gal. aquarium, that being 4 of them. The two remaining tadpoles were in the smaller container.
At one point last week, either the wind loosened the cover, or (and this is more likely) I failed to properly secure the covering, and through the night, two of the froglets escaped their prison.
I was now down to two frogs and two tadpoles.
But not for long!
One of the tadpoles morphed into a frog, so I'm now up to three frogs and one tadpole.
As I'm going to be out of town for the next few days, and I knew my husband would make NO effort to care for them, I had to gather them all up and put them in the small container so I could take them with me.
So right now, as I'm typing this, I'm looking at the little critters sitting on my desk.
I can't help but wonder how the three are doing that escaped. Have they survived? Did they hop away to the nearest body of water and take up residence or are they still living in/around my yard?... heaven knows I've got plenty of insects in our yard to keep them fat and sassy!
Froggy lessons
Okay, I think I can correct my original thoughts on there having been two different breeds(varieties) of tadpoles in the watering trough.
As I've watched these amazing little creatures morph, I've learned quite a bit. I'm still no expert on amphibian life, but still... I'm more knowledgeable than I was three weeks ago.
Orignially, as I said, I thought there were at least two different kinds, simply because the non-developed tadpoles were much bigger and darker in color than the ones that had partially morphed. Well, as I've discovered from watching them in utter fascination, in all probability, I've only got one breed.
From what I've witnessed, here is my theory on froggy development:
The tiny little eggs are layed. As they hatch into tadpoles, the tad's grow rather quickly and to a much larger size. The body of the tadpole can be about the size of a penny before it starts to morph. As they begin to grow their legs and start breathing with their lungs, they start to shrink. As I stated once before, as they make the switch from vegetarians to carnivores, they eat little if anything, and their bodies use up the nutrients stored in their tails and the remaining yolk sac that surrounds their bodies. Once they're completely out of the water, for a couple of days, they will shrink down considerable, almost looking emaciated. Their heads seem very much out of proportion with the rest of them and their hind end looks very boney. Then once they start eating insects on a regular basis, they once again begin to grow, eventually becoming the toad or frog we are used to seeing in the wild.
On a slightly different note...
At times I've been completely mesmerized watching them. Fascinated at how quickly they can crawl or leap, and somewhat blown away at how fast they pounce on an insect and swallow it up all in what seems a single motion. They move so fast my mind can't keep up. I'd love to set up a video camera and play it back in slow motion. Too, they've been entertaining. One time two of the froglets went after the same ant at the same time, arriving at the "dinner table" a fractin of a second apart. One of the little critters reached out with his front foot and smacked the other froglet on the head, just like a couple of children fighting over the last cookie. At other times, as they cling to the wall of their prison, one frog will literally crawl over another without the other one flinching. Wouldn't you be inclined to move out of the way if a larger creature were trying to crawl over you? Maybe it's their way of playing 'possum.
Okay, that's enough froggy ramblings for one day (week!).
;)
As I've watched these amazing little creatures morph, I've learned quite a bit. I'm still no expert on amphibian life, but still... I'm more knowledgeable than I was three weeks ago.
Orignially, as I said, I thought there were at least two different kinds, simply because the non-developed tadpoles were much bigger and darker in color than the ones that had partially morphed. Well, as I've discovered from watching them in utter fascination, in all probability, I've only got one breed.
From what I've witnessed, here is my theory on froggy development:
The tiny little eggs are layed. As they hatch into tadpoles, the tad's grow rather quickly and to a much larger size. The body of the tadpole can be about the size of a penny before it starts to morph. As they begin to grow their legs and start breathing with their lungs, they start to shrink. As I stated once before, as they make the switch from vegetarians to carnivores, they eat little if anything, and their bodies use up the nutrients stored in their tails and the remaining yolk sac that surrounds their bodies. Once they're completely out of the water, for a couple of days, they will shrink down considerable, almost looking emaciated. Their heads seem very much out of proportion with the rest of them and their hind end looks very boney. Then once they start eating insects on a regular basis, they once again begin to grow, eventually becoming the toad or frog we are used to seeing in the wild.
On a slightly different note...
At times I've been completely mesmerized watching them. Fascinated at how quickly they can crawl or leap, and somewhat blown away at how fast they pounce on an insect and swallow it up all in what seems a single motion. They move so fast my mind can't keep up. I'd love to set up a video camera and play it back in slow motion. Too, they've been entertaining. One time two of the froglets went after the same ant at the same time, arriving at the "dinner table" a fractin of a second apart. One of the little critters reached out with his front foot and smacked the other froglet on the head, just like a couple of children fighting over the last cookie. At other times, as they cling to the wall of their prison, one frog will literally crawl over another without the other one flinching. Wouldn't you be inclined to move out of the way if a larger creature were trying to crawl over you? Maybe it's their way of playing 'possum.
Okay, that's enough froggy ramblings for one day (week!).
;)
Blame it on stupidity!
Much of our area continues to be without power. Generators are a hot commodity, the stores sold out of them right away, and the shipments they've gotten in have sold out pronto. I heard something to the effect of it being another 30 days before the manufacturers could make enough to ship out again.
Now I've no doubt that generators come with not only operation manuals that list the dangers and proper uses, but warning labels are typically plastered on these things as well. And generally, the biggest warning is: For outdoor use only! Do not use indoors!!
Well DUH!!
It amazes me in this day and age the stupidity of some people.
This mornings news was telling of a family that had been rushed to the hospital last night, overcome by the carbon-monoxide fumes created by the generator they were using INSIDE their home. The woman died.
And they're saying this is a tragedy and the generator is to blame?
Give me a break!! The generator isn't to blame. It was doing what it was supposed to be doing. It's not the generators fault that these morons placed it indoors.
I mean, do we really even NEED those warning labels telling us not to do that? Shouldn't common sense take over at some point?
Yes, I think it's a shame and sad that this man is now without his wife and the children without a mother, but I'm not so sure this man shouldn't be facing man-slaughter charges for his wife's death and attempted murder charges & child-endangerment charges for nearly killing his children.
I drove over to a friend's house last night to return something to her. She's been without power since Sunday. Several homes in her subdivision were running off of generators, hers included. As I drove through the neighborhood, my windows down, I was somewhat choked-up by all the fumes from the many generators. Now if I was slightly gassed by generators running outdoors, a hundred feet or more from my car for the few seconds it took me to drive through there, then how could these people think they could tolerate the fumes indoors for hours if not days 'til their power came back on?
Utter stupidity!! Let's put the blame where it belongs!!
Now I've no doubt that generators come with not only operation manuals that list the dangers and proper uses, but warning labels are typically plastered on these things as well. And generally, the biggest warning is: For outdoor use only! Do not use indoors!!
Well DUH!!
It amazes me in this day and age the stupidity of some people.
This mornings news was telling of a family that had been rushed to the hospital last night, overcome by the carbon-monoxide fumes created by the generator they were using INSIDE their home. The woman died.
And they're saying this is a tragedy and the generator is to blame?
Give me a break!! The generator isn't to blame. It was doing what it was supposed to be doing. It's not the generators fault that these morons placed it indoors.
I mean, do we really even NEED those warning labels telling us not to do that? Shouldn't common sense take over at some point?
Yes, I think it's a shame and sad that this man is now without his wife and the children without a mother, but I'm not so sure this man shouldn't be facing man-slaughter charges for his wife's death and attempted murder charges & child-endangerment charges for nearly killing his children.
I drove over to a friend's house last night to return something to her. She's been without power since Sunday. Several homes in her subdivision were running off of generators, hers included. As I drove through the neighborhood, my windows down, I was somewhat choked-up by all the fumes from the many generators. Now if I was slightly gassed by generators running outdoors, a hundred feet or more from my car for the few seconds it took me to drive through there, then how could these people think they could tolerate the fumes indoors for hours if not days 'til their power came back on?
Utter stupidity!! Let's put the blame where it belongs!!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Creepy crawly critters
On two separate occasions today, several hours apart...
While sitting at my desk, what should suddenly appear before me? The tiniest of tiny spiders, smaller than a pin-head, spinning down from the ceiling.
Once I'll accept as a random thing, but twice...? Now me thinks there must've been a sac of spider eggs hatch somewhere above me, and I'm wondering how many more of the little critters will come spinning down.
Or worse yet, how many have perhaps spun down and landed on me, in my hair even??!!! Just the mere thought of it is making my skin crawl. Ugh!!
I'm not a fan of spiders (yeah, yeah, I know, don't remind me that I used to have one for a pet), but I don't faint or scream and beg for someone to come kill it for me either. I'm quite capable of picking up a shoe and squashing it myself. Having said that... my sister is EXTREMELY terrified of spiders of any size. So a part of me can't help but snicker at the thought of this happening to her and what her reaction would be to these teensy-weensy little spiders.
While sitting at my desk, what should suddenly appear before me? The tiniest of tiny spiders, smaller than a pin-head, spinning down from the ceiling.
Once I'll accept as a random thing, but twice...? Now me thinks there must've been a sac of spider eggs hatch somewhere above me, and I'm wondering how many more of the little critters will come spinning down.
Or worse yet, how many have perhaps spun down and landed on me, in my hair even??!!! Just the mere thought of it is making my skin crawl. Ugh!!
I'm not a fan of spiders (yeah, yeah, I know, don't remind me that I used to have one for a pet), but I don't faint or scream and beg for someone to come kill it for me either. I'm quite capable of picking up a shoe and squashing it myself. Having said that... my sister is EXTREMELY terrified of spiders of any size. So a part of me can't help but snicker at the thought of this happening to her and what her reaction would be to these teensy-weensy little spiders.
Random pix
I finally got the last two rolls of film developed, so there are a bunch of random pix from things/events we've done in the past 3 weeks, so bear with me if it jumps from event to event.
A few more pix from the luau, 08/23/08...
I know it's hard to tell what we're doing, but it was a game
called "Sea Cruise". Somewhat like musical chairs. There
were different tropical islands (on mats) on the ground &
when the music stopped, everyone had to get to an island.
I look like I'm carrying props for that tv show "Who's Line
Is It Anyway?"
Our next door neighbors, Aida & Gene
The redhead is my s-i-l, Kathy... also known as "MFRHSIL"
(my favorite redhead sister in law)
These were taken on our canoe trip down the Blue River in Milltown, Indiana on 8/25/08
I seem to be the only safety-conscious person in our group. Notice that I'm obeying the rules and wearing my life vest.
Okay, admittedly, it came off after about 5 minutes and became a cushion to sit on.
I just love the scenery in this pic. A few of the trees were just starting to turn colors for fall.
Marty...
Calm, DEEP waters.
Unfortunately, with the lack of rain we'd had up to that point, the river was a bit shallow in some places and required getting out and dragging the canoe. Notice I seem to be the only one with enough sense to get out. The husband sat and begged me to drag him across the rocks... I don't THINK so!
After the canoe trip was over, we stopped at a little ice cream stand that is an institution in that area of Floyd Co. Polly's Freeze has THE best soft-serve sherbet. Totally dee-lish! They are totally worth the drive over (30-40 minutes from our house).
Brain Freeze!
It so gives me pleasure to be able to post pix of Jilli that don't look as if they're out of Vogue magazine. ;)
08/26/08 Our last baseball game of the season. This was Mia's first time at a ballgame.
09/06/2008 at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, the Run for the Rawhide!
Olivia & I were walking team #342!
Notice how red her nose is. This was just a couple of days after she'd mysteriously scraped it.
Some of the other competitors...
Eliott, looking a bit pouty.
Luci Center pix, 09/14/2008
This barn-cat's name is "Sister". She had managed to squeeze in between the stall window and the bars. Rather looked like she was in jail to me.
You can see how breezy it was already starting to get Sunday morning. Pete the Clydesdale's mane and "leg feathers" (as I like to call them) are whipping in the wind.
Johnny & Cappy. Cappy had just lowered himself down for a belly-rub. If only he'd told me, I'd have obliged him and rubbed it for him.
Johnny was giving me some lip.
You can't tell it from the plants, as they look like they're standing still, but the wind was so strong, it was literally blowing flocks of birds around. I was rather entertained watching them try to gather on our neighbor's roof, trying to fight the wind and seeing them pushed back.
A few more pix from the luau, 08/23/08...
I know it's hard to tell what we're doing, but it was a game
called "Sea Cruise". Somewhat like musical chairs. There
were different tropical islands (on mats) on the ground &
when the music stopped, everyone had to get to an island.
I look like I'm carrying props for that tv show "Who's Line
Is It Anyway?"
Our next door neighbors, Aida & Gene
The redhead is my s-i-l, Kathy... also known as "MFRHSIL"
(my favorite redhead sister in law)
These were taken on our canoe trip down the Blue River in Milltown, Indiana on 8/25/08
I seem to be the only safety-conscious person in our group. Notice that I'm obeying the rules and wearing my life vest.
Okay, admittedly, it came off after about 5 minutes and became a cushion to sit on.
I just love the scenery in this pic. A few of the trees were just starting to turn colors for fall.
Marty...
Calm, DEEP waters.
Unfortunately, with the lack of rain we'd had up to that point, the river was a bit shallow in some places and required getting out and dragging the canoe. Notice I seem to be the only one with enough sense to get out. The husband sat and begged me to drag him across the rocks... I don't THINK so!
After the canoe trip was over, we stopped at a little ice cream stand that is an institution in that area of Floyd Co. Polly's Freeze has THE best soft-serve sherbet. Totally dee-lish! They are totally worth the drive over (30-40 minutes from our house).
Brain Freeze!
It so gives me pleasure to be able to post pix of Jilli that don't look as if they're out of Vogue magazine. ;)
08/26/08 Our last baseball game of the season. This was Mia's first time at a ballgame.
09/06/2008 at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, the Run for the Rawhide!
Olivia & I were walking team #342!
Notice how red her nose is. This was just a couple of days after she'd mysteriously scraped it.
Some of the other competitors...
Eliott, looking a bit pouty.
Luci Center pix, 09/14/2008
This barn-cat's name is "Sister". She had managed to squeeze in between the stall window and the bars. Rather looked like she was in jail to me.
You can see how breezy it was already starting to get Sunday morning. Pete the Clydesdale's mane and "leg feathers" (as I like to call them) are whipping in the wind.
Johnny & Cappy. Cappy had just lowered himself down for a belly-rub. If only he'd told me, I'd have obliged him and rubbed it for him.
Johnny was giving me some lip.
You can't tell it from the plants, as they look like they're standing still, but the wind was so strong, it was literally blowing flocks of birds around. I was rather entertained watching them try to gather on our neighbor's roof, trying to fight the wind and seeing them pushed back.
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