Same Drill Different Year

The old bundle deal. I am so tired of the game. You can get their internet hookup which is so smashing fast, it is fast, and the free long distance phone and 900 TV stations all for one low price for a solid year. No fuss no muss, just sign up today because this offer will not last. Go ahead, and sign up. I don’t think you can get one without the other. If you do it will cost more than your arm and leg so you sign up. You get the bill and it varies each month. Sometimes they just nudge it up a few dollars with no exclamation what so ever. If you call and ask, they tell you it's because the taxes vary. Why should taxes vary?
 I finally decided to just accept it and life was moving along at the usual jet pace. One day I received an E-bill from these speed demons. My year was up so they jumped the price up 40 dollars. This calls for action and I don’t mean phone action. This calls for up close and personal action. So I loaded myself in the car and paid a friendly visit to this place. She told me that they have another ‘Special’ going on and she can get me into that. She quoted a price that was ten dollars less per month than I am paying now. I said, "Good deal Lucille, sign me up!" I was standing there humming a happy tune while she was clicking away on her keyboard. She looked up at me and said, "You do realize this is before taxes, don’t you?"
Well, that took care of the happy tune because this is the most, taxed to the max, state in the union. We even pay tax on tax. If they need money for something, the tax goes up some more. "How much will that be?" I asked. She did some more clicking on her keyboard and came back with a figure that is ten dollars more than I am now paying. It’s a game, I tell you. A GAME. First they make you think they are raising your price 40 dollars and then after all the wheeling and dealing they make you think you are getting an even less price than you were paying before. Now that they have you in this calm submissive state they spring the truth on you. It’s just like Cesar Milan training a dog. I’m going to start calling them "The Internet Whisperer". By the way, what ever happened to Cesar? 

The above is something I posted in 2010. It’s a rerun, but the game is still going on. I just called again the other day, and they no longer offer basic TV. It’s now expanded basic or nothing. They have no concern for the lower income folks who would be happy to get ten channels instead of 900 or so. The other companies do the same thing, they offer you the moon until they get you hooked, and the offers keep going off until they have you up to the max. I used to jump from one to the other trying to keep ahead of them, but I got tired of having new holes drilled in my walls, and fourteen disc nailed to the top of the house. They can never use the one that is already up there. Most of us keep a landline and a cell phone. 

 About the only calls I get on the landline are telemarketers. I can’t seem to bring myself to get rid of it.  I am on the do not call list, but they still call. I very seldom answer it. The mailbox these days is mainly for ads, and other junk, but it is a good thing when you order something.

Is It Time?

I have a defective memory so I jot down everything I think I will forget, but I have no organization system for my reminder notes.   I have notes written on everything. I find notes that make no sense. For instance I found this “only the hens will come” what am I referring to and why would I need my memory jolted?  Or is it the name of a book?

Sometimes it’s a recipe with no title. 1 gallon white vinegar. ½ cup salt, 1/3 TBSP dish soap (any brand). That’s it. What is it for?

I decided to make a folder in my documents for important reminders and other important information and I was trying to decide what to name it, and noticed I already had a folder named ‘Notes’ so I opened it to see what was in it. It had the following.

                 How to restore and save your home page

                Put the url in and press enter. Or find it in history.

                When you get it on the screen go to top left

                And look for tools. Click and find options. Click. 

                Choose General tab,

                 From there you can see what to do, if you can’t figure

                 it out, you are beyond help.

                     Sell computer. 

                                          

 I just called my son the other day to ask for the 100th time how to save the homepage.

Do you think it’s time to sell?

I can't remember.

Fourth Birthday Party

Chloe 4th Birthday Party

Chloe with her Mommie and Daddy

Aunt Emily and Shelby(Chloe's cousin)

Molly, Shelby and Emily  (Molly is Shelby's mother)

Shelby and Aunt Emily

Yvonne(Chloe's Grandma H), Molly, Cora and other guest

Leah and Chloe

Chloe, friend, cousins, and great grandma (me)

 

Molly, Leah and Shelby taken a few months ago.

 

Shelby

The party was at the park and it was a beautiful day except for the wind. It was so bad we couldn't have the candle blowing part. We had fun. The food was delicious, and the cake was lip-smacking scrumptious.

Falsified World

We live in a falsified world. It seems that everyone is trying to cheat someone. Go grocery shopping, and you will see that not only have the prices risen, the can or box look the same, but it’s smaller and has less ounces than their original version had.

Coffee cans have the side caved in so it will hold less. A toilet tissue roll is narrower. One time I bought tomatoes from a fruit stand, and there was a sign over the top that said “Local Tomatoes” when I got home I discovered one of the tomatoes had a little sticker that said California. This is Washington State. I suppose once he put them in the stand they were local.

Pepsi or Coke is on sale. You need to buy four or you pay regular price. The next sale they have the stipulation that you can only buy one at this sale price. It’s a game, and the coach is out to lunch.

Online shopping is very convenient, but once you order from a business they have your email address so they can send you all their ads with the deceiving promises.  Half price it says, but you have to buy two so you get one for free. Otherwise it is not half price. I only want one. Or Free Shipping, but when you look further you are required to buy seventy five dollar amount or the shipping is not free. Who do they think I am? Oprah!

Appliances formerly would last forty or fifty years, and now they last ten or twelve years if you’re lucky. My hot water heater had a six year warranty and went bonkers in seven years.

We think our Sport figures are just fabulous because they outdo everyone else. Then we find that they have been taking a secret drug of some kind to enhance their performance.

Or they weren’t really singing the National Anthem, they were lip syncing. Then we hear, “oh no they didn’t and oh yes they did for six months.”  A beautiful lady wins the Miss America contest, and then you hear, “She is not even American, she is from India.” Just shut up for once. Why should you care where she came from? She is American now or she could not have entered the contest. It turns out she was born in America.

This is all the stupid deceptive things I can think of right now. You can probably make a list as well.

Cheer up! the best is yet to come, and that is false advertising.

A Rerun of Big Bad wolf

Life in the Forties

 

This was my second home away from home back in the 40's.

In the bottom apartment lived an old grouch and her husband.
We called her Mrs. McGlothern, and  he was MAC. Only the roles were reversed. They did not make noise.  I called her Mrs. McGrouch when she wasn't within earshot. Mac always carried a bottle of wine around in his pocket. They were very quiet, and since they were the owners and proprietors, they set the rules. Mary and Andy lived on the second floor, and they loved music, the louder the better. The Angels, known as Yours truly and husband lived on the top floor. Angels always rise to the top.  Nine PM was bedtime for everyone in the building, bar none. We could also take two baths a week. That's right, two of um!
When nine o'clock came the music didn't die down, and the broom on the first floor came out and the ceiling took a beating. Mac was assigned the broom job, and he enjoyed it. It was the only noise he was allowed to make. The next morning Mrs McGrouch would go stomping up the stairs and bang on Mary and Andy's door, and threaten an eviction notice, but it never became an actuality. Two or three nights later the scene would play over again. Another couple, Herb and Lorraine, lived there. We became life long friends with both couples, and had many fun times together. We all shared the same bathroom, and the same community sink in the hall way, and the same icebox, and I do mean ice box. It was also in the hallway. The iceman came two or three times a week to put a new block of ice in it. We each had a turn of emptying the water pan that caught the water from the ice. We also had a milkman that delivered milk. It was left on the front porch, and each neighbor would pick out what he had ordered. I believe I am the only survivor of that group.

Memories

Now that I am old I have discovered the very back end of my memory bank. There are things in there that I haven’t thought of in years. This one returned to me recently. When I was a child around 11 or 12 years old we lived in the country, and I attended church with my family on Sunday morning, and Sunday nights and all points in between. We prayed. I learned to pray. I prayed for this, I prayed for that. I prayed for rain, I prayed it would stop raining. I prayed for everything I could think of. That is the way I remember it. If anything went wrong I prayed about it.  A knot came up on the back of my hand. It was a small knot. We didn’t know what it was, and it didn’t hurt so it was pretty much ignored. I prayed it would go away. All kids in the vicinity attended a one room school house; it had a building with one side open for those that rode horses to school.  We were playing around that building one recess when a boy my age and I got into it over something. I can’t recall what I did to him, but he picked up a corncob and threw it at me, and I threw up my hand to protect my face. The corncob smacked the back of my hand, and when I looked at my poor hand the knot had disappeared. I said, “thank you, God.” I didn’t thank Ray for it. I’m sure you’ve heard that God works in mysterious ways. He does, even if it takes a corncob.

 I remember Ray Richards, the boy that threw the corncob. We were the same age. He died several years ago in an accident. He was very young. I can’t remember what kind of accident. I know it wasn’t a car wreck. We lived near Glencoe. Oklahoma. Ray had brothers and one sister as I remember. Billy was his sister. His brothers were James, Carl and Buddy. If he had more siblings, I don’t remember them. Maybe someone in the Glencoe area will read this and know who I am talking about. Small world you know.

It’s amazing how you can remember something 75 years ago, but forget to put the ice cream back in the freezer.

The cows finally came home, but pigs still can’t fly.

 We have finally arrived, nothing left to invent or is there. Once upon a time the world was not so complicated; telephones had one purpose, to relay messages vocally. Now they do everything, but pick your teeth. Before phones there was only one way to let someone know where you were or to ask a question. Not so long ago I observed a lot of people shopping in the grocery store, and talking to themselves, until I learned about the hands free method of talking on a phone without a visible phone.  

 Party lines didn’t mean a line to a party. It meant your personal business was being shared by anyone that happened to be on your party line, such as the modern Facebook and many other ‘tell the world about it’ web sites.  If you wanted someone to know something you had to get out the stationary and a pen, and actually write it out and send it by mail.  Wouldn’t it be terrible if we had to go back to that?

My mother was born in 1905, and she once said the one invention that she appreciated the most was the electric washing machine. She was speaking of the first one invented with a wringer attached, and the wringer was not automatic, you had to guide the item through it while turning the handle.

 It wasn’t long until a way was made to make the wringer automatic, but you would still guide the item through it. Finally the spin method was made. Families had large families, mainly because a sure fire method of birth control had not been discovered, and that is very likely the reason I am here. One brother is only two years older. There were eight kids. The Mom of the family did a huge laundry each week with a washtub and scrub board, and then had to hang it on a line outside to dry. The electric dryer was another great invention.

I remember our first radio and how much we enjoyed it, and going from an ice box to a refrigerator. I thought the microwave was a fabulous invention. I would hate to live without one now.

Watching the evolution of the computer age is amazing. We probably haven’t seen anything yet.  I believe pigs will fly.

Similar to the one we had.

A Little Cat Tale

I’ve never been a cat person, I’m more of a dog person. I know very little about the cat, but I am learning that cats and dogs were not created equally, not even close. I have no pets at the present time so when someone asked me to foster a cat for two weeks, I had a moment of insanity, and said okay. That was the second biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Never mind the first one.

It has now been a month, the owner is still ill and unable to care for her. To start with the cat had always been called Kitty. I thought that was rather stupid so I named her Lassie.

It turns out Lassie is pretty big shoes for a cat to fill so I changed it to Sassy Lassie. Sassy fits her much better. She explores everything. If I leave a closet door open she is in there. This morning I heard a banging noise, and she had managed to shut the bathroom door, and couldn’t get out. She jumps or flies upon the washing machine and from there she makes another flying leap and gets on a window sill so she can look out the window. The window is near the ceiling.  I don’t know how she keeps from breaking her neck.

She plays crazy games, one is to chase an invisible mouse. She catches it, and it gets away so she runs and grabs it again. I bought some cat toys and they have disappeared. I was on my hands and knees yesterday looking under the beds and furniture for them. I can’t find them. She can get on the window sill in the living room and watch for things on the street and in the yard. She was raised with a dog, and has picked up some dog habits. She can make sounds that sound like little quiet dog barks. She does it when she sees a dog. She also barks at birds. She always wags her tail when she does the barking sound.

She thinks her God given assignment is to keep me awake. She attacks my toes in the middle of the night. Most of the time she sleeps on a corner of the bed, and I don’t even know she is there, but I get my toes chewed on and clawed at nightly. This applies to naps as well. The only remedy is to wear my shoes to bed. She gets on the window sill behind my chair and makes another flying leap to the top of my chair and it catches me off guard, and I jump 10 feet in the air. It’s either me or the cat. One of us has to go and I’m pretty sure it won’t be me.

Sassy Lassie

A quiet moment.

What can I get into now look.

My goal is to be a big mean dog.

This spot used to belong to Minnie Pearl (my former dog)

Save it for Last

Senior retirement homes should be called Half-Way houses because that is what they are, half of a house, half as many rooms, a bathroom in half the space, half a kitchen if any at all, a living room with enough room for a chair with a TV in front of it, half a closet. No front porch, patio, lawn, garage or flower bed. When you graduate from that, you go to The Senior Hotel. You have rooms and hallways, and valets and maids to turn your bed down at night. You even have maids to help with the bath. Meal time is fine dining with all your friends, served tomato soup with delicious cat food sandwiches. Who could ask for more?

Not many can afford this fine living, it is not cheap, it runs around $50000 or more a year. You work a lifetime to pay for a home so you will have something to bequeath to The Senior Hotel.

 That is the  long and short of it, but it isn't all gloom and doom.

Now for a few words about the teens.

Teens have a lingo all of their own,

and they always have.

Adults:                                          Teen:

Call or phone                                Text

Visit                                              Hang out

Aced it                                          Smacked it

Old or antique                              Teek

Good friend                                  We’re tight

Not going steady                           Single

Clean your room                          It’s not dirty

Just Because

My mother was a natural born seamstress; she could look at a picture and make a pattern. This didn’t just apply to clothes; at one time she made a crib for the baby in the family. She had very few tools to work with, but it was very well made and lasted a very long time. Even though I was a kid at the time I was impressed.

One time when I was about 5 years old, I came downstairs from a nap, and my mother handed me something. It was a homemade doll; she had made for me while I was outside playing and before I woke up in the mornings.

I have never in my lifetime been so excited and happy over a gift. It wasn’t my birthday, it was a just-because gift. It was made from a white flour sack, with cotton stuffing. It had arms and legs, an embroidered face and brown yarn hair. Mom said the hair was the color of my hair. It was my prized possession, and I carried it around and took great care of it until one day I accidentally left it outside. One of those Oklahoma gully washer rain storms came up and my poor doll was pounded with rain. It was rather limp and lumpy after that, but I loved it anyway. I still love dolls, and have a couple on display, but none have ever meant as much to me as that rag doll my mother made just for me, just because.

 Maybe that event inspired me to make dolls. I have made a few. 

 Here are some of the dolls I have made:

I had a few Granddaughters.

I had a few patterns.

I tried to create an elephant, but it looked more like a pig so I added wings and a curly tail. I sent it to Laura because she is the one that always says, "when pigs fly."

I had so many of these little people made, that I gave them to the trick or treaters.They liked them.

The Cleaning Fairy, Me.

This morning I went into a cleaning frenzy. It only takes one episode of ’Hoarders’ to do it.  There is no way in hell or any other place that I will allow piles of garbage and other wonderful collector items to stand between me and my table or bed. I even have a favorite chair and couch that fit into that category. I had to empty the canister on the vacuum cleaner. That is a challenge that boggles the mind (that is, if you have a mind). You cannot just set it back in there, it has to be adjusted with exact precision or it won’t work. It finally happened and by now the adrenaline is running in high gear so the job was a breeze. This included floor scrubbing and dusting furniture. Now I am exhausted and thirsty so I am having an ice cold can of aspartame, phosphorus, potassium benzoate, phenylketonurics, sometimes known as diet Pepsi.
It is a beautiful day on my little part of the globe. I think there is rain heading this way. It will first hit the coastal area and then we get the tail end of it. The weather prophet said there could be snow in the mountains. It’s summertime, when is it going to stop snowing?

Photo's of the Little Ones

Granddaughters, Leah and Chloe now three and the personalities are developing. Chloe is giving her Dad the evil eye for taking their picture. Leah finds it rather amusing.

 

Chloe going on a bike ride with her Mom.

This was taken several months earlier.

I think this was taken at Christmas time.

Taken last September