Happy Birthday Dennis Engel

Happy Birthday DennisOne of these clowns is my son-in-law and today is his birthday.

I just want to brag a little about his accomplishment of his part in the building in the New Tacoma Narrows Bridge. He spent so many trips and evening hours on the bridge project, his wife began calling the bridge "the other woman". Here he is finally introducing her to "to the other woman".

This was "Show Off" day for the bridge and a few thousand people walking over it .

Hurry up and Wait

Pet Peeves is my title so I think its time to post one. I was reminded of it when I read Jim’s blog Plane Truth and he told about getting dates mixed up for a job. This is something that happened to me a few months ago. I had a doctor appointment (is there any other kind?). I got ready much too early as I usually do, so I decided I could do something else while I waited for time to leave for the appointment. I became so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot to watch the clock.

When I finally remembered to look at the clock I knew I was going to be a little late so I took off like a speeding bullet for the doctor’s office, but it wasn’t fast enough because I was about 20 minutes late. The office girl did not take kindly to my tardiness, she said, "You stupid old lady, you are too late and we can not hold your slot open because we have other patients who arrive on time".

Well, maybe she didn’t say it exactly like that, but that is the way I remember it. Not only that, but she said, " you are a "no show" and if it happens three times you will need to find another doctor". I got that part right, that is exactly what she said and also followed it up with a letter to make it legal or something. My pet peeve is this, how many thousand times have I sat in that waiting room for 20 minutes or more waiting and I remember one time I waited in the little exam room for nearly an hour. I should have called them a "no show" and sent them a letter telling them they would just have to find a new patient if it happens three times.

Hanging In There

I’m still hanging in there and had a nice quiet weekend. Weather has been perfect. Not too cold and not too hot. It can’t get more perfect than that. Cora and Jim (Granddaughter and her hubby) came to visit and brought me an awesome surprise. It was Jim’s Potato Salad, which I love. He is getting good at it and should enter a cooking contest. I think he would rate right up there with Rachael Ray and Paula Dean. I have been reading my “Little House on the Prairie” books. That was Saturday. Sunday was more of the same.
Now it’s Monday and it’s raining. I will go back to the doctor tomorrow and see if there is something they can do to alleviate some of the pain in my knee. It is not getting any better.
This is it for today.

The Driving Lesson

Still nothing exciting to tell you about. I can drive now according to the doctor. I couldn’t drive before, but he said I can drive now. Just kidding !!!! I’ve been driving since 1950. At that time my husband tried to teach me how to drive and the very first thing I did was turn a corner on the gravel road and kicked up a little gravel. That is my version of the incident, but my husband who always exaggerated everything said I almost took out a row of mailboxes. It’s been so long ago I cannot even remember whose version was correct. Believe me! it came up a few times over the years. He gave up on me then and there. He informed me that he was no longer giving lessons on car driving. So I had to wait until the Government decided they needed him to serve in the Air Force again. He had been in the reserves after the WW2 and was called back in during the Korean War. I thought to myself, "With him out of the picture I will learn how to drive that car now if it kills me." So I did and it didn’t kill me. My sister-in-law and I went to the Licenses division and picked up a driver’s permit. The car had a manual shift and I knew nothing about it. Marge took me for a ride and showed me how to let out the clutch and how to shift the gears. She let me drive and we went bumping down the road and she laughed so hard I finally had to take her home. She was making me a little jittery with all that cackling. It wasn’t funny at all. I continued to bounce and bump my way through the intersections until one day I finally got it right. Okay, I’m a slow learner. I continued driving until I felt confident enough to go for the licenses. Back in those days the test were much easier than they are today. I passed the test and passed the driving part of it and left with a license. I have always kept my licenses up to date so I won’t have to take another test. I only had one accident in my whole life and it wasn’t my fault. I was in the Bi-Mart parking lot trying to leave the place when this maniac came barreling out from a row of hedges and slammed into me. Why would anybody put hedges in a parking lot. I noticed they have removed the beautiful hedges.

Quiet on the Blog Front

I am at a loss for blog material. If blog is a real word, why isn’t the spellchecker aware of it? I guess somebody just made it up. Twitter is a real word and means “chatter”. Now that makes sense, but blog? What is that supposed to mean? Maybe it is a real word, I’m looking in a crossword dictionary and it isn’t in there.

I received a ballot in the mail today for a vote as to whether I approve a bond for a new high school to replace an old one. I most certainly do approve, and already filled it out. It had two boxes, one for approving, and one for not approving. They give very specific instructions on how to do it, as though they might not be smart enough to figure out what you mean unless you do it exactly as they say. You cannot put a check mark or an X in the box. You have to fill in the whole area with black ink. No other color will be acceptable. I had to look all over the place to find a pen with black ink. It seems that I always buy blue ink pens. Well, I gotter done. I hope they can figure out what I want.

My Grandson came by from school today wearing a face mask. I think it’s a social status thing in his case. We have not had any flu reported in this area yet. I just heard a DR report that the mask would do very little good anyway. He said the germs are so small it can go through the mask. I guess the mask could keep you from catching the common cold and other diseases. Maybe we should all start wearing them all the time. I hope you don’t think I’m serious.
Like I said it is a quiet blog day and this is the best I can do.

Medical Bill Goofs

Medical billing goofs. Am I the only one this happens to or do others have this problem. I am not even fully recovered from my knee surgery and have already received my first goofed up bill. I am fully covered by Medicare and supplement insurance, but for some reason they send me the balance of the bill after Medicare pays their share. I receive the bill and my blood pressure rises a few notches. I call them and remind them that I have supplement insurance. They look at my records and agree with me. They always tell me they will take care of it. Why are they not trained to do the billing correctly in the first place? It doesn’t happen every single time, but it has happened a few times. I guess I shouldn’t get my tail in a knot over it, but I’m not in a very good mood.

Too Much Idle Time

I recently bought something on ebay. I know you’re curious so I’ll tell you what it was.
It was a set of Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House on the Prairie books". I am so much into my second childhood it’s unreal. I wanted to read those books again. I am on the fourth one and thoroughly enjoying the books. Here is another small example of my second childhood action. When I received the books I entered a positive feedback on the lady’s Ebay site. I waited a week or so and didn’t get a feedback from her so I wrote this to my seller. Word for word this is what I said, "Do you not leave feed back for your buyers?" She responded immediately, "You didn’t need to get so nasty about it, I’ve had a death in my family and I am the only child so all the burden has been on me and ebay has not been on the top of my priorities". I didn’t want to start World War Three so I dropped it at that point. I see she left me a positive feedback. She said I was a great ebayer. I didn’t ask her to lie about it, she knows I am a nasty person and not a great ebayer at all. Not much to write about around here. Till next time.

Happy Birthday Cora

Happy Birthday Cora

This is one of my six granddaughters. She has the gift of setting goals and reaching them. I am very proud of her. Her goal of becoming a mother is just around the corner. The adoption is ready to roll. Three Years Old

Tip Toeing thru the Bubbles on their wedding day.