Day One-Fifty - Neighbors?

I had an excellent idea for today's blog last night right before I went to bed.  I was already upstairs and couldn't find any paper to write on and was too lazy to come back downstairs and write it down.  The idea had me chuckling.  It was pretty funny.  I thought you all would get a real kick out of it.  In fact it was so funny that I thought there was no way I would be able to forget it, so I just went to bed.  If I could remember what it was, you guys would be laughing so hard right now.  But I can't.  So, instead I will just tell you about the cruel joke that is being played on me by the owner of the squirrel condo.

For those of you who don't know, I will explain.  The squirrel condo is the unit directly across from mine.  It is a mirror image of my condo.  But since I moved in here nearly 9 years ago, it has been vacant except on two occasions when it was rented out to short term tenants.  In each of those cases it was only rented for about 3 months.  Most recently it was rented to a military family.  A year or so ago, the owner staged it and seemed to have gotten serious about finally selling it.  They had work done inside.  Granite counter tops were put in the kitchen.  The carpet was taken out and replaced with wood and it was painted.  At that time a lock box that realtors use was put on the door.  They brought furniture in and a realtor began showing it regularly.
That went on for about a month and then a family moved in.  I didn't see much of them but I was happy to finally have someone there.

The entire time they lived their the lock box remained on the front door.  I thought that was strange.  Then one day, I noticed a lot of activity over there and they moved out.  They were only there for about 3 months.    Since then, I have seen people over there cleaning.  On one occasion an older woman and two men were there.  The men were cleaning the windows and the woman was directing them.  Once that was complete they installed new wood or perhaps feaux wood blinds.  The woman was bossy, more like a wife than an employer so I thought perhaps she and her husband who was one of the men had bought it and were getting ready to move in.  They didn't.  A few days later more furniture was brought in and it was staged again.  Then there was another round of showings.  The most recent round of showings ended a month or two ago.

Last week, painters came in.  They spent 3 days painting the entire downstairs (which by the way was empty again).  Apparently, the furniture that it was staged with previously was taken away.  On the final day the painters were there, I saw a young couple walking through the house with the painters looking at the walls.  I thought perhaps they were new owners doing a final walk through.  I'm not sure if they also painted upstairs but I know that they did every room downstairs.  Now, keep in mind that it was just painted a year or so ago by professional painters and it was already a neutral color.  Since then a small family has spent 3 months or less living in it and nothing else has taken place there since. Not even any squirrels have lived in it for the last year.  So I thought, maybe the young couple had bought the house and didn't like the paint color and was changing it before they moved in!  I was getting excited.  The only problem was that the lock box was still on the door.  If it had sold and the new owner had taken possession, that lock box surely would have been removed.  So, I forgot about it.

Then an hour ago as I was sitting here trying to remember my hysterical topic from last night, a truck pulled up and left the engine running.  The engine continued to run for 10 minutes or so.  That made me decide to look out and see what was going on.  I couldn't see the truck, but I could see the front door open on the squirrel unit and an area rug on the living room floor.  I got excited and walked outside.  It is a furniture rental delivery truck.  I cannot believe they are staging that stupid house again!!!!!  When are they going to figure out that it will never sell?????  The same young couple who inspected the paint job last week is over there taking delivery of the furniture.

They just took living room and dining room furniture in along with a fake plant.  Now the furniture truck has left.  You know what?  I would rather just have the squirrels move back in.  They at least made a commitment to the place.  If they could have figured out a way to get in and out without always getting stuck inside the house, they would have been much better neighbors than any humans apparently ever will be.  The squirrels used to go in through the chimney.  The screen that keeps animals out had been peeled back and I guess that was how they got in.  But for some reason once they were in, they never could get back out that way.  So, they would appear at all of the windows frantically trying to get out.  I would see them in the windows and contact the HOA who would contact the owner.  Then they would get the squirrels out.  This went on for a few years.  Then the owners quit caring and wouldn't even attempt to get the squirrels out anymore.  At first you would see a squirrel in the window for a few days desperately trying to get out and then after a week or so you would stop seeing the squirrel in the window and start seeing hundreds of flies in the window instead.

That made me angry.  At that point I stopped thinking of them as pathetic people who couldn't sell a house and started thinking of them as heartless squirrel killers.  I mean, if they weren't willing to get the squirrels back out of the house once they were inside, then at least get the screen on the chimney fixed so that they can't get in, in the first place.  One weekend, I sat on my stairs and watched a pair of squirrels in the window tearing the blinds to pieces as they desperately fought to get out of that place, and I rooted for the squirrels.  I sat here and hoped that they were doing so much damage that the house would have to be gutted to ever sell.

So, now it is staged again.  I can't wait for a realtor to start bringing clients through again.  I would like to get a chair and a glass of wine and just sit out on the sidewalk and watch them go by so I could hear the comments about it.  I wish that they would have an open house.  I want to see the inside so that I can figure out what is so wrong with it that it has remained empty for virtually the entire time I have lived in mine.  I mean, in case I ever decide to sell mine, that would be a nice thing to know, right?  I can see the lady walking around inside right now.  I need to go do more snooping.  Maybe I'll just go change my garden flag. Wish me luck.  I'll update you tomorrow.

Day One-Forty-Nine - A Trip to Starbucks

Well, you are not going to believe this.  But we didn't clean the garage yesterday.  It just wasn't in the cards.  We had too many things working against us.  So, instead we went shopping for some new shoes for my parents and looking for a few other things that they need that are hard to find in Nacogdoches.  While we were out we went to Randy White's BBQ.  It was only the second time I had been there.  It is really good and Dad loved it.  We had a nice but very quick visit.  Now it will be up to me to get the garage cleaned but I think I am up to the task.

I am really running late on getting this written today.  I started it a few hours ago.  But I can't seem to settle on a topic today.  Today feels like a go to Starbucks and work on the laptop kind of day.  So, after I get a few things done around the house, that is what I think I will do.  I need to find one however, that is not as busy as the one closest to my house.  At that one, regardless of the time of day or night, you can never get a table.  There is one between my house and UTD that I assume would be even worse since it is probably always full of students.  I guess I will just drive around looking for an empty Starbucks this afternoon.

Most of the time I like sitting in my house where there are no interruptions and writing there.  However, there are times, like today, when I just feel like seeing other people while I write will help.  It is sad that I look forward to a trip to Starbucks.  But it is really more about what I will do at Starbucks.  I used to stop in the local Starbucks at odd times occasionally and think how nice it was that so many people did something during the day that allowed them to just take a laptop and go to Starbucks for hours on end.  Meanwhile, the only time I was there in the middle of the day was during a vacation.  Now, for the time being I get to be one of those people who can just take the laptop and work at Starbucks for a few hours.  It is a luxury that I do not take for granted.

The best thing about spending the afternoon working at Starbucks will be that Jingle will not insist upon sitting between me and my keyboard if I am not sitting at my desk.  He has gotten out of control with that.  I have never seen an animal so jealous of a computer.  But I really think that is his problem.  He feels that I devote too much time to the computer and I should be spending it all on him.  Right now, as I type this, he is between my two outstretched arms lying on my desk.  The keyboard is pushed up against the monitor and I can barely reach it.  Meanwhile, he is curled into a little ball, with his head against my chest purring like a motor.  If I put him down on the floor on on the couch, he reaches up and catches my sleeve with his claw and pulls on it and constantly meows until I allow him back on the desk and between me and the keyboard.

Shiner on the other hand is sleeping in the garage and couldn't be happier.  While Mom and Dad were here, he sat on the bar stool opposite Dad the entire time I was in the kitchen cooking.  He loves being around my Dad.  It is funny that my Dad has become a cat person in the last few years.  I think that Shiner is undoubtedly my Dad's second favorite cat right behind Regis.  Dad likes a cat that he feels is low maintenance.   But honestly, they spend a lot of time catering to Regis' needs.  But even I have to admit that Jingle is the most high maintenance cat in the world.

Well, sorry this is so boring today and sort of pointless.  I think I will get my stuff done now so that I can go to Starbucks.  Maybe after I do some people watching today, I'll have an interesting topic or two tomorrow.  Have a good afternoon!

Day One-Forty-Eight - Garage Cleaning Day

Well, the Gumbo has been eaten.  I ended up making some Mac and Cheese along with some black eyed peas for Mom.  We enjoyed it all.  But now it is time to start doing the real work.  Mom and Dad really want my garage cleaned.  In fact they want it cleaned so badly that they are willing to join in on the work.  I cannot think of a worse job to do.  But I guess in another hour or so I will be in the garage moving and organizing things. 

I have never really felt that keeping the garage clean was a necessity, as any of you who have seen my garage can attest.  As far as I am concerned it is a storage / trash holding area.  No more.  My parents treat their garage like another room in the house.  Most of the time you could eat off of their garage floor if the need arose.  They are the people who paint their garage floor.  When you buy a house with a garage floor that has been painted and you wonder "who does that?" it is people like my parents.  Dad builds storage systems for their garage so that everything has a place in their garage. 

When I was growing up he always had a workbench in the garage.  It was kind of his space.  We were supposed to respect his space and stay away from his workbench.  On the workbench each tool had a home.  If stuff was ever out of place, it did not go well.  All of us would be questioned as though a bar of gold had gone missing from Fort Knox.  He knew exactly where everything was when he left it and if you were not telling the truth 100% he could tell.  He would have made a great prosecuting attorney in any "workbench" legal case.

Once when we lived in Bay City, Dad's tools kept going missing and reappearing.  Robbie was at SFA then so he was in the clear.  I was going to WCJC and as a teenage girl didn't really have much reason to mess with Dad's workbench so I was in the clear.  But Ronnie worked on a rice farm after school and was always working on his truck when he was at home.  So he was Dad's #1 suspect.  For days Dad questioned Ronnie as tools disappeared and reappeared in a different place.  They would be moved from the workbench to the floor or between the workbench and the water heater.  Dad couldn't figure out why Ronnie wouldn't just put them back where he got them if he was going to use them.  Stuff was also getting knocked off all of the shelves in the garage.  We also were hearing noise in the attic. 

I think at some point someone walked out into the garage and saw an animal scurrying around and we figured that there must be a squirrel or something in the attic that was coming and going through the garage.  So, Dad and Ronnie sat a live trap and caught a huge opossum that had apparently been using Dad's tools to do renovations in his home which was located in our attic.  Ronnie was vindicated and he took the opossum with him to work that day.  Knowing Ronnie the opossum was shot.  But I like to believe that it was released to move onto someone elses attic. 

Fortunately, as far as I know there are no opossums in my garage.  Hopefully, there is nothing alive out there.  But apparently, I will be finding out today.  Wish me luck.  If I survive this, I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.  Have a good day!

Day One-Forty-Seven - Picky Eaters and Not

I am making Gumbo today.  I am making it for several reasons the most important of which is I just like it.  Additionally, my parents are coming up this afternoon to spend a few days with me.  On top of that, Isaac should make landfall today around New Orleans and in support of NOLA, I will make Gumbo.  One small problem arises from this.  Mom is not a fan of shrimp or Gumbo.  So, I need to figure out something else to fix that she will enjoy to go with the Gumbo. 

The ironic thing about this is that growing up, we ate what Mom fixed or we did without.  That was the rule in our house.  And by the way, doing without wasn't really an option either since we had to sit at the table, get a spoonful of everything and eat everything on our plates.  To this day there is nothing I won't try and very few things I don't like as a result.  Anybody close to me knows that the only two things I won't eat at this point in my life are chicken and strawberries.  I would eat them if I was required to and in fact I eat them from time to time even by choice.  But I generally do not like to eat either of them. 

Sometimes I'll get a salad that has chicken in it.  I know that chicken is better for me than beef so I try to make myself eat it from time to time.  I just don't like to eat it.  And let's face it.  Strawberries are just too iffy.  Sometimes you get strawberries and they are sweet and really quite good.  But other times you get strawberries and they are very bitter and totally disgusting!  Life is too short to take chances on whether or not you will get a good and sweet strawberry as opposed to the really miserable bitter strawberry.  So, I don't take the chance. 

My Dad will eat anything as far as I know.  He is a fan of everything from the turnip green to lobster and doesn't skip anything in between.  I think I am very much like that.  Yes, I choose not to eat two things.  But if I had to, in order to save my life, I could eat piles of them.  My Mom on the other hand is actually kind of a picky eater.  And that is what's ironic.  As far as I know I can eat liver and onions.  I have only had it once in my life when I was a kid and we lived on Nottingham Dr.  She made it for supper one night.  If she made it, that meant we all had to eat it.  But my Mom doesn't like it.  I don't remember if she ate all of hers.  She probably had some diabolical plan where she ate just before we got home from school that day and wasn't hungry so she ate a few obligatory bites.  But now I know that she was not a fan of liver and onions because she has said so in recent years.  I remember thinking that it was kind of gross looking.  But I ate it.  I haven't had it since.  It just doesn't seem like something that anybody would eat by choice.  But I do not doubt that if I had to, I could eat a plate full of it.

Both of my brothers are like me.  We all can eat most anything we come across.  We were raised that way.  I think it is a good thing.  While it doesn't help a person with a weight problem, it is nice to be diverse as far as your tastes go.  I am annoyed by picky eaters.  I understand not liking something if you have tried it before and discovered that it does not appeal to you.  I am intolerant of people who refuse to try things.  My Dad's argument was always "How do you know you don't like it if you haven't tried it?" and I believe that is right.  Even if it sounds unappealing, if given the choice to eat it or starve, would you choose to starve?  No?  Then try it!

I say that both of my brothers are like me.  But that wasn't always the case.  There was a time when Ronnie would sit at the dinner table for hours because he refused to eat his cream style corn.  Sometimes, Dad would do this thing where nobody was allowed to leave the table until Ronnie ate that stupid corn.  I didn't understand how Ronnie could just sit there and make us all suffer.  But he didn't seem to have a problem with it.  It was only a few bites but he would just sit there like if he sat there long enough it would evaporate or something.  It didn't!  He always whined that it tasted like coffee......  Really??!?!?!?  Coffee??!??!?!  I never understood it, but that was what he said. 

Once my cousins were at our house for the weekend and the fair was in town.  It was over at the old fair grounds in Nacogdoches by Lone Star on Butt St.  After dinner we were all going to go to the fair.  We were so excited!  My Mom had made this English Pea Salad that she liked to make with canned peas, mayo, relish, diced onions and of course some Paprika sprinkled on top.  One of my cousins, either Kelly or Paul, I am not sure which, (maybe it was both) but I think it was Kelly, didn't like it (and really who can blame him?}  But he refused to eat it.  So, my Uncle Kenneth said he couldn't go to the fair that night if he didn't eat it.  Kelly took a stand and didn't eat the pea salad.  He had to stay home while all the other kids went to the fair.  For years after that, when the Glenn's would come up for a visit everybody made a big deal about whether or not Mom had made the pea salad.

I know a lot of people who don't like foods because of their "texture".  That is my Mom's deal.  She doesn't like certain textures she says.  She doesn't like shrimp or almost any shell fish if it is grilled, broiled or boiled.  However, she likes fried seafood and crab stuffing.  This makes no sense to me.  If you don't like the texture, then how does frying the seafood change that.  The people who don't like fish because of the "texture" also don't like mushrooms.  I don't know of any instance where this is not true.  Meanwhile, my favorite thing about mushrooms is the texture of them.  A food with a totally opposite texture from mushrooms is water chestnuts.  I have a friend who does not like either mushrooms or water chestnuts and she says it is because of the texture. While a mushroom is sort of slimy and soft; a water chestnut is rough and crunchy. So, how can both be unappealing due to their texture?  I don't get that at all.  I don't understand how texture can ever override taste when it comes to food. 

But I guess the fact that we don't all like everything makes us individuals.  So, I will respect that some people are picky eaters.  I am sure that there are people who think I am a picky eater because I choose not to eat chicken and am very vocal about it.  That is okay.  It doesn't bother me if they think I am a freak.  You just keep eating your chicken and I'll keep thinking everytime you take a bite that you are eating an animal who lived his entire life sitting in his own poop and sometimes eating it.

Right now, I am going to figure out what to cook for Mom if it kills me.  Maybe some good old fashioned homemade Macaroni and Cheese would do the trick.....  Mmmmmmmm..... mac and cheeeeeeeese.......

New Day One-Forty-Six - School Daze

It's the first day of school in most Texas schools today.  Over the weekend my sister-in-law was getting her classroom ready.  I suppose a lot of teachers spent their weekends that way.  I'm sure that a lot of parents spent their Sunday night getting a lot of things together too.  And lets face it, getting an excited 8 year old to bed at a decent time is probably the hardest job of all.

My niece is a high school senior this year and is very excited to be so.  I imagine that she will be attending dances every weekend this year.  She plays basketball and softball.  So, she will also be busy with sports.  She has decided to stop running cross country this year although she was good at it and enjoyed it.  But it is probably just as well.  She is going to have so many other things going on, she wouldn't have had time for all of it anyway.  Rebecca is nothing if not a social butterfly.

My youngest nephew is a sophomore.  Tim plays football.  He is on the JV team, this year at Nacogdoches.  He is a strapping young fellow who I am told can eat his weight in chicken fried steak.  Not surprising.  He is after all a Meyers.  The difference between the two of us, however, is that he works his chicken fried steak back off before it has time to settle on his hips.  I don't really understand that concept.

The other three nephews have all moved on to college.  The oldest has decided to go back and get another degree in sports nutrition.  I am excited about this possibility.  I'm thinking once Jacob finishes this degree, I'll be a slim trim fighting machine!  After all, he is bound to need guinea pigs for this nutrition stuff, right?  Who better than an old overweight pre-menopausal woman, right?  If he can fix me, he can fix any athlete.  His first degree is in some sort of behavioral marketing or some such.  Way over my head and apparently over potential employers heads, as well.  As I understand it, the behavioral degree will be helpful along with the sports nutrition thing.

Matt is starting his final semester at Texas Tech.  He is an engineering major.  He only had to get one more class for graduation.  So, I'm sending him positive "hope this semester is a breeze" thoughts this morning.  He is married to Melissa who graduated from nursing school last spring.  So, I think they are ready to get their lives moving away from the college world.

Chris is a sophomore at TCU, they actually started school last week.  He posted on FB last week around midnight the night before his first class that he was not ready and still didn't even have a pencil to write with.  I cannot tell you how "Christopher" that comment was.  Chris is very intelligent, but he doesn't seem to be a big planner.  He plays rugby at TCU.  I am sure that he had all of his rugby equipment in order, perhaps even clean and folded or shining from a recent polishing if there is any equipment for rugby that requires that.  But books and pencils.... not so much.

I remember several first days of school from my childhood.  But I remember even better the nights before the first days of school.  I remember riding bikes with Kara Compton on Nottingham the evening before school started one year.  It was probably 4th grade.  We talked endlessly about what we were going to wear to school the next day.  I loved going through all of my new school clothes and deciding on just the perfect outfit to wear that first day.  By 4th grade I had started getting a lot of store bought clothes.  Up until then, most of my clothes were made by either Mom or Grandma.  Now I look back and think that the hand sewn clothes were greatness.  At the time, I hated it.  I didn't want to be different from the other kids.

My 4th grade home room teacher was Mrs. Colston.  I kind of hated that.  She sipped "Listerine" from the bottle in her cabinet in the classroom all day.  She had really bad teeth and as a result when she spoke, she always spat.  So, you didn't want to stand too close to her when she was telling you something.  She was a woman of some sizable heft.  I didn't like being in her class.  All of my friends were in Mrs. Mora's class next door to our classroom.  They sang songs in class and had a great time.  We could hear them.  It was like there were rays of sunshine going into Mrs. Mora's classroom and spears of gloom coming into our classroom.  Mrs. Mora was a former neighbor of ours when we had lived on Houston St. and I always thought she was so nice.  I couldn't wait to be in the 4th grade so she could be my teacher and then when I finally got there, she wasn't my teacher.  I had the dreaded Mrs. Colston instead.

A few years later, in the 6th grade, I got the male version of Mrs. Colston.  Mr. Lampkin was my math teacher.  That was even worse.  He also enjoyed his "Listerine" in the classroom.  When he called roll everyday he mispronounced my name.  I desperately wanted to not answer until he pronounced it correctly, but that would have gotten me in trouble.  He always called roll by last name only.  If you didn't answer then he would say your entire name.  On the first day he said "Meers" and nobody answered.  Then he said it again and still nobody answered.  I was obviously waiting for him to say Meyers which I was pretty sure would be right after this "Meers" person who refused to answer.  Then he said Susan Meers and I realized he was mispronouncing Meyers and so I spoke up and said something like, "Here!  But it's Meyers."  He then asked how my last name was spelled and I told him.  He told me that M-E-Y-E-R-S was pronounced "Meers".  I told him that that was not the way we pronounced it and he told me we were wrong.  So for the rest of the year every single day he called roll and said "Meers" and looked me directly in the eye when he did it and I said "here" and hated him every single day of 6th grade.  Everyday, I would day dream about walking up to him and calling him Mr. "Lump"kin to his face.  But I knew that would get me in trouble and so I didn't.

I got a "D" in his class one 6 weeks.  I had never gotten a grade like that before.  When I took my report card home that day I was sobbing.  My parents talked about it and talked to me about it and decided that Mom needed to talk to him.  I thought I had done the math problems the way they were supposed to be.  I did all of my homework and my parents had gone over it and thought it was right.  But then I got the "D".  So, Mom went to school and talked to him.  She said the smell of "Listerine" on his breath nearly knocked her down when he spoke.  I don't know the details, but it turned out that he had given me an incorrect grade when they went through his grade book together.  I'm sure it had something to do with the drunken stupor that he was in most of the time.  There have been very few people in my life that I have truly hated.  Mr. Lampkin was one of them.  He is the reason I hate math to this day.

I think one of my my all time favorite teachers was Mrs. Johannson, she was my 7th grade math teacher.  I learned so much that year.  First of all, I learned all of the stuff that I didn't learn in Mr. Lampkin's class the previous year.  Plus, I learned that it was okay to ask a question if you didn't understand something.  She was so nice and would find ways to explain it until you understood.  Dana Duskin and I were in that class together.  I think we kind of wore her out with asking questions, but for the first time in over a year, I actually understood what I was doing in regards to math.  It didn't make me like math, but it at least made it tolerable.

I was always an English girl.  I LOVED English.  My number one all time favorite teacher was Mrs. Brown who was my 11th grade English teacher in Bay City.  She introduced me to my love of writing.  We had just moved to Bay City that summer and I didn't know many people yet.  A few weeks after school started she kept me after class and asked me if I had ever been involved in UIL writing contests.  I told her I hadn't and she asked if I wanted to be a part of her UIL team.  I thought, what the heck!  So, I did.  It was so much fun.  I love being given a topic and a few facts and then being able to write them in a manner to suit the style whether it be news writing or feature writing.  The following year, she asked me to join the yearbook staff and my Senior year I was editor of the yearbook.  That was a lot of fun too.  My only regret was that in the introduction for the 1981 yearbook which I wrote there was an error that nobody caught.  The word "off" should have been used and instead the word "of" appeared.  To this day, I am still bothered by that typo.

Oh well!  Happy first day of school to all of the kids out there and an even happier first day of school to their parents.  I hope it is a great year.  But more importantly, I hope that all of my travels this year take me through areas that do not have a school zone.

Day One-Forty-Four - I'm Taking Over the World!!!!

Yesterday was Ronnie's birthday.  I'm going to Nacogdoches today to help celebrate.  So, I sat the alarm this morning so that I could get an early start on my day.  I don't really like waking up early.  I am a night owl.  Given it's way, my body would be happiest if I stayed up every night until 3 a.m. and then didn't wake until around 10.  It is just the way my personal body clock works.  Morning people are annoying to people like me.  In fact people who do more than breath before 9 am are annoying to my type.

It's difficult going through life with this abnormality.  I call it an abnormality because apparently most of the world disagrees with my personal preference in schedule.  Otherwise, people who work a daily office job would be called 11 to 7'ers.  McDonald's would serve Egg McMuffins every day until 1 pm, lunch menu pricing at the local Mexican restaurant would be valid from 1 to 4 pm, happy hour wouldn't begin until 6 pm and prime time television wouldn't start each night until 10 Central time.  I think I would like to live in an alternate universe that operates on that schedule.  Half of the world would be much more rested because things were finally being done based on their body clock's needs.  While the other half, those who are early birds, would walk around in a zombie state half of their lives.... you know, the way I do now.  The big difference would be that I would be in the awake portion of the world and not one of the zombies.

In this new world, things would be a lot more relaxed.  You see the night owls would be in charge since they would be the only ones awake enough to make and enforce all of the laws.  And everybody knows that night owls are a LOT more laid back.  We don't get all hung up on things like punctuality.  In fact a lot of societies rules are annoying to us.  We don't like it when there are set schedules for ANYTHING.  If something needs to be done, then it should be done.  But it shouldn't be done simply because it is time to do it!  Nothing should be based on TIME!  It's all about necessity.  You see that is the problem with you early birds and it always has been.... you are too structured!  Relax.... lighten up!  If we all took things a lot less seriously, even you might enjoy life a little more.  There is no point in getting all worked up about so many rules. 

I know what some of you early birds are thinking.....  You are thinking, OMG!!!!  I had no idea Susan was such a hippie!!!!!  Well get used to it people!!!!  I'M GOING TO LET IT ALL HANG OUT NOW!!!!  No more rules for me.... no sir..... 

On second thought, today my parents will be at my brothers house.  My Mom is really hung up on the rule and punctuality thing.  I'm kind of scared of her.  If I am late, she will really be pissed.  Maybe I should shut down and go get dressed now.  Don't want to be late and upset Mom.  Gotta go!

Tomorrow's blog will totally be late though.  It's my own little form of rebellion so DEAL WITH IT my minions!

Day One-Forty-Three - Stay Thirsty!

Priceline is genius.  That is all I can say.  I never was a William Shatner fan until he started spoofing himself on the whole over acting thing.  Now, it depends on what he is doing as to whether or not I'll watch him.  In a comedy he is good.  If I am supposed to take him seriously in a roll, then I won't watch it.  As the Priceline Negotiator he is..... wait for it......  PRICELESS!

For the last several months they have been doing the commercials where everyone thought he was dead following an explosion.  Now he has resurfaced and he is of all things a surfer!  But he his meeting with some man on a beach and they are both wearing suits.  At the end of the commercial, he runs to the surf with his surf board in his business suit.

These commercials are almost as good as any commercial for Jack-in-the-Box.  I love Jack commercials.  You really can't go wrong with a giant clown head on a normal mans body.  The fact that he wears a suit and acts, for the most part, like a normal businessman makes him that much better.  The best part of any Jack commercial is when it cuts away from Jack as someone else speaks and then you see him again and his facial expression has changed.  When he goes from that giant goofy smile to a little "o" you know he is troubled.

My current favorite is the one where the two hungover guys wake up and Jack is in the room obviously angry.  During the night they got Jack-in-the-Box apparently to soak up some of the alcohol and now one of them has swallowed Jack's cell phone on a bet and the other has swallowed his car keys.  At the end of the commercial you can hear a distant cell phone ring.  I bet that one plays well on college campuses.

The Sonic commercials used to be good with the two guys in the car.  They are starting to get old now.  For a while the one guys "wife" would be on there.  She was funny.  You can only have the same people act dumb for so long before even in commercial land, the audience starts to think no one is that dumb.

My very favorite commercials are still the Dos Equis commercials with "the worlds most interesting man".  "His personality is so magnetic he cannot carry credit cards."  "People hang on his every word - even the prepositions."  "He can speak French.... in Russian."  "Alien abductors have asked him to probe them."
"If he were to punch you in the face, you would have to fight the strong urge to thank him."  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18VkI0uDxE

I like for a commercial to entertain me more than inform me.  I have no need to be educated in 30 second intervals.  If I am interested in the product, I can Google it after the commercial ends.  I am not sure, but I think most people feel this way.  I would assume that it is why Super Bowl commercials are now bigger in some years than the game itself.  Most of the commercials are new and they are designed to entertain you more than inform you.  In the Steve Jobs book several pages are devoted to the development of the Super Bowl commercial that introduced the Apple II during the Super Bowl.  It was a huge deal.  While it wasn't funny, it left you thinking.  It entertained.

I'm not really sure why I am writing about commercials this morning other than I saw William Shatner surfing just after I woke up this morning and it made me giggle.  I figure anytime you can start the day with a little chuckle the day can't be that bad and you have to take the chuckles where you can get them.  So, I support the humorous commercial and it's makers.

I'm going to Nacogdoches this weekend to celebrate my brothers birthday.  Have a good weekend and Stay Thirsty My Friends!

Day One-Forty-One - In Honor of Ronnie's Upcoming Birthday....

My brother, Ronnie's birthday is Friday.  He'll be 48.  I don't know how many people thought all of the Meyers kids would make it to the ages we have reached but I'm pretty sure that several people were betting against it. We did a lot of stupid stuff when we were kids.  Much of it was done on Nottingham Dr.  I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but we were the first family to move onto Nottingham.  When we moved to Nacogdoches, our house wasn't built yet.  So we rented one on Houston St.  Moving to Nottingham, which was the first street in the Royal Forest Subdivision, was great.  It was a perfect neighborhood for kids to grow up in.  That first year or so when very few people lived there it was pretty quiet.  But as more and more families moved in, it became greatness.

Danny Powell's construction company built all of the houses in the neighborhood and the Powell's moved into the second house that was finished.  Later, the Powell's moved into a bigger house that Mr. Powell had built on the north side of town and Chuck and David Phillips and their mom, Margie, moved into the Powell's old house.  Chuck and David were a lot more fun than the Powell's.  But for a few years, they were about the only other kids around.  Michael was Robbie's age and his little brother Kerry was Ronnie's age.  They didn't have any girls for me to play with.  So, I would just hang around with the boys.  One day, I will never forget, I was at the Powell's house.  Michael and I were playing a board game of some kind.  I think Mrs. Powell was in the kitchen and Kerry came running in the house screaming at the top of his lungs.  Kerry and Ronnie were probably 6 years old.

He was screaming about a fire.  Mrs. Powell had to get him to calm down so that he could finally tell her to call the fire department because there was a fire at the "top of the street".  Now, I should explain that for years our neighborhood consisted of only two streets.  Eventually a third street was built behind our house, but that wasn't until after we moved away.  So, while we lived there, there was Nottingham which ran perpendicular to Hwy 21 E.  If you were coming out of Nacogdoches you made a right turn onto Nottingham and our house was about half way down the street on the left.  There were eventually two houses between ours and the Powell's house but at the time of this incident they were not yet built.  The end of the street that intersected with Hwy 21 was what everybody in the neighborhood called the "top of the street".  The other end of the street intersected with Princess Ln.  While we lived there, no houses were yet built on Princess.  There was one on the corner of Princess and Nottingham, but nothing else.  We called that end of the street, "the end of the street".  Deadman's hill was on that end of the street.  Deadman's hill sounds kind of impressive, but it was actually just a big pile of dirt that had been pushed together while the street was being constructed or the storm drains were going in or some such.  Anyway, it was a tall dirt pile, we all road our bikes up it and then would ride them back down.  One day Ronnie did it, fell off of his bike and got a concussion.  Hence, it became Deadman's hill.  But this incident occurred several years before Deadman's hill even existed.  You will want to remember these facts for future reference when I talk about Nottingham.

Anyway, Mrs. Powell called the fire department and we all followed Kerry outside.  When we ran out, Mom, Robbie and Ronnie were all running up the street.  We did the same.  The fire was in the lot that the Rocha's house was eventually built on.  The house next door was under construction at the time and already had water hooked up.  So, the boys had the water turned on and were trying to put the fire out with old paint buckets full of water before they had given up and run home for help.  The lot had not yet been cleared for construction so there were still a lot of pine trees and those pine trees and pine needles were burning fast.  There was an elderly couple living near the top of the street.  That man brought a water hose to hook up to the house under construction and we were trying to fight the fire with that.  Eventually the fire department showed up and made quick work of putting the fire out before the new house next door to the empty lot caught on fire.

It turned out that Ronnie and Kerry had been playing cowboys and as such, they obviously needed a campfire. So, they had built one there next to a pine tree that caught on fire and that was when the panic ensued.  Mom said that when Ronnie came running into our house screaming and crying she thought I had been hit by a car or something since I wasn't at home.  She had to calm him down and then she could finally understand that he was yelling "FIRE!"  I don't think that either of them even got in trouble for playing with matches since they were so traumatized.  I'm pretty sure it was several years before either of them wanted to have anything to do with a match again.  In fact for a few years, Ronnie may have twitched slightly when a match was lit.

I'll tell you more about Nottingham tomorrow.  Have a good day!

Day One-Forty - Here's What I Think of Your Opinion

I hate to keep harping on this weather.  But it is so great that I can't help it!  This is the third day in a row that I have been able to get up and open the window in the living room for a few hours so that Jingle can enjoy an unobstructed view of the squirrels.  Who ever heard of 70 degree mornings in August in Dallas?  It is crazy but I will take it.

As some of you may have gathered, when I can't think of a topic for the blog in the morning, I peruse Facebook for a while looking for one.  This morning there wasn't much activity on FB.  One of my cousins in Oregon is newly engaged.  Congratulations to Wayne.  Also, overnight there was a tragic death of a high school classmates former boyfriend.  So that was sad.  Otherwise, nothing really new on FB.  But I did continue to scroll looking at new pictures and being amazed at the political opinions that so many people feel they need to express.

I have political opinions.  Any of you who have had more than a 30 minute conversation with me in the last 20 years or so probably know which way my political opinions lean.  I have clicked "Like" on a few pages on FB that share my political views because I like to see what they are saying regularly.  If you post an amusing or intriguing photo or statement that I agree with, I might even "Like" that.  Occasionally, I will even "Like" a photo or statement supporting the political party whose views I do not agree with.  But I find it funny that some people can get so completely worked up over a political view that they sort of verbally go postal while attempting to express their opinion.  If you are so upset that someone posted a photo that you feel the need to drop 4 or 5 F-bombs expressing your displeasure, maybe you should take a minute and think about waterfalls or baby ducks.... something to calm you down.

If someone posts a photo of say.... a dead princess who died several years ago in a car wreck in France, how can that illicit a near violent response from anyone?  Now, honestly, she has been dead a long time and I didn't know her.  So, I see a picture of her and my mental response is that of recognition.  Sometimes I will think that she was an attractive person or that it is sad that she died so young leaving her children without a mother.  That is about it.  I have never had an inclination to respond to a photo of her even by clicking "Like", much less by posting a comment.  She is a dead person from foreign country who I never knew and I don't know anyone who ever met her.  I have nothing to say.  If you feel inclined to express your thoughts as you have them, then yay you!  I have no problem with that.  I simply choose not to.

This morning I noticed that friends of mine had commented on a photo of her.  I was intrigued by this.  What would my friends have to say?  Perhaps they met her once and wanted to share that experience.  Or maybe they just had a nice thought about her and wanted to share it with the other 77,000+ people who had done so.  The photo that was posted had over 2M "likes".....  So, I decided to scroll through the comments and see what my friends had said.  The first thing that struck me as I read the comments was that it was shocking how many people believe that she was murdered in a plot organized by the Queen.  Really?  Do people really think that E is sitting over there in Buckingham Palace with a poisoned apple and a mirror and reciting rhymes while staring into the mirror and thinking up devious plots to destroy the pretty princess?  Yeah.... that's probably how the British monarch spends her days...... "Mirror, mirror on the wall...."

From the posts on FB, I learned that she was "most definitely pregnant" when she was "violently murdered", that E never liked her and was plotting her demise practically from day one.  E was jealous, because after all she was old and not so attractive anymore.  Apparently, Harry is, in fact, NOT the child of Charles.  I am not just lead to believe, but told rather vehemently by one person that it would have been "impossible" for a car to have crashed in that tunnel without help.  Another person, had obtained some other information because he had irrefutable evidence that Charles and Camilla plotted against her and it wasn't actually the queen at all!  People also felt the need to post insults about one another.  Those were entertaining.  The overall message I got was that most of her "followers" might have abused alcohol last night because there were a lot of "drunk" sounding "I loooooooove youuuuuu" type comments.  In fact, I would guess that about 70k of the comments were posted by someone who may have over indulged last night.

Thankfully, my friends who posted simply stated that she was a pretty lady or that she was a warm hearted person.  I would have been worried if they had posted one of the hate filled comments about murder, illicit affairs and illegitimate children that were thrown out.  I wouldn't be surprised if I knew someone who thought any of those things about a public figure.  But I would be surprised if they were dumb enough to post it on a public forum.

It is surprising to me how many people either don't understand or don't care that almost anyone with a computer and a desire to do so can read everything they are posting.  I am also continually surprised at how many people believe that their opinion is so magnificent that some of us might actually care what it is.  You have your beliefs and I have mine.  Sometimes, our opinions and beliefs may be the same and sometimes they may differ.  But in the end, as much as I may like you, I usually don't care what your opinion on a topic is.  My concern is to simply say or do what I think is right.  Regardless of whether I lean Left or Right in my political views, all kittens and puppies are cute.  Most babies are cute and I will always support the men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line to ensure that we live in a society where I am able to express my opinion in whatever law abiding manner I choose.  I will leave it at that.

I hope you all have a great day and if you could post something interesting on FB for me to comment on, I would greatly appreciate it. :-)  For now, I think I will go look for an interesting photo of a public figure to post on FB to see how many "Likes" we can get before the sun sets today.  Woohoooooo!!!!!!!!

Day One-Thirty-Nine - The Greatness of a Spreadsheet

I have been awake since 5 this morning.  That is pretty impressive considering that I didn't go to bed until about 1:30 this morning.  I am not sure what is going on in this house.  But for about a week I have been getting up early.  It started because Jingle, for some reason, started waking up between 5 and 6 a.m. last week.  But now I am a doing it and waking him up.  This morning, I think both cats were a little pissy when I finally gave up on sleep and turned the TV on at 6.

Usually, if I wake up and can't go back to sleep it is either due to discomfort, you know too hot, too cold, or just too something or it is due to something troubling me.  I don't really feel troubled right now about anything.  Sometimes I will worry about the fact that I don't have a job yet and I don't really want a job yet. But currently that isn't even bothering me.  Right now, I am just happy, comfortable and.... sleepy.

The 3 and a half to 4 hours of sleep I am getting each night are not doing it for me.  But I don't nap.  So, I am not sure when this is going to catch up with me and result in my sleeping for about 15 hours straight, but it will.  It always does.  The problem with waking up so early is that the viewing choices on TV are slim.  As you may recall from a previous blog, there are a lot of infomercials on between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.  There isn't much else.  If it is a week day, at 4 you can watch the news.  But my favorite part of the news is between 6:30 and 7 a.m.  That is when they have a pet who needs a home on and then they do birthdays at 7.  I like birthdays.  When I get up early enough, it is practically the highlight of my day.  I'm not sure why guessing the age of 3 different celebrities is so exciting for me.  But there you are.....

Yesterday I went to Jenny's house and we attempted to work on photobooks.  I took my laptop which I haven't turned on since I got my new desktop computer almost 4 months ago.  Now I remember why I felt I needed a new desktop so badly.  After two hours of trying to get on Shutterfly with the laptop, I gave up and when Jenny suggested we take it to Best Buy, I picked up my car keys and purse and we were at Best Buy 10 minutes later.  I had to leave it.  They are supposed to call in a day or two.  When I bought this computer, I got the protection plan which covers 3 computers.  So, whatever they have to do to it will be covered.  It will be nice to have a working laptop again.  I am looking forward to it.

So, once we got back to Jenny's and I was computer-less, we decided to look at excursions for our cruise in January.  Looking at possible excursions can really motivate you to get serious about a diet and workout plan.  I think that today may be the day I detail a workout schedule and menu on a spreadsheet.  Spreadsheets are your friend.  With the greatness of the spreadsheet I believe there is nothing you can't accomplish.  The only problem that I am likely to run into is that I like for my spreadsheets to look pretty. After all there is no point in a spreadsheet if it doesn't look professional.  So, I will put the spreadsheet together, tweak it, make minor changes here and there and before you know it, I will have wasted the entire day just putting my spreadsheet together and nothing will have been accomplished.  But the nice thing is that if I waste all of today on the spreadsheet, tomorrow I will have one less excuse. So, that is the plan.

Last night after I got home, I watched The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network.  If you have never watched it, you should give it a try.  I love that show.  Last night was the season premier.  But next Sunday, they will re-run this weeks show before the new one.  So, if you missed it, you can catch up.  It is sort of like Amazing Race in food trucks.  I really like the idea of a food truck although I haven't eaten out of them many times.  There are starting to be a number of food trucks in the area.  I keep thinking that I will track them down and go have lunch out of a food truck sometime soon before I start working again.  But we will see.  I've noticed lately, that there is a pretty long list of things I wanted to do while I was taking my break from work that I haven't done yet.  With time running out, I may either have to shorten my list of get busy.  Shortening the list sounds a lot easier.

I suppose I had better get busy now.  After all, that spreadsheet isn't going to put itself together.... and maybe I'll track down a food truck today for lunch.  Have a good week!

Day One-Thirty-Eight - The Topic-less Blog

For the last 138 days the toughest part of my morning has been trying to come up with an interesting topic to write about.  While all of the topics I have come up with may not have been interesting to you, they at least have held my own interest long enough to get this blog written.  Sometimes, when I read it back, I do lose interest half way through it.  Other times, I am pleased with the topic that I finally settled on.  This morning is a challenge, because I have sat here for 45 minutes and still have no topic.  When that happens, sometimes I will tell you what the cats are doing for a paragraph or two until a thought strikes me.  So, Jingle is standing at the sliding glass door looking out and Shiner is somewhere out on the patio.....  So....... hmmmmm.... yeaaah.....

Jenny and I are going to try to get together today so that we can play around with Shutterfly.  I have played with it a little and figured out some of the processes for getting a photobook to look really cool.  So, we thought if we got together we might be able to figure more stuff out.  I like doing photobooks.  But lately, I have been knitting a lot more than working on my most recent book, so I have a lot of work to do in that area.  I am finally getting around to working on the book from the Europe trip which was four years ago.  I have over a thousand pictures and I've only done 4 pages.  Of course, I won't use all of the pictures, but just going through them and figuring out what I should and shouldn't use is difficult.

As far as the knitting goes, I found this cute little pattern for a quick and easy gift idea.  I won't tell you what it is in case your birthday comes up soon and you are getting one.  But it is fun.  I have made one and think I can make more in a few days time.  So, I might do them for Christmas gifts this year.  After I made the one, I decided to start working on a pair of socks.  So, I am almost finished with sock number one of a pair that I started on Tuesday.  The leg is complete, the heel has been turned and I'm working on the instep.  I think if I were to work on it all day, I could finish the first sock of the pair today and start the second one.  But I won't.  I planned to do this yesterday and didn't.  I didn't feel all that great yesterday and couldn't even motivate myself to knit.  I have two balls of the same sock yarn.  So, I guess when I finish this pair, I'll make another pair out of the same yarn but find a different pattern to use.  Here is a picture of the progress on my sock.

So, that's the knitting and photobook update.....

Holy CRAP!  Here's a topic that was staring me right in the face and I didn't even think of.....  I told you a few minutes ago that Jingle was looking out the sliding glass door.  Well, he was looking out of the OPENED sliding glass door.  Now he is looking out of the OPENED living room window.  It is August!  Do you get where I am going with this?  These two opened windows are possible because it is 71 degrees outside at 9:50 a.m. in August!!!!  And before you ask, YES I do still live in Texas!!!!!  Crazy, right?!??!?  I don't know what is going on with this crazy world.  First it rains in August twice in one week and now it is comfortable outside.  Oh.... and because the mosquito planes flew over on Friday night, I have no mosquito bites even though the back door is open.

There are probably families who found out last week that their company is moving them to Dallas from some place like New Hampshire and they came down this weekend to find a new home.  They are walking around Dallas right now, going "I don't understand why these people think it is so miserable here.... it's not much hotter than New Hampshire".  They'll buy a house today and head back home to pack.  Then when they show up here next month with all of their stuff, it will be mid September and still 101 degrees.  The air conditioner in their new house won't be able to get the temp below 80 degrees inside because it just can't keep up with it.

Then when winter comes around we will all whine about the possibility of ice storms.  They will think, "you people are such whimps".  We will explain to them, that we don't go to work or school when there is ice because Dallas isn't equipped for ice.  Then we will get the dreaded ice storm and all of us will stay home.  They will email all of their New Hampshire friends telling them what babies we are.  Then they will head off to work and slide right into a telephone pole because as previously stated, Dallas isn't equipped for ice.  You see, Dallas is not equipped for any weather other than perfect weather.  Since our weather is only perfect 6 days a year and they are hardly ever consecutive days, it can be a bit of a let down in the weather department.  But, hey.... How 'bout them Cowboys!!!!!  Wait.... nevermind.....

I am going to head out to the patio to finish my coffee and enjoy this crazy weather.  Have a good day and I will spend the day in quiet contemplation trying to come up with a topic for tomorrow so that you won't have to suffer through this two days in a row.

Day One-Thirty-Seven - Crop Dusters and First Jobs

We had a nice storm last night in Dallas.  I enjoy a good thunderstorm.  The cats don't.  But sometimes, it's not all about them.  There was one boom of thunder that not only sent the cats scattering but me, as well.  I understand we could have more bad weather today.  I won't mind.

Just before the rain started last night my house was dusted for mosquitoes.  It reminded me of Bay City when I was in high school.  There was no way to sleep very late during the summer when I was a teenager since the crop dusters always started up by 8 a.m.   I hated when the fields around our house were being dusted.  If I lived down there now, I think I would really enjoy going out and taking pictures of the crop dusters doing their thing.  But back then, I would have been happy to have a rocket launcher.  It's not like we lived out in the middle of a big farm or anything.  We lived in Del Norte, a big neighborhood a few blocks from the high school.  But practically anytime I had a chance to sleep late, the stupid crop dusters would be flying about 30 feet above my bedroom ceiling.

After we moved to Bay City between my sophomore and junior year in high school, my mom got a job as a seamstress at Creta's which was an alteration shop downtown.  She had never worked outside of the home before that.  Up to that point, I would get out of bed in the summer time and sit around and wake up for a little while and once we were a little awake, Mom would tell us what we were supposed to do that day.  A lot of times there were no chores involved, she was just telling us what was going on.  Sometimes she did give us chores to do and usually they needed to be done before we went out to play.  But once she started working in Bay City, she didn't have time to wait for us to gradually wake up and since she was working, she always had chores for us.

So she started doing this thing where she would wake me up 5 minutes before she was ready to leave for work and she would go over a big long list of all the things she wanted done before she came home for lunch.  It was a list.  Lists are made to be written down so that you can check items off as you complete them.  But NOOOOOOOOOOOO.... she would stand in my bedroom while I was semi-conscious and say things like, before I get home for lunch you need to get this bedroom cleaned, clean both bathrooms, vacuum and put your breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.  Then she would stand there and demand that I repeat the list back to her.  Then she would leave and I would go back to sleep.

When I woke up, if I remembered her coming into my room at all, I would imagine that I had dreamed it.  I would eat my bowl of cereal and put my dishes in the dishwasher.  While putting my breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, I would think to myself, Mom will be so happy when she comes home for lunch that I put my dishes in the dishwasher without even being told to do it!!!!  Nothing else got done and then she would come home for lunch and want to strangle me.  All of that heartache could have been avoided if only she had woke me up and said, there is a list on the kitchen counter.  Complete everything on it before I come home for lunch.  If you don't, I will strangle you.  That would have worked!  In fact, I probably would have gotten out of bed immediately just to see how bad the list was.  I mean who can go back to sleep when you know you have a list of things to do, but you don't even know how extensive it is?  Not me!  This went on for an entire summer.  It was almost enough to make me wish school would start.

I worked at Perry's that summer but they didn't open until 9 and I usually only worked in the afternoons anyway.  Mark DeLeon, who I was in band with worked there too.  It was kind of fun.  If you got hungry, you could just make some popcorn and get a coke from the candy counter.  When they hired me during the spring, I worked outside in the plant department which was set up temporarily in the parking lot each spring.  I was a stupid 17 year old kid and these men in overalls would come up to me while I was watering the plants and ask me about the size of the fruit you would get off of one tomato plant versus another one.....  Really?!!???!  I am a stupid 17 year old girl and you are an old man wearing overalls.... who is likely to know more about this topic?  But I started asking the store manager questions about it and he gave me some information to read and soon, I was an expert on the wonders of the Beefsteak Tomato plant.

Once summer came around the plant area went away and the parking lot became all parking lot again.  Right after school was out I went on the band trip to California.  I'll have to tell you about that another time.  It was so much fun.  When I came back to work, there were only a few plants left in the parking lot.  I was wondering if they would still have a job for me.  But no fear, I was the designated vacation coverage.  It didn't matter who went on vacation, I covered their area except the office lady.  When she went on vacation the full time girl who worked the register covered her job and I covered the register.  But that summer, I learned about cutting fabric, catching fish and turtles and putting them in plastic bags full of water, maintaining the candy counter, making popcorn and stocking shelves.

By the time school started back up, Mr. Brassau, the store manager had given me responsibility for the hair goods area.  I had to stock it when we got a truck, keep it clean and move things from their regular shelf to an end cap when it was necessary.  I was also the cash register back up.  So, I would be stocking along and the bossy witch who worked the cash register full time would yell at me that she was taking a break and I would have to move all of my boxes out of the aisle and go cover for her.  I think she was on break more than she was at that register. She would go to the breakroom and read True Confessions magazines.  Her old copies were all over the breakroom.  I began reading them just so that I would have something to do while I was on break.  They were addictive.  Who can resist short stories that are supposed to be true about crimes?  Not me!

In the Perry's parking lot there was a building that was a former Dairy Queen.  They sold tamales and they were the best tamales in the world.  I would walk over there during my break and get 3 tamales for $1.50 and take them back to the breakroom to eat while reading True Confessions stories.  I don't know if you ever went to Perry's and got popcorn back in the day, but let me tell you.  The popcorn at Perry's for 50 cents was better than anything you ever had at the movies.

There were a few times when I wanted to quit that job.  I am pretty sure that the full time cash register witch and the store manager had a little thing going on and she got special treatment as a result.  There were no lockers, just a closet in the stockroom.  When I got my first pay check she told me to get it cashed and did.  Then I put the money in my purse and put my purse in the closet.  When I left that night, all of my money except $50 was gone.  I always suspected that she stole it.  If you were a random thief, you would take all of the money.  It was all in the same place together in my purse.  It's not like I separated it and they missed the $50.  They intentionally left me $50.  She and the lady in the office were the only two people who knew I had cashed my check.  And why would she have encouraged me to cash my check if she didn't have a reason for doing so?  I might have read her magazines but I never liked her after that.  And I always put my paycheck in my pocket until I could take it to the bank after that too.  The store manager tried to convince me that nobody in that store would do something like that.  I think he was just covering for her.

Years later, when I worked at the former employer who shall not be named, I learned that most theft is from a company's own employees.  I had several friends in loss prevention who would let me watch video of people stealing.  You would be shocked at the people who you think are perfectly trustworthy who will still their employer blind if given the slightest opportunity.  Apparently, they think that the employer has money to spare and they are owed more than they are being paid.  It was sad and eye opening.  But that summer in Bay City, I didn't even think the cash register witch was an otherwise trustworthy person who was given an opportunity.  There was never a doubt in my mind that she was just a bad person.  She probably only read the True Confessions magazines for new ideas so that she could rip more people off.  No doubt she is in jail somewhere now.  If not, maybe she still lives in Bay City and was awakened this morning by a crop duster flying 30 feet above her bedroom ceiling.  I hope so....

Day One-Thirty-Six - The Attack of the Kleenex Box

Okay, you know when you go to take a Kleenex out of the box and the box is nearly empty so when you pull up, the whole box lifts up and then the remaining Kleenex catches on the opening and the box falls????  Well, the box of Kleenex in my living room is nearly empty and last night I tried to pull a Kleenex out of it.  When I did, the Kleenex box fell on the floor.

My cat, Shiner has always been easily spooked for some reason.  The slightest thing can happen or be out of place and he assumes the absolute worst.  When the Kleenex box fell last night, Shiner was lying on the floor very near where the Kleenex box fell.  Oh my GOD!  The cat jumped a mile in the air.  I bring this up because.... well, first of all it was pretty funny.  But also because I just can't figure out why he is always so jumpy.  Since the day I found him, he has been pampered.  He has never been put in a situation where something bad could happen to him.  He was barely two months old when I got him.  Surely whatever happened to him up to that point in his life doesn't still haunt him.

Yet, one of my pony tail holders can fall on the floor and he freaks out until I pick it up and show him that it is in fact a pony tail holder and not some small black cat eating creature.  This brings up another topic.  Why is he so comfortable going out in the garage and onto the patio and catching bugs and lizards if he is terrified of a pony tail holder in the bathroom floor in broad daylight?  When I am not home does someone break into my house and chase him around with pony tail holders and then put everything back in place before leaving so that I will never know why Shiner is such a scaredy cat?  At this very moment he is out in the dark garage hunting for bugs.  If I turn the garage light on when I let him out there, he isn't interested in going, I guess because it affects his hunt.  He is not the least bit scared to be in the garage with bugs.  But if I threw a pony tail holder out there, he would no doubt totally freak out!

Jingle on the other hand is only afraid of people.  He has no fear of anything else.  Perhaps this means that Jingle is slightly smarter than Shiner and understands that the person who breaks in here and chases them around with the pony tail holder, and not the pony tail holder itself, is the real villain.  Jingle is pretty smart anyway.  When I scream and point Shiner always runs behind me to hide, but Jingle always runs to the area that I am pointing at and immediately starts looking for a bug or other creature that he can catch.  Jingle sees my fear as an opportunity to catch something relatively easily.  Shiner thinks if I am jumping up and screaming, this must be bad.

Last night after the attack of the Kleenex box, I turned everything off downstairs and we all made our way upstairs to wind down before bedtime.  I sat in the chair in my bedroom knitting as the cats laid on the end of the bed.  Jingle was kind of restless last night.  I couldn't figure out what he wanted but he kept getting up to pace and then meowing loudly.  After about 15 minutes of this, Jingle laid back down on the bed.  As soon as Jingle was settled, Shiner got up walked over to Jingle tapped him pretty good with a paw, sort of like "tag, you're it!" and took off running.  Jingle immediately got up and chased him down the hall and the game was on.

The game of chase continued for about 30 minutes before both cats wore themselves down.  They have played chase like that on a regular basis since I got Shiner.  But I have never seen it start quite like that. I am so happy to have them both in my life and I am happy that they have each other.  I think without one another their lives with just me to play with would be very boring.  Besides, who can understand a cat better than another cat.  Certainly not I.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

Day One-Thirty-Five - The Tax Free Myth

I am practically giddy this morning.  It is overcast.  I haven't watched Good Morning Texas in the last 135 days.  Actually, since I also didn't watch it while I was working, I would have to say that it has probably been several years since I have seen it.  But I can guarantee that I have not had the TV on at this time of day since I have been unemployed unless it was on Fox News or on a couple of occasions, I may have watched Kelly Rippa.  But this morning I feel like I need to get a local weather forecast!  So, far this isn't working out for me.  There are some "comedians" on it.  They don't seem to be that funny and so far, no weather.  I'll let you know if conditions on WFAA improve.

In case you are unaware, I spent the last 30 years of my life working in retail.  Several years ago, this whole tax free weekend thing began to roll out across the country.  Different states do it at different times based on when their schools start.  Some states don't participate at all.  Every year, right up until the last moment, some states are fighting it out in their state legislature trying to figure out what they are going to do.  Texas tax free weekend is this weekend.  Can I just tell you something....  This is the deep dark secret that most people will not share with you.  YOU DON'T SAVE MONEY BY SHOPPING ON TAX FREE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!

This is without a doubt the worst weekend of the year to be within 5 miles of any major mall, Costco, Sam's, Wal-Mart or Target in Texas.  I wouldn't go to a mall on Saturday if my doctor diagnosed me with a deadly disease that could only be cured by going to the mall on tax free weekend.  It is just not worth it.  Last weekend as you may have read in my blog on Sunday, I went to Stonebriar Mall in Frisco.  It was miserable.  Now, I must disclose that Stonebriar is one of my five least favorite places in the world on the best of days.  On tax free Saturday, I would equate Stonebriar with a middle east war zone.  I pick on Stonebriar because it is the mall that I am the most familiar with.  I am certain that they will all be equally miserable.  Perhaps Northpark will be the least miserable since their normal customer is older and more conservative.  But on Saturday, roughly one third of Texas and two thirds of Oklahoma will make it's way to the DFW area in hopes of finding bargains.  The bargains won't be any better than they would be on any other BTS weekend.  You're big savings this weekend will be the sales tax.  In most of North Texas that is 8.25%.  That translates to 8 cents on the dollar, or $8.25 per $100.  People this "discount" doesn't pay for your gas!!!!!!

If you absolutely must go to the mall this weekend, I would suggest that you take the money that you are going to save on your sales tax and use it to valet park.  Otherwise, you will spend at least 1/4 of your day driving around looking for a place to park and then hiking from that parking place into the mall.  By the time you get inside, you will be all sweaty, angry and frustrated following the fight with the crazy woman from Little Elm over the one parking space left in the metroplex (which by the way, she got since she had "baby girl" there to hold her earrings so she could fight with you for the parking space).  Your car, meanwhile, is double parked at the Chevron station down the street.  You'll have to send little Junior back over to the Chevron every half hour for the rest of the day to make sure they don't tow the car.

While Junior is running back and forth to the Chevron, you and Sissy will stand in line at the fitting rooms in the girls department at every store in the mall for at least 30 minutes per garment.  Sissy will only be able to find one thing at each store to try on just so that you can go through this process as many times as possible.  You might suggest to her, "Sissy, I know you don't like these bootcut jeans, but why don't you try them on anyway just so we will know your size when we find a pair of skinny jeans."  She won't do it.  Instead she will try on a single pink tee shirt that it turns out she hates.  Then at the next store she will try on a single green tee shirt exactly like the pink one that you waited half an hour to try on in the last store.  She won't like the green one either.

At the end of the day, you will leave the mall with two white tee shirts and a pair of skinny jeans for Sissy and three pairs of blue jeans for Junior.  After the long hike back to the Chevron to pick up the car, you will find out that it was towed just 10 minutes ago.  Finally, at midnight, you will be able to pick your car up at the impound lot.  It has a fresh new long scratch down the side, but really, who cares?  You get in the car to drive home and realize that after all of the driving around the parking lot at the mall looking for a parking place, you are out of gas.  With prayers and everyone in the car holding their breath, you manage to make it back to the Chevron where the car was parked all day and since it is the only gas station within 10 miles of the mall you decide to pull in and get gas regardless of the fact that it is $4.15 a gallon.

By the time you get home and calculate your days expenses, you realize that four pairs of blue jeans and two white tee shirts wound up costing $815 when you include the car impound fee, the two meals for three people you had to eat out, gas to and from the mall, not to mention around the parking lot, scratch and dent repairs on the car and the $100 that you actually spent on the clothes.  But lucky you!  You saved $8.25.

If you have to go to the mall this weekend.  Have a good time.  I won't see you there.  But let me know so that I can pray for you.  I wish I could tell you whether or not it will rain while you are at the mall, but that won't be possible since they apparently don't do a weather report during Good Morning Texas.  That stupid show is over and I never saw a single weather report.  But there were comedians, a girl who wrote a book and self published it and a tax free weekend fashion show no doubt put on by the propaganda mongers at some local mall.  Have a good Thursday!

Day One-Thirty-Four - Watch Your CATS!

Somebody in North Dallas is going to be in BIG trouble!  I woke up this morning and there is water standing EVERYWHERE!  You know what that means..... someone must have left their sprinkler on last night.  They don't cotton to that in Dallas!  You can get a big fine!  Before I went to bed last night there were bright flashes in the sky and loud rumbling that continued for hours.  In fact, all of the noise kept me up until well after 1 a.m.  I think that it could have been helicopters and trucks from the city trying to figure out where all of the water was coming from.

I went outside around 9 p.m. to see what was going on and some of the liquid actually got on my head.  I tasted it and it tasted like water.  That is how I figured out that it was probably coming from someone's sprinkler.  At first I thought it was mosquito planes......

Okay, I just read those paragraphs back and doesn't it sound like some crazy futuristic post apocalyptic movie?  Mosquito planes????  Really?  But yes, for those of you who do not live in the Dallas area there is talk of using airplanes to drop mosquito repellent on the area to get rid of the mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus.  Apparently we live in the worst area in the country for West Nile.  Wouldn't you think this would be a bigger problem along the coast where there is.... I don't know.... WATER?  It has only rained here minimally this summer.  At my house it hasn't rained at all until last night.  I literally had less than 1/4 of an inch of rain in the last 3 months until last night.  And yet, apparently, I am at ground zero for West Nile.  There are signs up everywhere about West Nile and mosquito spraying.  So, how are the mosquitoes breeding?  Apparently, someone is cheating on the watering restrictions.  I want them caught and executed!

Of course, nobody wants the mosquito repellent to be dropped from the airplanes because it will without a doubt cause some sort of horrible disease even worse than West Nile virus.  The news says that the repellent dropped from the airplanes would be the same stuff that they shoot out of the mosquito trucks that already make the rounds.  I haven't heard people screaming about the mosquito trucks causing mass deaths.  The only complaints I have heard about the trucks is that they don't come around often enough.  So, what is the difference in the way it is distributed?????  I guess I should be watching the news a little more closely, because I just don't get it.

What I do know is that I am tired of spraying myself with OFF so that I can go to the downstairs powder room in my own house.  I think THAT may be the actual Ground Zero for West Nile.  Seriously, there was another mosquito in there this morning.  He didn't bite me before I killed him.  But I just can't believe that I am constantly swatting at mosquitoes in the bathrooms in my house.  I'm going to have to see if I can get one of those mosquito truck drivers to back into my garage while I hold the back door open.

Yesterday I got an email from a "fitness expert" who sells detox programs.  He was hawking his product and saying that we all need to detox before they start spraying from the air because it will help our immune system to better fight the toxins in the air.  He finished by saying the these toxins were very harmful to cats.

Here is a copy of the email..... as you read it please do so in the voice of an overbearing fitness guru.  This guy has a Saturday morning radio show that I listen to from time to time and he sounds like one of those "We're here to PUMP you UP!" guys from SNL in the 1990's.

Hey Susan,

For the last 2 weeks I have offered Free Shipping on any purchase of any size. That ends today at midnight, so get your order in now and save.

Right now, I have something much more serious to discuss with you. Permethrin.

Permethrin is a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, carcinogen and also has links to Parkinson's risk. Permethrin exerts its toxic effects directly on the nervous system.

Why is this important to you?

Permethrin is an insect repellent and last Friday the Dallas/Fort Worth area was reporting that trucks were being used to fog neighborhoods with a mosquito chemical spray. They are also considering dropping huge loads from planes. The spray is Permethrin.

This is just one of the toxins that you will find in today's world that we are exposed to on a continual basis. I'm urging those of you in the Dallas/Fort Worth area who have not cleansed in the last 3 months to consider doing so ASAP.

If you are outside the Dallas/Fort Worth area, you are not immune to these toxins. They are found in our lives daily. Pay close attention to your local reports about pesticides or repellants being dropped in your area. If your system is already overloaded it will have a harder time and take longer to 'naturally' eliminate these toxins.

Do your body a favor and detoxify with a cleanse today.

To your excellent health!
George DiGianni

PS. Watch your pets. Permethrin is extremely harmful to cats.

PPS: For more information on Permethrin visit this link.

I get emails from him every week or so.  I could stop them, but I enjoy reading them.  When I read them in my head I always use his over testosterone inflated voice and it is entertaining for me.  You don't have to say it, I already know I am a freak.  But hey, you have to take entertainment where you can get it and this is free!

I giggled when I read this yesterday.  It's the last day of free shipping... oh and by the way, the city is spraying stuff that might be deadly......  So, if I had ordered his program yesterday I could have gotten it for the low low low price of $297 plus tax but with no shipping.  Then for the next 21 days I would only drink his shakes and organic veggies along with his vitamins.  I have done his program before.  I lost 8 lbs in 21 days and truly did feel great afterward.  I guess I am just bothered by the way he is trying to sell it.  I can probably be accused of under reacting to a lot of things.  But I really think this is overkill.

I like the picture of the mosquito trucks in Galveston that he threw in for effect.  I'm thinking that it would suck to be in one of the 4 trucks behind the first one.  If I'm going to be a mosquito truck driver, I want to know what it takes to always drive the front truck.  Are the guys driving the four trucks in back in trouble for something that they did recently?  And why do they drive along one in front of the other?  Couldn't they cover more ground if the split up?  

Okay, I'm going to go cover myself in OFF now so that I can walk out on the patio and sweep.  Watch your cats!!!!  This stuff can be harmful....  I'll talk to you later.

Day One-Thirty-Three - The On Going Celebration of Shark Week

Ugh!  Last night I was flipping channels after 11 and DirecTV had one of those stupid banners on their guide that entices you to look.....  They currently have Jaws on Instant Demand.  So, a few minutes after midnight I bought it and staid up until around 2 a.m. watching it.  Like I haven't seen Jaws a hundred times and don't know what happens.  But I love it and had to watch it again.

Jaws was the first grown up movie I was allowed to go see with a friend.  I remember the summer that it came out like it was yesterday.  Mary K. Sanders and I were playing Monopoly in her bedroom floor when the topic of going to see the movie first came up.  She said she wanted to see it and I said I did too, but my parents probably wouldn't let me.  She said I should ask.  She was a year older than me and I thought she would probably be allowed to go but I wouldn't.  The next day my mom and I went to the store and on the way home, I asked if I could go see Jaws with Mary K.  She said, sure!  I was shocked!  Up until then most of my movie experiences were animated.  I mean, I was 12, but back then I think we were just a little more protected.  Either that, or my parents had me snowed which wouldn't surprise me a bit.  Anyway, Mary K. and I got to go see Jaws at the twin cinema in Nacogdoches.

It was great!  I screamed just like everyone else when the guy's head came out of the boat.  I totally understood the fear that people had.  But Jaws never effected me in a scary way.  It was just kind of suspenseful.  Last night as I watched it, I still kept my feet on the couch at all times.  After all, there is no point in leaving dangling feet for any rogue sharks to nip at!  In all of the appropriate parts of the movie, I moved my body in hopes of helping one of the struggling actors out of the water.  No matter how much I moved my body I could never help Robert Shaw out of the water in that last big scene.  I liked Robert Shaw's character Quint a lot.  There's something about a crusty old fisherman that you just have to love.  I saw a documentary a year or so ago that celebrated the 35th anniversary of the making of Jaws.  In it they talked to Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfus and a number of the other principle players about the making of the movie.  They all said that Shaw was drunk most of the time and some of their biggest suspense in the making of the movie was to see if he would be able to make it through his lines.  But they all said that in his long soliloquy about the USS Indianapolis he did it in one take and it was amazing to watch.

I think that Jaws is one of those movies that leaves you thinking for the rest of your life about it.  You know, when you start wading out into the surf at the beach, you sort of flashback to it.  There are a few movies that effected me that way.  Psycho not only scarred the bejeebers out of me when I saw it initially, but for a few years, I never took a shower.  I became strictly a bath girl.  When I finally went back to showers, I had a strict rule against taking them in motels.  To this day, if I go on a trip, I am VERY careful about checking locks on doors and making sure that I am totally safe before stepping into a hotel shower.

You see, I was a kid when I saw Psycho, so it has been effecting me for years!  My cousin, Terry was a student at SFA at the time and she and some of her friends and her brother, my other cousin, Mike had all come over to our house that night.  While they were there, for some reason, everyone decided to watch Psycho.  I must tell you, I hate scary movies.  I always have.  I did then and I do now.  But that night, Terry was there and a lot of the time when she came over at night she would spend the night at our house.  When she spent the night at our house, she slept in my room with me!  So, I thought in my stupid little kid mind that Terry would be staying with me that night and how scary could the movie really be anyway.... right?  So I sat in the living room with all of them and watched the movie instead of going to my room and playing by myself.  BIG MISTAKE!!!!  At the end of the night, Mike and the friends started to leave.... and Terry went with them!!!!!  I was horrified!  That was the moment I realized that I would be in my room by myself that night with Norman Bates in my mind haunting me!  I think I went a little nuts and threw a huge fit.  It did no good.  Terry left and I had to spend the night alone.

For years Norman Bates has been haunting my dreams.  I realize now that Terry staying that night would have accomplished nothing.  Because she would eventually have had to leave and then Norman Bates still would have been there in my memory.  Over the years, I have met a few men named Norman.  Each time I have been introduced to someone named Norman, I start twitching a little.  Who would name their kid Norman after seeing that movie????  I mean, why don't you just go ahead and name your kid John Wayne Gacy???  It's the same thing!  Even if you never saw Psycho, you must have heard of it.  Everyone knows that Norman was the name of the scariest guy ever!  That would be like if one of my brothers had named one of their kids Jason.  I have never seen any of the Friday the 13th movies, but still, I know that you don't go around naming kids Jason Meyers!  That would just be crazy!

Over the years, I have learned that I was not cut out for scary movies.  Some suspense is as much as I am able to deal with.  In all honesty, I am happiest at a stupid comedy.  Even intelligent comedies are sometimes too much for me.  Give me a good old fashioned Dumb and Dumber type movie anytime.  The more Jim Carey and Adam Sandler in my life the better.  Not many people ever had nightmares after watching Happy Gilmore, right?

Well, since is it nearly lunchtime, I guess I should make something of this day.  I hope you enjoy your Tuesday.  As for me, it is time to get back to the gym.  Adios!

Day One-Thirty-Two - Memory Gone.... Whales Good

A few months ago, I placed little notepads strategically throughout my house and car so that when I thought of a good blog topic I could write it down before I forgot it.  You know how it is when you start getting old.  The memory is always the first to go.  Mine left ages ago.  Yesterday I thought of a great topic in the middle of the day.  I didn't write it down because those strategically placed notepads are no longer strategically placed.  But it was such a great topic that I thought I would have no trouble at all remembering it.  Last night when I went to bed, it was still top of mind.  So, I was sure this morning I would get up and half of my blog would be written in my mind. I am sure that if I could remember anything at all about that topic at this moment, you would all get such great joy out of it.  You would all be reading along thinking to yourselves, "why didn't I ever know that Susan was such a genius before this?"  If there was a Pulitzer Prize for blogs, my name would be up for nomination right now.....  But alas, I haven't the slightest clue what that topic was now.  If I suddenly remember, I will write it down for future reference.

In the meantime, how about those Olympics, eh?  So I guess it all ended last night with The Spice Girls singing a disappointing song.  I didn't see it.  It's Shark Week just in case you didn't get that memo.....  I am currently consumed by sharks.  I wish there was also a Killer Whale Week because they are really cool too.  Last night while I was watching the sharks flying through the air chasing seal decoys I started thinking that this must be the biggest ratings week of the year for Discovery.  Otherwise, they wouldn't still be doing it after 25 years.

So, why don't they figure out that people are interested in documentaries about marine animals and parts of the world that we can't get to, like the bottom of the ocean, and televise more shows about that stuff rather than Mythbusters and Auction Kings and all kinds of car and motorcycle customizing shows.  I hate all of that stuff.  Discovery used to be a good "go to" channel when there was nothing else on. Now it is mostly geared toward unemployed white guys who have shut down the meth lab for the evening and gone into the house for a little entertainment.  I guess Discovery figures that they have to entertain themselves in front of the TV since their wives left them years ago.  So they air crap that will perform that public service for the meth lab owners of the world.  I can still watch Deadliest Catch, but when that became a big deal they started throwing other fishing shows at us like we just wanted to watch people fishing.  I think the attraction to Deadliest Catch is more about experiencing in some way something that most of us will never be able to do.  I have no interest in watching some guy with an obnoxious Maine accent fish for Tuna with a rod and reel.  Borrrrrrrrringgggggg!!!!!!

I used to work with a guy at the employer who shall not be named who was really freaked out by killer whales.  I had a picture of some that I had taken in the San Juan Islands on my computers wallpaper and he hated it. That of course, made me always call him over and show him other pictures of the killer whales.  When you are lucky enough to find something that a guy is afraid of you have to take advantage of it.  I mean, it's easy to find something that girls are afraid of since we are afraid of so much.  But with men you get commitment and then maybe one other thing if you are lucky and usually the one other thing is heights.  Heights are not an easy thing to throw at a co-worker unless of course, you are a window washer or something.  But if you have been on a whale watching trip in which you took hundreds of pictures of killer whales..... well then you have something to throw at a co-worker if you find out he is afraid of them.  So, I did!  It was fun and he could have stopped coming over and looking at my monitor at anytime but he didn't, so why not take advantage of it?  It wasn't as though I had pictures of the whales feeding on little baby seals or anything.  They were just swimming through the water.  But every time he saw them, he would get this funny look on his face and talk about how evil killer whales are.  By the way, he was wrong.  They aren't evil.  They are smart and they have to eat so they figure out ways to catch food.  Then they teach their young those methods, which is really smart.  I mean unless you are a vegan, you are just as evil as he believed killer whales to be.  We have to eat.  We choose to eat meat so we figure out ways to do so and teach it to our young.

I saw a killer whale show once where they were hunting seals that were sitting in the middle of a big piece of ice so that the whales couldn't get to them.  So, the whales would go around and bob out of the water looking for seals on ice.  One of them found one and went and got all of the other whales.  Then the camera showed the whales all putting their heads together in a huddle like they were drawing up a touch football play in the sand and then they basically clapped their fins and lined up.  When they got in a line, they all swam as fast as they could together toward the ice that the seal was sitting on.  Just before they got to the ice they stopped suddenly.  It created a huge wave that knocked the seal off of the ice and one of them grabbed it and they all had dinner.  Ingenious!!!!!  My co-worker thought that was evil.  He had seen the same show and we had discussed it.  He was horrified by it.  Here is an example of a photo that made him shutter.

Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that!  That is an evil mother and her evil calf.  I can understand how someone might be frightened by them.  It would seem to me that as long as you don't swim by in front of the mother acting like a seal, you are probably safe, but I could be wrong.  Below are a couple of pictures of the pod's patriarch, his name is Ruffles due to the shape of his fin.  With a name like Ruffles I can certainly understand the intimidation one might feel at seeing him.  The fin is approximately 6 feet tall.  So, he is a pretty big guy.  The whale experts there said he was in his 60's.  He spends most of his time with his mother who is over 80.  The pod that lives up there has been there for years.

Here are a couple of other of my favorite pictures from my day of whale watching.  It was probably the best vacation day of my life, even though I had left my purse along with my drivers license, credit cards, money and cell phone in a Starbucks in Lynnwood, Washington earlier in the day.  But that is a story for another time.  I think killer whales are pretty spectacular and I think they need their own week on Discovery.  The fact that my co-worker who was terrified of them watched the show where they were hunting seals on ice proves that the ratings would probably be better than some show where people in Georgia are auctioning off other peoples junk.

I want to live in a house where killer whales go by every afternoon.  If you live in a giant house like the one in the picture above and the heaviest traffic you see all day is that of the whales swimming by and the three boats following them, your life must be pretty amazing.  As we followed the whales all day, you would see some areas where a person was sitting on the rocks on shore watching the whales go by.  I think that would be much better than sitting in my living room watching the FedEx truck go by.  But I could be wrong.  I mean that FedEx truck is pretty magnificent!

Okay, time to stop the hallucinations for the day.  I'll keep thinking and try to remember that great topic that I was going to write about.  Maybe it will come to me before tomorrow, but don't hold your breath.  You might very well end up with another master piece like this one.  Sorry.....