The Free bag of cat food....

The other day I went into kmart to pick up hair color. And of course, I walked around checking things out too. I came across the cat food aisle and cat food on sale is like a magnet.
And there is a sign on our favorite brand of cat food....$9.99 instead of $11.99!!! But alas, no bags of that particular brand of cat food are anywhere to be found. So I search and search for a kmart human to ask if there are any in the back that haven't been put out on the shelf.
I finally find Mary 213 (as opposed to Mary 216). I ask and she tells me no, but the truck comes in tomorrow. I ask if I can get a raincheck. She says yes. So off I go to the Customer Service counter. The woman working there was totally overwhelmed. Between answering two telephones that were constantly ringing and three elderly ladies asking for their 40% discount on their holiday earrings. She was confused and of course, the elderly ladies have no patience.
So I ask the ONE checkout girl if I can fill out a raincheck there. She says no, I have to go to the customer service desk. So back to waiting. Finally, after 20 minutes of WAITING, everyone is taken care of and it is my turn.
I ask for the raincheck. She says it has to be in the computer. She looks, it is, she says.
She looks in the paper sale flyer and says it isn't in there. And I said that I know it isn't, but the sign is there. She said it must be an old sign, but I still get it for that price and I can have a raincheck.
Then Mary 213 gets busy on something else so the customer service chick calls Mary 216. Mary 216 calls back and says I can't have the raincheck because it isn't in the computer. By this time, I am sick of the whole thing.
I go home with my hair color and no cat food. And I write to kmart corporate. Which is now Sears Holding Company.
I got an answer the next day and they wanted my phone number because they wanted more info.
The store manager called me and told me he was very sorry for the situation and I could come and pick up a bag of cat food, no charge.
And in this house....a free bag of cat food is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Peace

Kitties and colds

My little Elizabeth kitty has a cold. Sneezy and sniffly. Precious little one. It sounds like today she is getting better. Only two sneezes today.....that I know of.

She got it from Spencer....he had a cold two weeks ago.

Get well wishes for Little Lizzie.

Where did they all go????

I do not know where all the little spiders went!!!!! They are not there anymore!!! And there are no new big spiders.....I didn't catch a mass exodus of baby spiders travelling down the stairs and out the door. Of course, they are very tiny and I and the cats might have missed them. I hope they don't go to houses where the people use the spider killing people to remove them from their home. Don't those people know that spiders are GOOD...well, some are nasty, black widows and brown recluse, but they only get mad when you annoy them. I get mad when people annoy me too.
Let us hope they all have a safe journey to wherever they go......Precious little eight leggers!!!!

All the little spiders

All my spider eggs have hatched!!!! In the corner of the bathroom there are all these teeny tiny, itsy bitsy spiders all huddled together. I wonder where they actually do go as time goes on. There are never more than maybe 5 or 6 grown up spiders.....so where do all those little spiders go? I will keep a close eye on this bunch and see if I can find out. OH.....I do love spiders.

The best birthday weekend in forever

No, my pumpkins didn't get drunk. Those bad pumpkins belong to someone else. I had the very best 59th birthday on Saturday!!!!! I was with my precious baby girl for the weekend!!! We watched scary movies and talked and ate stuff. We had FUN. In Heath Ohio. It is the happiest place in the world.

Cake!!!! I forgot all about cake!!!! I will go downstairs now and eat a doughnut.

A cool birthday, for sure.

I've said it before......

And I will keep saying it till I am green in the face. If companies make GREEN things.....cleaners, laundry soap, cars.....WHY DO THEY KEEP SELLING THE OTHER STUFF?????????
It just does not make any kind of sense to me at all. No how, no way. If you can make the green things, why not only make them and then that is all people have to buy! DUH, DOUBLE DUH. What part of this picture don't they see? GGGGRRRR

Immortal

Can one become immortal without becoming a vampire? And since I can pretty much guess that I am not going to get that opportunity, how long will I be remembered?

I remember my great grandmother. I am quite sure my grandchildren will remember their great grandmother. But they don't know MY great grandma. My Baba. They have seen her picture, but they will never know how loving, sweet, gentle and cuddly she was.

I hope that I live long enough to be a great grandma. But I would have to be a grandma first. At least if I live long enough to be a great grandma, there will be great grandchildren who will remember me.

And what will they remember about me? Will I be so old when they meet me that I will just be some old lady?

And by the way....why does time go so fast after you hit 50? I will be 59 soon and wonder if it will continue rolling fast downhill? What a scary thought.

Time moves too fast now.

Slow time down and let me be immortal.

Peace out

As Time Goes By

The last time we saw each other was graduation day. 1968. Saturday, we hugged as we did that last time in 1968. Forty-one years later!

It was a fantastic day! We ate lunch in a high end bistro then found a Dairy Queen for desert. We splurged and enjoyed and talked. And found out secrets we didn't know about each other.

It was all because of Classmates.com and Facebook! What a wonderful thing modern technology is.

I had a very good day.

Peace Out

Free Speech, Manners and Common Sense

Do I believe in free speech? Yes. Do I think the meaning of free speech is out of hand? What did our forefathers actually mean by free speech?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"
I take it to mean that we have the freedom to establish a religion....any religion and the government cannot make a law that prohibits that. People may have freedom of speech as to the government and the newspapers are permitted the freedom to disagree with government action. (Newspapers, tv and internet now) But they couldn't have forseen that. Peaceably assemble. Not cause riots. As in Klan and Nazi rallies. They couldn't have forseen that either. They also could not forsee that people would use the first amendment to say disrespectful things in songs.

We have become a nation of disrespect. Manners do not seem to exist. Just lately.....the Congressman who yelled out "you lie" during the President's speech. That was disrespectful of the office of the President of the United States. There are other ways he could have expressed his opinion. I thought that was just uncouth.

Kanye West, getting up to that microphone and disrespecting Taylor Swift by announcing that Beyonce had the best video ever.........And yet how respectful of Beyonce to give Taylor Swift the chance to finish her acceptance speech.

And Serena Williams mouthing off to the line judge or whatever they are called. And mouthing off in true disrespectful form. Expressing your opinion of a call made in a tennis game, hockey game, baseball game, football game, soccer game..........yes, we see it all the time. But as in any sport, go to far and there are penalties. Just because she lost the game because of the penalty she was given.....tough noogies. She deserved it.

And last but not least now is the big to do about Obama calling Kanye West a jack@**. First of all, President Obama is entitled to his opinion. We all are. He did not say that in a press conference or in a speech. He said it when he was at ease thinking he was among people who weren't recording him. The fact that someone was recording when it was a private conversation is disrespectful in and of itself. And he is right.........Kanye West is indeed a jack@**.

Respect has gone..........manners have gone........common sense is not so common.

Peace out

Parallel Universes

Do parallel universes exist? How would we know? It is said that deja-vu is our glimpse into a parallel universe. I wonder. The theory intrigues me so. When I start thinking of things like parallel universes, I start thinking about light years.....the Hubble telescope.....E=Mc2........time space continuum. Pictures of the universe from Hubble. Stars dying...black holes...stars forming....galaxies forming....planets forming. The pictures from the Hubble are light that is just reaching us after billions of years. To sit and think that the picture just reached Hubble after travelling millions and millions of LIGHT YEARS........like truly looking back to the past. How amazing is that? If we could get a telescope out in the universe billions of light years away from earth and our galaxy, and we could communicate with it....imagine, we could get a picture of the beginning of our existence. WOW

Spider Save

Today, I was filling up the tub to take my bath and there, at the bottom of the water in the tub is a spider!! I caught him up in the washcloth gently and breathed on him and he was kind of wobbly and then....WAHOO he started running around on the washcloth. So I caught his thread of life and helped him back to the wall so he could crawl up to the ceiling where all the other spiders are hanging out. Seven of them all together.
I love spiders.

Peace Out

Spider Sanctuary

There are now Seven Spiders living in the Bathroom Spider Sanctuary. Two very big spiders. And other smaller ones, different sizes, but smaller. I do wish one of them would catch the mosquito that is flying around the bathroom.
One of them is living in the front room now. (It is called a front room in Michigan. It is called a Living Room in Pennsylvania. ) And there is another living outside the window there. I watched that spider catch a fly today. She ran over as soon as her web wiggled. And in the blink of an eye, the fly was paralyzed. Survival of the fittest.

I love Spiders.

Peace Out

U2 and Bono

I have to say it. I can't stand it anymore. I CANNOT STOMACH U2 and BONO. I felt compelled to express that because all of a sudden I am seeing their commercials EVERYWHERE. And it makes me ill. I just had to get that out.
Of all the bands I love......it is with the same strong emotion that I say how much I can't stand U2 and Bono. Both. Together. The same "can't stand". Every picture I see of Bono he has those stupid sunglasses on and his mouth wide open like he is screaming. EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
'nuff said
Peace out

WOODSTOCK

40 years man. 40 years. Seems like only yesterday the big news was all about the hippies at Max Yasgur's farm. Three days...of peace, love, music, mud and rain. It was history in the making, but I am quite sure being there, one had to depend on some sort of "mind" thing to see the beauty, not the mud. LOL.

"As the saying goes, if you remember Woodstock, you must not have been there. But maybe somewhere deep in the foggy recesses of your mind, you have some faded, tie-dyed memories."

Peace out

Baby Spiders!!!!!

The precious little baby spiders are pouring out of the egg sack!!!! They are SO tiny it is amazing!!! About the size of the head of a pin. They are just huddled around the egg sac.
Ah, the miracle of birth!!!
I love spiders.
Peace out

The Drunken Spider

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to take a bath, before I turned on the water, I see a spider struggling to turn over on the bottom of the tub. So being the spider sanctuary that it is here, I proceeded to turn him over so he could scamper away and I could fill the tub with water.
However, I had a heck of a time turning him over. Like he was unbalanced in some way. When I finally picked him up and put him on the wall, he would drop down on his silky spun string only to lose his footing and start swinging. Then he would land back on the wall and do this insanely hilarious dance before righting himself to climb up the wall again. And once again, he would lose his footing and repeat the process all over again.
I swear I could only see 6 legs on him! How he might have lost the two legs I couldn't find was beyond me.
But he looked like a drunken sailor of a spider. I spent much time just watching him.
AND I almost got a picture of the snake!!! I was talking to him while I watered the roses and by the time I got done and got the camera, he went into hiding. I will keep trying.
I like spiders and snakes.
Peace out

Snakie Snake

Every morning, when I go to check the three rose bushes in front of the house, I meet up with Snakie Snake. He is a very pretty garter snake. Dark green with lines of yellow on each side of his back. He looks up at me when I talk to him and then flicks his little red tongue. I will try to get a picture of him. He is very cute. I am starting to understand why people like and even keep snakes. I won't touch him. Although I have read that their bite is not very painful, more surprise than pain. But I'm not quite ready to give that a try.
I do think he is very cute.

Peace out

Spider Egg!!!

The Bathroom Momma Spider FINALLY laid her first egg!!!! I am so excited!!! I can't wait to see the babies hatch. I LOVE when the babies hatch. A hundred or more of them come pouring out of the egg sac and run willy nilly and find their own places to live. And yet the bathroom isn't over run with spiders. Where do they all go? I will be waiting to see if she lays more.
The Poppa Spider was lucky. He escaped her jaws and is living beside the bathroom sink.

Spiders are so cool.

The Spider Killing people who called and wanted to spray to kill them got the surprise of their life when I told them "NO NO NO NO NO....we don't kill spiders here". LOL. She said "Thank you Ma'am and hung up. Hilarious and beyond.

Peace out

For What It's Worth

Go listen to Buffalo Springfield...............................

"For What It's Worth"

Really listen. What does it mean to you?

Peace

Congrats Penguin fans

What the Pittsburgh Penguins did this year is phenomenal. To all the fans that truly BELIEVED you have been rewarded with the most difficult trophy to win in all of sports.
You deserve this win. You deserve your celebrations.
Great Season.

Pondering

Much as I have been doing all week it seems. This ponder was about scary movies. Trying to think of the movie that scared me the most ever. Believe it or not it is "Trilogy of Terror". As cheezy as the African doll was................I watched it the first time alone and I never jumped so much as I did when the stupid little thing popped up. This was definitely the movie that held me in rapt attention. I have seen other scary movies that might have made me run up basement steps in the dark. Everyone knows that if you go up the basement steps in the dark, whatever lives under the stairs will grab your leg.
And the movies that made me afraid to go upstairs in the dark. Dark does alot to make you scared just by being dark.
I know that if I went into the woods behind my house in the dark, I would be sure I was being watched by thousands of eyes. And would be waiting for some kind of werewolf to jump out.
But as far as sitting and watching a movie. It was the story of the African fetish doll that freaked me out totally.
PEACE

Today, I was pondering bands. And being my age, there are lots of bands to ponder. And I constantly kept coming back to the Doors. No matter what other band I brought into my mind, all of my favorites. All of the songs I consider great poetry. Pink Floyd, Dylan, The Eagles. These I consider poets of my generation. Songs that you can lay back and close your eyes and listen. But there were no greater poets of my generation than the Doors.

Jim Morrison......Mr. Mojo Risin.

And he drank...alot. Drugs, not as much as people think. He was bent on taking everything to the limit to see not only if he could do it, but could he get away with it. The Doors made music that defined a generation. As the Flower Power generation was growing up.....with all the songs of Love and Peace..........there were The Doors. With deep, dark thoughts, words, like the dark side of Flower Power. But it rang true of the times we were in. Social change going on. Women's Lib, Free Love, The Pill, The War........each entwining into the other. Our generation were truly rebels. Not like Grandma's generation, who listened to Rock and Roll and their parents were sure they were on the road to Hell for sure.

Ah, but this Grandma's generation.........we got CRAZY. Young people truly changing the world. Is this generation coming up the next to make dramatic changes in society?

What changes could they make?

Do they have one band that they can say are the poets of THEIR generation? I hope so, because it helps create change.

Peace

When was the last time...........

You listened to "Easy Livin' " ? By Uriah Heep (or Heap, as I have seen it sometimes) But it is Heep. Have you ever even heard of Uriah Heep? How about "Smoke on the Water"? Deep Purple.

Or how about "Closer to my Home"? Who would that be? Grand Funk Railroad.

These four bands lived in my 8 track player under the driver's seat in my Gremlin and got me through travels as I was learning to be a manager at McDonald's. From Greensburg to North Versailles to East Mckeesport to New Stanton to Irwin. Way way way back in the time when I was skinny and wild. LOL.

Peace

AH...and so it will begin AGAIN

Saturday night......Detroit.....8pm......it will begin again.

Exciting or what?

Awesome

I have lived..........

21,332 days today. As of 5:18:27pm today. Wow. Seems like it should be more than that, I feel older than 21,332 days.

Memories under the bed

Before digital photography, you had to take a roll of film to the store and have them develop it. The anticipation of going to the store to get the pictures and then getting the package and rushing home to see which ones came out, which ones didn't. My mother always cut of heads. There are a few pictures she has in her multitude of albums are people we don't know because they have no heads.

I still love taking pictures with my "real" camera. I call it my REAL camera because, to me, a digital camera or heaven forbid, a camera phone, aren't real. I love getting the film to the store and I don't even use the one hour photo. I want that anticipation in this world of instant gratification.

And under my bed is a big, flat box. In that box are memories. Many, many memories. And one day, these many, many memories will combine with my mother's many many memories and then those will be in the possession of my daughter. This is called immortality. My grandchildren will look at the pictures with their children and tell them who I was and what I was like. I will live forever, in memories under the bed.

Free of night

The night creeps in my space like a black panther
Sneaking up behind me.
The night is as black as a shark's eye and not a
speck of light can be found.
I light the candle rather than curse the dark.
The light cannot stay. It is swallowed by the darkness.
I am afraid, but then it turns to horrible sadness.
I feel the night wrapping around and around me.
The sadness becomes deeper and deeper.
I don't know what to do.
I cannot escape the cloak of darkness.
I try to stretch my arms but find I am tightly wrapped
In this cloak of sadness and fear.
What comes next?
I see a pinpoint of light.
I strain to make it come closer.
I feel the wrapping beginning to loosen.
My chance is coming to get away.
I am excited, I am happy.
I push and push with my arms as hard as I can.
I HAVE WINGS!!! Beautiful blue and black wings!
I am changed.
I am no longer sad and scared.
I am overjoyed to fly through the air in the bright warm sunshine.
I am FREE.

Paths

When we are born, there is a path laid before us. While we are children, our parents guide us down our path. And then there comes a time when our parents my let go of our hands and let us choose. There are many forks in our path. Go this way, go that. We get to choose.
All through our lives we have choices. Sometimes we make good choices, sometimes we don't. We learn from both the good and the bad.
We all are here for a reason. We are all here for a purpose. We each have a calling. We can't always see clearly what those things are. But we never should stop searching. Never stop learning. Never stop trying new things.
Follow your path.
Make your decisions based on your beliefs and your teachings.
Make your decisions based on what you know is right.
It is that simple. It is that complicated.

Living

I am watching a show on the Travel Channel. The people living in the Amazon. The Zoe. And it is almost unreal. To see how these people live like you might see in a movie about Mayans. More primitive than you can even imagine. The rainforest is so hot and humid they don't bother with any clothes at all. They hunt for their food each day. They are nomadic. They eat what they can find. The only outside things they use are fishing line and hooks, for when they can't find wild pig or monkey.

When you watch something like this, it is hard to believe that they are SO happy with what they have. I can only imagine how frightened they would be if ever they were to go to some place like New York City. And to think that people still live this way in 2009, well, it certainly can blow your mind. We think the Amish are behind the times. They are modern compared to the Zoe of the Amazon rainforest.

Simple life is so much more well.........simple than the hustle bustle of life in "modern" communities.

These people know how to take care of themselves with potions and flora and fauna that are all natural. I laugh. When I pass the "organic" sections of the grocery stores. Shouldn't everything be organic? A half gallon of "organic" milk.....$5.99.

The Zoe peoples have organic everything.

It just makes me wonder who is the happier people.

Peace

Sometimes I wonder:

I do sometimes wonder how many people know what I mean when I say things:

The grassy knoll

Cuban missle crisis

The Pueblo incident

Khe Sahn

Max Yager

The Fish Cheer

Kent State

Eight Track

I can't think of any more right now, but I wonder how many people know what I am talking about without looking it up.

Peace

Jury duty over

And justice prevailed. The defendent did plead guilty and we were dismissed. You could see the defense attorney could see what way the balances of justice were going. And now the defendent will serve one life sentence with maybe a possibility of parole instead of two life sentences and a few more years. With no parole. So he was "smart" to make a deal. But the sadness is that the whole thing, which could have been avoided if the defendent had just driven away instead of hitting two people. How many lives are affected by his actions that night. His victims lives changed forever with the injuries they suffered and his own family has devastated. Just very sad.

We were all sorry that we didn't get to deliberate. But who knows, we could get called again this month.

Peace and Justice

Juror

I was summoned for jury duty this month. Today was my first day. I am on a jury. I have never done this before and only one other juror on our jury has. So we are all giggly and silly when we get into the jury room. But I know when we are given the case, we will be serious. It was just first day jitters.

I can't believe that in 58 years I never was summoned. Summoned....what a weird word. So LEGAL.

Interesting so far.

Innocent until proven guilty. Sounds easy but it really is very hard to think that way. Your mind wants to go the opposite. The defense does not have to even say anything.
The defendent is to remain innocent in your head until you hear something that the prosecutor says to prove to you they aren't. I never really gave it too much thought until today. When I watch COPS, I always think "heck ya, he's guilty" because I saw what happened. And as a rule, I would have a tendency to want to believe a police officer if they were in court and said it was so. But you can't. You have to listen to everything and THEN decide if the prosecutor PROVED that he is guilty beyond that reasonable doubt.

Wow.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

GO STEELERS!!!!!

GO STEELERS.....GO STEELERS.....GO STEELERS.....GO STEELERS

Watercolors

I love watercolor painting. I share my watercolors with very few people. It is what I do for fun. (no, the picture above isn't done by me)

I got the watercolors out a few days ago. And even though I have tossed into the garbage basket the four pictures I was playing around with, I just love using watercolors. I want so badly to be good at it, but I can only keep trying. Practice, one knows, is the way to perfection. Although I am not looking for perfection. Only looking to invoke feeling.

Watercolor fun.

Ode to the Old Lady in the Mirror

Ode to the Old Lady in the Mirror
A very weird thing has happened. A strange old lady has moved into my house.I have no idea where she came from, or how she got in. I certainly did not invite her. All I know is that one day, she wasn't there, and the next day, she was.
She is a clever old lady, and manages to keep out of sight for the most part, but whenever I pass a mirror, I catch a glimpse of her. And whenever I look in the mirror to check my appearance, there she is hogging the whole thing, completely obliterating my gorgeous face and body. This is very rude.I have tried screaming at her, but she just screams back.
If she insists on hanging around, the least she could do is offer to pay part of the rent, but no. Every once in a while, I find a dollar bill stuck in a coat pocket, or some loose change under a sofa cushion, but it is not nearly enough.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think she is stealing money from me. I go to the ATM and withdraw $100, and a few days later it's all gone. I certainly don't spend money THAT fast, so I can only conclude the old lady is pilfering from me. You'd think she would spend some of that money to buy wrinkle cream. She needs it. And money isn't the only thing I think she is stealing. Food seems to disappear at an alarming rate - especially the good stuff like ice cream, cookies, and candy. I can't seem to keep that stuff in the house anymore. She must have a real sweet tooth, but she'd better watch it, because she is really packing on the pounds. I suspect she realizes this, and to make herself feel better, she is tampering with my scale to make me think I am putting on weight, too.
For an old lady, she is quite childish. She likes to play nasty games, like going into my closets when I'm not home and altering my clothes so they don't fit. And she messes with my files and papers so I can't find anything.this is particularly annoying since I am extrememly neat and organized. She also fiddles with my VCR so it does not record what I have carefully and correctly programmed.
She has found other imaginative ways to annoy me. She gets into my mail, newspapers, and magazines before I do, and blurs the print so I can't read it. And she has done something really sinister to the volume controls on my TV, radio and telephone. Now, all I hear are mumbles and whispers.
She has done other things - like make my stairs steeper, my vacuum cleaner heavier and all my knobs and faucets harder to turn. She even made my bed higher so that getting into and out of it is a real challenge. Lately, she has been fooling with my groceries before I put them away, applying glue to the lids, making it almost impossible for me to open the jars. Is this any way to repay my hospitality?
She has taken the fun out of shopping for clothes. When I try something on, she stands in front of the mirror and monopolizes it. She looks totally ridiculous in some of those outfits, plus, she keeps me from seeing how great they look on me.
Just when I thought she couldn't get any meaner, she proved me wrong. She came along when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's licence, and just as the camera shutter clicked, she jumped in front of me! No one is going to believe that the picture of that old lady is me.

There are many different versions of this story...with many different authors. But it all says the same thing. And the scary part is that it is true.

HHMMM......

Can you catch a sore throat by talking on the phone? My granddaughter called me today and had a sore throat (which is why she went outside to make a snowman with her Mom and then they went sledding, but that is another story).....And I asked her if she caught her sore throat from her brother. She said they hadn't been together when he had his. SO.....did she catch hers by texting or emailing or talking on the phone to her brother and then did I get it from talking to her on the phone? HHHHMMMM Germs are getting stronger.
(the picture? cockpit of a Mig 29)
Makes one wonder.

Today

This was the view from my bedroom window this morning. BBBBBBRRRRRRRRR.
See why I am tired of winter?

Way too cold

This picture reminds me of spring. I want spring. I am tired of winter. I want to plant things. I want to see things sprouting out of the ground. I want to smell flowers. I want to ride my bike. I want to splash in the river. I want to not have to put boots on to go to the mailbox. I think I will go play Crash Bandicoot or make a fish collage or a fish mobile.

2012

Lots of concentration on the year 2012 on the History Channel this week. My theory? Bring it on. Whether it is the end or the beginning of the end or just one big old cataclysmic event that makes everyone realize exactly WHAT is important in humanity, bring it on. It just might serve to wake alot of people up. When big old rich people find out that it isn't all about the money. They think it is all about the money. HA. Won't they be surprised when money won't buy them anything because there won't be anything to buy. I will laugh. I can't wait till 12/21/2012.................................................