Pet Peeves and Other Ramblings

Gotcha !!!

2012-02-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

One time about six months or so ago, I was having a conversation with Chris and I told her that I still call Oriental people ‘Orientals’ instead of Asians. She said I should call them Asian because her daughter that lives over by Seattle said if you say Oriental over that way people will think you are talking about a rug. Well, I tucked that little piece of information in the back of my brain somewhere. Now we go forward about six months and Chris and I was texting about the medical place we both go to and she wanted to know which doctor I go to. I texted her back and said I couldn’t think of his name, but he is a rug. She had forgotten our previous conversation and was racking her brain and had Kenny racking his brain and they could not figure out what I meant so she texted me back and asked. We laughed about it and then forgot it.

Now lets fast forward another three months and I have a text message on my phone this morning from Chris and I knew she was on a shuttle bus on the way to Seattle or Issaquah or one of those foreign places. This is the text:
There are two RUGS in the seat ahead of me…….and they are on the phone speaking RUG !!!!
Now you must remember my memory is getting shorter by the day, and I honestly could not figure out what in the Sam hill she was talking about. I thought she had slipped over the edge and I saw it coming. All of a sudden my brain must have hit a speed bump because I remembered. Well, she got me good. Gotcha !!! Now it’s my turn.

Introvert Meets Extrovert

2012-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

I remember when life was even more boring then it is now. I was living in an apartment on the backside of a house. Any time I have ever lived in an apartment I have lived in the backside of the house. I have lived in three apartments in my lifetime so I guess I haven’t set any records in that competition. This was the time my husband was called back to active duty during the Korean Conflict. He was stationed in Japan and I was stationed in Yakima in a backside apartment. I had a nine-month-old son. The landlord and her family lived in the front apartment. Her name was Lorraine. I have had two very good friends in my life named Lorraine. Just thought I’d throw that in. This Lorraine was a few years older and we spent a lot of time sitting in the lawn chairs under the shade tree by the side of the house sipping ice tea. We discussed everything under the sun, but that was about all there was to do. I was very upset when she told me one day that they were moving and would rent out their apartment to somebody. Who am I going to talk to now? I’ll just write more letters. Now I was writing letters to my husband and my family in Oklahoma. I should have been stationed in Oklahoma during that time, but things have a way of never working out the way you would like.
Things perked up when the new neighbors moved in. It was a couple my age with four feral kids. Her husband worked and she stayed home with the kids. We now had noise and kids running amok all over the place. She was a deplorable housekeeper so she didn’t spend any time doing housework. We packed up the kids in her car and took off. ‘Stay home’ was a concept she had never heard of.
We saw everything in this town. We saw everything in this town more then once. We would take a lunch and go to the river so the kids could play. Sometimes we invaded the park and go swimming in the pool. We went to movies and the library. I wasn’t bored any longer. I almost forgot that I had a husband overseas. Time moves on and you begin another chapter in your life. No two chapters are alike.
Till next time.

God Loves Drunk People

2012-02-02T21:41:00.000-08:00

A man and his wife were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door.

The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger,

standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.

"Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3:00 in the morning!"

He slams the door and returns to bed.

"Who was that?" asked his wife.

"Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers.

"Did you help him?" she asks.

"No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is pouring rain out

there!"

"Well, you have a short memory," says his wife.

"Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and

those two guys helped us?

I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!

God loves drunk people too.

The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the

pounding rain.

He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?"

"Yes," comes back the answer.

"Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband.

"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.

"Where are you?" asks the husband.

"Over here on the swing set," replied the drunk.

Ghostly Things

2012-01-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is the day I got my B12 Shot/Weigh-in. I didn’t dig my heels in quite so much when they dragged me to the scale. I lost the four pounds that I had gained the last time. Two steps forward and two steps backward. Who can tell if an elephant loses four pounds. So it’s not much consolation.
I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up when this presidential election is over. My other choice is to turn the TV off.

What do you think about those that can talk to the dead? They never say what they do and what it’s like where they are. That’s what I want to know. I’ve tried talking to those dead people and they just ignore me. Maybe they are too dead to lift their head.
I have a ton of friends over there and they never tell me anything. My husband never answers my questions either, he just ignores me. Some things never change. Oh, I’m just kidding so don’t get on my case about being disrespectful.
When you write a blog you have to come up with something. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel. I have had this blog since 08/07 and this is my 508th post, so no wonder I have run out of anything to talk about. Sometimes I consider just shutting it down, but what if I thought of something to say and didn't have a blog. There is nobody around here to talk to. When I had my dog, she would sometimes bark at the corner in the living room, and I always thought, “I wonder who that is”. One of those long lost dead friends I supposed. Or it could be a member of the family. Now when they come to visit I never know because they won’t speak up. And if they did I would have a heart attack and join them on the other side.

Some of my favorite pictures

2012-01-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is how it looks from my front door

This was her favorite gift

Her favorite outfit

One of their favorite pass times
in there Nana's Day Care

Taking a little stroll

Molly and the girls and the pumpkins

A little walk with her Mom and Papa

Dressed up in their Christmas dresses

Having a little chat with her uncle and aunt
Paul and Molly

Story Of My Life

2012-01-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

Story of My Life

I walk the treadmill a mile a day

hoping the fat will go away,

but all I ever lose is weight from my feet

Never an ounce comes off my seat !!

Winter has arrived, you don’t need to look at a calendar to confirm it. There is plenty of snow, icicles and slick streets. It sure takes away the desire to go some place.
Every time I go to get my Vitamin B12 shot, which is every two weeks, they drag me to the scale the first thing. They are waiting for me at the door so they can weigh me. It has to be done immediately. I just grit my teeth and take it. They have this big new scale and it must have cost a mint and they want to get their moneys worth.
I decided I would give them a little surprise so I put myself on a diet. I didn't weigh at home, but I knew I had lost about 5 or 6 lbs. I always lose weight the first couple weeks of a diet. I couldn't wait for the big Weigh-In. I breezed through that door like a butterfly that morning. There she was waiting for me and we know where the scale is, I step on that scale and watched the digital read out and I could not believe my eyes, I had gained 4 pounds. I am not kidding and I am not making it up. I am even crying about it. Four pounds! I must be retaining water. I know I’m not retaining donuts, because I haven’t been eating any.
Maybe I am getting too much salt because I think that can cause water retention so I asked my sister to give me the name of that salt substitute she uses. It is called NoSalt. So I went to a store to buy some and it was $7.49 for 11 ozs. It must have gold nuggets mixed into it. I bought it and the next time I went to Wal-Mart I priced it there and it was for $5.00 and something. That is just ridiculous that it should be so expensive.

I am on this low salt diet and if that doesn’t work I guess nothing will. The low salt did help one thing. My blood pressure is always higher than it should be even though I take blood pressure medicine. The other day it was normal for the first time in a long time. So I think I will continue the low salt trick. I don’t know if I have lost any weight or not. I’ll find out Tuesday, if I can get through the snow and ice. I better be there because it’s important that they weigh me.

Save Money Now

2012-01-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

To help save the economy, the Government will announce next month that the Immigration Department will start deporting seniors (instead of illegals) in order to lower Social Security and Medicare costs.
Older people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.
I started to cry when I thought of you.
Then it dawned on me ... oh, crap...
I'll see you on the bus!

Somebody sent this to me in the mail and thought I would share.

The Way it is

2012-01-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

It’s a quiet weekend on the home front. I am dog sitting or in this case the dog is sitting me. This dog is big enough to take care of herself, so we are just keeping each other company. Now and then the dog comes over and lays her paw on my leg so I guess you could say we have been holding paws all weekend.
She is quiet and not anxious about anything. I was afraid she would be pacing the floor. My dog died about four years ago and sometimes I think about getting another one, but haven’t been too serious about it yet. My son said,” You don’t need to get another dog, you can borrow ours.”
Somehow that just isn’t the same as having your own dog. That would be like borrowing somebody’s kid for a day or two. Who does that?
It’s been cold as Alaska, but no snow and I am very pleased about that.

I tried to take a picture of the dog, but it was impossible to get a good one. My camera is slow and I'm even slower. She would always move before I could snap it. In this one, she not only moved, she laid down and went to sleep.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. Some holidays we light firecrackers, or dye and hunt Easter eggs or wear green, or eat big meals, or buy each other gifts or send valentines. We need to come up with something fun to do for his day. I guess there will be parades, but that isn’t much fun.
Till Next Time.

This is Pepper

Scammers and Such

2012-01-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

I came into this life 83 years ago. It has been a rough row to hoe at times, but I hoed it.

Now I’m in my twilight years. That means my sun has dropped below my horizon, and that isn’t all that dropped below my horizon. My income dropped. Now I bet you thought I was going to say something different.

Dumb things happen every day. This is the dumbest one that happened to me recently. My phone rang and when I answered it the man asked for somebody I had never heard of so I told him that he had the wrong number. He said, “Ma’am, it says right here 965-84” at that point the phone went dead. I was sorry that he hung up because that was one argument I might have won. You can’t win them all.

Scammers are getting thicker by the day. I keep getting an email from one of them. In the subject line it says. “You have Received 900.00USD Cash Deposited.” They are waiting for me to respond so they can deposit 900-dollors into my account. This one must be an overseas scammer. They don’t know how to spell dollars. Most Americans know how to spell dollars. I have unsubscribed to the letter twice because they gave that option. But they keep sending a new one every few days. It is either and out-and-out scam or one of the loan sharks that would let you know it was a loan after it was accepted and then charge 90 percent interest. If you’re interested, I can forward the letter to you. Maybe they would deposit into your account.

Nothing much going around this part of the woods. Email scammers and wrong numbers is about all.

Till Next Time

Back in our Ruffing it Days

2011-12-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

My Grandpa Lockwood lived with us when we were growing up. Or I think I should say we lived with him, since he is the one that owned the house. He must have been permanently depressed. I don’t remember ever hearing him laugh. Or maybe there was nothing to laugh about. It was his house and his wife had passed on and sometime after that we moved in. There was my Dad and Mom and three brothers and myself. That was no laughing matter. He was extremely deaf and if somebody did happen to say something funny he wouldn’t hear it. He kept the fire going. He sat in his rocker, which sat as near to the stove as possible. The stove was a pot bellied wood stove. He fed the stove wood almost constantly. He would bring wood in from the woodpile each day and he would split the wood and stack it and whatever else you do with wood. That was his job. I think he assigned it to himself. When it rained he would get up and go to the front door and open it and turn around and say, “It’s raining”, and go sit down again. Ten minutes later he would get up and go open the door and turn around and say, “It’s still raining”. Out side of giving us a weather report on a regular basis and taking care of the stove, he didn’t have much else to do. In decent weather he would take a long walk each day. He walked with his fingers locked together behind his back. He walked all over the farm and when he returned he would lie down under a shade tree on the hard ground and take a long nap. He lived to be 89 and that was a very long life in 1941. He never went to the doctor that I knew of. Except one time when he was chopping wood the ax head flew off of the handle and hit him in the head. It caused a large gash and much bleeding. Dad took him to the doctor and he came home with a large bandage wrapped around his head. I hope he got pain medicine from the doctor. Nobody went to the doctor unless you were seriously ill. For one thing doctors didn’t have the medicine or tests for everything then as they do now. We gripe a lot about our medical care and those things, but we still are much better off now than back then. In those days if you were ill a family member would go to the doctor and explain the ailment and if there were a medicine for it, the doctor would give it to you. I am not positive about this, but I think the doctor kept medicine in his office instead of writing prescriptions. I guess I could have researched that, but I don’t have time. I’m busy writing this for the blog. This is all for now.

Pain Killer

2011-12-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

When everything goes wrong and you can’t stand the pain anymore go to the hospital and they will take care of it for you. My DIL fell and hurt her back. The pain was so bad she went to ER. They took care of the pain and gave her pain medicine that made her so sick she had to go back and get something to stop the nausea. They tried so I give them E for effort.

Life as I know it

2011-12-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

This cartoonist said his cartoons are free. Since he used my picture in this one, I thought I would use it. I went to the doctor today. When you get my age going to the doctor is like being on a treadmill. It just goes on and on. I need a secretary to keep track of my appointments.
Mother nature decided we need to be cooled down a little. It was 8 degrees when I got up this morning.
Nothing new in my world.

So Be Good

2011-12-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

Even Snowmen have something to protest.

For so many years life ran rather smoothly, but that has all changed. All you hear are price cuts, cutting back, raising rates, tax increases, lay offs, bankruptcies and all those negative things.

Keep your smile smiling, a white-bearded plump man in a red suit is coming to town and he may bring gifts if we are good.

Remember Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

War and destruction never ends. Loss of life and a million tears shed. Most of the Veterans that survived this have now passed on. New wars and more tears. It never ends. I was 13 years old when this happened. I had a brother age 19 that was in the middle of it. He was reported missing in action, but the report was a mistake. He was later reported okay. He has now passed on.

Dancing Leg to Leg

2011-12-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

I once attended a dance when I was young and agile, and a man in our group asked me to dance. I told him I didn’t know how and I was just watching. He grabbed my arm and said, “I’ll teach you how.” We went out on the dance floor. He pressed his leg into mine and said, follow my leg, and away we went. We went everywhere his leg said to go. I am not kidding you by the time that dance was over I knew how to dance. I had just never tried before. It was a two-step or a waltz, depending on the music. Sometimes there would be a couple that knew how to do the ballroom dancing. I wasn’t one of them. At another dance I was dancing with a man who was extremely tall so I made a comment about how tall he was. His answer, “I was born in Texas.” So I said, “ I bet you’re glad you were not born in Rhode Island.” He said, “How come?” I said, “Oh, I’m just making small talk”. I think only one of us was sober and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t him. I don’t dance anymore. I do well to get to the mailbox and back.
I don’t know how or why I thought of the dancing after all this time. Right now I am going to dance off to bed.

Great Grands

2011-12-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

It's just another day. I have my therapy behind me. Nothing to look forward to but a blood test and another doctor appointment. That is what happens when you reach the golden years. There is nothing gold about it. Here are pictures of my two little Great Grands.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habit.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
~Author Unknown~

Basic Cream Pie

2011-11-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have this cookbook from the olden days, and it has this wonderful cream pie recipe in it. I have used it so much the page fell out of the book. So for you that are not on a diet, I took a picture of it for you. It’s a basic cream pie recipe and you add whatever you want it to be. I usually make the chocolate Pie. I have never made a peanut butter pie, but here is the recipe.

I get so bored

2011-11-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

Winter and Other Headaches.

2011-11-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

Today it decided to snow some more. I think it's because I had a medical appointment with a pain clinic at 9:15. I left the house about 45 minutes early because the streets looked very icy. The streets were somewhat icy, but we have a wonderful street crew in this town. They get out early and start spreading the sand/deicer. It's very much appreciated. By the time I got out of the place, the sun was out and the streets were clear, but wet. I can handle wet.
I was so early, I told the man next to me in the waiting room that I was prepared to camp out there for a long while. I no sooner got the words out of my mouth and I heard my name. I looked around to see who had the same name as me. Then she repeated it with my last name. "Do miracles ever cease" I said to myself. They have a blood pressure machine that almost squeezed my arm off. Other than that things went okay.
I was so glad that I didn't have to hang around for a long time because the last shot I had was terrible painful. So I was really dreading it. The shots (they always give me two) Maybe if you buy two, you get one for free. Anyway the shots today were not nearly as painful as the last time. The doctor is either getting better or I'm getting tougher. That's all the news in my town.

What Makes People Tick

2011-11-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

A judge arrested for DUI. He will soon be back on the bench judging other DUI people.
He’ll have sympathy for them now because he has walked in their shoes. Just who we need in our judicial system, somebody who has been there.

A mother murdered her 13-month old baby with her bare hands because he would not stop crying. She won that round, he won’t cry anymore. People that have anger problems and uncontrolled temper issues should have themselves sterilized. The going trend seems to be, if you have killed your child just throw him in the weeds some place and tell authorities he was kidnapped.

A man fires a semiautomatic rifle at the White House. Ingenious thought out plan. He can spend a little time in prison contemplating what he could have done differently. He believed attacking the White House was part of a personal mission from God. Well, think again Bubba, if God wanted the White House attacked he wouldn’t need your help.

Now that takes me to Herman Cain. God convinced him to enter the race for president, but God must have forgotten about all those women that were sexually harassed. Or maybe they are just making it up. Stick to your guns Herman, they can’t prove anything.

And then there was Penn State. Thank God, the victims are finally being heard. Does it seem strange to anyone that so many pedophiles, scammers, and cheating swindlers are being exposed. It’s about time. What makes people tick?

Update on a Boring Subject

2011-11-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

This picture is not me, I wish I looked like her. My therapy is going along quite steadily. Three times a week. I was very skeptical about it when I started. I honestly thought it was a big waste of time. Well I have an announcement to make. It has helped a lot. I can even walk better. I don't feel like I'm going to fall over any minute. It's really strange how it can help that much. My knee is much better. I no longer have that 'restless leg thing' going on while sitting. You have to do a lot of counting. Do this and hold for five seconds for 10 times each leg and do three sets. It gets confusing or am I just easily confused. I was glad to hear that I will not need surgery on the knee.
I have been to the pain clinic and had a shot in each hip to block pain. It has helped a little, but it is supposed to take awhile. Then I get one in the back and knee if I still need it. They are very painful..

Service with a Smile

2011-10-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

I ordered something from a catalog. They send me the wrong size, not the size I ordered. I send it back and asked for the correct size. I didn’t have to pay shipping to send it back. I wait and wait and wait for the item to come. After about three weeks I get a bill from them. Charging me for the amount of the item. I call them to find out where my order is. I have received a bill and no product. After being on hold for a time, I am told that the item is out of stock and they cannot fill the order. I explain to her that they have charged me the full amount. She tells me that I will only need to pay the shipping charge. “Shipping charge for what, they haven’t shipped anything, but the wrong size and that was their mistake”. So she needs to discuss this with a superior and asked me to hold again. Finally she comes back on line and tells me that as a one-time courtesy they will waive that shipping charge. I guess that means the next time they goof up it will be my responsibility. Oh well, as my mother used to say ''It'll all come out in the wash"

Halloween Pumpkins

2011-10-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Just some random pictures of Great Granddaughters.

Nancy, Chloe, Cora, Leah, Molly

Time Marches On

2011-10-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Charles Lindbergh

I have just been sitting around thinking that when my knee gets on the mend I need to find some interesting things to do. Other than house cleaning that is. House cleaning is something that really needs to be done. Just in case somebody drops in. If the house is clean you do not have to smile and bear it; you can smile and mean it.

I could join the Senior Center and take up something. I wonder what they do over there.
I am not necessarily inclined to volunteer for a job. I know somebody has to do it. Well, let somebody do it, I won’t stand in their way.
We hear a lot of complaining about how bad things are today compared to a few years back. I guess it depends on how far back you want to go. I remember when toilet paper was an outdated Sears Catalog. To go to the bathroom, meant a few yards out back to the little brown shack. It didn’t matter if there was three feet of snow. You had no choice. This was for the little kids as well as the older folk.
Another, not so fond, memory was the schoolhouse. Ours was located exactly one and a half mile from home. You had to hoof it because there was no yellow school bus. Again it didn’t matter if there was three feet of snow. Nobody had a cell phone so the parents could be called to let them know you made it okay. They knew you would be safe.

Recently a family finds their 10-month old baby missing from her crib and it is front-page news until another one happens. Back in 1932 a baby belonging to Charles and Anne Lindbergh was taken out of his crib and his body was found two months later. It made front-page news for years. Charles Lindbergh being a famous aviator was part of the reason it was talked about for so long. Famous aviator? do we still have famous aviators?

Cars and Stuff

2011-10-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

I have a car that is as bad off as I am, because it’s old. In people years my car is probably 90 years old. When things get old, they begin to wear out or become somewhat unhurried to say the least. An old person driving an old car is the thing that drives most drivers to the brink of madness. I drive the speed limit or not more than 5 minutes over, and I’m never in a hurry. This is the core of aggravation for the average driver. Go ahead and admit it, you know it's true. Most of them are very kind about it, as they tend to wave one of their fingers at me as they zoom past.
Everything on my car has probably been replaced at least 14 times. I have had a few replacements myself. My teeth, my vision as I had the Cadillacs removed and replaced with artificial lens. What I haven’t had replaced has been removed or rearranged. My battery has never run down, but the battery in the car has run down and been replaced numerous times. My battery has a lifetime guarantee. When it goes, I go.

It’s a boring Tuesday afternoon, but feels like Sunday. Since my Soap has been taken off the air, I never know if it’s a weekday or not. I like to sound dumb, I think people sort of expect it when you’re old. When you’re old you couldn’t possible care less what people think. You must have noticed that in your grand pappy and grand mammy by now.

This is a fun link. Just do it.