Those Rabbit Ear Antenna's

Are you old enough to remember "Rabbit Ears?" Those annoying flimsy awkward movable portable awful-able antenna's. They were the reason we got to watch TV. They brought in the picture for us. Well now we have digital...... WOW! All the old folks are going to have to get boxes to make their analog TVs work. Boxes!!

S H U T U P! I have been looking for a SMALL 3 inch TV that I can "take along" with me in my car, to my work, in a storm, camping, and so on like I used to have.... Nope, Nadda, Nothing available. The other day I stop in at the local Walgreen's and see they have a 10" digital TV. I call Best Buy which is like Circuit City and ask if it will work come the big February CHANGE?
The salesman answered after 900 rings (Christmas busy time) and tells me Yup if I buy an antenna. hummm. I go back inside the Walgreen's and buy the TV and the antenna. OMG (Stands for Oh My God!) It is a friggin Rabbit Ears for Lord sakes. I was a little girl when I learned how to move the "EARS" around to gain better reception. Now here we are again, many many decades later buying Rabbit Ears and moving them around to gain better reception?? Oh Please. Haven't we come farther than this? I think I shall return that hunk of junk. I have a mini-bunch of metal in my kitchen and if I decide to take it to work I have to lug along an ANTENNA hooked to the TV. Oh Man.....I used to take my little 3 inch TV with me wherever I went . Traffic jams, storms, soap opera's never missed, and so on. Now look at this technical glitch in history. Not good. Must have been a man that did this configuration. Surely!

Little Joe Lost His $29

Tonight I was busy..... I hired someone for my new business and was sending emails regarding scheduling and I was tending to my dog and cat left alone all day along with showering and having a late dinner....and then my Dad called. He is 83 or is he 84? He went to the doctor today for the ump-teenth time to find out why he is dizzy. FINALLY....an ear, nose, and throat man discovered vertigo on the right side. Is that a Yea, or ewww! It's like finding an answer but not the one we wanted. Well Dad and I got to talking and one word led to another....He likes to listen to that money lady on TV, what's her name...Suze Orman. My Dad told me all he remembers about the Great Depression is his Mother saying, "Well Joe, I need to let you know you don't have your $29 dollars in the Middleton Bank anymore." Dad says he remembers it but that he didn't really care that much. Hey he was six or seven. He does recall the family not having $10 to buy his favorite pony he rode to school every day. The neighbors offered to sell it to the family but the money was not there. He is 83 and talks about that pony allot. Over and over on occasion. It was his friend and a milestone memory in his life. He also recalls his brother in law from Token Creek working for the WPA...(Government Projects) His Dad also worked for WPA and WALKED from Token Creek to Madison for work because they didn't get a milk check for three months due to the Creamery going broke. Such as our Car dealerships at present. Interestingly, my brother and his wife own a GM dealership or two and have had to lay off their own son and are contemplating selling out. Hummm. Same as the creamery, different day, same story?? And another interesting saga from the past.... My parents have an old outhouse on the farm. Dad told me that old outhouse is a special one. The WPA chose farms in the state of Wisconsin to repair, to help people on relief earn money. It reminds me of this Christmas when I suggested we give the kind of gifts we need.....food for instance. Such as pans of lazangna or brownies or pies etc. Necessities. Here we are 2008 in a recession close to something else.....like pouring slabs of concrete under farm outhouses vs dirt so some have food for their children. Me, I am doing great. I have a great business, just hired a new employee, I have a real toilet and no money issues. Well, I could use a few things....but truly have everything I need and more. Hey, I read The Secret! ALSWELL (do recall that is my trademark misspelled word)

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Snow is only good for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and maybe a few snowplow service's. Oh and for skiers, and snowmobilers, and men who just got their new boy toy blowers, and tire stores, and overtime for city salt truckers, and sledders, and retired folks who do not have to drive or walk in it, and oh yes its good for Frosty the Snowman/men/women. Then there are the other people that too much snow might just cause issues for....ME! And my dog! She screams when she has been standing in snow for over 60 seconds, yet she wont poddie until she smells the podie of the other twenty dogs in the building. Too late, her feet hurt and she tears out back to the building screaming all the way and without poddie-ing. Back to the poddie pads. This unreasonable snow is a pain in the everything. It belongs in the high mountains where people can go visit it vs it visiting us univited! I need to Google where the birds go in these overboard snowstorms and ice storms...... It is even cold in the house. Running the useless gas fireplace with no blower, a heater in the bathroom, a heater under my computer desk, and regular heat and it's still cold in here.... My two sons live in Los Angles! Need I say more. I wonder how much a UHaul cost these days. This MaMa is thinkin' hard if her "Lovely Lemon" could make it to Cali!

The Red Plaid Blanket

( Last year I wrote this true story and then lost it in cyberspace somewhere never to be found again....along with the computer it was written on. I am going to attempt to re-write it once again hopefully with the same passion.)




The Red Plaid Blanket

It was a freezing beyond cold winter evening around Christmas time last year, something like this below zero night in the North Plains of America. I was making some deliveries that took me around the Capital Square in the heart of our city, when I noticed a man sitting inside one of the Plexiglas bus waiting areas. He was half sitting and half lying down. In our city the homeless can go to a large church close by, but they may not go there for warmth and shelter if they have been drinking. I am sure this gentle-man had been drinking. Either way he was also freezing. There was a lady sitting on the other side that seemed to know him but she didn't say anything, she just starred at him. As I was doing momentarily. Without any forethought whatsoever I turned and walked to my illegally parked car, opened the back passenger side door, grabbed my emergency Red Plaid Blanket, ran back to the bus stop and covered the cold, uncared for older gentle-man. He reached for me with tears streaming down his face and these words coming from his heart to mine, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you....and more tears, as I held his hand in mine. I tell you I got in my car and cried so hard I couldn't see. I started out driving around the square again and couldn't seem to get away from the previous scene. A sad man with an addition that was killing him, but in between killing him it was torturing him. I had only covered up the pain with some kindness and not enough to take care of the problem, or so I thought. I continued driving around hoping to see him stand up and be alright, or be gone, but as I passed the same bus stop he was still laying on the bench covered with the emergency Red Plaid Blanket. I continued to pray and talk to God about this man who needed help. I went around the square one more time still praying...... it was this time that I saw the lights flashing from the ambulance and police cars. Someone had called 911. Why didn't I? I didn't because I thought he was not allowed into the shelter and this was the best anyone would do for him.....but I did keep praying! The last thing I saw was the gentle-man on the stretcher with the Red Plaid Blanket draped over his body like an Angel of warmth and love. For all I knew he had passed on. I tell you I drove off that square that night knowing I was a small part of God's plan to help that old fellow. God loved him sober or not sober. He helped him in his true time of need.
The next day I called the EMT's and inquired as to the gentle-man they picked up at the Capital Bus Stop.....the man with the Red Plaid Blanket. They told me he was taken to detox and was warm and getting some help. Of course he was.......... When God is involved to the degree I experienced that previous evening, I know ALSWELL. (my trademark word spelled just like you see it!) And last week I purchased a new emergency blanket...........

Chihuahua, Madison Wisconsin

As you all know I love big dogs! Big men, or forget I said that.... One day I stopped at the Madison, Wisconsin Humane Society (after loosing my best dog to cancer) looking for the greatest and best dog in the city and I found Grace! She was shaking and coughing in that huge grey prison cell called Humane! Not. Sooo after three hours and $300 I was supposed to get back and never did....she came home with me. She weighs 5 lbs. Screams when her feet get near ice, screams and tries to kill when anyone tries to cut her toenails....refuses to wear a jacket, or be put into travel bag. Basically she screams at all the above. Go figure, I get a dog with anxiety...... She doesn't eat so well either... I am not laughing. If my grown children read this they will say I never fed them this well. The picture is of Grace's breakfast... Yup for real....better than mine too... Organic ham, Carr Valley apple smoked cheese, Natural Harmony Farms Salmon Dinner with Garden Vegetables, Gourmet Wraps of all natural premium Carrots wrapped in Chicken Gourmet all natural DUCK jerky with glucosamine and Chondrointin, and gourmet Duck soft sausage stick, and all natural small doggie biscuits. Those square orange deals are hard cheese flavored biscuits. Oh and the nail brush has some organic peanut butter spread on it so she can brush her teeth and chew away for hours. I tried toothbrushes but she ended up eating the bristles within two days. She is not spoiled, she is rather taken care of. I feel guilty leaving her for so long during the day so I leave her with plenty to do on that plate. Grace actually saves some of her food throughout the day. Rations! Hey its winter in Wisconsin and not much to do. I leave the TV on the Animal Planet Station for Grace and Lucy cat for company. Hey I am not the only one that does that deal...
Maybe its time for me to get back to some real writing......

Family.....sometimes their best left behind

I remember a time about twenty one years ago when I gave my heart, (I should have just used it) to pull a family back together. My mentor always told me to be an observer and not a participant! It doesn't matter the reason the family was torn apart, but it was. I forgave, and gave, and pulled and plugged and lost most of myself on that darn journey only to discover they aren't going to change at anything I do. Nope, not , nadda. Especially stubborn German's and Norwegians and then add some of those "dead people" generational cells that LOVE to carry on the crap....and that they do with magnificence... (Wouldnt want to give them too much glory, ssshhh) Today I decided to divorce my emotions from all of them before my heart takes a dive and Mommie Dearest might just try for the last win and bury me in the dirt vs cremation as I have requested. She feeds me things she knows I am allergic to so why wouldn't she bury me in the dirt? She would so they could have a big luncheon dealie. That's what Lutheran's do you know. Back to my point. D I V O R C E.....where is George Jones wife when I need her! What was her name? starts with L...no a T, Tammy Wynette..... Divorce... stands for a legal and final separation. My mentor told me when I got divorced I should maintain decency and kindness....she said, "Treat him like you would treat the Grocery Store Checker Boy!" Most people barely can do that in many families. I say dysfunctional families are more like an egg... They "start out ass-es" and they stay ass-es. If you read my blogposts you know how I dislike the raw egg laying in the pan with that white milky umbilical cord waiting for me to eat it. I wont! Family is the same....we start out with the umbilical cord, someone cuts it but the spiritual milky cloudy (ghosts) still try to hang on and hang out! Some can let them go and some cannot and some just try to work around the darn things.(Ghosts) I did that and it didn't work. I did do something wrong. I tried too hard. I should have just been nice (Grocery store bagger boy) and let God work on it. Today I wanted to play like Marie Osmond and drive up the coast (we have no coast) until there was no end to it. It was a long day. Lots of "Stinkin Thinkin" and allot of Drama Mama like a soap opera. I like creativity, not so much drama. Had a lifetime of it and enough is enough. "Paper or Plastic?"