Flummoxed!!!

Today's high temperature was: 27 degrees!!

Sunny and bright--once again--YAY

After a couple of inches of snow tomorrow,

it might get in the 40's next week!

We are a strange breed when we get all excited 

that our temperatures

may "warm" up to freezing, LOL.

Break out the shorts and flip flops!

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OHMYGOSH--I have so much to write about today--I hope you will bear with me.

I truly am FLUMMOXED (I love that word) about the response I have received from you, my friends!!

This morning when I woke up, I ran (not really) to my computer and found Dianne had visited from Bellingham, WA!!! AND she is sister to Cari, who visited yesterday from Sun City, AZ.  I have never been able to travel to Washington--and I do so love the North West.

Than, Joan--AKA A.J. dropped in.  She is from Kingston, Ontario AND I have been there :-) and she has been visiting my blog for a really long time, but this is the very first time she has ever left a comment on any blog!!!  I am so grateful, Joan, that you did this for me!!!

Julie dropped in all the way from Woods Hole, MA--that's out on Cape Cod--where I have also traveled to--a long time ago.  Hope you are weathering the bad weather, Julie!

I still have some shy visitor's out there and wondering who they are.  PLEASE tell me?
Portland, OR
Junction City, KS
Plain View, TX
Anaheim, CA
Kenosha, WI

C'mon--please?
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You know how I can get obsessed about things?  Yesterday, as comments were coming in, I made an Excel spread sheet of every one's name and where they are from--sorted it alphabetically and have it printed out so everyday, if I forget, I can look on my side-bar, where every one's town is listed, and then, even if they don't leave a comment, I can say to myself, "Oh cool!  D was here from Happy Place, USA."

I LOVE IT--I JUST LOVE IT!!!
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So, yesterday afternoon, the service garage called to say my car was ready.  I called Pearl to tell her because her hubs, Merle, told me to call and he'd take me into town.  Her phone was off, as it went right to voice mail.  I called an hour later and the same thing.  Now--we all know that Pearl has a Smart Phone, but Pearl doesn't know how to use the Smart Phone--she doesn't know how to look to see if she has any messages or missed calls.  If she isn't holding the phone in her hand when it rings--you won't get through to her.  So--I decided I better walk up to her place, but when I went outside, I noticed their car was gone.

Hm-mm...I worried a bit and then I remembered, she had an appointment with the Dermatologist on Tuesday.  I walked in and there they sat--Pearl had a huge bandage in the middle of her forehead.  Come to find out--her Dermatologist sent her to U of M Cancer center to have the small basal cell cancer removed.  That small (on the outside) little spot that looked like a small scab, turned into a crater the size of a half dollar!  

"Did you have a new memory chip installed in your brain?"  I asked

"No--I wanted to have a Third Eye," she growled.

"She looks a little like Cyclops, doesn't she?" said Merle.

We chatted a bit and then Merle said he'd be down to get me at eight this morning.  Then,, we had to bargain a bit, as I went for nine, and he for eight-thirty, then Pearl chirped in and said, "How about ten?"

"Perfect!" I exclaimed.
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I no more got in the door at home and Dar walked in.

"I was up in Frankenmuth the other day and I bought a whole bunch of sweet goods from the store.  I am suppose to be on a diet, so I brought you this brownie to say "thanks" for helping me with my electrical problem."  and she handed me plastic box with a HUGE brownie, with chocolate icing, inside.

"Thanks," I said.  "I will enjoy this."

"I've gained thirty-five pounds," she said.  "I vowed I wouldn't buy any deserts when I went up there, but...I got a dozen cookies, a loaf of cinnamon bread, a piece of Pecan Pie and this brownie."

"Then when you got home you realized..................."
"Yeah."

Later, when I cut off a small slice of the brownie, it was really kind of dried out and hard.  So, I just threw it into the microwave and put on the timed defrost for 10 seconds, it came out nice and soft and warm and delish!!!
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This morning, I walked down to Merle and Pearl's (aren't their names cute together?), at 9:45 and we took off.  Pearl was in a lot of pain!  They had told her to remove the bandage this morning--I requested she wait until after I was gone--please.  They also told her to take Tylenol for the pain---she, like me, does not have good results with Tylenol.  It just doesn't do a thing for pain for either of us and upsets our stomachs.  I told her to take an Advil.  

When I picked-up my car, the bill was seven dollars less then the estimate--YAY.  My car sounded so nice and quiet.  I pulled out and thought, "Hm-mm, my windshield washers have been frozen all winter.  I wonder--the car being inside all night--maybe."  So I pushed the button and lovely water sprayed out and I turned on my wipers and they cleaned off my windshield so nice and then---SPRONG--my right wiper flew off!

I got to laughing so hard I could barely drive, because you know?  That's just the way life is--one thing after another.  I drove around the block and pulled back into the service garage, walked in and Rick said, "Did the exhaust fall off already?"

"Nope--it's great.  Ah...do you sell and install windshield wipers?"  Told him what had happened and he had a guy go right out to fix it.

Rick says, "We'll just blame Jim for breaking your wipers."

"That works for me," I said. "Although, he worked on the exhaust system and I don't really think he came anywhere near the windshield, but............."

Pretty soon, Jim is back in and explains, "Those wipers don't even fit that windshield."

Me: "Oh really.  Well, "you know who", put them on three years ago.  They have always scratched the windshield and never quite wiped like they should have."

Jim:  "Three years?  It's a miracle they've stayed on that long.

Rick:  "Well, now in Fred's defense--they are hard to get on and off and..........."

"Me:  "Yeah, yeah.  Can I get a new PAIR?"

And thirty minutes I was on my way--eighteen bucks and NO labor charge.  I now have the cleanest windshield in the county as I kept putting on the washers to try them out--the new wipers actually work great and are so quiet!!!

As I left, I told Rick, "Well, if the back bumper doesn't fall off, I promise I won't be back for awhile."
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Once again, I no more get in the door and Dar comes in behind me.

"How did you like the brownie?"

"It is really good.  I haven't eaten it all--just a little bit each day."

She tilts the rocking chair to dump Buddy out onto the floor and sits down

"Are you off work today?" I ask.

"Yes--thank God!  I had Tuesday and today off.  Don't have to work until eleven o'clock Thursday."

"Ah-hh...Dar...today IS Thursday..and...it's noon."

"WHAT," she screams.  Grabs her coat and flies out the door.

A few minutes later, I see her spinning her tires trying to get out of her driveway.  Poor woman!  Perhaps I should make her some of my "day reminder" cards to hang on her bedroom closet door?

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I have been having a problem with my little girl cat, Maggie.  In the morning, I give each of them a tablespoon of wet foot.  At nine at night, I do the same.  They eat it over on the rug where their dry food and water is.  All of a sudden, Maggie refuses to eat her night time wet food next to Buddy.  She will in the morning, but at night, she just sits over under the kitchen table and not go near it.  I am now having to put her dish over by the table.  Persnickety female!!!She is such a brat!!!

Are you all enjoying the Olympics?  I feel bad for the snow boarders and skiers--it is so warm the snow is mushy, BUT, all the athletes have to compete with the same conditions...so--no crying about not winning a medal!!  

The figure skating pairs--ohmygosh.  How could you ever trust some man enough to allow him to throw you six feet in the air?  I remember when my kids were little and we watched...my son used to sit there and say under his breath, "Drop her!  Drop her!"  His sister's punched him and he'd giggle.  One time Pammie asked, "When he throws her in the air and then catches her...ah...what would happen if she was gassy and you know.....right up by his face?"  I told her that the guy would just skate on like nothing happened.  Oh--it was so much fun to hear their wonderings and mumblings.  Now when I watch--I think back. LOL

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Ann from Illinois--thank you for telling me about your husband's illness.  I'm sorry you had to go through that.  It is no fun having to make trips to the hospital all the time--trying to be there for them and sometimes they are sleeping or don't even know you are there.  I have always been really grateful that Fred went so suddenly.  It is a shock to everyone involved, including the nurses and doctor's--family especially, but it is so much easier for the one who dies.  I too went to the different widow's blogs that first year.  Widows Speak Out was the one I read every day, but then...after awhile when I read of widows that were still in active grieving after five, six, seven years--I wondered if perhaps I should quit reading and try and move on.  I found that reading that every day, kept me stuck--hearing their words kept my situation too present all the time.  Kind of like picking at a scab every day so the wound wouldn't heal?    I am so glad you are doing better because we have to....keep going onward--ever forward.

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...and so my Dear Friends--from the east coast to the west coast and every time zone in between (WOW--that just amazes me), if the good Lord gives me another day--I will see you all tomorrow.