title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A Nice Tuesday


Today's high temperature was:  95 degrees
Today's humidity was: 72%
Feels like temperature was:  100
This same weather until some time Friday when the jet stream drops down over us again.
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I am so sick and tired of all this racial stuff that is once again surfacing and causing so many people so much angst.  IF Mr. Sharpton, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Obama and the NAACP wouldn't have become involved in a "simple" manslaughter case--we wouldn't even have known about it. 

I saw this on Face Book this morning.  Really--what IS the difference?  Other then the racist Doo Dah's got involved and made the difference.


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Pearl came over yesterday morning and....they have taken Lily back to the animal control shelter.  Sigh.  Pearl said Lily was a bully and she was tormenting Tiger.  I think Lily just wanted to play--like when my Maggie jumps on Buddy and wrestles with him.  But, Lily has claws and Tiger doesn't so--he was scared of  her.  I told Pearl way back in March, that Tiger was too old to bring in another cat, but Pearl wanted a more affectionate cat.  Well, Lily was that.  Every time Pearl sat down, Lily was on her lap.  Every time she got up, Lily followed her and Pearl said?  "She's a pest!"

So, they took her back without any feeling of remorse or guilt.  I'm the one who feels the worse, I think.  Taking a cat out of a shelter--keeping it free and well fed and then taking it back?  Makes me feel like if you took a child out of an orphanage, kept it for two weeks in a nice, happy environment and then took it back and walked away--I hope cats don't have the feelings like a human.  Oh--I know they don't.  Lily will probably be happier with all her cat friends she is use to playing with, but...................Pearl is not going to look for another cat and for that, I say, PRAISE GOD!!!

What really was more upsetting to me, I was talking to Pearl about the book and movie, "The Help" that we all read and then watched the movie.  She didn't know what I was talking about!  

"Remember we read it last year?"

"Nope.  I have never heard of it.  What is it about?"

So I gave her a synopsis and she still had a blank look on her face.

"I never read that book.  I never saw that movie."

"Sure you did.  I got the book and gave it to you and then when I got the DVD, I gave it to you and Merle to watch.  Remember?  He thought it was boring, but you said you thought it was good?"

"I am telling you, I don't know anything about it!"

So, I gave her the book and the DVD (again)---I am hoping when she reads it, it will all come back to her, but I am doubtful.  I have never had any experience with someone who has that kind of forgetfulness.  I must remember to be patient and not try and "make" them remember, because that only confuses them, I think.

Oh yes, as she left, she turned and look at my garden and said, 'I see your Rebecca is about to bloom." (That would be my Rudbeckia, folks.  I wish she'd just call them black-eyed susan's, then my teeth wouldn't gnash.)

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Yesterday afternoon, after I checked out the Little House On The Corner, I went down to The Farm, to have supper with my sister, brother-in-law and his sister and her hubby, here on a visit from New York.  They have never been in Michigan, so Susan and Chuck are taking them all around--to Frankenmuth, and up to The Bridge.  We had a good time, but Susan had warned me that Loretta (the SIL) is a bit tiring to be around.  Man--the woman is cute and sweet, but she never stops talking--and talking fast!  

"Judy--our brother Ed is coming up here to visit Susan and Chuck.  He is about your age and you should meet him.  He has lots of money and is a widower.  You need to get out and meet men.  You are a beautiful woman--you never know what is out there.  You still have time to find a really good marriage."

<good grief>

Then my sister chirps in to say, "Yes.  He is tall and nice looking.  He also has heart disease, has a Pacemaker and has Diabetes."

Without thinking, I just blurted out, "Oh good grief!  I just got done taking care of that, why would I want to go through that again!!?"

For some reason, I just can't get it through people's heads that I HAVE NO DESIRE to have a man in my life--not even as a friend.  Not entirely their fault, I suppose, as for the last twenty-five years I TOO thought I had to have a man in my life--so they are going on what they have observed.  I can't explain it to them--took me a while to figure it out for myself.  All those years, after my divorce, I "thought" I needed a man for security or love.  I was desperately looking for love--desperate being the operative word here.  Thus, I was very needy and there are quite a few men who look for that in a woman.  Thus, I put up with a whole lot of "their" crap!

Then--along came Fred.  He didn't want anything from me.  He loved me and wanted to make my life happy.  He adored me!  He liked me and all my idiosyncrasies.  He didn't want to change me in any way.  He was always on my side--he "had my back" as they say.  He was the entire package of all I had searched for.  Now--why in this world, after having that, would I EVER want another man.  I would judge him against Fred and...he would fail.  No matter how nice he was...he would fail.  

I can't even stand to talk with a man, who might show interest in me.  He doesn't have Fred's voice, or his smile or his laughter, or his calmness.  I find myself comparing.  And it's just not that---I REALLY enjoy my independence now.  I am so selfish that I REALLY like getting up when I want to--going to bed when I want to--watching what I want on TV--not having to cook or clean up the floor around the toilet, or sharing my bed!  I REALLY like it!  So...............................................

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Dar didn't have to work today, so she KNEW I would want her company.  We chatted about  expenses and how frugal she is (right).

"How much was your electric bill this month?" she asked.

"I'm on the budget plan so I pay the same every month.  Let me get the bill and see my usage."  I came in here and got my bill and went back into the living room.  "Let's see--I used 14.0 kilowatt hours.  Way down from last June when it was so hot and the A/C ran all the time. Last year I used 17.8"

"You are kidding!  I only used 1.7 kilowatt hours!"  I just stared at her--so many words in my head and no way to phrase them."

"What?" she said.

"Dar---I think you read your bill wrong."

"No.  I didn't.  It says 1.7."

"Okay.  One point seven kilowatt hours--that would mean that your refrigerator ran for a day (exaggeration on my part) and you didn't use any electricity for the rest of the month!  Are you sure it didn't show  ten point seven?"

"My bill was only forty dollars."

"Well, mine was forty three dollars, so....by that comparison, you used a bit less then me.  Probably ten point seven."

"No.  I know what I saw on my bill."

"IF they are charging you forty dollars for one point seven kilowatt hours, then...my bill at ten point seven, would be over four hundred dollars."

"Well...I know what I saw."

This from the woman who thought a 90 mile drive would cost her two hundred dollars in gas.

"Okay," I said.
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I know--I am TOO obsessive.  I am TOO critical.  I just have this thing about women living alone not knowing what the hell is going on.  Dar has lived alone for 15 years--she should be more aware.  Pearl does not live alone, I fear the day she might, but.....this is just an instance.  Neither one of them know the names of the drugs they take nor the dosage!  I just find that unfathomable!  When I have asked either one of them, "Oh--I take blood pressure medicine too.  What one do you take,"  inevitably, they will both answer, "The blue one."  

The BLUE ONE?  Did you ask your doctor?  Did you read the side effects?  Did you inquire as to WHY?  No.  No. and No.

 I HAVE to quit thinking that I am the teacher of the world!!!  How can people go along being so uninformed?  Oh well--I suppose it is an easier life!  I just need to learn to keep my mouth shut!!!
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So--I made the sun catcher.  It didn't turn out as I thought it would.  I will try again.  It doesn't look that bad, but it still shows the bead shapes.  I was talking to another customer at JoAnn's and she said when she made hers, she cooked them longer than 20 minutes and at 450 degrees, so I will do that with the next one.
The ones on the left are from the Face Book "recipe".

I had a really great day--even though my A/C in the old car doesn't work real well--Oh, it gets plenty cold, but the blower fan sometimes wants to blow through the window defroster instead of out the vents onto me.  I guess there is a short in the blower motor--because if I go over a bump, it switches directions and won't come through the vent until/unless I go over another bump.  So, when it is coming out through the vent, i drive very carefully and when it switches back to the window, I hunt for bumps in the road. LOL.

I watched my Soap--oooh, so good.  Then I made out an address mailing label.  Stopped at the Salvation Army for a drop off, on to Michael's store--it was empty and closed.  Say What?  I was just there last month.  On to the post office where I mailed my package and asked, "Where did the Michael's store go?"

"Oh, it's down--next door to JoAnn's."

Cool--off I went to JoAnn's.  How convenient can this be?  If you can't find it at JoAnn's or if you can't find it at Michael's, instead of having to get in the car and drive to the other store--you can just walk next door.  Personally?  I LOVE IT!!!  So, I got some more beads, some copper wire to hang them from--because I want to make a sun catcher for Pearl.  Then drove on over a half block to Pet's Mart to get some wipes for the cats fur--as I cannot give them baths, then on down two blocks and got my hair cut--pretty short, but it feels great.

Then I went to the Rich People's Store to get my sweet cherries and my salads.  There was an old guy in front of me and as I walked from the store, he was headed over to the handicapped parking and I realized he was parked next to me.  AND this was his car!

Not the exact car because I don't have a cell phone camera, but.....

A beautiful, low slung Lamborghini parked in the handicapped slot, complete with blue and white tag hanging on the rear view mirror--talk about a strange effect.

So, being old and bold, I walked over and said to him, "Is this street legal?  And...are you old enough to drive it?"

He turned around and said, "Yes it is and yes I am."  Then he laughed.  

"Would you like to take a seat,?" he asked as he opened the passenger side door.

"Oh yeah.  I would...but if I got down in there,  you'd have to call a wrecker to bring their winch to get me up and out.  Two hip replacements have left it difficult for me to get into and out of a low car."

"Oh...I know what you mean," he said.  "I've had knee replacement, a neck surgery and now I have to have my shoulder worked on.  I'm fifty-eight years old and falling apart!"

Fifty-eight?  He looked at least a decade older then that.

So he climbed into the Lambo--sort of back into the seat and I just stood there.  He looked at me, "Can I just stand here and listen to it when you start up and drive away?" I asked.

"Sure, Honey." he says and starts the motor.

Nice low purr.  Then he backs up, which is no easy feat for him because he can't turn around to see who is behind him and then he starts forward--and then hits the gas and WOW--beautiful, low, powerful growl out of that thing, but I hear him having a hard time hitting the gears.

Showing off I suppose.  I turn toward my car and start giggling and said to myself, "If he keeps that up, he'll burn out the clutch before he gets it broke in."

I got home in a few, picked up the mail, backed in, opened the car door and I could smell this:

The heavily scented Star Gazer Lily.  Wow--it has a sickeningly, sweet,
wonderful scent.  I've always loved them!





  


      



































6 comments:

  1. Enjoy
    reading about your day.
    Heat index here over a 100 for this day.
    Will be outside for about an hour or two
    and then inside the rest of the day.
    I checked my last month's bill to
    compare.
    I hardly use air and no lights at night
    as I am in bed before sun goes down but up it is still dark :)
    mine was $58 last month.

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  2. What a great day, and then to come home to the scent of that beautiful stargazer....so nice. Love the guy/car story....we see a lot of those on the Cape, especially this time of year. Let us know how the sun catcher comes out with the longer baking time. So pretty.
    VERY HOT here, dangerous. I can feel it taking its toll on me so am carefully guarding my rest time.
    Sad about Lily. She needs a stuffed cat to pat in her lap...

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  3. I feel bad about the cat, too! Some people have no common sense!

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  4. Too bad about the kitty. It was never meant to be. And too bad about Pearl's memory. That's a tough one.

    I like your sun catchers. Nice.

    It would be hard to beat Fred. That's the way I feel about my husband. I'm happy for others when they find someone after they lose a spouse, but I can't imagine anyone by H.

    Mr. Lamborghini... ha...cha...cha... LOL

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  5. Too late, and I'm too tired, will be back tomorrow. But, I'm wondering (and I know all the crap about Jackson, NAACP, etc).
    yet you mention this as a simple manslaughter case. hmmmm Too bad the jury didn't see it that way. Just sayin.

    xoxo

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  6. How funny about the car. I'd want to hear it too! You always make me laugh. I think I'm going to be like you and not worry about men if anything would ever happen to my husband (not that I want that!). I am an independent soul, and I enjoy some solitude.

    ReplyDelete