another car?

 The topic of buying a second car has come up

    I don't like driving the mini van.  We need that so I can have the front seat that swivels out.  That seat does not fit in most cars.

    The girls suggested I get another car to drive around town.

    Something small and fun, like a Fiat, or Smart car, or an electric vehicle.

    I see many problems with that.

    First, I would have to pay insurance on the vehicle.  Plus pay for the vehicle. And maintenance.  And all the other stuff that comes with owning a car.

    Second:  Where would I put it?

    I can barely get the van in our 3 car garage as it is!

    Yes, things could be stacked and arranged differently to create more space.  Just not enough  to store a second car.

    So I will continue driving the van until we can find a suitable alternative.

    Getting Jackie into and out of the van is so much easier with the chair that comes out, turns, a d goes down.  It is a back saver for me.

    On to another topic.

    I have been working on a book since ....gosh, I don't know how long.

    Anyway, it is done.  I have read it, reread it, edited it, added to it, deleted stuff from it and I thought I was finished.

    Then I sat down to read it.  Again.  Fourth time.

    Jimminy Cricket, there are a lot of mistakes!  Not major ones, but fog instead of frog, or pence instead of fence.

    Spell checker doesn't pick those up because they are words spelled correctly.

    Thus...one more time through it.  One more time correcting it.  One more time thinking I am finished.

    Then what?

    Time will tell.

Peace and Love

home again, home again

I took Julia home tonight 

    She has been with us since last Thursday, when she had a hernia repaired.

    At first she was going home by herself, but Jackie insisted she stay with us for at least one night.   That was a good move by wifey.

    Getting up from a chair or sitting position was hard for Julia.  Too much strain on her incision.

    So she slept in our recliner a lot and I tried to take care of her needs.

    Of course Beth loved it!  Her Julia was back!

    When Julia would walk around the house, Beth would follow her, just a few steps behind.  It was kind of funny to watch the two of them parade around.

    Anyway, just the 2 of us now.  Well, 3 counting Beth.

    I am slowly finishing up Christmas stuff.  I have gathered a lot of it in spots, now I have to clean up the spots.  Luckily none of the stuff is exposed to the elements.

    I learned something yesterday.

    The county sheriff has put up FLOCK cameras at various intersections around town.

    First off, I had no idea what a FLOCK camera was.  (You could say I was thinking what the FLOCK?) Basically, it reads license plate numbers.

    I am not sure how to take that.

    It does not seem the readers are for traffic enforcement, as such.  

    I don't believe they will tag you for speeding, or running a light, but I am not sure.

    What they seem to do is allow police to track a license plate number.

    Say someone commits a crime in Florida.  They then flee to Illinois.  A FLOCK camera near the crime scene reads  numbers and enters them into a computer.  A FLOCK camera in Rockford reads the plate number, matches it to one in Florida,  and bingo, bad guy captured.

    That is the benefit.

    But.....they could be used to track your movements too.  Even if you did not commit a crime, your plate can be read and authorities can track you.

    It's kind of Big Brothers to me.

    Yes, I do know the same thing can be accomplished on your cell hone.  But that seems Boig Brpotherish too.

    It concerns me.

    Say I go to the No Kings Rally this month.  My plate could be tracked, and I could be targeted for my political views.

    So. tell me, am I being paranoid to the extreme?

    Or is there a Big Brother?

    Let me know.

Peace and Love

Sorry

 I apologize for yesterday's misleading wording

    I believe that is called "click bait" or something like that.

    I like WW II history.  I was watching a video on something when about 2 minutes in a young woman appears on the screen and starts talking about having great sex with her 52 year old husband!  It was x-rated!! And yes, I did hit the skip ad option and went back to WW II.  but holy cow, that surprised me!

    I found out where my flashing goes....above the patio doors up about 15 feet.  I have called someone and they may come this week, weather permitting.

    I went to mail something at the post office.  There is construction going on in the alley where the letter box is.  I had to get out of my car to put the letter in the box.

    One of the guys working there said, "Hey, it's my job!  I have to be doing this.  I'm sorry."

    I just laughed and said it was no big deal and he was lucky it was Jan. 13 and 40 degrees.  My guess is some people have complained and he was being proactive.

    Ran into someone at the store and I remembered his name.

    But I am not sure he remembered mine.  He called me Buddy three times.  

    I guess I am not the only one with name recognition issues.

    And I called my congressional rep's office with a litany of complaints.  I was not done when the staffer abruptly  said, "I will pass your concerns on to the congressman," and he hung up.

    I don't want to be political here, so I won't mention anything else except I wrote a letter to the editor too.

    No matter where you live, you have to call them and tell them how to improve life in the gold old US of A.  And write letters to the editor.  And VOTE!!

    Peace and Love

Crash

 I admit, I cut the corner too close

    I was not paying attention.

    There was a crash.  People yelling.

    A man  called out, 'You didn't do this, did you?"

    A woman answered, "It's not my fault this time."

    I fessed up:  "I cut the corner too short.  It's my fault"

    We stood among a debris field of breadsticks, now scattered over 2 aisles in the grocery store.

    The display boxes stuck out just a couple of inches past the end row, and I hit the first one.

    Which hit the second one.

    Which hit the third one.

    Packages of breadsticks everywhere.  It was a horror show.

    I started to pick them up and the man helped, telling me his wife had done t his before.

    We laughed about it.  We just piled the packages in the display rack willy nilly.  If they had been organized by flavor, they weren't now.

    No blood, no foul.  I am just glad they weren't pickles in glass jars.

    But my guess is some of the breadsticks may be in pieces....buyer beware, eh?

    And of course, I was looking for one particular item.  $82 later, I packed the car and went home.  When I walked in the door Julia said, "Did you find the paper hand towels you wanted?"

    Hell no!  I forgot to look! But I bought $82 worth of other stuff!

    That is the problem when I don't make a list.

    A couple of nights ago I posted a picture of a Bears electronic sign on a house near us.  I noticed today the sign is gone.

    I hope they  took it down and that some idiot did not steal it or damage it.  

    Speaking of damage, Julia pointed out a piece of aluminum sheathing that has the same color as our house........except it was in the bushes.

    So tomorrow I will walk around trying to figure out where it came from and if I can put it back in the right spot.

    Until tomorrow....

Peace and Love

Who is that?

 I had a trip down memory lane tonight

    My sister in law is in a nursing facility in Bryon, but will hopefully be moving to Ohio soon.

    Her daughter Laurie, and my other niece Cindy, spent some time cleaning out the house to prep for the big move.

    They came down tonight with a slew of pictures.

    After supper we sat and went through some of them.

    Faces of aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and total strangers were in the books and albums.

    Some of the pictures were very old.   They may have been of my grandparents when they were young, and maybe they weren't.

    All were in black and white.  Almost all of them were crisp and well staged.

    There were 3 books of 5 x 7 images my  Uncle Henry took.  He was a professional photographer and just a heck of a nice man.

    And he took great photos.  

    The ones that got to me were of family I recognized:  aunts, uncles, cousins, the people that were in my life for so long yet so short.

    I started to tear up.  Almost all of them are gone.  Almost all.

    I know, it is the circle or life and I can't dwell on it.

    But today I miss those people.

    Here's a suggestion for all of you:  label  or ID your pictures.

    After my mother died we were going through a box of picture she left.  One of them was a man standing in front of her house in Fox Lake. 

    On the back she had written:  Who the hell is this?

    Yet she kept the picture.  

    And I may have too.....I should look.

Peace and Love

One of Uncle Henry's pictures.....but my family is missing!!

Bears down, Bears Up!

That was one exciting football game

    In summation, the Bears were down 21-3 at the half.  I thought the game was over because they were terrible.

    But the second half?  A different team was on the field.  And in the end, the Bears came back again to win!

    Caleb Williams has to be the coolest dude under pressure.  You could tell in the first half he was a bit pissed the way things were going, but that all got turned around.

    Whew!!

    The game capped off a long day for me.

    We had a morning helper today because it is a lot for me to take care of Jackie, help Julia, and take care of Beth.

    And I was tired.  

    It seems somebody had to go out at 3 a.m. or so.   I also remember being up at 5 or 5:30, but I am not sure if I really was and why I would be.

    Julia is getting along fine.  Emily came over today and helped her shower and change the dressing on her incision.

    After Jackie gets dressed, Lisa, our helper, takes care of her breakfast,  and her legs.

    While she was doing that today I said I was sitting down in my den chair for an hour because I was really tired.

    That was about 10......I woke up at 12:30!

    I went to the store, stopped for a coffee at Cypress House, then came home and did three loads of laundry, picked up dog crap in the back yard, took compost out to the back of the yard to the compost bin, and darn near froze to death outside.

    And here it is....a little after 11 and I am wide awake!

    Usually when I get a coffee in the afternoon I ask for 1 shot of espresso.  The drink comes with 2.  But today I forgot to ask, so I have a double shot in my system.

    Combined with the excitement of the Bears game, I probably will not sleep until the wee hours of the morning.

    Maybe I will rewatch the second half.

    And there are cliches  during every Bears telecast:  Mike Ditka impersonators and young men (often drunk, I assume) shirtless in the stands.  And there they were at the end of the game, celebrating and flexing.  I was amused by the guy in bib overalls that was shirtless, but I amuse easily.  I was cold fully dressed with a coat, how they do it without antifreeze amazes me.

    Anyway, all is well that ends well.

Peace and Love

problem solved

 I got a problem solved today

    That makes 2 in 2 days!

    The weatherstripping on the door into the garage from outside was partway off.  In order to close the door I had to get on my knees and tuck it back in.

    Then I had to figure out how to get up again.

    I called Big Jake and he stopped by yesterday morning, took the door off, reinstalled the weather stripping, took a sample of my garage door trim that needs to be replaced, and was done in about 20 minutes.

    One problem solved.

    Today we got a UPS delivery.  I went out to meet the driver and I asked her if there was a UPS drop off in Rochelle.  She told me no, but Oregon has one at the drugstore.

    Imagine that.  Oregon, with a population of less than 4,000, has a UPS drop off site and Rochelle does not.  That does not make sense.

    Then she asked, if the package was ready.

    I said it was and she said she would take it!

    Now the return is made and I don't have to worry about getting to DeKalb or Rockford.

    Problem solved!

    Yes, I knew UPS made home pick ups.  I just never called to arrange one.

    The next problem: my cuckoo clock stopped.  It just died.  I used to take it to The Clock Shoppe in Sycamore, but when I was in Sycamore last the store was empty and there was a for rent sign in it.

    We found a cuckoo repair shop in Elgin, but I would like one closer if possible.

    Problem not solved!

    My final problem is my phone.  I plug it in next to my bed every night. And every night it recharges.

    That is, until 2 nights ago.  It doesn't recharge next to the bed.  So is it the cord or the plug?  The phone recharges elsewhere, and I have not tried the cord in other places.  

    Problem not solved.

    Julia is doing better, getting around much easier.  She is still sore and will be with us a little while longer.  The issue is getting out of a chair.

    We have a recliner that lifts you up and Julia has been sleeping in that at night.  Getting into and out of bed its a strain on the belly muscles and her incisions.  

    So she is staying here.

    And that is not a problem!

Peace an d Love

January 7 in Rochelle.....now the decorations are gone

Go Bears!!!!