ahhh.......

 We had a pretty darn good night tonight

    Friends Renee and Wendy came over and they brought some pulled pork, buns,  mac and cheese and baked beans.  Julia brought an apple cake and ice cream.

    Jackie and I did not have to do a thing, and neither did Emily.

    It was a nice night....visitng, talking about trips taken and planned, reviewing Olympic highlights and enjoying  delicious food.

    Wendy thinks it has been since November that we got together, and she is right.  Between vacations, sickness, the holidays, personal losses, we just have not had a chance to sit and visit.

    Thanks again Renee and Wendy for coming.  Your visit was the most important and we would have enjoyed it even without the food.

    I am going to miss the Olympics.  Funny I say that, because I have not watched a lot of the events.

    I missed the last  speed skating event, the  entire ski jumping competition, skeleton and most of the bobsledding.  I did watch a lot of curling.  And some figure skating, but only to see the American skaters. 

    I just seemed to be doing other things, but I should have been watching the Olympics.

    Oh well.  

    The one downside to today was..... I started going through try 2 foot stack of stuff.

    Now it is spread out all over my desk and my chair.  Tomorrow I will have to really work at getting rid of the old, unnecessary paper and dealing with the stuff we need to keep.

    But there are still some events to watch, so who knows what will get done.

    And the closing ceremony always makes me sad. 

    Ah to be young again!!

Peace ad Love

TGIF

 Weekends are not as special when you are retired

    I mean, every day is a weekend.  No work.  No pressure.  It's nice.

    I went to a museum event today.

    Our state rep, Brad Fritts. came to visit and take a tour of the museum.

    He seemed to enjoy the items.  I told him about our non meteorite meteorite, which always gets a laugh or chuckle.

    At the end the 9 or so of the people there were able to ask some questions.  topics like voter id, abortion, state funding and budgets were all brought up.

    But I asked the most important question.

    Is Illinois going to keep the Bears?

    He noted there were lots of issues that had to be decided, but I got the feeling he would like the Bears to stay inn Illinois.

    He also said he had called our mayor to suggest offering land east of Rochelle for the new Bears stadium.  A tollway, interstate, and 2 railroads would serve the property.

    I told him that was the same plan I told our former city manager about!  I even proposed an underground tram that would whisk people from the train stations to the stadium.

    I also asked him about human composting and he seemed a little shocked.  He said I was the first person in the district to be in favor of it.  Maybe if it gets passed they can call it Terry's Law.  

    To me it is an obvious choice.  No chemicals, no exhaust from the crematorium.  Just natural , although speeded up, decomposition.  Ashes to Aahes, dust to dust.  

    Sign me up!

    We had refreshments.

    We found a cake made by Mary Todd Lincoln and we had some.  I thought the cake was actually made by her, but turns out it was just her recipe.  I brought a slice home for Jackie and we both agreed it was good.

    All in all it was a nice event.

    Speaking of food, I went to Culver's tonight.  I spent $30!  Holy crimeny Pete!!!

    I did get the walleye dinner, not realizing that was $17 by itself. Throw in a Butter Burger and some pretzel bites, add tax, and bingo, bango $30.

    I do have to say the fish was excellent.  And there was enough for lunch tomorrow.

    Jackie only eats half a burger, so we both have enough food for lunch.  So I guess if you take the total cost and divide it by 2 meals it isn't so bad.

    That is my rationale and I am sticking to it.

Peace and Love

    

finally

 I finally cleaned off my desk!

    After m months of talking about it, I actually did it.  I also cleaned off my little table.

    It did not take much time either.

    The only problem now is the 2 feet of stuff I have stacked on my napping chair.  

    But the table and desk are relatively clean.

    I am going to be perfectly honest. I get so angry at myself, and depressed, when I look at my desk, the garage, the basement, or the closet in the den.

    How did I get this way?  

    Notice, I did not say when because all my life I have had trouble with paper.

    When I worked at the newspaper I would have stacks all over my desk....future stories, story ideas, interesting articles, news releases.

    Teaching was the same way.  I once lost a complete spelling test! Not one student's. but the whole class's!

    I think I have some crossed or missing wires in my brain.  The ones that allow for dealing with paper and being organized are gone.  

    Or maybe they were never there in the first place!

    Sigh.  

    When I die the girls are going to be going through my stuff and saying, "What the hell!!"  

    I still have all the vet records and information on Corki, and that dog has been dead three years.  I have a grade school report on the Civil War, done in peacock blue ink, because that was high fashion back in the early 60s.  (The report was done in 1961...100 years after the war started.  That means I have carried it with me for 65 years!!!). Looking at it, it wasn't really anything outstanding.  Or even good.  But I still have it.

    I have folders of useless information.  And I have folders.  Just folders.  Some used, some new, some borrowed, some blue.  

    I think I need a lobotomy to get buy head on straight.  Check that, get my brain working correctly.

    I keep saying someday I will be organized....but I never will be.  My mind will always be flying in different directions and I will always be stacking up paper of all kinds.

    If it didn't bother me so much, I'd be ok with it.

    But I am not.

    Oh well.

Peace and Love

odds and ends

 Just a few random thoughts

    Took Beth for a walk yesterday.  A little girl down the street saw her and asked her mommy if she could pet Beth.

    Now, this child could not have been much more than 2.  She was young.

    The mom asked me and I said sure.

    The little girl came up and Beth licked her fingers.  She burst out laughing and squealing.

    Then she tapped Beth on the head and squealed and laughed again.

    The next tap lasted a little longer and her stealing and laughing was accompanied by what I can only describe as running in place.  Her happy dance.

    Her not much older sister can over and she got licked and did not laugh or squeal.  But both girls enjoyed petting Beth who enjoyed getting petted!

    Came out of the bank and walked to my van.  Could not figure out why I could not open the door.  I looked in the  front seat and saw a cup, folder and jacket then realized I was at the wrong car.  Oops.

    Wrote down a great quote.....almost.  "The real fight is not left versus right, it is"...then my note says poo t to b.  Could be from mJesse Jackson,  but I will have to Google it, I guess.

    The other day I got a call from a guy named Steve in West Chicago and he said he was ready to be picked up.  I told him I was not an Uber driver and that he had the wrong number.    About half an hour later my phone rang again, same number, but this time it only rang twice before he must have realized his mistake.

    Went to the bank as museum board president to renew a CD.   Treasurer  Matt was with me and we talked about gardening.  I don't think our personal banker had ever laughed so much in her life.

    Got ashes tonight.  Jackie did not feel up to going, so I went by myself.

    We planned on having popcorn shrimp from Popeye's in DeKalb.   But they only have butterfly shrimp.  Why is its so hard to find popcorn shrimp around here?  We used to get it at Dog Hub in Rochelle, but they closed.

    Cuckoo clock had a hand problem.  One fell off.  I put it back on.  Did not know you could tighten the hands until tonight.

    Our security light went on in the back.  It must have been a deer,  but I did not see anything.  My trail cam did not function and I am not sure why.

    Had a voice message on the land line telling me they had a package worth $8.5 MILLION.   I had to call them to arrange delivery.   Do people actually fall for that stuff? 

    I should get the package tomorrow.

    Just another week in the life of the fool on the hill.

Peace and Love

messed lyrics

 Sometimes I don't hear the lyrics in songs correctly

        It's not  "Scuse me while I kiss this guy." 

        And it is not , "Wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night."

        Yes, you do have to be a bit on the older side to know the correct words.  Or should I say mature.

        I was listening to Sammy Davis Jr. belt out "I've Gotta Be Me" on the oldies channel yesterday.

        Yes, I do listen to the oldies channel instead of the Beatles or Buffet, especially when I have a passenger that enjoys one Beatles song, not all Beatles.  Plus, she says Buffet is a country singer.  Since I can't strap her on the roof of the car, I change to the 60s on Sirius and eventually I get a small Beatles fix..

        Anyway, Sammy ws singing away and I mis understood his last lines.

        He sings, "I can't be right for somebody else if I'm not right for me."

        That that is not what I heard.

        I heard IT instead of I. 

        And yes, I Googled the lyrics to be sure I heard the lyrics incorrectly.

        I agree with Sammy.  If you are not right for yourself, you can't be right for somebody else.

        But here's the rub.

        I think the IT fits better today's world.

        It can't be right for somebody else if it's not right for me.

        I think that is very true.

        And that's all I have to say tonight.

Peace and Love

Lost and found

 We got our toenails done today

    I know!! TMI!!

    When we got home Jackie said, "Where's my watch?"

    That is always a good question.  It was on her wrist on the way to Sycamore, but not on her wrist in the house.

    We called the nail place and they said they would look for it but nobody had found one.

    I looked in the car, in her sweatshirt, in the wheelchair, in the car a second time, and in her sweatshirt again.

    No watch.

    So I  checked the car one more time then headed back to Sycamore to check the parking lot.  On the way, I texted Julia and Emily because I wondered if there was a search feature for an Apple Watch.

    There is.  On Jackie's phone.

    I did not have Jackie's phone.

    At some point Julia texted me and said the watch was in Rochelle, but later on was at Walmart.

    By this time I was about half way to Sycamore.  

    Julia texted again and said to look in the car.

    I had done that 3 times.

    I was approaching a stop sign a little too fast and hit the brakes.  

    I looked down, and there was the watch. 

    I had a nice drive, anyway.

    I was going to make some Italian sausage  tonight, celebrating the Olympics.  

    I took a package out of the freezer and it was stamped "best by August 2024." 

    Jackie said she was not sure about that.  I know Julia would have dumped it.

    Well, I dumped it.  

    There was another package.  Took the out and it was stamped, "best by August 2024."

    So I dumped. that.

    The third package had no date.  

    Because I didn't buy it, I opted to dump that too.

    So we had scrambled eggs and bacon,  New bacon.  Just bought.

    But I do have hankering for some Italian sausage.

Peace and Love

IRS

We worked on our  taxes today

    If Jackie would only listen to me, we would have a $376,994 refund, but Noooooooo!

    We  have to have receipts.

    Do you mean to tell me that the billionaires who hardly pay any taxes sit around and work through their receipts?

    NO!  They just pick numbers out of the air.

    I believe we should file based on intent.

    Like, I would donate $15 million to Brookfield Zoo for a new elephant enclosure. And I would give a couple of million to VCCT, and the museum.

    But nooooooo!  We didn't give the much, so we can't claim it.

    I read where DOGE (remember them? ) cut thousands of employees in IRS, so the chances of anyone being audited are pretty slim.

    We are not rich enough to avoid taxes.  

    Or death.

    Speaking of which, people are pushing to have a human composting bill passed in Illinois.

    I would do that.

    It's environmentally friendly and cost efficient.

    Plus the human compost  could be used in parks, forests, or the family back yard, like around a tree or bush.

    Sounds crazy, I know.

    But when someone dies,  the body has to go somewhere.

    As I understand human composting, the deceased is placed in a sealed chamber with hay, straw, wood chips and other plant material.  After a while, all the remains is .... well, compost.

    I am going on record that is how I  want to be treated after death.

    And my composted remains should go into a forest, I don't think Julia and Emily would be comfortable mulching their dad.

    But at least they would have that option.

    We know only 2 things are certain in life:  Death and taxes.

    And without receipts, you can't avoid either.

Peace and Love