panic time

 Christmas is coming

    I always feel like I have not gotten anyone gifts.  There may be some in the closet, or downstairs, or in my drawer, but I always feel like I have not found the right gift.

    This is something that I have felt since childhood.  I remember going to a local Wieboldt's store and buying my mother a hairdryer.  This was in the late 50s or early 60s.  It was on a stick and she could take it off the stick and dry her hair.

    She was thrilled, but I always suspect is was an over reaction to an underwhelming gift.  She never said she did not like it, but I have always wondered.

    My dad was easy to buy for.  Cigarettes, Brazil nuts and walnuts.  Give him those and he was a happy man.

    We thought.

    I have mentioned my dad several times, but here is a refresher.  He may have been a little "off."  My Aunt Jean died when I was about 8.  I did not go to the funeral or visitation because I was too young.

    But my dad did.  Later he told me Jean sat up in the coffin and said to him, "Carl, Dorothy is a witch.  Be careful."  Dorothy was my mom's and Jean's sister.

    Let me tell you, THAT leaves an impression!

    But I digress.

    So...nuts and cigarettes for pops.  That was a holiday tradition. When he worked, often he would get a tie or shirt, but nuts and smokes were the main gifts.

    When he died, Jackie and I were helping my mom clean out some things.  She told me to empty the cupboard on the back porch.

    I opened the doors and a ton of nuts fell out!  The cupboard was loaded with them.

    At least he smoked hte cigarettes.  

    And I didn't find the hairdryer when we were cleaning out stuff, so after 20 years of so she must have used it or tossed it.  I'll never know.

Peace and Love

life's irritations

 It's the little things that irritate me

    Like Corki going after Jackie's cookies as the phone is ringing and things are flying and Corki is snuffling and Jackie is yelling and the phone is ringing and the Bears are on and the cookies are on the floor and Corki is going after the cookies and I am trying to hold Corki and pick up the cookies and turn down the tv while Jackie answers the phone.

    Just another day.

    I did do a little straightening up in the basement today.  Julia came in to see if she could help and just started laughing at the paper towels and toilet paper stacked up.  The 5 giant Tides escaped her notice, I think.  

    Another Corki trick....she lays on the couch with her butt facing me and emits the most foul farts you can imagine.  Only when her butt is facing me.  Sign of love?

    But the basement does look a little better in two areas.  I will be down there tomorrow again for a little while trying to get some order in the chaos.

    Seriously, sometimes I just sit there and cry because of the disorganization in my life.  I can't find things and spend hours looking for items not put away.  Lord knows where my purple scissors that actually cuts went.  I have 5 hammers....so tell me why I could not find any the other day!  None! After I gave up looking I did find one, but where the others are is anybody's guess.

    And the things I save that I will never, ever use.  Yet I can't get rid of them.  It really is frustrating.

    I have decided that next spring I am going to sell all yard tools and other tools I don't use, including boxes of nails and screws, and anything else that I can find that does not fit in my life.

    Chances are, next year at this time I will be saying the same  thing.

    Back to the Bears.....only 10-3 at the half, which surprises me!

Peace and Love

boom da da ch ch

 Jackie and I did some rapping today

    Sorry, make that wrapping.  As in Christmas presents.

    First off, I really thought those were ornaments on the paper.  Turns out they were birthday ballons.

    Cpuld not find labels.  Looked through several boxes before I found them.  The name tags were so small we could only use initials.  So we have   To E   From  M & D

    Translated, that is to Emily from Mom and Dad.

    Now, John and Julia pose a problem which may only be solved at gift opening time.

    As you all know, I save stuff.  Too much stuff.  Some people may call it crap, but I call it .... stuff.  That causes me some frustration, as today I knocked over two plastic tubs of ribbon and boxes.  I did not pick them up.  I am starting to tell people my basement is not a mess, I am just constructing an indoor maze.

    I save boxes.  Really good boxes get used over.  And over.  And over.

    Like these:

    Sure they look a little tacky.  I am not sure what stained the white box, maybe tea, coffee, wax, chocolate....who really knows.  And there are lots of tape spots.  Lots.

    Macy's bought Field's in 2006, so these boxes are older than today's eighth graders.  They are great boxes.  Someday, they may even be worth money!   I have several more, including a long narrow one for ties, socks or gloves.  I guess I should gather them all together for a photo shoot.

    But I think I'll have to do that after Christmas.....after J opens one of them.

Peace and Love

fun days

 Today was a pretty fun day

    Camryn came over and working with Julia, frosted the sugar cookies Jackie and I made yesterday

    And Julia cooked supper.....a pretty good lasagna with Texas toast garlic bread.  I opened a bottle of chianti and Emily and John brought little bundt cakes for dessert.

    I ate too much.  I may have had too much wine, I can't tell yet because the words all look right and I seem to be making sense.

    Tomorrow Jackie and I start wrapping presents.  That is always a challenging day because I really don't like wrapping presents.  I find it tedious and a waste of paper.

    A few years ago I bought an end roll of newsprint from the paper and all of my presents get wrapped in that, usually on Christmas Eve with a couple of glasses of egg nog, some cookies, and "It's a Wonderful Life" on  the TV.

    After I wrap them, I draw on them.  All sorts of things like trees, houses, mountains, stars....whatever seems to fit the package.  That I like doing because it is only a few presents and I am eating cookies.

    Anyway, I hope you had a pretty good day too!

Peace and Love

still going

 I am approaching an anniversary of sorts

    My first post was Jan. 1, 2014.

    I started because I never finish projects.  Books undone, models never built.  I have done better with puzzles, I have 7 completed ones in the basement.  I glue them togeether when done, but I think in the future I will just disassemble them and pass them on.  Unless I rteally like the picture.

    Anyway, my first posts were funnier.  I told all the funny stories about me that I could during that first year.  I decided to go another year.  Then another.  And another.  And here I am.

    Currently about 60 people a day read my little boring stories.  So far, 228,000 visits have been made to my site since I started.

    While the US is the main country, Switzerland is second and Sweden third.  France, Portugal, Spain, Serbia and Costa Rica (Lauren??) have also had readers visit.  Early on the Ukraine had several visitors, but that has not been true for a while.  I don't believe I have ever had a reader from China, Japan, or the Koreas.  In fact, I don't think I have had any visitors from Asia.

    I would not be telling the truth if I said I always had great ideas, or inspiration.  At times my sentence structure and spelling are a little on a WTH side of proper grammar.

    That may be because I have had wine, or a hot buttered rum, or  long day, or a tough day for vision.  Those seem to be getting more frequent....wine, rum, bad vision.

    I do value you all as  readers.  I appreciate you taking time from your day to read about my life. I know I have said  that before, but you don't know howimportant your readership is to my ego!    

    That's it for me.

    Peace and Love

mumbo jumbo

I am sharing a voice mail I got today 

_______ _____ _____ I will take what I was doing I have don't see it._____  _______  OK, I don't see him....Just give me a little help to bring a list.  Hello Siri.....a....I don't really see you love you love you love you some things are ______ _____ said you can deliver and a Sanders this is Leslie first ____ the ___ ___ of that wireless asking them a little OK You're trying to get to the phone I got it was a little ringing.  Ok, who are you check you got the number that you want to dial so uncle......

    And then it stopped.

    The caller's number was not familiar to me.  I think someone butt dialed my number, and the message they left might have been a conversation with someone on another phone.

    Anyway......I have had about 6 voice messages from Comcast regarding my service appointment tomorrow. 

    And I learned something today.

    Long strory.  We have a tv downstairs.  I nornmally watch it during the winter, but when summer comes, I usually am outside or watching the Cubs with Jackie.

    When Julia came home, she went downstairs to watch tv and .... nothing.  Just an error message that the signal is not being received.

    Contacted Comcast, or XFinity...whatever.  Explained the problem.  The call got cut off.  Recontacted Comcast.  Talked to a really nice lady who re-sent the signal.  During our wait, she asked me about my holiday and what I was doing for Christmas.  I told her, and asked her what she was doing.

    She has only been at this call center 3 months and will be working Christmas Day.  She said she was not too upset, because she is a single mother and is working to make life better for her son.

    She told me sometimes callers ask for another agent because her English is not so good.  I told her I understood her, but she should keep in mind that older folks like me have a tough time understanding accents because of hearing losses.  Then she told me she learned English by watching Netflix.

    Anyway, signal re-sent....nothing.  So she told me she would re-send a different signal that may take several hours.  Fast forward 4 hours.  Nothing.

    Contacted Comcast again.  Explained problem.  He said he would re-send the signal and I said that had been done 3 times.  So he scheduled a technician to come out and check out the problem.

    Tomorrow the tech comes, but I think I know the problem.

    When a tech called me today, I explained the problem again and he asked me a question.  Since I don't watch the tv during the summer, do I unplug it?  I said yes and he said the cable box gets reset often at night, and if there is no power, it can't be reset.  So my box probably has to be reset, which only a techie can do.

    So the moral of the story is:  don't be a cheap ass and unplug your tv because it may not work 6 months later.

Peace and Love

just a few words

 We went to the Christmas market in Chicago today

    Julia, Emily, Dan, Linda and I went downtown to the market.  We braved the cold winter temps and the deep snow to wander around the outdoor market.  I even had a hot wine to warm my frozen body.

    Actually, it was 60+ degrees.  There would have been more of us going, but some people have to work to keep the hospitals and schools running!

    So....not so many words today.  Just pictures.

I hope I was a good boy this year!!

Me thinks this bike is toast....and it is a Trek!

State Street, that Great Street

Photo shoot on State

Looking up at the magnificent ceiling at Field's....I mean, Macy's

Does anybody really know what time it is?  Does anybody really care?

She had a great voice

With my schnitzel and souvenier mug, I am a happy man

Someday I will have the chicken pot pie here

Mural in the basement at Field's, I mean Macy's.

Peace and Love