Well I'll be

 I had some errands to do in Rockford today

    I made four stops and told Jackie I would be home ASAP.  Meanwhile, Julia was around if there were any major issues.....like dropping the tv remote on the floor or someone at the door.

    After my last stop, I decided I was doing so well on time I would hit the Starbucks on State Street.

    I knew my card had to be reloaded, so I stepped up to the counter and told them to please put money on the card.

    Suddenly a voice said, "If I had known you were putting money on your card you could have paid for mine"

    I looked and it was John, a relative of a VCCT friend.  He and his wife Dolly were in Rockford for errands.

    What makes this weird is I usually run into them at a Starbucks in Sycamore!  I could not believe they were there the same time I was.

    So we sat outside and talked for a while.  It was a good visit.

    But just o show how small the world is, they go to a health care practitioner who is a former student of mine.

    By the time I got home it was near supper time, so I opted to wait until after supper to mow our lot.  I still have to trim and clean up the sidewalk from yesterday.

    I am a terrible mower.  The grass always looks uneven and I always leave tire marks when I turn.  I think I wait too long to mow, then try to cut it short.  It doesn't work.

    I finished my lot just now.....like a damn roller coaster.  There are some huge ruts.....may have to work on filling them so it's a little smoother, although it won't be by much.

    Yesterday I went to pick up my repaired hearing aid.  All the way over I was feeling poorly, but on the way home I felt great!  Headache gone, wooziness gone, queasiness gone....maybe it was the weather.

    I am just happen I am "normal" today.

Peace and Love

Prom.......

 Let's talk a little about prom

    It was prom weekend locally and Jackie and I enjoyed looking at all the pictures on Facebook.

    Got me thinking.  According to History. com, the word prom was first mentioned in 1879 in reference to a dance.  It surged for a while in popularity, then waned, but in the 1940s it grew again. 

    Now it is estimated it costs $919 per person to attend a prom, figuring attire, limo rental, dinner, flowers, photographer......holy cow!

    President Kennedy attended a prom while president.  He was at a fund raiser in the same hotel and stopped in afterward to greet the youngsters.

    Nancy Ford hosted the only  prom ever at the White House.

    My prom history is a little convoluted.

    I did not plan to attend, but all my friends were going.  Well, I only had 3 friends, but they were going.

    So I asked a fellow senior and she said yes.  This was not what I would call a romantic event.

    Some people double date for a prom.  Some even triple date.  We quadruple dated.

    The Leader of thePack rented a station wagon, and the girls sat in the seats while the guys sat in the back end.

    When we pulled up in front of the venue we looked like a clown car at the circus.  People kept getting out.  And out.  Just when onlookers thought we were done, another cramped body tumbled out.

    I was going thru an acne stage, which lasted from age 16 to 3 days ago.  (My unofficial nickname was Spots)  My date was about 6 foot to start with, but had her hair in a bee hive which made her top out about 7'3".  The official photographer had a hard time getting both our heads in the picture.

    But we made quite a pair:  Kid who looked like he had measles with girl  who looked line a Martian. Standing on my tiptoes I came up to her armpits.  (Another reason to avoid a slow dance.)

    I still have the pictures somewhere.  I never gave her copies.

    The dance was totally not memorable.

    We had  planned to picnic at a lake in Wisconsin the next day.  I told Prom Date we would pick her up about 7.

    We got to her house and she was nowhere to be seen. .  We honked.  We yelled.  We threw stones at a window.  I don't even know if it was her window.

    She finally appeared, completely puzzled by why the hell we were there.

    She insisted I never told her about the picnic.  In hindsight, that is something I have frequently done in life....made plans and then did not told people what was happening.  It has cost me a friendship or two.

    We all piled back into the station wagon, all 8 of us, and headed north.

    The Leader of the Pack was a smoker.  Camels.  Kept them rolled up in his t shirt sleeve.

    As we were driving along somewhere in Wisconsin he asked if anyone wanted a cigarette.

    Everyone said no.  Except me.

    "I'll take a smoke." I said, from the tail end of the car.

    "You?" he questioned as he passed a sCamel back to me.  "I didn't think you smoked," he added.

    "Oh, I don't smoke," the idiot that I am replied, "I eat them."

    With that I took a huge bite out of the cigarette and began chewing.

    Within nanoseconds I  turned multiple shades of green and yellow and purple and the car was pulling over to the side of the road because people were yelling that I was about to hurl.  I quickly got out of the car and got rid of whatever the hell was  now in my mouth.

    I don't think I actually threw up, but I spent several minutes spitting and gagging while 7 people inside the car wondered about my sanity.

    And believe it or not, that was the highlight of the picnic.

    I just hope today's kids had more fun than I did.

Peace and Love

Paper or plastic?

 Every once in a while I read something disturbing

    No, I am not talking about the people who dismember wives or girlfriends and hide their bodies.  Although that is disturbing.

    But the Tribune  had an article about plastic pollution, especially as it affects Lake Michigan.

    Plastics break down into microplastics. When they do that, the microplastics enter the food chain at some point.

    The article had an expert who said we eat, on average, one credit card of plastic a week!  A week!

    And nobody knows wha effect that has on our bodies.

    I look around my house and see plastic fruit containers, take out containers, soap containers.....all made out of plastic.

    And bags.  Plastic bags.  

    Drive down any highway and you will see them in the trees. along fences, and even in my neighbor's back yard tree, where one of mine blew last week.

    What to do?

    You can't buy most fruit at the store that is not in a plastic container.  Or hundreds of other items that we need for our daily living.

    My only action is to make a point of using my reusable bags every time I go to the store.  Sometimes I run in for one or two things and end up buying more than 1 bag can carry, and I end up with a plastic bag.

    Which is not too bad, because those are the bags we use to line wastebakets in the bathrooms.  If we did not use those, we would buy plastic bags, which isn't solving a problem.

    My second complaint of the day is the ESPN coverage of the Cubs game.  At least 3 plays were missed because the camera was focused on the baserunners or on the umpire.  It's just frustrating to only see the play on a replay.

    And the Boys in Blue are trailing....but there is still time.  At least it is not 17-0.

    Go Cubs, Go!!

Peace and Love

dam it

 I must be having financial troubles

    Yesterday and today I received several e mail notices that payments to my Peacock and Sirius accounts have been denied and I need to log in to a website to get them restarted.

    I can only assume they have been denied because I am out of money, my credit cards are hacked, or it is a scam.

    I am going with scam.

    I mean, both have the same wording!

    I hope nobody falls for this, but I imagine people will.

    In the meantime, headache comes and goes.  So does the queasy stomach.

    I need to mow, but did not feel up to it today.  It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days, so I guess I will wait.

    Went to see Julia's lot today.  A lot of trees have been cut down, and several more may have to go.  At least they are getting close to starting construction.

    Lucky Jackie and I went, otherwise we would have watched the 17-0 Cubs loss.  What a train wreck that was.

    Speaking of train wrecks, there is a video of 2 people in a train engine watching a tornado approach.  I am not sure the exact location, I think someplace in Nebraska.

    They are so calm as the storm moves toward them.  One of the guys says in a matter of fact voice, "Maybe we should get away from the windows."

    No panic.  No worries.

    I, on the other hand, would have been screaming and trying to get out of the locomotive to outrun the tornado.  If I had a Rosary, I would have had it out and been saying it and I have no idea what to say because I am not Catholic.   Not that any of that matters.

    The guys seemed safe.  Windows in the locomotive were smashed and ruined, but they seemed fine.

    It was a terrifying yet amazing video to watch.

    Hopefully we don't have anything like that near us.  (Tornadoes, not trains.  Plenty of trains.)

    If we do, you may hear me screaming.

Peace and Love

Ho hum

 What a miserable day it was!

    Cold.  Wet.  Windy.

    Thank you for all your well wishes for my migraine or whatever it was.  I felt ok most of the day, but around 3 the headache came back.

    It is tolerable right now, but I am so tired.

    I had to go to Sycamore because I broke one of my hearing aids. 

    The post snapped off, leaving me holding the one end while the other end was still in my ear.  Try prying a hearing aid out of your ear when you have a headache and can't see it.  Not easy, but it came out.

    The doctor's office thought they could repair it, but only before 3 because that is when they closed today.  I got there about 1:30 and was the second person with a broken hearing aid, so I will have to wait until Monday. And it could be they can't repair it and have to send it "off."

    In the mean time, write loudly because I can't hear well.

    Twice tonight Jackie has said something to me that made absolutely no sense.  When she repeated it louder, I understood.

    I never thought my hearing was bad until I didn't wear hearing aids.  Make sense?  With the devices I pick up so much more of conversations.  It is now an adjustment to go without them for a few days.

    I went to HyVee in DeKalb since I was over there.  Bought some stuff, went to the car in the pouring rain, checked my phone to see if the doctor's office had called, and found 2 texts from home asking me to buy a couple of things at HyVee.

    So I went back out, in the pouring rain with the 90 mile an hour gales roaring in from the north, and bought some lunch meat.

    By the time I left the store the second time it was raining even harder, and the winds kicked up to 100 miles an hour!  There were whitecaps on the puddles in the parking lot!  

    By the time I got back into the car I was wet and frozen.  Yes, frozen.  Icicles were dripping from my ear lobes and I thought ice was forming on my mustache but I realized I do not have a mustache and it was actually a caterpillar that the wind had blown onto my upper lip.

    Terrible day.

    It was made better by a Cubs win, but I can't put out my giant flag because we are in line for some storms later.

    Tomorrow may be more of the same.  But hopefully without a headache.

Peace and Love

My grain?

Jackie had a hair appointment today 

    When this happens, I get her settled in at Inner Beauty and then head across the street to Acres Bistro for a cup of coffee and to read my e-reader.

    Sometimes I have a dessert, usually cookies.  I eat half of the order and bring the other half home.

    Today they had several options:  chocolate chip cookies, lemon cookies, lemon beignet, and cinnamon roll cheese cake.

    I opted for the cheese cake.

    It was amazing!  I also had 2 cups of coffee.  

    When I went back to Jackie, I started to feel a little dizzy.  And I started to get a headache.

    By the time we got home I was still dizzy, my head was killing me, I was freezing, and I felt like crap.

    I think I have a migraine.  I think it might have been induced by the coffee and tea I had at home.... too much caffeine.

    The bad thing is...I had an errand to run at 5:15.  It was one that could not be put off because I tried several times to schedule it and this was the day that worked best for 3 sets of people.

    I actually did not feel quite so bad at 5.  But by the time I got back at 6 my head was splitting.

    Julia took care of supper and feeding her mom while I sat on the couch with my eyes closed.

    My head still hurts.  My stomach is not queasy anymore.  I am terribly tired.

    And I broke one of my hearing aids.  Not only do I have a headache, I can't hear very well.

    That's it.

Peace and Love

what next

 Things are getting ship shape here

    I was taking care of Jackie when Beth started barking like crazy.  Julia came up and saw a man at the door.  She came and got me.

`I opened the door and there was a guy standing there with a shirt that had RAYNOR in huge letters.

    "Can I help you?"  I asked.

    "I'm here for your garage door." he replied.

    Of course!!  Why else would a guy be at my door wearing a shirt from the company that is fixing my garage door!  Call me oblivious to the obvious.

    Making a long story short, as he came in the garage and surveyed the damage he said, "Golf cart, eh?"

    I must be the talk of the office.  And the neighborhood.

    I was pleasantly surprised when he gave me the bill and it was about $600.  I expected it to be at least twice that, so I am counting it as a win.

    So this week:  new utility sink installed, utility room door trim back in place, garage door fixed, lawn fertilized........ a productive week.

    The Rochelle Area Community Foundation had its check presentation program tonight.  The director provided all the speakers with a script.

    Of course, half way through mine I lost my place and just vocally wandered around the page.  I think I hit all the important points, but I am not sure.  

    Foundation grants awarded this year totaled about $100,000.  That is truly amazing.  

    I always favor the grants for agencies providing services for abused children, domestic violent centers, food relief agencies and homeless shelters.

    The needs for all those services are growing, not only in Rochelle but all over.

    If you can, find an agency near you and support it.

    We all can make a difference.

Peace and Love