February 5th, 2010
Pet Peeve alert! This one is aimed at my local supermarket. Do the people that design things in this store have any experience of the items they are dealing with? There is a large produce department with an ample selection of fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, people who are obviously lacking in knowledge of the subject have come up with an idea. There are now color enhancing lights over the displays. STRONG lights. So of course everything rots in half the time, and you have to scramble below the top layer or so to find anything acceptable. Not to mention (but I will) the fact that more produce gets dumped instead of sold. Do the customers like it? No. Do the produce workers like it? No. Do the higher ups listen to any of us? Once again, no. Way to go, folks.
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February 2nd, 2010
Okay, here we go. It’s February. One twelfth of 2010 has gone by. There is no avoiding the tick tock of that big old clock. So here is the next installment of the story of my pilgrimage. And how I left my comfort zone and ended up in Italy………….
As I said in my previous post, that’s when my memories of my Grandpa began. He was quiet and gentle and had a great lap. Mom was one of four girls, and Nan (my Grandmother) had nine siblings. There were Great Aunts and Uncles all over the place, along with their assorted children. But Grandpa Nick stood out. For one thing, he was soft spoken and patient. Trust me, that was unusual in our family. No one else was that way. When I sought him out, he’d sing to me and speak quietly into my ear, amidst the hustle and bustle of day to day life. It was years later that I realized that it wasn’t in English. But I suppose my heart recognized the love, and that was what mattered. Even at three and four, I understood the emotion behind the words.
When I was five and a half, I suffered my first experience with losing a loved one. Suddenly, he was gone. Of course at that age, one doesn’t really understand death. All I knew was that I missed him, and my Mom cried a lot. As children do, I sensed I shouldn’t ask about him. But I spent a whole lot of time wondering when he was coming back. That was when I decided one way or another, I was going to reconnect with him.. Not quite sure how I would manage it, I was certain that I’d manage somehow. I just had to grow up a bit first………….
More next time.
Seen on a T Shirt: “You Can’t Scare Me, I Have Children”
Tags: pilgrimage
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January 21st, 2010
January often brings to me the need to clear some cobwebs. So off I went on a little walk, all bundled up and trying my best to avoid breaking another toe on the ice. The fresh air felt good as I strode along lost in thought. (unfamiliar territory, don’t you know). I became aware of movement behind me and a voice called “wash it! wash it!” Well, I was perfectly clean, but that situation was instantly rectified as I turned. I was met by a very large dog of indeterminate parentage who proceeded to place his very muddy paws on my chest. Such enthusiasm! Well, it never does hurt to make a new friend. If a little mud is the worst part of my day, I’m a lucky lady.
Good Night All!
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January 15th, 2010
I’ve been hugging some really big news to myself for several days now. Just absorbing it and taking it in. There is to be a major addition to my circle of women folk in the 
Spring, in the tiny person of a granddaughter. I’m so excited that my fingers are all over the keyboard. I cannot wait to meet and hold her. To nuzzle her neck and inhale that wondrous baby smell, kiss her tiny toes and blow gentle raspberries on her belly. I want to gaze at her and try and read all that magical baby wisdom that will be in her eyes. Most of all I want to hold her over my heart and settle in for a snuggle of marathon proportions.
For now she is safe and cared for where she is. My prayer and positive thought is aimed at a safe and swift delivery for our daughter-in-law, and the arrival of a healthy little one. I know my son and she will be wonderful parents, and thank them for the gift they will be giving us. My husband, man that he is, will think about the baby when she gets here. And never admit the silly grin he’ll wear the first time he holds her !
Gotta run and go buy something pink……………
Tags: baby, new granddaughter
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January 11th, 2010
I feel a cranky rant coming on. Seeing terrorism prevented and flight safety is very important to me. But how much of our constitutional rights to privacy and personal freedom should we sacrifice? I am not a child of the 60’s. I spent them in Catholic grammar school, graduating in 1969, and have been told that if I remember the 60’s (which I do) I wasn’t really there.
I have a friend with knee replacements who gets felt up in public every time she flies. She has two credit card looking things that have both a picture of each device as well as an x-ray of each knee with the knee replacement in place. Not sufficient she is told, so she stands there while some strange lady feels her up. Now, they are talking about virtual strip searches. You stand there with your arms up while someone at a remote location looks at your naked body. Nipples and breasts, testicles 
and penis, pubic hair triangle and buttocks along with your ass crack. Can’t you see the pedophiles and perverts lining up for the scanning jobs? The sexual predators glorying in the feeling of power resulting from being able to view the naked bodies of strangers whose only crime is wanting to travel by plane? The trauma experienced by the victims of rape and other sexual assaults? Is this what our country is about? Don’t you think that our founding fathers are twirling like tops in their graves?
Please, airline security people, don’t think that I’m labeling you all as horrible and sleazy people. But those type of people will be attracted to the position. I have often heard people using the line “if it saves one life..” But think about. How much are we willing to give up in the name of “safety” — which, of course is not guaranteed no matter what we do. In the late 1780’s Benjamin Franklin said “those who are willing to give up liberty for temporary safety deserve neither”. No matter how many cameras on the streets and searches at the airports and the wide spread use of wands, terrorism will happen again. In the meantime we will spend billions on security while knowing it won’t prevent what is bound to happen in the future.
So perhaps we should think very carefully about where we should go from here. In protecting America, do we want to lose the essence of what our country is about? I don’t have the answers, but I do know that what the USA stands for is very important. Let us be very careful in deciding where we go from here. There has to be away of balancing the question of safety versus the constitutional freedoms that our way of life is based on.
If anyone out there would care to comment, I’d welcome other opinions. Feel free to agree or rant back at me. That’s another thing our country is about. And we should revel in it.
Goodnight, folks……………
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January 6th, 2010
It’s been one of those weeks. I have lost everything at least once, and numerous things multiple times. Yet another cell phone went awol. I’ve got seven pair of scissors, and none of them can be located. Either when I’m shopping I’m convinced I’m experiencing a scotch tape shortage, or those little plaid devils are mating in dark corners. I’ve got 9 of them. Of course when I’m ready to actually wrap things and tape them, they’ll all be off in Vegas hitting the slot machines. I wouldn’t mind at all, if only they’d take me with them. Then there are my eyeglasses. Last night I left them at a restaurant. My husband was delighted to turn around and drive back to get them. I’ll fix him, I’ll yank the covers off him tonight in bed, wind them around me and pretend to be asleep. Just to see if he’s brave enough to wake me up to get them back, or if he’ll get up for another blanket. Losing things obviously makes me mean.
Seen on a T shirt; “I’m out of estrogen and I’ve got a gun” Of course that’s an old T shirt. These days it would get one arrested for sexually based terrorism or something.
Nighty night ladies!
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