Growin' Up in the Hills

My List of Cashier Pet Peeves

2012-02-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

1. Go ahead, rub it in, WE KNOW, "It's a beautiful day out there."

2. Don't bird dog the cigarettes - just ask for them!

3. I can think of better lies to tell you than "we are out of "your brand" of cigarettes."

4. I am sick of hearing, "I just made it this morning." when I check a bill to see if it's counterfeit.

5. I am sick of hearing, "It's good. It came from the bank," also. (they do not check them before they give them to you!)

6. If it takes you 5 minutes to dig out your money - GET ANOTHER SYSTEM!

7. If your purchase ends in ".00" please do not say, "Well that never happens." It happens all day long actually.

8. After you spend 5 minutes digging out the change to the penny and letting the line build up behind you - don't expect me to smile proudly back at you!

9. I won't be smiling at you while your child throws a screaming candy fit for half an hour and then you give in. If you are going to give in anyway, (99% do) give in immediately so we don't have to listen to it.

10. GET OFF THE @#!*ING CELL PHONE!!! Really, if you can't count money or sign your name what makes you think you can drive a car!

11. DON'T CUSS ME OUT WHEN I "ID" YOU. YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE RESPONSE YOU GET IN RETURN.

12. If your cell phone rings when it is time for you to pay, please pay and THEN answer the phone. I have yet to hear a NECESSARY conversation while we all wait for you to get off the phone.

13. If it costs too much, put something back.

14. FREE HELL! If anything is going to be free then "I" got dibs on it.

15. If the alarm is going off then the store is closed. If you weren't in the store AFTER closing you wouldn't hear it.

16, I am not locking you in when we close. I'm locking people out.

17, Give the old people a little extra time...that will be you someday.

Dedicated to Bob. My list isn't as funny as the one we made. Guess I don't have his touch.

Mifi Works iin the Basement of My Building

2012-02-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning at 5. Took fluid pills. They aren't working. The only thing worse than fluid pills working (meaning umteen trips to the bathroom) is fluid pills not working. That means I am retaining fluid and will be bogged down for the rest of the day.I can tell by my breathing it's going to be a long day.

That's alright. I have 4 loads of laundry in the dryer. When they finish I will go back to bed for the day. I have to rest before work this evening. This is my first time using mifi in the basement. I wasn't sure it would pick up. The free public one doesn't work down here but my ntelos does. By the way I finally paid my ntelos bill yesterday. Whoo Hoo!!! It was double this month because it was the first month. It will be a relief to pay half next month.

Then I stopped by the local IGA. I like to shop their instead of Walmart because it is a local business that has been there for years. I can tell by looking at the stock they carry that they are having trouble staying in business. They had a bunch of good sales and I stocked up on a few things. The last few times I have been there many prices were so high that I didn't really buy anything.

Just a quick aside: This IGA made the national news back in the nineties when a gas leak caused it to blow to smithereens! They were open when it happened and not one person got killed. A miracle if ever there was one. They rebuilt after and have been in business ever since.

I don't have to cook today. Last night I cooked a pot of kidney beans. Saved them at the last second from burning. I turned some of them into yummy baked beans and the rest into a pot of chili. It may sound good but it is all salt free and I have learned from people eating my cooking that it leaves a little to be desired. Oh well, I'm used to it.

I'm off to finish the laundry, breakfast and to sleep the day away before work.

Winter Heart Health Tips

2012-02-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

I got these from an article in Yahoo today.

1, Frigid air - just breathing cold air is enough to trigger chest pains. I try never to go out when the temp is under freezing or over 90. I have problems with heat as well

2.Vitamin D levels drop - didn't know that one. I guess if you are outside less you absorb less vitamin D. Makes sense.

3. Flu Shot - If I get the flu it is a hundred times worse that when a healthy person gets it. That's why it's recommended for anyone with a suppressed immune system and the elderly.

4.Overzealous workout - don't have to worry about that one. a minimal workout gets me. I try and try and I'll keep trying though. The article did say how to calculate your maximum safe heart rate. Take your age and subtract it from 220. Then multiply the result by 0.6. The result of that is your maximum safe heart rate and you should try to exercise at that rate for 20 minutes according to Yahoo. Ask your doctor first is the best policy. I remember when I used to laugh about that "ask your doctor first" thing.

5.Too much holiday cheer. Drink in moderation. My pharmicist told me I should be able to have a glass of wine now and then. I have tried it a couple of times. The effects are strong and severe. Most of my meds have "may cause dizziness" or "caution when driving lables". i stick to those now.

My Life's Dream is to Catch this Fish

2012-02-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

We've all heard about them. They are in the deepest, darkest parts of our rivers. They are bottom feeders, so we never get a glimpse of them. I have heard that they were underneath the silver bridge when it collapsed. That the divers were so scared that they refused to go back down to recover the bodies. They are so big that supposedly you would get sucked in just by their breathing if you swam in front of one. The size of a volkswagon even! I don't know if it's true, but I sure would like to catch one of them bad boys.

I also met a guy once who told me that he used to be an underwater welder. He said he quit when he was welding under a bridge one day. He thought he was standing on the base of the river. All of a sudden he felt the ground move under his feet. He wasn't on the bottom. He was standing on top of the biggest fish he had ever seen! It scared him so bad he never went back. Of course I have no way of verifying that story.

I have heard stories all my life about these fish. Since the advent of the internet and Animal Planet I have learned that similiar stories exist all over the country and all over the planet. Seems to me some of them must be based in fact.

I sure hope so. I'll keep tryin'

Today willl be a good day

2012-02-05T02:05:00.000-08:00

I woke up not too tired from work. Actually did some dishes and played on computer a little. Still have to rest more after last night. Here's what I HOPE to accomplish today:

1. pay intelos bill in person because I don't put my information on the computer ever.

2. Dollar Tree for monthly necessities that will cost me a fortune anywhere else. It is beside of intelos store.

3 I want to go in Walmart. I have a $5 coupon for vitamins and I'm supposed to start niacin. I think it will be cheaper than Fruth with my discount but there's a lot of walking in Walmart so I will have to see.

4. I have been wanting to try candied bacon. I think it will be my superbowl treat...even though I have no intention of watching the game and I have seen all the commercials.

5, Sweep my floor.

6, Talk to preacher about newsletter.

7. I have a couple of bags of donated clothes, including one blanket, I need to give them out but I have been waiting to see one particular guy that I think may need it the most.

8. Win a free sub from Penn Station. Have to go to the library to do that one. Haven't figured out how to hook up printer to laptop. I think it's possible but I am no where near ready to tackle that one.

9. If I win the free sub I will collect it when I go to dollar tree...penn station is next door.

10. Beat a few people at words with friends.

If I manage to do 4 of those I will be happy.

"Flying Needles! It's Flying Needles! Everybody Hide, It's Flying Needles!"

2012-02-04T21:07:00.000-08:00

We used to run through the yard jumping and screaming and hopping and skipping and holding our butts everytime we saw the flying needles. Flying needles were jets in the sky. You know the ones, you see them everyday with the jet stream behind them. The game was you would get a shot in the behind if you didn't hide - so we hid.

When we were kids we used to pretend they were flying needles and we would hide behind the garage and under trees and the porch - whatever the nearest hiding place was until we would look in the sky and they would be gone.

It only took about a minute for them to cross the horizon in Southern West Virginia. Where I am from the mountains are so close together that the jets would pass out of sight almost immediately leaving a trail of smoke behind them.

I happened to look into the sky today and I was reminded that the jets with their streams behind them still look like a needle and thread crossing the sky.

It was just a silly way to pass a little time as a kid.

I was having a good day until...

2012-02-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

I went to the community room just for a change of scenery from my apartment. I have to rest today because I am working tonight. Have to conserve my energy. Several people stopped to chat and everything was fine until one lady came in and she had just sprayed perfume all over herself. I had to ask her to leave. But it was too late the damage had already been done. She was very nice about it because she is on oxygen too and she understands. Her problem is aparently not as severe as mine.

It strangled me. Now I am back upstairs on my bipap and oxygen trying to clear my lungs before I have to go to work. They are relaxing. They were kind of spasming, trying to clear the fumes out. I could do an inhaler but it makes me crazy and I avoid it if at all possible. Oxygen seems more natural to me than the chemicals in the inhaler somehow.

That is one of the few things I miss. Scented candles, good perfumes (not cheap ones!) and roaring fires. I can't tolerate the smoke from a fire. Even scents that smell good cause me to have breathing issues. Cigarettes are intolerable...even outside.

I live in a completely scent free world.. a little touch of vanilla would be nice now and then.

I Got Religion?

2012-02-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSdOtyERuI

I posted this video as an example of what when on in church on that particular day that this blog is about. I do not post it to be disrespectful...just an example. The video is actually a mild version of what I saw....

I went to church once with a boyfriend and his family when I was 19 years old. It was a small country church the likes of which thousands dot the appalachian landscape. We went inside and there were around 20 people there of all ages and sizes. I sat in the back and watched as the preacher got wound up. He was preaching and praying and they had a band playing on the side and the congregation was getting just as wound up as he was. Finally there were 2 or 3 people on the floor speaking in tongues and everybody was dancing except for me and one other lady. I sat there mesmerized - I had never seen such a thing!

In the middle of all this chaos the other woman gets up to go to the restroom behind me. She comes back and I see that her dress is tucked up inside of her girdle. She was a large woman and the whole wide expanse of her backside was there for the world to see. She sat back down a few pews in front of me. I was relieved and I was going to discreetly make my way to her when the service was over so that I could prevent further embarrassment for her. THIS WAS NOT TO BE!

All of a sudden she "feels the spirit" and goes sprinting to the front of the church and now in the midst of the preacher ranting full force and the band playing and the people on the floor shouting to the Lord and everybody dancing there is this 250 pound woman twirling around with her dress tucked in her girdle and her giant white ass dancing before the congregation. I LOST IT! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY THE FUNNIEST THING THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN. THERE ARE NOT WORDS IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO DESCRIBE HOW INCREDIBLY FUNNY IT WAS. I had to go out to my car and wait for the service to end because I could NOT control my laughter. I still feel guilty to this day but there was nothing I could have done to prevent the situation.

Recipe for Congestive Heart Failure at a Young Age

2012-02-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

When you get Congestive Heart Failure at a young age you have to review your life and see what you have done to contribute to getting such a disease. So here is a "brutally honest with myself" list of how I have lived my life to get CHF at the age of 44. By the way I'm 49 now. I have outlived both my doctor's and the US government's estimations of how long I would live. This is directly because of the US government determining that I was eligible for disability and the changes I made in my lifestyle. I am light years better than I was 5 years ago even though I will never be 100% again.

The doctors say my CHF is due to sleep apnea. My veins and arteries are fine. My cholesterol levels are good - not perfect, mind you, good.

But what about my life got me to this point with not even a mild case of CHF - it is advanced?

1. Work somewhere between 70 to 90 hours a week. When you get off work party hard and play harder. Get somewhere between 3 to 5 hours a night sleep, to catch up, sleep all day about once a month. Do this for about 20 years.

2. Eat basically only meat and drink Pepsi for your entire adult life.

3. Smoke pot around the clock for 15 to 20 years and dabble in various other drugs. Cocaine and drugs that require needles are not necessary. (I am deathly afraid of needles) Prescription pill abuse is enough. Various pain pills, muscle relaxers and nerve pills will do. A 2 year period of tea and acid around the age of 20 probably contributed. No cigarettes what so ever although I was around a tremendous amount of second hand smoke. So much for pot smoking not hurting you.

4. Have a job you love like training greyhounds. Physical fitness is required. No sleep is also required. If I went more than 6 hours without going to the kennel (day or night) then I missed something I needed to do I was around an extreme amount of dust and dirt in the kennels, as well as pet dander, plenty of fecal matter too. The kennels were clean but I am the one who usually cleaned them.. I loved it though and I wish I could still do it.

5. Sex on average of twice a day for most of your adult life. (Good sex not "let's get it over with sex!") Don't know what this had to do with it but thought I would throw it in there.

6. Quit all these vices cold turkey. Keep eating like your job is physically demanding even though the job is sedentary work 70 to 80 hours per week. This is when I noticed I never slept. People around me noticed it as well. I told my doctors but they always seemed to shrug it off.

7. I personally think this is the biggest factor because I started noticing problems after starting this shot. Go on the Depo-Provera Birth Control Shot. I had an echocardiogram in 1999 that was completely normal. I started this shot in 2001. By 2006 my heart was shot! But if I had it to do over I would take the shot again because life with no periods is heavenly.

8. My divorce. I used to wonder how anyone could survive the pain of the break up of a marriage. I mean the actual physical pain to your heart. I believe a broken heart sometimes can't be fixed.

9. No support from family. They say family support is crucial in life. I wouldn't know because I never had any in my adult life. Let me add that I have had minimal support since being sick. I am not talking about just financial support either.

10. I was always slightly overweight. However I was in better physical shape than most women until my late 30's. I was invincible, I thought.

Do these things and you too can retire at the age of 44 on a measly Social Security check with no hope for the future of getting any better. Be happy to lie in bed all day and watch TV because you are too tired to get up and cook something.

I GUESS She Told Them

2012-02-03T07:58:00.000-08:00

I just came back from the grocery store. There were two middle eastern men following me all the way down the first aisle. I went around them and waited on them and just generally tried my best to shop around them but I was getting quite irritated. Especially when it became quite obvious that they were watching every move I made and intentionally getting in my way.

I looked up when I finally made it to the end of the aisle to see an older middle eastern lady standing there giving them one hard look. As I went by she let fly something in a middle eastern dialect but I could tell that she was expressing EXTREME displeasure. I don't believe it was directed at me, it was directed at the two men.

I was left alone to continue my shopping from that point on.

The Funniest Thing to Ever Happen at the Beach

2012-02-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

The funniest thing that ever happenned at the beach was when my 12 year old nephew had come down from West Virginia and we took him to the beach for the first time. He was so scared that he wouldn't even let the foam from the waves touch his toes.

Anyway a fat, old man wearing a thong walked by and believe me he had no business wearing such a thing! Dwayne laid down in the sand laughing so hard he was hysterical and pointing at the man. I desperately tried to no avail to stop him from such a public display of mirth because I was afraid the man would hurt us (even though he deserved the laughter). Anyway the man walked past us at first but then he turned around and started back toward us. It was obvious that he was pissed! I desperately tried to shut Dwayne up (the child had never seen anything like it). I was gratedful when the man turned around about 15 feet from us. I guess he had seen how desperately I was trying to control the situation because he turned around!

I was relieved beyond words.

National Wear Red Day is Today

2012-02-02T23:19:00.000-08:00

It is to show support for women's heart disease research. I have heart failure. Here is what a typical bad day is for me. When things are going well I have a couple of bad days a month. When things are bad, well....I take each day as it comes.

4 a.m. - take fluid pill

4 a.m. to 7 a.m. - go to bathroom about 5 times. On a bad day just lay back down and even sleep between trips. On a good day get the dishes and trash and such done.

7 a.m. - sleep ( I think the meds put me back to sleep about that time) I take them early so the effects will be over before I start my day.

9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. - wake up, bathroom again, perform my day's toilette

11:30 - meds again - lunch (buffer for meds)

force myself to go out and do some sort of errand. On a bad day just go back to bed and hope I feel better later in the day.

2 - I watched One Life to Live for 30 years. Trying to figure that one out now. Nap most days

3 p.m. - wake up, hope I feel like getting out of the house. I seem to have a 3 p.m. reset button in my body. I think it is from all those years in the dog business. During winter I try to do something outside because this is the warmest time of day. I can't breathe if the temperature is below 32 or over 90. Then I confine my activities to indoor. On a bad day I just lay down some more.

5 p.m. - work 2 or 3 days a week until 9 p.m.

9 p.m. - come home completely exhausted even if we weren't busy.

10 p.m. - meds again, eat again or meds will kill my stomach.

11:30 p.m. - sleep, hopefully until 4 but not usually

me on a bad day..................................................

How long does a groundhog live anyway?

2012-02-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

They said Punxsatawney Phil had been predicting the end of winter for the past 128 years. That seems unlikely to me. But we did have a groundhog in my hometown of Logan, West Virginia that lived at the mouth of the park for most of my life.

I don't ever remember taking a trip to the park when I was a kid without seeing that groundhog. He lived at the mouth of the park on the left side of the road in a very pretty grass filled, shaded area. You didn't even have to look for him. He was just there in plain site. Sometimes there would be a baby but there was always a groundhog there.

He/she was there throughout my childhood, my teenage years and my early adulthood when I spent almost every day at the park cooking out and hiking through the woods. I can even remember seeing the groundhog after I moved back from Florida and I was in my early 30's then.

I think I was in my 40's before I started to miss the groundhog. It hasn't been there for a few years now, but I miss it everytime I drive through the park. He was a fixture through out my childhood and it seems like something is missing when I visit and don't see that groundhog.

What About YIou? Stolen from SeaNymph who took it from Gayle

2012-02-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

-What is your favorite season and why?

- If you could live in any other time period what would it be?

- Do you love a particular planet or constellation or planet?

- ~ What is your favorite season, and why?

~ If you could live in any other time period, when?

~ Do you love a particular planet or constellation?

- Do you believe in heaven and what does it look like?

- What would be in your personal time capsule?

If you could come back as an animal what would it be and why?

Who are your 12 fantasy part guests ?

- what do you want to be doing when you die?

West Virginia Ends Year with a 5.4 million Dollar Surplus

2012-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

They have ended the year with a surplus for the past several years. One of the few states in the country to do so. Maybe people should pay more attention to what is actually going on here instead of making fun of the state.

Go Red for Heart Disease

2012-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

I have heart failure. Here is a picture of me and what it is to live with heart disease.

THE GREAT GOLF CART INCIDENT

2012-01-31T21:17:00.000-08:00

MY NEPHEW LOVES THIS STORY BECAUSE HE IS THE ONE WHO NEARLY KILLED ME!

WHEN HE WAS AROUND 10 YEARS OLD I WAS VISITING AND HE WANTED TO TAKE ME FOR A RIDE ON HIS GOLF CART. I HAPPILY WENT OUT WITH HIM AND GOT INTO THE CART WITH HIM. HE PROCEEDED TO CAREEN RECKLESSLY AROUND THE YARD LIKE WE WERE IN MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE!

I AM A DAREDEVIL AT HEART BUT I WAS ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE THAT WE WERE GOING TO TURN OVER AT LEAST 2 OR THREE DIFFERENT TIMES. THE MORE I SCREAMED AT HIM TO STOP THE FASTER HE WENT(LAUGHING CRAZILY ALL THE WHILE)USUALLY TURNING CORNERS ON 2 WHEELS MOST OF THE TIME. AT LEAST MY 2 WHEELS WERE THE ONES ON THE GROUND WHILE HE WAS DRIVING SIDEWAYS . I HAD TO HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE THE WHOLE TIME.

FOR YEARS AFTER THAT HE WOULD ASK ME IF I WANTED TO GO FOR A GOLF CART RIDE WITH HIM AND JUST CACKLE WITH LAUGHTER WHEN I LET HIM KNOW IN NO POLITE TERMS THAT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!

Now he is 21. He is a fine driver. Maybe a little too speedy but he probably inherited that from his auntie.

"Have you looked at the Sport's Illustrated model's face?"

2012-01-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

That is the question I asked my boss once. He was in love with a girl named Kristie, who would not give him the time of day. They came out with the Sport's Illustrated Cover Model Issue and I noticed that the model looked exactly like Kristie. (2001 issue)

Now John being the hot-blooded all-American male that he is - I could not resist asking him the question, so I headed back to his office. I told him I had a question for him and I also told him that he had to wait until I finished the question to answer. He was intrigued.

So I asked, "Have you looked at the Sport's Illustrated cover model's ...face." I could tell by the time I got to the point in the question when I said " Sport's Illustrated" he was chafing at the bit to answer me. He was ready to blurt out "yes!" until I actually said the word "FACE". Then he looked at me blankly and asked "why?"

Of course I started laughing because that was the exact response that I expected to get from him. I told him that I wouldn't tell him why but to go to the front of the store and "actually look" at her face and he would know the answer. He immediately wheeled around and headed for the front of the store.

He came back a few minutes later, magazine in hand, with a big smile on his face. He said "She looks just like Kristie." There was disbelief in his voice. I had to kid him some more and I told him if he wasn't such a sexist pig he would have known it without me having to point it out to him.

Have you ever noticed that a fair percentage of men actually talk to your boobs instead of looking you in the eye. You have to wave at them sometimes and yell "Hey, I'm up here!"

This is just another example of that.

Attention K-Mart Shoppers: Pay No Attention to the Fine Print...

2012-01-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

...or the grouchy customer service lady.

A few of you may remember that I went shopping at K-mart a few weeks ago and I got 2 $5 gift cards. One of them had an expiration date and one didn't. I forgot about the expiration date until yesterday when I was in my wallet and saw that it had expired the day before. I was dismayed because it was like throwing away 5 dollars.

to be finished lateer

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire!

2012-01-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

WHEN I MOVED BACK FROM FLORIDA IT WAS JANUARY AND I THOUGHT I HAD BROUGHT BACK ALL MY HEAVIEST WINTER CLOTHES. I QUICKLY DISCOVERED THAT AFTER LIVING IN FLORIDA FOR FIVE YEARS, I HAD NO WINTER CLOTHES. I ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT GET WARM.

I KEPT MY THERMOSTAT ON 90 DEGREES OR MORE AND WHEN PEOPLE CAME TO VISIT ME THEY COULDN'T GET THEIR BREATH BECAUSE IT WAS SO HOT IN MY HOUSE(THEY THOUGHT-NOT ME)

ONE DAY I HAD THE BRILLIANT IDEA OF HOW TO GET WARM.

I HAD A HAMMOCK.

I HAD A FLOOR FURNACE.

I SET UP MY HAMMOCK OVER THE FLOOR FURNACE.

THE WHOLE TIME I WAS WHISTLING IN ANTICIPATION OF FINALLY BEING WARM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A MONTH!

I EASED MYSELF INTO THE HAMMOCK AND IT TOOK ABOUT 10 SECONDS FOR ME TO DISCOVER THAT THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA. MY ASS WAS ON FIRE. I WAS LITERALLY COOKING OVER THE FLAME. TO MAKE THINGS WORSE THERE WAS VERY LITTLE ROOM ON EACH SIDE OF THE FURNACE (IT WAS IN THE HALLWAY) AND I HAD TO EASE MYSELF OUT OF THE HAMMOCK WITHOUT FALLING ONTO THE GRILL OF THE FURNACE BELOW! IT WAS TRULY AN "OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE" SITUATION.

AFTER EXTRICATING MYSELF FROM THIS PAINFUL SITUATION I LOOKED IN THE MIRROR AT MY BOTTOM. IT HAD GRIDDLE MARKS ON IT IN THE SHAPE OF THE HAMMOCK. MY ASS LITERALLY LOOKED LIKE TWO GIANT HAMS THAT HAD JUST COME OUT OF THE OVEN!

The Most Shocking Moment of my Life

2012-01-29T22:54:00.000-08:00

When I was little my mom says I stuck a barette in the electric outlet.

The electric shock was so fierce that I was thrown across the room.

After that I wouldn't even go into the living room. We had one of those houses that had the 4 doorways in the center and you could step into any room or walk in a circle. She said that I would always walk around the living room where the receptacle was after that. No matter what room I started in.

If I saw an electric outlet anywhere I would point and say, "BITES!"

I also have a scar on my hand that is the perfect shape of the grate of a floor furnace.

It is just bigger now because I got it when I was a baby.

Mom says I fell on the furnace one day before she coud stop me. She says she panicked and I fell several times on my hand and would stand up and lose my balance again before she caught me. She rushed me to the doctor and I had to wear burn cream and a bandage on my hand for a couple of weeks before it healed.

Now, on the palm of my hand, is the grate of a furnace.

It kind of looks like basket weaving.

Growing Up in West Virginia in the 70's

2012-01-29T07:19:00.000-08:00

It was a dirty place with trash strewn everywhere and abandoned cars all over the place. I remember when Secretary of State, A. James Manchin declared war on abandoned cars and litter. People said he was crazy at the time. He said as long as WV looked like a trash dump then people would treat it as a trash dump. He was right. Now we have a beautiful state that not many can compare to and tourism is one of the biggest industries in the state. It is growing every year.

I remember driving to my grandparents house. On the way to their homes there was trash alongside the roads. It was in the river and creeks and all along the banks with plenty of old, rusty appliances thrown in for good measure. There were burning slag piles that burned 24 hours a day for years. I couldn't understand how the fires didn't spread but my parents assured me that it was OK, because those fires had been burning longer than I was alive (some of them had been burning longer than my parents had been alive). There were 3 working coal mines on the main road to their house and both my pepaws worked at them. Pepaw Brennan was a boss in the mines. Pepaw Farley went on to work as a deputy sherriff and ran a large farm.

There were a few abandoned mines that looked really spooky. We were told to stay out because if we ever went in we would get lost and never come out. It was a very effective way to keep us alive because we believed it. The mines were not closed off, they were just there and you had enough sense to stay out of them (these were working mines in the 20's and 30's and sometimes even earlier in the century). Then there were the slag ponds. You could just tell that they were pits of death. Again, we were warned away by telling us that they were like quicksand and if you fell in you would never come out. Since there was no sort of fencing around them, these warnings kept us alive too.

We lived in the "better" part of town where money wasn't a problem and neither was trash. My dad was a wealthy car dealer and our neighborhood was full of local businessmen and the people who actually owned the coal companies. Many were influential in WV government too. I did not want for anything, I had every advantage that a child of the 70's could have. I had trouble fitting in with everybody at school because I was "a rich girl". So, the other "rich girls" and I formed our own gang and we did fine. We couldn't win - either we kept to ourselves which made us snobs or we tried to hang out with everybody else and were teased because we had it so easy.

Coal was king. We were taught to ALWAYS respect the coal miners because they ran the world. The union was at it's peak back then. The union was necessary because of the abuses of workers by the coal companies but there came a time when the unions were also abusing their power. The miners used to go on strike at the drop of a hat. Sometimes over even minor things. When this happenned everybody would just buckle down and wait for the strike to end. My dad always extended as much credit (for cars) to the miners that he could because he said, "they are good as gold, when the strike is over they will pay every penny." And they did.

In the 9th. grade we studied American Government. Mrs. Triolo told us that the next time Senator Byrd came up for election, that if elected again he would have senority in the Senate. She said he would turn down the position of President of the Senate so he could be the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Then he would be able to funnel money to the state and WV would finally get the help it needed...the rest is history. She told us she would "never" tell us whom to vote for but the most intelligent thing a person could do was to vote for Byrd because in the Senate, senority is everything.

It turns out she was very right.

I was a "Shit Chipper"

2012-01-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

What's a "shit chipper" you ask?

In the winter the dog poop freezes almost as soon as it hits the ground. The only way to pick it up is to take the shovel or rake and "chip" it off - then pick it up. This leaves little, frozen chips of shit that have to stay until the ground thaws!

Another effective method of removal is to just kick the pile and watch it fly through the air like a football!

My White German Shepherd Puppies

2012-01-28T05:14:00.000-08:00

I had 2 absolutely gorgeous white German Shepherds named Maxx and Skye. I especially adored Maxx. I got him from a man who mistreated him. When he brought him to me he had on a training collar (this means a collar with 2 inch spikes pointed IN TOWARD HIS NECK!) and and electric collar. The man kept telling me I had to control Maxx. I asked him if he had ever tried love. He just looked at me. It took me 2 months to heal the cuts on his poor neck.

Maxx and I had a few battles and I did have to show him who was boss but I also showed him love. He came to adore me and eventually turned into a big, white teddy bear. I bought 3 footballs for him and Skye and Disney to play with and Maxx wouldn't share. (he was big enough to enforce this afterall) He loved to run in circles with me throwing the footballs and singing "Maxie's got the ball!" over and over to him.

Skye was given to me when I was working the fuel desk at the TA truckstop. I saw her in the guy's truck and I asked him if that was a white German Shepherd. He said it was. I told him I had one. He laughingly asked if I wanted another one. I surprised him when I said yes. He gave her to me on the spot - papers and all!

I bred them about a year later. They had the puppies in the picture above. They were born in the winter and I built a doghouse big enough for Skye and her 8 puppies and me. (I fit in there halfway) I had a heat lamp in it for heat and it was quite cozy. They looked like little polar bears until they were about 3 weeks old and then they started to look like puppies.I had a ball raising them and started selling them for Valentine's Day when they were 7 weeks old.

Later Skye got pregnant again. This is when I went in the hospital with my heart condition. (I was dying) I had to find Maxx and a very pregnant Skye a home because I was unable to care for them. I gave Skye away instead of selling her to the best home I could because they agreed to take Maxx too.

My mom was furious with me because I wouldn't deposit all my animals in the shelter and move in the housing unit a few miles from her house. She still is for that matter. I managed to find everybody homes though and everything is working out.

Here is a list of animals that I had when I got sick. I found homes for all of them.

1. Maxx
2. Skye (pregnant)
3. Disney (lab mix)
4. Maltese
5. Chinese Crested
6. 2 cats

WV Bee Man

2012-01-28T02:22:00.000-08:00

I saw a man wearing a beard of bees! It was pretty cool. They advertized the exhibit to be done at the Capitol Market which is a local produce market. That was good because I knew there wouldn't be too much walking involved. I was walking along looking for it when I saw a booth with smoke coming out of it. So I made a beelinefor it.

There were 2 men in the booth from the WV dept. of Agriculture explaining that they were going to take a queen beeand put her in a box and hang it around the man's neck. So that is what they did and then they took a box of bees and POURED IT ON THE MAN'S HEAD! There were bees everywhere (in the booth). They immediately started to settle on the mans neck where the box with the queen was and in less that 30 seconds he had a full beard of bees.

It was enough to make me sqirm. He stood up and he started to face in different directions so the crowd could see. I had a video camera, so I filmed it. I would like to put it on here but you can't upload stuff at the library (that is why there is no picture of me). He wore the beard of bees for about 10 minutes and then he bent over the hive and jumped and most of the bees just fell off into the hive. It was really quite interesting.

Just so you know they said the bee population in West Virginia is doing quite well. There are over 1000 beekeepers in the state. They said there are no wild bees left. If there are any in the wild they said that they just escaped from the hives. Apparently it is only you city people that need to worry about the declining bee population and I worry about you as much as you worry about West Virginia.

I made 3 videoes. They are in my video section because I couldn't get them to post here for some reason.

Thursday Thoughts

2012-01-27T03:37:00.000-08:00

1. Well shoot, it's Friday

2. duh, duh, duh, duh

3. I need a nap

4. zzzzz.....

It's the Boogerman!!!

2012-01-26T20:59:00.001-08:00

I remember my Pepaw Brennan coming home from the mines and being black as night from head to toe except for the whites of his eyes and his teeth. I was terrified! He would flash those pearly whites at me and I would run screaming in the other direction. I was so scared that if he knew I was there he would stop and rinse off in the creek before he came home so he wouldn't scare me. I do seem to recall the devilish glint in his eye though, so MAYBE he kind of enjoyed it too.

He would make sure that he left something in his dinner bucket for the kids too. (my aunts and uncles are just barely older than I am) Nothing tasted so good as a pack of nabs or a moonpie from that lunch box. Occasionally there would be some "vi-een-nies in there (vienna sausages - that's how we say it around here). We would open that can and share the little sausages. They were great! However you can't pay me to eat one now.

That's my Pepaw and Granny Brennan. The kids are my dad and Aunt Wanda

As I reread this blog I wonder if my pepaw used to actually wash in the creek. They spent my childhood telling me to stay out of that creek because it was full of sewer and mine runoff. I know now that most coal mines had showers for the miners. I am thinking that maybe that is just one of those stories that pepaws tell their grandkids.

My Poor, Poor Brother

2012-01-25T22:38:00.000-08:00

When we were in grade school the kids on the school bus substituted a whole box of "feen-a-mints" (laxitive product for those of you too young to know) for a whole box of "Chicklets" (gum - again, for those of you too young to know). They gave the whole box to my little brother. He promptly gobbled the whole box down.

HE DIDN'T MAKE IT OFF THE SCHOOL BUS BEFORE THE EFFECTS OF THE ENTIRE BOX HIT HIM - AND HIT HIM HARD! We were all rolling deliriously in the aisles. My poor brother (and the bus seat unfortunately) were an awful mess.

Of course I have the good sense now to feel guilty about it. I didn't know then that we could have killed him doing such a thing. In my defense the idea was not mine although by the time the "chicklet" box made it to him, I did know about it.

YEARS LATER MY BROTHER GOT EVEN WITH ME! One day out of the goodness of his heart (we were in junior high then). He brought me some scrambled eggs. Such kindness should have immediately been suspect but I graciously accepted the eggs and ate them. WHAT A MISTAKE! Within 5 minutes I was running to the bathroom. I didn't quite make it. He never would tell me what he put in those eggs!

Some of MY Political views

2012-01-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

1. Nobody should pay 30% of their income...I don't care how much they make. But everyone should pay the same amount. No deductions. No shelters. My dad told me once that the man who makes $100,000 can pay $10,000 easier than the man who makes $10,000 can pay $1000.

2. I am pro abortion. I hate it but that's the way it is. Most women would never get an abortion if the men in their lives would support them. We need to change the way we raise our boys when it comes to birth control and family.

3. I believe there is a happy medium to drilling for oil and mining coal. It can be done so that it is environmentally responsible - not just the cheapest way to maximise profits.

4. I believe that if we don't have good roads and bridges then we should quit building sidewalks and parks until we get them.

5. Go back to low interest student loans. I got my loans for 3%. Now they pay 18%. Who thought that brilliant plan up anyway?

6. When someone's insurance drops them because they reached their lifetime limit, do you think they just stop being sick? NO! Then the government steps in and pays for their medical care which means taxpayers are paying for it.

7. When companies drop retiree benefits because they are too expensive (even though the employees paid into their company retirement), who do you think picks up the slack? The United State Government does - which means you. Then the CEO gets a big bonus for saving the company money

8. When coal companies and chemical companies shut down and file bankruptcy, they don't clean up the mess they leave behind. The government steps in and pays millions of dollars to do it.

9. There has been tremendous progress on the environmental front in the past 30 years. That is why you see white smoke coming out of smokestacks instead of black smoke.

10. America is the greatest country ever!

Oh yeah, I'm glad we are out of Iraq. Bin Laden is dead so it's time to leave Afghanistan. Fuck Pakistan. They are stabbing us the back while they are taking billions of dollars. If they try to nuke sombody we can nuke them first and decrease our stockpile. It will kill 2 bird with one stone.

if they want peace...so much the better. so do I. then nobody gets hurt.

We should not do business with China or any country that uses slave labor. We won the cold war because we DIDN'T do business with the Soviet Union for decades. NOT because Reagan said,"tear down this wall"

WHY I HATE FERRELL GAS

2012-01-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here is why I will never use natural gas in my home again.

One time I moved into a trailer that had one of those giant natural gas tanks beside it. It was January. It was freezing. I called Ferrell Gas to come fill it up and I learned that the minimum order was $500. I only had $250. They told me I would have to wait until they were driving past my house anyway that they would not make a special trip. The woman also told me I should have called when I was down to 1/3 a tank. It didn't matter to her that I had just moved into my house.

I called everyday for 10 days to see if they would be coming by that day. In the meantime I was freezing - literally, not figuratively!

One day she even had the nerve to say to me, "honey, you don't understand. He has to pull up to your tank and drag that big ole hose up to your tank and stand there and fill it up and it just isn't worth it for $250! I cut her off and told her that wouldn't be any harder than filling up the gas tank to my car for $25.

Finally they came on the 10th. day of a freezing January winter day. That tank lasted me until March. It was late enough in the year that I told my landlord that I would do without heat until he could install the smaller tanks. They held around 10 gallons or so. I told him if he didn't change the tanks that I would move before winter. If I had $500 to fill oxygen tanks then I wouldn't be renting a $200 a month trailer to begin with. He agreed and he changed the tanks.

I cost Ferrell Gas that account and I have also got other people who were thinking about using them for business to not have their tanks installed. I will forever cost them any money I can so that their drivers won't have to worry about dragging that big ole hose to another house!

The Adventure of Pam and Megan

2012-01-25T12:18:00.000-08:00

At least it was an adventure for me. Poor Megan's dad had a stroke and he was in the hospital 3 hours away. She had no way to get there, so I volunteered to take her if she paid for the gas. She readily agreed. I was happy to take her because I haven't been anywhere for a couple of years, partly because of my health and partly because of the price of gas.

We left this morning and had a good time on the way up just talking away. It surprised us both when we got there because the ride went so quickly. I only had one wrong turn the whole way and I corrected it immediately. I also took healthy snacks so I wouldn't be tempted by high salt fare but that didn't last. She had forgotten to eat so we swung by Burger King and I couldn't resist, so I got a whopper jr. At least I didn't get the big one so that was am improvement.

We got to Morgantown and I was following my directions from the internet to the hospital when Megan saw a sign that said we were going the wrong way. I turned around and we figured out pretty quickly that the hospital wasn't going to be in out in the sticks somewhere so we turned around again. We were wondering if we were going the right way again when Megan saw the "big H" signifying we were on the right road to the hospital, so we went on our merry way.

We decided to stop and ask some guy where the hospital was and happily we were only a couple of blocks away. We forgot to get gas though and we had even asked for directions at a gas station! I dropped her off at the hospital and told her to call me in an hour and let me know if she wanted to stay or leave. If she wanted to stay that was fine but she would have to come out and buy my gas so I would have enough to get home. I went to find somewhere to stretch my legs.

I was looking for a store where I could blend in or something but I couldn't find one. I ended up making a wrong turn and riding over the hills and valleys which Morgantown is famous for. I kept driving until I happened upon a strip mall that I remembered seeing when I first left the hospital. I was thrilled. I wasn't lost anymore.

I decided to go to a Pizza Hut and eat a few wings. Mostly because I needed to use a restroom and I knew wings were on sale on Wednesday at Pizza Hut and I had always wanted to try them. I saw when I went in that they had free wifi and that thrilled me because I had brought my laptop with me and I was worried that I had used too much data on my mifi. I ended up not using it though. I took the time to call ntelos and ask them what happened if I went over my data plan and I found out I had read my bill wrong. I had only used 8% of my time so I can mifi all I want to apparently.

By this time I was getting tired and wishing Megan would call and she did. She didn't want to leave her dad so I picked her up and bought gas and dropped her back off. So far, so good....but that was the end of so far, so good.

I got back on the interstate and had driven about 20 miles when I started to think something was wrong. I wasn't using good judgement in my driving, so I put on my oxygen. I felt better. I wore it awhile and took it off. I wanted to stop at a rest area but it was closed so I had to drive 40 miles to another. I thought I was doing fine until I got out of my truck. I was dizzy. I was so dizzy I had to hold on to my truck.

I got a bottle of water out of the back and sipped it. I ate some carrots with ranch dressing thinking they might pick me up. I made myself relax and breathe some good cold air and I knew I had no business driving but I was still 2 hours from home. I had no choice but to press on.

I got in the truck and cranked my O2 as high as it would go and felt better again immediately. I took off for home with the knowledge that I needed to make sure that I made every move perfectly and double check every thing I did. I played silly games to keep myself aware and I changed my oxygen to the pulse setting that normally irritates the hell out of me but I knew it would keep me alert. It did.

I made it home, proud that I did it without mishap. Then I got out of my truck to come in and once again I was aware that I was doing terribly. But I'm home now. I put on my oxygen and bipap so the high powered air hit me (portable oxygen isn't as good as the home oxygen. it doesn't have the same power)

I wasn't home 5 minutes and I feel fine. I am resting. There will be no more road trips for me. It was too much. Thankfully all the excitement happened after Megan left. She didn't need my drama on top of her dad's right now. He is in ICU and could use your prayers. For those of you that say,"well, she could have driven." She can't drive a standard.

EVERYBODY SHOULD LEARN TO DRIVE A STANDARD!

I Won?

2012-01-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Here's the newest in the saga of Pam and Eddie. For those of you who don't know, Eddie and I have been hanging out for a couple of years. We break up and we argue and we get back together and we do it all over again. I have never had a relationship like this and one of the reasons I put up with his stuff is because I am so sick and he helps me when no one else will. We also live in the same building so we can't keep from running into each other.

He told me Monday he was moving.

I told him, "good, I don't want to see you anymore. Don't visit me and I won't visit you. A clean break is what I want and need and now I can have it."

He didn't like this. I quit taking his phone calls. He wanted to borrow my truck to move and I told him no because I don't even want to know where he lives that way I won't be tempted to "stop by".

Today he came to me and told me he won't be moving. When I asked him why he said,"something just didn't feel right about it." I stopped by his apartment last night. On his list of things to take care of in the move he had also doodled my name all over it. Looks like he did some soul searching to me but he would never admit it in a million years!

I am happy.

I Donated My Body to Science

2012-01-24T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have donated my body to Marshall University.

I have always been an organ donar but because I have heart failure and COPD they probably won't have much use for most of my organs. I figure there is so much wrong with me that somebody might as well learn something from it.

One big benefit is that there are no burial expenses. I am preregistered at Marshall. It is in my file at the hospital and I also have a card identifying me as a donar to Marshall University that is right behind my driver's license in my wallet. They will call my uncle and he will call Marshall and that will be that. I think this will also eliminate stress on my mom as well.

For some reason people like to tell me horror stories like it will matter - "Hell, I'll be dead. What do I care what happens to me?" One person told me I'll be kept in a big vat and pickled with other bodies then they'll pull me out with a big meat hook????

I have an aunt that is a doctor. I remember when she would come home from medical school she would tell us stories about her "friend". That is how she referred to her cadaver. She said you could even play music on their intestines. Sounds like a good time to me.

My Most Dishonest Customer Ever

2012-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

One time I had a customer give me a $5 bill but I thought she gave me a $50 bill. I gave her change back for the $50. We were super busy and I moved on to the next customer but I looked up to see her looking at me with a strange look on her face so I asked her if anything was wrong. She said "no" and raced out the door.

I didn't think anything about it until about a half an hour later when someone gave me a $50. I saw a $5 in the slot and my heart sank to my stomach. I knew exactly what I had done and who I had given the money to. She was well aware that I gave her too much change and she didn't have the decency to say not one word about it. I immediately called my boss and told him what happened. We counted my till and it was as I thought. I was $50 short.

Fortunately they didn't make me pay it back but they had every right to because the fault was all mine.

The real kicker was that the woman had bought BOGO bags of chips so she was already getting a free bag of chips. She made about $47.00 on the deal.

Tonight I was $50 short in my till. I'm hoping they find it in the paperwork which is what usually happens. Usually I know exactly why my money is messed up but I don't have a clue this time.

Proper Technique to Cook a Squirrel

2012-01-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

My ex and I had an agreement. He would hunt them and clean them. I would cook them and eat them.

You fry the young 'uns'. They will fall apart when boiled.

Boil the old ones. They are too tough to fry. Then make some gravy and dumplin's and mashed potatoes and biscuits...

mmm mmm good!

Quinn Computers comes through for me: January

2012-01-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

Eddie has let me use the key to his apartment to watch tv when he has left town several times.

Lisa gave me some more clothes to put out for people in the building. I kept a scarf for myself.

Fruth gave me a snowglobe to use for a Bingo prize. They loved it so much they used it for the prize for their coverall game. I found out who was stealing the bingo prizes that I was donating from Fruth when they had the bingo a couple of years ago. It was William. He was a member of the Council. There is a Council that is elected to run activities for the building. I gave William and Tammy a very large portrait of the World Trade Center when they were the council members to use for a Bingo prize. It was a beautiful picture that was supposed to light up and didn't. That is why Fruth donated it. I know it never made it to the bingo game. I mentioned this when I was dropping off the snowglobe (there is a new council now. I cut the other people off when I discovered they were stealing). Linda heard me and told me that when William moved out he had a picture of the World Trade Center and he had bought tube lights and wrapped them around it. Tammy was there when I gave it to them to use for bingo. So she knew William kept the picture. William has since moved and Tammy died.

THE BIG GOOD DEED ALERT:

My brand new computer got a virus. I didn't even have it for 2 weeks. I called the man who sold me my Intelos mifi and asked him about it. He fixed it for me for free! He owns a business called Quinn Computers.

I've Been Reading My Own Blog

2012-01-22T16:22:00.000-08:00

Not too shabby if I say so myself!

I haven't done that since I first started blogging around 5 years ago. I did it once about 6 months after I started and it was so boring that I started another blog called "pamblahh". It was supposed to be "pamblagh", a play on words about a boring blog but unfortunately a typo messed it up and I didn't know how to fix it.

Now pamblahh is dead (except for email) because 360 shut down. I managed to save many of my early, boring blogs at my other multiply blog. It is under Pam Brennan in my friend section. I warn you it is excruciatingly boring!

It is full of political stuff and stuff that I wrote just to try to get a rise out of people. I still like to get a rise out of people but I don't say nearly the outrageous things I used to say.

I'm on page 20 now which means I've probably read around a hundred of my own blogs. Many of them I have forgotten. But most are good and should not be forgotten which is why I wrote them in the first place.

All my stuff is original. I may not hit a homerun every time but at least I go to bat.

"You Know When You Get Mad Your Hair Stands Straight Up!"

2012-01-22T02:59:00.000-08:00

After working in the dog business for about 10 years I had acquired the vocabulary of any male construction worker. One day we were trying to catch a dog that someone had accidentally let go. Everytime we would just about have the dog in a place that we could get it, two new kennel workers who didn't know any better would come thundering up and scare the poor dog off again. After this happenned 3 times I told them they were scaring the dog off and to calm down so we could catch it.

We promptly caught the dog.

Unfortunately one of the new workers took offense because I had presumed to tell him what to do. As I was walking back to my kennel he followed me the whole way telling me off. I was ignoring him because quite frankly he was too new for me to pay any attention to. After I had walked a couple of hundred feet I decided that I had heard enough and I turned around and heatedly told him off using my rather extensive, profane vocabulary. He stood there, his mouth agog, and didn't say another word. When I had finished with him he slinked back to his kennel with his tail tucked between his legs. I really didn't think anything else about it. That is, until I went into the guardshack after I finished my work.

All of the guys were in there and they were laughing. One of them looked at me and told me that he had heard the kid cussing me that morning and he was on his way out of the kennel to defend me when I tore into the poor guy. He said, "you know that when you get mad, your hair stands straight up!" (I have very long hair too) "You didn't need me to defend you! You took care of him all by yourself." And then all the guys went nuts laughing again.

Of course they rode the new kid's ass unmercifully after that and he quit a few days later. I won't take credit for him quitting because in the dog business a new helper lasts about 3 weeks before they quit. That is why I wasn't even interested in responding to his tirade in the beginning but a girl can only take so much.

The Problem Isn't the Debates, It's the Media Coverage of the Debates

2012-01-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

I don't have cable so I have missed most of the Presidential Debates. I have tuned in to the network news following each debate only to see coverage of the most inconsequential sound bites. There is never any mention of any candidate's stand on any issue.

It isn't just one network either. It is all of them. They can't even cover different meaningless comments. They all cover the same one. As far as I'm concerned all of the major news networks can stop wasting their time and mine with any coverage of any debates

Buried in the Snow

2012-01-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

I used to have a samoyed and a husky. They were beautiful animals and it just so happened that the husky was probably the smartest dog I ever had while the samoyed was the absolute, without a doubt dumbest. He was sweet and loveable and beautiful though.

They used to go nuts when I would pull up in the wintertime with a fresh bale of straw. They would jump and do backflips and all the crazy things dogs do when they are ecstatic about the world around them. They couldn't wait for me to stuff it into their dog houses and I would have a hard time doing it because I couldn't keep them out while I was stuffing it as full of straw as I could. Once I did finish they would burrow inside and peek through the curtain on their door every so often just to make sure they weren't missing out on any goings on around them.

I would be pleased as punch that my dogs were happy and warm on a cold winters day and so were they. Then I would go inside and wait on the snow. It never failed. Not one time would I look outside the next morning and both the husky and the samoyed in their nice warm houses. Instead they would have dragged every bit of the straw outside and they would be asleep in the snow on top the straw with the snow piled on top them. They were never happier than they were when they had a layer of snow on top of them

I also had an otterhound once. Emily was the clumsiest of the clumsy. But she would break ice in the wintertime to go swimming. When she hit the water she was one of the most graceful animals I had ever seen. She actually looked like a giant sized otter swimming in the water. When she was finished she would come bounding over to me covered in ice cycles. I would have to take her into the house and warm her up and dry her off. Although she loved to break the ice to go swimming, once she was out of the water it was a whole another ballgame. She was ready to come in and warm up by the stove and maybe get some warm milk to drink.

Emily, the otterhound, and my greyhounds made a great team. Otterhounds hunt by scent and greyhounds hunt by sight. Emily would catch the scent of wild game in the air and lumber off in their direction with her nose in the air to catch whatever scent was wafting by. My greyhounds learned to run her down and they would tear off into the woods looking for whatever she had scented. I don't know if they ever caught anything but I do know they had one hell of a good time trying.

I got Queenie when I lived at Frogs Creek. People would stop me and say, "you know, I clocked that dog doing 40 mph!" I would laugh and tell them,"well, when she hits 45 let me know and we'll put her back on the track again."

They would also stop and ask me how she had beat them home when they had seen her on the other side of the mountain. I pointed out that they had to drive around the mountain on a curvy, winding road. All she had to do was come over it.

Blizzard of '77 (my greatest school year ever)

2012-01-20T07:23:00.000-08:00

When I was in the 9th. grade we had a massive snowstorm that kept us out of school for most of January and February. It started off as a typical school year, just going to school day after day. It had been years since we had a snow day off from school. When it came time to go back to school after Christmas break the skies opened up and the most we went to school for the next 2 months was 2 days a week. Usually it was only one day a week. This was back in the days when they didn't make you make up the days at the end of the year or have 2 hour delays or any of that pain in the ass stuff.

Then in early March I was waiting for the bus and no one else was there. This was unusual. A passing car stopped and told me that the wall had fallen at Central and school was cancelled. I went home to listen to the radio and sure enough the retaining wall had fallen at our junior high school. Central Junior High School was perched up on the side of the mountain overlooking Logan, West Virginia. It was built behind a massive retaining wall that was easily 50 or 60 feet high. We were out of school for a week while they decided what to do with us. There was no way the wall could be repaired before the school year was over.

They decided to send us to East Junior High School - our arch rivals. To minimize the possibilities of fights we started school an hour after the East kids and we went home an hour earlier than they did. We also had staggered lunch hours so that we didn't take lunch at the same time. I think some of the teachers were more traumatized by the move than we were and we learned quickly how to take advantage of the situation. We were particularly thrilled when Mrs. Triolo and Mrs. Mendez got into a fist fight because Mrs. Triolo called Mrs. Mendez a dike! Boy, was that a story!

Some teachers padded our grades, saying we were traumatized and upping them a whole letter. (Not that it mattered to me. I was an "A,B" student anyway so that didn't help me much.) We got every concession that a teacher could possibly give a student. Some didn't even give tests for a whole month so that we could adjust to the situation.

Then in May there was a massive flood. There was about 6 feet of water in East Junior High School. It took a week for the river to subside and then another week for them to get the school cleaned up so that we could go back again.

By then there was about 2 weeks to go and school was out. I started High School the next year so I am not sure but I think that it took several years to fix the wall and the kids at Central continued to go to East well into the next school year.

One Time We Built the World's Biggest Snowball

2012-01-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid we made the world's biggest snowball. This monumental effort started out with just a couple of us, but by the time we were finished every kid in the neighborhood was helping. Now keep in mind that this was in the 70's before kids had their own cellphones. Back then kids had an inborn radar and we just knew when something big was going on and everybody seemed to show up at the right time.

We started out with me and Rhonda rolling a snowball to make a snowman. Pretty soon the snowball was so big that we couldn't roll it anymore but Mark McCoy just happened to be walking by and he joined us in the big push. That snowball was getting pretty big by this time and Rusty and Sissy and Billy joined in. We used 3 yards (I mean yards that we played in, not yards as a unit of measurement) full of snow to make that snowball. Somewhere along the way Ricky, Arville and Jamie began pushing with us and then low and behold if the two Jeffs didn't show up.

This massive snow boulder ended up in the middle of the basketball court. It was taller even than the biggest boys! It ended up staying in the middle of the basketball court because we couldn't move it another inch. With every kid in the neighborhood pushing, that snowball still wouldn't budge. It was so tall that we couldn't even climb on top of it.

The snow boulder stayed where it was until the middle of May. We hated it by that time because like I said it was in the middle of the basketball court. It also was in the way of our "endless circle" where we rode our bikes for hour after hour. We beat it with basketballs and wiffleball bats trying to make it disappear. It did for awhile make a most excellent bike ramp for those who had enough nerve to make the jump. Anyway it was a monumental effort that I have yet to see be duplicated to this day.

The Things Little Old Ladies Get Away With

2012-01-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

I took Eddie to the doctor today so he took me to lunch at Captain D's. We were sitting there eating when all of a sudden I felt 2 hands grab my hair. I was just on the verge of whipping around and walloping some crazed offender. (a reflex from too much hair pulling when I was a kid) But the hands were gentle and they were actually cradling my long, blonde hair when I heard a woman exclaim, "beautiful. just beautiful."

I had maintained control of my reflexes as I looked at Eddie with a "what in the world?" look in my eyes.

I had caught a glimpse of two little, old ladies out of the corner of my eye as I settled into my chair, meanwhile they never knew anything was amiss. The one lady asked the other if she had ever seen anything so beautiful and her friend answered, "why no, I don't believe I have."

It was really a harmless situation to be in and they meant it all to be a compliment but I had no idea that someone was going to grab me from behind and to say they startled me would be to put it mildly. I kept my composure and thanked them for the compliment as they made their way to the door.

It reminds me of the stories my mom used to tell us about her mom. Granny loved her visits to the local 10 cent store. They had a really good snack bar there and I still crave their club sandwiches to this day. Granny and my Aunt Mary Ann would go to the 10 cent store every third of the month when they got their checks with all the other old people in our hometown. It was a ritual that everybody would get together and pay their bills and shop when they got their check. They would also go there anytime they had a doctor's appointment or any other business in town.

Mom said that several times she received a call from the management of the 10 cent store asking her to come collect her mother. It seems that granny felt that one certain booth was hers and she wasn't shy about claiming it. If someone was having lunch there, she would just go sit in the booth with them and tell them "not to mind me, I'll just wait here until you're finished." She would also clean away their dirty dishes to hasten their departure. Sometimes before they were finished eating.

I never witnessed my granny doing this stuff but I'm sure that those people felt much the same way I felt today as that little, old lady cradled my hair in her hands.

The Greatest Sandwich I Ever Ate

2012-01-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

...was at Denney's Restaurant believe it or not. I don't know if they still have them because there are no Denney's in WV that I know of.

The sandwich was called a Megamelt Grandslam. It was a wonderous confection on toasted sourdough bread. It had roast beef, turkey and ham with provolone cheese. What set it apart is the perfect slab of banana pepper on the sandwich with a slice of tomato and mayo.

mmm mmmm good!

It was the inspiration for my world famous pamburger. I cook my burgers on my George Foreman Grill and I grill my buns as well. Then I top it with cheese, banana pepper, tomato and mayo. They are positively addicting. Ask Eddie!

"So, what's my punishment anyway?"

2012-01-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

We had been married around 2 years when Bobby and I were at the Laundromat. We were folding clothes when all of a sudden he irritatedly blurted out, "If you don't start turning your clothes right side out when you take them off, I'm just going to start folding them that way!"

My eyebrows shot up as I realized that this was a brilliant idea! I told him, "Go ahead, that's the best idea I ever heard." He just shook his head in disgust and resigned himself to the fact that I am a hopeless slob.

I've been folding my clothes inside out ever since.

Although it is occasionally embarrassing to go outside because I failed to notice that I put them on that way.

I Shop for Clothes Twice a Year...

2012-01-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

...for the most part. I go the third week of January when the discounts seem to be their deepest and I go in August when the back to school sales are happening. Even though I don't wear kid's clothes it doesn't matter because they put all the clothes on sale in August.

I went to K mart this week and they had clearance on their clearance. Also if you spend $50 this week then they give you a $5 gift card. In effect giving me a 10% discount on the clearanced clearance items.

Here is what I bought:

A wonderful, warm coat/cape. Originally $80 and I got it for $33.

2 long, bohemian style skirts for $7.79 each. Keep in mind I have to buy plus sizes that usually cost $2 more per item.

2 long sleeved, lace trimmed t-shirts for $7.19 each

4 tank tops for $4.79 each. (these are my uniforms at home)

Lace cami for $4.79

Playtex bra for $15.99 in my hard to find size of 44B

Gold Tree Skirt for $3.74

7 silver ornaments for $3.78

50 multicolored lights for $2.49

20 green lights for .74

I went home with 2 $5 gift cards because I broke the purchases into 2 purchases. I don't understand people who know they get a card for every $50 and they spend tons of money on one purchase and only get one card.

Ever Eat Snow Ice Cream?

2012-01-17T03:37:00.000-08:00

We used to make snow ice cream when we were kids. We would go out on the balconey and get some of the snow that was piled high on the bannisters. Then we would go back in the house and add a little cream and sugar and Viola! Snow Ice Cream!

Every kids dream.

Remember the old sleds? The wooden ones with the metal runners? They have gone the way of the dinosaur now. Lost like so many of our old toys that were apparently too dangerous to play with. Back in those days our parents actually taught us to be careful so that we could have fun and not get hurt. Sleds are gone. Even Jacks are gone. You can buy plastic versions but it is just not the same.

I think there was something to be said for having to use a little care when you played with something. We knew there was a possibility of getting hurt so we WATCHED WHAT WE WERE DOING!

I know we were supposed to be able to steer these things but I don't remember the steering EVER working. It was part of the fun.

Everybody Knows It's Not a Real Holiday Anyway

2012-01-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Switcheroo

2012-01-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

When I was taking care of my dad I bought him one of those Siamese Fighting Fish. He loved it. I bought it at Walmart in a vase with a Peace Lilly in it to provide oxygen for the fish. The fish spent his time swimming through the roots and my dad had a lovely time feeding it and would sit mesmerized for hours just watching the fish.

One morning I walked into the bathroom and I saw a blue blob in the floor. I didn't know what in the world it could be so I looked closer. It was daddy's fish. Apparently the cat had managed to swipe the thing out of the vase. I still don't know how she did it because the vase and the plant were completely undisturbed.

I was completely dismayed by my find because I didn't want daddy to be upset because his health was so delicate. So I rushed off to Walmart to buy a replacement before he woke up. I arrived home just in time to witness daddy wheeling himself up to check out his fish for the first time that morning. He turned to ask me where his fish was and I was standing there with as close a copy as I could manage to pluck from the Walmart aquarium in my hand.

He had caught me red handed and there was nothing I could do but confess. So, I broke the news to him that his beloved fish had met it's demise at the hands of Shirley the Cat. He burst out laughing and started to congratulate the cat for a job well done!

We deposited the fish back in the vase and daddy had a good time every morning going to check and see if the cat had another successful night fishing again.

Ooooh, You!!

2012-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

One day I pulled into work and Gina was on the loading dock dancing and doing a cheer. "Yah, Pam's here! She'll take care of this kitty!" I walked past her and ignored what she was saying completely.

All day long Gina told me how much that cat needed a home and how she was sooo glad that I would take her. I never said a word. Lunchtime rolled around and somebody asked me what I was going to do with the cat and I said, "nothing." Poor Gina's mouth flew open and she said, "How can you say that? You rescue everything."

I told her I was sorry, but I couldn't take the cat home. When it was time for me to go home I left with Gina begging me to take the cat with me - I didn't. The next day Gina went around telling everybody what a wonderful cat she took home. I just smiled.

A week later I was talking on the phone with a friend and I was telling them how I got a home for a cat on the dock the week before. Gina heard me and exclaimed, "YOU DIDN'T FIND A HOME FOR THAT CAT. I TOOK IT HOME!"

I looked at Gina and smiled and I said, "Gina, I KNEW you would take that cat home. If I had taken her home she would still be looking for a home. Now she has the greatest home on earth because you thought I didn't have a heart and wouldn't save her."

Gina looked at me and smiled and said, "Ohhh, Youuu!"

She knew she had fallen into my trap.

Visual Personality Test

2012-01-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1HpTwl/personality.visualdna.com/1/index.php/

You're a Harmonizer

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You're a Harmonizer. Altruistic and thoughtful, you're generous with your time and energy and definitely like it best when everyone's getting along. You often put others' needs before your own and find it easy to see different perspectives on the same problem. Reliable and trustworthy, you seek harmony and balance in your life. You forge strong, long-lasting friendships, and your friends value your honesty and frank opinions. You tend to value routine and security. Life may feel a bit boring at the moment. It would be good to find the confidence to make a shift and alter your life routine. When it comes to bringing positive change to your life, don't try to move mountains. Baby steps are definitely the way forward. For example, if you'd like to lose weight, don't set yourself up to fail with unrealistic goals. Be kind to yourself and remember that slow and steady wins the race. Have you ever written a list of your positive features or asked your friends to do the same? It's a great exercise, and it might just surprise you. As a Harmonizer, it's important to learn to trust your intuition and to know that everything will work out for the best. Learn to say yes to new experiences from time to time. Your confidence and self-belief will continue to grow. Sometimes a challenge or a change of scene could be just what you need. You like to have regular quiet time to listen to your inner voice. Being alone in the open air is a great way for you to connect to what really matters. Make sure you don't neglect your spiritual needs and carve out some alone time as often as you can.

For you, the sign of a good relationship is that you don't stress out about the small stuff. You may have your ups and downs, but there's no one you'd rather spend the rest of your life with. As a True Romantic, you've got a whole lot of love to give and you like to lavish your partner with romantic gestures. You have strong instincts and a good understanding of who you are and what you want from life. You like to follow your dreams and believe in happy endings. You are expressive and enjoy coming up with new ways to show your partner how much you love him. Intense experiences appeal to your sensual side. It's all about immersing yourself in the fairy-tale feelings of being in love. For you, it's the little things that make being in love so special: a sunset stroll on a beach, holding hands at the movies and feeling protected and cared for.

Relationship tips:

So you're a True Romantic but what tips can we give for keeping the romance alive in your relationship?

Be natural. Remember that your partner loves you for who you are, so don't feel the need to put on an act.
Share the love. You've got the Midas touch when it comes to setting the romantic tone, so do what you do best and let your partner experience the magic.
Open your heart. Don't overthink things or be too much of a perfectionist. The strongest connections are founded on spiritual intimacy.
Take a weekend away. Whether you're still in the first flush of love or entering your second decade together, there's still nothing better than checking into a nice hotel for a night. Take your time over a romantic dinner and make sure to have breakfast in bed.

The way to your heart is through your stomach! While you're happy to get creative in the kitchen, you'd love to be able to eat in amazing restaurants whenever the mood strikes. Your drive and motivation mean you know what you want out of life and you're not afraid to go for it. You have a taste for the finer things, but you know they're not easy to come by. You're focused and determined, with the ambition to achieve your vision. Just make sure you take time to admire the view rather than heading as fast as you can to the destination.

Unappealing as it may seem, it would be good to try to be a bit more active every day. You might be surprised at how much you'd actually enjoy regular exercise. It may sound hard to believe, but endorphins are better than chocolate if you just give them a chance! You may even find that you're in a better mood more often. Start off with something that isn't too intimidating, like climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator. You might even consider signing up for a few personal training sessions in the gym so that you have a program that's tailored just for you. You may need to think about making a few changes what you eat too. Maybe you could try making homemade versions of your favorite restaurant meals to reduce the sodium and fat content and eat healthier without compromising too much on taste.

If you took some time out to visualize your dream life, you could probably see yourself away from the rat race, chilling out on a beach. Nothing puts a smile on your face like waking up to sun, sea and sand without a care in the world. Fresh fruit, seafood and not a cloud in the sky...sounds like paradise!

For you, there's nothing like getting immersed in the magic of the theater and a great show. It's all about the ambience and the experience of the show. It's a great night out - the ultimate in escapism and culture.

You're a bit of a homebody, most comfortable chilling out in relaxed surroundings with people you know well. After all, your friends are there for you in good times and bad, and spending time with them is important. You're also happy spending a bit of quiet time with a good book or movie to really unwind. But don't forget how much fun it can be to get all dressed up with your girlfriends and hit the dance floor. You can sleep it off on the sofa the next day.

You're open-minded and a positive thinker, so when you get the chance to go traveling, you love to head somewhere exotic and off the beaten track. For you, escapism is the ultimate in relaxation. It's the perfect antidote to the stress of everyday life. You love the feel of the sun and sea on your skin, so your perfect vacation would definitely include a beach. Even better if it's secluded and undiscovered by hordes of tourists!

Playin' in the Creek

2012-01-15T04:06:00.000-08:00

I love this picture. It is a picture of my niece and nephew and cousins playin' in the creek at Chief Logan State Park in Logan, WV. They are playing in the exact same spot where I used to play with my aunt and uncles and cousins when I was a kid.

We used to spend every family reunion playing in the creek. My mom would always tell us we weren't allowed when the day would start but by the end of the day she would relent and we would spend hours wading with our styrofoam cups and catching crawdads, salamanders and minnows.

We would also spend hours excavating and dredging the creek to build a dam so we could have a swimming hole. We happily carried rocks and mud and piled them so we could lounge in the cool water on a hot summers day. We used to joke that they actually forced prisoners to break rocks all day but we did it voluntarily for hours upon end. Most of our dams were complete failures that allowed more water through than they held back but occasionally our hard work would pay off and the water would actually be deep enough to float and swim (in tiny circles).

The best times were when my uncles would join us. They were masteminds at building dams and they ALWAYS got good results. We would be begging to help them but they would make us stay out of the way until the dam was completed. Then we could enjoy the fruits of their labors. They were also in charge of swinging on the grapevines. We weren't allowed to swing on them until they tested them to make sure they were strong enough to hold our weight.

Probably the best day ever in my childhood was the day my mom took us to the park and left us for the day. We walked every square inch of that creek which is about 2 miles long in one direction and then it forks about a mile in the other direction. We were everywhere. At the end of the day she picked us up and we were so dirty and wet that she made us ride in the trunk (it was open) to go home. We only lived 1.9 miles from the park so it was just another fun way to top off the day.

Drama at Lee Terrace

2012-01-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of drama here since Thanksgiving. A woman (who was very nice and hadn't lived here very long) was found dead in her apartment the day after Thanksgiving. Her brother was in the hospital. I didn't think too much about it at the time (people die here all the time) but it turns out there was much more to the story.

Apparently drugs were involved. She died, her brother went into the hospital AND her caregiver went into the hospital as well. The police have been here umpteen times since then and they are searching everyone's apartments with drug dogs. For those of you who don't know when you move into section 8 housing you have to sign to give consent for them to enter anytime they want. The haven't searched my apartment yet but I think by the time they are finished they will have searched every apartment in the building at least once.

Now this Thief had BALLS! We have a policeman who lives in the building. Apparently someone stole his car! Not the cruiser but his personal car. It is even more confounding because the parking lot is on camera so I can't figure out why in the world they don't know who took it????

Now for the true humor of the week. One of our residents who shall remain nameless apparently went off her rocker last week. People started coming to me and telling me that she was running down the middle of the road chasing her little dog. This was amazing to everyone because she usually has problems walking and most of the time she has someone walk her dog for her.

Then I heard someone else talking about how she went off on him. She told him that she "hated fags and if he didn't get away from her she was going to take her belt buckle off and cut him. She also told him he was an abomination against God and he deserved to die. He told her to get away from her before he did something she would be sorry for but she kept berating him until he was forced to walk away. I guess I should tell you that she is over 60 so there wasn't much he could do but be completely bumfuzzled by her behaviour because she is normally so nice and mellow and he couldn't believe what he was hearing. I was quite amazed when he told me who said it to him myself. I though it was the crazy woman on the fourth floor but it was....

Then I went to get on the elevator and there was the little dog running around the lobby with no leash. So I knew something major had to be wrong. I turned toward the elevator and there was... and the preacher. She was smoking on the elevator!!! I was flabbergasted. I exclaimed,"....you're smoking!" She started to laugh and told me they had posted a memo and if you smoked Pall Mall Lights then you were allowed to smoke." (this is a no smoking in public areas building by the way) Then she invited me on the elevator with her, the dog, the preacher and the cigarette! For those of you who don't know I am on oxygen and getting on the elevator with a cigarette would be completely out of the question.

I had forgotten what they told me about her losing her mind until that moment. One of the other residents grabbed me by the arm and told me, "she's cuckoo." Then I remembered they had told me she was off her rocker but it was still amazing to witness the change in her. I thought she was dipping into the other old lady's meds that she lives with but it turns out she is bipolar and she had thrown her meds away. The preacher spent the day talking her into going into the hospital and as far as I know she is still there getting her meds regulated.

Life is never boring around here.

I should mention that I had my stress test yesterday. Eddie spent the day taking care of me and I seem to have recuperated nicely. It seems it is time for me to increase my activity levels some more.

Yah!

He Bragged about his 99 IQ

2012-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

One day my boss and I were standing in line waiting for weigh - in.(Weigh - in is where you take the dogs to check them in before the races. They are weighed and their tattoos are checked to make sure that you have the right dog.)

Brent started to brag to me that he had a 99 IQ. I just looked at him while he prattled on and on thinking surely he was making a mistake. The more he bragged the more he kept mentioning the 99 IQ. Finally I could resist no more. I asked him if he was making a mistake about the number. He insisted that his IQ was 99.

I asked him why in the world would he brag about a 99 IQ. He informed me that the IQ scale went to 100 and he was one point from perfect!

I let him have it...

I told him that he was mistaken that the IQ scale went up to 200 points! That if he had a 99 IQ then his IQ was one point below average like Forrest Gump's IQ was one point below retarded!

EVERYBODY LOST IT!

THEY STARTED CALLING BRENT "FORREST". Everywhere Brent went that day people were shouting "Run Forrest Run!" completely humiliating him. That night they put a sign in front of our kennel where Brent parked the truck that said "Stop Forrest Stop!" When he pulled up he got out of the truck and ripped the sign to shreds. It was HILARIOUS!

"I don't know. I can't read!"

2012-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

I walked into my brother's office one day to find my 5 year old nephew writing his ABC's. He was about halfway through them. I was so proud of him because even though I knew he could recite his ABC's with the best of them, I was not aware that he knew how to write yet.

I walked up to him and happily asked, "Arny, what are you writing?"

His distainful reply was, "I don't know. I can't read!" And then he shot me a look like "why in the world would she even ask me such a stupid question."

If I hadn't been pleased as punch over his accomplishment, I would have shriveled up on the spot with the look he shot me out of the corners of his eyes before he went back to the task at hand.

DEFIANCE!!!

2012-01-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

When I lived on my 100 acres among the many dogs that I had was a liver-spotted dalmation named Smooches. She was named Smooches because she ALWAYS wanted to kiss me. Unfortunately she was not nearly so affectionate with the other animals on the farm.

One day I walked outside to see Smooches snapping at something about halfway up the side of the hill beside my house. I couldn't quite see what it was though. I kept looking and what I saw really surprised me. Smooches had a field mouse cornered. That poor mouse knew that it's life was on the line and it was fighting back with everything that a mouse can muster against a dalmation. I watched as that tiny mouse jumped up and snapped at Smooches' nose! Then it did it again. I could see that Smooches was actually enjoying this game of "cat and mouse" but it was going to be just a matter of time before she finished the "game."

I started up the hill as fast as I could. The whole way up I was screaming at Smooches to stop but of course she wasn't listening to me. She kept pouncing and barking and swatting at the poor mouse but the mouse never gave up. It kept jumping and jumping and I could see it snapping at Smooches' nose. (this was about a 2 foot jump for that mouse!) When I finally got to Smooches I grabbed her collar to hold her back. The poor mouse collapsed, lying on the ground, probably frozen in fear. Smooches was all worked up and it took all my strength to hold her back. At the same time I started stomping the ground to try to get the mouse to move away. It still didn't move! It just looked up at me with a pleading look in it's eyes (I could see that the poor creature was completely exhausted!)

About 5 feet away was a lawnmower that I had left earlier in the day. I dragged Smooches over to the lawnmower and I grabbed it. Then I dragged it up the hill to where the poor mouse lay. I parked the mower over top of the mouse. Then I let Smooches go. She spent the next hour or 2 trying to get under the mower to get that mouse. I plopped down on the ground tired from having to run up the hill and hold Smooches back. I was worn myself from the ordeal.

Finally Smooches got bored and came to me. Later that day when she was distracted with some other great dog project I went and moved the mower. The mouse was gone.

That fight for a mouses life was probably one of the greatest moments of courage that I have witnessed in my life. I will never forget the sight of that little mouse jumping up to fight back that big dalmation. It reminds me of that poster that was so popular in the seventies. You know the one with the eagle swooping down on the mouse and the mouse giving the eagle the finger! The title of the poster was "DEFIANCE!"

My Pet

2012-01-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

That was my pet name for a greyhound I used to train named My Petunia. She was a spooky little dog that was so afraid when she first came to the kennel that it took me 3 days just to touch her for the first time. I would walk into the turnout pen and she would gallop in circles the whole time I was in there eyeing me distrustfully. To get her to her crate I would have to open the gate to the pen after opening her crate door as far as it would go to make sure she wouldn't run into it. After opening the pen up I would walk to the far side so that she would dart through the gate and into the kennel to get away from me. She would cower against the back wall and I would use the door to her crate to block the hallway and then when I would make my way behind her she would run into her crate and cower against the back of it until I shut the door and she felt safe again.

I spent weeks crooning "My Pet" to her in baby talk and just getting her used to my touch. I didn't think she had a chance of making it at the track because of her disposition. She had a little running ability but didn't look to be anything special. It turned out though that once she began to trust me she started to fly. When I had to take her to weigh in I would make sure I walked her in alone, even if I had 10 other dogs in that night and I would talk to her the whole way. I also made sure that I picked her up after the race was over which was hardly ever my job. I usually made sure that I took jobs that were mainly kennel work and I would hire someone to pick up my races. I knew that she depended on me to be there though.

Much to my surprise she made it into the finals of a stakes race and she even had a good shot at winning it. That is until the pee catcher came out and told me what he had done to her. Pee catchers catch the pee of the dog that wins the race and one random dog in each race and then test it for drugs. Dogs usually go to the bathroom after the race (running puts a strain on their kidneys) but they don't always go. If they are walked until the next race and they don't pee they just let them go. My Pet was so afraid of people that she wouldn't pee after the race. She also didn't pee before the race either, so they never got a pee sample from her.

The night of the finals of the stakes race the pee catcher comes bragging to me that he finally got a sample from My Pet. I asked him how and he laughingly told me that all he had to do was stomp his foot at her. I went through the roof! It was the only time that I ever lodged a complaint against track personnel. Not only did he literally scare the pee out of her but he did it on the night of the finals of the stakes race which is tantamount to fixing the race.

Needless to say she ran last that night. She was a shivering mess when I picked her up. The track just gave the pee catcher a slap on the wrist and told him not to do it again. She got over what happenned but it took awhile to get her running like herself again.

What the Hell is a Chi-hooa-hooa?

2012-01-11T00:03:00.000-08:00

My sister and I were playing a game of trivial pursuit once. She was in her second year of college supposedly as an English major. She asked me this question: What famous bandleader is known for holding a chi-hooa-hooa under his arm?

Completely bumfuzzled, I asked her, "what the hell is a chi-hooa-hooa?"

She said, "I don't know, answer the question or you lose your turn," in a most unmerciful tone I might add.

I asked to see the question and at first she wouldn't let me but finally she relented. The actual question was: What famous bandleader is known for holding a chihuahua under his arm? answer: Xaiver Cugat

Bring on the herring

2012-01-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Bring on the herring

My friend, Eddie, is always talking about eating "salt fish." I never knew what he was referring to until the other day. Apparently they are hard to find in our area. He was excited because he had found some and he called me over to try them.

The fish he was referring to was herring. I tried one and I loved it. Unfortunately it is obvious that the salt content is way to high for me to enjoy them very often. He even soaked them and drained the water a couple of times before he cooked them. But I am a convert.

Bring on the herring

It seems great minds think alike and also eat the same fish!

Bring on the herring

Do These Things Happen to All Middle Aged Women or Is it Just ME

2012-01-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

This morning I tweezed an eyebrow hair that was almost 2 inches long. I don't understand this because I am one of those strange people that usually tweeze too much. How did that one get by me? I have blonde eyebrows and they are hard to see but still....

Who would ever imagine that an eyebrow hair could ever get that long except for on an old man?

The really sad part is the strange feeling of satisfaction I got from observing it for about 5 minutes.

Yesterday I was at Fruth. I was coming from the back when one of my regular female customers waved frantically for me to come to her. She was squatting in the floor beside the wine bottles. At first I thought she must want some brand that we were out of but that was not the case.

SHE HAD TO PEE! SHE HAD TO PEE SO BAD THAT SHE WAS AFRAID THAT IF SHE STOOD UP SHE WOULD PUDDLE UP RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AISLE.

I asked her what she wanted me to do.

"Bring me a commode." She said to me seriously. I told her I would if I could but that didn't seem to be a realistic solution to the problem. So she suppressed a smile and I realized that my sick sense of humor was seriously misplaced right now. One good chuckle and we would need a mop bucket!

So I started to calm her. I told her to take her time and we could just talk until she felt like she could make it to the bathroom. I wasn't working so I had plenty of time to kill. So we talked and she calmed down until she was able to walk to the restroom. When she came back she thanked me for telling her about the men's room.

I knew it was first and I didn't want her to think she needed to walk past it if she couldn't make it. So she did her business and a crisis was diverted.

I haven't been in quite that bad of a situation but I have been to the point where I thought my eyeballs would float out of my head if I didn't get to a bathroom in time. Especially since I have to take fluid pills now. I actually get up and take them at 4am because I want the effects of them to be over so I can start my day without any unseemly interruptions.

While I'm on the subject...

I have learned that if I need to puke then I can't just go to the bathroom anymore and pray to the porcelain god! Now, when I throw up I have to sit on the toilet and up chuck into a bucket because every time my body strains to puke my bladder sends a stream of equal proportions out the other end.

THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN HAVING TO CLEAN UP A BATHROOM FLOOR FULL OF PISS EVEN THOUGH YOU MADE IT TO THE BATHROOM IN PLENTY OF TIME TO UP CHUCK IN THE TOILET!

THANK GOD I NOT BULIMIC!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

2012-01-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is what happened when I moved into Lee Terrace:

I pulled up to my building with my first load of stuff and a woman comes running out yelling, "Do ya need some help? Do ya need some help?"

I thought to myself, "well, how nice," and I smiled at her and I said, "that would be really nice of you, yes, I can use some help."

She says to me, " I won't even charge you much."

I looked at her while thinking to myself, "surely not."

I say to her, "well that's good, because if it's more than nothing then I can't afford it anyway." and I laugh.

She says, "Five dollars, what's five dollars."

So I tell her that $5 is more than I have and I can't pay her.

She turns around a walks away! Didn't even pretend to want to stay and help me.

Happily I have met nicer people (and better neighbors) since moving in.

She did it again

2012-01-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

My mom and I were talking about my pepaw brennan the other day. He was a mean, nasty drunk but like most people he had his good side. Unfortunately I never saw his good side until I was an adult. We learned at a young age to stay out of arm's reach of the couch because of his pinching and biting and toe popping. (I cringe when I hear someone pop their fingers to this day)

My mom commented that he never did any of that stuff to us because she wouldn't allow it. When I told her he did do it and that he would also hold us down and blow his beer breath into our bodies until we would pass out she insisted that nothing like that ever happened to us.

That is what she had always done from the time I was a child until now. She never has been a supportive or defensive mother to either me or my brother but one peep from my sister and she is a mama lion. It's always been that way. I guess that is why I am always ready to stand up for the underdog, because I have always had to stand up for myself.

I remember the time the old man next door felt me up when I was 14. I was in complete shock when it happened because he was like a grandpa to me. It took several hours for me to go to my mom. When I did, she made me go and face him and tell him that I had told her what he had done. He immediately came over and talked to her privately. Later, she told me that I deserved it because I hadn't been wearing a bra. The fact that I was flat as a fritter didn't matter. I didn't even need to wear a bra until I was around 30. Even then I wore those "nearly A cup" sizes.

I also sent her a copy of my story that was published in the Gazette for Christmas. You know the one about the little girl that didn't have a Christmas. She was upset that I would let a drunk paw over a little girl while I was around. It didn't matter to her that there was nothing sexual in his attentions to his daughter and that I had done all I could to keep him away from her when I was around during their visit.

That episode happened when my health was at it's absolute worse after my heart failure diagnosis. I was going in the hospital every few weeks and I was homeless and renting rooms from people that I had never met - including the man who rented me the room I was living in over Christmas that year. You would think I would be living with my family (especially my mom the nurse) but when I went to her and told her I was going to be homeless because I couldn't work enough to support myself, her response was, "you deserve to be homeless because of the choices you have made in your life."

I ended up having to leave that man's house and many of my belongings because he allowed another man to steal my food and threaten me. I couldn't even return to get my stuff and I was too sick to get any help about the situation. My mom's response to that situation was that he must have wanted to get rid of me because I didn't pay my rent. My rent was paid in advance by the way. I guess she has to tell herself something because she didn't help me.

There were even relatives calling her and asking her to help me to no avail. Of course they didn't help me either so they weren't any better. I should point out that right after I got sick, before I was evicted from my home (the first time in my life that had ever happened) she did show up on my doorstep and she paid my rent, car payment and car insurance for one month. She told me she was "buying a month of my life" and that was all she would do. She pointed out how pitiful it was for a 44 year old woman to be in that kind of position. It didn't matter that I hadn't been able to work for almost a year before she even knew I was having a problem and couldn't understand why I didn't have a 3 month cushion to live on.

All together she gave me about $1100. Which I wll be forever grateful for but she had to do it in a way that completely stripped me of my self esteem. She didn't want to "throw good money after bad afterall." I repaid half of it because she wouldn't allow me to repay the rest. Now I have to listen to her brag that she got such a good deal paying $1100 for 2 couches but to spend that money on me was a waste. "Priorities" I guess.

Comments like that are the reason I only go to see her a couple or three times a year. If I keep my visits to a minimum then she is grateful to see me and we have nice visits. Any more than that is just an invitation for a full on verbal assault.

She Spit in My Face!

2012-01-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe it. That nasty little twit actually spit on me! Of course, my immediate flash of rage was to run her down and kill her and she knew it! She took off running like a bat out of hell and I would love to finish the story by saying that I ran her ass down and stomped her into the ground but that's not what happened. For the first time in my life I was held back by my physical limitations but I did manage to pick up a gallon of antifreeze and hurl it at her head. It would have been a perfect shot too but she turned the corner just as the jug flew through space where her head had been a fraction of a second before.

She was so scared that I would kill her that she actually busted through the double glass doors that didn't have time to automatically open because she was running so fast! My squeals of rage followed her as she ran to her car, screaming the whole way for her friend, "GO, GO!!!" He was standing by the gas pump wondering what in the hell was happening but seeing my outraged face and her obvious state of fear for her life he jumped in the car and sped away.

I stood there completely frustrated because for the first time in my life I wasn't the fastest and baddest woman around. I was actually going to have to just "suck it up," and that wasn't a feeling I was used to. I also had to wonder how I was going to explain the broken doors to my boss but fortunately a coworker had seen everything that had just transpired and was telling me that he would tell the boss that the customer was completely out of control.

Here is what lead to that crazy situation:

I was working at the TA Truckstop at the fuel desk. It was very busy and I was the only one there. While I was waiting on a customer at the trucker's fuel desk a woman came in and threw some change on the gas pump desk and told me to turn the pump on. She left. I tried to ask her what pump she was at but she was gone (and on a cell phone) before I even got the question out. I couldn't see the pumps from my vantage point so I continued to wait on the customer I was waiting on to begin with.

After a few minutes the woman came back in and told me to turn the pump on again. Once again she walked out and left (still talking on the cellphone) before I could find out where she was, so once again, I continued to wait on the customers who were standing in line. I had no way of knowing which pump she was at without walking outside to look and i just didn't have the time.

Finally I was finished starting the pumps for truckers and I walked over to the other register where her couple of dollars in change was strewn across the counter. I picked up the change and was going to the door to see if I could see the woman when she came in. She started to cuss me and berate me for not starting the pump.

Once again I asked her what pump she was at but she was too busy throwing a first class tantrum to answer me. Finally I tired of her abuse and laid her money on the counter and told her to go somewhere else and buy her gas. "I don't need your business that bad." I told her, "and if you would take a second to conduct your business and get your ass off that phone the whole damn situation would have been avoided!"

The next thing I knew she was pursing her lips together and hurling a wad of spit straight in my face...hence the beginning of the story. I still can't believe to this day that someone could actually behave that way over a couple of dollars worth of gas.

top 10 life changing events of my life (good and bad)

2012-01-09T01:41:00.000-08:00

1. my dad kicking me out - my dad kicked me out when I was 18. Sure I was old enough to make it on my own but I went from being a pampered princess to nothing with no notice. I should have been able to handle it but I was still too immature (which I didn't recognize at the time). This led to a distinctive downward spiral in my life which continued until I...

2. meeting Bobby Jeffrey - Bobby was my husband. He was my best friend and soul mate. We had a wonderful marriage until the day I left him after 13 years of marriage.

3. first job in the dog business - I started working at the dog track when I was 25 years old. I knew from the first time I stepped in kennel that I was where I was supposed to be for the rest of my life.

4. divorce - I left Bobby after 13 happy years of marriage. I gave him 2 more years to get his act together because we had such a good marriage. I divorced him after 15 years when it became obvious that he couldn't change (drugs). It was my 36th. birthday.

5. my dad's illness - my aunt Robin left me a note at work telling me my dad was seriously ill. I left as soon as I found out and went to the VA hospital. I found out what room he was in and took the elevator to his floor. As soon as I got off the elevator there was a pitiful little man using the wheelchair rails to slowly wheel himself to his room. It was my dad. I was in shock as I stood there looking at this once vibrant man who was a mere shell of himself. I stayed by his side until he died 3 years later.

6. my heart failure - I was working 3 jobs and trying to start my own farm. I kept gaining weight (at the rate of about 20 lbs a month) but I didn't know why. Finally I was so huge and so tired that I couldn't even breathe without coughing. My lungs were full of fluid because I was in complete heart failure. I am still here 5 years later and fighting to do as much as I can every day. I only work part time now and I wouldn't be able to work that much if I didn't have such an understanding employer.

I am finally accepting that things won't get much better but I am surprised at how good they are some times. I am alive thanks to the United States government. I would be dead now without healthcare and disability and other benefits they give to people in my position. It took a long time to get help. I was sure I would die before I would get it. I live in a building full of low-income disabled people and seniors. People complain about the people drawing benefits but there are many who are deserving of what they get. Also they seem to die off fairly quickly usually so they don't get benefits very long.

Firsts

2012-01-09T00:20:00.000-08:00

1. First Love? Oscar Kirk

2. First Crush? Ricky Irvin

3. First Car? Chrysler Horizon

4. First Husband? Bobby Jeffrey (only)

5. First Boyfriend? Can't remember his name - he was cute though

6. First Friend? Suzanne Mathis...there was a little boy in Tenessee that lived in the yard next door. I can't remember his name but we used to play on the swing and eat raw spaghetti.

7. First Engagement Ring? red,yellow and blue plastic Crackerjack ring. Stevie Goggas gave it to me under the front porch where we were playing cars with sticks.

8. First Memory? I can remember a row of grey and white rooftops. My mom says they were the houses on the way to the hospital to pick up my sister when she was born. I was almost 3.

9. First Job? Burger Chef. Sis says this job led to my downfall because of the kind of people I was exposed to. I say I led to my own downfall but there must be something to what she said because my parents never made my brother or sister get a job.

10. First Award? I know I had plenty of them in school but none of them stand out now.

11. First College? Ohio State

12. First Time? Back seat of a Chevy Malibu (I think)

13. First Blog? damnpamn...about letting go of hard feelings

14. First Dog? Cleopatra Floppyears Brennan - a beagle

15. First Cat? I think it was Willie Akers. My mom accidentally ran over him in the drive way.

16. First Nightmare? A black woman's head on my nightstand, staring straight ahead, smacking her lips. I buried my head under my covers and when it didn't go away I ran to my parent's bedroom. I was around 3.

17. First Greyhound? Cheyenne Queen. I had lots of pets but she was the first one we owned.

18. First Kennel? Liberty Kennel at Tri State Greyhound Park

19. First Monumental Screw Up? Most people would say leaving Ohio State. I say robbing Star Market.

20. First Vacation? We used to camp at Summersville Lake when I was in grade school. The first time we went to Florida I was 12.

21. First Book? I was a voracious reader. I especially remember my mom letting me read "Love's Tender Fury" when I was going in the 7th. grade. It was one of the first historical romance novels that are still popular (and have the same basic story) today.

22. First Favorite Food? I used to have beef stroganoff for every birthday. I also had Rave Reviews Coconut Cake.

23. First Favorite Color? Pink...still pink

24. First Favorite Singer? Bobby Sherman but I can remember singing "I Think I Love You" by David Cassidy on the front porch.

25. First Happy Memory? Flying a kite and picnicing in our huge backyard in Tennessee. (around 3)

I am NOT a fan of Best Buy right now

2012-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

As some of you know I bought a computer last week. I had it 2 days and I had to take it back to Best Buy. To further complicate things I got sick so it took a a week for me to take it back. What the salesman neglected to tell me when I bought the computer is that he sold me a demo. So surprise, surprise, it broke. At least it broke well within the 14 day return period and I got a full refund.

I still wanted a computer though.

I asked if they had another I could buy for the same price. (299 dollars). They told me the only other one they had was another demo. Being in my sick state of mind, I asked if they generally had any problems selling demos. I have bought other demos in the past with no problem. They assured me that my problem was an anomally and so I bought the other computer. When I got home I didn't even get out of the truck because I wanted to see if the wifi would pick up outside like the other one did.

THE COMPUTER HAD A FREAKIN' PASSWORD ON IT AND THEY HAD GIVEN ME ZERO PAPERWORK!

So I called them and asked for the password. The girl told me I had to bring it back that they had forgotten to erase the data from it. So I turned around and went right back and got my money back again. By this time I was completely worn out because I was still recuperating and feeling completely dejected because it would have been so nice to have a lovely new laptop during my convalesence.

My original Toshiba was on sale by the way for $399. I didn't want to pay that much. Translation...I couldn't afford that much. But I couldn't get the computer off my mind, so I called Best Buy on Saturday night and asked when the sale ended. The girl told me that night. I at least had enough sense to ask what the original purchase price was and guess what... it was $399. Turns out that Best Buy was advertizing a fake sale as so many retailers these days do. It's supposed to be illegal to do that but they all do it anyway. So, if I wanted my lovely Toshiba then I could get it anytime. I didn't have to kill myself to get back out there on Saturday night.

Today I swung by Kmart out of curiosity. They had the same computer for $529. So it looked like Best Buy's $399 really was probably the best buy. I had to go to Walmart to return something. I decided to check on their laptops while I was there. I was just about to leave and go to Best Buy because they had the best deal when I happened to spy a computer in a box, locked in a cabinet, but not on display. It was only $298.

Eureka! Could this be what I wanted. I went to get the salesgirl and she assured me that it was indeed a brand, spankin' new computer that was still in the box and had never been opened. I bought it. I now have a brand new HP computer. Hopefully this one will work.

After all that is all I'm looking for....a computer that will work.

It's been a DOOZY of a week

2012-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

I don't mean in a good way either. I have been sick as a dog as they say. I caught a virus at work. I know where I got it because I have been selling my customers medicine for it since before Christmas. In fact I had it before Christmas but it was under control. I just couldn't quite kick it. Then last Sunday I ran out of my cough medicine. I have one from the doctor because my stomach can't handle most medicines.

I thought it would be no big deal to wait and get it when I went into work on Monday night. BIG MISTAKE. By Monday afternoon at 2 I was calling in sick and going in to get the cough medicine anyway. I tried to call my doctor but he was out for the holiday so that had to wait a day. I finally got in to see him on Wednesday. He gave me all the usual meds that you get for heavy duty chest and head congestion but I was still unable to function until Friday. I was still very weak until today. I will try to go back to work tomorrow.

More to tell but I gotta go... see ya later with the rest of my crazy bad news of the week. Let's just say I am not a fan of Best Buy right now.

My Hunger Preservation Project

2012-01-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I was watching my nephew and one of his friends. We were swimming in the pool and Sis called us in for lunch. I told Tyler, "come on, it's time for Sis's hunger prevention project". He looked at me quizzically and asked me what I was talking about.

I told him, "well, if we go eat lunch, then we will prevent hunger. I believe in preventing hunger whenever possible." He smiled at me and we went into lunch.

The next day I saw Tyler's dad. He said, "I asked Tyler who in the world he had been hanging out with last night."

"Really," I said, "why?"

"Well, I called him into dinner and he thanked me for participating in his hunger preservation project. So, I asked him what in the world he was talking about and he told me about YOUR hunger preservation project?"

I had to laugh.

"I told Tyler that we were going to participate in Sis's hunger prevention project. NOT PRESERVATION. There's a big difference between the two."

He started to laugth. "Well, now it all makes sense. I couldn't figure out what in the world he was talking about last night.

Have you ever heard of this New Year's Superstition?

2012-01-02T01:16:00.001-08:00

I HAVE TO TAKE MY COMPUTER BACK

2012-01-02T01:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had trouble turning it on. I chalked it up to my inexperience. Especially since it turned on when my computer nerd friend told me to press the on button and hold it down twice - and it worked. I had already tried that but if just happened to work when he was standing there with me. So I chalked it up to operator inexperience.

Then I couldn't turn it on this morning. So I called tech support. After following his instructions to the letter it still didn't work. He told me to box it up and send it in for repair. I have only had it for 2 days. I have 14 days to return it.

I'm going to mess with it a few days and use it for a learning experience. Then take it back. Afterall I can't mess things up too bad. It's already had a problem. By the way, the power lights show that it is on. Just the screen stays black. I just got lucky and it started working again.

I haven't had a beer since I was 19 years old...

2012-01-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

...now I'm not saying I haven't been drunk. I've been more than my fair share of drunk. But I spent a good year trying to get past the gawd awful smell of beer and then I decided that there were better ways to get the job done..in other words "get drunk."

I blame my pepaw brennan for my aversion to beer and whiskey. He was a raging alcoholic. When I say raging I mean down right mean. I remember him holding me down and breathing his fetid beer breath into my mouth until I believe I passed out at the time. We also learned how to handle a drunk. We would stand just at arm's length and make fun of him in his tirades being careful all the while to avoid his pinching fingers and biting teeth with his penchant for popping toes in a particularly painful way.

The phrase I liked to use in college was "nicely pickled." Back then it was legal to drink in WV when you were 18. Now when kids ask me why it isn't legal anymore I tell them it's because people like me were around when it was. It was only legal to drink beer before 21 when I went to Ohio State, so every time I went home my friends would give me money to buy their liqueur. I would come back with $100's of dollars worth of booze in my trunk. I'm lucky I never got caught. I could have probably gone to jail for that. Oh, the things we do when we are young...

I do remember my brother finding my stash in the trunk. I took off for Ohio State immediately. He told my parents but he had no proof - so I got out of that one! We had a banner hanging in our suite that proclaimed we were "perpetually high." Probably another good indicator that the alcoholic gene that I inherited from my pepaw brennan was in full swing.

I remember getting carded going into bars before there were pictures on ID's. I learned to recite my driver's license and SS number no matter how inebriated I was. (yes, SS numbers were on driver's licenses back in the day) That memory skill served me well over the years with various law enforcement officers and other VIP's when I was high and somewhere I shouldn't have been.

I really didn't start smoking pot or popping pills until I met my husband. We were both hard core party people. The difference was I was able to stop to work or do what needed done. He wasn't. The first couple of years were filled with pot and tea and acid and pills. It was so much of a roller coaster that I realized I had to do something to get off the merry go round. That is why we moved to Huntington so I could go to beauty school. The change of venue worked. After that we basically smoked pot...dropping just about every other vice for the most part.

We spent years smoking basically everything we ever wanted. That is until he finally went bonkers from it and spent 3 days trying to kill me back in '98. I left him. I gave him 2 years to straighten up. During that 3 years I was making him take random drug tests and he passed them all. Finally I told him that if he was going to "do it" just "do it". Within 3 months he was as messed up as he ever was.

I came home to find him at my 100 acres one night. He had come up without telling me he was coming. I asked him to leave and he wouldn't. I divorced him. It was finally obvious to me what everybody else already knew...He would never change. So my happy marriage of 15 years was over. I lost my best friend and I really never got over it.

Now I don't party anymore. I have plenty of drugs like heart medicine and such that have warning labels about dizziness and not driving. I don't need to get high. A lack of oxygen feels a lot like getting high anyway. What few times I have smoked a joint here and there have been decidedly uncomfortable because getting high feels a lot like dying. Trust me, I have been close enough to dying that I do know what it's like. The detached feeling is much the same when I compare the two experiences.

I haven't had a beer since I was 19 years old.

2012-01-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

My 2011 in Review

2012-01-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

It was much the same as my 2010. I seem to have settled into a routine and I am completely thrown off kilter when it is disrupted. That is certainly new for me. I never had a routine in my life until I got sick. Of course, that's probably why I got sick in the first place. I was always too busy to have a routine. There were never enough hours in the day. Now I spend my days looking for ways to spend the time. It gets old, but I do my best.

I did have one noteworthy episode with my heart back in September, I think. It took me months to get back to my normal. Now it is time once again to try to improve my endurance. We'll see what happens.

I finally got that computer. I think it will save me a fortune in gas as I won't be going to the library as much. Also I won't be paying netflix or blockbuster so there's a few more bucks in my pocket.

The federal government has seen fit to raise social security this year. I'll be getting $32 more a month. There was no increase for the past two years. Personally I think they should just freeze it at current levels. Of course I always need more money but when I went on disability that was a given. I am still better off with it. In fact, I am alive because of it.

My friendship with Eddie has certainly been a rollercoaster. I put up with it for several reasons.

1. I am hard to get along with.

2. I am sick and really can't pursue friendships. We both know in a different reality we probably wouldn't even be friends but things are what they are so we continue to hang out.

3. The emotional ups and downs are kind of fun. I spent a few years spending all my time trying to get better so I was shut down emotionally. I just didn't have the energy for feelings.

4. He is fun and he really does do alot for me.

I had another story published in the Charleston Gazette for Christmas. Now that I have a computer maybe I can do something with my stories to make money. I know people do but I have yet to figure out how in the world they do it.

Any New Year's Resolutions?

2011-12-31T07:23:00.000-08:00

I guess my one and only is to continue my diet. I'm not really sure how much weight I lost this year but I have lost some and my doctors are pleased with my modest progress. Another year of modest progress and "what the hey" I guess I'll have made good progress then.

Last year I resolved to be "more cheerful". All my friends laughed so hard that I just resorted back to my usual irascible self! No sense messing with perfection.

I used to resolve to go to Times Square every year. Although I made it to New York once in my life and I loved it, I never made it back for New Year's Eve. Life kept getting in the way. Now it is out of the question because of my health.

c'est la vie

The Shopping Cart Races

2011-12-29T19:24:00.000-08:00

When I lived in Florida I lived at one place where the kids would have shopping cart races. They were hilarious! I didn't even get mad (for the most part) when they would disturb my afternoon nap with them.

They would take 2 shopping carts and fill them with various amounts and sizes of children. Usually the bigger kids would push the carts. They would race them and the best part was when they would hit the speed bump! Kids would go flying in all directions!

Then they would get back up and do it all over again!

Oh, to be as indestructable as a child again.

Our Gazebo

2011-12-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

Here is the gazebo that Eddie and I decorated

greetings from my new computer

2011-12-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

and my completely FREE wifi

I have a friend in the building with the same computer. I couldn't get the internet at first, but he showed me what to do

ta da

I bought a laptop.

2011-12-29T09:40:00.000-08:00

I'm going home to test it out. I have 14 days to return it if I'm not satisfied. It is a toshiba. I checked online and the pricing was good. I guess I'll know about the rest of it in a few days.

I have bought probably 10 different cheap video cameras in the past year and returned them all within hours for various reasons. I am not shy about returning products that don't live up to what the salesman tells me.

I got my laptop at best buy. The salesman was very helpful. I went to Walmart first because my friends told me to get a Kindle Fire but I didn't think it would do what I wanted. The salesman there was decidedly unhelpful so I left. Unfortunately I had opened a Pepsi and I had to stand in a line of about 20 people just to buy it and some hamburger buns. That is why only go to Walmart about once a year!

IT WAS A GOOD CHRISTMAS

2011-12-27T04:38:00.000-08:00

I had a good Christmas. It started with Eddie and I attending a local production of "Humbug" back around Thanksgiving. It was really good. I am becoming quite a fan of local productions.

Also my doctor let me put off my stress test until January. Every year for the past 5 years he has given me a stress test right at Thanksgiving. It took me so long to recover that it would mess up both my holidays. Unfortunately I have to take it in January. Not looking forward to it at all.

I have had too much salt as usual but I don't feel like I am at death's door because of it. That's an improvement. I had about 20 free Wendy's breakfast coupons to get the whole meal free. I threw away about 10 of them because I couldn't resist temptation anymore. Also I had about 10 coupons for free Chick Filet sandwiches. Between the two free meals I was getting the sodium was piling on the weight.

I didn't win the free truck again this year, but I had fun trying. Oh well, there's always next year.

I went to my mom's for Christmas. It was pleasurable. I enjoyed myself.

I took Eddie to Logan to see the Christmas in the Park display. It was great! We have one in Charleston but it isn't nearly as good as the one in Logan. We both enjoyed it very much.

I had my dream Christmas Tree of "Silver and Gold". I'll probably leave it up for awhile.

A neighbor gave me enough VCR tapes to fill up a whole trunk. I'll have plenty of movies to what while I hibernate this year.

I had my Chinese feast for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I didn't try the Peking Duck though. Maybe I'll do it for Easter.

My Story was published in the Charleston Gazette on Christmas Day. I didn't know it until the next day though when my aunt and uncle met me at the door telling me how much they loved my story. They gave me their newspaper clipping as well as a whole deer. I left most of it at their house but I will go back soon and give it out in the building and keep plenty for myself.

Eddie and I decorated the gazebo with Christmas lights. It is very pretty and I will post a picture if I can get one. I will leave the lights up until New Years.

I didn't get all my decorations up but I didn't let it bother me. Now I don't have to take them down either. I was able to relax and take it easy and still had a good time. Wouldn't mind doing it all over again.

My Story Was Published in the Christmas Edition of the Charleston Gazette

2011-12-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

This is a true story. It happened 5 years ago.

I met a little girl named Heather. She is 8 years old. Heather did not have a Christmas. I don't mean Heather had a bad Christmas, I mean Heather did not have any Christmas. She did not get so much as a candy cane for Christmas. She is a sweet child with long, blonde hair and very quiet and mannerly. She is shy. When you ask her if she wants something she is afraid to say, "yes".

Her mommy is a crack head. Her daddy is a drunk. I met her on New Year's Eve at her uncle's house. She was having a good time playing on the computer and her uncle bought her a personal pan pizza and went to Rite Aid and bought her some play dough. When I walked into the house he pulled me aside and told me what was going on. He did not know what to do for her. I had not planned to have a child in the house so I went digging through my Christmas stuff (I have entirely too much) and started giving her what I could find.

She was appreciative of every little item down to the candy canes that I let her have off the tree. Fortunately I had not taken it down yet. She would run to her daddy and show him every little thing. She was just tickled pink as only little 8 year old girls can be. Her drunken daddy would slur and paw over "my little girl" and go on about how much he loved her. Heather does not know that real daddies don't act like that. I kept her distracted all evening.

New Year's morning I woke up and went to the local dollar store, they had toys half price. I got Heather a few things. In fact I got her more than I could afford and I was afraid I would have to take some of it back. I woke her uncle up when I got home and told him what I had done. He immediately went to his wallet and paid for everything. He was grateful. He said he just didn't know how to shop for a little girl. I wrapped up the presents and we circled them around Heather and woke her up. Apparently Santa had come that night and left her presents there at her uncle's house because he couldn't find her on Christmas Eve.

Heather's eyes were shining and she was laughing and playing. Her daddy got up and cracked open his first beer of the day. She had pumpkin pie for breakfast because everybody knows you can eat anything you want on a holiday. She played for hours with the few toys I got. I know a lot of kids who would throw a tantrum over the little presents I bought for her that day.

Heather was happy.

The next day I went to work. I work at Fruth Pharmacy. The pay sucks but this is the reason I work there. I started to tell my coworkers about Heather. My coworkers are mothers. Within a few hours we had her a smorgasbord of toys - even a few regular customers pitched in some money when they found out what we were doing. When I left Fruth that night I had 4 bags of toys and candy and toiletries hand picked for an 8 year old girl. In a few days there will be some clothes for Heather too. This is not the first time my friends and I have run into a child in trouble and everybody chipped in to help.

Now Heather had a Christmas. It was 10 days late. The hard part is yet to come. I will try to turn her parents in. Not having a Christmas is only a small problem in this child's life. As of today no one has seen her mom since Christmas Eve. It is presumed she is off on a crack binge somewhere. When her uncle took her presents to her, her daddy was still drunk. He has not drawn a sober breath in days. I'm not talking just drunk. I'm talking pissing on yourself, can't walk across the room drunk. Can't even get yourself another beer drunk. I am disgusted I have to do something or I won't be able to live with myself.

prologue

I tried to call Heather's school. The woman I talked to was not interested in even looking for her with the little bit of information that I could provide.

I could not find Heather after that. I don't know where she is now.

Look! Santa's Buttcheeks!

2011-12-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

I arrived at my brother's house early one Christmas morning to find my nephew, Arny, waiting for me at the door. He immediately flew into my arms to give me my traditional flying hug greeting as only he could do. After my flying hug he grabbed my hand and excitedly started dragging me to the family room where all the presents were - screaming for his sister, Becca, the whole way.

My brother was in the family room building a fire and as we burst into the room Arny exclaimed, "Look Aunt Pam, Santa's buttcheeks!" I looked over at the screened glass in front of the fireplace and indeed there was a perfect imprint of Santa's rump on the glass. It was obvious that he had landed on his derriere with a great thump when he had come down the chimney the night before!

Daddy's Last Christmas (pictures)

2011-12-21T04:22:00.000-08:00

My First Florida Christmas

2011-12-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

We lived in one of those apartment complexes with a pool and laundry facilities and a million kids running around. The only way to tell if it is Christmas in Florida is to decorate, so for the first time in my life I put a tree up on Thanksgiving Day. Apparently that was quite a novelty because soon after I put it up, all the kids in the neighborhood started knocking on my door a hundred times a day wanting to see my tree.

I soon tired of this, especially since in my line of work afternoon naps were a necessity. So I made a deal with them. I told them that if they would all come at the same time everyday (5 o'clock) then I would let them in. To make it extra special I put candy canes on the tree everyday and let each of them have one.

This worked. Every day at 5 0'clock on the dot there would be a knock on my door. A perfect line of children would come in my house and ooohhh and aaahhh over the tree. They would each take a candy cane and then they would go home. This went on until Christmas.

It was fun.

Thank You to the Union Mission

2011-12-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

I want to thank the Union Mission for the wonderful Christmas Food Basket that they gave me. There was way too much food for me to eat alone and I have already given some out to some of the seniors in my building that I know need the food.

They had us pick up the food at a church that I had never seen. I have to say it was an absolutely beautiful church. It looked like a massive mountain lodge. They had a wonderful service with old fashioned Christmas Carols and upbeat Christian music and a short sermon. The actual giveaway was well organized and they gave out a couple hundred baskets in probably less than 1/2 an hour.

I was almost at the end of the line and I noticed that there was a lot of food left over. I tried to contact someone about delivering some of the food to the low income seniors in my building that I know need the food but have no way to get it. I spoke with 3 different people but I could tell they didn't want to be bothered with it. I am sure they thought that I was somebody that was just trying to get more than my fair share, I can't blame them for thinking that but it was certainly not the case. I used to give out government commodities a few years ago and you wouldn't believe that stories that people come up with to try to get extra food.

I still think I will try to call the mission tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone about getting some food delivered to the building. It is probably too late but, what the heck, it's only a phone call and I can handle rejection.

My Christmas Miracle

2011-12-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

In 2001 my dad was in the hospital dying on Christmas Day.

He was in so much pain that they had him in a medically induced coma and he was still lying in the bed stiff as a board. There was blood on his lips because he was clenching his teeth so hard. He was a diabetic and he needed to have his leg amputated because of sepsis but he was too weak for the surgery and they did not know if he would make it through the day.

Needless to say I was miserable, not only was my dad dying but it was Christmas Day and Christmas would be ruined for the rest of my life!

I promised God that I would do whatever I could to help him if he would let him live.

They decided to do dialysis on Christmas Day saying that it was the absolute last thing they could try for him. Fortunately the dialysis worked and he became strong enough a couple of days later to do the surgery. Also he never had to have dialysis again which is one of the complications of having it once - being on it for the rest of your life!

Daddy became strong enough to come home with me on February 4, 2002. They told me that he had around 10 days to live. I was blessed with taking care of him for another 2 3/4 years.

He had lost around 100 lbs. during the course of his illness. When I took him home and he still didn't want to eat, I would make him delicious,appetizing foods. When he would turn them down I would sit there in front of him and eat and smack my lips and just enjoy the hell out of the meal in front of him. Usually he would lean over and peep at the plate and say "I think I'll have a little of that." I managed to put 50 lbs. back on him but I also put 50 lbs. on myself! I definitely didn't need it, but it was worth every pound.

Taking care of daddy alone was hard. I had a little help from my uncles but for the most part I took care of everything for him. I do appreciate the help that they did give me though.

There were lots of ups and downs but he eventually became well enough that he was quite happy. I told him that if he could bear with me that I might make mistakes and do a lot of things wrong but I would always do my best and never intentionally hurt him.

That is exactly what happened.

This Doesn't Happen Everyday...

2011-12-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

...not even to me!

Last night an old man on a walker knocked on my door. He wanted to know if I was the kind of woman who liked to get stoned and watch a Christmas Movie????

I tried my best not to laugh as I told him I was busy. I do know who he is because I have given him food before but I have never really spoken to him before. I guess it was his way of repaying me???

My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

2011-12-16T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have to admit though that one time I had a tree that nothing could fix. I was living on my hundred acres and I had the bright idea of going out and cutting my own tree from my property. I knew exactly which tree I wanted to cut down. It was in the middle of a field, in a tiny cluster of trees which were in my way when I mowed the field. I was ready to kill two birds with one stone as it were - cut the tree down and clear the field so I had a clear shot during mowing season. The perfect solution.

So I marched out of my house with a hand saw to cut down that tree. No power saw for me, by golly, I was going to do this the old-fashioned way! (not to mention the fact that I am a natural born klutz and I KNOW my limitations) There was a light snow on the ground so I slipped and slid all the way up the hill to the tree. I sawed at that tree for probably a half an hour before it fell with a gratifying thud. I felt like such a lumberjack.

I dragged it to the house and I put it up in the corner of my living room. I started to turn it to find the "good side". To my dismay I found there was no "good side". So I decorated it with my lovely decorations that I had saved from year to year and had always had a gorgeous tree. Not this time. My tree was not beautiful, it was not even pretty, It looked pitiful.

It looked so pitiful that I went back outside to that little grove of trees and cut down another tree. I took it into the house and I took off all the decorations and I put the two trees together and I wired myself one big, giant tree! It still didn't help. Even after I decorated my makeshift tree it was still the ugliest monstrosity that I have ever had the pleasure(?) of putting into my house at Christmastime.

Every year I enjoy my ritualistic burning of the Christmas tree when I take it down. The burning was particularly enjoyable that year. And that is the story of my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

Taking the Bull by the Horns...so to speak

2011-12-16T03:46:00.000-08:00

One year my dad decided to sell Christmas Trees. So on one Saturday in November, the whole family loaded up and my dad rented a U-Haul and paid 2 guys to follow us to the Christmas Tree Farm. He let us run around and pick out which trees we wanted to cut down. He was buying a hundred of them. We romped and played all day while the men cut the trees.

It was at the end of the afternoon and my dad and I cut across a field to go to the car. We were almost to the fence (and it's a good thing we were) when a bull came charging out of the barn right at us. We sprinted to the fence and I remember I tore my pants on the barbed wire as I went over the it. We barely got out in time! A charging bull is something I never want to see coming at me in my lifetime again.

Daddy and I laughed about it for a long time after that. My mom, was of course, furious that he would endanger my life that way. She didn't seem to understand that we didn't know there was a bull in that barn.

My Mystery Santa

2011-12-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

One year at Christmas time I was working part time at a gas station. One of the pumps was full service. Everytime I went out to the pump, people would tell me that if they had known a girl was coming they would have pumped the gas themselves. Then I would have to tell them that I was going to be out of a job with attitudes like that and I needed the job. Once they heard that, they would let me pump their gas.

One day I went out to pump the gas for someone in a very nice SUV. When I went to the driver's side window all I saw was a a well manicured hand holding a $100 bill. The dark tinted windows were barely cracked so that I could hear the lady tell me to give her $20 worth of gas. I pumped the gas and I went inside to get the change and when I turned around to go outside to give them their change, the SUV was gone!

I went outside to look both ways and I didn't see the vehicle. I walked over to look at the parking lot next door because many of the customers would go over there after they got gas. I saw a black SUV in the parking lot but I wasn't sure that it was them. I called the manager of the store next door (I worked there also) and I asked him to track down the owner of the black SUV in the parking lot and see if they accidentally left me their change! He found them but he said they told him that it wasn't them.

It was then I started to realize that they had left me the money on purpose. I was happy on the one hand but on the other hand, I was worried that they would realize that they had made a mistake and could still come back. I didn't spend any of the money for 3 days - just in case they did come back for it. Even then I bought groceries with the money, so that if they did come back I would just be able to repay them out of my pocket.

A couple of days before Christmas I decided that they weren't coming back. I bought myself a little something and I bought presents for my nieces and nephews that I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise!

Because of the mystery Santa in the SUV, I had a very Merry Christmas that year.

People of Lee Terrace: Mark died

2011-12-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

Mark was a disgusting drunk and a junkie. But he was also a very nice man who would do anything for anybody. I knew he was close to dying so I made him a huge Thanksgiving meal (probably 3 dinners). He talked about that dinner everytime he saw me until the day he died.

My Christmas Cussin'

2011-12-13T01:58:00.000-08:00

Every Year when I was a kid we would load up the family and presents in the car and go to both grandparents houses and then the cousin's houses and also the homes of various other friends and family. My Pepaw on my dad's side was a mean old alcoholic. Every year he would be so drunk that he couldn't get off the couch and he would cuss us the whole time we were there - unless he was passed out of course. We would all stand there and laugh at him.

My mom would explain that the meaning of Christmas was to give to everyone and not expect anything in return. So every year we had a gift for Pepaw and we didn't mind giving it to him even though he never had anything for us because that was what Christmas was about. I continued this tradition into adulthood.

As an adult I would go every year to see Pepaw as I always had and I always had a gift for him. Usually I had 3 cowboy books that I bought at a flea market for him or his favorite present - a block of commodity cheese. The first year I was married I told my husband, "Come on, we're goin' to get our Christmas Cussin' ".

His reply was, "What in the Hell are you talkin' about?" I explained to him that my Pepaw would be passed out on the couch. I had to take him a present while he would lay on that couch and cuss me the whole time I was there. Bobby did not believe me and as I assured him that this was indeed how it would be, he told me, "there is no way I will stand for that kind of behavior!"

I told him "You can't come with me then, because that is exactly what is going to happen." So we went to Pepaw's trailer and laughed our heads off while he cussed us out.

Years later, I think I was around 27 or so, I went to Pepaw's on Christmas Eve. He had quit drinking the year before because he had a new grandbaby that he wanted to be around. He was drunk that day though. He had only promised to be sober for one year and the year was over.

He was telling me about all the marvelous presents that he had bought for this new grandbaby. I pointed out to him that I was 27 years old and he had never bought me a present in my lifetime. When I said that to him, he turned and looked at me for a few seconds and he started laughing. He pulled out his wallet and gave me $20. He said, "Now go down to the liquor store and get us a fifth and we'll drink it together."

Then he said "Come to think of it here is $20 for your brother and $20 for your sister too. Give it to them from me." So that's how I got my first present ever from my Pepaw except it was not near as much fun to get that $20 as it was to get my Christmas Cussin' every year.

I believe that he died when I was 30 years old.

True Christmas Memories

2011-12-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

Everybody has their wish list of must have presents that they just have to have for Christmas. Over the years I have gotten most of those presents if not all of them. Looking back I can only recall what a couple of those make it or break it presents were that I just had to have or it would not be a good Christmas.

Here is what I do remember:

1. My 4 year old nephew, Arnie, flinging the mountain of tissue paper aside sheet by sheet that I had piled on top of the Tickle Me Elmo doll that only I could find so my dad could give it to him.

2. Becca and Arnie laughing with glee when they opened the Furbees that only, once again, Aunt Pam could find when nobody else could.

3. My ex-husband, Bobby's shy, quiet smile because once again I had got him something he really wanted when he didn't even know it himself.

4. Katie, my stepdaughter, bursting into tears because she got the computer she had been dreaming of. (this was in the days even before the internet)

5. Kandi, my other stepdaughter, squealing with glee over the boom box and the awesome cassette collection that she never imagined in a million years she would get. (back in the Thriller days when she was positive she would marry Michael Jackson)

6. The pretty porcelain ornaments the my mom bought me for my first married Christmas - I still have ALL of them.

7. Katie and Kandi getting 8 cabbage patch dolls that first year they came out when there was a feeding frenzy over them in the stores. (twins from us, 2 from their mom, 2 from their stepfather's parents and 2 from my parents)

8. The present I wrapped for Becca that was like something out of Dr. Seuss. It was red and green striped with purple velvet bows all over it. it suited her personality perfectly and she loved it.

9. I wrapped a present for my mom once that was so exquisite that she didn't unwrap it until spring. She just sat the box in her living room and stared at it for three months.

10. A Christmas Wreath made from baggies by my niece, Becca.

None of those moments have anything to do with me getting one of those must have presents!

Why Was Santa So Mean To Rudolph Anyway?

2011-12-13T01:51:00.000-08:00

You would think that if anyone would understand a disability it would be Santa Claus!

come play this game - it's fun!

http://www.addictinggames.com/rudolphsrevenge.html

Things I Miss from Past Christmases

2011-12-13T01:47:00.000-08:00

1. I miss singing Christmas Carols. I can't sing anymore because of my low oxygen.

2. I miss fruitcake. I don't miss eating it. I miss buying it for my dad because he liked it so much.

3. I miss my Granny Brennan's crochet work. Every year she would make snowflakes or angels or some sort of Christmas handiwork. I especially miss the crochet stockings that she made for each of us. Some how mine was lost when I first got sick.

4. I miss making the rounds to see family and friends on Christmas Eve. This tradition started when I was a kid and I kept it up over the years. Now I don't even travel to see anyone on the holiday. It is just too hard.

Except for number 4 that is really a trivial list. I am fortunate that I will have a good Christmas.

"Silver and Gold"

2011-12-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

That was always one of my favorite Christmas Carols. It made me want to have a silver and gold Christmas Tree. Now I have one.

Last year Fruth sold me a white Christmas Tree for $12.00 because all the lights were burned out. I just spent the last couple of weeks cutting the old lights off the tree. I bought clear white lights on white wire and I just finished decorating my white tree with my silver and gold decorations.

I had plenty of gold decorations already from my regular tree and just to splurge I went to dollar tree and spent $5 on more gold decorations.

I now have the tree of my dreams for less than $30.

Remember when you would get a straw and pound it on the table and the paper would fly off...

2011-12-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

...or you would blow it off. Apparently that is one of the small pleasures of life from days gone by. Now when you get a straw the company is so intent on saving a molecule of paper that you have to spend 5 minutes peeling the paper, piece by piece, off the entire length of the straw.

Does it really take that much more paper to loosen up just a little?

We Cheered My Brother on When He "Broke" the Christmas Tree

2011-12-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

In my family we always had real Christmas Trees. When I was in junior high school my parents decided that they wanted an artificial tree. All three of us kids HATED it. We wanted a real tree complete with needles falling and sap and that wonderful Christmas Tree smell that no scented candle can duplicate even though they all try.

For two years we complained about that stupid tree. For two years it was packed away to be used for the next Christmas. When my parents would get the tree out we would beg them for a real tree but they had "invested" in the artificial tree and they were determined to get their money's worth out of it.

The third year my brother had an excellent idea. He "accidentally" broke the stalk of the tree when he was packing it away. My sister and I just smiled sweetly as he stored it in the workshop. The next year my parents went to put up the tree when "lo and behold" it was broken.

We begged then NOT to buy another aritficial tree. They finally admitted they didn't like the artificial tree anyway and we always had a real tree after that. In fact I always had a real tree myself until just a couple of years ago. With my breathing problems it became obvious to me that I was going to have to give up a real tree.

I miss them.

My Doctor is Happy with My Weight Loss

2011-12-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

saw my doctor for a check up yesterday. He was happy with my weight loss even though I still have some excess Thanksgiving fluid to lose. The really good news is that my scales at home are weighing me about 30 lbs. over! I knew they were 10 lbs. over but I had thought I had gained the other 20 lbs. Since I have heart failure it is entirely possible for me to gain 20 lbs. in just a day or two.

I still feel like crap with all the Thanksgiving weight that I am trying to lose but it is getting better everyday. Hopefully things will be fine in a few more days.I have spent the past year eating smaller portions. I gave away all my plates but 2 and I usually eat salad from those. I eat from dessert plates and even saucers. I also gave away all of my big bowls and have recently bought even smaller bowls than the ones I have had this year. That way even if I want 2nds. I can go back and still not have as much as one plate would have been before.

I have decided not to have any mashed potatoes, gravy, mac and cheese or dressing for Christmas. I have just been eating it on holidays anyway but it takes me weeks to get over it. I feel like crap.

I am going to have Peking Duck. I have never had Peking Duck and I have always wanted to try it. It will actually be cheaper than fixing an entire Christmas Dinner anyway. So I'll kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

Heather Didn't Have a Christmas

2011-12-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is a true story. It happened 5 years ago.

Heather was happy.

prologue

I tried to call Heather's school. The woman I talked to was not interested in even looking for her with the little bit of information that I could provide.

I could not find Heather after that. I don't know where she is now.

December 6th. is National Coal Miner's Day

2011-12-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

The final reports are out for the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. For those of you who may have forgotten Upper Big Branch was the Massey Coal Mine where 29 miners were killed last year in a single blast.

Blame was placed squarely on Massey's shoulders for forcing miners to work with faulty equipment and falsifying safety reports on a regular basis. In fact the report was so damning that Massey has been sold to Alpha Coal. Now, of course, Alpha Coal is telling the miners families that they don't have to settle because the accident was Massey's fault. The management is still the same as it was before except that Don Blankenship was forced to resign. He walked away with millions of dollars in the process.

Everything is business as usual in the Coal Mining Industry. This is a pattern I have watched over and over for my whole life.