BONUS QUESTION FOR 2011

I am always pestering my family for an idea for the Question Of The Week.  My last question for 2011 was already posted when I received this email from my daughter.  It's a good one so we can think of it as a bonus question.  She wrote:

"Ok here is my suggestion.  What holiday decoration do you miss most, or look forward to seeing again  after you have them all packed away for another year? Mine is my wall of cards and pictures from friends and loved ones. It always makes me smile and is a tradition I got from my mommy :)"

That makes this mommy happy:)  What decoration do you miss the most?

QOTW 12-26-11 MEMORIES

Question Of The Week 12-26-11

WHAT STORY CAN YOU TELL OF A FAVORITE HOLIDAY MEMORY? 

These were a few of mine from yesterday.

................................................................................

TALES END

Yesterday's post was a follow-up on my trigger finger post from October.  This caused me to realized some other posts from this year did not get conclusions posted, so here goes.


January you started on a weight loss adventure with me and Alli (Orlistat).  I lost 39 pounds over the following several months.  Then, in my efforts to put some weight on Ron during his bout with cancer treatments, I managed to not only handle the feeding, I joined the eating spree and have gained back 18 of the carefully lost pounds.  I keep saying I'll get back on target tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...


March post titled "What the Beep, Beep is going on?",  I reported that we were hearing a strange beeping sound and could not pin point the source.  It turned out to be our cell phones constantly searching for a signal.

September you followed the tough decision I made to let the chicken cross the road.  Our fine rooster, Jack Bauer, went to live with the neighbors and their nice new birds.  This update of Jack today still finds him alive and very well as the cock of the walk with our neighbor's flock.


This entire year you have followed Ron's diagnosis of bladder cancer and reports of intense chemo and radiation treatments.  You have shared your wishes and prayers for his full recovery and you rejoiced with us when the first biopsy came back "no malignancy".  Since then they have reported the tumor gone and the second biopsy has also come back as benign. We are believing in an uphill climb.


This week we walked into a store we frequent.  There was a new lady there we had never met.  We introduced ourselves and ask if she was new.  She responded that she had been the manager for a year.  Suddenly Ron and I realized we had not been in that store for a year. It had seemed like we had just been there yesterday and it dawned on us that basically we had lost an entire year of our lives to the cancer battle.  No big deal since we could have lost so much more.

Thank you for your company on these journeys.  We have shared many of your adventures as well and look forward to sharing with you in 2012.


Christmas and the New Year approach and we are all going to be busy.  Before disappearing through the holidays I want to wish all of you 
Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

Happy New Year

and

Happy Happy!

NANCY IS NOT A "NANCY GIRL"

X-ray of my hands 12-19-11

Yesterday I finally saw the hand specialist about my "trigger finger".  Some of you might remember my post in October titled  PAINFUL AND NOT ITCHY.  Many of you gave me some good advice and I was not surprised to finally learn that this Orthopedic Specialist wanted to give me shots in the middle fingers of both hands.  Ron had to leave the room at that suggestion.  

My friend Nancy told this story about her "trigger finger" of the thumb in the October comments: " So I went to an Orthopedic surgeon who specialized in hands. He told me that I had two choices. One: hand surgery or Two: a very painful needle stuck in my thumb.

I chose the painful needle and he wasn't kidding. It hurt like H for about 2 minutes then I have never had a minute's trouble with that thumb since and that was about 5 years ago.

Choose the needle. You won't regret it."

And so I followed Nancy's advice and chose the needle.  She was right about one thing.  It hurt like "H".  However my relief is not instantaneous and may take 24 hours for the trigger fingers to cease popping.  I am assured it will only take about a week for both fingers to be completely back to normal.  All I could think was Nancy is one tough broad. 

It is great to finally have this taken care of after three months of suffering and I know total relief is imminent. Why I put it off so long is beyond me. 

If you are curious about how I did this to the same finger of both hands, it was a tendon injury from picking up a bale of hay by the wire without gloved hands.  Ask me if I'll do that again.

(Nancy does not have her own blog but she comments on other blogs and she does post great stories  at The Elder Storytelling Place.)

QOTW 12-19-11 TO HAVE OR NOT TO HAVE

Question Of The Week 12-19-11

scruple -- a doubt or hesitation that troubles the conscience or that comes from the difficulty of determining whether something is right; to show reluctance on grounds of conscience Is the right or wrong choice always obvious to you?   If you wish, please share a comment of a time you last struggled with what was the right thing to do.  Tell about  a totally unscrupulous person in your life who never showed any concern or conscience about right choices? It would be fun to know what you would do.  Here are some sample questions from the game SCRUPLES.  The game answers must be "yes" "no" or "depends" and if you say depends you have to explain what would change it to a yes or no: The only available spot in the parking lot is reserved for the handicapped. You are in a hurry and won't be very long. Do you park there? While on a co-worker's computer, you accidentally erase an important file. There's no way to trace it to you. Do you fess up? While drinking in an out-of-the-way bar, you see a friend's spouse having a romantic tête-à-tête. Do you mention it to your friend? A good friend is in love and introduces you to the new sweetheart. You find there is a mutual attraction between you and your friend's lover. Do you repress your feelings? Lots to pick from in this QOTW.  Enjoy.

LOOK HERE

My parents taught me "It is not polite to stare".  It is because of that very "lesson learned well" I have missed a lot in life.

My spouse stares at everything and everyone.  It shocked me when we first met and I tried to break him of that rude habit.  Now I understand it.

I have never known anyone more aware of their surroundings.  Observation is an important detail in life.  

Yesterday we drove around the lake,. Some men in camouflage gear with boat, truck and dogs were packing to leave.  Ron fixed his gaze and took in every aspect of their procedures.  They looked our way and Ron exchanged a nod with the men and they nodded back.  They were totally unconcerned by his staring.  If they had been loading a big catch of some kind, we would have stopped to ask about it and found out where they fished or hunted.

Suddenly I realized if these guys had been terrorists rather than hunters, perhaps we would have seen some evidence and been able to report it.  Had I been alone, I would have averted my eyes because it is not polite to stare.  I wonder why it is not polite to stare.  Just think of all we miss in life when we do not stare.

Another time, however, while out for a drive, Ron fixed his gaze on a young woman mowing her yard.  She was scantily clad and well endowed in the chest area.  Somehow this trained observer swore he never noticed the woman and he was only staring at the great lawn mower.

O WHAT A NIGHT

By now most of you know that I can have some pretty weird dreams.  Here's a doozy for you.

Last night I dreamed that my Aunt  (deceased) called me.  She was in Michigan and had learned that she had some illness that required her to have a vasectomy. (Not a clue)  My sister came to my house to await our Aunt's  arrival because she believed our mother (also deceased) would want us to be supportive of this Aunt.

My sister arrived in a big flat bed truck with her yellow lab chained up on the back.  The neighnbor's dog jumped on the truck and got tangled in my sister's dog's chain.  My sister and the neighbor were going to free the dogs and Sis asked me to hold her cell phone and warned me to watch out for snakes. (?)  

There was immediately a call from the operator saying Sis had  200 incoming calls.  Did we want to accept them because doing so would cost $200. Sis said to accept them because she was curious. I tried to discourage her from taking the calls believing they were from prisoners or some kind of spammers but she insisted. 

 

Meanwhile my back yard was filling with baby snakes, fat and only about 2 inches long while the house was filled with square spiders that changed shapes and made all sorts of patterns as they moved across the floor.  Plus there was a long black snake on the neighbor's porch.  She told us it was called a Pit Bull Snake. I ran away and the snake followed me so I held up a pillow to ward off the attack.  

The End

Without going to a dream interpretation site, feel free to explain this dream if you wish.   I might add that I am currently reading ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz which could explain a lot.

QOTW 12-12-11 SAY WHAT?

Question Of The Week 12-12-11

What kind of comments do you like on your blog?

Do you want your blog followers to comment on what you said and how you said it or do you want them to share their own story that relates to your post?  Would  you prefer they agree with you?  Do you mind if they contradict something you have said? Do you want their comments to be short? Do you like for them to end up writing their own post in your comment section?  Do you delete comments that might invite controversy? Can you tell when a commenter hasn't read your entire post? Do you immediately follow a new commenter or do you wait and read their blog a while first? Do you write responses to your comments from others? Do the individual comments matter or do you just want a lot of them regardless?  Does it matter to you at all if bloggers even leave comments?

OUR WAITER

See the young gentleman in the green shirt seated with his back to the wall and facing toward us?  He is our waiter.  He and the other young man are supposed to be wrapping tableware in napkins and waiting on the customers.  Our waiter is text messaging.  Can you tell he is concentrating on his phone? It took forever for us to get our drinks and I had to ask another waiter to help us.   Our waiter would put down the phone and start wrapping only when the manager entered the room.  As soon as the boss left again, OW (our waiter) was back to texting. Where was the sugar we requested for our coffee?  I got up and found some on another table.  We needed a couple of carry out boxes.  I found those also.  After we had licked (and scraped) the platters clean, OW brought the check and asked if we needed anything. 

Yes I left the normal tip and did not complain.  Why?  Because OW gave us another moment of "thanks for the shocking entertainment and story that will go on my blog".   Plus we eat there a lot and my grandkids tell me if we make waves we will end up with someone spitting in our food next time.

Can anyone tell me why people are out of work when a restaurant can't replace this dude with someone willing to actually work?

A LOT OF BULL

Out for a drive, I mentioned to Ron the large bull we had passed.   It was seated in the corner of the pasture looking beyond the fence at the heifers across the road.  The only time I could ever remember seeing as bull in such a pose was in the children's story book of Ferdinand the Bull.  

Ron replied to me that the bull was probably "that old Indian".  

"What old Indian?", I inquired.

"Sitting Bull" Ron replied with a grin. 


Was that funny to anyone but me?  I laughed and laughed but maybe because Ron is feeling so good these days that he is actually clever again.

Do you or your spouse entertain each other with spontaneous humor?  Do your friends and/or co-workers get  attention with funny remarks?  Who is the funniest non-professional comedian you know?

Breaking News: If you want to laugh the rest of this day, go to Ralph Campbell's Homespun Headlines post for today.  

REMEMBER CRAZY DAVE?

We have always equated our rural postal carrier with the one in the movie FUNNY FARM.  I wrote a post about him in 2008 titled THE POSTMAN DOESN'T RING AT ALL.  Well here is a little update on what the Christmas rush does to Crazy Dave.


The other day I was watching for our mail.  I heard Dave coming.  He still drives a loud truck but this is a new loud truck.  Our mailbox door sticks and rather than take the time to pry it open, Dave threw the mail out on the ground by the mailbox.  Okay, perhaps the wind blew the mail out of his hand, but he didn't even slow down or consider retrieving it to put in the box.  Thankfully this was just junk mail and I like to think he knew that.


If we have a package too big for the box he has to drive up our road and honk for us to come out and get the package and it is best if you don't delay. The last time I was slow getting out there and arrived in time to see him throw out the package from his truck.  There was nothing fragile in the package and I like to think he knew that too.


Why don't I report Dave?  Because he is simply too entertaining.



(And once again let me offer my sincere apologies to dedicated rural postal carriers who do their best to serve society in a normal sane manner. This is NOT about them.)

BURNING MY JOURNALS

My mother's first cousin, nearly 90, has published her memoirs.  She is a highly educated and articulate writer.  It was exciting to receive a copy of her book.  The opening was riveting as she described an accident that change her life. The next few chapters were delightful as she mentioned by name my mother and father, my aunts and uncles and my grandparents.  And then she got down to the nitty-gritty.


The rest of the book was filled with her many and varied sexual exploits that overshadowed the other details.  It was a book of TMI (too much information).   Had this book been fiction, it might have been enjoyable.  Knowing the person and being privy to her deepest darkest secrets was not my cup of tea plus having my relatives named in the book somehow made it seem that they might have approved of her lifelong behaviors.  


If there is truth to persons turning in their graves, I know her parents and siblings are and probably my mother and grandparents are too.


I have shared my deepest thoughts, feelings and experiences in my journals and I have kept those journals.  Now I have to wonder why.  Certainly my life hasn't been as spicy as this cousins but I cannot imagine my children and grandchildren would ever care to see any of it  and certainly not  in print for the world to share. It causes me to wonder how her own children feel about this very revealing book.


Yep, I'm burning all my old journals and diaries.  Would you ever publish your memoirs and include such intimate details?

QOTW 12-05-11 SERIOUSLY?

Question Of The Week 12-05-11

"Who will die if I don't do this today?" 


Sometimes we get so caught up in our holiday chores or work assignments that we act as if it they are matters of life or death. Is it going to kill us if we don't complete our task?  What is the worse that can happen if we mess something up.  (Okay I'm not talking about demolition experts here.) How seriously do you  take your "to do" lists?

WEEKEND LAUGHTER

I have not always worn a wig because I needed one.  There was a time in the late 60's when women wore wigs to be fashionable. 

One of my early banking jobs was on the check order desk.  The customer's checks were 
stored in the basement of  the bank.  If a customer needed a new book of their personalized checks, their order slip would be placed in a dumbwaiter tray and lowered to the basement where Orlin would fill the order, place it in the dumbwaiter and raise it for me to give the customer their checks.


This particular day I had lowered the tray and had leaned a bit too far into the shaft.  My head caught on the frame and knocked my wig into the basement.  Orlin reached in for the check order and encountered a furry creature instead.  He screamed like a girl which echoed into the shaft and thus sounded loudly throughout the bank lobby.  Everyone turned toward the sound and saw me standing there, wig-less with my real hair tightly pincurled to my head.  I still have nightmares about this and you can bet Orlin does too.  LOL


Share one of your funny, embarrassing and horrifying moments in the comments and I will move it into this post.

Bonnie (BornInaZoo) said...

I went back to my original post of this to cut & paste it ...

ExH & I were traveling with two of his brothers and their wives on their bikes, my brother and my sister's husband in my Jeep (towing the cargo trailer), myself and my ex on his Harley, and two of my ex's friends on their respective bikes. That day on the road was long, hot, and grueling. We had one bike break down. I'm not sure you'd call it luck, but a friendly rancher with a :::smelly::: horse trailer transported the motorcycle and two travelers to the next town where there was a Harley dealer. Another biker had the trailer he was towing flip causing him to lose control of his bike. It was a minor crash for the rider but the trailer was toast. When we arrived at the designated hotel, I went to a nearby vending machine to get something to drink while the group was checking in to the hotel. When I returned to the hotel desk to find my partner, I gave him the usual 'love grab' on his butt cheeks. Much to my surprise, his brother's butt looks the same as his! Everyone laughed hysterically 'with me' for 15 minutes (and at least three people had to make mad dashes for the restroom) while I turned every shade of red possible. I swear my cheeks could have melted a polar ice cap.

It was a great stress relief for a lot of people at that moment. As I a said, it was a rough day on the road.

These days I shy away from PDAs.

10:02 AM

  Riot Kitty said...
It relates to hair, actually... when I was a business reporter, I went into an editorial board meeting with some federal energy executives. Note that I was the only female in the meeting. One of them I had not seen for a few months, and had a new hairstyle. I blurted out, "Ed! I haven't seen you with your new hair!" He just looked at me and said, "Same hair."

Now, for a girl, "new hair" means new hairstyle, but for a man in his 60s...well, you get the idea.

12:54 PM

Lynn said...

Wow - sounds like Orlin deserved that. But that is a truly mortifying moment for you.

I'm sure there have been a zillion things for me, but the only one coming to mind is when I was a teenager and walking up some steps in front of a young man I fancied and I tripped and fell UP the steps in front of him.

7:07 AM


Dianne said...

and hence was born the phrase - she flipped her wig

in my last month of pregnancy I was huge
swollen and grotesque
I was still working and commuting via subway into NYC
I got stuck in the turnstile
half in and half out
I remember one cop saying - "we might have to deliver the baby to get her out of there"
they had to dismantle the turnstile
all in front of rush hour NYers

10:01 AM

Nancy said...

Annie,

I also used to wear a wig when they were fashionable years ago.
I used to hate it when anyone would ask if I was wearing a wig .

One day a fellow came up to me in the office and very loudly asked, "Are you wearing a wig?"

Just as loudly I replied," Yes,
I am,(touching my hair)but this is my real hair. I wear the wig underneath."

The foolish and puzzled look on his face made the whole office erupt in laughter.

He never asked again. In fact,as I recall, he never even spoke to me again....

7:20 PM

Chatty Crone said...

That was horrifying I know because a similar incident happened to us. My in-laws and our family went out to dinner. Hubs held son who is not 36 he was 2 - in a waiting area. A busy waiting area. My son grabbed a women's wig off - he never pulled hair either. He cried at what he had done - my hubs was mortified - the women - out on a date - whipped the wig right out of his hand and plopped it back on her head.
My dear MIL and I were laughing our head off on the other side of the room.
And where did we sit? Right next to that woman and her date.
Love, Chatty
Thanks for the memories.

1:04 PM

Pat said...
Fashion dictated that one had a wig in the sixties. I was being driven down to the south of France with friends to stay in their farmhouse. 'Please Pat - only small bags - no suitcases,' the husband pleaded.
He nearly had a fit when he saw that one was the head on which my beautiful wig rested. Well it wasn't a suitcase.
Down in the south it was far too hot to wear it.

5:08 AM

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT

Back to front:

Little Joe (young rooster)


Mr. Gibson (hen and Little Joe's mama) 


Chicklet (rooster-in-charge)




I took a nap.  Slim was in the house napping also.  Suddenly she awakened me and as much as I tried to shoo her away, she was persistent.  I let her out and she made a ferocious dash for two dogs tearing one of my chickens apart.  It was amazing to see the dogs back off with their mouths full of feathers, yet the large hen was able to hop up and rush into the hen house to safety.

Ron was getting the gun but the dogs were escaping with Slim hot on their heels, so I followed them.  They ended up at a friendly neighbor's house at the lake's edge. 

I went home and called the neighbors and said, "I'm sure these aren't your dogs but thought you might know where they live." 

"They are our dogs" the neighbor replied.  "Our daughter moved and could not take her dogs with her so we took them.  Can I pay you for your chicken?" 

"Yes.  You can pay me by keeping your dogs at home."

That night when I locked up the chickens, my count was short by one.  Little Joe was missing.  I searched and searched the next day thinking he might have be injured and was hiding.  Later in the day Ron found Little Joe's body by our old truck.  I should have known to look there because Mr. Gibson had been in that area all day, watching over her son's body.


We have gone almost two years without losing any of our chickens, goats or guinea fowl (knock on wood) except for those who have gone to new homes like Jack Bauer, the rooster and TK the goat.  It is one thing to lose them to their natural predators like hawks, owls, coyotes, etc.  But to lose them to domestic neighborhood dogs is so very traumatic.  

And the woman wanted to know if she could pay me money for the chickens.  How do you explain that they are family?

ALIVE, GONE, NEVER FORGOTTEN

Remember when our first baby goat was born?  If not, click HERE to read his birth announcement from July 24, 2010. 

TK grew into a Billy Goat Gruff and sometimes he thought I might be one of the trolls under the bridge.  In other words our 16 month old boy had grown into a bully billy.  He did sire two precious sons, Dr. Cole and Lord Voldemort during his time with us. ( These boys were neutered as soon as possible). Yesterday TK's life with us ended.

There goes TK in the cage in the back of that truck.  He was calling for help from his harem and they were calling back.  It was not a pretty site.  Part of me was very happy to have found him a new home while the other part of me was sad to see this member of our family leave.  However, just like our rooster Jack Bauer, TK is off to greener pastures meaning more ladies for his primary calling in life.

My tears were quickly wiped away as I took a moment to ponder my bruises.  This made his departure a little easier.

For your added viewing amazement, here is a wonderful painting Holland aka Monique Lassooij did of TK as a baby. Indeed a life long treasure from a phenomenal artist.