"Three duhs and you're out!"

I have no idea what your experiences are with home repair, but I have to tell you, I have made the effort.   At one time, years ago, I fixed my own oven for several years – ordering parts by snail mail one after another – sort of a trial and error type of repair -- trying everything under the sun so that I could prepare meals in something other than a slow cooker or electric frying pan and do things like bake a birthday cake for my then toddler who is now 38 -- I think.  No YouTube videos back in that day – I borrowed and purchased books on how to repair things like leaky toilets, and researched how to fix it when you touched up a wall covered with crayon marks with oil based glossy paint when it should have been water based flat -- this -- the day before you had twenty guests coming for a bridal shower. I am thinking that you may have had similar experiences. I still don't find them amusing....

It's probably important to mention at this point that sometimes a project takes a bit longer or a lot longer and costs more to "do it yourself" than it would have cost to have had someone do the work who actually knows what they are doing. Some lessons are hard learned.  I feel it is also important to mention that I never try to fix my Jeep or tinker with something that might explode due to my ignorance.  Moving on ...

If there were yellow pages readily available today, I would be tempted to use them to find someone to put the screen protector on the face of my cell phone so that there are no bubbles,  Oops  --  forgot about Google Search or other more current options). I am so frustrated with this!  I have ruined the screen protector I bought some time ago to replace the one I had somehow scratched and cracked in several places. I now have a package of three rather inexpensive ones on order from Amazon and have found a YouTube video on how to attach them.  The process involves a rather complicated process of using sticky paper as a hinge of some sort.. I am prepared to watch this video repeatedly until I can figure it all out -- hopefully before I ruin all three of the new screen protectors as well. This is all so exhausting! If I don’t manage to make one of the ones I ordered online work, I am going to quit.  I hardly ever drop my cell or put it in my purse with scratchy stuff anyway – famous last words.  It’s a case of “three duhs and you’re out”.  It is sometimes so hard to keep up with the latest.  Would you agree? 

(I was going to end this blog at this point -- but...)

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Okay -- here's an update on this whole screen protector "challenge". My daughter was looking at my cell phone and, techno savvy as she is, tried to explain to me - patiently and without laughing - that what I thought was the actual screen protector was simply a plastic sheet that should be removed and tossed away. (I don't remember the directions saying one thing about throwing away anything - seriously.) Anyway -- I had not removed the plastic protective sheet from the actual screen protector - thus condemning myself to trying to see the face of my cell through a cloudy and bubbled surface.  Much to her further amusement, it took awhile for me to understand what she was saying and for her to convince me of this. I admit that I was getting a bit angry in response to the frustration of trying to figure out what she was trying to explain so nicely and patiently to me. I am not even going to tell you how long I have been struggling with not being able to clearly see the screen of my cell.  As one of my cousins says, "I am pretty sure I was in the line for ice cream when the technical part of the brain was being passed out".  (This cousin, by the way, often has the most apt way of wording things to capture the moment.  Nice... and thank you.) 

Further update... My Amazon order arrived with the three new screen protectors.  I am keeping them on hand for the next time.  

Burning the candle at both ends...

Our Mom had some wonderful expressions that I sometimes hear coming out of my own mouth.  I particularly remember her talking about feeling like she was "behind the eight ball".  For years I had no idea whatsoever what she was talking about.  I totally get it now, and unlike her, I don't even have a laundry room packed from floor to ceiling with boxes of Girl Scout cookies that need to be distributed to all the members of the troop.

Another of her particularly apt phrases was "burning the candle at both ends". Coming off a busy holiday season not so long ago, I am thinking that I am not alone in having felt both "behind the eight ball" and like I have been "burning the candle at both ends".  It's not always easy to make the holiday special for our families. For all of you out there who know what I mean -- Good job on that! Aren't you glad you could make it all happen?  Now -- we need to take some time for ourselves and maybe even put our feet up for a bit now and then. There is always tomorrow to "make a dent in things" (another of our Mom's favorite phrases).  

Dream on...

Those of you who were reading my blog a year ago may remember that I don't make New Year's resolutions because I never keep them and that makes me feel the mild guilt(s) of being somewhat of a failure as far as resolutions go.  I don't need reminders of things that I don't accomplish. My self-reminders play inside my head. That's enough. Now... all of this has me thinking. Why not switch from promises that you know you probably will not be able to keep, to focus on dreams instead? There is an important difference between a promise to give up chocolate covered doughnuts and a dream to... ... well,... the possibilities are endless. Why not start this new year with a written list of dreams you plan to work on making come true --even if it is only to take a step or two in that direction?  All of this is related to the entire notion of the self-fulfilling prophecy...if you think it will happen, it will happen...you somehow make it happen.  Each step you make may bring you a little closer to the realization of any one or of all those dreams. I heard someone say that he believes that people are only given dreams that are possible for them to make come true -- to realize  -- that dreams are within reach or -- you wouldn't have them. I like that idea.

Want to join me in making a list that you will open on New Year's Day 2017 to see how much closer you are to making your dreams come true? I am going to limit my list to three dreams -- if I can think of that many.  Remember -- dreams are a step beyond a Bucket list.  As I write all of this I am wondering to myself why it is that we Boomers don't seem to talk very often about dreams? I don't want to think that we ever stop dreaming. Do you?

Perhaps the secret to a potential success is in writing the dreams down.  Remember -- you don't have to share any of this with another person; it is just about you.  We are allowed to dream.... When we retire or are close to that point, it doesn't mean that we give up who we are. It doesn't mean that we stop having dreams and give up working toward realizing them. It is a time of new beginnings. It's a time to look and to move forward - maybe to do something we always wanted to do  -- or -- to learn something we never had time to learn before.  We are not what we used to do, but rather what we are doing now and plan to do/to become.

So -- Begin....  By January 1, 2017 I will:   (Go ahead ... write.... Put the list in an envelope and place it in with your holiday decorations or somewhere special, so that you will find it in time to open one year from tomorrow. It is a present to you from you.)

Happy 2016 everyone!
May it be your best year ever! May your dreams come true.... Make it happen....

Dream on...

December 24, 2015

Wishing you...

• Merry Christmas, 
• Happy Holidays, and a 
• Blessed New Year.

May there be peace on Earth.... (oh, how I wish that could be....)

An Historian, I am not...

I take my role as a grandma quite seriously and as such I believe that one of my responsibilities is to tell my grandchildren about things of the past.  You know -- the olden days.... like the 70's and even before that.  My grandson refers to these adventures into the days of yore as "olde timey". Neither he, nor my granddaughter roll their eyes when I lapse into such tales ...yet, but... I am preparing myself as I can sort of feel that coming. Anyway -- we have had several conversations about long-ago things.  In relation to these "look-backs", here's the concern of the day....  In explaining some details of life and times when I was growing up without television and including a mention of the whole black&white thing evolving eventually into color situation in both TV's and Brownie cameras, I guess I created some major confusion in the mind of my 4 year old granddaughter, who is now thoroughly convinced that prior to the mid-50's, there was no color in the world -- that TV shows lacked color because the world was black&white -- that cameras took black&white photos for the same reason. Here's the problem -- she is sort of like me when I get an idea in my mind -- sometimes it is hard to let it go. Is that tendency to hang on a bit hereditary?

To my acute frustration, I don't seem to be able to fix this.  Believe me I have tried.  It would be easier at this point to just let it go -- no harm really. Eventually she will figure it out and in the mean time?  We can just hope she doesn't bring it up in conversation... or at school... or on a college application. But -- here's an additional complication.  I am not sure that people believe me when I tell them that my Granddaughter came up with this on her own.  It seems that I may have told my own daughter one time that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, that they were banished to a small far eastern country that will remain nameless at this time.  I have absolutely no recollection of telling her this. None!  Honestly, I do not remember that at all.  I do confess to perpetrating the whole Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny "things". I totally own that.  And -- I do remember that I once told an entire English class of students that William Shakespeare sold real estate and wrote plays on the side -- in his spare time, but in all fairness... that is not entirely untrue. William Shakespeare did invest in land as a part of earning a livelihood. Honest.  Google him if you don't believe me.  

Now that I am considering all of this... I think that I may have even told my grandkids about some of their ancestors who came from Rotterdam to NYC in a schooner and then traveled cross country in a wagon to settle in nearby Clymer, New York. I do hope I remembered to mention that the wagon was pulled by mules or horses, so that they do not get an incorrect mental image of a couple traveling in a little red wagon with all their earthly possessions. If I haven't shared this story with them, I will be sure to do that at some point. Family history is interesting and sometimes important.  I remember that my Mom loved to embellish a story a little bit.  It made things more interesting. Perhaps I inherited this tendency from her. Perhaps that is an olde timey tidbit in and of itself.  Kids should know from whom they come. They can be better prepared that way or maybe understand themselves a little better at some point. Such tendencies are not the worst thing that a person could inherit. Right?  Sometimes life can use a little additional color... a black&white world is way too drab. Can we leave the black and white to the Historians? Actually they have been known to color things up a bit themselves. Oh my....

News Fatique and The T-shirt

The past couple of weeks have been especially horrific on the news front, so once again I have banned CNN, Fox News and all regional TV news shows from my home. The ban also includes newspapers and magazines, both paper and online.  I need a break sometimes. Actually -- I have been known to "tune out" for months at a time. It may be shameful to be so out of touch, but I survive very well that way. Actually I am not only sick of listening to and watching news reports, but have become, at this time, totally intolerant of all the speculation that reporters engage in. Seriously, to describe them as self-impressed is an understatement. It rankles. Many reporters and broadcasters have become major irritants -- they so like to hear themselves talk and to interrupt each other and the people they are supposedly interviewing. Their rudeness is an assault. No viewer/reader has to subject him or herself to that.  

So -- today I think I will talk about the T-shirt. 

I like T-shirts - especially the long sleeved ones.  Not only are they comfortable to wear and require no ironing, but they are sometimes really fun to read. Some make me laugh out loud. Consider: 

• Well, another day has passed and I didn't use ALGEBRA once.
• Paddle Faster! I hear banjos.
• Runs with Scissors
• If you say "GULLIBLE" slowly it sounds like "ORANGES".

Am I alone in this?  I think not.  Try Goggling "Funny T-shirts" and see what happens.  I am curious though.  What is your favorite T-shirt?  You may include in your response/comment words from T-shirts that you think are funny, but that you would never wear. 

 For instance:            I meditate.

                               I burn candles.

                               I drink green tea, and...

                               I still want to smack some people.

Who thinks of these?  I would like to meet them, shake their hands and say, "Thank You for the break from the heavy stuff".

What's on your mind?

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am thinking that many of us have spent more than a little bit of time in gratitude for important aspects of our lives -- family and friends in particular. It's a nice time of year in many ways.  This year has been especially pleasant in that the weather has cooperated around here in lovely fashion.  Of course many of those native to NW Pennsylvania are totally convinced that because we have enjoyed a beautiful Autumn so far, we will have to pay by having snow into May or June.  We will see....  

Black Friday is over as is Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.  I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to just easing into the next Holiday Season now. I want to "feel" the spirit of Christmas -- sort of like a winter version of ..."stopping to smell the roses". I have the feeling that several of you might agree. Am I correct in this? What's on your mind?

And so it is that I wish you a Happy First Thursday of December.  You have three full weeks until December 25th. My hope for you is that you enjoy every single minute.