I'm Thinking…No!

Have you noticed that when things go wrong in our lives – appliances die, car repairs, leaking roofs, flooding in the basement, that those incidents happen in clumps?  Typically in threes, but sometimes more.  It’s as if the world of inanimate objects is ganging up on us humans, defying us to show strength, poise, and dignity in the face of adversity.

Continue reading “When Projects “Go Wrong””

Normally I don’t post blogs this close together, so my faithful readers should get used to it, but this one is time-sensitive. By now, you’ve all seen the infamous Chris Rock / Will Smith “exchange of ideas” on the Academy Awards Presentation last week over and over again until you yell, “STOP” at the television.  What a memorable event.  There is even talk of sanctions and heightened border security around Los Angeles.  The whole nasty business seemed to spiral out of control faster than a post-election Trump rally.  No, I should not make light of a difficult, highly public, and most unfortunate situation.  This is serious.

Continue reading “The Slap Heard ‘Round the World”

Yep.  It’s that time of year again.  All the projects we have stored up for “warmer weather” are coming home to roost. We have a couple this year that, as usual, for which I thought I had months to prepare.  Now, you guessed it – they’re starting today and I’M NOT READY.

Continue reading “Spring Renovation Projects”

I came out of the grocery store the other day, and for the second time that day, I was looking around for my car.  Yes, if you too are looking ahead to see where this is going, you’ll have guessed that I went in the wrong direction.  It all seemed so simple.  I left the car in a parking aisle that was right opposite the exit, so it should have been simple.  Easy peasy.  No worries.  Except that there was a line-up.  It looked like a dealership for white cars only.  Back home now, the anxiety is receding.  I’m calm now.  No need to panic.  I realize that it’s not me.  I don’t need one of those memory enhancers.  There are just too many white cars out there.

Continue reading “Too Many White Cars”

A few years ago, I had a cd of Steve Martin’s stand-up comedy.  In it, he mentioned that he’d bought some “really stupid stuff”.  I can’t recall all the items, but one such was a “gas-powered turtle neck”.  It seems to me that appearing on the horizon are a number of items that might be approaching this category.  They may have a purpose, but do we really, really, need them?

Continue reading “Do We Need That? Products That Overstep . . . .”

I had to replace my coffee maker a short while ago.  This one beeps at me, which the old one didn’t.  I know, right?  It beeps five times to tell me the pot is brewed and ready.  It also randomly beeps at me for no apparent reason.  Perhaps it’s telling me it has been on too long and needs a coffee break – rather ironic.  Remember when a dump truck backing up was the only thing that beeped at us?  Ah, yes, the good old days.  

Continue reading “Beeps, Beepers, and Beeping”

This is a departure from my usual “grumpy”, or as I prefer to think of them, every day blogs, because from time to time, national and international events bring us up short and remind us just how deeply flawed humans can be.

Continue reading “A Chilling Reminder”

What, may my faithful readers ask, and rightfully so, is a “plantquest”?  Well, as defined by the originator of the term (in all modesty, myself), it is a plant search quite distinct from just a normal plant shopping trip.  The household plant supervisor, again in this case, me, is looking for something quite specific – be it a plant species adding to a collection, something for a specific spot inside or out, something that will have certain requirements – size, light, fitting into a pot, that sort of thing. 

Continue reading “Plantquest”

History fortunately has a way of filtering out some of the most outrageous things that elected officials state publicly.  That is probably for the best, as we’re left with and tend to remember things like, “A house divided cannot stand.” And “Give me liberty or give me death.”, and “Ask not what your country can do . . . .” In the twenty-second century, we can only hope that some of the lunatic ideas from our current time will recede from collective memory, leaving us with the words of Patrick Henry, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and John F. Kennedy.  

Continue reading “Dumb Things Public Figures Say With A Straight Face”

Well, here we are after a week of Olympic fanfare.  It’s that time again for the THREE S’s – Skiing, Skating, and Sliding. Things are going along nicely, with all the typical drama – a Russian skater testing positive for something she probably took to clear her nasal congestion.  Although it’s tough to tell.  Remember when there was an East Germany, and they were superhuman until we realized that many of them were taking all kinds of performance-enhancing stuff that put them on a level with The Avengers. So, here’s what’s been happening so far.

Continue reading “Olympic Fanfare”