My Blogiversary

I can't believe I missed it. 

January 16th, 2005 was the first time I wrote a blog post  on my first blog....Just Ask Judy....So, as I enter my sixth year of blogging, I thank those of you who stop here daily (or at all) and I  want to especially thank those of you who stay around long enough to leave a comment. You do realize, don't you, that comments and feedback to a blogger are like standing ovations and reviews to a Broadway star???

Like everyone else who blogs for a long time, I am constantly amazed by the people with whom I have become friends (both in person and on the web). Not all of you are axe murderers (as my younger daughter predicted) and some of you are incredibly smart, talented, compassionate and funny! I consider myself very lucky to have discovered such a good group of people, who daily make me laugh, cry, ponder and agree with your pronouncements. I wish we could do it in person.

1500 + 1,017 = 2,517

As I logged on to blogger to write a post, I noticed that yesterday's post was number 1500, all of which were written between 2-06-07 and now. I can't imagine! When you add to that number the posts I wrote at Just Ask Judy, starting January 2005, it brings my total posts on Blogger to the grand number of 2,517. Of course, some of those were not writings, but photos - and some of them were cartoons or ideas stolen from others - so I can't take all the credit. I suspect mr. kenju would say he's not at all surprised, since he thinks I talk all the time.

I have two things to talk about tonight:  

1. The Bachelor. ABC, listen up. Brad was a loser last time and I will not watch this season, although I have watched every season since you began the show. I will not waste my time watching him (or girls with vampire teeth.) What idiots. The show is jumping the shark, if it hasn't already.

2. The couple who "lost" $800K on the Fox game show. GIVE them the money already!! They were right - even if your people didn't know it  at the time - and you OWE it to them. I won't watch that show either, unless you do.

I am aware that my pronouncements against these shows don't mean a hill of beans to ABC or Fox, but perhaps if enough of us tell them, they might listen.

Does this remind you of anyone?

Present company excepted, of course.
LOL!

Click to enlarge.

Odds and Ends

As I looked for the old photo of Hawk's Nest to post yesterday, I found this one (which I've shown before, but you may not have seen it). This photo was in either my mother's, aunt's or grandmother's photo album. I got all their photos eventually, and unfortunately they were all gone before I thought of asking who the people were. This photo cracks me up every time I see it. I have no idea who these three boys were, (or what year it was) but they never fail to make me smile. I've often thought I ought to have it blown up and framed, but never did. More's the pity. It would be a built-in smile for me every day!

*******

Spam comments were getting so frequent on my old blog, Just Ask Judy, that I had to change the settings so that only people with Google accounts can comment. I hate that I had to do that, but I was spending time each day rejecting comments in foreign languages about products and services I have no interest in and don't want associated with my blog! If the spammers find a way to get around that stipulation, I'll have to close the comments completely. Since I still get some legitimate comments on a few of the old posts, I'd hate to do that - but I'm all about saving my time and energy these days! LOL

*****

About three days a week, I check the obits of my hometown newspaper online. More often than not, I find someone I used to know or a friend of my parents, although even their youngest friends are getting mighty old, so most are gone already. Yesterday I saw a name; one I hadn't thought of in probably 55 or more years, a guy whom I remembered from the 4th-5th and 6th grades in South Charleston, WV. Isn't it funny how those names stick with you, even when they weren't best friends? Dean was the good friend and almost constant playmate of a kid who lived near us at the time (I can't remember his name at the moment). I think I remember that Dean wore glasses and had spiky, sandy blond hair, and was sort of scrawny and gangly (is that a word?), like most kids are when they are 8-9-10 years old. He and his buddy teased me unmercifully most of the time, although his buddy - the one whose name I can't remember - took me on my first movie date in the summer between 4th and 5th grades. I often wonder what happened to some of the kids with whom I went to elementary school. We moved every five or six years, so I lost track of many of them. Sometimes I envy people who went to the same series of schools from kindergarden through senior high, since they knew 99% of their classmates for many years. Did you do that - or did your family move often too?

An Award- Over the Top

Darlene, who writes the very good blog Darlene's Hodgepodge gave me an award. The title of the award is Over The Top. The deal is: you have to answer the questions with one word and then pass on the award to three other blogs.

Okay, here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? in my pocket

2. Your hair? gray

3. Your mother? dead

4. Your father? dead

5. Your favorite food? mashed potatoes

6. Your dream last night? can't remember any

7. Your favorite drink? coffee

8. Your dream/goal? longevity (that's a good answer, Darlene, so I'll keep it)

9. What room are you in? office/bonus room

10. Your hobby? blogging

11. Your fear? blindness

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive and well

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren’t? athletic (another good one!)

15. Muffins? lemon poppyseed

16. Wish list item? a new computer

17. Where did you grow up? West Virginia

18. Last thing you did? read blogs

19. What are you wearing? black pants and t-shirt

20. Your TV? watching Oprah, and Adam Lambert

21. Your pet(s)? two black cats

22. Your friends? great!

23. Your life? quiet

24. Your mood? okay

25. Missing someone? yes

26. Vehicle? mini-van

27. Something you’re not wearing? jewelry

28. Your favorite store? TJMaxx

29. Your favorite color? green

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? Thursday

32. Your best friend? Cam

33. One place that I go over and over? grocery

34. One person who emails me regularly? Sandra

35. Favorite place to eat? any seafood place

And there you have it. I pass this award on to:

1. Patti, who writes The New Sixty. If you are not aware of Patti's blog, do yourself a favor and go comb through her archives. A master storyteller, that one!!

2. Goldendaze-Ginnie is another good storyteller; a blogger whom I have met and enjoyed very much. She is "under read", in my opinion, and needs encouragement to write more often.

3. I decided to stop at two. There are so many others to whom I might give this award, that I can't decide who deserves it most.


Stop the presses!! At 11pm, I discovered that I had also received this award from Maria, of Silver Fox Whispers. Thanks, Maria!! I hope you don't mind sharing the thanks with Darlene.

FIVE QUICK YEARS + Our Accident





Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

***

When I first started blogging, on January 16, 2005, I had no idea it was possible to become famous by writing a blog. And after five years here, I am not famous by any means of measurement, nor is that my hope. I started my first blog, Just Ask Judy, to be a place where prospective brides and their mothers could come for advice about flowers and commiseration over wedding planning from someone who had nothing to gain from it. I soon realized that no brides or mothers were finding my little spot on the web, so I began to post about anything that popped into my head - and here we are five years later.What have I learned? That a feeling of close community can be easily built with regular posting/reading/commenting. That I had no idea how much awareness of and deep feelings of compassion, zest and reverence for life, simple friendship and gratitude would be possible with a group of people whom I have never met (although I have been privileged to meet some) and most likely, won't.

Thanks to those of you who read here daily, and to those who happened here by accident. You have given me more pleasure and friendship than many whom I see regularly in my real life. I hope we will always be friends.

***

And speaking of accidents, we had one on Thursday. We were on our way to the health club and stopped at a red light about 1.5 miles from our home. I glanced into the rear view mirror just in time to see a Jeep barreling down the road coming straight toward us. When he hit us, I thought for sure we'd be knocked into the path of oncoming, left-turning traffic, but luckily, there was enough room that didn't happen. I called 911 and was told that a state trooper would be with us shortly. 'Shortly' turned into an hour. The trooper said there wasn't enough damage to file a report, but my head was (and still is) hurting, as well as my back, so we thought a report would help to cover any future trips to the doctor or chiropractor. It may be only stress, but I want to be sure it isn't more.

The young man who hit us was, of course, very apologetic. He was also extremely polite, for which I was grateful. Trouble was, he asked us to lie to the trooper about who was driving, and fully admitted that he has not had a valid driver's license since he was 18 (he is now 34). He is also on probation for driving without a license. I am hopeful that this will be a good learning experience for him.

Addendum: Apparently I have given the impression that we might have lied to the state trooper. We did not, of course. I felt sorry for the young man, but I wasn't going to jeopardize myself by lying for him. He wouldn't learn anything from that (and may not anyway).

Is There Such A Thing As Adult-Onset Dyslexia?

A repost from my old blog, Just Ask Judy on July 16, 2005

What is happening to me?

Lately I cannot type the word "that"; I leave out the "a" every time. I have also noticed that I am transposing letters and numbers; for example, I type the phone number 555-1586, when it really should be 555-1856. Or I type the words "beautiful dreamer", for example, and it comes out "baeutiful draemer".

I am spending more time correcting typing errors than I am in actual post writing. Do any of you have that problem? I hope I am not the only one!

There was an article recently floating around the web purporting that it doesn't really matter if some of the letters in a word are scrambled, since we tend to read the word as a whole and process the meaning anyway. Though it may be true, I spend so much time trying to correct my errors in consideration of my readers. God forbid I should tax your brains any more than absolutely necessary!

Numbers are an entirely different story, however. If I am typing a phone number - or some such important numerical info - it behooves me to type it correctly. Short of proof-reading again and again, I don't know how to cure the problem. Any advice?

Edit: This post has received more on-going comments (40) than any other post on either of my blogs. Apparently, I am not alone with this problem.

This is how I looked this afternoon when I opened my prepared post file and found it empty (and I wasn't home alone!) Does that ever happen to you? Or do you always wing it?

***

The weather people keep promising a warm-up for our area, but it has yet to happen. I can't wait for Wednesday and Thursday, when we may crack the 50's for the first time in two weeks. My purple down jacket is really getting a work-out this winter. Most of the time our temperatures in January hover in the 40's and 50's every day, but not this year! I have 4-5 sleeveless vests, which I love wearing for the freedom of movement they allow, but lately I'm all trussed up in a t-shirt, a sweater (more often than not , it is wool) and said jacket, which will certainly need to be cleaned before long. There's one thing I'm not complaining about though - and that's the fact that we've had no snow!

***

The grocery store was almost empty of people yesterday, and that is the way I like it. However, it turned out to be a day when they were stocking shelves in nearly every aisle and it is hard to navigate when carts, boxes and people doing the stocking are taking up nearly all the space you need to push the cart. I wish I knew the one day of the week when they are neither stocking nor busy! (Surely there IS one.) After I unloaded the cart and paid for the food, I told the guy bagging for me that we were going to have to give up eating. Every time I go shopping it gets more and more costly, and now that gas prices are creeping - no, jumping higher by the day - food costs will continue to rise. It's a good thing we like beans.

***

An email arrived this week that I'd like to pass on to you, but due to the format it will have to be re-typed. (The things I do for you guys!!) It is about kitchen myths; those stories we've heard through the years about things we are or are not supposed to do. The writer of this email says he has personally checked out each one, and I can't prove or disprove his conclusions - but I thought they were interesting enough to pass along. Unfortunately, the email wasn't signed. Here's the first one:

"Searing meat seals in the juices" - FALSE
"This old saw has been around for ages, probably because searing (browning) meat that will be stewed, roasted, etc., does indeed give much better results. It has nothing to do with sealing in the juices, however. Careful experiments were performed in which identical pieces of meat were cooked with and without searing.
If searing did seal in the juices, the seared meat would lose a smaller percentage of its weight during cooking than the un-seared piece. In actuality, both pieces lost the same amount of weight. Searing is important because of the Maillard reaction. When the proteins and sugars in meat are exposed to high heat (searing) a large number of chemical reactions take place, resulting in the creation of lots of new flavor elements. It is these flavors, both in the browned surface of the meat and any pan juices that result, that make searing such an important step in some recipes. Source: On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Simon and Schuster, 1984.

Let me know if you found this interesting; I will share more of them in the near future.

Blogs Get Results!!

Yesterday, I posted about current troubles with our insurance company in obtaining the payment coupons for monthly premiums. The post went on the blog at midnight and at 10:40 this morning, I received an email from the Operations Manager of Humana, letting me know that she had been informed of my problem and promising to help me if I supplied her with my personal information. After sending her my name and ID#, I received this email: (and see below)

Mrs. _____ Thanks for providing we with the opportunity to review your account. I want to express my sincerest apology for the problems you have experienced with receiving your coupon book. I have worked with my team to determine what occurred. First, I have contacted the department which mails the coupon book and they have advised me that your book was mailed yesterday. You should be receiving it shortly.

Second. Unfortunately, when your coupon book was processed, an error occurred which required additional attention to get it to process through the system. The error which caused the delay had to be corrected by our programmers and unfortunately took several days to correct. Our customer service representatives provided information that the book was in the mail when it was actually held up due to this error. Unfortunately, when they reviewed the screen to determine the status of the coupon book, it was incorrectly updated that it had been issued.

I will follow up with you in a few days to make sure you have received your coupon book. Please accept my apology and if there is anything else you need assistance with, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks,

Gracie Baldwin
Director Operations/Medicare Billing

To say I was blown away by the prompt action brought on by my blog post is an understatement!! In her first email. Ms. Baldwin said that a "very nice person" had made her aware of my post and the problem. I wish I knew who that person was, so I could thank him or her for the help. If that person is reading here, please email to let me know who you are so I can properly share my gratitude!

11:00 AM: I just got an email from the man who saw my post and passed on the information. He said that they monitor all social media for references to the company, and he mentioned blogs, Twitter and Face Book. So they are out there, people, you just have to make your problems known and hope they see the post!

How I Named My Blog

Ruth at Synch-ro-nizing decided we should each do a meme telling how we came up with the names for our blogs. I decided to participate, especially since she said there would be NO awards. As I told her, blog awards are becoming so trite and common. LOL

I started blogging in 2005, and my blog was named Just Ask Judy. I had envisioned it as a helpful place for brides and their parents to get unbiased information about weddings that was not guaranteed to make money for the person answering the question, as it usually is when you ask a professional. Few brides found my site in those early days, and as I began to read more and more blogs written by others, I started to add anything that came to mind on my blog. After two years of that, Blogger changed their templates and started Blogger 2. I had to make a change and I wanted a new format with color options that I didn't have with the old blog.

I thought about it for a while, and one day I was reading a post by Shephard at Schubert Alley Shephard about seeing Carrie Fisher's performance of her one-man show. Carrie talked about the times in her life when her father, Eddie Fisher (married to her mother Debbie Reynolds) was dallying with other actresses, notably Elizabeth Taylor. It was scandalous behavior for the times and at one point, Carrie said to the audience......"Imagine What I'm Leaving Out."

Immediately, I knew that would be the title of my new blog, and I set about to make that happen, in February 2007. Sometime over the last year, it was unofficially shortened to "Imagine", which I now prefer. My favorite college English professor drummed into me that writing should be "clear, concise and concrete." What's more concise than Imagine?

Not Much to See Here, Folks....

Blogger won't let me load photos tonight, and I have nothing exciting to tell you - so I guess this will be a short post.

While going through my reading list this week, I've noticed three bloggers who have decided to either cease posting altogether or are going on hiatus. I hope that no more of you decide to do that. What on earth would I do with my time? Seriously, I know I need to spend less time on the computer, but every time I contemplate that I get the creeping willies, like I used to do when I smoked and thought about giving up cigarettes. It only made me smoke more.

I have reached a total (as of today) on this blog of 994 posts and on the old one, Just Ask Judy, I had 1,017. That's a total of 2,011. Hmmm....maybe that's when I'm supposed to stop - 2011. Oh, good!! - I have at least another year to blog. You'd think I'd be all talked out by now, wouldn't you? No such luck (mr. kenju would say.)

Today's a special day for our family: My son and his bride tied the knot 20 years ago today. That's a milestone that we're all proud of and hope they will continue down the aisle together for many, many more years. They have two lovely, talented daughters, two feisty chihuahuas and a truly psycho sun conure named Sammy, who hates me with a passion. He's the only animal I wasn't ever able to connect with, and his only saving grace is that he also hates my dil's mother, so I don't feel so bad. lol

We spoke on the phone today with the couple who stood up for us at our wedding, and we reminisced about the last time we were all together, at our son's wedding. I have not seen her since then - although he was here about 10 years ago for a short visit. How time flies. It's just another example of why you shouldn't put anything off till later. You just never know when it might become impossible to do anything about it.


(Well, I guess it wasn't so short after all.)

Followers Appreciation Day

Followers and comments make blogging worthwhile, so I decided it was time to thank all my followers for signing on and being faithful. I don't always get around to visiting each one every day, but I want you to know that I do it as often possible.

When "following" first became available, you could click on a follower's icon and go directly to their blog. For some reason, blogger changed that and the icon click only takes you to some info about that blog, and who they link. Since some people have opted not to share their blog url on their bio page, it makes finding some blogs very difficult.

Then there is my problem of not being able to comment on some blogs, which I wrote about here. Until a few days ago, I couldn't get in touch with Lille Diane because her comments were such that I couldn't access them. I decided to write this post to let her and everyone else know about the problem, but lo and behold, something changed - and she now has a comments page I can get into!! Thanks Lille!

I still cannot leave comments for Poopie and Mar, but they both know that I visit everyday.

If you "follow" my blog, I thank you. If you read, but don't follow, consider signing on. If you follow and never get comments from me, check your comments format. But thanks for reading, however you do it.

No Comments Allowed

Some of you may remember my complaints about not being able to post comments on some blogs. I really hate it when I read a good post and can't add my two cents worth to the comments. If your comments box looks like the one below, I am NOT able to leave a comment for you.

Click to enlarge!


When I first discovered that problem with Arkansas Patti, who writes "The New Sixty", she played around with her settings and found the one that will allow me to comment to my heart's content. Here is the email she sent:

Hi Judy, This is what I got from the net when you and I were struggling. Under comment settings, where it asks for "form placement," I selected "full page." For good measure I also removed "word verification". Not sure which worked but my helpful guy on the net thinks that "full page" is the answer. If I start getting spam, I will put the word verification back up but I notice a lot of people don't use it.

After Patti selected "full page" for form placement, I was able to comment easily. Below is the way it looks now:

Click to enlarge!

I am not sure what the problem is, but it seems to be related to my use of Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

So, if your comments box looks like the first pic above - now you know why you never get comments from me - unless I switch to IE for that purpose. I have done that, but I hate doing it, because using IE on my computer is really the pits!!

If you don't want to bother changing your settings just for me - so be it. Just know that I am reading often.

Fox Kits, Funerals and Blog Stats

If you're tired of reading about the foxes, let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to be talking about them until they leave for parts unknown. Shortly after I got home from work on Thursday, mr. kenju called to me that the papa fox was on the deck with a carcass. I went down to investigate, and it looked like a squirrel, but due to the way it was positioned, I couldn't really tell - it could have been a bunny or a rat. I watched for a while, and papa left and went back into the woods. A while later, one of the babies (above) came back onto the deck and began playing. I slipped out the back door and got a little closer so I could try and take photos. I should have known that the parents were close enough to see me and sure enough, one of them came barreling through the fence and ran across the deck toward me. I was standing on the little bridge that connects the deck to the pool, and there was the pool and a wire barrier between us, but it was not enough to keep me standing there. I turned tail and went back into the house PRONTO!! The fox stood there for quite some time, insuring that neither of us would venture out onto the deck again.

<<>><<>><<>>

My employer and I went to a funeral today for a former wedding cake baker here in Raleigh; a woman who was a true artist in icing, as well as a premier baker. Her cakes always smelled so very good because they were made with fresh ingredients and real butter. The services were held in a small town about 45 minutes north of here, one in which I had previously spent no longer than the time it takes to drive through it. The small funeral home resembled many, and they had a very nice chapel and a good sound system, so I could hear every word. We got the surprise of our lives when we saw the preacher, who arrived in a black leather vest with Harley badges all over it. Apparently, our baker had also been a biker, though none of us in the wedding professions knew anything about it. It was simply referred to as "biker church", and the preacher was very good. In fact, I was admiring his vocabulary, when I realized that before he began to speak I had prejudged him. So I mentally smacked myself upside the head! One thing that makes a funeral sermon good is when the speaker knew the person well, and this man seemed to know her quite well, and apparently liked and admired her as much as we all did. I came away thinking it was one of the better funerals I had ever attended.

_________

My friend Tiff had a post Thursday in which she expressed the hope of drawing readers by posting a list of phrases she thought might make people land on her blog. She mentioned my all time favorite 'Kissing balls", and I told her I'd check my stats again to see what other phrases people use to find me. Here are some of the latest searches that got to me:

Maxine cartoons: many people search for Maxine cartoons and sayings every week!

Used Outhouses: I have no idea why they'd want used ones, but I once had a post about painted outhouses.

Benjamin Moore Dill Pickle: a color I once considered for my kitchen, and apparently other people want it too. It garnered eight searches this week!

Fancy watermelon carvings: you may remember them from a recent post. Lots of people want to see them.

And last, a name from one of my funny name posts - Lemoine Morecock. I hope it wasn't some family members doing genealogy research!

January 16, 2005 ~ The Beginning

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TO ME!! I cannot believe it has been four years since I started my first blog - just ask judy - and almost two years since this one was born. I can't imagine having enough to say to keep it going this long, but I seem to find things to post even when my brain has gone mushy (which is happening more often, as you've probably noticed.) That is, in part, thanks to my email buddies, who keep me supplied with funny or interesting stuff that I can pass on to you.

I am still marveling over the friendships I have made here and how much your support and comments mean to me. Reading your blogs and seeing your photos is a large part of my life now, and I can't imagine doing without them. Thanks for being you. Long may we bloggers live!!


And speaking of bloggers, mr. kenju and I went to Pinehurst today, to meet two blogger friends: Ginnie of Goldendaze and Bud of Paradise is Pinehurst. Both of them worked for TV networks in NY and DC, and have fascinating tales to tell. Bud doesn't post often enough to suit me, nor does Ginnie, but they follow their own pace and that is fine. Mr. kenju thought they were "an item", but according to Ginnie, they are just friends We had a very nice luncheon at The Holly Inn, a lovely place just off the main drag in downtown Pinehurst. I recommend it whether you are there for golf - or just passing through. It seemed as though we all felt an immediate connection (as bloggers often do - kindred spirits, you know) and we enjoyed several hours of good conversation and stories, getting to know each other. I left hoping we could do it again, and I can't think of a better way to have ushered in the start of the 5th year of kenju on the web!

Photos will be posted tomorrow.

I've Been Given.....

an AWARD by Joy, writer of The Joy of Six, who got it from Small Reflections who got it from Idaho Photo. THANKS, Joy!

I stole this part from Joy:

Inspiration of the Van Gogh's Ear Award

"You may know the story of Vincent Van Gogh a well known artist in history. Although a brilliant painter in his later years , he went quite insane and received the nickname of fou roux ("the redheaded madman"). The most bizarre of Vincent's behavior is when he cut off the lower part of his own left ear lobe, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute named Rachel in the local brothel, asking her to "keep this object carefully."After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide July 29, 1890, when he was 37 years old. His works of art are priceless."

The point of this award

"We are all artists in our own way be it art, photography, writing, philosophy, comedy, blogging and we all go a little crazy sometimes."

Joy chose six people/blogs that I would probably have also picked for this award. I've thought carefully about who I'd like to give it to - and I've already decided to cap the list at five people. They are:

Naomi, Lois, Jamie Dawn, Brenda and Rosemary. Read them and enjoy! and thanks again to Joy!

Oma!

I'm sorry about the rude gesture in the photo; I would never do that to our Oma! I awoke this weekend to find this scratched into the sand on the beach below our hotel room. We were ten floors up, so this had to have been a huge drawing. Seeing as how I already had this post ready to put on the blog, I just had to take the photo, even with that gesture. Someone sure was mad at his Oma, wasn't he?

Recently, I received a book from TravelinOma as a prize won in a contest. The title was:

"No One Cares What You Had for Lunch
100 Ideas for Your Blog"

It was good, quick reading, and had some interesting links and good advice for how to write interesting blog posts . I was sure I could use some help, so I was eager to learn all the juicy tidbits!

The chapters have interesting, provocative titles, such as:

Count your blessings
Spill everything
Hang your head
Exit the comfort zone

In the chapter titled "Be Yourself", she quotes a blogger named Brittney Gilbert (http://brittney.typepad.com) who wrote:

"When I cook eggs I can't just toss the shell without first crushing it in my palm. I like the prickly sensation of the broken, jagged shell in my skin."

My comment to Brittney would be something along the lines of: "That would be an experience I would only need to have once." The important part is that her lines would evoke a comment from almost everyone who stopped to read them. Therein lies one of the secrets of good blogging.

If you happen to run across this book, I recommend it for blog fodder that you may not have thought of yet. And to TravelinOma, I say - THANKS again!

A New Blog

Margaret and Helen have started a blog. I think you should check it out.

<<<<<>>>>>

I realized tonight that the sounds I have been hearing every night around 9:30-10pm, which I thought were distant thunder, are fireworks going off at our State Fair, which is about twelve miles from my house. Too bad I can't see them, too.

<<<<>>>>

I was supposed to work tomorrow, delivering wedding flowers, but my employer said he didn't need me after all. I was disappointed, as was my wallet. I suppose I should look at it as a blessing, though, because it gives me more time to do the wedding flowers I have to deliver on Sunday. It's an all purple wedding, and it's so small it's almost more trouble than it's worth: two bouquets and a handful of bouts and corsages. I know brides are cutting back on floral expenses, and you can't blame them, but it is hard on florist's bottom line.

Click to embiggen. Didn't we bloggers already know this?

One very good way to upgrade your brain is to read Ronni Bennett's Time Goes By. Ronni is the go-to person for information and interesting articles regarding elders/seniors (whatever you wish to call us). You may not be an elder at present, but someday you might be - and Ronni's blog will keep you informed of all the issues concerning life in the golden years. You will also enjoy her other site: The Elder Storytelling Place.

Ronni is having a birthday (Monday), she's finally reached MY age!! and I hope you will go and wish her the best birthday ever. I hope to see you there!