Feel Like Complaining

Yesterday I had the distinct DIS-pleasure of spending 5 hours in the emergency waiting room at one of our hospitals. Not for anyone in my family, but for the woman I work for and her husband. I work for an elderly couple, 3 days a week, mostly for her but he comes with the package. She's 83 and He's 87. When I got to their house yesterday he was walking all doubled over, grabbing his groin and talking about how bad it hurts. But in typical Man Style, which seems to get worse as they get older, he said it would feel better soon. He popped a Tylenol 4 and said he'd be fine in a little bit. This annoys his wife to no end so she demanded that she was getting dressed and WE were taking him to ER. I love when older people say WE because I know what that really means, ME . He asks me if I would be able to stay later today and I knew I was in for a long day. On Wednesdays I get off at 1:30 only for the fact that if I stayed any longer I would implode. They are both very nice peopl...

This past weekend my husband, daughter, and I took a weekend trip and on the way home drove through the town I was raised in. I moved away 33 years ago when I graduated but have been back many times because they have an annual German Fest. But it has been awhile since I've been back because I just really don't know anybody anymore and the fests have kind of lost their popularity. That is unless you want to spend the whole weekend in the Beer Garden, which many do. When I lived there the population was a whopping 1200 or so. Now I'm guessing it's more in the high hundreds. And the entire town looks tired and run down. The first picture is the where I spent most of my growing up years. It wasn't our first house but it was the first we purchased. This was taken soon after we moved in but I don't know the year. It sure wasn't a fancy house, like many in town, but people seemed to care more about what their homes, yards, and neighborhoods looked like. I've dr...

Back to the humming problem. When Comcast installed our DVR a few months ago, the technician gave us his personal cell phone number and said we call call about anything. Well, maybe not to ask him if he's pick up some eggs and milk, but he was very nice so we thought we'd take him up on his offer. My husband called him and Dave said he would be by after he got off work to check out the problem. He explained to my hubby that the DVR is like a computer which has a fan and that is probably what we're hearing. He stops by and I mute the TV so he can hear it better. Of course, he can't hear it. I said "I can hear it right now." He starts to back away from the TV. He explained that what he generally hears in homes of people complaining of noise is much louder. I tried to explain about what I had read online about a 'ground loop issue'. He said "Now you're getting into reversed polarity and blah blah blah and that's not your problem." I'...

I ALWAYS WONDERED WHY THEY CHARGED ME MORE.

I love seafood. Well most of it anyway. Anything but big chewy clams and oysters, now they are just nasty. I guess eating seafood makes me feel closer to the ocean, even though we live about 600 miles inland. I have always wanted to go to Red Lobster restaurant but the closest one was in the next town. I've never been one to travel that far for a meal, and especially a bad one, so I patiently waited for one to come to me. Last Christmas we received a gift card to Red Lobster and lucky enough, one was being built very close. I counted the days. We tried to go once for dinner but the wait was over an hour. I don't wait for anything, especially a meal, so we decided to make it for lunch one day. Yesterday my daughter had a friend over and we decided to do lunch. We got right in so one point for them. The waiter was very nice and took our order. We ordered an appetizer of the seafood fondue in a bread bowl. I just asked my husband, Fondue? I didn't tell him what was in it. He h...

Our house has a hum. It's not a 'nice tune' kind of hum but rather a droning type hum than cycles the pitch from high to low. My husband started hearing it awhile back but of course I tune him out too so I didn't start hearing it until about three weeks ago. And it's about to drive me crazy. I can hear it more on one side of the house than the other and that includes the basement too. I have been putting my ear up to all kinds of things, anything that's plugged in. Can't find it. I've unplugged stereo's that we don't use, and the tv downstairs. We recently got a Cable DVR machine and thought it might be that. It has its own whirring sound but doesn't seem to be the same kind of noise we're hearing. We also have a Radon Pump and it has its own noise too. And it's more on the other side of the house. I walk around the living room with my head half cocked like a dog who hears a dog whistle in the distance. And it gives me headaches becau...

These are NASA shots taken last weekend of a dust storm in Washington state along I-90. A section of the freeway was closed as well as several roads in the area. Eleven people were hurt from accidents but thankfully no one died. Some say it was the old Mt. St. Helens dust that was stirred up in the wind. This area was hit quite hard with it, so it wouldn't surprise me a bit. It makes my eyes water just to look at it.

The weather is turning cooler and my mind turns to soup. So I whipped up a pot of Tortellini Soup. Tomatoe-y and full of vegis the smell filled my kitchen. My favorite accompaniment to soup is heart clogging Saltine crackers with butter on them. I opened the cupboard, reached inside the box and found........emptiness; no crackers, no wrapper, no crumbs. Just an empty box sitting in the cupboard. There are three people in this house. I know I don't leave empty packages in cupboards. I asked my daughter if she did it; she pleaded not guilty. She ratted out her dad who she claimed was eating crackers before bed last night. Is it seriously that difficult to take an empty package out of a cupboard so the person who buys the groceries (guess who) knows that we are out of something?? So off goes the burner so I can drive to the store in rush hour traffic, past two schools that have some kind of sporting event going on, to a crowded store with people looking for dinner. I have dinner than...