Feel Like Complaining

This is another inspired post by Bill. He recently wrote about his VW Beetle and how much he enjoys it. I've had several cars in my life but only really liked a few. Ours was blue After I got my license in '75 in a little farming community, I drove the family's Plymouth Fury wagon. It wasn't my car but I drove it plenty. When you live in a small town, it's nothing to hit the road and drive to the next town just for fun or out of necessity. That car and I saw a lot of drinking episodes too, but it always brought me back safe. Its gears were all push button on the dash and I've never had a car like that since. Once the reverse went out on it so anywhere I went I had to be careful where I parked so I didn't have to back out. Same color as mine After I moved out to go to college I didn't have a car for the first year. I chose an apartment a few blocks away from college so I could walk. It sucked. The following year I got a car from my dad, it was...

Thats's how my daughter sees it anyway. She doesn't deal with good news of others well, because she knows it will affect her somehow. She has had no earth shattering losses in her life. She's only known one Grandparent and hasn't had to deal with the death of one. Hubby and I are older than her friends' parents but still very healthy. But she feels like everyone always leaves her. Her step-brothers are so much older and they've had to go off to college several times and in several different places. That to her is considered leaving. She was devestated when the oldest brother married and then soon after they moved to the East coast. Visits were always infrequent and brief. Then when they had their son, that was another person taking her brother away from her. Her other brother recently told us that he and his girlfriend got engaged. He had picked our daughter up to go to a movie and while she was in the bathroom, he told his dad (I wasn't home). So sh...

Although I didn't say it, I knew it. When I wrote about the Lemonade Kids' house burning down, I knew the older kid had something to do with it. I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt because I know what it feels like to be The Accused. But in my heart I knew he did it. Just this past weekend all of our news channels ran the story that a 13 year-old boy had been arrested at his middle school after confessing to the crime. They can't give his name but did say that 'the renter's son' came to the house through a basement window and started a fire in a bedroom. When it got out of control he ran out of the house. Really? You start a fire and think it's going to stay in a room? He will probably be charged with First Degree Arson. Not a good way to start your teen years young man. After I read the news, hubby and I went for a walk. As we came back to the house, a car parked on the side of our house and a very pretty girl was smiling and coming to our...

We have been filing our taxes electronically through TurboTax for several years now. We also file Idaho State returns because the company my husband works for is based there. Filed at the same time, both returns are accepted almost the same time. This year our Federal was accepted on Feb. 5th and State on the 6th. Within a respectable amount of time (nine days), we got our Federal refund. And just yesterday we finally got Idaho State to cough up a whopping $106.00; taking almost 10 weeks. It has never taken that long before. While checking the status online, the web page will tell you that you can expect your refund in 3-4 weeks if you e-file and 10 weeks if you paper file. Then when you input your information to check further it says 7-8 weeks. Last week I checked again and it said that our return had been finished on 3-29-12 and we could expect our refund in 3 weeks. Huh? It took 7 weeks just to be processed? And just a few days ago it said that it is scheduled to b...

My husband's ex-wife lives in as assisted living facility because she can't really take care of herself fully. She's been there about 2 months and has staff come in to do laundry and probably help with bathing also. My step-son came over a week or so ago to take our daughter to a movie and relayed this hilarious but scary story. The day before he had just gotten to work and the facility called him and asked if he was sitting down. He was kind of annoyed that they would bother him at work and thought it was kind of a stupid question. The woman on the phone said that she was very sorry to tell him but his mother had passed away earlier that morning, they just found her in bed with the T.V. on. Of course he started crying immediately and they asked if he wanted them to call his brother in California. He said yes, and proceeded to text his girlfriend to tell her the bad news. They also asked what kind of preparations he had made and who should they call? He had no idea of w...

I said something to my husband the other day which surprised me. I didn't realize I felt that way until the words came out of my mouth. He was complimenting me on my new glass totems, "You're very talented and you should be using that talent to sell these." He said that he wished I could just do that, and not have to go to work. I said "I don't have dreams like that anymore, I gave up on them a long time ago." I forced the other thoughts back inside my head and didn't say out loud that 'I am just biding my time until they put me in the ground.' But as the day progressed I kept thinking back to what I said and realized how much I believe it. I get my glass half-empty attitude from my mom, who I imagine had dreams of her own too. She was fairly young when she married my dad and fell into caring for an alcoholic husband as well as three kids. Any aspirations she had were drank up from the hour of noon until he hit the sheets at 9. At w...