JUST SOME POSTS

I was taking my daughter Bailey to school this morning (good fodder for blogs, if you haven't read the other - look at the older blogs) and saw the subject of this blog. I was leaving the school and was stopped by a line of traffic waiting for a large delivery/moving truck to back into a driveway. I saw the truck was from TWO MEN and a TRUCK. (it you don't know who they are, Google it) I saw the truck pull in and pull out trying to hit the driveway. There was a guy in a TWO MEN and a TRUCK hoodie directing him in. THEN, as he pulled out to reposition the truck, I SAW ANOTHER GUY with a TWO MEN and a TRUCK hoodie, on the other side! Hold on now, I thought, that means either the truck is remote controlled or there are THREE men with the truck! I looked in the cab and sure enough ... another guy. So, that raises a lot of questions (to me at least). Does every job that TWO MEN and a TRUCK take really get THREE men? Is there a TWO MEN and a TRUCK out there with ONE guy? And how di...

Sorry for the downer I just did. But, I needed that and most of you needed to read it. I want and need comments. (not on the last one, it speaks for itself) Let me know what you think, or ideas you have. Please, share the link to my blog with anyone that you think would like it or maybe needs a dose of my "Teaching". I could write in a paper journal to just get these thoughts down. Let's communicate!

There are two blogs that I have been thinking of writing for a while. This is one of them. What do you say to a person you love and have lived with for over three decades when they turn to you and say with tears in their eyes, "I don't want to die"? What do you do when you have kids and family members that just ask "How is she doing?" and just want to hear "Fine", or "About the same"; even if it is not true? How do you make people understand that you are living with it every day and that it is not going away and that it is hard? Hard for those of us around her, but even harder for her. How can you watch your wife of thirty-four plus years not able to get out of bed or up a single step unassisted when you still see her as the eighteen year old you married? How do you answer a 53 year old that asks you if she will see her daughter, a junior, graduate from high school? How do you get your kids to get off their asses and recognize their mot...

Here is another thing that is bothering me - I am tired of people whining about gas prices. Gas was never free!! When people whine about "$40 to fill my tank" they forget that even at $2 a gallon it was $25 or so to fill it!! Here are some numbers: The average car in the U.S. is driven about 12,000 miles a year. If you get 20 MPG (hey if you are driving a Hummer, getting 10, I don't want to hear it!) That is 600 gallons of gas a year. Most people would be estatic if gas was at $2 a gallon again -SO, that is about $600 a year (for the extra $1 a gallon) or $11.54 a week. Now I know there are a LOT of folks that were struggling to pay the $2, but the average person I know was not. Here is another way to look at it. How many Starbuck's coffees or lattes have you had lately at $$37.33 a gallon? ($3.50 for a 12 oz one) How about a beer on an airplane at $53.33 a gallon? ($5 per) Then there is bottled water at $10.66 a gallon. ($1 a 12oz bottle -and it can be MUCH higher...

Well I am writing this from the scene of one of my latest moments of glory - the Comfort Suites in Colonial Heights, Va. For those of you that do not take notes of all my achievements - that was the hotel where I was (drum roll please - ) Guest of the Day about a month ago. I drove up (and parked in the Platinum Elite member space - I might add) gathered my goodies and headed in. I thought of pulling a hat down over my head and putting my collar up to hide from the photographers and autograph fans, but I had no hat and the crowds just were not really a problem. I ambled to the front desk and it was the same girl! Surely here the recognition would reign! But as I approached her I glanced to the reader board - the same reader board that not so long ago was praising me as Guest of the Day! I staggered a bit under the realization that there was another name on MY sign! Then it hit me - Guest of the Day! I had lived my glorious 24 hours and now it was time to move on. OH WOE IS ME. I curse ...

After the collage of yesterday, I thought I would get somewhat serious again. As those of you that know me are aware; a lot of Sunday mornings I make pancakes. I just finished doing so. As I was making pancakes, I thought of some things and thus this blog. If you have ever made pancakes in a actual frying pan, did you flip them with the pan? You know, like on TV or the movies - the cook takes the pan and flips the pancakes in the air to turn them. (It does NOT work at ALL if you use a large griddle like I do now - believe me!) If not, WHY? If so, did it work the first time you tried it? Unless you are some sort of pancake prodigy - probably not. In fact, you might have put some pancake batter on the ceiling, the floor (definitely), the walls, and/or the countertop. After a few tries (or so) you probably got it. What is weird, I bet if you have ever done it, no matter how long ago it was, if you get a similar pan you could do it now (maybe after a few warm-up flips). That is the firs...

"Just a small bit of cheese sir?" I remember that plea like it was yesterday. My father and his father before him were cabbies in London's eastside. I was destined to be one as well if I didn't break out of the future that was in the works for me. After the war, I luckily got a job with a small plastics firm on the continent, and well... the rest is history I guess. Do fleas get parasites? Can Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), be transmitted by leeches? Remembering back to childhood, I loved when we would start the cattle drives each spring. The dew on the grass as we awoke to sounds of the herd gently lowing was just damp enough to require you to put on shoes to go to the stream for your morning bath. I loved the tuba music best I think. That or the wild Mexican hat dances that we would hold on Tuesdays. Hey, there was always lasagna night!! Moooooooo. Mooooooo. The treehouse we lived in was especially cold in the winter months. Fires, of course, were forb...