Survival

I laugh and joke when I have a bad day and tell people "Oh, just shoot me, now!" Then I watch a movie that just sobers you up. I watched "The Way Back".  The story is questionable, but there is no denying the harsh conditions that humans bestowed upon other human beings with the Gulag prions camps.

I also happened to catch "The Help" about how black maids were treated in the South during the sixties. It just boggles my mind in an attempt to understand why some people were born in this era and in that country and others were born elsewhere. 

I've had it pretty darn good all my life. It bothers me and makes me wonder how can people treat others like that? I know it goes on today. I know I need to be so grateful that I was born in America and in this time. But why? Why is there so much suffering?

Does it sharpen our will to survive like an exercise? If we all had it easy would we (as a human race) become lazy and lose our sense of survival? With certain people suffering in this way, do their offspring inherit that will and do we (the reader or the witness to such horror) become inspired to keep that will to live alive? Is there a "reason" for all the suffering? Is it to remind us and keep us aware of the need to survive when things get tough? As life inevitably does.

Maybe there is a reason for all this pain and suffering. Like the common cold exercises our immune system so that our bodies are prepared for much bigger illnesses, the suffering of humans keep us sharp for life's unpredictability and extreme conditions.

He liked ME best!

He fit snugly in my arms. He was sucking on a Binky. He had just had his hearing checked. I can only imagine how they do that to a 24 hour old baby. Fog horn and if he jumps he is good? I don't know. He was pleasant and peaceful when I got to hold him. When anybody else took him he cried. (Well, except for the Mother of course - but she needed a break).

He was so beautiful and perfect in every way. It was not a planned Cesarean but the mother's condition became complicated and the process became what is known as arrest of labor. All is well, now. Sigh. Such a wonderful experience and they get to take home the ultimate prize.

Hit over the head

When I log into facebook from  home to converse with friends and family, I cringe. I spend maybe 15 minutes in this program in the evening at home. Why do I cringe? Because I spend all freakin' day at work trying to find ways to block this demon application from getting into the schools that do not want it on their network. It is almost to the point where I don't even want to use it anymore. It has become the bane of my existence.

I would guess the average parent would think that children would want to access porn and games in an attempt to "beat the system" at school. Not so. They want to download music and get onto facebook. Well, maybe some want to play games. To the best of my knowledge porn is not an issue at all. But then there are those teachers...

New Addition

My niece and nephew had their baby today. Trust me. This picture is much, much better than the real thing. Well, probably not to the parents or grandparents. Heh, heh. What is that goop they put on their eyes, anyway? Gross!

More better pictures will come.

Broken

When I purchased my house, I purchased new furniture. I splurged on two blue "cone-shaped" lamps in a beautiful neon blue. I have had those lamps for nine years. I am down by one.

One cat is down one of her nine lives.

Is it too late to ask for my carpet back?

The lamp happened to be on at the time, too. It not only made a big noise but flashed the entire room up like lightning. 

The cat? She high tailed it for the basement and did not show herself for hours. Good thing her self preservation and primal instinct kicked in.

You will need your tissues for this one:  Like Dandelion Dust. Stars B Pepper (ugly as sin but a great actor) and Mira Sorvino. Also with one of my favorites C Hauser and newcomer (to the big screen) K Levering. Seen her before? Yes, in "Drop Dead Diva".  Darn it! I just got P Wilson mixed up with C Hauser. I could have sworn it was C Hauser in "Morning Glory" with R McAdams. Yeesh!

A little wine

That bee is lucky this was the last of my wine. My BIL fished it out and I almost drank the rest. Last sip and all. Hey, I needed something to get me through six hours of screaming, pushing, sticky and crying kids Saturday at the Fall festival.

This was their cranberry flavored wine. Tasted just like Ocean Spray Cranberry juice. It has 11% alcohol by volume. A little tart but so is cranberry juice.

They package it in wine bottle sized frosted crystal Christmas trees that look to make a very nice gift.

Lip smacking good.

It was awesome!

I am so glad I stayed later into the evening to watch this car-eating megasaurus. I was so amazed! It gave a really good show. First it bit a car in half, then it moved on to this red car which was full of pumpkins. It took a big bite of pumpkins, spit them out - then caught the entire patch of pumpkins in the car on fire, roasted them - then ate them. The car was still burning when it was over and the fire men had to put it out.

This machine was just delightful and we were standing way back. I can only imagine what it was like up closer. The day was gorgeous. My sister and I started at one. Drank a bottle of wine and had a bite to eat. Then we met the group with kids. There were 12 of us altogether.

It got a little warm for me and I neglected to wear a hat. This is a kid oriented event. There were kids everywhere. They had a huge mountain of hay bales for them to climb on (the big rolled kind). They had goats for them to feed. They had a peep show (little baby chicks). There were duck races where the kids have to pump the water to make the water go faster. There were pig races. I did not get to see this. One announcement stated that even though it was very nice outside for us, it was a bit warm for the pigs. Of course there was the pumpkin shooter. I want to tell you what. When they shot the pumpkin WAY out with 37 pounds of psi you would lose the pumpkin in the distance before it landed. They were shooting the little pumpkins that people use to bake pies with.

I could go on and on. This farm is adding also. The new feature this year is a Gem Mine. The kids get to mine for pretty stones in a fake mining mill. It costs extra. Hayrides, corn maizes to get lost in... and more.

The place was understaffed. I asked a worker (plunging the toilets) if they paid her enough to do that. She snapped back at me "The FARM doesn't pay anybody enough to do ANYTHING!"  Ouch. The rumor is that the FARM is very stingy and greedy. The lines in the winery were long later in the day. It looked like everybody was drinking wine. Most tables had little children and all the adults were drinking the wine. You had to wonder who in the heck was driving home.

There were people walking around the ground with a bottle of wine in one hand and their little plastic cup in the other. Children were everywhere. The cigarette butts were flying. My niece was worried about a butt hitting her little toddler in the stroller. She is a smoker but she walks away from the crowd (and mostly away from her children) to smoke. She always asked one of us to keep an eye on her children while she and my nephew went away to smoke. And they stand in one place while they are smoking.

They took their van full and left in the afternoon to feed their crew at a fast food restaurant. The winery had food but the only edible choice for children was a $3 pb&j. You can bring your own food in. Not sure if you can bring in coolers of beer. I did not see anybody do that. But I did see a lot of stuff people brought in for their children.

There is a lot more to this place and you can read all about it here:  http://www.maizevalleywinery.com/

Family Fun day

Going to a vineyard today with family for some fall fun. I have not been here before, so this will be a first for me. I am looking forward to the above machine shooting pumpkins at a van out in the cornfield. The kids (grand nieces and nephews, now) will be looking forward to the car eating mechanical dinosaur.

I know you are tired of hearing me say it (or seeing me print it) and I am tired of saying (typing) it: I still can't find my stupid camera battery charger. I want to take pictures but yet I am also free from the task of hanging that thing around my neck and trying to get good pics. Without the camera I can just enjoy myself. But still... I want pictures to post and to enjoy later.

This will be me today

I doubt that I will get a way with it, but I might try.

Oh, dear.

Just what am I supposed to say?

You know, after 16 years of working with schools I probably have said it all. I didn't say I've seen it all or heard it all. I pretty much have said it all.

Let's just get that out of the way. I hate to sweat.

Picture it. A little tiny, dinky town. The elementary is still functioning. Barely. To the west is an Amish county with little to no electricity in their schools. Not much Internet need there. To the North is the wide world of Ohio Industry. The schools are getting along pretty well there. To the South - elementary buildings are closing and the school district is combining into a campus environment. To the East - little city schools - still managing to barely hold their own.

This elementary will probably close next year or the next. No money is being shoveled into it. Their Internet connection is down. I am fighting with the telco. They say it is my equipment, I say it isn't. I swap out my equipment - twice. In that hot, dirty, dark, and tiny wiring closet that I am so used to seeing in every tiny, dinky elementary in rural Ohio.

Sigh. I am no longer 35 years old. I am 51. I am older. I am premenopausal. Is that a word? Hell if I know. Hell if I care. I am hot. I am grouchy. I am getting a headache.The sweat literally pours off my head and into my face. I have no idea where it comes from. It is like I conjure it up out of nowhere. Is it menopause? Ladies? My sisters tell me of night sweats but they don't have this soaking sweat that I seem to experience during the daytime. I do not have night sweats.

Then I look like pure S.H.I.T. My hair is plastered to my head. My face is soaked with moisture. My glasses are steamed up (I have only worn glasses all the time the past year; so I am not completely knowledgeable about how to maintain them while it is raining or while I am sweating profusely). My clothes are sticking to me.

Anyway. The tiny, dark closet is just off the teachers lounge. They come in for lunch. I get the usual. "Are you going to FIX us?"  "Are we still down?"  Here's a tip. If I am still there and you don't see me packing my equipment up - you are STILL down! That question irks me. 

Sorry. It has been SIXTEEN years of the same questions. The same circumstances. Me fighting the telco. For the record I have been wrong a few times. For the record - the telco has been wrong 90% of the time. I swap out my equipment. Twice. Still down.

The secretary comes back. "Are we going to be up today?"  Gee, let's see. Maybe. I am not sure if I have sweated (Yes, blogger I looked this word up in dictionary.com) enough in this dark, hot, dirty closet. I think I'll  keep you down a little bit longer because THAT'S HOW I AM! I AM A MEAN BITCH AND I  HATE ALL OF YOU! And I just love, love, love being in this dirty little closet with no air conditioning - no Internet connection - no cell phone service. It is like the sweat box in prison, I would imagine. Except I have to think and try to troubleshoot. I can't sleep or zone out. No, I have to work. Thank you, but please let me stay in here another hour!

But no........

I smile and tell her that I have done the best that I can do. I have swapped out my equipment twice, but that the equipment is pretty old. She asked me why their tiny little elementary were not getting the new equipment after I explained to her that all other districts were going to fiber. She said they were supposed to get broadband in the area. I smiled weakly at her. I asked her if this little town had cable television. She said "No." Sigh. I said "Then you probably won't have fiber any time soon."

I did say "Is there industry that supports education around here?" She said "Yes" and named a business. I said "Contact them and see if they will put fiber in for you." It was a cheap shot and I knew she would probably not call them, but at least I had a suggestion instead of shrugging my shoulders and saying "You are S.O.L."

She left. What happened to the lottery money that education was supposed to get? I found out by reading the following URL's:

http://www.wlwt.com/money/27667257/detail.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/17/cbsnews_investigates/main3269456.shtml

Thank-you lying politicians. Thank-you Mr. Greed.

I painfully do what I am supposed to do and instead of making a beeline for my car and A/C I stop in at the office to sign out properly. I am handed a mercy ticket. The secretary has stepped away from her desk. I quickly sign out and slip out the front door to the sanctuary of my car.

And the wikipedia article on state lottery had one mention of education - it was in their slogan. No mention of school funding. Surprised? Yeah, me too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Lottery

And you know what? While I am totally disgusted, let me mention a movie. "Brooklyn's Finest."  If there is anything I hate more than sweating, it is watching R Gere in a sex scene. For the love of God man - give it up! Stop it!

God, Cindy -four years? Really?!

Sometimes

you don't need to caption anything.

Ain't no sunshine....

I went to the Fall Festival today. It was not sunny. The above photo is from last year. I did not even take my camera this year. Partly because it was a wet week-end and mostly because I STILL have not found my camera's battery. Sigh.

It was a big muddy mess. I layered my clothing so I did not get cold and only had to put my last jacket on when the rain came in for about 3 minutes. I was comfortable. I looked for a new welcome sign for my front porch (because I can't find my Autumn one - we all know why!), but did not find one that I liked.

Maybe I'll just make my own.

Me & Cody

I sat for maybe 45 seconds for this photo in 1990. I think this is the longest relationship I ever had. Ha, ha, I crack myself up! Cody, Wyoming. The last time I flew in an airplane.I am not afraid of flying. I had my baby nine months later. (Not Cody's). Anyhoo - my daughter has an unfounded fear of flying. We drove everywhere we wanted to go. Florida, Myrtle Beach, Lexington Kentucky, Niagara Falls and many trips to wild, wonderful WV!

Frustration

What can really drive me mad is the following issue. I will drive 45 miles one way. My organization pays me close to the national average for mileage. I get to the school and set up. I have to call a third party to work with me because they installed the IP telephones at the school and I have to make my configuration work along side of his.

This guy has a three hour window. That is all he can give me because he is busy, too.

There are delays getting the first school done (as always). He and I finally have success with the first school and I tell him I will call him within the hour. That will give me time to drive to the second school, set up my equipment, install the fiber switch and configure the switch.

I get to the other school. In my haste, I promptly forget the switch in the trunk of my car and have to walk back outside to get it. I get to the wiring closet. Locked.

I sit all my heavy equipment down and go to the office. Up 3 flights of stairs. The secretary is not at all pleased to see me.

The first words out of her mouth "You aren't going to take us down, are you!? I don't have my IEP's done!" As far as I know they were supposed to be finished last week, but that is not my concern.

I told her I have to take them down, I only have a certain amount of time. (They were notified the day before that I was coming). She looks completely disgusted with me. I tell her the wiring closet is locked and I need in there.

She snaps back "The janitor is the only one who has the key and he is at lunch!"

Sigh.

There is another lady in the office. She is the speech therapist and she uses that room from time to time for her therapy. She said "I have a key to that room." 

I follow her downstairs (ignoring the icy glare from the secretary) and the nice speech therapist lets me into the room.

I set up my equipment. By this time the clock is running out. It is stifling hot in there. I pull the laptop out (It takes no less than 18 minutes to boot). I get the fiber switch out of the box (there is no room in this tiny little closet and there is no light where I need it.)

I look for the screws to mount the brackets and cannot find them. Exasperated, I dump everything out of my satchel onto a table. Tangled cables, screw drivers, ink pens, screws, papers, two quarters and a nickel come flying out and scatter all over the tiny room.

The speech therapist beats a  hasty retreat out. I don't blame her.

Sweat is pouring off of my head and into my face. My glasses become steamed and foggy. The sweat literally drips onto the equipment. Is it menopause? Is it frustration? Is it too hot? All three, I don't know!

I do not have the physical force to get the switch into the wiring rack. Years of the rack sitting in this tiny closet causes the sides to bow somewhat. There is dirt everywhere. And no light.

The tech lady finally comes into the room. I complain about the light and the rack. She asks if I want her to turn on the lice lamp. For some bizarre reason schools seem to always store their lice lamps in the closet where I work.

http://bestpricesalon.com/9008.html

I can only imagine how hot this magnified lamp will make me and I tell her no thanks.

She did come in handy to force the rack wider apart. She used her leg and foot to push one side. She said it was a yoga move! It worked like a charm! YAY!

I got the switch into the rack. I sat down at my laptop which had finally boot up and wiping the sweat off my forehead, and as fast as I could began to configure the switch.

I called the third party company. I have to use my own cell phone because the one that work has issued to us is flimsy, cheap and totally useless out in the field as far as getting a signal is concerned.

I made it in time. We worked together and got that school switched over to fiber and afterwards, more relaxed now I began picking all the pieces and parts that had flown out of my satchel.

I was so worried that I would have to drive back out to the school another day causing the taxpayers so much more money because of a secretary with a burr up her ass.  That is about fifty dollars for each drive out there. Plus my lunch and the fact that I would be absent from the office or another school that might need me on that day. It just gets old after a while.

What really burns me is that this fiber was supposed to be installed in the summer and we could work in the schools (albeit it would be hot) on our time without the schools being in session. But, no. The company that installs the fiber (for who knows what reason - I will never know) could not get their act together or they just put us on the back burner and drug their feet.

One school is still waiting on the company that installs the fiber to get a permit that will allow them to pull the fiber across the Interstate. I know this entails getting a crew out there to stop traffic and direct it around them while they work. Both side of the Interstate. Good grief! The order was placed in March. You think they could have arranged this stuff by now.

Sometimes my biggest obstacle is getting co-operation from the school staff. Most of the time I am very pleasant, bright and cheery. I charm the pants off of them. Sometimes I have a black cloud over my head and sparks are shooting out of my eyes.

My back hurts.

Attestation

We all have days at work that are stressful. I have been having a very stressful month. One thing after another. I don't care to elaborate much but you know how it goes. Work that was supposed to have been done (by another company) in the summer was not complete until last week. This delays me doing my part. When it is my turn to go out into the school and install equipment I am dealing with two hot items. The first is the school is angry because I have to take them off line. No time is a good time to do this unless I want to work a shift that runs from 4 p.m. to midnight. Uh, no thanks! 

Nothing goes as planned. There are snags here and there and it delays everything and everybody. You are trying to contact people on the other side of the network via your own personal cell phone because work's cell phone gets no signal out in my rural area. Fortunately for me I get 12 people in my circle. I put work's number as one of them. As soon as I am ready on my end - my co-worker has left for lunch on the other end. Sigh.

The second hot item is "MY" primary job (taking care of the filter) is having major issues currently and I really need to focus on that. I have school districts angry that this job is not done, I have school districts angry that the other job is not done. 

To complicate matters we have one technician away at a training session this week. One technician had a death in the family and has to take half the week off. Another tech has serious diabetes issues and I hate to ask him to drive too far (seriously, this worries me because I really like this guy and I am so concerned - he has had an ambulance called more times than I can count). 

That leaves me and one more technician. This last tech is the office joke. He cannot handle stress. Case in point - it has been so hectic this week - he is taking two personal days the rest of the week. Today and tomorrow. That is with two other techs out of the office and he gets away with taking two personal days out of the blue. I will never understand management. Some of us get written up for pulling a stunt like this and others - they just look the other way. 

This is the same tech who panics if he is farther away from the office than 10 miles. He goes into full panic mode. I have never seen anything like it. If he has to drive away from his office and it is not towards his house - he begins pacing, sweating and rambling. He rambles "I have to be out of here by 1:30!"  He will not work over one minute unless absolutely forced to. Most of us just shrug him off as fairly useless. This is the tech who used to manage the filter before me.

The above photo is one of the wiring closets I was in this week. I do not like to see a cable hanging loose. Where does it belong? Something like this can cause a "loop" in the network and bring the entire network crashing to it's knees. I have known well-meaning janitors to see a loose cable and plug it into the nearest wall jack. Sheer havoc.

It seems as though the week is winding down, though. The major "hot" issues appear to be on a simmer and low boil. Schools are still not real happy but now I can try to focus on my filter issues again. Then again, I have six more fiber switches to install. I know that the phone companies will finish those all at the same time, also. We wait on them and when they are finished - all hell breaks loose. My manager goes into panic mode and shouts "Get those switches out to the schools and install them!"  I know why. It is because we started charging the schools back in the summer when the fiber was supposed to be installed. Believe it or not.

Oh, hell. I forgot about the title to this post. Attestation. Since I was busy at another district out of county my co-worker (the one with diabetes) had to help a school in my area. After the ordeal I was speaking to him on the phone. I had a really bad day and I was not mincing words. He said to me "This tech, is he a nice guy?"  I paused (barely) and spat out "He's an asshole!"  My co-worker sighed and said "Thank-you! That is the impression I got, too." Attestation.

Sometime

Somewhere, sometime in the 80's (maybe) in Ohio. My mom is the one in the middle in white. I am next to her on the couch with my arm behind her. Sister 1956 on far left, sister 1954 on far right of couch. Sister 1944 in front and sister 1949 in blue in front my me and Mom. 

I can't figure if this is even before or after my daughter was born. With no little tots in the photo (or ex-husband/boyfriends) it is hard for me to determine the year. See if my ex was in there I can tell the approximate year. If one of the ex husbands were there, that would also help. If a child was in the photo, I can gauge their age and decipher the year.

The décor of the room doesn't help. My mom put her stuff in there in 1966 and changed it once in 1978.

Sigh.

Edit:  So glad I did not purchase a cantaloupe at the grocery store the other night.  Read this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/28/ap/health/main20113075.shtml

No caption

I am so bowled over by the cuteness of this photo I have no caption. The driver is big brother and the passenger is little brother. I am fairly certain they were stationary but maybe not. Photo courtesy of sister 1944. They are her grandsons. She has another on the way from another son. Good times.

I am always confused by the spelling of stationary vs. stationery. I am going to try to remember that the one with the "e" in it is for writ(e)ing. The one with an "a" in it is for st(a)ying.

I read that the term "bowled over" refers to the game of bowling. Similar to a bowling ball knocking down the pins. To get "bowled over" means to get wiped out or knocked out or overwhelmed. I like trivia stuff like that.

Here I am being goofy

Went to the county fair today. My sister and I posed behind this cutout. Yes, I am very goofy. The best one today was when we ate Chinese later this evening. My sister was looking at the menu on-line and asked "What is human beef?"  She had misread it. It said Hunan beef. I laughed so hard spit flew into her coffee cup. She had already finished her coffee and I couldn't help it.

We went to see The Lion King 3D last evening. Another fun day with family. I should sleep well tonight.

bro

Brother 1957

He and I were not close when we were young. We fought a lot. We are much, MUCH closer now. Do not get to see him very much. He does not visit. He wants everyone to visit him. That's okay. I visit when I can. He is a big dog lover, too. Last count was five yorkies and one tiny chihuahua. And one big outside dog. 

He married a woman 17 years his senior. She was his best friend's mother. I didn't give a hoot. They married in 1981 or so and divorced in 1984 or so. They have been together since 1978. They are still together. Divorced but still together. Whatever works for them.

No more torture

By sixth grade - no more rollers. Perhaps the sister who insisted was busy elsewhere - I don't recall. I was left with the stringy, brown hair. In it's natural state my hair would never hold a curl after I turned 12.  It hung like strings down my back. We did not go to the salon back then. Long, straight hair was in style - 1971/72. Check out the cameo pin. They were in style then, too.

I see that I have my usual stash of walnuts in my cheeks. God I hope I start wearing make-up soon. It was not because my Mom did not let me. Actually my Mom was kind of in the state of "Do what you want to do as long as I don't have to do anything extra."  She was tired of raising kids, I am sure.

My sisters had tons of make-up around. I was ending my tomboy stage and would move into the make-up stage soon enough.

Torture

I was tortured as a child. Yes, I was. The day before picture day my hair was washed and rolled up in big curlers. This was before the invent of hot rollers or hot curlers or electric curlers. Whatever you called them. The process was painful. Then I was put to bed with these huge rollers in my head. 

Let me tell you - there is NO WAY to sleep comfortably with a head full of large rollers in your hair. Unless you can sleep flat with your face in the pillow and still breathe. I could not. I could just manage to twist my face so that I could breathe while trying not to lay on a huge roller.

The rollers would pull your hair all night long as you slept because you were putting weight on your head as you lay it on the pillow and thus it would smash the roller and pull your hair.

I'd say that was torture, wouldn't you?

By the morning after very little sleep, an uncaring sister would yank the rollers out of your head and curse as she tried to style your hair. The end result? Bumps in my hair. Big ugly bumps.

I am certain that I was on the verge of tears in the above 5th grade photo. To top it all off, I hate myself without bangs.

I wonder what the average age is for young girls to wear make up? I think I started in 7th grade. I think my daughter started about that time also. I certainly was a pale face. Man, no wonder everybody pinched my cheeks. All this time I thought it was because I had chipmunk cheeks. Now I see that they were probably trying to get some color into my face.

I'm not sure that golden color did much for my complexion, either. I really don't think I liked that dress very much.

Way back Wednesday

4th grade. 1969-70. I have no idea who fixed my hair. We did have running water by this time so I am glad to say my hair, my clothes and I were clean. Yay! (The house we moved into in 1966 had a well/cistern and we had very little available water until an older sibling paid for a new well to be dug in 1968).

There is a reason for all the old photographs. Sister 1954 got into a scanning old pictures frenzy and has posted hundreds to her facebook account. She had an accident on her motorized bicycle and now is down to using one arm. I wonder if that will slow her down any?

You could be my silver spring

Here is my Mom in 1982. She went to Florida (and on other adventures) with my oldest brother all through the 80's. If I happened to be on a hiatus (not working) I traveled with them. My brother liked for me to go so that he knew my Mom was not alone in a motel room. It also worked out because my Mom was done with the day by 4 p.m. and that left he and I to adventure out in the evenings. (Whoops! Thus leaving my Mom alone in a motel room. LOL! Not for that long. We were always back by nine - my Mom's bedtime!).

She's got the look!

Yep. That is a look I remember very well. It says "Stop yer damn yakkin' and take me home!" My Mom loved to go places (I think) but she also loved to leave and go home. "Enough already," she is saying. "I got what is left of my cheeseburger for breakfast tomorrow and I want to go home!"

I will have to guess this photo was between 1992 and 1995. That is when I had that white Buick.

Me and my baby!

My daughter and I were living in a town with a lot of mineral deposits in it's water. My hair is naturally a boring brown, and I have dyed it blonde since I was 17. The minerals in the water turned it a very brassy orangey red that I never cared for. This was not an intentional color for me.

We used "iron out" in our washing machine when we washed clothes.

I have city water now and my hair still tends to go brassy when I color it. I thought by going to a salon I could combat that. Nope. Last visit came out brassy. It fades after a week or two - but for those two weeks when I first look in the mirror sometimes I am like "Whoa!"

And hey! I thought I had a little girl. Looks like a boy in this photo. :)

Here's one from 1975

Sister 1954's wedding. Hottest day of the year. August 2, 1975. Church had no A/C. I am at the end on the left in yellow. I was 15. Sister 1944 is missing - she was wearing pink. Sister 1956 is in lavender standing next to the bride. Brother 1953 is on the end on the right. This marriage did not last but it produced two wonderful children who visit me quite often.

Her daughter plans to marry in June of 2012. The niece I had staying with me for about 5 years. I will save all of you my cynicism and keep my thoughts about marriage to myself. Since I have never been married it is probably best.

This morning I am waiting for the Advil to kick in so that I can swallow my coffee with little to no pain. My throat has been sore for three days and the glands in my neck are swollen. It hurts when I turn my head or look up at the sky to look at the stars. (One of my favorite things to do while out walking the dogs at night or in the early morning).

Ohio turned very cold yesterday. A huge dip in the temperatures around here.

I had a nasty ordeal with a court hearing on Wednesday. I had to testify. I have never done that before.Ever. My niece's (daughter to sister 1949) ex claims that she is an unfit mother and took her to custody for full support of their five year old daughter. We won't know for a few days what the verdict is. I did not like the ordeal one bit. I hope I never have to do that again.

I knew that I had OD (on demand) for the television but I finally found a use for it. By accident I had the SyFy channel on the other night and caught the first half of an episode of "Alphas". I did not watch the ending but wanted to the next day. So, I pull up the on demand channel and watched that episode plus the last five. LOL!

Freaky noodle head

I had some freaky noodle hair thing going on back then. If I had to guess, I would place this photo at 1989. I was 29. I base this on the fact that the little one holding the watermelon (my niece) was born in February 1987, so I am guessing summer of '89. Maybe just maybe summer of '90?

Sister 1954 posted about 200 family photos to facebook last night. I went through them one by one this morning downloading them. Proof positive that she stole a huge amount of photos from our family albums. I told my other sisters that she took them. Now we have even more proof.

It is wasted energy to get angry with her. At least she scanned them in and I have a copy of them now.

More from the 60's

Sister 1954 on the right and a band member(unknown) on the left.

I was born in 1960. I spent my youth in the colorful, drug-infested, free stylin' years of the hippie world. My parents were kind of set in the 50's era. My dad slicked his hair back, my Mom put her hair in bobby pins every night.

They were not typical and my family was not typical. That is not what this post is about.

I had siblings born in the following years;

Brother 1942

Sister 1944

Sister 1949

Brother 1953

Sister 1954

Sister 1956

Brother 1957

and me 1960

I grew up watching them. Oldest brother was in the Air Force by the time my memory of my youngest years kicked in (from about 4 or 5 years old and up). Oldest sister was supporting the family along with oldest brother. Sister 1949 was in college for the most part that I remember.

That left the 5 youngest to be children at home.

We did the sled riding, the woods romping and the ball playing.

I cut my teeth on the sixties by listening to their music watching their dress and their actions.

We did not have indoor plumbing until I was six years old when my oldest sister purchased a house for the family. We had been kicked out of so many houses (most were condemned and we had to leave). I had a huge fear of a flushing toilet for many, many years. I think I am still a bit afraid. More so I think it may be a fear of loud noises. My brothers and sisters never mention having this fear, though.

The sixties for me was playing with dogs, starting school, loving to draw and color, trying to fit in, having to wear dresses and knee high socks to school, ugly shoes, skinned knees and trying to keep up with the older kids.

I wore the beads and peace signs - but that was in the 70's.

Peace Out!

I went to a 60's tribute concert Friday night. This is my brother-in-law. I seriously doubt that he has ever tried mj, but maybe he did. During the 60's he was the crew cut marine over in Viet Nam.

We had a wonderful time. Four sisters, my bil (above), two nephews and one niece (who bailed out on us in the middle of the concert).  She did not know the music - that is okay. 

I took the video card out of my ubuntu machine and installed it into my old Motherlode machine, so I am back on Windows XP. However, all 8 of my USB ports are gone. And my firewire port. I am working with a wire (that is a network patch cable to my router strung across the floor). 

I guess I will have to download my e-books to my nook at work. I am fortunate that I have an external hard drive that is USB attached to my router and I can backup data that way. Hey, I just realized I can probably plug my thumb (flash/jump) drives in to the router that way also.

So much fun, this technology.

The above mention of a jump drive reminds me of the commercial where the gym teacher is going through the list of items students will need and at the end he says "jump drive... not sure what that is but they are going to be jumping!"

Bethink

Because...

I am just ornery that way.

The funniest thing about this photo was not the photo itself. The picture was taken on that hot, blistering day I spent outside from 2 p.m to 10 p.m. and I had a couple of beers, saw this and sent it to my Group text of 15 family members. Eh - they are used to stuff like this from me. I called it ¨Afternoon Delight¨.

The really funny aspect was a week later, I went to text my daughter and ask her what kind of iPod her beau had (I would have asked him but I did not want to bother him at work) and by mistake I chose the text from the above picture where the text asking about the iPod went out to 15 people instead of just my daughter, including her beau at work (who replied, by the way). It was the day of my Labor Day cook-out and even though I had imbibed in a few beers, this was hours later. The text read ¨What kind of iPod does beau have? A Touch or a regular one?¨

It was hilarious what people texted back. It ranged from ¨How the hell should I know?¨ to ¨Are you sure you sent this to the right person?" and even included ¨Ybdi¨ from a sister who could not find her glasses.  When I discovered what I had done, I immediately began another text stating my mistake. I could barely finish because I was laughing so hard at all the replies I kept getting from the first text.

I tried to tell them I was not drunk, but my fat fingers punched in ¨frunk¨ and that started a whole other set of replies that had me laughing until my sides hurt.

I think I will send a text by mistake to the Group family text list more often. Too much fun.

Edit:  omigosh, you guys! I don´t have all the features on this ubuntu machine so the photos are in a huge format because I cannot download a program that edits them to a smaller size. I just zoomed in and the grasshoppers are looking at me like, ¨DO YOU MIND?!"  And the top one looks like he(?) is holding onto motorcycle handlebars! LOL!

Coffee with milk

Makes me want to barf. I am so used to creamer that I cannot stand coffee with milk in it. Since I am so busy (excuses, excuses!) I have not had any time to go to the grocery store where I need so much stuff - one being coffee creamer.

I have been drinking my morning coffee with 1% milk. Barf! I should just drink it black at this stage. Or (horror of horrors) begin adding sugar to it.

And, you know - I do not want to put a downer/damper on your day (so do not click on the following link). Seriously. It will depress you. I was doing some research on September 11 attacks and read this article. I immediately lost my appetite (it was right before a lunch break). I watched a couple of documentaries from National Geographic (very good!) and I personally have no opinion of the memorial they are holding. (As to whether they allow prayer or are allowing the rescue workers to attend).

I remember in my heart.

Back in Black

This is a photo from my daughterś clothesline when I visited her house one day last week. All black. That is what she wore in high school and she has not changed much. I do see some color, though.

I do like AC/DC (the band). \Back in Black\.

I do not get to enter quotation marks, the tilde, the comma, the percent sign or the top carrot (or however it is spelled). 

I am not able to add updates or new features or any new software because I cannot recall my admin password for this  ubuntu machine that I am using.

 I wonder what the odds are of me finding the notebook I used when I set it up. That will have the password recorded. 

I am missing my computer. I know I have an extra video card around here somewhere and I can always pop out the card in this ubuntu machine and try it, but I had a very special ATI Radeon gaming video card. Bleh! It had itś own fan. Stupid Nook!

My party on Sunday the 4th was great. We got a little rain. I caught the food on fire on the grill about 5 times. I am not an expert at the grill. The corn was fantastic! Yummy yum, yum, yum! I want to eat all my corn on the cob off the grill, now. 

I had 18 people here. I made 19. I did not have a headache this time until I had to get gas in the gas can for my daughter. She had parked her car at my house to drop off the corn, but was worried she would not make it to a gas station. When I picked her up from work, I got gas in the can and put it in her car so she could make it to a gas station with no worries. The gas smell is still in my car and I had the can in the trunk. Ugh!

Sable and Slade loved the party. I do not think they moved very much the next day. I got a present from my nephew. An Apple TV.  I am fairly certain he wants to convert me to apple products. Now I am debating on whether I buy into the Netflix program again or not. They made me angry by making a lot of movies :unavailable: for such long periods of time I got tired of waiting and rented them.

My nephew says something about cable companies going by the wayside(as far as television goes - they will still provide Internet access, etc...). I can follow him on a lot of stuff, but I was very tired that night (after my party) and could only follow some of what he said. I may absorb it over the next year or so as I get to using this device more.

I have had dr. appointments, court hearings and dinners the past few days and am unable to get the time to fight with this ubuntu machine to get any posts made. I can just barely get my e-mails read and answered and facebook taken care of before I silently scream and leave the room. The court hearings and dr. appointments are nothing major. Just little bumps in the road.

I said before that September looks to be one crazy month and so far I only have a couple of free Sundays left for me. I like my :down: time. Just me and myself by myself. Sitting around reading or watching TV. Not moving my car - not having to go anywhere. Sigh.

And it does not help any that work is crazy crazy right now. I am trying so hard not to panic. I find myself clenching my jaw (which may be what started that horrible tooth/jaw pain a month or so ago). I am having some sensitivity with that tooth. The dentist x-rayed it but he did not see a crack. I do not know what is up with it, but when I push up on the tooth with my finger it hurts. I know +Then stop pushing up on the tooth, Peruby!+

Man, it sucks not having quotation marks. I wonder....

Here goes... ¨  heh, heh!  ¨  quotation mark - see?  ¨  ~  Tilde (tilda)  - see? heh, heh.  ``^^&&$%^&&==()+_´´´;;>><<..??

Okay. I have to type a few of the special characters twice before they will show up. I wonder what they will look like after I post? Am I putting some sort of html code in front of the character so that it comes out weird looking?

Cripes! I don´t know. There is the apostrophe! It was looking like this:  sisterś, now I can do this... sister´s house.

I am seriously delirious right now!

Rising from the ashes....

Besides being insanely busy....my Motherlode Windows XP machine may have finally died. Sigh. I plugged my Nook in to download a new library book and poof, the mouse would not work. I reboot the machine, the keyboard did not register.

I attached a new keyboard and a new mouse and my display was all whacked out.

Sigh, sigh, sigh.

It is doomed, I say. Doomed.

Using my backup Ubuntu machine... so slow!

My best friend

Here is my best friend today. I stepped outside a few moments ago to take the dogs out and our feet sizzled when they touched the sidewalk. Oh. We could not breathe. The dogs wanted right back inside. They did not do any business. Well, not that I could see. A neighbor was mowing. In this heat. Holy cow!

I spent yesterday (same heat) outside from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. Some of my friends swam, some of us did not. I shun the sun. A pool is rarely shaded. It is usually in the direct sun. I would have a massive headache from the exposure. As it was, I had to take Advil due to the fact my head hurt from the heat.  I stayed under a porch roof with my best friend and a few close friends.

We had the best steak kabobs on the grill. Yummy! We also had lots of other goodies. One friend brought the absolute tastiest cherry tomatoes from her garden that I have ever had. I could not stop eating them.

I have a lot to do today but I am going to make that "indoor" things to do. Yowza! I pity anybody who does not have AC today. I do have to run to the grocery store but I know it is air conditioned. If it is not cool enough, I guess I'll just spend most of my time in the dairy/frozen section. I'll just stick my head in the frozen vegetables and pretend I am looking for something. Grin. How long do you think I could get away with that before a clerk spots me and says "Hey lady! What the hell are you doing?"  I bet I can go a long time doing that before anybody stops me.

My daughter and some family members are always telling me that I scare people and am a bit intimidating. I never used to but for the past ten years or so I come on a little strong with strangers. I think I am like my boxer. I may act tough but I am a marshmallow inside. Hey,  I was the youngest of 8 children. You'd be pretty tough acting, too. I got pinched and punched a lot! Pecking order and all.

As I get older I tell my daughter when she says "Mom! You CAN'T do that!"  I reply,  "What are they going to do? Kick me out?" Hey, I've been kicked out of places before! Once I was kicked out of a bar for wearing shorts. True story. We had finished playing tennis. It was 1979. Two co-workers and I walked into a bar for a beer and the lady owner said "We do not allow women in shorts in  here!"  Oh, really? I said "No problem, there are other bars." And we went somewhere else. I was also kicked out of a bar for saying "It stinks in here. No wonder they nickname this place The Sewer!"  The owner was always fighting an on-going sewer smell and I guess he was a bit sensitive that night. And he overheard me. And told me to leave. Sigh. As I left I wanted to yell over my shoulder "It isn't MY fault your girlfriend left you for my brother!"

Okay. I guess that really isn't getting kicked out. Both actions were harmless and I was not causing any trouble. The places where I caused trouble my friends/family usually made me leave BEFORE we were kicked out. Heh, heh.

Okay, I've rattled on long enough. I am avoiding doing any work as is my custom. Get a move on, Peruby!

But wait, wait.... the above story reminds me of a joke my nephew showed me.

It read:

Dear NASA,

Your Mother thought I was big enough.

Sincerely,
Pluto

Nuts!

Just plain nuts here at the Peruby household. This is post 1999 for me. I yi yi.

I got nuttin'

I got nuttin' you guys. So I slapped a picture of Slade being bored here. I have been reading books on my nook and not spending much at home time on the computer. I am planning one last malware post about how to avoid the suckers but I want to get it right (or as right as I can) before I give any advice.

As I say - I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night. LOL!

Oh, and crazy me volunteered to host the Labor Day cook-out for the family. This Sunday. I have to buckle down and find that damn camera battery charger. Grrrrr! It is my chance to have my Independence Day party do-over!

That's my story....

Well, I left all of you yesterday stating that I was going to go and try to make some headway on my mess of a house. I swept the new floor. Cat grit and dog hair galore. Where does it all come from? I looked around for the dustpan. Nowhere insight. 

Sigh. Well, you know what that means, right? I have to stop Right then and there. I can't go on. I just stop. The best I can figure is when I sweep the floor I lay the dustpan in the trashcan for a lack of a better place to set it down. Well, it must have gone out with the trash.

I can't do another thing until I get a new dustpan. Sigh. I went shopping last evening. The last thing on my mind was a dustpan. I did not get one. Yuck, yuck.

I have a few (not many) instances where I say to myself "Well, that is one downside to having put a wooden floor in". This was one of them. I can pretty much guarantee you that I would not have inadvertently placed the vacuum cleaner in the trash can and threw IT out with the trash. Well, I am fairly certain.

And just for the record - I have another dustpan downstairs, but HEY! What belongs downstairs STAYS downstairs. If I move it, then when I am sweeping kitty litter downstairs the dustpan will be upstairs. If I march up and get it I will get distracted by fifty million things and I will never get back to what I was originally doing. Hmmm. Is there something about a messy house and ADHD? Why, I think there is!

And doesn't it figure? I purchased a tomato (as ripe as I could find) in the grocery store  yesterday. Hey! At least I don't buy zucchinis there! My sister pops in with a bag full from her garden - or somebody's garden.

Zucchinis. You know the joke, right? My standing zucchini joke? No? Okay. 

How can you tell if somebody does not have any friends?

I don't know, how?

They buy their zucchini in a grocery store! LOL!

Ahh, I crack myself up.

Recidivism

You have to check out this prison in Norway. My first thought was "No freakin' way!" I know some people that would commit crime just to live a life of luxury like that place. Well, I hope I don't know them, but can you imagine? There are some people so desperate that I believe they would commit crime just to have the comfort of that prison.

Then I thought about it and I read about it and I was "almost" convinced. Notice I said "almost".  I am not convinced. Sorry, call me a cynic. I don't think it would work. Maybe in Norway. I've never been to Norway. Maybe they are all Pollyanna's over there. I don't know.

I do not believe it would work here or in many countries.If it works for them - great. I have yet to find research on the prison - if it is working or not. It is still too new (having opened a little over a year ago) to determine whether it works or not.

It features a dorm like atmosphere. Private bathrooms. A sound studio. Flat screen t.v., refrigerator. Wait, I love this one. They teach the criminals to cook. With plastic spoons? I'll bet not! Can you imagine a criminal with a serrated knife slicing a tomato and the guy next to him splashes him with batter? Half of the guards are women - and the guards carry no weapons.

Now, let's get this straight. A woman guard - no weapons. A criminal with a serrated knife, a hot tea kettle, a hot griddle,  a hot frying pan and my personal favorite weapon - a roasting fork. Don't ask! And didn't we all learn what damage a meat thermometer can do when we watched "A Perfect Murder"? Nuts!

Which brings me to movies. Heh, heh. I caught an oldie the other night. I did not finish watching it. I could not finish it. It was so silly. It is rated 7.2 on the imdb scale. Dang it. Maybe I should have watched the entire thing. It was "The Long Hot Summer" with P Newman. The first thing that bothered me was Woodwards hairstyle. I could not stand to look at her she looked so silly. This is a classy lady and very beautiful but I could not watch that movie because of that hair. Sorry. 

This movie was made the same year as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and the similarities were ridiculous. Wouldn't you say that O Welles and B Ives could be twins? Anyway both movies were about the old south plantation and the "big daddy" who ran the homestead and treated everybody like dirt except for a select few. Such as busty women and cheating men. I can just barely watch "Cat" and it is rated 8.0 in imdb.

By the way, was the TV show "Dallas" modeled after this "Cat" movie, or what? The NEW DALLAS starts the summer of 2012. Have your sound on before you click the "new" link. :)

Okay, I am having way too much fun with this. I have to stop and go get something done. My house was hit by that never-ending tornado. I am domestically challenged and I try to make up for it on the week-ends. I think I have company coming in today. They did not say for sure. It's family so - no worries.  

I need to go grocery shopping desperately. I have half a loaf of bread and about 1 cup of milk. Three cans of mushrooms, one box of noodles, two cans of whole tomatoes. That is about all. Maybe some crackers and a can of soup. LOL! Since my daughter moved out in May, I have done very little grocery shopping. Why bother?

Last part - So - why malware/spyware?

Forgive my crude picture.I could not find what I was looking for on the Web. So, I slapped one quickly together with MS PowerPoint. This is a sample of what a warranty card would like like back in the old days. You fill in the bubble next to your answer. This type of question, you were to only fill in one bubble. They also asked questions like what hobbies do you like and gave a list of fishing/golfing/sewing/knitting/gardening, (on this question you could fill in as many bubbles as you wanted), and they asked if you were married/separated/divorced.

Back in the late 80's I did some keypunching at a consumer company. What I discovered there was that when they sold a product, they sent a warranty/registration card with the product in a box. If a consumer filled out the card and returned it to us, we (I) keyed their personal information - name/address into a computer program and if they were stupid detailed enough to fill out the personal information, I punched that into a computer, also.

Then I ran a program that wrote that data onto a magnetic tape and it was sold (yes, they made money off of this) to a company that used that data to target consumers with magazines/ads - all sorts of things to try to get them to buy more, more, more!

So, that is when I began to only fill out my name on warranty information cards. That way, if a product failed - I would still have my warranty but the company was not able to profit off of my personal information. And, profit they did. We sold millions of products and millions of warranty cards came in. I was paid by how fast I typed. The computer would record my keystrokes and I was paid by the hour/keystroke. I became very efficient.

Anyway, that is sort of like malware on the computer today. These slick little programs infect your computer and monitor what you type - gather that information and try to entice you with ads that fit your lifestyle, income, etc...

If you browse web pages with plants/shrubs/bushes on them - you may start seeing e-mail messages directing you to a seed/plant/shrub distributor.

That is the main reason for spyware/malware. Like it or not. Greed.

I felt it

The earthquake, that is. I was sitting in my office which happens to be on the second floor of our building and it felt to me like a rolling sort of feeling - almost like a Ferris wheel or carnival ride. The worker next door (I've written about her before - The Alarmist) jumped up and was screaming "What was that?! What IS that?!" I just calmly watched her (this is why I did not look outside or at any of my things). After the second roll I figured it was an earthquake.

My thoughts were "If I can feel that little bit of a roll here in Ohio, who got the epicenter? Who got the big one?"

She kept yelling down the hall to her manager "Did you feel that?! Is that an earthquake?!" He did not immediately answer because he happened to be on the phone. His phone partner felt it also, and she was over 10 miles away. We surmised it had been an earthquake.

If his phone partner felt it, had my daughter? I went to call her but she was already calling me. I answered "Did you feel it?"  Okay, I got caught up in the Alarmist's excitement. My daughter was all excited. She and her beau had felt it. They were both in the upstairs of their home in the computer room and their monitors and walls had swayed. Her beau thought the house was falling down.

After talking to her, I sent a text to my "family group" of 15. I got about four that responded quickly saying "Are you nuts? Are you losing it?" and a couple that said "Where?"

I looked on-line and connected live to the local radio show. They confirmed an earthquake had struck and that some DC buildings were evacuating. So, I surmised it hit near DC. The very first report was 5.8 on the scale.

Then I got a few texts that said "I didn't, but so and so did!"

After talking to people all day about it I came to conclude that those in an elevated floor of their building had a better chance of feeling it. In my area. Some in the area - it didn't matter where they were - their entire building shook. Still another building a mile away - the workers felt nothing. Perhaps it also depends on the strength of the structure of the building. Makes you wonder.

It is also kind of fascinating to talk to people because an event like this brings out some wonderful stories. "When I lived in California..."

Anyway, it was my first earthquake. I figure all the way to 51 and have never felt one before - I am pretty darn lucky. This rolling motion was about as much as I ever want to experience, thank-you very much.

I found it

I finally found my Nook. It had been missing since shortly after the floor was put in - the end of June. What can I say? I am domestically challenged.

I have transferred quite a few pdf files over so that I can read them when I am away from the computer. I used to print them out (gasp!).

Yes, they are all boring work-related files.

Okay, so that makes my spare laptop from work (left it at a remote school - got it back), my nook. Now, I need to locate my battery charger for my camera. Sigh. Always the stupid battery charger with me!

Oh, the horror!

Don't do it. I know it isn't your type of movie anyway. I saw E Page in two films and liked her, I also thought that R Wilson would be pretty good since I have watched a few episodes of The Office. Heck, his bio states that he played the clarinet and bassoon in school. So did I! This made me smile because like me, he would have had to learn treble clef for the clarinet and bass clef for the bassoon. I wasn't the only one!

And, I love the name Rainn. But, I would name a girl that - but so what!

But - Oh, dear. I had no idea it would be that awful. Gross does not even begin to describe it. K Bacon, what have you reduced yourself to? His acting is superb as usual, but the film was "ick".

If you like people getting bludgeoned in full detail with blood squirting out all over the place; if you like to see people getting their heads "literally" blown apart - then this movie is for you. It certainly is not for me and I wish I had not pushed that "buy" button on my remote control.

God awful. Super. Save yourself and don't watch it.