The Amazing Horse

 I read a book a couple of months ago (surprise, surprise) titled "The Horse: A Galloping History" by Timothy C. Winegard. It made me realize how humans would not have evolved as much as we have without this wonderful creature. In war, the advantage goes to the side with the newest weapons. When certain armies began using horses their advantage was substantial to win a war. 

I average about 4 books a month. I like to read autobiographies and biographies and true-life stories. One is "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" by Donn Fendler. When he was 12 he got lost while hiking with his family in July 1939. He was lost for 9 days.

And yet, another one. "The Ride of Her Life" by Elizabeth Yetts. Tells the story of a 64 year old woman who rode a horse across America in the 50's. Yetts also wrote "The Eighty-Dollar Champion" about a horse named Snowman who was rescued from a trip to the slaughterhouse and became a champion jumper in the late 50's.

I guess I like to read about rescues. True that. I do like books, movies/tv shows about the cave rescue in 2018 in Thailand. And a big subject I've done a lot of reading on wildfires, also. The firefighters who train for that kind of work is phenomenal. Not to mention the risk they take and their bravery. One that really hit me in the feels is the notorious Camp fire or Paradise fire in 2018.

Gosh, I could go on and on. Besides reading I have been doing a re-watch of "Call the Midwife" on TV. Another non-fiction story.  I relate a lot to the borough of Poplar in London and how the families lived in squalor. 

After I retired, I started out really well with getting things done. I've sort of stalled. I guess that is due to the winter season. I hope I pick back up in the Spring and do not procrastinate. I have about four major house projects I need to do. 

Keeping busy

 I'm looking at the above color/theme for my kitchen. Trying to stay busy and not feel guilty about not working. My last day was one year ago in mid-March. However I was paid until June 30th and that was my actual retirement date.

 I guess I'm too depressed to say anything about the state of the nation. I try not to read too much of the news because I get anxious. I already can't sleep well. 

This is the year I get to start Medicare. I am bombarded with paperwork. Again. Nobody said retirement was so much paperwork. Sheesh. Non stop.

I usually get into a baking mood around October. Since I was retired this year, I did a bit more than I normally do. My son-in-law and daughter gave me a stand mixer. I hated to tell them by the time I got it, I was kind of out of the phase.  Our favorite cookie this year (or mine, anyway) was white chocolate chip with craisins and white chocolate chip with maraschino cherries.  Sorry, no pictures.  No...wait. I did get pics of the white chocolate craisin ones:

Holiday Family dinner

 I plan our family holiday party/dinner each year. This year I made the children's saran wrap ball. If you have not heard of this before it is a game the kids play by unwrapping the saran wrap ball and getting the prizes they unwrap before it is the next person's turn. Here is a link to see how it can be played:

https://www.partygameideas.com/saran-wrap-games-rules-and-party-ideas/

We also do an adult version. My niece takes care of this one. I spent plenty for the kids I can only imagine what she spent on her ball. It is crazy fun! 

At the party I was telling some of the younger family about playing spoons. Have you ever played that one? We broke a kitchen table playing that game. Here is a link to that game:

https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Spoons-(Card-Game)

We didn't play it exactly like this article says. The loser got a letter (like one on one basketball) and we spelled out horse or pig etc...Actually, I'm not sure we even kept score. I think we just played it over and over.

 Well, I figured it would happen sooner or later. I have my bank account balance sent to me via email every morning. In the back of my mind, I was thinking - okay, yesterday we used my card to cancel our cable Internet (we went with fiber Internet). 

I look at the balance and say to myself...no. Something is not right. I log in and see there are three charges from that morning I did not make.  I immediately called my bank and had the card locked. (not frozen, locked).  When it's locked, you are able to unlock it yourself online and any refunds and automatic deductions can still go through.

The purchases had the last four digits of my bankcard attached to them. I had the cable company charge on my statement (I needed to pay the last few days of the old internet) and then the three charges all had two letters in front of them which just happened to be the first two letters of the cable company. I'm not sure they have anything to do with each other but I'm just investigating at this time.

The other three purchase - two were a Quilt store and one was a medical something or other. I do not care for quilts. I admire the people that make them but I would never purchase one. I am a down comforter sort of gal.

The bank employee said he could not do anything while the charges were still in a pending state but if they were still there today to come in and get a replacement card. I checked. The two quilt ones are still there but the medical one has dropped off.

The bank will remove the charges (I'm sure) but it is the hassle. How many online sites do I use my bank card?  Too many.  I have AV on my computer but say no to all the other security crap as it really slows the computer down.

Oh, and a month or so back my daughter and I both received information that our cards had been compromised. I recently retired so I went through a medical program to see what coverage I would obtain between my retirement date and when I turn 65 and go on Medicare. My daughter had also filled out information for health care with the same establishment, I guess. They sent both of us a letter and information. I will take all of that in to the bank with me this morning.

Oops...my cat is letting me know that it is feeding time. On the hour. They don't like time change but have adjusted by now. 

 $240,000 dollars.  At this time I cannot recall how I ended up looking at this vintage butterfly brooch. I was following a thread and then stumbled on this site and (not much of a jewelry wearer but I do like to look) began perusing.

Oh, I know. I was browsing through an Antique magazine of my sister's and saw the website 1stdibs. It had a United States location to choose from.

Sigh. I've made myself lists and am trying to keep myself busy and focused now that I am retired. One thing I always hated was baking. Well, not now. I am baking up a storm. I quickly burned (ha, no pun intended!) through all my flour and sugar (even though I did not bake often, I would stock up at Christmas time just in case the spirit moved me). Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bars (that came out more like cake), pumpkin-butterscotch pie, cranberry nut bread (my all-time favorite), snickerdoodles, ginger molasses cookies (came out horrible) and last but certainly not least, a new one I found.  White chocolate cookies with craisins.  

Yeah. And in the middle of all that I had a doctor's six month regular check up. My new hobby betrayed me. I did notice the pants fitting a bit snug. Drat! I'd freeze them but all three of my freezers are full. When I make food, I still cook for an army. I guess that comes from living in a large family. So I freeze the leftovers thinking that I will defrost them and eat them someday.  Sometimes I do and sometimes they get pitched because they were frozen for over a year. I did finally go through my upstairs freezer and toss old food to make room for my cranberry bread. 

Oh, here is an image of my kitchen fan. It was dirty so I decided to remove the blades and clean them. Then I decided while I had them down, to re-paint them. When I went to put the last blade back on the fan, I realized I was missing a nut for the last screw. I wondered if the blade would be okay with two screws instead of three and I glanced up at the fan.  Oh...

It's a Pow Wow

 Last month I spent a week in Akron house/pet sitting for my niece.  Above are the critters I watched sans baby of course. My sister's family went to Belize.  They took the baby with them.  I wanted her to stay with me but (sigh) I'm sure this was all for the best. (Don't tell my daughter because she thinks I pine for a grand child and she would proceed to tell me why she decided not to have children. I just shrug and say - saves me money.) 

The white cat  is 16 years old and is diabetic. He needed two shots a day.  I got the job done but I hated having to poke/pinch him. He would yowl at me (sometimes). Then I would rub the spot and he would start to purr which made me feel even worse. So forgiving.

Right before I went to Akron my beloved Chong passed away. 15 years old. I brought Cheech and his brother Chong into my home in  August of 2009.  Cheech is still with me.  He is a bit needier than he used to be or it could be that Chong did not let him come to me very much.

I still have old Milton (a rescue we've had 18 months) my daughter brought to me. And my obnoxious cat who thinks he is a dog - Moses. Oh, and the bearded dragon - Bolt is still hanging in there.  Poor Milton had his first (and so far only) seizure one morning during my pet/house sitting job and my daughter had to deal with it. She was traumatized to say the least. I think I worried more about her than the dog. It is possible that he choked on his food that triggered the episode. I drove back home for the day to watch over him while she went on to work.  He was fine, and is fine.  His bouncy goofy self! (Typing that made me smile).

I am adjusting to my "forced" retirement.  I am doing all positive things I should be doing when you feel that you have been treated unjustly.  Getting on with my life, being positive and living well. Okay, okay - now and again I still grit my teeth when I think about work and wish fire and brimstone to rain down on them as they get scorched from the burning wind. Did I say I was over it?  LOL!

Put Out to Pasture

I have been "put out to pasture".  Not by my choice.  

Retirement starts

All the paperwork, phone calls, scheduling appointments, internet lookups, research, comparing insurance packages. Sigh.  Retirement starts out busy busy.  I am the youngest of 8 children.  

My siblings are all still living (thankful).  They have all retired.  Two were teachers in the education system.  I was in Technology in the education system so I was able to pay into that retirement program instead of Social Security. 

I started in the education industry when I was 35 so I had 15 years in private industry with 15 years of contributing to social security.  

In the state of Ohio (one of the few states) we lose 60%  (or thereabouts) of our social security check because we paid into the education retirement program. Why?  I have no idea. Do I have the energy to research this?  Not right now. My brain is fried from just filling out applications, paperwork, phone calls appointments, researching insurance...
 

Moses is not real happy

 The image is dated January 2019.  I wrapped him up in left over paper and was able to obtain a picture. he is perturbed, I can tell.

My Moses thinks he is a dog. I was telling some friends about him this evening. I came to the conclusion that he is a bully. He is just a big old bully to my dogs. He bosses them around and blocks them from walking. I yell at him and he moves, but what a little shit.

Do you ever look at a date and wish you could go back to then? And try to think about how you would handle things differently if you had to do over?

I've had a setback. I'm retiring a bit earlier than I intended. I was pushed out. Not a great feeling, I have to say. 

Eclipse is coming...

 Okay, so I just read an autobiography of one of the singers from Three Dog Night.  The song Eli's Coming... came to mind when I wrote the title to this post.  And so the big eclipse is coming April 8th. My home is just a sliver away from full totality but my niece is having her daughter's first birthday party that day and she decided to host the family eclipse party. My issue will be getting to her house because from past experiences (my sister sat in bumper to bumper traffic on an Interstate in KY in August 2017 and that wasn't even a total eclipse) the roads might be gridlocked. Both of us have purchased several glasses for safe viewing.

It took me a few minutes to remember the link to my blog and then I had to look up my password. Fortunately, I had it written down.  I don't write my passwords right out - I use a code. Like the first two numbers of childhood land line plus OS of the mainframe I worked on in 1988 and then a dot and then how old I was when I first moved to VA or the year I lived in TX.  Things like that.

Have recently read:

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Heat will Kill you First by Jeff Goodell

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote  (I can't believe I'd never read this one)

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy  (Chicago fire - where they blamed it on the cow)

An American Plague (Yellow Fever) by Jim Murphy

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (and watched the movie, Netflix I believe?)

...and autobiographies of Madonna, Lillian Roth, Barbra Streisand, Elliot Page, David Cassidy and Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night).

Oh, and I can't forget "Leave the World Behind" by Rumaan Alam.  I had watched the Netflix showing with Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke.  

Fiction to Me

 I've seen so many advertisements about the movie "House of Gucky" coming out, that I had to look into the book it was based on. I am currently reading it.  It may as well be fiction for all I know. That lifestyle is so far out of my world, it might even be science fiction. Or how about Fiscal Fiction? 

I was never one to wear "names".  I could care less. I guess it does bring it all together for me to read about their horrible fighting and greed. One of the hardest parts for me is keeping the names straight. The book does give you a little family tree to keep track of who was married to whom and what children they had, etc.

Still, I find myself seething at the loopholes the rich and famous use/have to evade what the law requires from them. I've heard folks say "I wish I had his money!"  No, you don't.  Unless you are a Narcissist with no empathy for others - you don't want that lifestyle.  Even worse, if you are a person with morals and empathy - having that volume of money and wealth fall into your lap creates in you a monster.

Now, I am not a total idiot. I like a little extra money every now and again to smooth things over when appliances break down or the car does. It keeps me real. But the lifestyle of this family is beyond my imagination.  And, I am not a socialist. There may be certain aspects of the philosophy I can lean towards but I'm not sure there is any overall answer for anybody.

I picture a caveman bringing home a Gucky pocketbook for his mate that he has found. I suppose they would burn it or try to eat it. Yucky Gucky.

Currently Reading

 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.  Slow going. Busy doing other things. Sometimes when I get in the mood to read, I'll read and read and read. Only about 2 books at a time but I just finish one and go right to the next one.

The same happened with the New York Times and The Washington Post. I read them for about a year and then - nothing. I stopped. Didn't get back to it.

This story is hard. It is about her life. Sometimes I have to close the computer screen and either walk away or go to another web site like Facebook or Reddit to try to erase the image(s) that have entered into my mind.

I'd like to say we have progressed and it doesn't happen anymore. But it does. Somewhere somebody or somebody(s) are enslaved and suffering. At the hands of their fellow man.

I am not sure why I am attracted to books like this. I do like non-fiction and I do like autobiographies so I guess they fall perfectly into that category.  I don't want to be somebody who does not care about what happened (and still happens) to others. A story such as this reminds me of how hard it was for some.

And how easy I have it. It makes me appreciate my life a bit more. To scoff at what was bothering me yesterday or last week. Small potatoes!

 I went to a school today to replace a piece of equipment. The wiring closet it on the 3rd floor. No elevator in this building. I had to haul the equipment up three flights of stairs. I was a sweaty mess even before we started. The tech guy was late so I could not access the closet as it was locked.

When we did enter we were hit by a wave of heat that just slayed me. Looks as though the A/C had quit working quite some time ago. The tech said he never goes in here. I guess nobody does. The custodian was right there and he found something and fixed it. 

It was a rough hour in that hot box. Heavy equipment, screwing it into a wiring rack, following cables, watching lights blink, blink, blink.

By the time we were finished the A/C was barely blowing any cold air.

This is the second school I've been to where they are not cooling their computer equipment properly. It is hard on the equipment to run at this temperature for a long period of time.

It was hard for me to run at that temperature for a short period of time. I was ready to get out of there!

On a side note, I watched a documentary about female scientists and what they had to put up with while working in a "mostly" men's field. As I waited for the tech to arrive, I asked the custodian if he had a key to that room. He said "Oh, that's only the server room."  I said "I know. That's what I do. I need to get into the server room."

I guess since I was female, he figured I had no business in there. Eh, he didn't have a key after all.

Meet Rudy

No, I did not get another critter. This one (a blue and gold macaw) belongs to a former co-worker. A few of us had dinner at her house last week. Macaws can live for 65 - 70 years. She said when they got Rudy (about 15 years ago) they believe he was 8 or 9. When they got him, she was working full time but her husband was retired so Rudy bonded more with him. Rudy was not comfortable enough with us to come very close to him. He has an entire sun room for his "cage".  Then he has a big cage in the sun room for his bedroom at night. He is a very spoiled bird.

For work today, I am going to an "Attention Center" (not detention any longer). I am replacing equipment. It is for students who misbehave. More security at this location, but I made sure they are well aware that I am coming and what I am doing there. I'm taking their Internet down. Yep. That's what I do. LOL!

 

Like a Ghost town.

 I had an Amazon return and I have a Kohl's only 2 miles away. It is so easy to return something, now. No more packaging the item. No more arranging for a pick up. I am horrible. I would just keep the damn thing. Well, this one I could not keep. It was from work, for work. A shelving unit - too small. I guess I was supposed to measure. I don't care. I have a bit of work equipment in my garage, but not enough where it is a nuisance. And it usually doesn't stay long. We are installing new firepower devices at the districts. And UPSs. UPSes. Whatever.  Heavy suckers, they are. 

Oh, the picture. I always get sidetracked. The mall was like a Ghost town. I never, ever, EVER liked shopping. Well, electronics and paper products,yet - but clothes, perfume, stuff like that - No thank you. I do sort of like purses and totes and some jewelry. Even though I never wear it.  If all the malls closed down it wouldn't bother me one bit.

Did you lose touch with some friends over the pandemic time period?  I did. I just don't feel like starting back up again. They seem a little miffed. Some curt responses in e-mail and on Facebook. Could be and probably is my imagination. I'll wish them a Happy Birthday and comment on a post once in a while. But getting together as often as we did - I just can't.

Shelly

 I did not name her. I did not obtain her. She came to my house when my daughter moved back in. She had adopted Shelly (a yellow bellied slider water turtle) from her beau's friend who was neglecting the poor thing. My daughter read up on the critter and took over her (his) care.

Now it's kind of my thing. This little bugger is ornery to say the least. While cleaning out her tank the other day, I found something under the filter of the air pump. It happened to be the end of the thermometer. I looked over at the cable dangling in the water with no end to it. Just some frayed wire. She had bitten clean through it. Sigh. I threw it away.

She is constantly knocking the filter over. She tries to get to the suction cups so she can eat them or chew them up. I check on her quite often to make sure all is as it should be.

Tonight I am sitting here reading blogs and can see her out of the corner of my eye. She does a quick flick of her front left foot and splashes water upwards. I clean her glass in her tank after I add water because it splashes all over. Well, it is covered with splashes again - from Shelly flicking her water up .  

I then noticed that the water was aimed straight up and into her heat lamp. The top of the tank is wire mesh and I have a heat lamp and a sun lamp both that shine down on her 14 hours a day or so. I know that the sun lamp is splash proof, but I'm not so sure about the heat lamp. I'll make sure the next ones I order for her are splash proof. The little imp.

I walked over and turned both lamps off. Who knows? Maybe this is her way of saying "Hey lady!  It's past my bedtime - turn the lamps off!"  Well, she isn't flicking the water any longer. Sometimes these creatures are a bit uncanny and make me rub my chin and go 'hmmmm.....'

What The Future Holds for Them

 A week or so ago I went to a birthday party for a one-year-old. I work from home now, and my house is Air conditioned. The A/C went out in my car. I've been meaning to have it serviced but things change when you are home all the time. It used to be when I made an appointment for my car, I would schedule for after work on one of the garage's late evenings. This way, I could stop after work and go to the appointment before I went home.  I HATE to leave the house after I come home. I'm one of those people who stop off and do little or big errands on the way home from work. But once I'm home, I'm home.

This Saturday, I step out of my house at 2:30 p.m. and back into my house at 6:30 p.m. For four hours I was in 93º F heat. When I am not used to it. The baby above is my nephew's child. My nephew works outside doing landscaping every work day and outside work and activities on the week-ends. And he has not one ounce of fat on his body. I am a different story. I won't go into detail about all the extra ounces of fat I have on my body, suffice to say - a good bit. 

My older sister (the child's grandmother) was there and she was overly warm also. My nephew put a fan on each of us, but it just blew hot air at us. We caught up and watched the wee one open his presents and enjoy his "smash" cake. I can honestly say (since I found out about this tradition of giving a baby a small cake all of their own to smash, grab, squish and eat on their first birthday) I've never witnessed a wee one eat ALL of their smash cake. Until that day.  I admit, a good bit fell down between his legs and the high chair so perhaps it wasn't all that bad. I kept saying "Please give him a drink of water or something." It fell on deaf ears.

My plan for that day (before I found out my A/C had quit in my car) was to go to this birthday party, go shopping for a bit and meet up with my daughter and her beau later as his band was playing at a pub in that vicinity.  This was an hour from home, so instead of driving all the way back home (after the party)  and then back into this area (for the band show),  I decided to kill time shopping around. It had been a while since I had been to the stores in that area. It did not happen that way. 

After this birthday party and getting in my hot car, I stopped at the crossroad. Turn left to go home or turn right to continue on until 11 p.m. I couldn't do it. I headed home. What made my mind up was not how hot and tired I was. I figured shopping in a cool air-conditioned store might bring my energy back. It was my legs. I have been fighting eczema on my legs for a long while now. And they get especially irritated when my legs get hot. I don't wear shorts due to the eczema. I was in agony. So, home it was and I skipped out on the band show. It didn't even occur to me that the band may have played outside that night. It was inside, but if I had decided to stay and met them and they played outside - ugh! I would have been miserable again.

My daughter is 30 years old. I remember her first birthday party very well. I was not aware of the tradition of the "smash" cake yet, so she did not get one. It was a small party with just a few family members. I had a yellow duck on her cake. I'll have to dig up that photo and take a picture of it and post it. Or, I could get my scanner out of the garage and set it up.

One strange incident (I thought) was a girl that came to the party sat at my table. I'd say she was twenty-something. Maybe in her early 30's. She was dressed like a lumberjack. No lie! She had boots on, blue jeans, a top and one of those red-checked lumberjack long-sleeved shirts on over her top. I said a couple of words to her, she acknowledged, but mostly she was quiet and did not say much. I did not see her perspire and she never complained about the heat. She did have her hair up in a half pony-tail/bun. 

Ah, I almost forgot. The title of this post. What DOES the future hold for little ones like this one-year old? What suffering will they go through because of our greed and acts of entitlement? Our shallow, inconsiderate exploitation of the world? So far my daughter has decided not to have children. We all know that can change in the blink of an eye. Then I won't only wonder, I will worry. About my grandchild and what the future holds for them.

Fear

 Fear. We've all experienced fear. To what degree differs. What do I fear most?  You hear this question asked often. For me, a Mother - it will always be something related to my child. When they were little I feared abduction, now that she is older - sickness and disease and accidents. As we all know, nothing compares with health. It matters not who you are, how much money you have, where you live or what you do - without your health - everything pales in the background.

I try to imagine the fear a person must feel being in Afghanistan if they don't wish to be there. I shudder to think of the people who are in danger there. And their families. I know this has happened in history all over the world, all through time. It doesn't make me feel any better. Worse, in fact. And I wonder, what determines how much fear a person is going to experience in life?  Or, what degree of fear? Is fear just fear?

I'm going to try to recall a time in my life when I had the most fear. I'm thinking driving/riding in a vehicle? A roller coaster?  One of those chair lifts that take you out over land and water? The one or two times I rode in one of those, I was young and not so fearful as I am now. Losing my daughter when she was six in a Sears? That lasted all but 10 minutes. Waiting to hear the news of how surgery went for a loved one? Wondering while racing to the hospital if my Mom was alright after a vehicle accident. She died. But I wasn't so fearful as I was hopeful. I usually think positive.

As for me, I've been lucky. Is that what you call it? It's possible that I have something yet to feel really fearful about. I know I have not thought of everything that has happened to make me feel fear. The one and only time (that I am aware of) I had an anxiety attack was when I was blocked in a room and somebody stood in the doorway. I felt threatened. I did not realize it was a panic attack until 3 days later when I researched the symptoms. Nothing happened - all ended well there. I never want to go through that again! I felt WAVES of what I imagine was adrenaline surging through my bloodstream?

Ha, ha! I just did some panic attack researching and one article described exactly how I felt during a time when I dropped acid.  How did that phrase ever come about.  "dropped" acid.?  Where or how did you "drop" it. Ah, well. The online dictionary says it is slang for taking an illicit drug. I was not having a panic attack when I took the acid. It was an "okay" experience. Nothing horrible happened and nothing fantastic either. Just my senses intensified and my sense of time was warped.

But, back to fear. I was not afraid to hear the news from my doctor when I was diagnosed with cancer. Is it because I kind of "knew it" in the back of my mind?  I had been having a very serious symptom for a couple of years that I had ignored. Well, you couldn't ignore this symptom, I guess I just put up with it and ignored the fact that I should have it looked into. I remember when the doctor told me, he never exactly said the words; so during the conversation he made the remark "I've never had anybody take the news they had cancer as calmly as you are."  My first split second thought was "Is that what you are telling me?"  Then, I said "It is, what it is."  I guess I did not comprehend or absorb the news right away.

So, for those people left in Afghanistan. I can't imagine. I guess what mystifies me is why them? Why children? I'm not a religious person so "God's will" does not come into it. I don't care what anybody else believes or thinks - I feel they need or practice whatever belief they need to - to get them through the day or life. One of the times I dislike a religion is when it causes harm to others. Such as war in the name of religion. Since time immemorial. I don't suppose things are going to change in that respect. It seems the harder we try to "civilize" the human population, the more savage it becomes. So, I'll relish the times when I hear/experience good stories/deeds that humans have performed. And let that sustain me.

Leaving

 I read that the US Troops plan to get as many people out as they can, even leaving behind their equipment. Supposedly, they are not to waste valuable airplane space on equipment. 

 Then they will blow it up after they leave so the Taliban won't get it.

How is that going to work?  Who is going to make sure they don't blow up  innocent people still at the airport?

Car sick

 The above image is a snapshot of a video I watched on Reddit.  The post said it was around 1913.  I wanted to point out the girl in the front with her hand over her eyes and forehead. This was me when we went on car trips when I was young. I was like "Ugh. I'm going to be sick."    One time I even threw up BEFORE I got in the car. That was a long drive. My family is so big, we always had to take two cars when traveling. Needless to say nobody wanted to ride in the car with me.