17 cents?

I bought gas on Thursday for $4.09 a gallon.
At the same gas station on Friday the price was $4.19 a gallon.
At the same gas station today the price was $4.26 a gallon.

$.17 in two days? give me a break.



I looked at a new (to me) car last weekend that the dealer says gets approximately 28 mpg; which is about 10 mpg more than what I get now. It was such a great car. Cute, red, fast, black leather interior; totally not practical. I covet it.

sigh

My prayer today

"...With everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer...for the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you!"
Is. 54:8-10

A little story

Let me share with you a little story:

We own a two acre piece of property on a nearby island. It's a beautiful piece of property, with some large, old growth timber and a meadow. It's quiet and peaceful. When we bought it, as an investment, it had an old beat up house on it, and roughly 30 or 40 cars, boats and trailers in various states of rust and disrepair. There was a smallish semi-trailer full of garbage and bags and bags and bags of garbage piled everywhere. We spent thousands, actually tens of thousands, of dollars cleaning the property up, including tearing down the house. Neighbors stopped by and said "thank you! this looks so much better!".

Originally we had planned on repairing the house and reselling the house and property, but as time went by we realized it just wasn't cost-effective to repair the house and it would be better to tear it down. However, before we made that decision my hubby and I were at the property one day, measuring for windows. A strange truck pulled up in the driveway, loaded to the gills with bags of garbage.

"What are you doing?" my hubby asked the driver.
Dumping my garbage, he replied. The owner said I could.
"No", said my hubby, "I'm the owner and you CAN'T dump your garbage here!"
But I already paid Mr. X (the former owner) and he said I could!

At this point I wandered behind the house and looked in the back of the acreage and lo and behold, there was a pile of garbage already dumped that was 10-12' high.
The hubby was none-too-happy, to say the least. He copied down the gentleman's name, driver's license #, address and license plate number and promised him he would be calling the Sheriff's office. Which he did.
However, the Sheriff said the gentleman had already called him and explained the situation and promised he would be out promptly to clean up all of his garbage.
Days, then weeks passed, and no one showed up.
The hubby called the Sheriff again; they were too busy to deal with the problem, they said.
Fast forward six months.
Last month my hubby had to go to court. We are being fined by the county we live in for the garbage dump on our property. Garbage we did not dump. Garbage that was dumped by a total stranger on our property, which the Sheriff refused to do anything about. All of this after spending $50,000 to clean up the garbage that was on the property when we bought it.
Oh, it's not fair, the judge assured us. But regardless, we are responsible for keeping our property cleaned up.
So today, three of our employees, plus a local company we had to hire, who own a backhoe and a dump truck, went and cleaned up the property, again.

And people wonder why I hate living in this county.

a,b,c's of me

Accent: None
Breakfast or no breakfast: oatmeal with raisins
Chore I don’t care for: cleaning my bathroom, ugh
Dog or Cat: none at present, although i keep contemplating a new lab puppy...
Essential Electronics: cell phone, ipod, computer
Favorite Cologne: Anais, Anais...ran out much too long ago!
Gold or Silver: Silver
Handbag I carry most often: J C Penneys, black leather with silver studs...wish i had a Coach, tho...
Insomnia: 3 a.m.-5 a.m., almost nightly
Job Title: stay-at-home wife, mother, nana and daughter
Kids: two, plus 3 strays we took in at one time or another!
Living Arrangements: dream home on the water
Most Admirable Trait: faith
Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: going on bike rides and forgetting to tell the parents
Overnight hospital stay: twice, both for childbirth
Phobias: heights
Quote: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10 The Bible
Reason to smile: the babies
Siblings: two, one older, one younger
Time I wake up: 7:00 am
Unusual Talent or Skill: not sure i have one...rocking babies to sleep?
Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: okra
Worst Habit: worry
X-rays: never a good thing
Yummy Stuff: Pioneer Woman's apple dumplings
Zoo Animal I Like Most: horse...not really a zoo animal, but close enough...

Do work son!

I am so excited. I have gone back to work.
Sorta.
Kinda.
A little.
Last week two of our employees at our laundromat quit. Which was quite fortuitous, considering one of them was going to be fired, and the other was on the brink. Their departure left us with about 30 hours a week in staffing shortage. Three of the other employees have been wanting/needing more hours, so their hours were bumped up, and I am now covering some of those hours, also. I am SO happy about this! I don't anticipate I'll be working more than 10-15 hours a week, and it's just so perfect. I love the job. I love having something to do that's MINE...not just about other people's schedules, and I love having a few extra dollars to save. Thanks Jen for humoring your old mom!

The Weber

The hubby and I purchase new gas bbq grills about as often as the average person purchases new underwear. Despite our best intentions, every grill we've ever bought has been left outside and ends up succumbing to the elements in a pile of rust.

Last year the hubby went online and researched gas grills, checked out Consumer Reports, and faithfully watched the ads. He decided on a Weber and when Home Depot put them on sale, we were there! We snatched up the last Weber gas grill that was in stock, that rated high on the Consumer Reports list, and got a really good deal on it. We brought it home, marveled at it's beauty, and proceeded to bbq away on that poor sucker almost every single night. When winter came, and with it our purchase of a freezer-full of beef, including numerous t-bone steaks, I moved the bbq onto the front porch, and out of the weather. Forget about home decor! Don't worry that the bbq blocked the Christmas decorations on the front porch! Who cares what it looked like sitting there! I wanted that baby protected, out of the weather, and somewhere where I could USE it! No more rusty grills for me. I cleaned the Weber faithfully and a year later, it was still looking like new!

Fast forward to two weeks ago and the local high school invitational track meet. Picture the Weber in the back of the hubby's pickup truck and on it's way to bbqing dozens, nay, hundreds of hamburgers! See, if you can, the look of dismay on my face when the grill came home, having faced grease and oil the likes of which it has never seen. Think, if you will, of the Iraqi "scorched earth" policy.

The poor Weber has been sitting in the driveway now for 2 1/2 weeks. The hubby promised to clean it up, good as new, but there she sits. He claims the need for "degreaser". I found today that hot water, dish soap, a scrub brush, and good old elbow-grease work great as a degreaser. And by tonight, the Weber will be back in her place of honor on the front porch.

Ha, we'll see if she goes to school next year! I may even resort to chains and a lock.

Attitude

My thoughts today:

*If I'm ever going to get my goals reached this summer, as far as my yard is concerned, I have to stop being inside on the computer, and start spending more time outside, actually working in the yard.

*How is it that one of my best friends could decide, after twenty years of marriage, to walk out on her husband and turn her back on her children and grandchildren?

*Is the whole world going crazy? or is it just me?

*Could we possibly have TWO sunny days in a row where the temperature is above sixty degrees?

*What are the odds that two of our employees will quit on the same day? and how fortunate that we didn't have to fire them...

*Only three more weeks of high school track. Does this mean that I will actually get to see and spend time with my husband again?

*I am in need of a better attitude.


p.s. Thanks to my friend Tracey who has a couple rhubarb roots she's giving me!

Grandpa and Grandma

When I was a little kid we lived in Iowa. There were generations of family there on both my parents sides. My paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Germany and settled there and raised a family. The six years that we lived there were probably the best of my whole life and I really miss those days. I never saw my grandma wear pants one single time. She always wore dresses and aprons and most days she was barefoot or wore a pair of slippers. My grandpa rolled his own cigarettes and worked doing concrete and masonry, i believe. They had a big square table in their kitchen and it was always full at dinner time, which was the noon meal. The youngest grandchild sat to the left of my grandpa and a meal never passed that he didn't manage to somehow over-pass the butter to someone and stick their finger in it.

In their backyard was the biggest, most beautiful garden I've ever seen and planted along the back row was rhubarb, from one end to the other. Us grandkids would go out with a small paring knife and whack off a piece of rhubarb anytime we were at their house during the summer. We would cut the leaf off into the burn barrel and take the rhubarb in the house to wash it off. Then we would grab a cup of sugar and sit and dip that rhubarb into the sugar and munch away. Oh, it was SO good. It's one of those memories that will never fade. It's one of the reasons I want to plant rhubarb in my someday-to-be garden.

I miss my grandma and grandpa so much. I wish that they had lived to know my children. I wish that I could sit and talk with them and find out more about their lives when they were younger. I wish that they could give me advice. I wish that I could curl up next to them again in one of their chairs and rock the cares of the world away. Oh, how I miss them.

comments

Because i was getting several spammed(?) comments, (is that what you call them?) i enabled my comment moderation abilities for awhile. I've turned them off now, because frankly, it was kind of a pain. Hopefully, I won't have any more problems with the comments for awhile.

blogging and rhubarb!

Twice a week I drive about 45 miles to take my son to a class he's taking. While he spends two hours in class I try to find things to do to fill my time. Usually, I'll run to the store if I need a few groceries, or head over to Dennis & Co. to browse around, but most of the time I spend that two hours sitting in my car, reading and frankly, a little bored.

But...not today! Today I found the local library. Oh, Happy Day! They have internet! So, today, I'm sitting here at the library catching up on my blogging and researching rhubarb. This is going to work out better than I thought!

Spring?

The rhododendrons are finally starting to bloom, as are the azaleas. The flowering cherry trees that line our driveway and which are usually covered with pink blossoms within a few days of my daughter's birthday, which is on April 12, are still not blooming. Forget about the camelia. It was pruned back so far it only has a few buds on it anyways. The sun broke through the clouds around 4ish, and it reached 59 degrees today at 5 o'clock. Will spring ever, truly arrive? I try not to complain, but seriously. Enough is enough. Give me some warmth!!!