Thursday Thirteen--13 warnings

1) For the last four days a "low on ink" reminder from HP pops up on the screen in the morning. Actually, I think it's zip, nada, zero ink in the black cartridge. The questions for Monday night bookclub were printed in royal blue.

2) And the microwave beeps to tell me my coffee has finished reheating. If I don't press the off button, it will beep from here to eternity, waiting for me to do something.

3) The other morning about 5 a.m. the microwave started randomly beeping about every 5 minutes--no reason, I hadn't even used it, so perhaps it had started doing it during the night. "Hello--anyone home? Can I help?"

4) The dryer calls from the laundry room when the clothes are not quite dry--just about. I suppose that's for women who plan ahead and already have hangers ready to whisk a few things out at the last minute to hang out the wrinkles. I hear it, but usually don't stop what I'm doing.

5) There's a light on my van dash that warns me when I'm low on gas. My husband responds immediately because he only drives it occasionally, but I know that it is just teasing and it will be a few more miles until we're on fumes.

6) A mild twinge in my lower back warns me that I've been stepping over the baby gate instead of releasing it. It belongs with all the paraphernalia for puppy-sitting. When the children were toddlers, I had a similar gate and tore up my back for several months executing this same maneuver.

7) There's a little 4.5 lb. Chihuahua here in my office, just visiting for the week, but our cat in the hall is issuing warnings. "Hissssss, Hisssss, Arrrrh. Don't you even think of sitting on her lap, that's my lap, you worthless bag of doggie bones." The pup wags her tail and ignores the warnings.

8) Every morning since returning from Ireland in September my bathroom scales has been warning me that I need to get back to a healthier routine like I did last year at this time. Otherwise, all the new clothes are not going to fit by Thanksgiving.

9) I drove my husband's Explorer to the coffee shop today. It doesn't like me. On the dash a red warning light was flashing, "theft, "theft."

10) I have double ovens, but I've never been able to figure out how to set the digital timer, so I have no warning when something is done--like last night's roast, which could be called, "tender crisp." I just have to pay attention to the clock.

11) But the oven also will start beeping on its own--sometimes for a long time--warning about what, I don't know. Usually about 3 a.m. I push a lot of buttons--so many I have no idea why when it finally stops.

12) My PC is making crunching, grinding, moaning noises, and taking longer to boot up. This is a warning I need to heed. Time for service, or time for a new computer. And if you have lots of ads on your TT, or music, or winky-blinky things, it just sighs and won't load.

13) Our investment adviser has never said anything political in the 7 years we've known him, but as we discussed the required draw down of our investments yesterday, he warned us the Democrats will raise taxes (because that's just what they do). When the economy is getting soft (the spreading mortgage meltdown, the cost of oil, etc.), he said, that's the absolute worst thing for recovery. Retired people don't have the time span for recovery when we also have a required withdrawal from our accounts. There's more revenue for the government with lower taxes, so why would they do this? Because they can. A warning, indeed.

Check out Karen's site for TT banners.

I have visited Sandee; Denise; Vicki; Mark; Home with the kids;

Thursday Thirteen