From my archives

Today I'm waiting to see what happens with the weather. The rain has turned to sleet, has turned to ice, and now a layer of snow. So I was playing around with the google site search command for my various blogs. Since I often change the quote at the top, I see that a 2009 quote may be attached to a 2003 blog entry. That must really mess up people doing keywood searches and the quote pulled them in. Oh well. It was fun to browse. For your reading enjoyment, but mostly for mine.

From October, 2003

"Why do cats love to watch people in the bathroom? Not just the obvious stuff, but want to hang around even when the hair dryer is running and that's got to hurt little feline ears. Want to be with you, want to touch your arm when you're applying mascara. Why, when you close the door, do they slip their little paws under it? Do dogs do that? Or do they just whine and bark and chew up the rug until you come out?"

"Today it was reported in WSJ that Harvard University researchers found a 55% greater risk of heart disease among grandmothers who care for their grandchildren than those who don’t. 36.3% of U.S. grandparents provide intermediate or extensive care for their grandchildren. One theory about the stress is that there are other events in the lives of their adult children, such as divorce or substance abuse, that causes the parents to have to help out, thus causing a lot of stress. And those of us with no grandchildren have a 47.95% greater risk of a broken heart. (I made that up.)"

In February 2007 I was commenting about illegal aliens getting mortgages with false documents and lying on applications. I noted

"When there is a practice or law so clearly working against the average, tax paying, law abiding citizen, I always say the trite and true: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who benefits when undocumented workers buy homes? [Now we know it was Barney Frank and ACORN and the supporters of our future president.]

MurrayT has a home in Florida and the recent tornado wiped out some of those homes. He says FEMA is trying to find the home owners to give them aid--but they have fled fearing arrest for being in the country illegally and are afraid of the INS. Property owners paying taxes in that county and paying high insurance premiums and the rest of the nation (me) who donate to the very inefficient Homeland Security Department are paying."

"I've learned a few things in retirement that I wish I'd known earlier. a) Always use a non-stick spray when cooking--sauce pans included. Sure makes clean up easy (I use a soybean oil spray). b) Trader Joe's sunblock makes a wonderful hand lotion--has zinc oxide, and their c) shaving cream works wonderfully for washing your face. Leaves your skin soft and smelling yummy. d) I can buy a B width shoe if it has laces or elastic inserts. e) Since I buy 1/2 decaf with 1/2 regular for my morning coffee, it just tastes a lot better if I start with 1/2 cup of regular and leave out the decaf until I'm ready to go (about an hour later). It also stays hot longer if you start with 1/2 cup. f) In the last few months I've learned there is life after peanut butter."

"As much as I hate to see horse slaughter for human consumption, I would hate to see the laws become so restrictive, that disposing of an animal became difficult, and therefore would lead to abuse such as poor health care, food, or being sold to bad people just to get if off your hands. Also, if species-specific legislation outlawing slaughter for human consumption works with horses, you can bet pigs, cattle and chicken supporters will be watching very closely." [with a link to an extension article on how to compost your horse]

In June 2005 I was commenting

"Shoe [a librarian] doesn't really mean it, but she'd like to announce it [“unattended children will be sold“]. She writes about unattended children in libraries. That wasn't a significant problem in an academic library where I worked from 1986-2000--although I did keep coloring books and crayons in my office for children of the occasional negligent parent who would lose herself in the stacks reading about nematodes or cryptorchidism."

"I'd forgotten how effective that do not call list really is. Since we arrived around noon on Saturday [at our summer home] the phone has rung about every two hours--and since we have no answering machine, we don't know what is happening when we're out for dinner, or walking along the lake front, or attending a program. I've been offered a subscription to the Toledo Blade, a summer resort vacation package, several new phone plans, a lower mortgage rate, and possibly waterproofing something, but I hung up too quickly. We never added this phone to the list--indeed, we may get rid of the land line altogether and just use the cell phone, as many do here [we did that]. We're probably getting a huge share of the calls, since so many people's numbers are not accessible."

"We're finally in Lakeside, rolling in about 11:15. And the cat didn't poop or puke. Good trip! The gates are down, the lines are long, and it is hot, hot, hot--about 94 I think. One more hour and our flowers would have been dead. We've watered twice, and they are starting to perk up. Dehydration is a painful way to die." (obviously a slam at you who thought Terri Schaivo was not human enough to feel pain)

Today's weather and coffee shop dilemma has happened before, according to this entry at my Dec. 23, 2004 coffee blog. While doing this site search I discovered that there is another blog called Coffee Spills but the URL differs by one letter. It's in Polish, I think.

"Usually I don't see my doctor at the coffee shop, but today I didn't get there until about 3 p.m., and he said they'd cancelled all appointments at his office. It takes a level 2 to keep me from my 6 a.m. trek to the coffee shop, but we were socked in here with first rain, then 6" snow, then sleet, then rain, and then back to snow. Just south of us, it is a level 3, and you get a ticket if you're on the roads looking for a cup of coffee. But by 3 p.m., I was a bit stir crazy, and our roads locally were in good shape. By 5 p.m. about 400,000 people were without power and the temperature was dropping. We called a friend to see what was happening in Lakeside, Ohio, and he said they'd had 18 inches, but no ice. Streets were clear."

I'm supposed to get my hair cut today--hope this mess clears up!