REALITY.....NOT!!!

What I see in my head isn't too bad.  I know academically that I do not appear as I did in my twenties, or even my thirties or forties.  But the picture in my head of my face is around what I looked like on my fiftieth birthday.

The same goes for my body.  Now, again, academically thinking, I am well aware of how fat I am.  But in my head?  And really if I accidentally look in a mirror, and only from the front, I don't look too bad and can encourage the mental delusion that I am somewhat svelte and debonaire.  So just to recap...my mental picture is a fiftyish, solid, not bad looking dame.

Then eventually I end up in an airplane bathroom. Sitting down in there is okay, my head is below the bottom of the mirror.  But the moment I stand up I come face to face, within inches, (at home there is a sink and counter between me and the mirror and I can't see very well so the image isn't too bad) with my face, in its full glory.  OMG!!!  I have a million wrinkles, brown patches, giant pores and worst of all...an almost beard.  Yes!  A ton of chin hairs, some of them six inches long!  Its like looking at a make over....in reverse!  (shovel list)

And when I bravely leave the confines and safety of that tiny cubicle and, head down, scuttle down the aisle to my seat (sideways to accommodate my size) I grab my lappy to distract me.  I decide to look at the latest picture dump I did.  Only to find someone had got hold of my camera when I wasn't looking (thanks a bunch Kerry) and taken pics of me, something I avoid like the plague.  And holy hell!  The images there are so far from the self pics in my head, it seems this is a whole different person!  Another reverse make over.  Sigh.  TTYL

A SHORT VENT

I have a real beef with salt and pepper grinders.  I hate them.  I even hate the one in a hundred that does it right.  I hate them all!

I was in Costco the other day and they had beautiful stainless steel grinder pairs on sale.  And once again I was lured.  I mean at home I have one of those giant clubhouse ground pepper containers and a salt pinch bowl and a picnic size shaker by my chair.  They work just fine thanks so why would I try yet again for the Gucci grinders?

I got them home, tore open the endless packaging and gave them a try.  And.....you guessed it.  Neither one of them would grind.  Not a grain of salt or a piece of pepper came out of them.  Fuckadoodle!!!!  And because they WERE twenty bucks, I was obliged to return them.  (shovel list...I hate 'returning things' errands....its kind of like having to retract miles on a road trip for some reason).

Now I am not sure if you know this about me, but I am the queen of epic messes.  I have made some impossible mega messes in my time.  Shook a hot sauce bottle with a loose lid...all over three rooms in the condo in Maui.  Turned on a 'new to me' mixer with a bag of icing sugar in it....covered every inch of the biggest kitchen I have ever baked in....unbelievable, cry worthy, sticky terrible mess.  I could go on, but I won't.

A few minutes ago I was frying an egg for my toast.  Arnie has a salt pinch bowl which I used.  Beside it was a lovely stainless steel pepper grinder, large and half full.  I grabbed it and started to grind...and grind and grind...nothing.  So I turned it over and tightened it then tried again.  Suddenly, you guessed it....omg!!!!  Five million peppercorns EVERYWHERE!!!  And how do peppercorns leap about to every corner of a kitchen?  How? I ask!!!  I scraped them off the egg and ate it but I will actually have to wrestle the vacuum to clean the rest.  And I hate vacuums...a lot of them end up thrown off balconies into my back yards.  Sigh.  TTYL

THIS DOESN'T REALLY SHOW IT BUT THOSE SUCKERS WERE EVERYWHERE ON THAT KITCHEN FLOOR

A VERY DISTANT PIECE OF COUNTER 

NEED I SAY MORE?

THE CULPRIT

EVEN AFTER ALL THAT SCRAPING, ONE STILL STUCK ON MY EGG THUS MY FORK

I am seriously thinking of starting an UNgrateful list.  Screw the grateful crap. This isn't a real blog entry so I don't have to do a grateful one.

NEIGHBOURS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR...LOTS OF NEIGHBOURS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR

Its been quite an unusual, for me, few days.  Last week, around Wednesday, I woke up early in the morning as usual.  I am always hoping it's after five, that way I can put the tv morning news on.  So this Wed. morning, as soon as it was five, I rolled over and switched on the tv.  Nothing.  Silence.  I grabbed my glasses and put them on and the only thing showing on the tv were the dreaded words, "No Signal".  In a slight panic I grabbed my lappy to check to see if there was no wifi as well.  Fortunately the wifi was fine, it was just the tv.

But if y'all know me...I don't do well without tv.  I need that background noise.  That tv renders my need to have a man about the house completely unnecessary.  It staves off any hint of loneliness.  It stops swirling constant horrible thinking. I NEED that useless white noise going on in the background.  I need the neighbours cat meowing, or dog barking, or thumping and banging to be somewhat muted.  So I lumbered over and unplugged, disconnected, plugged in again, connected again...everything possible...to no avail.  CRAP!!!!

Long sad story short, I eventually called Shaw.  Aryn had texted me all the necessary info and it was found I needed a tech visit....next Monday!!!! Six days!!!  Jeez!!!  (shovel list big time)

So, Netflix to the rescue sort of.  They never have anything I really want to watch.  Fortunately I have two laptops.  So I put Riverdale (shovel list) on one lappy and a book on the other.  Today the tv was fixed.  Since last Wednesday I have read four books and watched about four hundred hours of that stupid show.

I have had two visits from Emily!!!  One evening she came over, brought two poke bowls with her, and we had a lovely chatty evening.  I love Kathy's girls!!  Then on Friday night she came over with James, her boyfriend, and we had a great time.  I love her boyfriend.  He is quirky and funny and a seriously good guy.  We walked down Broadway a bit to Peaceful Restaurant and had a fantastic asian dinner.  It was a lovely evening.

Saturday, April and Myles came over!!!  Its always a hoot with them.  We went to an early dinner at Peaceful, (so damn good!!) then shopped at Whole Foods and Winners.  I haven't gone shopping like that with other humans for a long time!  Loved it!

One day last week the fire department tested the system...all day long.  It was sooooo loud!  So, last night, at three fifteen in the morning, the fire alarm went off....and didn't go off.  It was so loud and scary.  So I went out into the hallway to see what was what...into a crowd of neighbours in various states of undress.  (excuse me for a minute here, Fred keeps laying down on the keyboard, I need to do a removal of both cat and extra letters).  

Its funny, there is a special kind of camaraderie being with a group of undressed strangers.  One guy finally said he would go check it out then come and let us know if we should evacuate.  So we all went back into our lofts and made some decisions.  I grabbed my back pack and packed both my laptops and my meds...just in case.  But then I had to decide...Molly or Fred?  I couldn't do both.  I won't go into what kind of thinking I went through til I decided and I am not going to say who I chose.  Fortunately it wasn't necessary to in the end.  We got the all clear, after the damned thing rang for thirty minutes.

Aryn has a housekeeper.  She is a pretty strong character.  She is very funny and VERY sure of herself.  The last thing Aryn said about her was she wasn't to do the upstairs or the kitchen.  So when she came the first time she did the bathroom and the floors and straightened the blankets on the couches etc...did a great job.  But this time, she said she was going to do the kitchen.  I said no, Aryn didn't want her doing the kitchen.  But she said she was doing it...it really needed it (well I didn't really think so, in a housekeeper's mind I guess).  There was no stopping her.

So three hours later.....there was an extremely clean kitchen.  She took all the recycling and garbage with her and scrubbed out the garbage cans.  She actually did do an amazing job and she pretty much put everything back where she found it.  She completely scrubbed down the stove.  So I hope Aryn won't be mad at me.  It seems I am a wimp with housekeepers.

Well this is long enough.  It seems I said a lot when really almost nothing happens.  I just read and watch tv all day long.  And take Molly out, over and over and over.  And clean cat puke.  What is it with cats and puking?  TTYL

WORK:  Well I don't work so I am not grateful.  I AM retired and that I AM grateful for.  And work did make that possible so I guess in a backward way I am grateful for work of past, if you know what I mean.

ARYN! DO NOT READ THIS

Disclaimer:  I love being here.  There is something magic about being in a noisy bustling city, surrounded by restaurants, shopping, friendly people by the hundreds, dogs.....  It's such a polar opposite to what I live in at home.  At least its wonderful for a few weeks, I prefer what I live in at home but this little dip into the city is awesome.

But...I do not know how Aryn stands it with no end in sight like I have.  She works from home, so other than when she is running errands for Bradley or for her many mortgage clients, she is working away at her dining room table, shows like Murder She Wrote on the tv in the background and neighbours and animals close by.  OH MY GOD!!!!!!

FRED:  Meows and meows and meows and meows...incessantly.  And he meows with intense intent.  He climbs up on the table and lays right across the keyboard of her laptop.  When she is taking a break and sits on the couch Fred walks along the back, meowing and flicking his tail in her face.  Now and then, for no reason whatsoever, he will swat her...claws out and all.  And at night, well jeez....he walks up and down her body, licks her face, meows horribly, flings cat litter noisily around, crunches his cat food..... but, you know, she loves him.  He is 18.  I can stand it because there is an end in sight....for Aryn there isn't.

MOLLY:  Oh jeez, where do I start.  She has become the most high maintenance animal.  She really should be dead by now.  She has advanced cancer.  She isn't in pain but there are other things.  She snorts, loud and disgustingly.  I can't even describe the noise she makes with that.  And she pees, ALL THE TIME.  I don't know about Aryn but I am taking that dog out every single hour.  She gets benedryl and I think it keeps her hyper cuz she doesn't sleep for long periods.  And then she paces and snorts, paces and snorts.

SADIE:  I don't have Sadie, she is in the kennel.  But I don't think Sadie gives Aryn much trouble.  She is also super old.  But I know that every single morning, rain or shine or snow or armageddon, that girl is out walking that dog for an hour.  Religiously.  Just amazing.

NEIGHBOUR:  And then there is a sweet older lady who lives upstairs.  She isn't horribly noisy.  Not the kind of noise that you would bang on the ceiling with your broom handle.  But it's the kind of noise that is just always present, in the back of your head, like an incessant worm.  Its little tappings, chair scrapings, bad piano tinkling, and lots and constant mysterious noises on the floor that I simply cannot figure out.  It. Is. All. The. Time.  It starts about five in the morning and stops about two in the morning.  I think after a period of time you would stop hearing it, but right now I am in the first state...being driven crazy.

SIRENS AND HELICOPTERS:  They live beside the Vancouver General Hospital, so as you can imagine there is a lot of that kind of noise going on.  And Broadway is a main thoroughfare for police and firetrucks.  Again, I think you would get used to that and not hear it anymore, but a newbie like me hears every single one go by.

I am not complaining here.  I understand that this is just part of living in an apartment full of people, in a city full of noisy activity, and a loft full of old old old crickety animals.  And I hope I get to do this lots more times!!!!  TTYL

HOBBIES:  Well now lets see.  I am not really a hobby person.  I hate routine and commitment.  But, I'm not sure if this counts as an actual hobby, (labels are big time on my shovel list), but I am super grateful for my piano.  I love my piano, even if I am not playing it nearly enough.  I can't imagine not having that huge hunk of 'hobby' taking up an entire wall of my living room.


   

IT'S CONTAGIOUS..

Molly is very very blind.  She can see light and large movement out of one eye, but thats it.  As a result she runs into things, jumps exaggerately if she is touched, can't get through doors etc....  It doesn't help that she is almost stone deaf.  Her sense of smell is incredible though.  I made myself a turkey sandwich and she rose up out of a dead sleep like a magical entity.

And now we have another one.  Emma.  I know that over the last while her eyesight slowly has been deteriorating.  But after dealing with Molly, Emma just didn't seem that bad.

Kathy just got back from a two week trip and she called me to ask if I had noticed Emma's eyesight. Which I had.  But what she has described, Emma running into the parked car for one thing, is way worse than two weeks ago.  It seems awful sudden.  They took her to the vet and he says its just what happens with age.  Which might be, but I still feel there was an event of some sort to cause such a sudden increase in sight problems.  Lets hope she doesn't go deaf too.  Thats a true pain in the ass.

I took Molly to the vet the day after the kids left.  She had a massive cyst in her groin.  They drained it and gave her a shot of Benadryl and sent the fluid away for testing.  And.....it's her cancer..in her lymph system now.  She is fading fast.  And she pees everywhere.  I take her out constantly but it doesn't make much difference.  She is still eating like a pig though.

While she was at the vets, I had time to walk a ways to an upscale millennial type coffee shop called Beaucoup.  I didn't want coffee so I grabbed an orange juice.  I pulled out my debit and went through the motions and just as I took the receipt I looked at the amount.  $11.49!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  OMG!!!  Who pays almost twelve bucks for two cups of orange juice?  Dumbasses like me who don't check first.  Mind you, it wasn't just orange.  It also included tangerine and grapefruit and was actually the best damned citrus juice I ever drank!

I haven't made any forays out of this place, at least not more than a couple of blocks.  Today I went to whole foods, dropped a hundred bucks on two little brown bags of groceries.  Everything in that store is five dollars more than anywhere else, except for bananas.  And they don't have any thousand islands dressing.  What the hell!!??  In fact they seem to only have caesar (about twenty different versions), ranch, balsamic and blue cheese.  I did get some lox.  And a big loaf of very chewy rustic brown bread that I can't chew the crusts.

Anywhoo.  Tomorrow I may go meet April.  I am going to wait and see how Molly is.  I can leave her for a couple or three hours but I am not comfortable leaving her longer than that.  We will see.  TTYL

TRANSPORTATION:  This one is easy.  I hate walking so any sort of transportation is totally awesome to me.  Cars, trucks, buses, trains, boats, planes, skytrain, airport people movers, escalators, elevators, ....I am grateful for them all!

AWESOME SURPRISES

Well, I will be catching that bus again.  The trip went by soooo fast!  I read most of the way.  My only complaint is that I was starving and dying of thirst.  The bus stopped in about six places but only to drop off and quickly pick up passengers...no runs into cafes for coffee and sammiches.    I was starving by the time we got to Vancouver.

Originally when I was looking and booking my times, I thought it said we got in at three.  I never really thought about it.  So I told Aryn 3.  But then somewhere along the way, leaving at 8, I figured out, meant the trip was 7 hours.  That seemed awfully long.  But then around the Port Mann bridge, Aryn texted to say she looked it up and it was 13:00 hours, which is one o'clock, not three o'clock.  Jeez!  My eyes are so bad...I never saw that one in front of the 3.  Which wouldn't have mattered except......

I arrived here at about 1:30 and came into a loft with birthday decorations and a beautifully decorated dinner table, complete with birthday hats and everything!!!!  Aryn, Myles and Bradley were going to be here at 2:30 for my surprise birthday party!  I ruined my own surprise birthday party!  Gahhhhhh!

But we had a fantastic time anyway!  Aryn made the most delicious dinner ever.  Beef wellington, cubed potatoes (there is a name for the kind of potatoes she made, I think it is Potatoes Fontaine), the most delicious glazed carrots I have ever eaten and chard...but not just any chard, it was glazed and had pomegranate thingies in it.  OMG!!!!  and all the correct wines and a sauce made with specially imported peppers.  She worked for three days on that meal.  

April and Myles arrived.  They brought me my fave beer....Hoegarden, and the most beautiful bowl, a beautiful cobalt blue with a copper inside. Its definitely going in the middle of my table at home.  I love it!!!!  And some beautiful napkins to match.  I am totally out of napkins too!

Shortly before dinner who should arrive but Emily!!!  What a wonderful surprise!  So I had a lovely catch up chat with her.  She seems to be doing so well.  It turns out that both Emily and Dorothy are going to be here at xmas so now I am going to try to convince Kathy and Kerry to come down for xmas here.  They can stay at April's.  We would have so much fun!  But they would be getting turkey (organic) plus the most amazing dinner along with it!  Maybe Wendy (Kerry's sister)  could come to!  A happy family Xmas!

Cookie is going to come for a three day sleep over!!!!  And because we are in the perfect spot for it we shall taxi to Granville island, shop at Winners, peruse through Whole Foods and scoff at the ridiculous prices, go out to dinner, and walk down Broadway and dip into boutiquey type stores.  And of course looooong mornings of chin wagging and coffee.  I can't wait!!!

A little note here to Clare.  Hi Clare!  I am so sorry to hear about Tish.  I hope she is comfortable.  You must be missing her like crazy.   I am going to give you a call, and if things work out maybe get to see you.  Til then hang in there.  Your home must feel pretty empty right now.  I know I felt that way when Bill wasn't in my face telling me what to do anymore!!!  Take care friend.  Love Helen.  

TTYL

SOMETHING I DO EVERYDAY:  I have huge gratitude for dog poop bags.  They are made of the most awesome colours and they are just the right size.  When I forget to buy them I use grocery bags and somehow grocery bags have holes in them.  Not cool!!!  So I take a cheerful poop bag and go out with Wrangler and pick up ....   and because I love him I am grateful that I have to do that.

PACKITY PACK

58 degrees.....or 15 Celsius.  Thats the temperature in this house in the mornings when I get up.   I am definitely doing my part to save natural gas.  I keep the furnace turned off until it hits the fifties Fahrenheit.  Then I turn it on until it heats up to 69 then turn it off again.  It is definitely off more than on.  My bill should be super good this month!

It seems I am leaving again.  I catch the new Ebus on Monday morning for Vancouver.  Sunday I take Wrangle up to the kennel.  I am not going to see him for three weeks!  At least I know he will be having fun up there.

In Vancouver I will be grand kitty sitting and grand molly sitting.  And I decided not to take my jeep.  Its already snowing outside.  After that terrible drive to Cache Creek last year I am left with the heebee geebees about driving in snow.  Going down would probably be okay but you never know what's going to happen while I am down there.  Everybody always says 'take the canyon' but I have driven that canyon a hundred times in years past and it can be just as scary as the Coque. I hate to be such a weenie!

I babysat today!!!!  Jojo had a bank appointment.  She was contemplating taking the little ones with her just to speed the bank people up!!  Hahaha!!  Would probably work too.  But it gave me the opportunity to catch up with them.  I never did see Stirling...he was napping the whole time I was there.  But Ainsley kept me hopping!

I went to the gym.  Thats actually pretty big news. I don't do gyms.  But I have been waking up super early, my fave time to go, and heading down.

  Years ago when the kids were teens, I would wake them and Bill up at five am.  We would have coffee and get our gym duds on and hit the gym, at 5:30 when it opened.  We had it to ourselves.  The kids were surprisingly cooperative and cheerful about it.  There is a pretty special feeling about shivering and yawning and hitting the gym when its pitch dark outside.  It would be dark when we drove home an hour later too.  We did that for most of a year.

But I find this gym, or at least what I am doing in it, relaxing.  I sit back on a bike, pedal like crazy and watch the news.  I kind of like it!  I also spend a wee while on the treadmill.  Not liking that so much.  I am just wondering if it would be bad to take in a cup of coffee with me.  Think they would kick me out?  Possibly not.  I think I will try!  I will report back.

Nothing else to report.  Like I said I lead a very boring life.  TTYL

SOMETHING I SEE EVERYDAY:  I'm thinking.
I'm still thinking.  I know.  I am grateful for my laptop.  It is the doorway to a wonderful world.  I can visit with distant cousins.  I can see funny things my kids post.  I can peruse through 65,000 plus photos I have taken (yes, 65,000).  I can write this blog.  I can play solitaire and relax.  I can get phone calls from Monte on it.  I can look up ailments...even if it always tells me I am dying.   I love and am very grateful for my lappy!

MY ROCKING CHAIR JUSTIFIED

I LOVE my rocking chair.  I have a long history of  special relationships with rocking chairs over the years.  Rocking chairs are magical to me.  You can rock and soothe your babies.  You can rock your kids to Kraftwork, instilling the awesomeness of electronic music in them. You can rock away nausea when you are feeling sick.  I don't know, I just love rocking chairs.

As I was spending some serious time in mine the other day, a tiny bit of guilt started to creep in. I had not gone for a walk, or gone to the gym or even really moved about the house that day.  A very very sedentary day I will admit.  And some idiot came on the tv with some kind of report,  told me, right to my face, that a day of sitting is as bad or equal to a day of smoking.  What!!!???  I tried to ignore that little tidbit.  I quickly changed the channel and attempted to forget what had just penetrated my brain.  But I couldn't.

So I did the only thing one does about problems these days.  I grabbed my lappy, who is always by my side, and googled "are rocking chairs a healthy alternative to just sitting?"  And you wouldn't believe what popped up!!!

The very first website I went into had a list, an actual list! of the good things about rocking chairs.

Firstly, rocking definitely aids in circulation in the feet and lower legs!  At least better than just sitting, maybe not quite as much as going to the gym and pushing heavy weights with your legs, but still, better than just sitting.

Secondly, apparently rocking raises endorphins, and higher levels of happy endorphins is super healthy!  You know how stress cortisone raging through your body is bad bad bad, causes cancer etc....? Well happy endorphins do the exact opposite.

Thirdly, in senior homes, they are purposely putting rocking chairs in the lounges.  And when the physical trainer comes, she/he has a whole fifteen minute regime of 'rocking chair' exercises for the oldsters to do.  And they are encouraged to spend MORE time in rocking chairs to improve their overall health!  sigh....yes....

Fourthly, it has been shown in studies that rocking reduces anxiety and depression and improves mental health.  And in those studies it showed that rocking actually improved and slowed dementia.  Say no more!!!  I'm in!!!

I don't really need to say anymore.  Increased mobility, quicker surgery recovery, fix vertigo and chronic pain management were just a few more reasons to spend time in a rocking chair.  And know what?  They are now offering ROCKING CHAIR TRAINING in some senior homes and clinics.  Training!!!!!!  

So I rest my case.  What else can one say?  I love my chair so much I am tempted to name it.  This big old red pleather chair is my safe place, my home, my anchor. If you need me you know where you will probably find me....guiltfree! I know!  If I knew how, I would change this blog's name to "RED ROCKING CHAIR RHETORIC". After all I don't have a purple room anymore and I always write from my chair.  But I don't know how to do that, so I won't.  TTYL

NATURE:  My biggest gratitude is the sound when the soughing wind comes along and blows amongst the evergreens up high.  That beautiful rushing, undulating sound brings back amazing memories stretching way back to when I was little.  But mostly I feel like thats my mom gently communicating with me.  There was nothing more that she loved more than that sound.

THIRTY DAYS

If you have read my blog at all you already know that I am a sucker for X number of days challenges.

I got rid of 100 things out of my house.  (I don't think I actually finished that one) and took a picture of each thing I got rid of.

Once I wrote a poem a day for 100 days.  And I actually posted them (I think).  Its been a while.  They were really bad.

And I remember I started one on positive change or something like that.  There were 52 changes, once a week,  to make in one's life.  I hated that one so much I don't really remember what it was about.  And I know I didn't finish it.

So now a new one.  Its probably American as its a grateful or thankful or something like that for 30 days. November is their Thanksgiving month.  It provides a list...one a day.  So here is what I will do at the end of each post I make.  I will type the word they provide then I will make a response of gratitude.  It won't be long and I will make it so you can just ignore it.  So I will do the first one now.  TTYL

ONE:
HOME:  I am grateful for my home because it gives me security, autonomy and a place to share with my dog.  (and my beloved red leather chair which I am more attached to than anything else in my physical world!!!!)

WALKING GUILT BOMBS

I have eaten a whopping amount of crow over the last year.  I know I swore up and down that never ever would I have a dog again.  NEVER!!!!!!  

Then I get a dog.  And its a dog I actually love.  I actually kind of brag about him a little bit to people.  And I have just a teeny little bit become one of those icky dog people that would actually die saving their 'fur baby' from a ledge on a cliff, or jump into a raging swirling river to save their 'booboo', or fight a herd of bears off of 'cup cake', risking  life and limb.

  Or, here's a real story....my brother has a special little something by the name of Le Fleur.  Well, Specialness apparently developed allergies.  I don't know what to, I unfortunately kind of zoned out at that part of the conversation.  Well, long story short, after trying various food combinations, they ended up having to buy a very expensive food made from.....Feathers!  Yup!!!  Google it! (sorry Stan if you are reading this)

Well I am not that person.  At least not really.  I do have a few choice nicknames for him that I shan't repeat here.  I do have some pride.

But....today was a busy day for me.  I am still entering bloody Kiwanis radio auction listings.  The house was silent so I could concentrate.  After about an hour a certain sound penetrated my brain.  And that sound was (were?) two dogs (I have Emma right now too) huffing out huge sighs. I turned around to take a look and four big huge sad doggie eyes were staring at me reproachfully.  Ah fer jeez!!! 

Walkies wanted.  Pees please. Snacks were actually foremost in their minds.  It never ends.  And nothing can make you feel more guilty than your 'fur baby' (shovel list) staring at you with big googly eyes, sighing, adding in the occasional little whiny whimper.  I made them wait.  I don't love them THAT much. TTYL

PASSWORD HELL

I have a purple room vent.  I have a document on my computer that lists every single one of my passwords except to my banking.  I firmly believe that we should have a choice whether we want a password or not to a program.  And if we choose not to then if something nefarious happens, its our own responsibility.  I absolutely freaking HATE passwords.  And I do not forget them, because I keep meticulous records of all my passwords.  But many times when I put in what I KNOW is the correct password, and it won't take it, I simply want to throw the effing laptop out the window.  I get so pissed off!

Anyway, I just spent the last three days doing data entries for the Kiwanis Radio Auction.  I counted and I have now entered 243 listings.  Then this morning the fellow that is the primary mover on all this called me...really early, to tell me that the last 150 or so had to be changed/edited.  Sigh. So I started around 7:30 and finished a few minutes ago (12:30) and got them all done.  The man hours it takes for everyone involved in this auction is insane.  Fortunately I find it relaxing.  There is a bunch more coming in a few minutes so I shall spend the afternoon doing those.  Good day to do it...as its pouring rain outside.

I have to mention here...because no one I know from Kiwanis reads this, something that happened at the meeting on Tuesday.

The guy heading up the whole operation brought his laptop to the meeting.  This year, instead of using old school telephones, and pencils and slips of paper and the newspaper for reference, its all been put into a program that goes to individual computers that all the 'phone answerers' will have sitting in front of them.

So B (head dude) had us all gather around whilst he gave us a lesson on how to 'answer' a call during the auction and what to touch on the screen and how to accept bids and then close that item bid etc...

Well I sincerely wish I had had a hidden camera.  Keep in mind that most of us in there are over 60.  But also keep in mind that it is our age group that invented the computer and used it when it was dos.  But you would never have known!

Within three minutes of B starting his lesson, about half the people (the group that day was about 12 people) got panicked looks on their faces and started to slowly ooze to the back of the crowd.  Then they started to mumble to each other,  "I can't do that!!!  I will never remember this.  I won't get it right!"  Honestly!  It made me laugh.  And get a bit disgusted!  They wouldn't even try to figure it out and it just isn't that complicated.  I was kind of ashamed of them! Fortunately we have some 'younger' volunteers coming in to help.

Last night around supper time I was deeply concentrating on entering stuff when the doorbell rang...around five thirty.  So I unburied myself and hauled myself to the door and there was the sweetest little kid you ever saw...all dressed up as a knight.  Holy Crap!!!  I completely forgot that it was halloween!  Fortunately I had made a fast trip to Costco after the Kiwanis meeting on Tues. and picked up a load of big chocolate bars.  What is 18 times 3?  Thats how many.

Ten kids came to the door.  So what's 18 times 3 minus 10.  Too many...thats how many.  I am going to find someone to take them or I will be throwing them out.  Too tempting by far.  Fortunately there are no mars bars in there...I eat those, diabetes or not.

Well I see B parking out there.  More entries coming through the door and two screaming dogs to take away first.  Fortunately B is not cowed by madly barking dogs.  Gotta bounce!!  TTYL