Thoughts on a Cloudy Saturday 3-11-2023

Oscar Ivan Esquivel Arteaga – Unsplash

The forecast here is for showers this morning and storms this evening – cloudy in-between.

freixenet.com

As I sit here, happily typing on my computer, warm, dry, with coffee beside me, I DO realize how fortunate I am to be able to quietly gripe that my weather isn’t ‘pretty’ today.

2Unstoppable

My friend Marsha and I are happily encouraging each other to get off our duffs and exercise, each putting another star on our individual calendars. Marsha bought a pedaler she can use inside and is also trying to walk to the post office when the weather permits. She is encouraging me to at least do my session of yoga each afternoon, if not also to try an exercise video, do some time on my elliptical trainer in the garage, or get out and work in the yard. It’s nice to be able to compare notes with a good friend, knowing that we’ll each be stronger, more flexible, and healthier together.

The Mercury News

I heard there was yet another bill in Congress to do away with Daylight Savings Time. I couldn’t be more in favor of this. It is my understanding that we started this in order to “help the farmers. ” I think farmers and ranchers are strong, independent people who don’t need everyone to change their clocks . They get up when they feel they need to in order to do what needs to be done each day. If I’m wrong, I would really appreciate it if someone would set me straight so that I can stop resenting it twice a year.

I hope your Saturday is a happy one.

Disappointed-Disgusted

Freepik

Pollster: a person who conducts or analyzes opinion polls.

Talking heads: people who appear in television discussion programs and interviews to give their opinions about a topic.

I’m feeling quite hostile toward pollsters and talking heads right now. The polls I heard about, and the ‘experts’ to whom I listened, led me to believe/hope/expect what DIDN’T come to be. Not only were they wrong. They were dead wrong. They should be hanging their heads in shame.

I don’t know what their methods are, but they definitely need to go back to the drawing board and remain silent until further notice.

Shot in the Dark?

Tim Calkins

Well –

I reached the wonderful guy who said he would fix our driveway. It’s been several months now and I hadn’t heard from him, so I called to find out if he 1) had been sucked into the void, 2) was still alive, 3) remembered us.

The good news is that he HADN’T been sucked into the void, IS still alive, and remembers us.

The bad news is that the second man, who was actually going to do the work with his equipment which was more suited to the job, has a problem. His rig burned up! Completely. It’s dead and gone.

So –

Our guy needs to find someone else who has a rig suitable for our job. I asked if he would call me when he finds someone. He said he would.

So –

I’m not really sure where we are now. We’re still waiting for the driveway to be healed. I WAS able to reach our guy, but I have no clue why he hadn’t bothered to call and let us know what had happened and that we were still on the list. I guess I’m a dinosaur, expecting common courtesy. I expect people to act as “I” would act, and I guess that shows how old I’ve gotten. People don’t seem to come, call, write, send carrier pigeons or smoke signals anymore. People say things just for form’s sake, not really feeling obligated to follow up.

When I sold a pair of earrings on my Etsy site recently, I messaged my customer, acknowledging the order and thanking her, telling her I planned to mail her earrings the next day and that I would let her know the tracking number when I had it. I messaged the next day giving her the tracking number and the expected delivery date. I got on the USPS site, entered the tracking number and entered the information needed so they would let me know when it was delivered. When I got the notice, I messaged my customer, asking if the earrings had arrived safely and if she was pleased with them. When she answered, telling me she was delighted with them, I wrote back, thanking her again for the order inviting her to return in the future. That’s just common courtesy.

So –

I guess one of my pet peeves is people making me feel hostile and unimportant when they don’t do what they say they will do. My list is growing.

Pet Peeve – Call Centers

TheWritingCooperative

Last week I called to get our propane tanks filled up. (We have the main tank which is large and then a small one to bring heat to our shop.) It took me a full 20 minutes to get through the phone tree and then answer all the questions of the person in the call center.

I know that these are hard-working people, but I don’t understand why the people who TRAIN them can’t emphasize speaking in a straight-forward, simple manner as clearly as possible. (My husband hangs up immediately when he figures out he’s talking with someone in another country. He cannot understand them and quickly loses his temper.) I’m better, but I still get very frustrated at the canned speeches the workers must follow. The accent is heavy – with the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LAB-ble and they ‘shotgun’ the canned stuff, understandably saying it as quickly as possible to get it over with. By the time I realize they have finished the canned stuff and finally asked a question, it’s hard to tune back in. Anyhow, by the time I finished ordering a fill-up for both tanks, I was exhausted.

The guy with the propane came yesterday. My husband went out to monitor the fill up. When he came back in, he was frowning. The guy only filled up the small tank for the shop. He said he hadn’t been authorized to fill up our main tank, so he couldn’t. We would have to call in again.

I gritted my teeth and called back yesterday. I have now ordered a fill up on the main tank (I THINK) and we have to wait another week.

Something that used to be so simple – a 5 minute call once a year – is now quite a challenge with the ‘improvements’ the company has made.

Pet Peeve #57

istockphoto

As I age, I find I am less gracious about things that tick me off – like Daylight Savings Time.

The idea behind it was supposedly giving the farmers more daylight for harvesting their crops, or something to that effect. It’s bogus, in my humble opinion. :0) Farmers get up before the sun comes up and go to bed when they are too tired to do anything more, whether the sun is still up or not. They have never been ‘by the clock’ people.

I’m not suggesting any kind of conspiracy, but I would gladly bite whoever came up with this a bite in the leg, and I have NOT had a rabies shot.

Several states are reconsidering whether they want to continue to comply with this or not. Arkansas tried, but the bill failed, for some unknown reason. I hope they take it up again.

The aggravation this causes outweighs any benefits. I wouldn’t mind changing to Daylight Savings Time and then leaving it at that, whichever way the majority think it should go. But then STICK to that. Don’t make us leave reminders all over the place so we don’t forget and be late or early to an appointment. Don’t make us have to go around changing all of our clocks, watches, stove clocks, alarm clocks, clocks in our cars (I have to re-figure out how to change these every time), make sure the computers are showing the correct time, etc. :0(

Food for Thought

The Writing Cooperative

I’ve told you several times that I’m really trying to eat right. This quest is not only to lose the lard, but also to improve my husband’s and my health.

It’s easy to Google things like, “Increasing your fiber,” or “foods that clean your arteries,” or “low carb foods”, etc.

My newest pet peeve is that a food that is on ONE list is not on another. (An example would be foods to increase your fiber may be really high in carbs.)

I have several issues for which I’m trying to eat the right foods. My husband has another list, including foods NOT to eat since he is a Type II diabetic.

I’m trying to make 2 master lists:

• Foods for us to include in our diet as much as possible
• Foods for both of us to avoid

The foods to avoid is easier, but you might be surprised at how hard it is to find foods that meet all of our needs. It seems that the PAPER the food comes in might be a better bet than the food IN the container or bag.

I’ve now printed several lists from the net and am in the process of comparing them to see if there are any foods on ALL (or most) of them for my master INCLUDE list.

THEN there is the whole issue that the two new frozen food places in town we love that provide real food with no preservatives that TASTE good, help us with portion control, and are actually good for us, include foods we are supposed to be avoiding for one reason or another. ARRRGH!

In my next life, I will be a nutritionist specializing in creating custom food lists to address health problems or issues about which people care.

Pet Peeve # 1

etsy.com

One of the reasons we built our home on top of a ridge line over 30 years ago is that we treasure our privacy. We get really hostile when people come to try to sell us stuff, convert us to their religion, etc. We really love our friends, but really appreciate it when they call first to make sure we’re not in the middle of something before they come. Being on top of a steep incline discourages most people from coming up.

I feel the same way about phone calls. I don’t really like talking on the phone. Since my husband had a couple of strokes, it upsets him when I’m on the phone for some reason. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but he is upset for quite awhile, and makes me angry yelling at me about it.

We have an answering message on our home phone that helps us out quite a bit. It answers the phone automatically – asks people who know us – and aren’t selling anything – to hit # (I think). This eliminates all robo-calls because they can’t respond to that request. It also is a bit intimidating to have to jump through the hoop, unless you know us and don’t mind the aggravation. When the symbol is pressed, the phone then rings for us in the house and we answer. Otherwise, we aren’t bothered at all and don’t know someone tried to call.

I’ve actually had some people who are calling legitimately be laughing when I answer, and ask where THEY can get the answering recording.

Today, a person called. I answered to find she was selling something. I asked her if she listened to the answering recording. The bottom line was that she ignored the fact that we stated we didn’t want calls like hers and hit the symbol anyway. When I told her I wasn’t interested, she continued to talk.

I very carefully got her name and her company, plus her phone number.

I then called the company and asked for the manager. When the person got on the line, I calmly told her that if anyone else from her company ever called us again, I would call the Attorney General for Arkansas to report them. I gave her the name of the employee, the name of their company, their phone number, and the time and date of the call. I explained that the employee ignored our recorded message, bypassed our system, insisted on giving me her spiel when I told her right away I wasn’t interested, and didn’t want to give me her information. I explained that we went to some trouble to enter our phone numbers on the “Do Not Call List” and then to purchase the recording so that we wouldn’t be bothered. I gave her our information and had her read it back to me, adding it to a “Do Not Call List” for their company.

The manager apologized, but it seemed to me that she was just giving me lip service to get rid of me and that they would continue doing whatever they needed to do to reach as many people as possible. I will keep the information just in case someone else from the company calls again.

Black Friday – Plus Other Thoughts 11-26-2021

The Hustle

“The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday originated in Philadelphia, dating back to 1961, where it was used by police to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.” ~ Wikipedia

There is absolutely nothing that turns me off like crowds of people acting as if their life depends on the purchase of something. (I would understand it, maybe, if the fights were over food or medicine when peoples’ children were involved, but that’s it.)

The Christmas spirit to me is trying to figure out during the year what people I care about might enjoy and getting (or making) it as I think of it or find it. I store things in my art room labeled until it’s time to wrap it up or put it in a gift bag. Buying things during the year helps our finances, too. We have a lot of bills (mainly insurances) due in November and December, so we have to plan for those, limiting other expenditures as much as possible.

To show how truly weird I am, I don’t even like the idea of maniacal shopping online on Black Friday, resisting ‘herd mentality.’

I’m probably the only person on the planet who won’t be shopping today. We won’t enjoy Lunch Bunch, which is the way we enjoy our usual Friday, because the restaurant will be closed so the good people who own it and work there can enjoy two days off to be with their families.

I’m still grinning inside because 1) my husband offered to help with the meal prep yesterday, 2) remarked once during the meal and TWICE afterwards, that, “Everything was perfect and delicious.” This means a LOT since I am NOT a great cook!, and 3) he helped with the clean up after. Definitely a keeper. :0)

And the BEST is yet to come with turkey sandwiches today! Enjoy YOUR Friday – “black” or otherwise.

Amber Hates DST, Too.

I feel even more justified regarding my pet peeve, Daylight Savings Time, than I did when I wrote before.

We are still finding clocks to change. The last ones will be our vehicles

Amber shares my intense distaste for DST. She now runs around restlessly, whimpering at times, because we feed her, and our cat, Abby, at 7pm, right before we fix our own dinner. Her body clock tells her it is time for chow at 6pm now. She is very frustrated that we are asking her to adapt, still eating at 7.

Since I find it hard to adapt, as well as a pain in the rear to change all of our clocks, I shouldn’t be surprised that she is showing her upset, as well.

Good dog! :0)

Pet Peeve

The UCSB Current

I don’t waste a lot of energy on it, but Daylight Savings Time is one of my Pet Peeves. It makes me angry twice every year.

In my humble – but vocal – opinion, it should never have been created in the first place. Congress said it was to help the farmers, but they get up with the sun anyway, many times before the sun is up, so what difference does it make to them what the clock says? They do what they need to do when they need to do it.

It is also said Daylight Savings Time gives us an ‘extra hour of daylight’ in the evening. Again, if people are going to do yard work, play outside, cook out – whatever – it doesn’t matter what time the clock says. If it’s light, that’s fine. If it isn’t, we do have and use electricity to turn on a light….

If you can tell me a good reason for this practice, I’ll honestly consider changing my mind. In the meantime, however, my attitude is BAH – HUMBUG as I change all the clocks in our home and in our vehicles again late tonight.

Side Effects

Thefunnybeaver.com

Thankfully, keeping moving and doing afternoon yoga stretches are mitigating a lot of mine.

I discovered Cat Kabira and her “Gentle Yoga” DVD several years ago now. I can’t say enough about her.

One of my pet peeves now is people on TV referring to the ‘elderly,’ and then clarifying the insult, adding “people over 65.” How insulting is THAT!

PNGkit

“Old age is always 15 years older than I am.” ~ (attribution disputed)

I don’t think of myself as a hostile person, but I do NOT consider myself ‘elderly,’ and will probably NEVER accept it. People also say that “you’re as old as you feel.” Though some days I feel at LEAST 108, most of the time I feel pretty good. :0)

So I will continue to do my yoga for old broads stretches, try to lose the lard, keep trying to learn new things, and enjoy my life – while trying NOT to bite someone in the leg who calls me ‘elderly.’

I’ll Have Some Sass with my Aging, Please

brightside.me

I acknowledge that I am getting older. It’s much better than not.

The thing I am hostile about – feeling a definite emotional slap in the face – is that when the talking heads on TV are talking about ‘The Elderly,’ they are talking about ME. I want to bite them in the leg, and I haven’t had a rabies shot.

We are described as ‘vulnerable.’ They are mainly referring to us that way in regard to Covid-19 and getting the vaccine protection. I acknowledge that my husband and I are more at risk from dying from this awful virus, and we have both received the two shots. The thing I resent is that we are being discussed as if we are all one person, one block of sheep, a group that only matters tangentially to the more important matters we’re facing in the world.

Well, THIS OLD BROAD has a lot of fight left in her. My husband and I have long realized that we have never – and probably WILL never – think like other people of any age. We have never been representative of people of our age on almost any subject you can name. And I think that’s probably true of the rest of the ‘elderly.’

We are individuals, as are the people of any labeled group. We have different goals, different needs, and react differently to the same set of circumstances.

I guess what I’m saying is that being called ‘elderly’ and treated as if that MEANS someone can assume anything about me is my new PET PEEVE. I’m not normally a hostile person (although my husband has always described me as, “mean as a snake.”)

I’m not aging ‘gracefully.’ I’m aging, trying to wring out every drop of joy possible from each and every day, finding wonderful, creative people whose work amazes me, new things to learn and try, a new motivation to get and stay as healthy as I can be for as long as I can, enjoying the people who make my life a joy and the beauty around me.

Pet Peeve

My husband really loves this tea. We have been buying it at our local Walgreens for years now. We went a couple of days ago to get more and they didn’t have it! They had Arizona DIET Peach Tea, but that has a different taste and my husband doesn’t like it. They didn’t know what was on the truck that was coming or when the truck would come.

I got online and spent half an hour trying to find someone from whom we could order it. The only places I found were actual stores that weren’t in our area. I don’t know if the company has decided to discontinue it or what.

If you look up the words ‘stubborn,’ ‘entrenched,’  or ‘inflexible,’ you will find the definition that displays my husband’s image and his name. (I MAY be exaggerating, but not by much.)  He won’t drink plain water. He won’t drink water with flavoring in it. He won’t drink anything cold but Arizona Zero Peach Iced Tea or Corona Beer (and won’t drink Corona Lite).

I finally found a zero calorie, peach-flavored tea MIX and ordered that. I will make some when it comes and see what he says. Meanwhile, we will check back with Walgreen’s ( the only place in our area that has carried it) to see if they were able to get it, or can order it especially for us….

Pet Peeve

123RF.com

I wonder if I.T. website people get paid on the basis of how seamlessly the website works or for how many changes they make?

A new pet peeve is changes that only seem to make what I have done for a long time harder. I love it when problems or glitches are fixed. I also like it when there is someone available on a chat program to help me if I can’t figure it out by myself.

I have sold used books on Amazon for years. I would look up the book, hit the ‘used’ button, then the ‘sell yours’ button and list my details. Easy peasy.

For over three weeks now , I haven’t had a clue what was going on. The ‘sell yours’ button disappeared!

I finally reached a chat person. She checked and checked and then said someone with more knowledge would get back to me within 48 hours.

I received an email telling me about a trade-in program…

Two days ago, instead of automatically hitting the ‘used’ button on the main page for the book, I was determined I would find SOMETHING that would get me on the road to being able to list our books again. I finally saw a link to the far right of the page saying, “Condition.” I clicked on it, and another button showed up saying, “Sell product.” 

THEN I was able to list the book for sale under ‘used.’ 

HOORAY!

I quickly listed the pile of books I had been saving.

We sold one overnight.

The next day we sold three more.

The person who made this change probably thought it was a good thing. When the chat people who work there aren’t able to figure it out, and neither are the ‘more knowledgeable’ people to whom I was sent – it makes me feel a bit better that I had so much trouble figuring it out, but this has really become a pet peeve!

 

Gotta Hand It

Your Tango

One of my many pet peeves is people putting things on high shelves. “High” in my case encompasses anything I can’t reach without getting a step stool or ladder – a LOT of things. I am 5’4″ and shrinking.

I have finally ALMOST gotten my husband to stop doing this, although his first inclination is to put everything WAAAAY up – ‘out of the way.’ I have modified his behavior by SWEETLY ignoring the step stools and ladders, going to get him, making HIM get up and come get whatever it is that he stored up there. I thank him profusely for the help, and then do it again without guilt when I can’t reach the next thing.  FINALLY, he sees the pattern and the NEXT time stores it down lower… :0)

Thoughts on a Friday – 12-20-2019

Kanno Hisao

Yesterday I had a wonderful massage, exchanging gifts with my massage therapist and friend, Lynn. It was special for a THIRD reason – she had a CD of Christmas music playing.

I have discovered that I have a HUGE pet peeve – jazzed up (screwed up) Christmas music. I want people to just play or sing it the way it was written. I guess that’s limiting for the artists, but it’s my opinion they should be singing for the listeners, not for their own amusement or amazement. The really beautiful thing was that the CD she played was a series of instrumentals, with different instruments used for different verses of the songs, but played straightforwardly, purely, BEAUTIFULLY.

Lynn and I shared that one of our gifts to each other was that we were singing along MENTALLY, rather than aloud. :0)

I enjoyed every minute of the massage – as I always do – but this time was truly special with the absolutely lovely traditional Christmas music. I felt joy in my heart along with the easing in soreness. Those are true gifts.

Pet Peeve

Madeleine Jacobs

One of my pet peeves is products that don’t work the way they promise. I know, I am old enough to KNOW better – I just can’t quit HOPING that one day, one of the products will actually work.

I just used Clean Shower. It says you spray everything down, then walk away. I did that. Twice. The dirt and soap scum was still there. Today I will take good old Comet, scrub the shower down, and do the same for our tub, toilet, basins, countertop, etc.

I’m the ultimate lazy person. I LOVE the idea of some way to get out of scrubbing.  To this end – the ‘Eternal Optimist’ searched the net for shower cleaners today and ordered the top two products on the ‘BEST list – supposedly from customer reviews.

The top was “Rain-X Shower Door Cleaner.” Since we have used Rain-X on our car windshield, I am hopeful that it MIGHT perform as described –

• Provides an extreme, dH22:L23deep clean on shower doors leaving behind a sparkling shine
• Specially formulated to clean soap scum and hard water stains on shower glass
• An ideal cleaning prep for Rain-X Shower Door Water Repellent
• For glass surfaces only

The other product I ordered was “Method Daily Shower Spray Cleaner, Eucalyptus Mint”

• Contains (1) 28 ounce bottle of shower cleaning spray
• Naturally derived daily shower cleaner
• Use daily. No scrubbing required
• Non toxic, plant based powergreen technology dissolves and prevents soap scum
• Cleaning spray works on showers, tile, fixtures, glass tubs

Since it’s rainy today, I have switched to my inside to-do list – including laundry, stripping beds and changing sheets, scrubbing our master bathroom, dusting and vacuuming up there.

I am HOPING that once I have things clean, I can use the two new products arriving soon to KEEP them that way – without all the scrubbing!

Shipping

Madeleine Jacobs

Recently I’ve been clicking on ads, particularly in Facebook. I found one for really happy tennis shoes. The price was good. It was a buy one, get one free thing. But in checkout, they added on $20 for shipping!

Another ad was for a set of new kind of watercolor brushes with a built-in water reservoir. It said, “Free shipping.” I put the set in my cart and found they added, “$4.99 for insured shipping” with no way to opt out of it.

A third was a pair of earrings. They were really nice. When I put them in the cart, they added $8.00 for shipping. Even with priority, insurance, and tracking the cost of shipping wouldn’t be half that.

Now all are sending me emails, acting like I abandoned my cart because I got ‘distracted.’ There was actually a way to reply, so I did, to all of them, telling them why I didn’t finish the order.

I like good deals. I realize it costs something to ship things. I had my own website, made arts and crafts. Some of them cost a bunch to ship. I always paid for insurance and tracking. I priced my items so that I came out all right with listing ‘free shipping,’ because I felt people decided on the main pages whether the price was reasonable for the item.

I don’t even mind paying a reasonable shipping charge – if you’re not advertising ‘free shipping.’

Bait and switch, or killing the deal by charging WAAAAAY too much for shipping brings out my hostility!

Pet Peeves – Short Rant

amazing-creature.blogspot.com

I’ve told you that my husband and I are trying to get the lard off and get healthier with the Nutrisystem program. We did this years ago, quitting because my husband was able to order fewer and fewer things he liked due to NS discontinuing his favorites. It’s happening again! :0(

Yesterday I spent a LOT of time contacting NS via email and then chat, trying to find out when the BBQ Pulled Pork lunch would be back in stock. They finally told me that it had been discontinued.

On the website on our previous order, it had said something similar to, “Due to high demand and popularity of this item, it is temporarily out of stock.” To find out this month that it has been discontinued was almost a deal breaker for my husband. He isn’t the most flexible person and doesn’t adapt well. We had a tense hour or so while we tried to figure out what to do. He doesn’t care for many of the lunch choices, so he wanted to eat the alternative “BBQ Seasoned Chicken” for lunch AND dinner. It’s only offered for dinner. We finally decided to order only 4 items for his lunches, order other choices for me to use to make flex meals for us, and then order 20 a la carte BBQ Seasoned Chicken items (having to pay extra) and order a bunch as part of his dinner items, as well. WHEW!

The discontinuing of an item that is out of stock ‘due to high demand and popularity’ doesn’t ring true for me. That seems like stupid business – plus you’re teeing off your customers. I would think a company as large as Nutrisystem could either make a deal with the current supplier, find another supplier who makes this, or figure out a way to make it themselves.

The NS program is expensive, but worth it when you’re trying to make a lifestyle change. To have to buy a la carte because my husband has tried, but doesn’t like a lot of the lunch items is really frustrating.

I will try to contact someone there who might be able to do something about this. I really want to stay on the program. Just a couple of weeks ago, my husband was saying he didn’t see why we couldn’t stay on NS essentially forever – but this was before his choices were being discontinued.

END OF RANT

Madeleine Jacobs

Small Rant

sites.psu.edu

I’m aggravated. I told you last week that I started with an online exercise guy who promised to make me feel better, look better, etc. I made it through a really long video and decided I would take him up on it. I paid $39 for a 0-6 pack abs video with safe exercises for a person of my shape, showing me exercises to help me make progress toward my goal without hurting me, the way regular exercises might. Also included was an online edition of exercises that would help me continue my improvement.

Meanwhile, they’re sending me several emails a day, plus their affiliates are also sending me several emails a day.

I made it through another long video which was supposed to give me an exercise called, “The Oyster” which I was supposed to be able to start right away. I like that, because I’m not a patient person and I want to get healthier, get rid of some aches and pains, improve my balance, etc. I TRIED to make it through this video, but it just went on and on with LOTS of repetition and endless detail I wasn’t interested in. I finally gave up before they supposedly finally got to the exercise.

Right now I’m playing the video again on another page while I’m typing this. I’m HOPING I can get to the exercise. There is no bar on the bottom of the video, so you can’t just move it toward the end. :0(

I’ve written to them a couple of times. (Yes, it was 4th of July week, but apparently they aren’t easily reachable to answer questions, before or since the holiday.)

SO – I’m HOPING I get the DVD in the mail today – or SURELY by next week – so I can start those exercises. Meanwhile, I’m HOPING I can finally zero in on the OYSTER exercise, which I’d like to try….

I HATE PEOPLE WHO DON’T ANSWER EMAILS TO ‘CONTACT’.

I HATE WAITING…

End of Rant

Madeleine Jacobs

 

Pet Peeve – “True Fact”

funny-sign.s.blogspot.com

A pet peeve of mine is misuse of the word ‘fact.’

fact

/fakt/

noun

• a thing that is known or proved to be true

 

Too many people say things such as, “This is a true fact.” What rubbish!

The word ‘fact’ is much like the word ‘pregnant.’ Either you are or you aren’t. 

End of rant. :0)

Arrrrrrgh!

Madeleine Jacobs

We particularly enjoyed watching the pairs figure skating from the Olympics last night.  I almost cried watching the German couple who won the Gold Medal, they were SO talented and graceful. Just exquisite.

I have a hard time watching though, because I’m torn between being GRATEFUL that I live on the same planet as these talented people, and EXTREME ANNOYANCE at the commentators who can’t shut up long enough for you to enjoy the performance.

I wouldn’t know the difference between a triple sowcow (who knows how to spell this) and a triple lutz (spelling?) – but WHO CARES!  I don’t want to be told they had trouble with this in practice, and little Jimmy let whatshername fall on her rear in the last Olympics. I DON’T CARE if they didn’t rotate enough to make the commentators happy – or want to listen to them tell me for the umpteenth time that this performance needs to be ‘perfect’ for these people to win. YOU THINK?

I end up listening to about 4 seconds of the music (if I’m lucky) and then having to mute the sound off and on throughout the performance or just mute it altogether and watch.

I don’t really care what the judges think, either.  I guess it’s too much to ask to just let me ENJOY the beautiful skating while listening to the music and THEN find out what the commentators, judges, and Joe Blow think AFTER they finish…. :0(

Quote of the Day – Tone

http://www.hkcaf.org

 

“Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.” ~ Unknown

Dictionary.com – “tone” – a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.:  a tone of command.

Tone may be a woman thing, or it may simply be that my husband is oblivious. He rejects the whole idea of “tone.”  It causes problems around here, though, more than anything else.

I get angry or hurt – a gut reaction – by something my husband says. My reaction is to clam up, avoiding him. My husband ignores it for most of the day while I try not to bite him in the leg. Finally we discuss it. I usually say something like, “It’s not what you SAID as much as your TONE.”  After being married for a long time, I’m super-sensitive to his tone. He is adamant that he doesn’t have one. One of us is right.

We both know that this ‘discussion’ will probably continue until both of us are no more…

 

When ‘Favorite Thing’ Meets ‘Pet Peeve’

Matthew Stockman, Getty Images

I LOVE to watch figure skating. It’s one of my favorite things in life. My husband found that the contest for who would go to the Winter Olympics in figure skating was on television Friday and Saturday nights. I was in Heaven. The ladies skated on Friday and the men on Saturday. Seeing so much dedication and talent in one place is awe-inspiring.

 

Matthew Stockman, Getty Images

The women were all very talented, but it seemed to me that the contest wasn’t as close as the men’s.  I have to say I’m really pleased to live on the same planet as these talented people.

The reason I titled this post “When ‘Favorite Thing’ Meets ‘Pet Peeve'” is the people who ‘help’ me watch the performance. Yes, they’re professionals. Yes, they know better than anyone how well the people skate. They’ve watched these folks in practice. They have been where these young people are and know what they’re feeling and how nervous they are.

My pet peeve is that I don’t want to listen to them! I want to watch the ice skating. I want to listen to the music they’ve chosen. Even “I” who can’t tell the difference between a ‘quad,’ and a ‘triple lutz’ (spelling?) can SEE when someone does a brilliant job of skating. I can tell if they almost fell or actually fell on their butts. I don’t care what the name is of the thing they’re about to do. I don’t want to know how nervous they are or that they had trouble in practice. I JUST WANT TO WATCH THEM SKATE AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. The commentators can talk in-between performances, even showing ‘where-little-Johnny-fell-on-his-butt’ over and over again, if they would like.

The result of this pet peeve is that once the skater begins, it’s about 4 seconds before one of the commentators HAS to tell me what is coming up and how important it is that little Johnny doesn’t fall on his butt this time. I mute the sound and watch, then unmute to see if I can hear at least a few seconds of the music before another commentator HAS to break in to tell me that little Johnny said that this performance was really important to him tonight. Well, DUH!

So, the performances are largely done in silence in the Lewis household. Amazingly, even without listening to the commentators, we can tell who did a good job and who didn’t. We realize all the years each of these talented people have practiced. We have an idea of what they’ve given up to get to this place. We want them to do well.

I just WISH we didn’t have to appreciate them in silence…

Stupidity, Doofosity, and Obtusity

“Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backward.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

tpkorean.wordpress.com

Warning: These three conditions – stupidity, doofosity, and obtusity – are contagious. Read on at your own peril. –

I know this personally, as I committed an act of doofosity just the other day. Instead of making SURE I knew to which account a money transfer site was linked, I ASSUMED I knew and transferred money. The Vice President of our local bank was kind enough to call me, letting me know that the account that the money was supposed to come out of didn’t have the required funds. When I figured out what I had done, I was really embarrassed. Rozanne was very tactful about my doofosity, saying she would transfer the money from where it was to where it should be so that the transaction could occur…

I don’t think I’m alone in committing acts like this. I do know that I commit more of them as I ‘mature.’  But, as George Carlin said, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”  I, at least, have the excuse of diminishing brain cells, but I wonder about all the other people who can’t use that excuse?

I read or listen to the news and am amazed (and depressed) by so many things I’m overwhelmed. My age might also be causing me to have less patience, and I know for a fact that there is no lower limit on ‘dumb,’ but so many people are WORKING at it!  Every once in awhile I hear someone discuss a topic using a well-reasoned argument citing facts to support it. That’s becoming rarer than hen’s teeth (to coin a phrase.)

I’ll stop my rant (my mom always told me – “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,”  but I’ll leave you with this thought –

“Beauty fades, dumb is forever.”
― Judy Sheindlin, Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever

 

Better Safe…

fivethingsblog.wordpress.com

What should have been a simple thing turned into a 45-minute, really annoying chore.

We received our new Humana ID cards in the mail today. As I got ready to put them in my purse, I noticed that the doctor’s name was incorrect on the back of both cards. I thought it probably didn’t matter, but then I decided to call and make sure.

It DID matter.

First, I had called on my cell phone and they didn’t have a record of that. I got so teed off I hung up and called on the phone beside my computer, also a cell phone, but on a base with a different phone number. I had to go through the phone tree again – ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS! – and this time, they accepted the phone number from which I was calling with no problem.

I talked to a very nice man, but it was a long, drawn-out process to finally change the doctor’s name on the back of my card. Then I said, “I need to do the same change on my husband’s card.”  Even though we have gone so far as to write a LETTER to put in my husband’s file saying that I have the power to handle any and all things for him, since he HATES bureaucracy of any kind and has the patience of a fruit fly, the man insisted that my husband get on the phone and tell him that it was okay that I handle this change for him. By the time I got back on the phone, the man had at least one fewer layers of skin.

THEN, at the end of what should have been a quick change on our computer records, he tried to get me to schedule my wellness check, my mammogram, and my colonoscopy.  Do I need to tell you that his efforts in this regard were totally unappreciated?  I gritted my teeth when I told him that those things were between me and my physician, whose name would finally be on my card, if he handled my request.

The end result was that they are sending us new cards, but we had three teed-off people by the end of the conversation.

Pet Peeve

mara t safin.freeforums.org

 

afunnyweb.com

I Suddenly Discovered a New Pet Peeve!

http://www.hypno-haven.com

I really thought I knew about my numerous pet peeves, but my husband found a new one yesterday.

PSSSSSSST!

Instead of saying my name, or coming over to get my attention, he said, “PSSSSSSSST!” from across the room. I turned, ready to kill.

I can’t really say why it instantly caused such a negative reaction. He’s never done it before, and I’m HOPING that after I ‘explained’ to him that his life was in danger if he did it again – that he won’t.

I like him a LOT, but not enough to put up with THAT, apparently….