Thoughts for today

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them!'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle.' An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's

4. Enjoy the simple things

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help

9 Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity

Grow old along with me

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life
For which the first was made.
William Wordsworth

I very much doubt old Willie would find very many old people who would agree with that. My introduction to old people really surprised me. Old sort of crept up on me and I was not prepared to handle it. I suppose I should have known that life would not just go on forever as it had been for many years and that some day I would grow old , but I didn’t. Some grow old very gracefully, accepting the roadblocks that physical breakdowns toss at you, and are content with what their lives have become. Not being able to do the things they used to do and start getting used to attending funerals of all their friends instead of going to baptisms and weddings and other fun things.

Then there are the fighters that keep on doing the things they used to do and enjoying each day they have been given to the fullest. I want to be one of those. I’m trying, not that life hasn’t thrown a few crappy things at me, but I am concentrating on keeping the good things going for as long as I can.

Beatlemania Quiz:

1. What year did the Beatles officially disband?

A. 1971

B. 1968

C 1981

D. 1975

2. In 1960 Pete Best joined the Beatles as?

A. Lead Vocalist

B. keyboard player

C. Guitarist

D. Drummer

3. What was the Beatles first single as a group?

A. Liverpool Sound

B. Please Please Me

C. Love Me Do

D We are the Beatles

4. Who was the oldest Beatle?

A. George Harrison

B. Paul McCartney

C. Ringo Starr

D. John Lennon

5. What Beatles song was the first to make it to the number one on the UK charts?

A. My Bonnie 1961

B. Please Please Me 1963

C. She Loves You 1963

D. Love Me Do 1962

6. In August 1966 John Lennon was quoted as saying “The Beatles are now more popular than Jesus.”

A. True

B. False

7. The Beatles gave their last live concert performance on August 29, 1966, in what city?

A. San Francisco

B. Little Rock

C. Atlanta

D. Jacksonville

8. In December 1970, what Beatle said “ I did not leave the Beatles, the Beatles have left the Beatles.”

A. Ringo Starr

B. George Harrison

C. Pete Best

D. Paul McCartney

9. The British “Daily Telegraph” once compared the Beatles to Hitler.

A. True

B. False

10. When Producer Brian Epstein created a contract with the Beatles, his was the only signature not on the contract.

A. True

B. False

Answers NO PEEKING

1. A. 1971.

2. D. Drummer, in 1960. He was replaced by Ringo Starr in 1962.

3. C. "Love Me Do", 1962.

4. C. Ringo Starr, born 1940.

5. B. "Please Please Me", 1963.

6. A. True. The remark cause ripples around the world.

7. A. San Francisco, California, 1966.

8. D. Paul McCartney, 1970.

9. A. TRUE

10. A. TRUE. The contract was signed in 1961.

5 Sentences:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Can you think of a reason for not sharing this? Neither could I......

Understand?

Let’s see if I understand how this old world works now days:

If a man cuts his finger off slicing salami at work:

He blames the restaurant.

If you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day or 40 years and die of lung cancer:

Your family blames the tobacco company.

If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving drunk:

He blames the bartender.

If your Grandchildren are brats with out manners:

You blame Television.

If your friend is shot by a deranged mad man:

You blame the gun manufacturer.

If a crazy person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot at 35,000 feet and the passengers kill him instead:

The mother of the crazed mad man blames the airlines.

I must have lived too long to understand the world any more.

Average

1. Accept what people tell you at face value

2. Don’t question authority

3. Go to college because you’re supposed to, not because you want to learn something

4. Go overseas once or twice in your life, to somewhere safe like England

5. Don’t try to learn another language; every- one else will eventually learn English

6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it

7. Think about writing a book, but never do it

8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for and spend 30 years paying for it

9. Sit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work

10. Don’t stand out or draw attention to yourself

11. Jump through hoops. Check off boxes.

Sunday Sugar With Morgan

The Rules of Bureaucracy

1. Preserve thyself.

2. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem.

3. A penny saved is an oversight.

4. Information deteriorates upward.

5. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last 10% takes the
other 90%.

6. Experience is what you get just after you need it.

7. For any given large, complex, hard-to-understand, expensive problem, there
exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer.

8. Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out.

9. To err is human; to shrug is civil service.

10. There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to
do it over. 

Freedom and happiness

"Doing what you like is freedom; Liking what you do is happiness"

I read this today and I thought to myself ,"how very true." My life for example, I always did what I was told to do, it did not matter if I liked it or not. I spent all of my teen years and most of my adulthood unhappy. At times I wished I was dead. I married, not for love but because it was "the right thing to do". I guess getting the crap beat out of you regularly was the "right" thing. I was supposed to be happy after all my boys were with their father. After numerous times of getting hurt and other unspeakable things, after being told by the police that he had the right to do those things because we were married, called a liar by him(he said that I squeezed my own throat and hit myself so hard to cause bruises to get him in trouble) even all that did not make me leave him. What did was when he beat me up and threw me on the floor and the light bulb in my head lit up and I knew then that no child should ever see or hear that. I left the next day when he was at work.

Throughout the years I did what I was told was the right thing. Went to school and got good grades. It was the right thing to do. It was not in the cards for me to get a college education, so I have had many lower paying jobs in my life time. In these jobs I did the right thing, I worked hard, and got a pay check. At one point I even had my own business. It was one of the first times in my life I felt any confidence. I did it all from the actual customer contact to the ordering of supplies to producing the product. Every thing but the books, now that is something I can not do. I had that business for 19+ years and had to close it due to my failing health.

I am happy now. I am at home on the river. I have my grand kids and my kids. I have been given the freedom to stay at home and enjoy those things. I have been given the love that gives me so much happiness. I have been given the freedom to do what I like and with that came happiness for the first time in years.

Paraprosdokian

Here is the definition: "Figure of speech in which the latter
part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected;
frequently used in a humorous situation." "Where there's a will,
I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

Okay, so now enjoy!

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down
to his level and beat you with experience.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.
But it's still on my list.
3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why
some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act
in public.
6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,'
and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism.
To steal from many is research.
10. A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train
stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out
I just wanted paychecks.
12. Whenever I fill out an application,
in the part that says, 'In case
of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'
13. I didn't say it was your fault,
I said I was blaming you.
14. Women will never be equal to men until
they can walk down the street
with a bald head and a beer gut,
and still think they are sexy.
15. Behind every successful man is his woman.
Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.
17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work
that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
18. You do not need a parachute to skydive.
You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
19. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes
misery easier to live with.
20. There's a fine line between cuddling and
holding someone down so they can't get away.
21. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.
22. You're never too old to learn something stupid.
23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first
and call whatever you hit the target.
24. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
25. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

26. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian
any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in
such a way that you look forward to the trip.
28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home
even when you wish they were.
29. I always take life with a grain of salt.
Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
30. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember
that the Fire Department usually uses water.

Words of Wisdom "The early bird may get the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese."

COPD

Sometimes I find myself focusing on the things I can no longer do, the things I can still do but only after I make adjustments to do them, all the ways I have altered my life. I am paying the price for making bad choices about my health. But I am strong and I fight tooth and nail and press onward and forward. I work hard making changes and finding ways to hold on to my quality of life. I walk around with plastic prongs in my nose, people look at me funny. But Guess what I am still standing, I am still moving. I am still hoping to make a difference in this old world because of COPD not in spite of it. Frustrating? Yes. Sad? Yes. Overwhelming? Yes. it is also depressing and exhausting. Through it all I try to remember there are many things I can do. No need to focus on what I can’t do. I work hard to keep a positive attitude and to be strong. I intend to thoroughly enjoy my remaining time as happily and wonderfully as I can. I will eliminate as much frustrating and stress as I can and I will bring in the happy!!

FOR ALL YOU LEXOPHILES ( LOVERS OF WORDS )

Energizer Bunny arrested -- charged with battery.

A pessimist's blood type is b-negative.

Practice safe eating --  use condiments.

A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.

Shot gun wedding--wife or death.

I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.

If electricity comes from electrons... does that mean that morality comes from morons?

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

Is a book on voyeurism a peeping tome?

Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

Banning the bra was a big flop.

Sea captains don't like crew cuts.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

A gossip is someone with a sense of rumor.

Without geometry, life is pointless.

When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red.

When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Alarms: What an octopus is.

Crick:: The sound that a Japanese camera makes.

Dockyard: A physician's garden.

Khakis: What you need to start the car in Boston .

Oboe: An English tramp.

Pasteurize: Too far to see.

Propaganda: A gentlemanly goose.

Toboggan: Why we go to an auction.

Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.

The English language

The English language has taken an incredible beating the last few years with the advent of "liketalk"... I don't know what else to call it. What I thought was a passing fad - the typical American teenager's faddish interjection of the word "like" into every single sentence -- has become so rampant it is a disease. Even thirty year olds and business executives talk this way!
"Like" is used not only as "um" is used, a chronic and useless interrupter - it actually takes the place of adjectives, nouns, imagination, intelligence, etc. etc. etc.
For instance, you no longer have to say,
"She was furious at me.."
You just say,
"She was LIKE "aaaaaghh!"
No need for such tedious sentences as "He said, I'll take care of it." Now it's "He was LIKE I'll take care of it"
So you see there's no past tense any more, there's just the pea-brained characterization of any event, any shade of meaning, past, present or future, relevant or irrelevant, as "LIKE"
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?????

P.S. Yes I have been watching Big Brother.

Sunday Sugar with Morgan

Carbuncle

is a word that always strikes me as funny. One definition is medical : a painful local purulent inflammation of the skin and deeper tissues with multiple openings for the discharge of pus and usually necrosis and sloughing of dead tissue...and sounds disgusting and incredibly painful. Obviously this word came into that medical usage before the advent of the automobile. I can't recall a doctor ever describing a series of pus-oozing sores as carbuncles, but then I've - thankfully - never experienced them. I do think, however, that a carbuncle would be a much better description of a minor car accident. It would, if used in non-life threatening situations, almost make a person feel okay.

"Hey, John, I see you have a scratch on your fender."

"Yeah, I was involved in a carbuncle. Thankfully, a minor one. You should have seen the other guy's bumper! He just slid into me when I was stopped at a red light."

"Was it Wednesday? During the snow flurries? There were at least a hundred carbuncles around the city!"

"Yup. Everyone should know better and slow down. It's amazing the amount of carbuncles there are when the snow starts flying."

I have no idea why carbuncle came into my head today, but it did. And I am now trying to think of other seldom used words that could be repurposed and reused. Words that, as soon as you say them, a new meaning is instantly clear.

Bad Ideas

1. Astro Turf
2. Telemarketers
3. Spandex in plus sizes
4. Thong underwear
5. Barney
6. Infomercials
7. Culottes
8. Susan B. Anthony dollar
9. Car alarms
10. Aerosol Cheese

Pet Peeves

• People who blow their horn at you the nano-second the light changes to green.
• People who don't use their turn signal, tailgate, and cut you off really hard and close.
• People don't know the difference between 'Yield' and 'Merge'!!
• People who dress to the nines to go to Walmart and bring their kids with their crusty noses, dirt rings around their necks, faded dirty clothes, and bare dirt crusted feet. I consider this a form of child abuse. These parents should be horsewhipped.
• People at Wal*Mart Supercenter who enter thru the exit and exit thru the enter. Can you not read what it says over the doorway?
• Guys who wear wifebeaters in public. I mean just wifebeaters and nothing else for a shirt. They call them undershirts for a reason.
• People who won’t tell me their opinions and thoughts if they think that I will get angry or upset. Listen, it's as simple as this: Keep tactful, honest, and open-minded, and I will keep that way too.
• People that come to this country and then don't make an effort to learn English---and THEN complain because schools aren't bilingual! Last I heard, English was the primary language of this country. If you don't like it, then pack up and get out!
• People proclaiming that my family and I will be safer if we hand over our only means of self-defense?!!?!
  

• 
  

Out my back door tonight

If you look really close you can see the ripples, a huge fish flopped up just before I snapped this picture. It is a beautiful evening on the Wabash River here in small town Indiana.

Friends old and new:

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose”~ Tennessee Williams (American playwright, 1911-1983)

My life is good in spite of all the ups and downs, mainly because of all the friendships I have. I have my friends from a very long time ago. We have known each other since high school. We knew of each other before then but were not friends. Once we actually met we were drawn together. No matter what is going on in our lives or where we live or the length of time apart we always manage to remain friends. It has been constant. It has been a lifeline for me at times. I have made new friends here on line reading blogs and writing in my own. There is a bond with each and everyone. Some are just casual friends and others will and do go beyond our blogs. My friends, thank you for being in my life and making it good.

Most annoying comments about the hot weather are:

• “Hot enough for ya?”
• “It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity.”
• “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.”
• “It’s hot enough to fry an egg out there!”
• "It's all that Global Warming I keep hearing about"
• I hate the Heat Index. "It's 90º degrees but the heat index is 125º." No, it's not! It's 90º degrees. Call it what it is or change the way we measure temperature!

Different

People take different roads seeking fulfillment & happiness. just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they're lost.

Out my window

Out my back window tonight. Canada geese are fun to watch but really make a mess in my yard. There are at this moment about 50+ geese in my yard. I stopped counting at 40. The river is the Wabash. The little guy fishing is “John” named by the person who gifted him to me. Taken around 8:30 pm with my Kodak point and shoot camera, taken thru the screen and the window glass.

Moments and Milestones

“Life isn't a matter of milestones but of moments”~~~ Rose Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy

I look back over my life and I can see lots of moments that became milestones. Sometimes those moments are moments that we wished had never happened but they cannot be changed . Life is made up of all of them, good and bad. Death, birth, that peaceful moment right before dawn, the light touch on the hand and the kick in the head, all add up to our moments that make up our life.

I can think of so many moments that are my milestones. Another moment, a look across a crowded room, a kiss under the stars... Other moments not so pleasant to remember, hands on my throat, a fist, a kick, drugs and drink... Hard to think of them as milestones but they were, they were a part of my life that shaped me and made me who I am today.

One important milestone in my life was April 2009, the day I made my first entry here. There have been people to come and people to go thru here, hopefully there will be more to come and go. Each and everyone of you are moments in my life that I treasure.

Sugar on Thursday:

My Heart Hurts:

At long last the verdict is in for Casey Anthony. I have watched the trial and formed my opinion in this case. The prosecution put on a very scientific case. The defense blamed every one but Casey. Offered up all sorts of excuses. Forever ruined lives with her lies. Twisted a knife in the hearts of her family. That sweet baby girl Caylee was missing for 31 days. For 31 days Casey partied hard, entered hot body contests, was a party girl. She didn't report her child missing (her mom did on day 31). She never reported it! She claims she was trying to find Caylee on her own, but when the police became involved, she sent them on a wild goose chase. Why? She was out partying, getting tats and buying a round for the house when the average mom of a missing child would have been struggling to remain sane and pouring her extra dollars into a search fund or reward fund. I know we all cope differently, but really? When confronted about Caylee, she lied. While Caylee was missing, Casey told her family Caylee was with a nanny, with her and an imaginary wealthy boyfriend, kidnapped by the nanny then later, disposed of by her dad after she accidentally drowned. Now come on, are we supposed to go out of our way to find some truth out of all those lies?? Frankly, there was much less evidence against Scott Petersen, and he is sitting on death row. People cannot seem to abide the thought of a female murderer, and they are even more reluctant to put a female murderer to death. That is one of the reasons Casey was found not guilty. Did Casey kill her daughter? A lot of people think so, but no one can prove it. The big mistake the prosecution made was not telling the story of how Casey clearly committed criminal neglect. The closing statement was aimed at first degree murder. If they cast a slightly broader net, they could have gotten her on neglect. Instead, she'll be free to go, and she can pop out another baby and maybe decide she doesn't want it anymore either. I am incredibly saddened by this ruling. But what really chaps my a$$ (yes, that's a saying around here) is that justice will never be served for this poor little girl. And while trying not to get too far onto a tangent I do believe in karmic justice and like O.J. I hope she'll meet it somewhere down the road.

You know You are from Indiana When...

1. You can properly pronounce Indianapolis, DeKalb, Winamac, Pulaski, and Lafayette.

2. You think people who complain about the heat in their states are sissies.

3. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.

4. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability of shade.

5. Stores don't have sacks or buggies, they have bags and shopping carts.

6. You've seen people wear bib overalls at weddings and funerals.

7. You think everyone from a Southern state has an accent.

8. You measure distance in minutes.

9. You go to the lake because you think it is like going to the ocean.

10. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit.

11. You know cow pies are not made of beef.

12. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date.

13. You know someone who has a belt buckle bigger than your fist.

14. Almost everyone you know is either Baptist or Methodist.

15. A Mercedes Benz isn't a status symbol. A Chevy Silverado Extended Bed Crew Cab is.

16. You know everything goes better with Ranch dressing.

Happy 4th of July I love America!

Today, please stop for a moment and remember our troops currently in areas of danger. I want to talk to you about something important.

Today we are celebrating the Fourth of July.

That means a lot of loud noises, cookouts, family get-togethers, drinking and just having a good ole time. It is also a time when there are a lot of accidents. The blood bank near you needs help. A lot of blood and plasma is used during this time and the blood supply could run low.

Help save a life and go give blood today. It could be someone you know.

*** Adult Truths ***

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Ev en under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

(from an email)

25 Ways to Combat Stress

Do yourself a favor. Practice any or all of these stress busters.
They can mean the difference between good health and bad.
1. Laugh
2. Socialize
3. Get rid of Anger
4. Be Decisive
5. Be Assertive
6. Get Some Sleep
7. Adapt your Environment
8. Encourage Yourself
9. Choose Winners
10.Reward Yourself
11.Establish Rituals
12.Nurture your Spirituality
13.Take Note
14.Play Around
15.Slow Down
16.Take Holidays
17.Take up a hobby
18.Delegate
19.Be in control of your finances
20.Do not Procrastinate
21.Live by lists
22.Eat Right
23.Exercise
24.Relax
25.Take your time