I Resolve to NOT

Tomorrow it will be 2010.
A lot of people scramble to come up with resolutions that they hope to keep for the New Year.
For a twist, I’m going to write down resolutions that I know I will not keep.

I resolve to NOT try and lose weight. Let’s be honest here. I like to eat. I tend to gravitate towards the foods that aren’t healthy. If the pounds drop, that’s fantastic. If not, well, I can still fit into my pants so all is well.

I resolve to NOT stop cursing silently at the people who refuse to use their turn signals while driving. How hard is it to flick your wrist?

I resolve to NOT stop cursing silently at the people who talk on their cell phones while driving. Get a Bluetooth.

I resolve to NOT stop watching sugary chick flicks. I tried several times to broaden my horizon by trying to watch those movies with subtitles. Because apparently you’re a well rounded adult if you enjoy them or something. I don’t know. I do know that I fell asleep while watching several subtitled movies. I couldn’t follow the plot. I suppose this means I’m not well rounded. Oh well. Pass me The Notebook please.

To be continued.

Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them. - Lou Holtz

No Raise for Social Security

“If Social Security benefits don’t start catching up to the real rise in costs, we’re going to see a wave of seniors falling beneath the poverty line,” says Daniel O’Connell, chairman of the Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. “It’s particularly outrageous that seniors may be forced to accept a zero raise next year, as our lawmakers have just accepted a $4,700 raise this year.” He said the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is based on the spending habits of young urban workers and the the costs for senior citizens MAY go up even during periods of deflation. Older people tend to pay heavily for medicine and other health related products.

I got my award letter from Social Security, and I will get no raise, nor will any other person who is on disability or retirement Social Security. I can’t believe it. They claim that it is because the cost of living has not gone up. (Please note: The Government is who figures out the COLA.) I will go along with this if no one in public office gets a raise. I get a set amount each month, my bills add up to just almost the exact amount and that does not include my medications, food, repairs or anything else. I ask you how can our country let this happen? How can our officials, who make well over $80,000 a year with some making $150,000 or more, vote themselves a raise? How on earth can they justify letting the people, who worked hard their whole life and paid into the SS fund, live in poverty? How about some bail out money for the people of this country who have worked hard, contributed, and even raised some of them? I am not asking for a hand out I am asking for some return on my contribution. I think I will forward a copy of this to my Congressmen and Representatives. And I will demand an explanation. If there answer is not satisfactory, assuming that they answer, then I will do the only thing I can do. Never vote for them again. I do not think it is the governments job to keep me from living in poverty, that is my own personal responsibility, I just want a fair return on all the money I was required to invest in Social Security over the last 50+ years.

email address of Congressmen and Senators

Maxine

See Maxine. Maxine doesn't like to exercise. I hope that's not a cigarette in her hand! Poor Maxine would have to change her whole lifestyle if she developed COPD. And you think she's cranky now!

Ripples

It’s weird sometimes when I feel I have so much to do and yet I do nothing. I just seem to have an inclination to go back in time. Not to re-live, but just to look back at who I was and how I was and how everything else was. It’s probably the best form of educating me about myself; the way I’ve grown to be person that I am now.
Today, as I stand on the threshold of yet another big step, I realize there are so many things that I could have done differently, tho not necessarily better. From betrayal and losing friends, to basically being lonely and living this whole thing called life the really hard way, indeed broke and wore me down. My bad health was taking a toll on me and it was probably the lowest ebb in my life. Nothing was going right. The only thing I had left was faith in myself. Nothing else existed.
Today, I’ll say I am much better. It could have been worse, maybe it could’ve better too. The silver lining is that I have some new friends who have really stood by me ever since. And, with age comes a certain wisdom of knowing that experiences make and mold you into a better person. I have seen low points, lower than some, and better than some.
But I’ve never regretted any bit of this. I have my detractors. I have my critics. My aim is not to silence them. because I also know I don’t need to do that nor do I need to prove them wrong. I know myself best. And when the need arises, and it usually does, I’ll be my own worst critic. No other critics needed, thanks. I have never turned in the face of a challenge. And I never will. Success does not always come to those with the most victories. Happiness does not always come to the most successful and it’s mostly all in the mind anyway. If you "believe", then anything is possible. When you’ve scraped the bottom of the ocean bed and come back to the top, battered but alive, you know you can. I can and life smells pretty sweet.

Are you older than dirt?

Where did headlight dimmer switches used to be located?

a. On the floor shift knob
b. On the floor, left of the clutch
c. Next to the horn

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle has holes in it. For what was it used?

a. Capture lightning bugs.
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing
c. Large salt shaker

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?

a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?

a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Craps

5. What method did women adapt to look as if they were wearing stockings when none was available due to rationing during W.W.II?

a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?

a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?

a. Strips of dried peanut butter
b. Chocolate-licorice bars
c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

8. How was Butch wax used?

a. To stiffen hair cut into a flattop so it stood up
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing
c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?

a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot
c. Long pieces of string or twine

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?

a. Consider all the facts
b. Ask Mom
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo

11. What was the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex?

a. A cold
b. VD
c. Cooties

12. "I'll be down to get you in a ________, Honey?"

a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pet pony?

a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?

a. Part of the game of hide and seek
b. What you did when your mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, covering your head with your arms in an A bomb drill

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?

a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
b. Princess Sacajewea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?

a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you "high"
b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window
c. Wrote another pupils name on the top, to avoid failure

17. Why did your mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?

a. To keep you out of mischief licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick on tattoos

18. "Praise the Lord, and pass the _________?"

a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the group who made the song "The Gypsy" a hit in the US?

a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco?

a. Tony Bennett
b. Zavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

scroll down for the answers.

ANSWERS

1. b) On the floor, left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular in Europe, took till the '60s to catch on.

2. b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

4. a) Blackjack Gum.

5. b) Special makeup was applied followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8. a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. a) With clamps, tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your neck.

10. c) Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. c) Cooties.

12. b) Taxi. Better be ready by half-past eight!

13. c) Macaroni.

14. c) Hiding under your desk, covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. a) Princess Summerfallwinterspring. She was another puppet.

16. a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get "high."

17. b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

18. c) Ammunition, and we'll all be free.

19. a) The all male, all black group, The Inkspots.

20. a) Tony Bennett and he sounds just as good today.

SCORING

17 — 20 correct: You are not only older than dirt, but obviously gifted with mind bloat. Now if you could only find your glasses.
12 — 16 correct: Not quite dirt yet, but your mind is definitely muddy.
0 – 11 correct: You are a sad excuse of a geezer. Redeem yourself by declaring to everyone that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.





(this is a rerun)

Merry Christmas

I wish you a joyous, delightful Christmas holiday. Thank you for being part of my world and making my life a whole lot brighter.