4/17 to 4/19/2009 A Few Days at a Time

I'm writing a few days at a time not because we've been so busy that I haven't had time, that isn't the case at all, but that there really isn't a whole lot to tell you about this weekend.

Friday, the highlight of our day was going to the local Verizon store and getting new phones and extending that dreaded contract for another two years. I'VE GOT PHONE AGAIN! My phone, (we each have our own line) rang its last ring, dialed its last call, and took its last message this past December. It died. A slow death. I had been replacing batteries once every 8 - 10 months or so for the past two and a half years. When it finally bit the dust, as they say, in December, I just plain and simple didn't have time to go to the store and pick out a new one. And it didn't bother me because I didn't have time to talk on the phone anyway. Ask my mother!

Now I just expected to walk in, point to a phone and walk out. Oh silly me. We've had our phones for quite a while, four years maybe, oh at least. When we got those, actually I went and got them, Bob stayed home, there were not all that many to choose from if I'm not mistaken. Today there is a whole freakin' wall and a half full! And they do everything! You don't need to dial anymore, just call out the name of the person you want to call. they take movies with sound now, you can check your stock quotes, you can email, you can surf the web, you can play the music YOU want to hear and good Lord, who knows what else. Now that's not to say our old phone couldn't do some, well, one, well, no, our phones couldn't do ANY of those things. We could call out, we could take calls and we could take pictures. That's it. Nothing more. And that's all we wanted this time. Make calls, take a picture or two, receive calls, just your basic phone. They don't make them like that anymore. So we finally decided, after two hours (!) which phone we wanted. We both picked the same one but I got a PURPLE one so that we can tell at a glance which one belonged to who. Now we have to learn how to use the darn things! These phones do so much today that I'm almost afraid if we pressed in the wrong button that we may just launch a missile out of a silo in a Iowa corn field!One good thing this time around, we get a military discount now. So we'll be enjoying fifteen percent off our bill every month. Military readers, make sure you get this!

Its still so new I haven't taken the protective wrapping off of it yet.

Friday afternoon our toaster oven decided to die its final death too. It tried this on me when we were still in Quail Run but it came back to life. Not this time. Something else to buy now.

Saturday we decided we'd take a nice leisurely ride to Malibu Beach. I can hear you Californians laughing now. I'm sure at one time or another you've all seen pictures of the California freeways, bumper to bumper, swerving in and out of lanes practically gridlock? Well, my friends, believe it! We were literally in a rolling parking lot for over two hours and we never did see Malibu! We got close, we were as close as Santa Monica but we just couldn't do it any more. We said over and over again, thank the good Lord we aren't towing our home behind us! I certainly don't mean to imply that Californians are crazy drivers, no sir, I certainly wouldn't imply that. I'm here to shout from the mountaintops that Californians are crazy drivers! I have to give them credit, we didn't see so much as a fender bender but that did it for us, we'll stay in on weekends here on out. The crazies can have the roadways, we'll wait till Monday, after nine, thank you very much.

When you drink a soda, pop, soda pop, soft drink, whatever you call it, out of a can, can you taste the can? Don't look at me like I'm nuts, some of us can. I happen to be one of them. It ruins the whole drink for me to have to drink out of a can, hence you always see me with a Pepsi in a bottle. You ALWAYS see me with a bottle of Pepsi. I am seldom without one. Anyway, when we were at the store the other day they had a special going on. Three cases of Pepsi and two bags of Doritos for $8.99. Since we are on a chips and salsa kick right now I thought what the heck, its a good deal, I'll go for it. Now of course I had it all figured out how I was going to drink these Pepsi's in a can. Check out my demonstration of how I accomplished this when we were on the road yesterday.

That's right, I saved the bottles I drank last so that I can re-fill them when I want a Pepsi. Works for me!

I've heard a voice from the past recently. Remember when I was sharing with you what was in my memory box a few weeks back? I put this newspaper clipping up.

Well, the girlfriend I was supposed to be at the library that with night, instead of out with our boyfriends, contacted me after twenty seven years! She found me on Classmates.com and left a comment on the blog for me to email her. We kept in touch after high school now and then and finally, twenty seven years ago life just got in the way of our occasional phone calls and we lost touch. Not only are we communicating again, she's going to Alaska this summer too! Of course she's been going back and forth for the last seventeen years, living there, coming back to Delaware, going back to Alaska, back and forth, back and forth. She loves Alaska but her kids and family are on the east coast. I can understand the to and fro. So I'm excited about seeing this long lost friend this summer.

I got quite a surprise on Thursday when I checked our bank account online. Our tax refund took only eight days to be deposited in our account. Aren't computers wonderful?

Its warming up here in southern California. We're going to be in the high 80's the next few days. I'm sure we'll either be at the beach or visiting the mouse.

Sunday brought us a relaxing day. I caught up on laundry, FREE laundry, no quarters needed laundry. I also caught up with friends on the phone and Bob spent his day reading about Alaska, plotting courses and printing out maps. Yep, a relaxing day.

Not every day can be a thrilling adventure, who would want it to be? Nope, every now and then we need a day just to "be".

Here's a cute one I got the other day.

A woman arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeked through the gates. She saw a beautiful banquet table. Sitting all around were her parents and all the other people she had loved and who had died before her. They saw her and began calling greetings to her. "Hello - How are you! We've been waiting for you! Good to see you."

When Saint Peter came by, the woman said to him, "This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?" "You have to spell a word," Saint Peter told her.

"Which word?" the woman asked. "Love."

The woman correctly spelled 'Love', and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven.

About a year later, Saint Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived. "I'm surprised to see you," the woman said. "How have you been?" "Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband told her. "I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won the multi-state lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a huge mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation in Cancun and I went water skiing today. I fell and hit my head, and here I am. What a bummer! How do I get in?"

"You have to spell a word," the woman told him.

"Which word?" her husband asked.

"Czechoslovakia."

I'll leave you this fine day with these words of wisdom:

No one is in charge of your happiness except you.