Kool Aid
I used to love Kool Aid as a kid, as long as it was Cherry or Black Cherry. These days I’ve been drinking iced tea and I’ve become a bit tired of it day in and day out. Yesterday I was at the grocery store and I saw that Kool Aid was on sale so I picked up a couple of packets. Yum Yum
Eye doctors
I took my mother to the eye doctor last week. Her eyes seem to be failing pretty fast as she ages, and I like to make sure that she gets the eyeglasses that she needs so she can keep doing the things that she loves to do – her knitting and crocheting and other needlework. As she ages she finds herself sitting more than ever and she likes to keep her hands and mind busy. She used to always say to me “Busy hands are happy hands” and “Idle minds are the devil’s workshop.”
I’ve noticed over the past few months that Mom’s vision seems to be getting worse, she is wearing stained clothes that she didn’t pretreat because she didn’t see the stain, either before OR after washing it. So off we went to the eye doctor. The doctor said that Mom has a large cataract in her right eye, and a lot of small ones in her left eye. And her prescription has changed since last year, so the eye doctor wrote her a new prescription. He suggested that she go to frame selection part of his office and pick out a new pair of glasses. I asked him to please put on the prescription the pupillary distance between her eyes so that we could buy the glasses from Zenni Optical – a website that sells inexpensive glasses. I don’t begrudge this guy the right to earn a living, but Mom is on a tight budget and can’t afford to pay the high prices he charges for glasses!
Country Safety
This guest post compliments of Carlene Schlesinger.
Living out in the country, on a private dirt road, with only a few neighbors in close proximity, you would think a neighborhood watch would be useless. Instead, it is probably the single most useful tool to preventing any of our homes from being broken into or other crimes form taking place. Choosing to live outside of a gated community type of setting allows freedom, but also comes at a cost. With no private security in place, and the State Police over 30 minutes away, neighbors need to band together to keep the area safe for the families that live here.
Taking turns with the neighbors, we patrol the area every few hours, and have come across some very interesting situations that were reported to the police. We don’t follow a set schedule, and you may find two or more of the families out at the same time, but there is almost always someone watching out.
There are a few “party houses” in our area that draw large crowds on weekends. Because of this, we’ve installed motion detector lighting around the entire house and garage, and a home alarm system, to warn us if anyone is trying to get in the door. I feel safer knowing that if something happens, the door alarm system is there as another layer of protection.
Online shopping is a savior…
This is a guest post by my friend Sandy Felker
My ex boyfriend was never good about planning. He wasn’t good about anything really, but planning and letting me know virtually anything within a reasonable amount of time was not one of his stronger traits.
One Friday I was told that his aunt was getting married. Great, right? Well, it turns out she’d been planning the wedding for about 4 months and he was just getting around to telling me. Oh, and it was going to be black tie so I had to dress super formal. Like, more formal than anything in my closet. Great, right? Oh, and by the way, the wedding is next Saturday.
This is where I freak out.
I had a 50 hour work week coming up at a public affairs office I was working for. I had 2 freelance deadlines coming up in the middle of the week. I had a 45 minute commute to work and no time to even sit around, let alone shop for a formal dress. Thankfully my day job was equipped with wildblue satellite internet and a generous lunch period, so I spent one of my lunch hours shopping for a formal dress.
I flipped between screens of Macy’s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus and finally found a sleek, sassy and formal dress that would be perfect for the wedding. Thankfully I could choose two-day shipping (for a not-so-generous fee) so I could hurry it over to Grandma’s house in the event it needed some alterations.
Thankfully the dress fit like a glove, the wedding went well, and my boyfriend managed to get us there without putting me into another panic. Most importantly, I looked fabulous.
There’s really no excuse anymore
I’m constantly amazed by how many people tell me that they don’t get Internet at their house. One of the reasons that they give for not having Internet is that they say that the only option for them is slow dial-up. I have to admit that dial-up is not as fast as satellite internet is, but if that was my only option I would certainly take it! The first several years that we had Internet at our place the only option was dial-up. I really didn’t mind how slow it was. At least until I saw how fast it could be through other methods!
We depend so much on the things that we use the Internet for in our modern lives that I’d have a really hard time imagining not having it as part of our daily life! I think we’d seriously have a withdrawal of sorts without it! We use the Internet for sending emails to keep in touch with friends and family. It is so much easier than trying to call them on the phone because our work and sleep schedules are so out-of-sync with each other it’s hard to reach each other! And we play games, watch shows, shop and do our banking online. It has certainly become a major player in our lives!
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