Random Thoughts and pissed as Hell

Hello Again Folks,

Well I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty mellow, even if it was a T.M’s house, she of the Frozen Cheese Lasagna of two years ago come Christmas.

I have to say things have improved ever since her daughter took over the cooking arrangements, I only had to bring baked yams, which is not hard to do, and some soda, which if you get it in Liter bottles is a lot cheaper than buying by the can.

The food was good and arrived at the table warm, well above room temperature, things were wet where I live, but frankly we need the rain, I just hate the wind and cold.

And speaking of cold, I’ve come down with one, I know it’s a cold because my sinuses are running and I cough because the stuff tickles my throat, but I do have a lot to be thankful for.

We can at least pay the bills, stay warm and can buy food, everything else we use it up, make do, save for it, recycle it, fix it, or do without.

A really good bit of philosophy in the long run, but I just hope the state government doesn’t come along and muck things up. Just when you think you can “dog paddle” along, the government has to come and mess things up, raising rates or doing something stupid that they think is great, when it isn’t.

And they seem to keep changing the rules mid-way through “the game” now that is not fair.

I know of a number of people that are leaving this golden state which isn’t so golden anymore, because of all the stupidity done by the government and the Feds aren’t much better.

One family I know of managed to sell their house, pay off what they owe; they sold their big fancy cars, bought a mini-cooper and a big rig to pull a gently used 5^th wheeler. That is their home and it’s much cheaper than their old house. The kids were not happy when their fancy cell phones were discontinued, and their video games were sold off as well as all the fancy furniture and such.

But their parents told them to face life; it was either this way or being homeless for a long, LONG time.

They did a lot of other sacrifices as well, of course the kids belly ached and complained because they lost the life style they could not afford----well too bad said Mom and Pop.

They moved out of state, and found a place where things were affordable and Dad got a full time job and Mom managed to get a part time job where she can be home when the kids get out of school.

I got an e-mail from them not too long ago, and they’re saying they wish they’d done it a lot sooner, but they are making do and don’t live too far from the Wife’s folks, which is good. And the kids are discovering ‘board games’.

Because Mom doesn’t work a full time job and can keep an eye on them, their grades have gone up, and they’re not into so much mischief. Of course the kids are not happy with the new rules but their parents sat them down and said things are changing for everyone so it’s gotta be this way.

Heck, I could have told them that years ago.

This morning I was writing up the bills (and coughing and sniffling) and I was thinking about all this Krap junk mail, all these changes that the Banks and Credit card companies are doing so quickly that it’s impossible to keep up with it.

I was even looking at the phone bill, and it’s getting to the point where do I need to have internet at home? Can I do without this and that? And some of it has come back as “yes”.

I mean I seriously started thinking about what we can do without; do we need Cable or Satellite T.V.? Do we need a fancy car? Do we need a swimming Pool or hot tub? Video games? I mean stop and think Folks, what do you really, really need?

Well of course you need an income, and you need medical and dental insurance, and you do need auto insurance, and if you own a home you do need home owners insurance, so those are givens, they are the needs that one has to have.

Now I have a friend of mine, she got fed up with her house that she called a “Money Pit” and sold it, put her funds into something for her retirement. She too sold off most of her furniture, and rented a large studio apartment. She has said that if it can’t fit into a large trailer for her to tow then it’s too much.

She doesn’t entertain at home, but will meet friends at a favorite spot. She looked into renters insurance and figured that if anyone stole her stuff they were welcome to it. And she told me she is much happier because she has the mobility that she didn’t have before.

In some ways I wish I was just as free as her, but one makes choices and one has to deal with them.

I’m selling off my old 1963 Chevy Nova, hated to do it but I had no choice, I even took some old antique stuff to this Auction house and they told me what it was worth and could auction it off for me. I need the money.

Because we just got a bill for a medical service done in August and they are finally billing us now, nearly $400 dollars, for What!!?? Just to say that my Hunka Burnin’ Love snores??? And there’s nothing they can do about it?

That was a waste of money because I could have told them that!!! So the Money I was hoping to save to cover the cost of the License of the SUV is going out the window, because my Hunka snores!!!

I told him that from now on we weight each thing very carefully, because we don’t have that much funds left. The only thing we need to do right now is watch to see what we are going to have to do when we replace his pacemaker. We Have to do that, don’t have any choice.

And I’m going to have to negotiate with them because we can’t pay $400 dollars all at once. That is going to be “fun”.

Maybe we should have socialized medicine, if our medical system was like Kaiser, we’d be in good shape, they’ve treated me real good and I have a very low co-pay.

That’s it; just do it like Kaiser Permanente, instead of the government sticking their nose into it.

They stick their nose into areas where it’s not wanted and enough is enough.

Mean Kitty signing off.

I'm Back and just in time for Thanksgiving

Well Folks I have a lot to be thankful for.

I guess you just thought I had blown away and died---NOT!!

I’ve been busy, both me and my hunka burnin’ love, we’ve been hit by illnesses, I had to have some serious surgery and My Hunka is gonna need to have his pacemaker replaced.

Yeah it was pretty serious, I had a cancerous tumor on my kidney that was the size of my thumb from the tip to the first joint. I was worried they were going to have to remove the entire kidney. But the good thing is that it was localized.

The tissue around it was healthy and so was the kidney, no radiation, no chemo, I was one lucky son of a gun, Doc says I have a 95% chance of staying healthy, I’ll take those odds.

Of course now I’ve got a scar that looks like I’ve been in a knife fight, good thing I don’t wear bikinis.

And of course the economy being what it is (down the drain) we’ve been hit hard by it as well. Not everything was covered by my Medical plan, so we had to economize. My surgery came upon me so close to Halloween that we didn’t celebrate it this year. Just put a sign up saying “Sorry, Due to Serious Family Illness, We will not be doing Halloween this Year. Watch for the Haunted Graveyard in 2010. Have a safe and fun Halloween, See you next year.”

Do you know that we had a lot of trick and treaters write get well wishes on those signs, now that is nice. It only goes to show that people care, they worry when things change or someone, even someone they don’t really know they want to be safe and healthy. Most of them are parents now who came by when they were kids and now they are bringing their kids---Hey I’m at the Grandma level, I never knew we were such an institution in the neighborhood, of course a few days later some of my neighbors said that we put pressure on them because we couldn’t do Halloween this year, but they were glad I was fine.

That gives me hope.

My friends and family and the neighbors were worried about me, talk about Hugs and just feeling good about things, and bringing food, my brother Bubba and his wife had us over for dinner a lot, of course the first few weeks it was hard for me to sit up and I’d tire quickly, and it was hard to eat much, my appetite had disappeared, and even now I get hungry, but I get full real quick, I lost weight nearly 10 pounds, of course it’s a diet I don’t recommend.

But my family was really, Really worried about me, and my co-workers always calling and checking in, my Boss especially---he found out how much I do at work, it will make our work evaluation much easier now that he understands what I do.

But now I’m back at work, and it feels good, my brain need to wake up again, one thing I found out from all of this---I have seen what my future looks like if I retire----it ain’t pretty. I need to work, to have a purpose, it’s like air and food. So I think if and when I do retire, I’ll try and find a part time job, work a few days a week, just to keep mentally active, it’s important.

I get this newsletter from these folks that teach “Ghost Hunting” now this one gal she posted comments about how things were back then (way back then like 1950’s), and I have to agree with her thoughts on this.

Before we got all this new fangled stuff like the internet, twitter, fancy-shmashy cars with computer bits in them, cell phones, and crowded the freeways with urban sprawl, we were a close knit bunch of people and this was before wanting to have the latest gadget, and keeping up with the Jones and a swimming pool in every back yard, fancy wines, mani-pedicures, plasma screen TV’s, loud music that promotes bad behavior and beating up your woman.

Before we had credit cards, litigious behavior, every one of your teen age kids demanding their own phone and car and credit cards, before we started having bad behavior and bad etiquette, people came together, I mean really came together, you knew your neighbors and you tired to work things out. Of course one had cranky and crazy neighbors back then as well but you at least felt you could do something. Not now.

Now it seems we can’t move unless we have one of these things, we can’t do business unless you are on the internet, we can’t go anywhere unless you have a fast car, we can’t get what we want unless we are in DEBT!!

Now I should know, because we are in debt having fallen into that trap, no I don’t get a mani-pedicure, although with my bad back I do go in to have an occasional pedicure but that is because of my bad back, otherwise I’d do my own.

But we made do---it was use it up, recycle it, fix it, save for it, or do without. Of course you can’t do without indoor plumbing, but if your T.V. is broke, then save to have it repaired and in the mean time do without.

I remember my car needed a 300 dollar repair job, I didn’t have the money, so I drove it back to my home, took the bus, saved up the money and then took it back to get it fixed, of course by that time it cost me $350 dollars, but that was O.K.

The shame of it is we are a throw away society, we can’t do that anymore, now a days I see people put things out on the curb with a sign that says ‘FREE” and by gum! People take the stuff.

The other day my Hunka and I saw two captains style chairs and the sign said “Free” we checked them out, one needed a little repair, both had paint on them but for us they were fine and nothing that a hammer and a nail can’t fix and they were just the right size that we needed.

Now for a long time I was on dial up inter access, yeah I got hooked on the internet, but in doing business I looked for a phone number, called them and asked it they would take a U.S. Postal Money Order---I wasn’t having my checking account or credit card number flying all over the ether. And 100 % of the time they would take it. U.S. POSTAL MONEY ORDER ---- for real money.

But if they say they only want this Pay Pal---forget it---I’ll walk away.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m just paying down my credit cards, if I have any extra change that I can put aside I put it into a separate checking account and just use the debt card if they don’t take checks.

As a matter of fact I know one lady who was in a situation where she had no choice, she had to declare bankruptcy, she sold off almost all that she had, moved in with her folks, which was a good thing, because they were getting up there in years. She sold off the more expensive of her two cars, kept the other for emergencies. Took public transportation, brown bagged her lunch, rarely ate out, she did need an internet connection at home for her work, but she couldn’t have a credit card, so she got a debt card, knew exactly how much she would need to keep in it.

She would take a 2^nd seasonal job from time to time, no cable or satellite T.V. for her, but her folks were interested in the old T.V. shows, so they got cable T.V. but she let them pick the programs they wanted.

If she needed some clothes she’d go to a clothing on consignment store, the only things she’d buy new was underwear and shoes that could no longer be repaired, and of course personal hygiene stuff, to get her hair cut she’d go to the beauty school and got a hair cut that would just need a trim from time to time, no hair dye, no perms.

Her Mother didn’t need fancy clothing and would buy her clothes from catalogs, or sew her own, so this lady learned to sew as well, staying with basic pattern styles.

When Hallmark came out with the 99 cents cards, she was happy, she could afford to send birthday, anniversary, get well wishes to friends, and she found at the Target Store, savings in stationary for Thank you notes, of course she’s not happy with the postal rates going up, and she’s found that a lot of people like gift cards to stores that they go to when she wants to give a gift.

She has a male friend who takes her out on dates, like to the movies, or to a special event.

But she has no plans to get married, her Folks’ home is small, and old fashioned, but in a good neighborhood, and she told me that she has re-fallen in love with her Folks house, with the money she’s saved she’s been helping them fix it up, replacing worn out things, and such, she even had the kitchen done so that it looks like it did back in the 50’s but with new appliances that are retro looking when the old ones died, her parents are happy, she feels happy and her parents feel safe as well.

It will be another 5 years before her credit can be reestablished, but she’s discovered that she’s hasn’t felt it because she’s learned to do without.

The only thing that she’s discovered is that she does need her cell phone for emergencies, her internet connection so she can do some of her work from home, and her car for shopping, but she’s keeping her folks old car as well, it’s a Buick from the 1950’s and in great condition. She’s been building her savings up, and she knows she can afford things again. Her Folks are going to transfer things into her name, to avoid estate taxes and so they can get assistance without draining their finances.

She’s lucky, others aren’t but she’s learned to be frugal, and we should too.

Me and Hunka are trying but it’s hard, things come up, money is not there, we hate to use the credit card, but sometimes we have no choice. I’ve gotten to the point where I consider the credit card as a Loan from a Financial institution but you can’t take a tax write off, which makes things difficult.

My Hunka and I are learning to be very frugal, we take stuff to the recyclers for cash, Tapes, CD’s and such we don’t like we take to the Media shop and get credit to get something we’ll like, we get our books at the library, we shop from a grocery list, we pick up and roll pennies, we keep a sewing kit ready for repairs, clip coupons, watch the sales ads, price compare at gas stations and stores.

My brother and I have agreed since the kids are teens that Christmas will be just a holiday get together, no gift exchanges, who can afford it? Even the two Christmas parties we’re going to everyone was told keep the ornament gifting as much under $5 as possible.

And we are looking for every single tax deduction that we can take. And if you pay for something and it ain’t right we squawk good and loud, we don’t do business with “fly-by-night” businesses, only the ones that are solid and know they have to make good on their product.

I have a friend of mine, her web blog is listed right here on my Blog list, you should check her out La Diva Loca Fabulous aka the Crazy Fabulous Diva, and there is another lady who calls herself the Fabulous Diva, check out both their blog sites.

Anyway with the surgery I was out of work for a while, driving my Hunka Burnin’ Love up the wall, now don’t get me wrong. He took good care of me while I was recovering, most of the time for the first 3 weeks I just slept, because of the pain meds, and I’d tire out easily.

Beaucephus is glad that I’m back but Gingersnap is afraid to come near me, a friend of mine who is a sort of “Dog Whisperer” said that when we got Gingersnap that tumor was growing inside of me and the little one smelled it and thought it was a part of me, now it’s gone, I’m well and the dog has a hard time accepting me. DW said I have to go slow with the little thing, keep to the familiar routine, and on occasion give the dog bribes. Go figure.

One hard thing I’m doing, I have to sell my old car, my beloved Chevy Nova, I’ve had that car for 40 years, but for the last few I haven’t been able to afford getting it fixed, this guy that collects cars has made a very serious offer, I can’t refuse it, so he’s paid something down, and will pay the balance when he comes to get the car over Thanksgiving weekend.

He’s going to fix it up real nice and show the Nova off at different Car Rally’s, his wife wanted a car that represented the early 1960’s and my Nova fits the bill and it’s just her size. It’s going to be her car at the rally’s I’ve written about all the adventures I’ve had with my Car and she just loves it, so I gave her the binder of stories (I kept a copy).

The folks have got money, seems they were not hurt bad by the down turn, and my old Car will be in their garage out of the weather. They like to focus on the cars from the 50’s and early 60’s, but he has two that he really likes and won’t sell and she wanted one of her own. And my Nova was what she was looking for.

I’m going to really cry a lot when my car leaves, it’s my one and only, but I have no choice, I need the money.

As a matter of fact this surgery that I had was a bit of a wake up call for me, Hunka and I have been going through things, sorting things out, getting rid of junk, selling what we don’t use or can’t use, donating that which is still good, and even some of our neighbors have taken things off of our hands because they could use it.

So cleaning things out is a good thing, and it feels good, even if we only tackle just a corner when it looks good it feels good and that is important.

And Thanksgiving is coming up----that’s is going to be very interesting----it’s at my sister-in-laws sister’s house, she who had the frozen lasagna disaster a few years ago. That is going to be a very interesting situation. If you don’t remember my writing about it, check my earlier blogs on it.

Anyway that’s it for now, I’ve got some chicken to bake and coupons to clip and a couple of skirt hems to mend.

And I’ve got to rest up and find out what I can rant about…. There’s a few things, but I’m not sure how topical they are going to be.

Mean Kitty just mellowing out.

Of Idiots and other things~~~~~

I'm still alive, and I've been busy, very busy.

Been to a Book Sale (love books) Been to a Gun Show (Love Guns)

And I'll talk about them later, I also (some of you can get jealous) met the Fabulous Diva at the Gun Show, I didn't know that she lived near by (only goes to show what a small world) and she is one very beautiful lady, reminds me of Ava Gardner. But tall! and a figure! No wonder the guys there were eye-balling her (when they could take their eyes away from the Semi-Automatics).

But the sweetest, nicest lady you'd ever want to meet. I Like Her, so did my Hunka Burnin' Love but he knows who he's going home with. Hee, Hee. She had an elderly lady with her that I thought might be her Grandma, turned out it was a neighbor lady, seems they've adopted each other. That's nice.

Anyway I'm pissed right now, I could chew 10 penny nails, it seems that Ron Dellums, the Mayor of Oakland (aka Dum, Dum---Fabulous borrowed that from me) is planning to lay off, LAY OFF 140 police officers!!!!

YOU DON'T LAY OFF 140 POLICE OFFICERS!!! What is this man Thinking??!! Wait---he's not thinking----his wife does the thinking for him!!

He wants to lay off this many police officers, put the people of Oakland in serious jeopardy because HE wants to SAVE MONEY~~~Why doesn't he start saving money by cutting the saleries of those who are in his office and on his city Council.

You don't put the people in danger, but he---Mr. Dum, Dum is willing to put people in danger (Oh did I tell you he's African American---now I have nothing against African Americans, Many are my friends and co-workers and we all work hard for our money)

But even my co-workers are complaining about Mr. Dum, Dum they want him OUT of Office, not that I blame them, I'd want him out too putting my life in danger like that.

No sensible person would do that, maybe a hiring freeze, but not layoffs in city protection.

It means that the only person who can protect themselves is themselves, GUN RIGHTS!!! GUN RIGHTS!!! PROTECT THE 2ND AMENDMENT!!!! Especially with idiots like that in office.

And on top of that They were able to prove through DNA evidence that Lovell Moxin, the SOB who killed those 4 police officers, was a serial rapist, A SERIAL RAPIST--- Seems his robbed and raped two women 8 hours before he killed those 4 officers and 2 weeks before that he raped a 12 year old girl, and a month before that he robbed and did some harm to a husband and wife in Folsom, (where he may have got the guns) and it seems they can tie him to a number of other rapes as well all in his own neighborhood.

So Moxin the murderer, was a monster, killing 4 police officers without conscious, you know he stood over the first two and put bullets into them to make sure they were dead---witnesses saw him do that, and now Dum, Dum Dellums wants to lay off 140 police officers, this is a slap in the face of Oakland's finest----

Hey Dellums is this because all 4 families didn't want you to speak at the Funeral because they know you are NOT pro-police force---are you some kind of Wimp?? Is this your way of getting back at the entire Oakland Police Force who are sworn to protect and Serve? Man I hope everyone votes you out of office and that you never hold another political position where you could do any more harm.

One of my friends (who is African-American) is a police officer and even he wants Dellums out of office---hey, when you are a cop you bleed blue. There is no color barrier!

O.K. Kitty calm down---have a cup of coffee.

O.K. now I've also been e-mailing to the members on the Senate appropreations committee at our State Capitol to Reject AB or is it SB 962 the limitations on the sale of ammo, some of them have read my e-mails, but a couple of them didn't Like Hall, and one other whose name I can't remember but one of them took the time to e-mail me back!

A response to my e-mail!!! She is Diane Harkey representative of the 73rd District, and she also opposes 962 and belives in gun rights, she saw every one of my points and said she will oppose 962 and work to persuade the committe that it is a useless law.

If this Lady ever runs for Governer of California I WILL VOTE FOR HER!!!

O.K. now I've got to go, Hunka Burnin' Love and I have some work we have to do, I'm gettin' rid of a lot of junk that I don't need, I'm mean the stuff is still useable, so we'll donate it to Goodwill or Salvation Army or St. Vincent De Paul, I mean someone can use it.

Oh and to a certain someone who likes to read my blog, her first name starts with the letter F, hey Lady, e-mail me let me know how you are doin'.

Time to Check In~~~

Well Folks I guess you thought that I had disappeared off the face of this here Earth~~~

Sorry to disappoint you. (Hee, Hee) Yep! I' m one cantankerous person, Can't keep me down.

So I've been busy, very busy----life has a way of interrupting having fun. I think they call it work.

Well I've been doing that, doin' taxes, doin' a re-fi on the home mortgage (gotta take advantage of the lower interest rates), takin' care of my Hunka burnin' love, the dogs---I've got two of them now.

The second one only weighs 13 pounds, looks like a little fox, I've started calling her "evil dog", she just too smart for her own good, she doesn't bite but she don't like being brushed or washed or picked up---evil dog. But she don't want anyone to get into my space so she puts all 13 pounds between me and any stranger, don't know what she'll do---maybe bite their ankles----evil little dog.

But the little think just loves to be loved. Can't argue with that and she gets along well with Hailey the wonder dog, so can't complain about that.

So anyway I've been busy. When I have more time I will post some rants---lately there has been too much to rant about. The 4 cops who got killed by a parolee that jumped parole and managed to get an illegal gun---now remember I'm stressing illegal----and all these political mental midgets want more gun bans----Gun BANNS DON'T WORK ON THE CRIMINALS!!!

CAN'T YOU IDIOTS REALIZE THAT???!!! THE CRIMINALS WILL IGNORE GUN BANNS!!!

AND REMEMBER THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS WHAT PROTECTS THE REST OF THE OTHER AMENDMENTS!!!

Boy I'm going to have fun later this year, they called me up for jury duty---had to post pone it.

But when I go in and they ask me questions I'll have fun telling them "Hey I'm a member of SASS, a Cowboy re-enactment group, a member of a gun club and I'm a card carrying member of the NRA, Charlton Heston and John Wayne are my gods, and I'm a strong believer in the 2nd Amendment" Boy there are going to be some lawyers that will want me off that jury in a hurry!!! (Hee, Hee)

But believe me folks----there are a lot of people who never had a gun before, but are now taking gun safety training and lessons and are joining up. Even my Brother Bubba, he was formerly a liberal Democrat, even his brother-in-law was a liberal Democrat (am I spelling that word right?)

And Guess What!---They are now card caring, gun toting members of the NRA and are Republicans!! They do not trust Obama's crew and I have to laugh because they know that I told them 20 years ago---"Hey you'se guys are going to be thinking like ME!!" And Guess What! They are.

So who has the last laugh----I tell ya folks---we are going back to the old wild west---the cops can't be every where. They say that the meek shall inherit the earth----and I say where at?

If you watch the movie the Magnificent 7---(love it) the old Mexican tells the farmers "Fight!" because a bad guy is stealing their food and terrorizing the village---so with what little they have they go to a big town to buy guns---but the Gunfighter says "Gunfighters are cheaper than guns" and the 7 gunfighters teach the villagers how to fight. In the end some of the gunfighters die (well they have to in this story and in life) but some live---one young gunfighter decides to settle down but we know he has the ability to teach his people to fight----the old Mexican says to the last two gunfighters "the farmers win, but you are like the scouring wind that rids the land of locusts"

So what does it all mean? Simple, maybe too simple----the cops can't be everywhere---and most of the people are like the defenseless farmers---ripe for having their stuff stolen----so people need to arm themselves and from time to time be like "the scouring wind that rids the land of locusts".

SO "COWBOY UP" PEOPLE, FIGHT TO KEEP YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!! OTHERWISE THE LOCUSTS WILL EAT YOU ALIVE BECAUSE THE IDIOT POLITICOS WILL HAVE MADE YOU TOOTHLESS!!


And that's the bottom line.

(see I did have something to rant about)

Whooo Weeee Someone is really Ticked off~~~

And I can't blame her.

There's this gal whose blog I've been following and I've sent comments to her and she's been nice enough to keep them private, but she must be Royally Mad about something and the funny thing is she is going to delete her Blog.

Ya know I can understand why she feels this way, I have had people slap me down just when I think I can trust them, well if you slap a puppy too many times, they'll respect you but not out of trust or love, but out of fear and no one should try and keep a friendship going if they'se goin' to get slapped for something that was not understood.

Anyway if you want to get an idea of how mad she is just check out her Blog while it's still around before she deletes it. It's //thedivafabulous.blogspot.com

The only reason I knew about it so quick is that I was correcting some things on my Blog and then I backtracked to my Dashboard and there it was.

And I thought I was "Mean". At least she says it with class. Now I've got to send a post to her to let her know that I like her.

I'm goin' to miss her.

Just another update

Well Folks, all I can say is I've been busy---- you know like 'BUSY"!!!!

Between work and paying bills, and trying to get things fixed it hasn't been easy.

Now some of you remember that I had a 'kidney stone' attack---something I don't wish on my friends but I sure as heck wish it on my worst enemies. Never had anything so painful.

Well the doc says that I'm going to have to have treatment, now not right away, line it up sometime after June--well at least it will be warmer, because right now it's colder than a well diggers butt or a frozen butterball turkey.

I have just not had time to take in all things that have been happening, but I'm prayin' for the folks down in Australia, I remember the Oakland Fire Storm back in October of 1989 at least I think it was 89 , I always get it confused with the Loma Preita earthquake, come to think of it it was the earthquake first and then the fire. Or is it the other way around---oh heck! My brain is fried!!!

Well anyway that Fire Storm was the devils own work, but it wasn't delibrate mostly done by stupidity, but still 25 people lost their lives and hundreds of homes almost vaporized and having all those euculiptus trees didn't help, they have a flamable oil in their leaves and bark, which I think helped the fire to crown as they call it.

Last time something like that happened around here was back in either 1922 or 1927, Berkeley almost was burned out, and the way that town has gone that might have been a good thing. But it was the same thing a fire storm. Just horrible.

I've come across another ladies blog, I like the way she writes, 'course it's mostly about her and her family but when she wrote about her little trip to Santa Cruz it was better than a Rick Steven's travel log. And she includes links as well.

Well me and My hunka burnin' love have joined a cowboy re-enactment group, they call themselves "the Gunfighters of the old west" they do both historical re-enactments as well as puttin' on an entertainin' show for other events.

Now right now the group is booked to do a "hanging' for a dinner that is honoring some speical person, and we are going to bust right in and make like we are going to 'hang' the person---did I tell you that my group is a bunch of fun lovin' people?

Trust me Folks it's all in fun, and no one gets hurt, I'm going to be playing an irrascable 'granny' character, without my false teeth "I tell ya sonny boy, you haven't lived till you been kissed by a toothless woman" well that's how I'm going to play her no teeth and red bloomers. Can you just picture that?

And for Valentine's day me and Hunka are going to a gun show, yep a gun show! The lovin' couple that shoots together stays together.

Well on that note I've got to go, the timer went off on dinner. We're having chicken tonight and the dogs are salivatin' , they hear that bell and that's it. You know who's trained around her.

Mean Kitty trying to get warm--feels like a "three-dog night"

Happy New Years for 2009!!!

I can’t believe it!

I survived Christmas and New Years!!

Considering how December of 2008 started I was wondering if 2009 was going to be the same way.

In one night a crazy neighbor’s son cuts our phone lines, I get a kidney stone attack and Hunka rushes me to the ER. Then dealing with Crazy Neighbors son’s parents (they really are O.K. it’s their son that’s nuts) getting the phone company to fix the lines, calling the cops, then having a sink link, plus trying to find enough money to pay the bills and have a decent Christmas, on top of that realizing that Christmas dinner was going to be at T.M.’s house, it really turned out O.K.

Not fantastic but nice. Of course we still have to get the bathroom sink fixed, I still have to talk to a lawyer, then putting stuff together for income tax time (really looking forward to that), but we survived.

New Year’s Eve and day was really quiet, we don’t watch the football games, and we’re not into that. So on new Year’s eve, Hunka and I with the dogs on the bed, watched a James Bond video, then we switched to Channel 2 to watch Robbie Kenivel jump over the volcano in Las Vegas, did the Dick Clark count down and we opened the front door and toasted each other with sparking cider to welcome in 2009. Some body was setting off fireworks, and the neighbors down the block were having a party and everyone was outside in the cold, yelling and whooping it up.

So we listened to the noise, said “Uh huh, Happy New Years to each other” and went to bed.

I remember years ago before I met Hunka, I rarely went out on New Years; there really wasn’t any place to go to. So Mom and I we went to bed after the news, I’d read a little bit, so did Mom in her bedroom and then we’d hear the whistles go off and people yelling and Mom would say from her bedroom “Happy New Years Sweetheart” and I’d get out of my warm bed and go to her bedroom and kiss her on the forehead and say “Happy New Years Mom” and we’d smile.

There was one time I did go to a New Years Party that some friends of mine were throwing I asked Mom if it was alright and she said “Go, you never go out on New Years, Go, I’ll be fine”

Well I did and I did have a good time, but a half hour before Midnight I felt that I had to get home fast, so I told my friends I wasn’t feeling too good but thanks for the party and left, good thing too, when I got to my block there were fire trucks all over the place I couldn’t get near the house with my car, so I parked it in a neighbors drive way (he said it was fine I could pick it up the next morning) and ran to my house, the firemen stopped me but I said I had to get to my Mom’s house, they wouldn’t let me through, so I ran to the other side of the street, and several neighbors helped me get over the fences so I got to the other side, Mom’s house was two houses over from the fire, and Mom was on the front porch, scared as anything.

I grabbed the garden hose, got a ladder and went up to the roof and started hosing down the roof, the good thing is that the wind was calm and what there was of it was blowing away from the house, so here I am up on the roof, in my good dress and coat, getting wet and cold and not stopping hosing down the roof until the firemen had the other fire under control.

Then I looked at my watch and saw that it was 30 seconds to midnight, holding on to the ladder and the hose I looked down and saw that my Mom was looking up holding the bottom of the ladder and I yelled down to her “HAPPY NEW YEAR MOM!!” and she yelled up at me “HAPPY NEW YEAR SWEETHEART!!” Then we heard everyone else yelling Happy New Year and applauding the firemen---they rescued an elderly man out of the house, and no one was hurt.

When I came down off the ladder, a couple of neighbors helped me take it down, I just didn’t have the strength, and how I got it up I don’t know. I looked at Mom and she looked at me all wet and cold and said “What made you come home?” I said “I missed you”
There was nothing to look at and I was freezing, so Mom threw me into a hot shower, and got my flannel p.j.’s, robe and slippers. When I toweled off I went into the Kitchen and Mom had a mug of hot coco for me, she changed too, and the firemen were still mopping up two houses down.

She looked at me and said “We can straighten things out tomorrow, tonight you rest”, the next day, I was still in my robe but I slipped on some shoes and moved my car out of the neighbors driveway, and went in, Mom fixed breakfast and said “It’s a good thing we’re going to your Aunt and Uncle’s house for New Year’s Dinner after all that excitement I don’t see how we could put one on.” I smiled at her and said “yeah but we’ve got a great story to tell.”

Now that was nearly 40 years ago, my nice dress and coat was a total loss, I didn’t realize it had gotten ripped and even some burn holes, my shoes were a total loss as well and I only wore them that one night----***sigh*** Well when the relatives heard what had happened, without my knowing they gave Mom some money to replace what I lost, when you compare the cost of today’s stuff from 40 years ago the amount doesn’t seem like much, but back then a dollar was worth a dollar and I had bought my stuff from the Grey Shoppe, an expensive store back then (long gone) since they were having a new years sale, we went back and I was able to replace my stuff at a bargain price and get a new coat for Mom.

That was a long time ago but as a New Years celebration it stands out in my mind.

Now thinking about things currently I find that things are just too scary, and too much of Wall Street, Banks, the Government is interfering with our lives and all we want to do is live simply. And the Big scary part is that 2008 went by really fast---I mean real fast. I’d like 2009 to slow down a bit and be a bit easier and not so complicated.

I think that will be my New Years Resolution, uncomplicate my life, and it will start with the credit cards.

Maybe that should be everyone’s New Years Resolution, Simplify and Uncomplicate things, cash and carry, save and save.

Now that would be fine, I just have to light a fire under Hunka’s butt and get him in gear.

Anyway, Happy New Years everyone, and I’ll see what I can complain about for 2009.

Mean Kitty signing off, and making a “Honey-Do List”