Thursday, February 23, 2006

More Arctic Cold?!

While searching through paperwork looking for information to complete our tax filing I came across this poem. I don't know who wrote it......it was scribbled on a piece of old notebook paper. With the approach of a couple Alberta Clippers in our area and temperatures about to plunge downward to some pretty cold air I thought this would express how I'm feeling about this whole winter weather scene!

It's Winter in Michigan
And gentle breezes blow,
Seventy miles an hour,
At twenty-five below.

Oh, Michigan how I love you
When the snows up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter
And your nose freezes shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Michigan,
Cause I'm frozen to the ground!

Monday, February 20, 2006

The Amazing Human Brain

Our brains are so amazing. I received the following in an e-mail and was pretty amazed that I could read what it said despite the jumbled letters. Makes ya feel kind of smart! Read on and see for yourself!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Arctic Blast & Tribute To Energy Workers

Man it's cold here in Michigan! I think when any other state says they want some cold, cold air we can ship it to them from Michigan. It's 2 PM and the outside temperature is now a big whopping 9 degrees. When I got up this morning at 8 AM, it had already warmed up to ZERO!! I'm glad I'm able to stay inside where it is warm. Hubby went to cut more firewood. He left about 1/2 hour ago but I have a strong hunch that he won't be gone very long today!

Last night in the surrounding counties the news said that there were still 100,000 homes without electricity. And this morning there were over 50,000 people still without. Those poor people must be freezing without any way to stay warm! I don't know of any kind of heat (excluding a wood burning fireplace or stove) that doesn't use some form of electricity to either start the furnace or blow the heat through the house. I checked with all my extended family members to make sure they all had electricity and weren't freezing and was happy to hear that they were all okay.

I would hate to be an energy worker this week. They must be getting a lot of overtime in trying to restore everyone's power. I guess the money would be nice but I bet they are all mighty cold having to work outside for longer periods of time to try and get everyone's service restored.

They deserve a special round of applause for their efforts alone.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Winter White

This picture was uploaded off a website and it looks like what we were supposed to be getting.....but didn't!

Winter White
Originally uploaded by hugsRgood.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Winter Storm

We are expecting the worst winter storm of this season to hit us beginning tonight. Usually I dread the thought of any winter weather but this time it is different. I don't know why but I am looking forward to this one.

I know the roads will get terrible and the snow will blow and pile up and school will be cancelled and driving will become treacherous. It is supposed to snow, sleet, blow and we will get freezing rain mixed in to boot. Maybe I don't mind because I have plenty of groceries in the house, the usual granddaughter is here with me so I don't have to worry about picking her up for the weekend and I don't really have to get out in it. Poor Hubby will have to still get to work though. But he is always very cautious and he is a good driver. And he has 4-wheel drive!

I think we will just be lazy and have a pajama day tomorrow and watch movies and read books and do puzzles. That should keep us busy and entertained while we wait for the winter weather to abate.

I think it is ironic with spring just around the corner now, that we should finally have some winter weather and some of the coldest temperatures enabling the ground to finally freeze. But it has been said about the climate that I live in...."you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes, it will change!"

Thursday, February 09, 2006

My Cat Phobia

In my senior year of high school my dad was killed in an auto accident. That was in October. In January, I was a passenger in a car driven by my boyfriends mother that broadsided a car that turned in front of us. No fatalities occurred with this accident but we were all in pretty rough shape for a while. I required surgery on my knee to repair the damage.

After having recovered from the surgery and with fading scars, our cat attacked the same leg!
She was part Siamese and all black. And she could hiss like no cat I ever heard.....hateful, scary hiss! She had babies, 2 adorable kittens. We also had a dog. Medium size...a Springer Spaniel/collie mix. I loved him a great deal. Actually, he was my Dad's dog so after my Dad's death, he sort of became mine.

Anyway, one day the kittens ran across the dog's food dish while he was eating. Now, the dog did love the kittens and had always allowed them to climb all over him and lick him and play with his tail. I don't know if it was instinct or just a little warning, but when the kittens ran across his food, he gave a gentle growl. He didn't make a move for them or anything.....just a gentle growl the same as when he played with them. This brought the mother cat to the kitchen immediately to check on her babies, who by this time had run into the living room to play with something else. The mother seem highly agitated and I thought that if I put the dog outside on his cable run the mother would have a chance to check out her babies and calm down some.

The house we lived in was set up so that you could come in the back door into the kitchen and pass through the kitchen to a vestibule with a large arch into the living room and upon turning right another large archway into the dining room with a swinging door back into the kitchen. After putting the dog outside and returning from the door back into the kitchen, I heard this terrible hissing noise behind me. The next thing I feel is this terrible pain in the back of my right leg. I glance down and discover the mother cat has latched onto my leg wrapping her paws around the front and sinking her teeth into my calf and twisting her head back and forth! Needless to say, I am feeling a lot of pain and was no where near as calm as I appear to be in the telling of this tale. In the meantime, I am running around the above mentioned description of archways and doors in our home and screaming.

Eventually the cat decided to let go; perhaps she came to her senses or decided she didn't like the way I tasted. It didn't matter to me why she let go......as long as she let go.

I immediately ran to the upstairs bathroom and locked myself in. My mother was at work at the time but both my sisters were home (1 younger and 1 older) and the older sister's boyfriend was also there. He finally persuaded me to come out of the bathroom and looked at my leg. Being older, my sister and her boyfriend thought it best to contact our mother at work who instructed them to take me to the ER. So, off we went against my wishes.

After arriving at the ER and being seen initially by the nurse, we were given a small examining room to wait for the Dr. After a short wait, the Dr. came in and looked at my leg. He was fairly young and quite good looking to my 17 year old eyes! He smiled up at me at said "What happened here, honey, did your razor get away from you?" I was so embarrassed and I'm sure I was blushing. Not to bore you with anymore details about the hospital visit, I shall just go on to let you know that all ended well and I was released to go home with antibiotics and instructions of what to watch for.

And that folks, is why I am afraid of cats to this day!

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse!


Sitting in my computer room last night I had the feeling that I was being watched. This is not a new feeling.....I've felt this way often in the last few weeks.

The ceiling in this room is a drop tile ceiling and the room is on the lower level of our tri-level home. The lighting is a ceiling fluorescent light with the usual plastic tile to cover the light while letting the light shine through.

I was stretching and glanced at the ceiling and much to my surprise was being watched intently by a small mouse. Now, I don't really care at all for mice or any kind of rodent and being that it surprised me, I gave a scream which promptly brought hubby running to see what the matter was. After he was able to stop laughing when I explained what had happened he decided to look for some mouse traps. Unable to locate any, he said he would buy some at the local hardware store the next day and not to worry because that little mouse was more scared of me than I was of him. WANNA BET? Of couse by this time, the little critter was most likely frightened and had disappeared......or so I thought.

I returned to my paper and computer work and then I hear above me a lot of small scurrying noises. I look up and see it again, but don't feel the need to scream this time. I'm now starting to wonder if this is how Mickey Mouse came into being. I thought that I had read somewhere that Walt Disney was working on drawings and this little mouse was watching him and that is where Walt got the idea for the Mickey Mouse cartoon. In any event, I'm no cartoonist and I still don't like mice! I hurry through my work so I don't have to be in the same room with it any longer than necessary.

Tonight when hubby came home from work he had the mouse traps.....they come 4 to a pack. He put peanut butter on two of them and placed them above the tiles. We had an early dinner since hubby had to leave to help his uncle work on a car. After dinner we both went about our tasks. He left and I finished cleaning up the kitchen and folding the laundry.

Upon his return, he went into the computer room and called to me to come and have a closer look at my mouse friend. Well, he had checked both traps and my little friend had a friend of his own. Both traps were triggered and contained the critters.

If the story is true about how Mickey Mouse came about, he certainly fared better than the mouse in my house who spied on me!

I've been tagged!......

I have been tagged by Clew and am happily playing along:

Four jobs that I have had:

1) Billing clerk at a large retail store
2) Accounts Payable Clerk in a Loan Company
3) Telephone Operator for a Phone Answering Co.
4) Employment Counselor for a Temporary Employment Agency

Four movies that I could watch over and over:

1) The Sound of Music
2) Dances with Wolves
3) Winn-Dixie
4) The Bear

Four Place in the US that I like:

1) Michigans Upper Peninsula
2) Denver, Colorado
3) Cumberland Falls, KY
4) The Grand Canyon

Favorite Places I have vacationed

1) Copper Harbor, MI
2) Yellowstone National Park
3) Mackinaw, MI
4) Black Hills of South Dakota

Four Favorite TV shows:

1) Trading Spaces
2) ER
3) House
4) Animal Rescues

Four sites I visit daily:

1) My blog(s)
2) ABC News
3) Friends blogs
4) Mailbox

Since everyone has been tagged.....it ends here!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Tune-Up Time!

Later this morning I will visit my doctor for what I refer to as a tune-up! He will hook me up to a machine that looks an awfully lot like an EKG but gives him much more useful information, or so he tells me.

He says the machine can actually tell him what the fluid level is inside my body, my blood pressure and how well the interior walls of my heart arteries are moving the blood through. With this information he insists that he is better able to prescribe meds for me and keep me healthy......as healthy as can be expected for (and I quote him) "someone of your age who has had 3 heart attacks and quadruple bypass and has at least a 10 year history of elevated BP readings." Thank you so much for the tactfulness with which you delivered that statement! Hopefully he won't be changing my meds again. My cupboards are starting to look like a pharmacy themselves with all the half finished meds I am storing in there. Normally I would throw them away, but as quickly as he changes my meds, he often goes back to the one he originally had me on and I need to save money wherever and whenever I can so I don't want to waste them by throwing them out and then needing them again. They do the same thing to hubby, so we spend an average of $210. per month just on our co-pay for prescriptions! Yikes!