Wear Your Brain Bucket, Please!

WHY is it that so many people who ride motorcycles these days refuse to wear a helmet?!
Do they think it's "uncool" to protect their skull? Too hot? Might mess up the hair? What?
And I gotta tell ya - the kerchief/bandana thing doesn't cut it, people. There's no way that sucker's gonna keep your brains from spilling out if you crash. Might soak up some of the blood, but that's it.

Look, riding a plain old ten-speed bike without a helmet is one thing. You crash that, you'll get banged up, maybe break a bone or two, you might get a little bloody, but nothing drastic, most times. Riding a 600+ pound beast that moves at least as fast as a car is something else altogether. You crash that sucker, & Bad Things happen. And I for one do not want to see, and certainly do not want my children to see, your brains splattered all over the street.

So if simple self-preservation isn't enough to make you wear a helmet, how about common courtesy? Do the rest of us a favor, m'kay? Thanks.

Comfy Kitty

My cat has found a new comfy spot - on the top of my headboard,
using my sound machine as a pillow. Cool! Maybe she'll
help me dust up there! Unintentionally, maybe, but still... ;-p

You Will Meet a Handsome Stranger...

Heh. Just kidding.
My girlfriend T and I went to a Psychic Advisor yesterday. Just for kicks. Let me say here that while I don't live my life by such things, I do find it fascinating. I do believe there are people in this world who can sense and read energies that most of us aren't even aware of. That doesn't mean that I believe every person who advertises as "psychic" really is.

We weren't looking for answers to any specific problem areas in our lives, or anything like that. It was just something fun that we've done together before. T moved here to Florida a couple of years ago, but before that, lived in Massachusetts, where I grew up. We were best friends there, and then stayed close after I moved here 17 years ago. Back when we both lived in Mass., we used to go to a little "tea room", where they did palm & Tarot readings (that's what we did most often), and read tea leaves & other stuff. It was fun. I was pretty sure at least half of the "readers" there were full of shit, but it was always fun to see what they would say. And I have to admit that some of the things they said, that at the time I thought were WAY off the mark, turned out to be more accurate than I could have expected.

So anyway, there aren't any places like that around here, that we know of, but there are a couple of people listed as "Psychic Advisor" in our phone book, and one happens to live very close to my house. So we went. This lady does the readings in her home, which is a very pretty & inviting place -it's not all decked out in "fortune teller" crap - it looks like any other clean & pretty home. She was young, which sort of surprised us, but we both liked her right away.

We both chose Tarot card readings. I went first. The deck she used was gorgeous! I am familiar with the standard Rider deck (used to have one, but never learned to do anything with it), and I don't know what particular set hers was, but the cards were very artistic & pretty. She had me shuffle them, then cut the deck into three piles and set them back together.

The first layout, she looked at the cards asked me if I had children. (You know how someone can state something, but leave room for you to verify or deny - it was that sort of asking, not like "Do you have children?"). I said yes, and she looked back at the cards and said, "This is a lot of children. How many do you have?" I have two of my own, but I also am surrounded by kids at my work, and children have always been a very important part of my life. I told her simply that I work with children. She talked a little more about that, and when she said something about the children learning, I laughed & told her I work in a school.
She asked me if I'm involved in some kind of writing project. Now, this is odd, because every single reader that I have felt had any sort of credibility at all has mentioned writing to me. And I used to write, back when I was in high school. Even got voted as "most likely to win a Pulitzer".
I'm not writing these days, 'cept here, but I find it interesting that it always comes up. She said she felt that I would be writing something for or creating a program for children, which would turn out to be both emotionally and financially rewarding. Cool! ;-)

She mentioned some accurate things about my health & my job, & said both of those and my finances looked to be & stay stable. No worries there.
She said she saw travel, but a small, short kind of trip, with friends or family - nothing big. She said it was okay going and okay coming, but I didn't ask her to clarify that. (Like, did that mean the "during" part sucked? LOL) She asked me if there was anything being planned, and as it happens, my birth family and I have been discussing a quick trip over Thanksgiving. I told her that, but she said that this was before that. She was quite sure of that. Dunno about that, 'cause I hate to travel, but (and I didn't mention this to her) my daughter is actually on a trip right now.

The last layout had to do with relationships. She said that there was a man who I would have a relationship with (this is waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy in the future, people), and that this relationship would be fulfilling, because I would be in a place where I was able to speak my mind, and would be much less willing to tolerate, & "go with the flow" than I have been in the past, and that I will have learned to nurture myself. She also said that I have been gaining & will continue to gain strength. That was interesting, because since my divorce, I feel so much more alive and free, and I love being on my own, and I'm actually trying now to learn to say what I think, instead of always being so "nice", and accepting of other people's behaviour. Oh - she also said I don't know this person yet. That makes sense. I'm not in any rush to deal with dating-type relationships yet, but it's nice to think that at some point I will be.

So that was my reading. I can't tell you about T's reading, because that's her own business. I will say that it was very different from mine, and fit her almost as closely as mine fit me. Hers was a little more mysterious, but we both agreed that the lady really had me nailed.
So that's that. It was fun, and we may actually go back sometime & try out a palm reading. :-)

Hitchhiker

I don't have the pictures yet, 'cause it was a film camera (I keep a disposable one in my car), but I want to tell you about my little hitchhiker. I live in Florida, where there are several types of small lizards, pretty much everywhere you go. There had been one living in and around the hood of my car for a few weeks. I tried several times to catch him, so that he could relocate to a safer place, but he'd always dive into the open space under my hood, by the windshield wipers.

Anyway, as I was driving to WalMart (Yah, I know. Shaddup), this little guy popped up onto the top of the hood, and stood looking at me through the windshield. How he hung on, I do not know, but hang on he did, all the way to the store. I took a picture of him there, then went on to do my grocery shopping.

When I came out of the store over an hour later, he was still there! Still couldn't catch him, so I proceeded to drive on home. I actually took a couple more pictures of him, at traffic lights, to show that he really was on the car while I was driving, and not just in the garage. But here his story takes an unfortunate turn. I dunno what happened. Guess he was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and the sudden breeze hit him just right, and he lost his grip. All I saw out of the corner of my eye was the flash of his tail & hind legs, sort of flipping over, towards the road...

Poor little guy! I haven't seen him since. I have chosen to believe that he made it across the street, and found himself a nice little hideout in the woodsy place by the road...

So Why Are You So Chipper?

You know those people who just LOVE to share bad news? Like, you never hear from them unless they've got some tragedy (usually someone else's) to tell you about, and they always sound so farookin' cheerful when they're telling you. My mother is one of those people. Here's the phone message I just had from her:
"Hi, Jen - it's Mom. Mr. F died."
No preliminaries, no warning, just boom. The father of people you grew up with (they were our next door neighbors - back when people actually knew & spent time with their neighbors) is dead. She went on to say he'd had a stroke some time back, and this and that, laid out the wake/funeral plans (I live 2000 away, people), then talked about her shopping plans for the condo she's moving into, etc. until the answering machine timed her out.
And the whole time, she just sounded so tickled. Sweet Jesus!
You know, my Aunt (who she never liked much) is in Hospice care right now. (My sister told me). If my mother is the one to call me to tell me when she dies, the conversation might just get ugly.

And In The Garage Sits...My Car !

For the first time in my life, I have a garage that actually contains a car! Impressive!
Still some cleaning up and cleaning out needed, but it is SO NICE to have all that junk and ex-husband furniture out of there! Yippee!!!

No more pine sap on my poor car! Hooray!

My Weekend

Weekend Fun: Going to a celebration for a friend's son who has finished his Plebe year at West Point. Way to go, P.! Timeframes last year didn't allow for a high school graduation party, so they're doing this instead. There will be entertainment, food, and friends. Good Times!

Not So Fun: My ex-husband is coming here, along with his dad and a friend, to finally pick up some of his stuff... We've been divorced for over a year now (My Freedom anniversary was May 13th), and my garage has been full of his furniture, my attic is full of random crap that belongs to him, and the big closet in what is now my livingroom is stuffed full of everything that didn't go out there.
My girlfriend tells me she would have tossed all of it into the street a long time ago, but I just can't be like that. I've just work around the stuff, and waited for him to get his own place (he was staying with his parents until very recently), and hoped he'd get himself together at least a little.

At any rate, I'm very glad to be getting some of my space back, and whatever he doesn't pick up today from that closet will go out to the garage (since he'll take some of that stuff for sure), and I can start getting my livingroom ready to be painted. I already have the trim paint & the equipment I need. Hooray!!!

Barbecue Season Is Coming!

(got this by e-mail, & thought I'd share here):

After the long months of cold and winter, we will soon be coming up tosummer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking as it's the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.

When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

1) The woman buys the food.

2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

Here comes the important part:

4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine....

5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation.

Important again:

7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine.....

8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.

9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off." And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women....

Music Search?

Harvey, over at Bad Example, is in search of a different sort of music, apparently.
Anyone know where to find modern arrangements of classical music?
As in, electric instrumentals? Hmm. Could be pretty cool!

.......................Heh. Told Ya.

See the rain?

And Now You Just Know It's Going To Rain This Weekend!

That's right. I gave in and bought a new hose & sprinkler, and I'm watering my dead grass lawn...
Which means it will rain in the very near future. But hey, at least I didn't have to attempt to learn the Rain Dance! Trust me on this - that would be something that nobody needs to see!

Do I Look Like Your Personal Assistant?

I got a phone message yesterday from my EX-husband, telling me that he had left "a couple"

of lottery tickets on my porch railing, that he wants me to check for winning numbers. Because 'you're the only person I trust, who has a computer'. And because I'm too freakin' lazy to hand them to the store clerk to check when I'm in there buying more tickets every single day.
So he lets them pile up, then expects someone else to do the work of checking them. But honey, that someone ain't gonna be me. I did enough of this shit when we were married. What I will do is go to the lotto website & print a page of "winning numbers history", and put that and his tickets with his mail (which still comes here because he lived with his parents from when he moved out LAST May, until just recently), and let him check his own fucking numbers.

It's 7am! Drink Some Freakin' Water!

I was out on my porch this morning, and watched in stunned disbelief, as one of the local addicts (I live near an unofficial "halfway house", apparently), walked by on his return trip to the convenience store, with his 12-pack tucked under his arm, and with his other hand holding the beer he was already drinking. It was 7:00 in the morning, people!
He's most likely walking because:
A - he can't afford a car because all his money goes to booze & whatever else he's addicted to
or
B - he is not allowed to drive because he has lost his license due to DUI
or
C - he is trying to stay fit and healthy.
Yeah. It's C.
Hence the big beer gut & the skinny addict legs.
There are WAY too many of these people in my neighborhood!
Now, I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, but I'm also not completely against a glass or two of wine with dinner, or a beer or two if you like it, or any other drink you prefer. Used to love bourbon myself. My issue is with the people who allow the stuff to overcome their lives. I still and will always believe there is a choice involved here, regardless of the "sickness" of alcoholism. At some point along that road, there was a decision made to stop or keep going, to not drive or to drive drunk, to protect your relationships or shitcan 'em in favor of the booze. Choices. Just Sayin'.