Thursday, December 19, 2013

People ... AAAAHHH

Good Morning and here we go again!

I hate shopping.
I hate food shopping. I hate birthday shopping. I hate Christmas shopping.
I, well, OK, I kind of like beer shopping, but that's another story.
Anyway, I was reminded how much I hate Christmas shopping last week at the mall.
After taking a ridiculously long time to get there, I found there were hardly any parking spaces. That's good, I thought, must mean the economy is coming back.
So, I went into the mall and quickly wished I didn't have another 15 minute walk to get back to the car.
There were just too many people around. Now, mind you, I really enjoy interacting with people most of the time. I want to hear your stories. I sometimes just start talking in elevators.
This was different, though. It was just people standing around.
What possesses you to stand right in the middle of the walkways to talk to a neighbor you see every day? Why do you walk the opposite way of the crowd? Why do you leave the cart in the middle of the aisle to check out the latest Elmo? Why do you smell?
Geez, no wonder I did mostly everything online.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Lights and that Christmas spirit

Good Morning and how about that sun???

I admit to being very lax on the Christmas decorations this year.
One day I hope to have a Griswold-like house, but time always seems to get away from me.
I decorated one tree and put a couple of lights around the door last week, but the snow and the cold kept the rest in the garage.
So, when I saw more snow was coming last weekend, I figured I had one shot Saturday morning to do something before the ice/snow mix.
Getting out there early in the morning, I strung the lights along the bushes and generally made it look nice.
I tested it all and half the string was out.
Now, I know some people use those extra lights that come with the pack and try to find the bad one, but that's not me. I pulled them all off and tried the next strand.
The other half lit on those.
By the way, why is it half light all the time. Just all go out at once, it would make it far less frustrating.
Finally, after a quick jump to the store, we had lights.
Next year, I'll do it all up.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Ugh and double Ugh

Good Morning and, OK, let's just call it winter.

I had a great idea to write about today. I had it all planned out. I had searched up some cool videos to back up my point. I was going to end with some good music.
Then I got the alert: "SCHOOLS CLOSED TODAY!!!!!"
(OK, I might have added a little punctuation.)
I'm not so old enough that I don't remember snow days.
Looking out the window and seeing unpassable roads was like my little slice of heaven.
I remember spending the whole day out in the snow sledding and building snowmen.
Of course, that was before I had to work full time or drive or make sure there was enough toilet paper in the house.
Oh well, time to make the best of it. Pass the hot chocolate.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Great, Big Thank You

Good Morning and, sure the snow looks nice, but come on?

There are many reasons I do not like winter weather.
The major reason is it seems to be my luck it always hits when I am at work.
Now, on the surface, that might not seem so bad. What's the difference if you are safe at work or safe at home? Yeah, OK, that's one thing.
It cuts even deeper than having to slog through our parking lot.
I always get nervous about shoveling. The last thing I (or anybody I think) want to do is work all day, then get home to shovel. Especially when I'm working on a Sunday and I just know the rest of neighborhood was out hours earlier clearing the sidewalks.
So, that was on the top of my head while I sat in the office and watched the snow fall yesterday. I figured I was here until late into the night, because it was a better option than driving in the mess (not to mention the mess of Delco drivers).
As I pulled onto Providence road at about 10 p.m. (took a good 30 minutes to clear the car after sitting all day), I figured I'd have to get home and pull on the boots.
By then the roads were certainly passable, so it didn't take that long to get home. As I pulled in front of the house, I couldn't help but smile.
My great neighbors had cleaned off the sidewalk.
I thought I lived in a great neighborhood, now I know for sure.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The next one's on me.
Of course, I'll probably be at work when it hits...

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

About that Healthcare Web site

Good Morning and what crazy traffic!

There's been a lot of talk on those 24-hour news stations about Healthcare.gov and how it works and what side of the political spectrum you are on and whether this is a good thing or not.
To me, it seems like so much noise.
Anybody who has ever worked on a Web site (or even visited one) could have predicted Healthcare.gov was going to crash as soon as it came online. No server can handle that crash or users. Anybody who thought differently was just fooling themselves.
Now, I am lucky enough to not need healthcare, but I know tons of people who do. One just the other day said, although they never even attempted to try Healthcare.gov, they knew it wasn't going to work.
Why, I asked.
Then this person told me how they heard it wasn't working and you had to pay tons of money just to sign up. In other words, there's a lot of misinformation being fed from both sides (OK, mostly from one side).
I went on the site yesterday around Noon. I found it easy to navigate. It took me about 5 minutes to see which plans I could purchase.
So, much like most things politically motivated, I would suggest you check it out first and not listen to the rhetoric.
Let me know how it goes.

Monday, December 2, 2013

The Tree Dilemma

Good Morning and enjoy that sunshine while it lasts!

"So," I asked, "what should we do about a Christmas tree this year?"
The boys shrugged their shoulders. Pretty much the same thing they do every time I ask a question.
What do you want for dinner?
Shrug.
What did you do in school today?
Shrug.
What color is the sky?
Shrug.
Do you want $100?
Shrug. ... Wait, what?
It was pretty obvious they were going to be no help. As long as it didn't take too much time away from their video games, how the tree got to the house didn't matter.
That's when the boss spoke up.
"We should go to Linvilla and cut our own," said the just-turned 9-year old girl. "That's what we are going to do."
Of course, the first thing that entered my mind was the Griswolds. The second thing was "I have to use a saw?"
The third was, if it will make a just-turned 9-year old smile, then that's what is going to happen.