Finally!

I am so thankful that Spring is officially here! It has been a long and sometimes difficult Winter. Our weather has been very Springlike lately, and I do hope that continues.

Happy Spring everyone!

Five Years? Really ?!?

Yesterday was my Five Year Anniversary of keeping an online journal/blog!!

I started with AOL Journals five years ago yesterday on March 15, 2005, and of course moved to Blogger along with everyone else in the fall of 2008.

I think I'll celebrate -- belatedly -- tomorrow by catching up with all the blogs on my list and leaving everyone at least one comment.

Beth at Nutwood Junction

Beth at Nutwood Junction is in Florida with her family right now. Her father suffered a stroke a few days ago, and is not expected to recover. If you haven't already, please send her a supportive message via her blog (above), email or facebook.

Thank you.

How'd You Like To Have A Pup Out Of That?

Thomas works with people from all walks of life, and in a company that employs (even after all the layoffs and forced retirements) around 700 individuals, there are bound to be a few walking around who are a few crayons shy of a box. This entry is about one of them. I'm going to call him Doorknob, for obvious reasons.

The most recent of a long line of foolish things this man has done or said happened last week. He was doing a job for which the company requires wearing a hood with the face shield down, but Doorknob has a problem with authority, and so was wearing no shield. He'd been caught and warned about this before, but he continued to ignore the rules, despite the fact that the policy was there for his own safety.

Last Monday he was doing this particular job without a face shield and was seen by the president of the company. This new president of the company is very much a by-the-book person. He went to the manager of Doorknob's area, took him out to where Doorknob was working and pointed him out. Doorknob still didn't have his shield down.

The manager, of course, did a disciplinary write-up on Doorknob and decided to suspend him for three days. Doorknob was brought into Human Resources and had the write-up read to him. Do you know what his defense was? When the HR Manager got to the part about his not having his face shield down, Doorknob interrupted and yelled, "Now see?! That there's where he's wrong! I didn't even have a shield on!"

He didn't even realize what he'd said until the HR Manager asked if he needed to re-write the write-up. (Re-writing it to say that he didn't even have the face shield on would have resulted in his being fired, by the way.)

Just thought this one was too good not to share. I've worked with some strange people, some very young and naive people, and even a few who haven't had a whole lot of common sense, but the stories Thomas comes home with about Doorknob (and few others) top all.

No cabin fever yet! But there's still time!

Well, I'm getting a bit tired of these snow storms!

We haven't had anywhere near the snow that the East Coast has had, but I'm still getting tired of it. The only good thing is that Eler Beth has had a lot of fun sledding and playing in the snow. I guess I shouldn't begrudge the kids their snow time. After all, this winter would have been a mild one compared to the winters we had when I was a kid, and I enjoyed them as a responsibility-free child should.

Thomas has missed a LOT of work though. His company was shut down all of last week, and it looks like it will be again this week. Before that he was off one or two days each week since the holidays. In anticipation he had gone ahead and registered with the state employment office, so he can actually get unemployment for last week (and this one, if he's off all week again). So that will help.

The good news is that our IRAs and his 401k have started growing again. The good news also is that he guessed the winter might be bad and he had extra money taken out for taxes for the last half of last year, so our income tax return was very good. The bad news is that instead of going into savings, it'll probably be used to see us through this bad weather -- which I guess isn't really bad because that was the point in the first place. Oh well, I can still count our blessings.

Eler Beth has had three sledding parties so far this winter. The last one, on Saturday, was at some friends' of ours in Georgetown, Indiana. Our friend is a 90-year-old lady who has a very large hill on her property, and she loves for the kids to come out and play. Eler Beth sledded once, and the rest of the time she was there she rode on an inner-tube, being pulled by someone on a four-wheeler. Now THAT was a lot of fun. There was a bonfire too, and she met some new people (including a 17-year-old who she confessed to me was very "cute" -- lol). There will probably be another party this weekend.

We got about 5" of new snow today, and will get more by tomorrow. Areas a little North of us have about 7".

I have been enjoying Thomas' being home, and he hasn't wanted for anything to do. He's managed to do some projects around the house, and we've watched a lot of movies together (I just LOVE Netflix!). He has managed to keep busy, so I haven't been stressed having him home because he hasn't been stressed from forced inactivity. He comes in handy, too. If I need something at the store he's more than willing to drive out and get it for me, so I haven't really had to get out much at all. I do think I've gained some weight though!!! I've been very bad and have been doing a lot of cooking and baking. I guess when we get a break in the weather Eler Beth and I will have to do some serious walking.

Well, just thought I'd catch up a bit. I need to get by to visit blogs. I've mostly been keeping up with everyone on Facebook and just haven't been in a blogging mood.


(Thank you to Donna for the graphic above.)

Did you ever wonder . . .

What the back of a smiley face looks like?

Well wonder no more!

February 1, 1947

In 1947:

a gallon of gas was 15¢
a loaf of bread was 13¢
a postage stamp was 3¢

A Ford Super Deluxe 4-passenger coupe went for $1,185.00
and an automatic washing machine was $249.00

This was the year the CIA was established, the Polaroid Land Camera demonstrated giving photographs in 60 seconds, and the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls was found in Israel.

Popular movies that year were "Miracle on 34th Street", "Road to Rio", and "The Jolson Story". The Diary of Anne Frank was published and on February 1, 1947 "The Old Lamplighter" by Sammy Kaye was on Billboard Magazine's Best Seller in Stores List for the fifth week in a row.



But the event that means the most to me personally from that year was the marriage on February 1 of my parents.

They were married 55 years before my father died, and this year would have been their 63rd wedding anniversary.