Wishy Washy People

I'm at a point in my life where if I've pissed you off you need to be upfront and let me know. I don't have time for these childish ignoring games. My pet peeve is when people just are not upfront with me. If you're pissed, then say something...let's resolve it and move on. Simple as that. It's a lot easier than spending a year or so walking on egg shells with a person wondering when they'll get over whatever the hell they're upset about. I especially am annoyed when it's an ongoing, reoccurring issue with the same people...over and over and over again. I make an effort to resolve things. It's healthier and less stressful that way. Life is hard enough without having to worry about wishy washy people. What do others do with these kind of people in their lives. Ignore them and wait for them to come around on their own terms and then you have to pretend as if nothings wrong? As if you haven't been ignored for a year? Seriously, I'm going to start cutting people loose when this happens especially when it's the same person over and over again. There has to become a point where enough is enough. It seems to me to be a type of abusive friendship. lol

White Gloves and Posture

Words cannot describe the love I have for the lifestyle once lived by those before the 50's! This would be when people actually took pride in what they wore and even if they only had one good dress that is what they wore when going out and it was fabulous! Women in white gloves and dresses with posture and manners. Kids dressed up and behaved...men dressed in their Sundays best when dining out, going to church...while in the public. Everything that people owned was cherished and had value. People respected each other...and were polite. Entertainment was minimal and work was hard but still more pride seemed to exist back then. What has happened to us? Our fine china has been replaced with plastic...hand made, solid wood furniture has been replaced with cheap pieces of crap that last a little under a couple of years...people ate out only a handful of times in a year and when they did they were dressed their best and the children wouldn't dare misbehave. 

I think maybe we should start eating off of crystal dinnerware, sterling silver flatware and linen tablecloths. 

Let's start dressing up and having dinner parties...sip our tea or coffee out of porcelain cups with saucers...should I take off my rose colored glasses yet?

Out of Control

Right now my life is upside down. My husband is working a billion hours and is never home. The kids are hyper active because of this crazy heat wave we are having in March and they have all of this bottled up energy that no matter how often they go outside they can't seem to work it off. My 94 year old Grandma has permanently moved into an assisted living home, the end of an era or as she has said, "What ever will be, will be" Because of  her downsizing, I've been working on average 5 hours a day at my Grandma's house getting things somewhat organized, thrown out or divided up. Because of not being home the house is behind. I have several raised gardens I need to build. I have to pull weeds that have grown during the winter months....? I have to hand skim the pool because we did not cover it last fall because the heat beat the crap out of the water and we gave up. My head is spinning and I'm chipping away slowly at each thing which makes it seem as though nothing is getting accomplished. I need to divide, attack and conquer. Which comes first? AHHHHHHHHH!!!

Flip Flops and Winter Boots

This winter is just absolutely insane! I know I keep talking about it on Facebook and have mentioned it a few times on here but what the heck is going on out there? Can Mother Nature pick a season? All of our closets look like some sort of explosion because of all of the extreme weather changes I can't seem to pack away any seasonal clothes but instead have to keep bringing out more and more. Today I had to bust out some summer clothes for the heat wave we had today. The coat area has been by far the most hit area. It looks like a tornado went through the utility closet! I have never seen such a thing! On the floor we have winter boots and flip flops and hanging up we have Winter coats and light weight jackets. Scarves, hats, gloves, umbrellas & sunglasses.
Then there's the outside. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do...garden? Weed? Yes...I said weed. Does anyone else have weeds in the flower beds that never died over winter? My weeds just kept growing and multiplying. I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Some of them might be perennials popping up and I'd hate to pull them up. This is where my organization in the flower bed haunts me. I've never marked what I put where and I (of course) lost my little Garden Diary where I wrote down everything that I planted.
I pruned our fruit trees today and topped off some bushes. Not sure if that is OK but I just wanted to do something outside that was productive. I also swept off the pool deck and pulled down my Morning Glories and cleaned up that area. Picked up branches here and there...the entire time I kept telling myself that it is only March!
One thing that bothers me are the amount of insects that are already outside. I've seen mosquito's already and today we were attacked by Ants in Tayla's room. I killed 8! To me that is an infestation! I about freaked...yuck! I'm not sure where they are coming from but they need to go back where they came from. This is not going to be a pleasant Summer I can already tell. I have a feeling it's going to be very hot and very buggy. I put up a Purple Martin 6 room house to hopefully keep down the insects on our 2 acres. Unfortunately I believe that the new tenants are NOT Purple Martins so I'm not sure what to do about this one. Shake the bird house and hope to God they don't attack?!?! Someone was talking about putting up bat houses...I saw some today at the store and I do believe that I will be purchasing some of these bad boys. Bats eat TONS of mosquitoes!
We will just have to play everything by ear. Hey, maybe we'll luck out and all of the insects will come out and then the temps drop and freeze them to death...that may help kill their population! I still am waiting for a snowstorm to come. Anything is possible!

Hoarders

The hoarding of a loved ones belongings after they have passed away or go to a home. Touchy subject. I almost was fearful to post a blog about this subject but I decided to put it out there to first of all help me think through this and secondly to warn others who have not been through such a thing. First of all I'd like to admit that I'm no saint when it comes to this subject. So here goes.
Why is it that after a loved one has left, there is a brief moment of silence between family members...and then possibly at any given moment their possessions become dive bombed. Every family member waits for their invitation for the taking and you lose all common sense and dignity of who you are and who your loved one was and you take what you want when you want without any trace of mannerisms. It's like a Black Friday sale with items being tossed up in the air, back and forth...some people come early in the morning to get the goods while others will prey on the evening attack. If there is one rule, that rule is that there is no long discussion regarding the items. The longest conversation you can have is, "Do you want this?" Whether you do or don't the typical response is, "No" and then the item is snatched as you gasp. As this process begins..you go in with a shoebox but then after a few days or maybe a week you start taking more and more and more. Things you don't even need you take because there's a memory attached to it. Sometimes there may be one family member who is able to withstand the urge of taking...they are known as the good ones. The strong ones.
Towards the end of the hoarding experience..family members become irate with each other over the materials and all hell breaks lose. Nice, eh?
I've gone through this twice. I'm in the process of going through it right  now. I'm trying to understand it. Why?  Don't get me wrong here, I'm no angel. I'm one of those possession hoarders myself. The worst scenario would be with my dad. He had no small items that were of importance to both him and me but large items. Large, ugly, junky tractors and engines. I still don't know what the heck the stuff was but all I knew was that he loved them. Because we hoarded so much crap of his we had to buy one of those makeshift temporary sheds to house the items over the winter. (The grass is still dead in that one spot by the way) Stupid! Why? A few years go by and after emotions have settled down you start looking at the stuff and wondering what the hell you're doing with all of it. You hide some that you've put on display, maybe give some stuff away, try to sell some other crap. All you want to do then is get rid of the stuff because you want space back and you're happy with just the memories along with some pictures.
Kind of funny how this is unavoidable. I guess you just have to be strong and fight the urge to hoard.

The Persistance of Time

Have you ever become so close to death that it takes your breath away every time you rethink the series of events leading up to that specific moment?  My cousin triggered the memories of one of those near death experiences by mentioning that she was going to The Home and Garden Show at the Memorial Coliseum. My heart froze. This would be where my very first (known) near death experience happened. I was working security for the Home and Garden Show one year. My position was to stand by one of the loading docks where there was a vendor unloading and my job was to secure the location to prevent anyone from coming through the entrance. The loading dock was on a slope and I was standing in front of the cab of the semi that they were unloading. Well...whoever parked the semi failed to put on some sort of emergency brake and the semi began rolling towards me. Now first of all, I was standing directly in front of the cab. We're talking maybe a few feet and this thing starts rolling and with no warning from anyone something made me turn my head and dive out of the way. I like to believe that my own personal guardian angel was protecting me! The engine of the semi was running so I couldn't hear a thing...in those few seconds by me just turning my head to look back I threw myself to the side with only a few scratches but a lifetime of remembrance.
The other time that I've replayed over and over again in my mind is the morning I almost got sandwiched between 2 semi's. It was early morning and I was commuting to work...little did I nor the other drivers know that on our perfectly dry highway there was a stretch which was the equivalant to an ice rink. Cars were spinning around going in ditches and in front of me I was driving towards a semi that was turned sideways on the highway...I presses, down shifted...did some sort of right maneuvering to slow down my vehicle and became feet from hitting the turned semi. As I sat in my car completely freaking out I look in my rear view mirror only to see a semi coming towards me sideways down the highway. I remember trying to think if I should get out of the car and run or just sit there. Well, I chose to stay and the semi ended up sliding across the median and hitting someone going the other way on the highway. I just started crying...I didn't want to drive anymore, but it's not like anyone could come and get me. I just kept driving...very slowly getting by all of the wrecked vehicles. I still don't know how I lucked out to not hit the person in front of me nor get slammed by anyone behind me. It's almost as if I was protected. Once again, my own personal angel was looking after me. It's amazing how time can either be on our side our against us. How seconds can give or take someones life. Time is precious. Don't waste it!