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We had a houseful of guests on Super Bowl Sunday.
Jake had people over for a goodbye party. My daughter's family was here too so there was a lot going on. Monday morning everyone left. Emma to Canada and Brooke and Jake to California. What a change. I was left alone with the dog and two cats.
I took the first day doing nothing. There was a kitchen to clean and a lot of cooking paraphernalia to be cleaned. There was also a short list of things to do left by Brooke. Nothing that couldn't wait until Tuesday. It takes a while to decompress after most week ends. The party was a little surreal for me because my right ear was blocked and everything sounded strange. I hope I didn't make more of a fool of myself than normal.
Tuesday was the big day to tackle the list. It took almost the whole day to clean the kitchen. I had a dentist appointment in the morning. Everything went pretty well and I checked in several times on the GPS Tracker that Jake had installed on my tablet. It was working well but since Jake is driving on all surface roads, it's hard to tell where they are. You just see a map showing their location on county road 53 or 212 as examples. You have to do some detective work to figure out where they are. They have made good progress so far. Today at about noon they were in New Mexico. It's nice to be able to track them. They sent a picture from Columbia, MO. a day or two ago. I'll try to post it here. Brooke is standing in front of her first apartment, where we met, on Chandler Court. The place hasn't changed in all these years. Brooke looks good, too, I think you will agree.
Well, I applied for a new passport today and figured out how to unlock the oven door, so that completes my list. I still have to pick up a prescription.
Love is a strong emotion and I don't use the word lightly, although I do love you. ha, ha. But I really love the internet. Let me count some of the ways.
For one, if you want to learn about something, you may be able to find the course of study on-line. I'm currently taking a course on programming in Java script. I took several classes in computer programming back in the mid-eighties when we were living in Flint. I only got to a certain level before giving up. With two babies to raise and trying to earn some money plus the household responsibilities, it was too much for me. I did like it though. Now (Thanks To The Internet) I can easily review and learn more recent languages.
Also and most valuable to me, when I have a problem with something that's not working, I first turn to the Net. How to repair your Ipod, your VCR, whatever. There are videos and blogs etc. and soon enough you are ready to tackle the problem.
Of course, there is Craig's List and Ebay and many other things that I still haven't found.
I remember when I first heard of the internet. It was a new territory. Unexplored and undeveloped. We all saw the potential but didn't know how to take advantage of it. Google, Youtube, Facebook what else could there be? It's been fascinating so far. I wouldn't want to be without it. I hope we don't screw it up.
Once again we must all pick a team. As with all match ups the promoters talk up the contest and make predictions to get us all interested. It's only human to form an opinion and then we're hooked and will be interested in the outcome. I happen to be a Patriots fan. Is it because Tom Brady is a former Michigan player? Probably part of it. I got on their band wagon when they were playing well and for about 50 years in a row Detroit was disappointing. The Patriots coaching and attitude seemed good to me so I declared myself to be fan. The Giants have a good team and I think the game could go either way. I want New England to win but I wouldn't bet on it.
We are preparing for the departure of our son lately and our house is a mess. Brooke is done with her job and so big changes are in the works.
She may drive out to San Francisco with Jake and of course must spend time in Toronto with Gabe and Omar. This should be an interesting year. We're heading out west for a wedding for one thing. I have a feeling that will be a fun trip. I just have a feeling there will be other big changes this year, too.
I put Jake's mattress on Craig's List and some people are supposed to come look at it tonight. I listed a piece of exercise equipment on Ebay and accepted a bid on it just today. So some things are being resolved. Also, Jake and I spent some time fixing his car radio so it will accept music from another source. Big soldering project that so far has worked. Apparently it is a common problem to have the tip of your audio plug break off in your audio jack. We tried the super glue method a few times without success. Then got out the soldering equipment. This was a nice Father and Son project.
That's all for now. Happy Superbowl Sunday!
Hi all. I am very excited about a simple method that I have discovered for falling asleep quickly. I'm introducing it here so you can test it and let me know how well it works for you.
It isn't hypnosis but it is part of the relaxation that precedes hypnosis. I'm not going to type it out on the blog because anyone could read it and tell everyone else. As a matter of fact I haven't written it yet but it's so simple I think I can do it in one medium paragraph. I've read some other "methods" on the net and this is unique. Most of them start getting very wordy about the subject. If you would like to try it get in touch with me via email, the phone or whatever. When I have your okay and an email, I'll send you the method. I'm very curious to find out if it works for you as it has for me.
I was lying in bed about a week ago and was ready to sleep when I noticed something I was doing. I stopped doing it and was concentrating on calming that (area). The next thing I knew I was waking up the next morning. I remembered what I had been doing before I fell asleep so I tried it about three times since; It's worked every time. Please help me test this. There's no cost for the test.
Jman and I picked out a Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago at least. We went to Home Depot and got a Frazer Fir. I didn't think it was the best tree but we got it and they cut off some of it and bundled it with the netting that we all are familiar with, unless we've gone to the artificial trees. I trimmed off a couple of low branches and fitted it into our tree stand. We left it outdoors because it was pretty early to bring a tree in the house. After about 5 or more days, I thought I should bring it in because I was afraid the water might freeze and crack my nice tree stand. The netting was removed and the tree stood untrimmed for a few days. I kept it watered but it would still be a while before we put on lights and then ornaments.
I came down one morning and Brooke was in the kitchen getting a lunch ready to take to work. We were exchanging pleasantries and as I left the kitchen I noticed Zeke was very interested in something under the "Coffin" chair. Before I could register what was happening something ran out from under the chair! My first thought, which didn't make sense, was that it was the mouse that we had lost in that area a few months ago. The time lapse is why it didn't make sense. The blurred vision of the creature also was not mouselike; too big. In another second I could see it was a chipmunk. Dammit, I don't like them in the house.
The frightened rodent was running around in circles and I stepped on him, not to squish or kill him but to capture him with the bottom of my foot.
I pinned his tail with my Croc, which with it's rubbery consistency held the animal motionless.
Brooke asked what she could do to help me without looking or getting in the same room. I said get me some leather gloves. She threw them within reach and I picked up our visitor and threw him/her out into the flower garden.
The poor creature's heart was beating a mile a minute...and so was the chipmunk's, haha. I kinda overdid the throwing of our uninvited guest but it landed in a soft spot.
We wondered how it got in? I don't think we have openings in our house so big that a chipmunk can enter. I'm pretty sure it was in the Christmas tree. When we brought it in the house it was like one of those people holding onto the tie down lines of an ill fated dirigible. Can't decide to let go or hold on, then it's too late. Your fate is sealed.
I only hope that our Christmas visitor wasn't Jesus in the form of a chipmunk. We treated him badly, stepping on his tail and throwing him out.
Merry Christmas again.
I've been curious about what the storage auctions in this area might be like. I have been to a few auctions in the past and for the most part, I don't like them. There is so much waiting around for the item or items you are interested in to come up, you feel like it's a waste of time. Then you may have someone bidding the price up so much that you won't buy your item at that price. If your emotions get involved in the process you can way over-pay. I must admit I've had some good luck too. I bought a great maple dresser that many people were envious of and I have really liked having for 30 years or more now. I also bought the contents of a dusty old room for $4.00 about 35 years ago. Very few showed up at that auction and even fewer because the weather was bad. I would have bought more but I only had about $15.00 in my pocket. That was when I was poorest in my life.
There were some nice leather covered soda fountain stools in there, some rubber boots (that fit me), some display cases and a couple of other items that I don't recall. I sold almost all of them at my Flea Market. That may have been the only week I made money.
I happened to find the web site of the auction house that does a lot of storage auctions in Michigan. It's named Blair Auctions. There were several auctions scheduled for the next day. Some not too far away. My son and I decided we would go to one to see what it was like. It was in Livonia, Michigan. About 8 lockers were scheduled to be sold starting at 12:15 P.M.
We followed the advice on the website to 1. Dress appropriately for the outdoor weather..2. bring a flashlight..3.arrive early enough to register and 4. bring cash or credit card.
The rules vary from location to location but this place took credit cards. You should also bring enough locks to lock up the units you buy. I brought one, just in case.
The weather was variably light rain, wind, sunny and all of the opposites. People were instructed to park on one of the side streets, but a Livonia police woman was going to ticket everyone over there so all those drivers had to move inside the storage facility. We had a bit of fun commenting under our collective breaths about her.
There were roughly 100 potential buyers and it took at least 45 minutes to register everyone. It seemed obvious that there were quite a few "regulars" there.
The same rules as you see on Storage Wars governed this auction. The unit was opened and everyone paraded by checking out the contents without entering the unit or touching any contents. The auctioneer gave any special instructions and changed into his auctioneer's voice and began. His style was to begin at a higher level than anyone would start at and then come down until someone waved or signaled in some way that They wanted that bid. One of his favorite sayings is,"The more you pay for it, the more you like it." People who weren't interested in that locker were told which one was next and that they could go there and start looking. It seemed not to work out that way. They always waited for him to come down to the next unit before they raised the door. One difference between the real auction we attended and those on television is that as soon as you win the bid on a locker, you had to give the auctioneer a $100.00 deposit. You get that back when you've cleaned out the locker. You have one day to clean it out. You can't use their dumpsters to discard all the trash, so you need to find one someplace else.
We didn't buy a locker. The prices ranged from$80 to$800. What's missing is the reveal. What did someone find? Why did they bid the way they did? Who was that hot chick in the white skirt? It's really interesting. After all, I do have a minor in Sociology.
If you have seen the movie by that title and don't like Mel Gibson, keep reading because it's not about that.
I thought this would be a nice name for a store here in Fenton, Michigan. Brooke and I would sell the things that always seem to attract women shoppers. Jewelry, purses and shoes would top the list. I think shoes might not make the final cut though because with all the sizes you would have to have quite an inventory. Maybe belts could be the third item. We would sell top of the line items. Every woman in the Lower Peninsula would want to come to our store to buy at least one item, just to get a shopping bag that says,"What Women Want". Men, of course , would go to buy gifts with the assurance that they were doing right by their women. The sales associates would be attractive and somewhat sophisticated, only the most discreet tattoos would be allowed.
We're in the Christmas Spirit at the Lamson household. Lights are going up, the tree is purchased and decorations are progressing to their holiday stations. We have a big picture of Gabe up on the closet door so whenever we need a boost of joy, a reason to keep going, we look at that picture.
Happy Holidays.
