hauntedliving

On Black Friday our freezer was bare and the only food left was leftovers.  We really needed to make a trip to the store for groceries.  We were out of milk, butter, and other staples.  We also needed a few things from Walmart as well. 

My husband and I decided to wait until the afternoon to go thinking the crowds would have gone home.  On the way to town we made the decision to go to Home Depot for some clips to hold the outside Christmas lights.  We also needed staples for our staple gun to replace some insulation that has come lose under the house.

When we arrived at Home Depot it was some what crowded but not jammed.  We found the clips for the lights and spent some time looking at all the lights for sale.  My husband realized he needed new lights for outside the house.  I told him that was fine as long as I could buy some new balls for the tree. He got the lights, drop cord, new staple gun, staples, two flashlights and the clips.  I got the balls and two vacuum belts.  Somehow it does not seem fair.

We then went to Kroger which was almost deserted.  We got our groceries in record time with no one to block the aisles.

Then it was on to Walmart where it was shopper hell.  It was still jammed at 4:00 in the afternoon.  I guess there were thousands of other shoppers who thought it would be safe to shop later.  Thank God for self checkouts or we would still be there waiting to check out. 

I know I am going to make some of you mad but I am going to just say it anyway.  I hate the show Jon and Kate plus eight.  Kate is just down right mean and Jon is hen-pecked.  They are getting rich on the kids.  Jon even quit his job so he could stay home and help with the kids.  That is what he says anyway. Why work when the money is rolling in. They get a share of the profits of the show plus donations.  Let us not forget all the free stuff that comes their way; vacations, clothing, food, etc… I just read where they are moving into a million dollar house.  Wow, it must be nice.  I also read where they have nannies and a cook.  So the moral of this show is; have twins, not be happy with just two children, have fertility treatments and have six at one time so you can profit from them.  I don’t care if you have one child or eight children it is hard work raising them.  The rest of the world would love to have some freebies to help them raise their children.  If you have eight kids one at a time you are out of luck, but have eight at once and you win the price.  I have never understood why a family who has six or eight kids at one time gets so much help, money, and free stuff while the single mom down the street gets nothing. 

My ex-sister-in-law had two kids, married a man with four, and then they had three together.  The only freebie they ever got was a horse.  They sold the horse and bought food with the money.  They got plenty of scorn but no money, vacations, or a nanny.   Where was their TV show? Oh yeah, they did not have all the kids at once.  No price for that! 

I sat on the bed and listened to the dog whining outside.  He was not used to being outside and he wanted in.  I did not want him outside either.  I wanted him in the house and on the bed beside me or in the kid’s room.  It was my husband’s brilliant idea to put the dog outside on a chain near the front door.  He had his reason for putting the dog out but to me it was a dumb reason.  Tonight my husband was working the night shift and we were alone.

There had been several burglaries in our area recently.  Some of our friends had come home to find their homes broken into.  One friend had awaked from sleep to find a man taking her change jar from beside her bed. Then to top it off someone had broken the lock on a tool chest in our back yard and taken some tools.  My husband then came up with the idea to put the dog outside.  He argued the dog would be protection while I argued the dog could be hurt.  I also felt he was more protection inside with us.  Besides I knew the dog was a coward.  I would have to melt him down and pour him onto the burglar to get him to take action.

Finally I couldn’t take the whining anymore.  I threw on a short robe over my house coat and brought the dog inside where he promptly lay down on the bed.

About an hour later I woke to the sound of someone outside.  It sounded as if they were attempting to break into my car.  I looked out the window and sure enough there was a man with a crowbar trying to pry open my trunk.  With more anger than fear I grabbed the gun out of the closet and threw open the front door.  I had shot about three bullets into the air when the dog came rushing out the door.  He got the burglar before he could get away and took some meat off the guys rear-end.  We did not have any burglaries in the area after that night and my brave dog that I was so wrong about got a steak.

My Daughter-in-law told me that a man walked into a store in Cataula, Georgia and stated he could not live with a black man for our President.  He then supposedly walked out to his car, got inside the car and shot himself in the head.  He died on the way to the hospital.  I do not know if this is true or not.  I have not found anything in the news about it but not everything makes it into the news around here.  It sounds more like a new urban legion to me.  But it could be true; someone could feel that strongly about a black president.  If it is true then he was truly a racist person or a mentally disturbed person.  He could have even been both.  CNN reported that membership in hate groups has increased since Obama entered the presidential race and now membership is up even more.  Some people can not see past the skin color to see a man who is a father and a husband.  They do not see the man who was always polite to Hillary.  They do not see a man who eats, sleeps, and hurts just like anyone else.  They also do not see a man who could help this country when we need help so desperately.  They only see the color black which then makes them see the color red.

Have you ever heard the old saying “out of the mouths of babes”?  No one has ever finished the saying so I do not know how it ends but I think it means children tell the truth.  Sometimes children see the truth when adults can not.

I had picked up my granddaughter, Dakota, for a week-end visit with her grandpa and me.  We were driving from her house when she began to tell me how she had found an injured baby squirrel in the road in front of her house.  She had wrapped the squirrel in paper towels and placed it in the garage.  The squirrel later died of its injuries.  When Dakota returns home she is going to make a sign asking drivers to slow down and put it by her driveway.  Dakota asked me why people just don’t slow down.  I do not know how to answer her question because I don’t know why drivers are in such a hurry anymore.  The speed limit in her neighborhood is 35 but some drivers go much, much faster.  In the afternoon children play in the streets on skateboards and bikes.  Joggers run alone the edge of the road getting their exercise.  I am very surprised no one has been hurt or killed yet.  If they only left a few minutes early they would not have to rush to where ever it is they are going in such a hurry.

Last year I bought an electric heater from an online company.  It is portable and has a fake fire inside.  I wanted a real fireplace but those are expensive and a lot of work so the electric fireplace was the next best choice.  It does not seem to be a good choice now that the warranty has expired.  There is not much heat coming from the heater and it is making a loud noise.  We have the fireplace in the den where it is the only source of heat.  The den used to be the garage but we had the den remodeled to be an extra room.  Because the den has a concrete floor we could not run a vent into the den.

I called the company we bought the heater from hoping for some help to fix the problem.  I was then directed to a new phone number where I was put on hold for almost an hour.  When I did get through the guy was in India and I could not understand what he was saying.  His accent was so strong I thought he was speaking a foreign language.  I asked to speak to someone else and got a lady whom I could at least understand.  It is no wonder we have high unemployment in the US.  The lady told me in other words that I am out of luck in getting the heater fixed.  It is going to cost more to have it shipped to the company, pay to have it fixed than it would to buy a new heater.

I am going to try to fix it myself and if that does not work then I will go to Wal-Mart and buy a heater.

I receive phone calls from friends and sometimes family who want me to do something for them.  They always make comments such as; “since you don’t work” or “since you don’t have anything to do”.  Wait a minute people!  I do have a job but since I do not get dressed and go to a building other than my home I am considered jobless.  I work from home but my friends just don’t get it.  They even show up without calling and expect me to stop working.  They have an attitude of put on the coffee and let’s talk.  I have tried to tell them I need to work but they do not listen.  I get paid by the work not by the hour so I have to put in a lot of time to make a decent amount of money.  I love my friends and family but I also love my job and need the money.  I would never consider going onto their job and expect them to just stop and have coffee with me.  They would not like it very much if I did that plus they could lose their job.  I wish I could do that because that might get my point across to them.  They would then realize that I do not have any free time to do the things they should be doing.  I barely have time to take a bath much less other stuff I would love to do like read a book, go for a walk without dogs, or take a nap. I have all the housework, dogs to care for, bills to pay, keep up with appointments, etc…plus my job.  I would love to just light some candles, put on some music and lay in the tub until the water gets cold.  I would also love to pour a glass of wine and get out a book and read for a few hours.  With the holidays coming up it is going to get even more hectic around here.  Where will I ever find time to decorate, shop, and cook the big family holiday meals? 

While walking our dog Bear this morning I was able to watch a bit of drama between some crows and some hawks.  I never really noticed before but they do not like each other.  About five or six hawks flew into the tree tops in the back yard.  There were several crows already sitting in the trees.  The hawks flew into trees very near where the crows were sitting.  When the hawks entered the area the crows went berserk.  They were screeching loudly and flapping around.  The hawks flew closer to the crows making them even more nervous.  The crows flew to some trees to put some distance between them and the hawks.  This must have amused the hawks because they flew closer to the crows.  This went on for several minutes until the crows landed in a tree occupied by a squirrel who decided to get in on the action.  I didn’t know squirrels could raise that much Cain either.  After a while the crows decided to make a run for it while the hawks lost interest and flew in the other direction.  The squirrel scampered down to the ground to continue his nut collecting.  The dog who had been watching the show with as much interest as me finally decided to do his business.  I wonder if the crows, hawks, and squirrel had a good time fussing and fighting with each other.  I also wonder if there had been an actual physical alteration who would have won.  You just never know what you will see in nature.

Our dogs receive gifts from Santa each Christmas if they are good.  So far they have been good each year.  They work hard protecting us and our home from harm.  They play sweet with each other and usually only destroy their own toys. They are very loving to us, family, and friends.  There is no feeling like watching TV on a cold winter night while a warm dog is curled up with their head in your lap.  Or the feeling of having a warm dog curled up against my legs in bed.  They are good dogs and they deserve gifts at Christmas just like children do.  In fact they are like children; they are sweet, innocent, they get upset, jealous, and pout when they are upset.

Each Christmas they get a stocking filled with toys, rawhide chews, and treats.  They also have wrapped gifts for each one with a special toy inside.  They love to help tear open the gifts. They love Christmas as much as we do and get excited when we put up the tree.

The first Christmas we had Coca she just a few months old.  She chewed the wire on a set of lights.  Not knowing that the wires were wet and chewed I plugged in the lights and got knocked back into the wall nearby.  There was also a loud pop and smoke from the socket.  Coca whined and licked me for almost an hour.  I know she was saying she was sorry.  After that she would lay with her head under the tree but she never chewed the wires again.

This year we have Lucy, our son’s dog in our house too.  Lucy is a young boxer who likes to attack and chew flowers.  I don’t know how she will react to the Christmas tree and other decorations.  We make have some new Christmas high jinks to laugh over.

The leaves are falling around us now.  They seem to fall faster each day and soon they will all be on the ground.  It is absolutely beautiful outside right now while there are still leaves on the trees.  The yellow leaves outnumber the red, gold, orange, and tan.  The dogwood trees have pretty red berries on them now. The pines are dropping golden pine straw onto the ground under them and of course they are also dropping the hated pine cones.  The weeds are dying off and falling over.  Chestnuts and acorns litter the ground for the many squirrels to collect for winter.  The crows are happy to be the king around here again and the armadillo is back with a vengeance.

Soon the trees will be bare except for the evergreens that I love so much.  I don’t mean the pines though they are plentiful around here.  What I am referring to are the cedar trees or Christmas trees as some people call them.  I baby the cedars with love and mulch.  I forbid anyone to cut them, even the very tiny ones.

Last winter we had a few inches of snow.  The snow almost killed a palm I have in the front yard.  It is rare to get snow in this area of Georgia.  The palm turned brown from top to bottom.  I thought it was dead and cut it to the ground but it came back in the spring and it is the size it was before the snow.  This year if we have snow I will cover it with plastic.

It is very lovely out there now but it won’t be long until it is bare and depressing.  For now I am going to just enjoy the beauty for as long as it lasts.