Fleetingly Carol

Old Man has discovered social networking! I didn't introduce him to it. He was complaining to our daughter, who lives in another state, that he didn't see very many pictures of his grandchildren. "Well, Dad, if you would go online to this website, you could see all the pictures becasue I post them there." That was all it took. He's on it morning noon and night because he's discovered the games that you play where you have to 'plant' crops or 'bake' a certain number of cakes. He startles me when he shouts, "I made the next level, I'm an 'Elegant Farmer' now!" Elegant Farmer? The other day he told me that he was making some self-defecating remarks on some of the pictures that friends and family posted. "What?" I asked, thoroughly confused. "Did anyone get mad?" "No, I don't think so. I wasn't too bad. Just a little self-defecating. I don't mind too much and people think it's

Once upon a time, when Old Man was Young Man and Young Man, Jr. was just a wee bit of a baby, our household was visited by an angel. And this is how it happened: Have you ever heard the expression that when you pay your bills, you have to 'rob Peter to pay Paul'? Well, in our household, we couldn't even rob poor Peter because he was slap out of money, too. On grocery shopping day, I would take stock of supplies. If I thought I had enough to get by for one more week, I wouldn't buy it. Of course, that left me running out of things - a lot! If I ran out of dish detergent, I used a scoop of laundry powder to wash dishes. If I ran out of laundry powder, I poured just a little shampoo in the washing machine (I would only wash what the family could not do without). To try to make ends meet, I signed up with a company for whom I would fill out surveys. In return, they sent me cents off coupons for the products I liked to buy. They were also supposed to supply free samples

Economics. Doesn't the sound of that word just make your skin crawl? No? Well, maybe you have a better understanding of the subject than I. Macro economics, micro economics. What's the difference? One is big and the other little. Right? So one is about global economy and the other about my household budget. But, what happened to the stuff in between? For example, what about the dress shop where I worked as a teenager? It was one store, owned by a local businessman. So, was that macro or micro? It looked quite macro to me, but I suppose the banks that held my boss's loan might have thought it very micro. Once upon a time, I tried to learn about all of this in junior college (yes, dear Reader, it was so long ago that it was called a junior college, not a community college). Way back when the world was young and all, way back when Old Man was Young Man and the children were young and innocent, I decided I needed to further my education and Economics 101 was my first foray in

I love beautiful days like today. A great rainstorm came through in the middle of the night last night and it seems to have cleaned the air of the dust and pollen that accumulates in the spring. I'm sitting on my front porch, enjoying the weather and watching the world go by. You would think I didn't have a care in the world! It's pauses like this that help to bear the burden. The beautiful spring day and the belly laughs that come from the funny things you see. My house is situated on a very busy street. Nothing but neighborhood traffic, mind you, but it's the main thoroughfare out of the neighborhood. Being in a neighborhood, I see all kinds of conveyances, from cars and trucks (of all kinds), to scooters and bicycles. It's the bicycle that found my funny bone today! I watched as a young girl, maybe 16, rode her bicycle from the top of the street to the other end, with an unexpected stop in my front yard. I watched as she chose to ride across the yards, rather

Happy Easter, Dear Reader! The Lord is Risen, Alleluia! I spent today with family, as I dearly hope all of you were able to do. Easter is a very special time. Our children would like to think that it all boils down to the Easter Bunny hiding eggs and leaving candy. Sometimes, I'm tempted to agree with them, especially about hazelnut and chocolate. Especially the hazelnut spread that has a hint of cocoa in it. This spread is not for the faint-of-heart! The following incident happened to a professional. Remember DO NOT try this at home. I joined Young Man on a tour of duty overseas where the delicious spread was commonplace - we had yet to hear of it in the United States. I was 9 months pregnant with our first child. I weighed 135 at the beginning of that pregnancy and topped out at 199. It was ALL because of the hazelnut spread. I scoured our apartment for pfennigs until I found enough to walk down the street to a Bäckerei to buy a loaf of hard bread. It was in this Bäckerei t

Is it too late to teach an old dog new tricks? I ran into a perfectly lovely lady today, of whom I have just a mild acquaintance. It was in one of those big box stores. You know the kind, they have groceries and nails; dog food and rat poison; delicate cafe curtains and tires. One stop shopping they call it. I call it a pain in the foot! We had a perfectly lovely conversation about why we were buying the items that were in our buggy. She was looking for a closet organizer system. I was looking for plumber's putty, that was after I picked up a dozen eggs and milk. After a few minutes of light conversation, my acquaintance said that she needed to go, that her husband would be looking for her shortly. "Wait," I said, "Your husband is in the store with you right now?" "Why, certainly. He needed some string for his lawn trimmer. Why?" "Well, my husband is the one who needs the plumber's putty. I'm not about to get under the kitchen si

April Fool's Day is coming up in a day or two. I'd like this blog to be participatory. I wrote about one of the best pranks by a youngster for April Fool's Day last September. September 9, 2010, to be exact.  Go to the archives and read that post, then come back here and 'comment' on this post with a hilariously funny April Fool's Day joke. It can be one that you pulled, had pulled on you, one that you heard about, short or long. Just please remember these 2 simple rules: this is a family oriented blog and please, please change names to protect the guilty! (I reserve the right to delete anything I deem inappropriate.) Let the stories begin . . .