It’s time for my annual trip down to Ashland for the Shakespeare festival. I go every year with my daughter, this is our 4th year. I will back Monday.
Everyone have a fabulous weekend!
I leave you with too cute bunnies.
I may come across as a mambie pambie, but enough is enough with all the crazy weather we’re having here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in particular in the Portland area. We broke records with snow fall last December (Arctic Blast) and now here we are breaking records with the hot weather in July. We’ve had record high temperatures and record days in a row above 90 dgrees. This week alone it’s been over 100 for 3 days and they are promising one more. Actually kinda reminds me of my kids. One was born during a snowstorm in December, the other one was born the first part of August when it was 106 degrees outside.
On the radio this morning the weather man said it was hot as biscuits. The radio announcer thought that that was terribly funny. They thought it was funny at work too. So I gathered other people’s ideas of how hot it is. Here’s what I came up with.
It’s so hot…
The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up.
All the water buffalo at the zoo have evaporated.
The trees are whistling for the dogs.
It’s so hot, I saw squirrels fanning their nuts.
The birds had to pick up the worms with potholders.
I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin’
Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard boiled eggs.
Baby it’s so hot that the HABANERO peppers in my garden are hunting for shade
It’s so hot I saw a fire hydrant chasing a dog…
It’s so hot the temperature is to be continued…
It’s as hot as biscuits
It’s so hot I want to take off my skin and hang around in my bones
It’s so hot, when people ask me how I’m doing, I say “medium well.”
It’s so hot, 106.9 isn’t a radio station, it’s a forecast.
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Dear weather man, I would give anything for just one day like this:
My very first house I bought from my grandparents. It had a pretty small yard which my grandfather mowed with a push mower. When we bought the house, we inherited that lawn mower. We didn’t have any money, so I used his old push mower. It wasn’t that hard and gave me a good workout.
Years passed, we moved to a new house with a bigger yard. We opted for a gas powered mower which we have used ever since. Now that I’m in the process of landscaping, I have decided on having a small amount of grass with lots of low maintenance shrubs, plants and ground cover. I had been considering going back to a push mower, but wondered if you could even find one any more.
Not only can you find one, but they are making their way back to popularity, primarily as being good for the environment. According to Oregonian article Push Mowers Make the Cut, a typical gas powered mower emits as much pollution as 11 cars for every hour in use. A riding lawn mower emits as much as 34 cars.
Just as I got a good work out many years ago, push mowers are also finding their way into calorie burning charts these days. Mow for an hour and burn 373 calories. You will also build strong arms, shoulders, abs and legs. Who needs the gym!
For information and reviews on push mowers, check out People Powers Machines.
Grandma Betty does not like computers. She does not own one and does not want one. But the rest of the family do have computers and use email to communicate. Grandma Betty gets left out because nobody wants to take the time to print off emails to send to her.
Now there is a solution for the whole family. SunnyGram will take the emails you provide, put it in a newsletter format and mail it to Grandma Betty. Once you set up an account, anyone in your family can submit emails or photos. Once a week, all the correspondence and photos are put into the newsletter and mailed. The newsletters can be typed in large print if requested. And special newsletters are sent out on birthdays and at holidays.
Bonus: a postage paid envelope and stationery are provided to Grandma Betty. She can use it to respond to any relatives for free. This is a win-win for the whole family and it’s only $9.95 per month.
From my articles it’s pretty obvious that I stick to alternative healthcare. I work hard at staying healthy, which in turn, keeps me from having to visit a doctor.
I was reading yet another article about healthcare reform in AARP magazine. This one got me angry. I am one of the 46 million who do not have health insurance. For me, it’s by choice. I tried it, didn’t like it and it certainly didn’t save me any money. All it did was cause a lot of stress, the very thing I try to avoid.
Gasp, you say, what if you had to have some major surgery! Let’s take a look at costs. By not paying for health insurance, I save around $400 a month. This saves me around $4,800 per year. If I put this into an interest bearing account, it will be worth much more in a couple of years or so. If I have to have surgery, I can take the money out of savings. As long as I stay healthy, I wind up savings thousands or dollars.
Now if I had insurance, yes a great portion would be paid for. But there is a deductible involved. I have to pay $1 or $2,000 out of pocket. Plus I will have lost the interest I could be earning in that investment account. hmm. Makes the choice interesting, doesn’t it.
So what made me mad in this article? According to it, politicians, industry lobbyists and reform advocates say that there are key areas of agreement when it comes to healthcare reform. Now I agree that we should pay doctors based on the effectiveness of their work, not the number of patients. I agree that health care costs are too high. And I agree that insurance companies need to be regulated better. I DO NOT agree that everyone should be required to have health insurance. Obama says he will press for hardship exemptions. That would account for about 99% of those 46 million, so why bother requiring the insurance? What about people like me who are healthy and just do not want it. Just like the car insurance I pay. I drive carefully and wind up paying for those who don’t. The one time I needed it, I had to go to the state insurance board to get the other party’s insurance agent to comply.
I admit that with auto insurance there are other people on the road to consider. When I was in my accident, if the lady who hit me didn’t have insurance, I would have been out a car. But health insurance is very individual. If I get sick it does not affect another person. To require us to have health insurance just stinks!
I can remember Michael Jackson in his heyday. I was so impressed by his dance moves. His life after was troubling. But I can’t even imagine the stress he must have been under. How would you react with screaming fans and camera flashing in your face. I would like to just remember him for his music and dance.
Then there’s Farrah Fawcett. I wasn’t an avid Charlie’s Angels fan, but I did watch. I liked Kate Jackson because she was so practical, but I know lots of kids who were big Farrah fans. I will remember her for her big hair and those pearly whites.
Instead of feeling sad, I truly believe in celebrating their lives. I found a poem that says it just right. It’s by David Harkin.
You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she’d want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
Shopping is cheaper
than a psychiatrist!