That Hobbit Lady

Right now, my job is enjoyable. I hate that it takes away so much time from other things that I would RATHER be doing, but…such is life. Gotta work. Getting a little pay raise a while back makes it easier to bear the “have to do” aspect of my day, and being busy at work also makes the time pass quickly.

But, boy! I sure am glad when that “have to do” is over each evening, and I get to come home, to my “Home Sweet Home” and see my kittie kats, and Russ and I sit down together to eat dinner and watch a show. Hey! Dinner and a show: every night is like Date Night around here! 🙂

Anyway, the very best moment of the day is when we have dinner on the table and are just sitting down. We don’t sit at a regular “normal” table. We sit in the living room, in front of the TV, and eat from the “coffee table.” But our coffee table is a special kind of coffee table. It has this mechanism so that you can LIFT up the top of the table to a more comfortable height for eating. What a fabulous invention!

So each night, we sit down at our coffee table, with our food before us, and the TV on, and go “One…two..three…LIFT!” And then we lift up the top of the table together. And I will swear to you that in that moment when the top of the table comes UP, I feel my blood pressure go DOWN a few points, and I feel so much of the tension of the day just…drain out of me.

It’s a moment I look forward to every night. Table top up…ahhh, relax… It is, without a doubt, the best moment of my day.

As Russ and I are doing research for our Dark Shadows podcast, we run into a lot of stuff about the 1960’s, and always enjoy the memories. Here’s something Russ found earlier today, that should really make you smile, and sigh nostalgically, if you were alive during that time. This is from the60sofficialsite.com.

How Did We Survive?

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no child proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Pay-stations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Little League had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Now! Having said all that, having taken that trip down Memory Lane, having offered something “old,” let me follow with something “new.” At least this is new to me, because I just found this on You Tube the other day, while looking for new songs by one of my new favorite bands, Fall Out Boy. There is something about this video that is so compelling. I think it’s the colors, and the costumes, and well…yeah, the music too. I just find this so fascinating. (Note: you may have to get past the ad at the beginning, but once you do, you’re in for a real visual and audio treat!)

The other day they had a “Health Fair” at work. Russ and I got our flu shots, had our blood pressure taken, and put our names into a drawing for prizes which, I’m guessing, we did not win. Also picked up lots of cool giveaways, like pens, pencils, notepads, emory boards, keychains, etc.

A local restaurant, McAllister’s, was serving free food, but in the morning the line was so long, we did not wait. However, later that day I decided to go back over to see if I could still get me some of that free food.

It was about an hour before the Fair was scheduled to end, and all they had left was unsweetened iced tea and vegetarian chili. Both of which are fine with me, but it struck me as ironic that the healthiest offerings were the dregs. All the sweetened tea, meaty chili, meaty little sandwiches…all that was gobbled up first by the attendees at the “Health Fair.” Vegetarian and unsweetened? Yeah, still got some of that stuff to
the bitter end.

Then again, I saw one of the vendors raffling off a giant basket of chocolate. Hmmm…

Up until only a few months ago, liquor could not be purchased on Sundays in Tuscaloosa. The matter was recently put to the local voters, and all that has now changed. However, there are only certain hours on Sundays when you can buy beer and wine in the local grocery stores.

Here is a shot I took a few weeks ago, in a local Publix. I took this shot, because I found the message a bit confusing. Of course I understand what the sign is SUPPOSED to be saying, but if you look at it closely, read it precisely as it is written, you might come to the conclusion that you have a small nine and a half hour window EACH WEEK for stocking up on your booze!

Might I suggest, after the big words “BY LAW,” something along the lines of: On Sundays, beer & wine sold only between…” I don’t think that would be quite as confusing.

Okay, maybe I’m being a bit of a Grammar Nazi. Can’t help it. This sign is just poorly worded. Of course, this is by no means the most poorly worded sign I have ever seen. It’s just the most recent.

It’s 6:30 in the morning, and I just heard a huge plane going overhead. People are beginning to arrive for the weekend. We’ll be hearing planes coming in all day today and early tomorrow. This is the beginning of Homecoming Weekend at the University with the #2 football team in the country. Alabama is steeped in football tradition, and fans and alumni would arrive for Homecoming weekend, even if we weren’t currently second in the nation. It’s just a big deal, and a lot of fun. And there’s nothing wrong with fun.

In other news for this weekend, tonight we are planning to post/publish our 8th episode of The Drawing Room, our Dark Shadows podcast. It’s amazing to me how much we have improved the quality of this broadcast in only eight episodes! It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks, and even though Russ and I may be….well, if not “old,” at least “older,” we are having a lot of fun learning all kinds of things about the world of podcasting. And once again I say…there’s nothing wrong with fun.

Finally, this weekend I am also planning to do a good cleanup and rearranging of furniture in the front room. This room is the “catch-all,” and stuff just seems to pile up in there. It’s gotten to the point where I sort of feel it will be difficult to deal with all the stuff, unless I completely rearrange all the furniture. It will give me a good excuse to take everything out the room, sort through it, and put it back in again. Plus, I’m hoping to create an area where we can have another desk in the house. With all our computers and all our projects, another desk would be a good idea!

Well! Looks like a big weekend coming up! Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…lots of fun, and getting stuff done. (I’ll post before and after pics of the room renovation…if it turns out good!)

I’m very excited today. I’m expecting a late birthday gift in the mail. Joey says he has mailed me some music I’ve been hoping to get, and it might come in today. It’s a new band I’ve discovered, Placebo, and I’ve been listening to them on You Tube, but looking forward to having a disc I can take along with me in the car.

I remember that I found Placebo when Mary texted me, “Hey! I was looking at this band on You Tube, and I somehow ran into this other band, Placebo, and they sound like something you would like, check them out!” So that’s how I found Placebo. And I think that somehow (though I can’t for the life of me remember how!) Placebo led me to Fall Out Boy.

So the music goes on and on….

And now Mary has told me about another band she found on You Tube, which she says reminds her of Abney Park, which is another band she turned me on to a while back, and they are now one of my favorite bands. I have all their music in my Windows Media Player at work, and some days I just open that file and listen all day, over and over.

But today is not Abney Park, today is not Fall Out Boy, today is not even Al Stewart! Today is Placebo. I hope. Looking forward to looking in the mailbox this afternoon when I get in from work.

I love days when there is something to look forward to.