Never heard of PayPal?
I was buying an email gift card for my wife today (don't worry, she never reads this blog) over the phone, as the company wanted to charge me a shipping fee if I purchased through the site. When I asked the rep if they accepted PayPal, she said "I don't know what that is." "You never heard of PayPal?" "No." "Are you in the United States?" (She didn't have any accent I could make out, just a cute little American...
White Christmas? No need to dream.
Whiteouts today, a few feet of snow over the last couple days. And our family holiday parties have begun with a Yule gathering at some in-laws tonight. Merry kept joking about how she's love to have some online friends from down south in the back seat watching us drive through all this, half the time with the hazards on. But in spite of it all, we can't go anywhere near the malls -- consumers are spending like...
Gone? Gone.
We had a horrific discovery yesterday -- the box with all our Christmas ornaments is missing. We last saw it packed up for the move, and know it is neither here nor there. We don't see them being stolen, and I wonder if they got caught up with donated items in all the confusion in early August. But this isn't about "decorations" -- it's about ornaments from the Old Country, the Great Depression, two world wars,...
My Schedule
I met with a professional coach / consultant and they told me lots of stuff I already knew I should be doing, but couldn't listen to myself. One change I am implementing right now is to have a set (yet flexible) schedule for work (Kentropolis) versus all the other stuff I do. It's more of a challenge than I thought, but already I feel rewarded with being able to leave work behind me, yet get work done when I need...
Amish Mud
I found another Amish farm to get eggs Thursday and got stuck in the mud leaving the place. I couldn't see the drainage ditch under the snow -- fortunately it was shallow and "Ben" had gravel to shovel under the tires. A little pushing helped, too, especially to get up the incline back onto the road. It was really muddy and slippery from snow. Ben felt bad but I insisted it wasn't his fault or a big deal. "Your...
Gas Prices are Awesome!
$2.50/gallon yesterday and falling another dime today. Probably less than what I was paying when I first started driving 20 years ago (Adjusted for inflation, of course). And now the barrel is supposed to drop under $40? Must be the fault of those greedy oil execs everyone is always talking about, LOL.
Climate Change – Politics versus Science, Again
More of the same. It's a curse having a philosophy degree, seeing clearly yet being able to do little about nonsense in the greater world of mass sentiment. The frustration comes from knowing the difference between accepted opinions and emotional please on one side, scientific data and rational arguments on the other ... when Gore gets his Nobel prize ripped from his hands, the world will be sane again, at least in...
Searching for Lydia
A couple days ago, Merry's friend Dawn lives in Kaisertown and says she saw what looked like Lydia in front of the woods near her house. She was on her way to work, but reported it to Merry who left me a note. I spent about an hour combing the woods and field at Mineral Springs and South Ogden, calling her name, and shaking a container of cat food. No luck. It was a bigger area than I thought it would be. We...
Snow and Happiness
I've never been so happy as I am now at this time in my life. By happy, I don't mean ecstatic or exuberant, but blissfully content. Apart from a few snags here and there, Merry shares in our occasional questioning, "Why are we so HAPPY?" Having a house is just a thing, but having a home ... that is a place, a platform from which to reach from, psychologically, emotionally. We have a place for each other that we...