Slopping Joe

What a great hike this morning in my new hood. I walked uphill and about died and then I received a reward I got to walk downhill for a while. I left the compound and took a brisk walk on the mean streets. Walked up hill again and finished. It is misty and warm out there.  My home could have been a many turreted castle if you looked back through the mist and lights at it. Magical this morning.

It was misty like this a few nights ago as I was driving. I came to a stop and looked at the highway above me. Beautiful ladies in gossamer ball gowns were dancing on the edge of the road. They were all tall and elegant with golden globed hair and frothy pink tulle made of light and mist. I wish I could have photographed it or better yet painted it. The contrast was soft and light against hard and dark. Maybe from my mind I can paint it. I should buy and easel today.

I spent a few days with my granddaughter while her mom went to Vegas. 


They have also just moved and her flat looked like a refugee camp. Seriously it was like camping. I slept on the mattress which was on the ground. No one could find any sheets so we used blankets. Paper plates, plastic cups, one giant pot, one very large skillet and the only washcloth in the place I used to wash dishes. She had not installed wifi and the broadband could not handle the load of content and video that is part of everyday life online. My nephew asked if I wanted to binge watch Game of Thrones with him. Well of course! However, there was no wifi to watch with but with his iPhone and a cable he could stream from one to the other. $45.00 later we are good to go and season 1 is done.

We went to gymnastics, dance class, school and shopping for groceries where we found heart shaped donuts with sprinkles. Yes, I bought some and yes she is not allowed donuts but I was in charge.  We made chicken club tacos 

for dinner one night and the next, per my granddaughter’s request, I made Sloppy Joes. When I asked her what she wanted with them she said Cheetos but Mom will be mad. Too bad!!! She ate some Cheetos she ate half of a Joe and a few more Cheetos and the other half of her Joe and then about 15 minutes later she asked for another Joe. The girl loves some Sloppy Joes. 


My nephew ate 4 of them. If they thought those were good they would really love my homemade ones.

Think I will scurry off and make breakfast.

Cheers!

Who Needs 7 walmarts?

Another of the reasons, in a long list I needed to move from my old community was the proximity of a Walmart “Corner Store” being built across the street. Not being a Walmart shopper I assumed those were small 7-11 style stores. No, no they are huge. So I move. Skip forward exactly one month since move-in which, by the way, was exactly how many days passed from my move-in at the former place when they announced the place had been bought and the new owners the Alamo Housing Authority were going to replace the workout facility with and educational facility.  WTH????? I went to work out every day!!!

I was at Rotary Club meeting and the speaker was from my new local EDC and she proudly announced that after 10 years they had been granted a Walmart Corner Store!!! And, it was being built about 2 blocks from my new community.  “bloody hell!!!” tumbled out my mouth. Yes, there in the middle of her speaking that actually came out and it was not my inside voice either.  I have only lived there 14 days, actually 2 weeks’ shy of 1 month.

This new Walmart, W1 will be only 3 miles from the Walmart W2 I just moved away from. Walmart W1 is 11 miles from another Walmart W3.  Walmart W1 is only 3 miles from another Walmart W4 in the other direction. 6 miles from Walmart W1 is another Walmart W5 and 12 miles east of W1 is Walmart W6. 5 miles west of W1 is Walmart W7. I am bloody surrounded by them. Please, anyone!! Where can I go where I will not be surrounded by this. Do the owners even ever go in their own bloody store? Do they shop there? They are closing over 200 stores nationwide and yet there are 7, one is  brand new (as in 2 months) and two more that are being built in a 12-mile radius from where I live. This is nuts!!!

I do not shop at Walmart. I can say I have been in one store  maybe 4 times in all of 2015.

While I am fussed up I want to ask. Do you people truly believe you have the power to ‘send Angels” to bring light to some other person? You can’t say things like “I am sending you angels to protect you, I am sending angels to guide you.”  

Who do you think you are to command Angels? Stop the nonsense! And another thing. What does “I am sending you good thoughts” actually mean? And how does that work for you and for me? How do I know when they arrive? How will they help me once they do arrive? How do I use them?

I need coffee!

Do to the weak broadband at my current location there are no images for this letter

Commit Coward!

I walked in the bathroom yesterday morning brushed my teeth, my hair, washed my hands, you know, bathroom stuff. As I was drying my hands and about to leave I noticed Spiderman poised on the wall near the door. 

It appeared he was planning an ambush so I unrolled a length of toilet paper, folded into a nice fat square and attacked. I checked to make sure I got him and he was not there. I jumped back and checked out my person to see if he had jumped on me. Looking from mirror to self and back again like a crazy person. The floor!!??   Yes, the floor, which by the way is wood and is as brown as the spider, I grab a towel and mop at the floor. He is gone, or maybe he was never really there. For the rest of the day it is now in my head that he is plotting revenge. When I least expect it he will reveal himself.

Hours later, the incident a memory and as I am minding my business and leaving some pee he appears walking across the floor toward my bare feet. I grab the still squared paper weapon from earlier and BAM! Flushed him. I am safe.

I am still having problems with decorating my bathroom. I have purchased and returned 8 different rugs in assorted colors and textures. The rest of the house was not this complicated everything just went where it was supposed to go and looks wonderful. Not this room. I have a shower curtain I really like even though it is a not so pretty, yet neutral khaki/taupe/beige and white stripe. It looks beachy and being so neutral I believed it would go with anything. Including the sisal grass rug. 

I tried. Maybe I am attempting to be too creative. I want it to look beach cabana so I could just lay down some beach towels for rugs. This is really fussing me up and yet I am enjoying the hunt. Why is my bath so hard?

Male creature who was so rude in the parking lot. I turned on my signal, braked at my turn, waited for the oncoming car and the one in the skinny parking lot drive to clear my path before I turned. You did not need to apply your horn which I noticed you waited until I was in mid turn to use.  That alone gets you the name coward. You want to honk? Be bold you sniveling pound of less. It was not even a honk more of a beep, like you wanted to signal your frustration but were too wimpy to commit. Again you are a coward.  I also saw the head shake you were doing as you drove on barely clearing my bumper at a speed not proper for a parking lot in your little silver attempt at an SUV. 

Another sign of your lack of commitment. Are you from California? I am maneuvering a car the size of a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.  

So, I cannot just whip across oncoming cars and blast into a crowded parking lot. I would like to feel sorry for your mom for having to claim she birthed you but maybe she doesn’t and you are at a loss as to why. Reread the paragraph! My first thought was to Towanda your ass. But again maneuvering my car 

through the crowded parking lot to follow you was more effort than I wanted to exert. I knew where in the parking lot you were. I did stop to watch you. I do know what car you were in. My reaction to your attack on me was a wee bit frightening to me. I would have had no remorse or pity. I went on about my business. You are welcome.

What is it with men and driving? There is no need to be rude or aggressive. Slow down, calm down, and enjoy your journey/mission/adventure. Be nice!

I must make breakfast I am apparently hungry and fussy.

Cheers!

Do-Si-Do Abe Lincoln

For the third day in a row I awake to find my right hip in complete rebellion. It feels like a knuckle that is begging to be cracked popped and shifted back into alignment. Except I cannot just crack my lower back. I have to walk it out and wait it out. I was fine until I stretched and then spasm. I put some Blue on it and found the most comfortable position and eventually relaxed. An hour later it still is screaming at me. I am beginning to believe it is weather related as the past three mornings have been overcast with a lot of moisture. Like an old farmer who can predict weather based on his aches and pains. 

 This makes me sad. Being an old farmer was not in my dreams as a child of how I wanted my life to be. 

One of my dearest friends has decided to move East. That means she is coming here. She is packing up in less than a month and heading out with a child, some cats and maybe a dog. This is an exciting time for them. She is not sure where she will live, nor she does not have a job yet. She is trusting in the hands of karma and the universe. I will give her over to GOD because HE has been orchestrating a lovely tapestry out of her life for years and there is more wonders to come. It had not been random my beautiful friend.  

I made a run for some pizza

 the other evening at a friends pizza and tap room. 

As I was walking in the door I was mugged by an adorable little girl scout and her family of protectors. She was determined and bubbly. At first I said no thanx but then I turned and walked over. She went from disappointment to saleswoman in nano-seconds and reminded me of a sales associate I worked with a few years ago. We bantered about whether they were delicious. I asked for the peanut butter sandwich cookies 

which I did not see on the display. She tried to talk me into something else when she realized they were not there (keep selling it girl!). Her mom said they were in the car and took off to get them. I gave her a five dollar bill and she proceeded to inform me that they had learned about the man on the bill in school. Abraham Lincoln? 

"Yes",  she says "he was very interesting." One of my favorite presidents. Do you like him? and on we chatted. She handed me my cookies and and my change and I said the only reason I was buying the cookies from her was because she liked Abraham Lincoln too. She smiled, her family giggled and I went in for pizza. 

The morale of the story is .... I am not sure but, I did stop to think about the other girl scout with her. Why not her? Why that girl? I had been accosted by another girl a week ago and after a no thank you I went on about my business. Why not the first girl of last week? Why was I supposed to do business with this little tiny girl? Besides for the purpose of telling a story. Do you think I will ever know? Will she become a great performer and at the Awards ceremony thank the woman who loved Abraham Lincoln? 

Mention me as she accepts her Noble or Pulitzer? Or will it become a cause for laughter at family gatherings.... remember the crazy Abe Lincoln lady? 

What about everybody else I have ever encountered? 

Going for more coffee and some sausage... 

Why So Early?

I was reading an article about something to do with photography on a travel site. I scrolled on down to the comments because sometimes, there is more information to be shared by commenters and then sometimes there is foul mouthed, insensitive insults being hurled at the writer, then the bullying starts and people attack each other over comments. It becomes a verbally violent environment.

It seems it starts when one person attacks the article but does not stop there. They then move on to also attack the writer. This causes someone to attack back in defense of the writer and the fact that they are simply expressing an opinion. “It does not make the writer a gooftard, or imbecile” and BOOM! The fisticuffs begin.  

I am all for leaving comments and to responding to them. But when it becomes disrespectful and belligerent I am not sure it is a good idea to leave them there. I also am not sure they don’t deserve to be addressed or the behavior be addressed. Delete? Ignore? Respond and try to bring some civility back to the area?

Maybe just respond to the comments or questions that are not instigating a fight and delete those that are clearly rude and aggressive?

People!! Be nice!

I have discovered that I am to babysit my granddaughter 

right up to the Saturday I am to leave on the cruise. 

Now this is a lot of shuffling I will have to do. Increases the intensity (code word for stress) of the adventure. Pack what I want to take on both trips, do laundry at her house before I leave. Drive back here meet up with Savannah and then drive to Galveston Friday night or the crack of dawn Saturday?

This will only work if Bini or my nephew do not have to work Saturday. Maybe we can go one week later. Hmmmmm…..

Maybe I can find a different trip that will be just as fun, that costs the same and will give us more flexibility on when. She tells me if we go in June it is 3 times the price it is now. I accept this challenge.

Did I tell you about the herd of men I saw at the grocery store at 6:30 in the morning on Valentine’s day. Every one of them had flowers of some kind; Bouquets, arrangements, flowering plants. Some had candy in heart boxes, bags, giant bars. Many had containers of chocolate covered strawberries and a few had a stuffed fuzzy and a balloon here and there. While it was all truly sweet I have been wondering for the past few days why they were up and at the store so early. I believe they may have had a vast assortment of reasons but I would like to know.

Just get off a 4-day shift at the fire department. Forgot about it. Just drove back home from 2 weeks in oil field. Just got off work from the base or hospital or wherever their midnight shifts had them? In the dog house for being out the night before too late. Guilty about the affair you have been having. What? Not judging just curious at what the early morning motivation was.

I would like to think that they had wonderful surprises planned all day and this was to be the start. Or…. maybe they planned to be gone all day with the guys and this was the blow softener.

I should have asked...

Champagne and Chocolate Makeover

It is Spring Beauty Week at my favorite store. For a small purchase you can receive a bag full of goodies. 

On top of that many of the Beauty lines have Gift with Purchase specials of their own so you can walk out of their spending $300 and taking home $900 worth of products. They do this twice a year. I made an appointment with my Consultant to come in on Tuesday.

In my naive tunnel vision, I assume everyone does this or has done this…. They have and do not.

My devotional was about “Nudges” yesterday. You know those instructions or suggestions you get in your head or heart, or urges as some of you may call them. Whispers that I believe are from the Holy Spirit. I was nudged to ask a girlfriend, Savannah to go with me. She agreed. So started a Girls Day Out adventure that became even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

I picked her up and we starting chatting. The next thing I know we had arrived at our destination. We had been sharing about Valentine’s day and chocolates. Ahhh… chocolate. Come with me I said and off we went marching straight to the Godiva Boutique. I was going to purchase us each a piece of chocolate. As we waited she discovered the Valentine boxed chocolates that were now on clearance and she bought it instead. We were barely out of the store when she tore into the beautiful box 

and offered us both a piece. It was decadent, irreverent, reckless and delicious. We walked for a bit and had another piece. We were now feeling extravagant no longer ruled by dictates of what one should or should not eat.

We shopped a few stores where I found the shower curtain

that had been alluding me since I moved, a tropical scented candle and as we were perusing the intimate apparel section we decided we would take a cruise in two weeks. We were now soaring through euphoria (might have been the chocolates) but everything from then on out was us talking about our life on our cruise.

A cruise, something I said I would never do. I will probably be eaten by sharks. Something I also have said I will never do. What am I doing???

My appointment time rolled around and so we headed to the store. Instead of me taking my makeover moment I gave it to Savannah and when asked if we wanted water I asked for Champagne and sent shock waves through the entire department. 

After a few minutes the glasses arrived. I made my purchase 

and Savannah came out of the makeover looking like a sexy yet understated Flamenco dancer, she was glowing. I drove her back home and she said she would get all the details for the cruise.

As I am writing this I have just recalled I told my daughter I would babysit my granddaughter and I think the dates will crash into the cruise date. I am off to call my daughter while I chop some melon for breakfast.

I will let you know…

The Horse Upstairs

Getting settled into a new home environment is always an adventure. New spaces, new places, new neighbors and new noises and sounds. I have had very bad neighbors and indifferent neighbors and drama neighbors.  I was going to fuss about the horse that lives upstairs and as if it has a script it has awakened. It clomped (really, no joke it clomps) to the bathroom. 

It came home yesterday afternoon and bounded up the stairs into its stall and then the clomping began. Down the hallway, back up the hallway into another room, back up the hall and back again. This went on for almost an hour. It never would just roost. This is the first time I have become aware of the clomping. Why yesterday? Did it come home angry? Bad day at work? Problems with the lover? No tax refunds this year? Road rage aftermath? No chocolate cake with buttercream frosting at the grocery store? Dropped a $20? I hope it finds its joy today.

My flat is also right by the community dog park. I do not have a dog. These are more sounds I need to get accustomed to. People take their dogs to the park and they run and play and do dog stuff. The people all congregate at the covered benches which are about 20 feet from my window and chatter and laugh. Why I have been asked did I choose this flat when I mention it. Because it was the only 2 bedroom flat available in the entire community and this community was the best bang for my buck. So the dogs, there is this girl who brings a pug 

and an Australian shepherd 

to the park about 5 times a day. The Aussie carries a ball in his mouth and plays the pug runs around the park barking nonstop at everything. They are there at least 20 minutes per visit. It is like having dogs without all the responsibility and maintenance. This could work out well.

Does anyone else think the Bachelor is like the Jerry Springer show with Roses added and maybe no violence? I have been watching this out of curiosity over Ben 

being on the cover of several tabloid magazines. Fascinating experiments going on every week. I have picked a favorite and am invested in this now. Yes, I am a wee bit embarrassed but as they say “it is like a train wreck” 

and I cannot look away. Am I a member of Bachelor nation now? I am not sure how one joins that but I will see this through to the dramatic end.

I must go make some breakfast and watch the episode form last night.

Cheers!

Dishwasher King Is Angry

At some point in the past weeks I must have angered the Dishwasher King. I have gone my entire life, or least since I was 7 loading and running dishwashers and have never had the problems I have encountered in the past four weeks. Mother’s first dishwasher sat in an alcove of the kitchen near the stove. I had to roll it over to the sink, rinse the dishes, load it from the top, like a clothes washer and then attach a hose and nozzle to the sink faucet. I turned on the hot water and pressed a button and it did its magic. 

Dishwashers have changed over the year and still I learned how they were different and kept on loading and running and them. Or could until four weeks ago.

If you read my last Breakfast Letter you will see that I had an incident with the dishwasher. That was in the old shack. Now I am in a new place and last night I cleaned up after my dinner, loaded and put a soap tablet in the dishwasher. I turned it on and went on about my business. This morning I open it up and get out a tea cup and saucer, a spoon which looks like it has not been cleaned and a cream pitcher which still is dirty. I stop in mid lift and look at the soap dispenser. There it is, the soap pod still alive and clinging to the dispenser lid for dear life. 

Bloody Hell!! I have restarted the bloody thing and am wondering how I could be having these troubles.

But wait! If this is the trouble, I am having than I will welcome it gladly because there are far worse troubles I could be having. Stop and think about that. To grab and ancient phrase it “blows my mind”. I could be the 6^th wealthiest single woman in the world and dating men; all the time wondering who loves me for me and who is loving me for my money? I could have just been fired from my job or my script of Xanax fell into the toilet and I am in Tanzania. Yes, I will take the Dishwasher Trials.

Did you notice I mentioned above that I have moved?  New flat, new year, new adventure. I am excited, renewed (or will be once I am rested up from the past three weeks of packing, moving and unpacking.) On paper the square footage is smaller but this place feels larger and roomier and was built in this century. Not that I have a problem with old buildings and places.  The ceilings are high, I have wood flooring and can use my Parisian rug

(which as you may recall I believe used to be in the home of Coco Channel), the bathrooms are huge, the closet is huge, the refrigerator makes ice. There is a microwave and best of all… I have hot water!! Yes, and my own water heater. Not a boiler room where the housing authority dictates how hot the water can because schools no longer teach Home Economics and three generations of ignorant girls apparently burn their babies.

People, I have valet trash service. Some of you may think that sounds naive to be excited about and some of you may have no idea what I am talking about. I set my assigned trash bin outside the front door along with any broke down boxes and in the evening the staff, who surely worked at Disneyland make it all disappear. My empty bin awaits me in the morning. 

There is no trash lurking outside of dumpsters, or blowing down the street or littering up the parking lot, I am not even sure there is a dumpster here. I have never even seen a garbage truck.

Now on to more serious stuff. I am torn about a shower curtain. Go for some clinical spa inspired white waffle thing,

 some kitschy octopus or mermaid 

or go for a colorful beach cabana look 

curtain that brings me joy?  Any thoughts?  

My new kitchen is begging me for some muffins.

Enjoy your day and let me know your thoughts on shower curtains.