Anger Break

I've been on a bit of an "Anger Break". You see, it seems that everything ticks me off, and I just haven't been able to get past it. This year, one of those resolution thingy's was too be more positive. I've read a little of the Oprah thing, something about the laws of attraction. In my mind, it seems there are some people who are just genuinely happy all of the time, no matter what, they are positive and have kind words. I love/hate those people. I love that they are like that, I hate that I'm not more like that. Some of those people, I'm convinced are just too dumb to realize they should not be happy about their "circumstances".

Here's the short list on what has contributed to my "Anger Break"

Retailers selling crappy stuff: It seems like over the past couple of years, we buy a product and it just doesn't last. The TV I bought for my parents about 4 years ago, it quit working about 2 years ago. Only, it didn't completely quit working, just the remote control. Easy fix, right? You just get one of those universal gizmos and you're back in business. WRONG. We've tried universals, exact replacements, etc. NO LUCK. Apparently, the company manufactured that model to sell at the retailer for a "great deal", and used less than the best parts. So, I bought the replacement part that goes in the TV, but my dad's not brave enough to fix it. Two years pass, I don't know that he can even find the part anymore. Call a repair man? Of course, we thought of that 2 years ago. We had 2 tell us it would be cheaper to replace the TV than repair it. GO FIGURE. (Now my parents are waiting for this DTV thing...don't get me started.) We bought a weed-whacker. Guess what, we now found out it was manufactured for a retailer. (That would be Sears and Home Depot that we no longer shop at.) The starter went out on the weed whacker about 18 months after the purchase date. Good news: 3 year warranty. Bad news: warranty specifically doesn't include starters.

1995 Cadillac: Great deal a couple of years ago. We got the car for well under blue book. It was in excellent condition, only 50K miles -- truly one of those grandma cars that spent most of it's time parked in a cozy garage. The darn car hasn't been in use for almost a month now. The mechanic claims to have driven it with no problem. Of course, he only put 55 miles on it and used a half tank of gas -- about 8 gallons. Do the math...6.875 miles per gallon. That would tell me, there is a problem. My real problem, I got on the freeway and again lost complete power. Then it took over an hour to get home, about 4 miles, because I could not keep the car running. It just dies with no warning, no sputtering, you just realize, no power steering, oh, wait, that's no POWER. I'm mad at the car, the deal, the fact that I got rid of my little truck -- which I LOVED; the mechanic, and us. We have not had a free moment this week to take it back to the mechanic, or find another one -- mechanic that is.

Gas, fuel, cooking oil prices: Who isn't mad at this? Well, having my income rely on the "trucking" industry makes me mad. Until we either use resources in our back yard, or can tele-transport (or whatever it's called) we will have to truck products from place to place. It's ridiculous that we rely on the truck to take such a hit when the cost of transportation increases at an astounding rate. Did you know diesel is a bi-product of gasoline? So why is diesel so much more expensive than fuel??? We have all seen the cost of food rise -- I cannot believe how expensive cooking oil seems to be...did I just always get it on sale? It's a sign, don't eat things that require cooking oil.

Dishonesty: I grew up with honest, hard working parents. I thought lying was something you did when you said you were "up" in the morning. (Yes, in my house, my mom got me up...it took her about an hour...not something I'm proud of. God, please help me if I ever have a child...it's not going to be pretty.) Today it seems people are so dishonest. I have an incredibly hard time having repair men fix things (or find the problem). It's almost like honesty is something of the past. In my life, it's like, I have to ask myself, "How long before I find out the truth, because I know you're lying to me?" At least in my world. What do you do when it's your family that is being dishonest? How do you look past that? How do you forgive people? How do you know if it's you that need to be forgiven? I could go on, and on, and on...Forgiveness...another post all on it's own...(Thank goodness my parents are still honest, except of course their "senior" moments, but I don't hold that against them.)

Family Reunion: Yep, it was that time of year. Our annual family reunion. Growing up, I had two -- my mom's family and my dad's family. Some time, either high school or college, I'm not sure, someone ran off with the "Kitty" of money used to pay for the next family reunion on my dad's side. So, we're down to one. This year, we drove 120 miles to sit in a building that had to be 85 stuffy degrees. (Yes, we pay for a building, but the owners did not feel the need to turn on the AC this year.) What's more, is that due to "family feuds" over the years, I don't know if I should talk to some of the people there or not! I mean, really, can you imagine, wondering, should I go say "hello" to Cousin Jerry*, I think he's still angry that my grandfather bought out his father's property. True story. I've got no hard feelings. But hey, my grandparents owned the property. But, I can honestly say that I feel some of those people do not want anything to do with me. Maybe it's things my parents have said to them, or things my parents have said to me. But, really, it's not worth my time (or money spent in gas to get there). Yep, next year, first Sunday of August, I know where I will NOT be.


Sadly, my anger list is much longer than these 5 points. But, who wants to spend time dwelling on the little points. I'm sure that if I had a dependable car to drive, I'd do what many women do -- I'd go shopping! I'd get ice cream! I'd do anything but stay in my house and stew. It's like I'm a pot of stew, sometimes I even bubble over. I just hope, once I'm done, I'm tasty! :)

We're prepared...

for nothing....

Yep, it's that time. The hurricane is coming, the hurricane is comming... We have been a little distracted by life the past couple of days, so we hadn't read the paper or listened to the news. (It seems life is more pleasant without those distractions!) Yesterday we were driving back from Victoria, and I noticed the signs all flashed "It's hurricane season. Keep your gas tanks full." I thought, how weird, it's not like there's a storm headed this way. The gas companies must be trying to bump up the profits they are missing out on -- supposively people are driving less.

We got home, and put in a movie. It was not something that kept my interest, plus I was feeling a little sleep deprived, so I fell asleep. When I woke up, HE was asleep. So, I stopped the movie, and as I flipped through the line up -- there it was, "Tropical Storm heading to the Texas/Louisiana coast." I was a little surprised, I expected the formation to be far out. Then I saw the map, I was really surprised to see how close the storm already was. (Good news of course!)

Some businesses are closed, so of course that affected our plans of work tomorrow. We worked through the day and then I made dinner. HE insisted on preparing things. Of course, I refused to help this time. Last time it took me days to get ready and WEEKS to unpack. Honestly, there's a box of pictures I put up when we were preparing for hurricane Rita. I have never even taken them back out, sad, I know. So this time, I've backed up my computer, and I'm ready to watch the rain, and a little bit of wind. HE has completely taken loose object out of our yard or tied it down. For example, the garbage can (is too "dirty" to go into the garage) so it is strapped down to the fence. Yes, I told HIM that this was all due to his OCD. But, we're prepared....

No news....

Well, it has been an unbelievably "homey" couple of weeks. My car acted funky, then got worse. So, I took it to the shop. It's like a little flash -- happens as quick as you blink your eyes. The radio skips out, the dash lights flicker one time, and then you look down, and have to touch the accelerator to see that nope, you've got NO power. It really sucks. It did this to me on the freeway, in traffic one day. Needless to say, I freaked out. But the mechanic couldn't figure out anything. So, when it happened and we were BOTH in the car, it was like I didn't make it up. We drove about 8 miles in it, and as we were going down the road, it just quit. It happened three times within about 5 miles. The car won't re-start immediately, so you're sort of stuck either on the side of the road or in the nearest parking lot if you're lucky. Really, it's the weirdest thing. They haven't been able to duplicate the problem -- the mechanic has had it for a week. Guess what -- it's running fine for them. GO FIGURE!

My theory is that it has something to do with the ignition key. Of course, they do not believe in any way this is the problem. BUT, my keys are gold plated, I know, it sounds so getto, but that's how we distinguish between HIS and HERS. His keys, the one the mechanic has are the normal looking key. I forgot to drop off the gold keys, and they do not feel this would affect the problem. Hopefully, I'll make it by there in the ol' tank tomorrow morning so they can give them a try.

I feel as if I have been trapped in my own house to work, to clean, and to wait on the darn car to be repaired for weeks now. I leave for a little road trip Wednesday, looks like a rental is in my near future.

7 AM

Ok, so I don't have to get up early. I've had yet ANOTHER head cold/sinus infection. It's been approximately 4 weeks since the last one. I'm not convinced the last one ever left, but it's partying in my head right now. Night time and mornings are the worst. I went to bed around 2 AM last night. At 7 AM I woke up to the sound of our house falling in.

Ok, so it wasn't our house, it was the house next door, but it sounded like it could have been our house. The walls were trembling, they have been most of the day. I couldn't believe the dogs weren't barking!! I looked over to see Missy a little scared, I offered her to go out and she went. I had to go look for the beagle. She was looking out the front window, I think all she could see was the big machinery. I think she must have been thinking, "I don't think I can take that thing on, so I won't alert the humans of it. One wrong move, and I think it could crush us all." Missy went out, only long enough to do what she had to. Rita, the beagle, went out, heard the crashing brick and glass breaking, turned around and had a look, of fear. She's usually a little terror, and I think this machine eating the house next door was finally her match.

The house was a pile of wood within 45 minutes. The oversized 3 car garage with a huge attic, it was a pile of wood by 7:58 AM. Yep, a lifetime of memories in that house, all just a pile of rubble within an hour. It was a sad morning. We know the guy who used to own the house, he would have never wanted that to happen. So, when I went out at 7 AM with Rita, it was a gloomy morning. There was a gray sky and a gentle mist. (Of course these were due to hurricane Dolly down south.) But, it was a sad moment that tugged at my heart a little. Just reminded me that it's just stuff, it's just a structure, people are what gives the rubble life.

Weekend Fun

This is a picture of the kiddie pool we got for the dogs to play in. It's been so incredibly hot here! We thought maybe they'd spend a little more time outside, if they had somewhere cool to take a dip in...


This is a picture of HIM in the pool. Note Rita, the beagle barking at him to get out of the pool.


This is a picture of Rita and Daisy, hot as can be, but not getting into the pool.



This is a picture of the Water Man. He found the biggest sprinkler he could find and gets such enjoyment out of it. Supposively, the sprinkler should shoot 40 feet. Unfortunately, our water pressure fluctuates ALOT. Sometimes, there's not enough pressure to make it work properly. When we bought the house, he said he'd let the grass die before he ever watered it. I think he may turn into one of those little old men that sits in their lawn chair holding the hose to water their yards! :)



It was dark by the time we finished our walk, but Missy and Rita did get into the pool after the walk. Rita tried to sit down, but didn't like the water all around her. The reason we actually got them a pool? We used to load them up and drive about a half hour to the dog park. There's two ponds for dogs to get into. We'd pack them up, fight the construction/traffic mess, they would run and play, but NEVER get into the water. I don't have the patience or time time go all the way to the dog park --- $5/gallon doesn't help! We took them to a closer park this weekend after they went shopping for their own dog food. This park has a neat little water feature, and Rita seemed to enjoy it. So we decided to pick up a little pool. I don't know if it will get used much, but we tried!