As the weather starts to turn progressively warmer, and the days get progressively longer, I find myself itching to get outside and spring clean the yard. We’ve had a few trees die over the winter, and a few of the taller trees lost their tops due to high winds, so the yard is pretty sad looking right now. I’m planning to recruit a couple of neighborhood kids to come over and help pick up the sticks and limbs over the next couple of weekends. I’m going to pile them all up together on a brush pile and light it up when the spring cleaning is done. Outdoor fires are illegal around here until after 4pm; I’m guessing it’s because that is when the wind dies down, but it is a pain to have to wait that long in the day – a good fire doesn’t burn out by dark, and I don’t like staying up all night playing nursemaid to a fire. I guess I’ll have to take a nap earlier in the day so that I can stay up late the night that I burn the brush pile.
For my birthday last month my mother bought me an “Infinity Razor.” She bought it at her favorite drugstore in the aisle where they sell the “As seen on TV” junk items. She was excited to give it to me because she thought that it would be a great way to save money for me. It claims to stay “new blade sharp” and that it will be “the last razor you’ll ever buy!”
Well, I gave it a try, and the blade was a dull as a ball of dryer lint. If you are thinking about buying one of these things, my advice to you is, don’t waste your money. I recently found a blog on the Internet that was discussing this same product and there were many comments about the product, and it seemed to me that the general consensus was the same. One of the comments wrote that they tried to return the item and was told that it was only returnable if it had not been used! So I’m not even going to try to return mine, I’m just throwing it away and chalking it up to one more way the consumer has been cheated. Maybe I should send a note about this to the local television news lady who does special stories on rip-offs!
Seems like just a few days ago I was lamenting that spring would never get here! Yet, here it is – finally! I am looking forward to taking the snow tires off of the car and opening up the windows in the house to air out the place. It’s incredible how great the house smells when we can give it a good airing out! Soon we can dry our sheets outside on the line, too. Nothing smells better than sheets that have dried out in the fresh air! Welcome spring! I’ve missed you!
One of my favorite snacks is nachos. They are delicious, and are quick and easy to make. Probably relatively inexepensive, too. When I was younger I loved the extra hot salsa, but now that I’m getting a little bit older I’ve found that my digestion system just can’t handle that much “heat” anymore, so now I buy the milder salsa. I prefer the smooth salsa, too; I don’t like all of the chunks of tomatoes in the chunky salsa. Unfortunately I’ve had a hard time finding a smooth salsa that I like, so I end up buying a chunky one and pick out all of the chunks! I feel like that’s a waste of money, but what can you do?
I pile a bunch of bite sized nacho chips on my plate, sprinkle “fiesta” cheese on top and microwave it for about 20 seconds. I have to watch it carefully to make sure the cheese doesn’t get too bubbly because then it gets hard. As soon as the cheese is melted, I stop the microwave and pull out the plate. I pour a little salsa on top, and maybe a little bit of sour cream if I have some, and there you go – a wonderful snack! Quick and easy. In fact, I’m going to make myself a plate of nachos right now! I’ve made myself hungry!
Well, everyone is Irish on St Patrick’s Day. Or so they say. I see a lot of people wearing green today, but a few are sporting orange instead. I’ve asked them why they are wearing orange and they tell me that the Catholics wear green, but the Protestants wear orange! I had never heard of that before! I wonder what the story is behind the Protestants wearing orange and not green!
Several months ago I taped an episode of 30 days and didn’t have time to watch it. Today I ran across it and decided to watch it. It was the episode about a hunter going to live with a family of animal rights activists for 30 days. It was a good show; I was surprised that they withheld the more horrific blood and guts scenes that they COULD have shown. Actually, I was pleased that they withheld the blood and guts parts! It was, as always, a good show.
One thing that I’ve been doing while recovering from my broken toes is spending more time on the Internet, reading other people’s blogs. My sister sent me a bunch of links to her favorite blogs to read, and I’ve been reading them. It really is very interesting and fun to see what other people are up to, what they are thinking and writing about. I’ve even left a few comments on some of the blogs that I’ve read here and there. I’ve also found some interesting sites about nature and science and news. I think I could easily spend most of my day on the Internet, just reading and absorbing all of the awesome information that is out there! I find myself clicking on links, clicking on more links, clicking on more links and before long I realize that I can’t even to remember what the first article was that I was reading about! Very entertaining!
Some people are just so stupid it is hard to believe. I was going through old newspapers and noticed a headline about people getting sick from eating a homemade stew. The story was that an ambulance had been dispatched to a residence because “a person was sick.” When the ambulance arrived at the house, there were a LOT of people sick, and they were all transported to the hospital. I don’t know how many ambulances actually were used, I just know that they all ended up at the hospital. They were calling it a “mystery illness.” Well, it turned out that the people took ill because they had all eaten a stew that was made with some herbs picked from in front of the house that had been sprayed with some kind of pesticide and was not properly washed before used in the food. I can’t believe that people are so stupid as to use pesticide on their crops and then not wash it off! To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they didn’t KNOW that pesticide had been used, but still for goodness sake you should wash your food before eating it, a dog could have passed by and peed on it!
Well, today daylight savings time has begun! I wonder how many people showed up late for church today! Me, it didn’t affect me at all. Yet. It will hit me tomorrow, though. I don’t like the changing of the clocks, and I know that the farmers don’t like it either. I’ve heard people say it is for the farmers, but I remember my grandfather, who WAS a farmer until he died telling me that was a bunch of baloney, that the farmers don’t like it at all!
I have an old sports injury in my right knee that causes my knee to “go out” without warning sometimes. I injured myself many years ago in a karate class, I overextended my knee during a kick, and it has never been the same. Well anyway, this morning I got up out of bed and my knee went out. I lurched forward and caught myself with my hands, but I broke three toes on my right foot just the same. I had never broken any bones before, and so I was completely surprised by how painful it was! Well, it wasn’t too long before my entire foot turned black and blue so I went to the doctor who confirmed the broken toes and just taped them together. The doctor said that there really isn’t anything more that they do for broken toes. I figured that there would be some kind of splint! So now I’m hobbling around on crutches for the next few weeks, and I am very annoyed over the entire situation!
We subscribe to the Sunday paper so we can get coupons and the television guide. That is essentially the only reason we subscribe to it. Every Sunday morning I walk down to the newspaper box, dragging the trash can behind me (trash pickup is early Monday morning) and leave the trashcan at the end of the driveway and then bring the newspaper back up to the house. It’s not something I enjoy doing, but it needs to be done and my wife has asked me to make that part of my routine. So I do it to make her happy.
It is very aggravating when I get down to the newspaper box to find that the Sunday paper is missing. I don’t know if someone swiped it or if the delivery person didn’t deliver it; I just know that it isn’t there. No coupons, no television guide. I know that I can call the paper and complain and they will give me credit for the missing paper, but that still leaves us without the coupons and television guide, and the inconvenience of having to run to the store to pick up a copy if we really want it that badly.
General life, Home and Garden | Dean | 
March 30, 2009 12:37 pm | 
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