Keeping Keys Organized

From My Yahoo! - Dummies eTips

How many hours of your life have you lost looking for your keys on your way out the door? Having one fail safe storage spot and never yielding to the temptation to put keys somewhere else is an easy cure for the common condition of keylessness. The closest use for keys is near the door or the car, so depending on your setup, your key spot should be the front hall or by the garage door. A drawer in the hall table or key rack on the wall provides the place; you provide the willpower to put your keys in the drawer or on the rack.

Use your head when deciding what keys to carry each day. If you leave the house with 20 pounds' worth and you don't work as a jail warden, then lighten your load. Carry just the keys you need, which means you can leave the keys for the storage shed and your spouse's or children's cars at home. Keep the office filing cabinet keys . . . you guessed it, at the office.

For more information like this, get a copy of Organizing For Dummies, by Eileen Roth.

I should add this book to my favorites list at AllConsuming.net.

That Spoonful of Sugar Won't Help

As if we really needed more drama in our lives - I say this tongue-in-cheek...

This morning Jennie found out results of a blood test she had done last week. Her blood sugar is above 240 (sorry, I don't know what units, but it's high). Her cholesterol is also high.

This means some big lifestyle changes for our entire family. Jennie has been apprehensive of getting diabetes, and yet it appears that is what's going on.

I'm thankful to know that there are many others who've had to go through this already. Specifically, I know about Garry and Carla. We'll be in touch!

Maxine is Dead

Last Tuesday the car broke down. Maxine, the name Mom gave her 1983 Datsun Nissan Maxima and gave to us when she moved back to Texas last year, finally died.

I've written here in the past about the problems we'd been having with the car. I'm reminded of a friend's comment that the least expensive car is the one you already own. I'm also reminded of the scene near the climax of "The Blues Brothers" movie when their car falls apart outside the downtown tax assessor's office.

(ASIDE: Among the many memorable quotes from the movie is this one from Elwood Blues -- "Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail us now!")

Both Jennie and I knew that it was just a matter of time until the car broke down. I had hoped and prayed that it would happen mercifully. Here's what happened:

Last Tuesday, June 22nd, I drove Maxine to work. I made a turn and must have hit a "chuck-hole" (aka "pot hole") in the road because when I got to the parking lot, I had some trouble steering the car into the parking spot.

After my shift I returned to the car to inspect whatever damage there was. I saw that the front, driver's-side corner of the bumper had been bent to rub against the tire. I got on the ground and bent the bumper away from the wheel. Satisfied with that, I got in the car and started her up.

I put the car in gear and went forward (I had pulled into the parking spot in reverse earlier). I went a few inches and felt the car fall forward. I shut the engine off and went to inspect.

The front, driver's-side wheel had come off the axle! That corner of the car was being supported by the wheel.

At once I felt grateful to God that it happened in a parking lot instead of on the street or worse, a highway. I'm also glad that no one was hurt.

I returned to work, called Jennie, and walked home. A half hour later, I walked back to the car, with two empty backpacks and a shoulder bag. I got everything I wanted out of the car.

So it has sat for the past week at that same spot in the parking lot. Since it's a high-traffic area (drive-thru, etc.), a number of people have asked about it. Some have offered to tow it (that business card on the dashboard); others have offered to buy it or fix it.

Maxine is beyond repair. I almost feel like I'd have to pay someone else to take her off our hands (lol)! Yet if there is someone who wants to give us some money for her, then Amen!

Something else that's interesting... At the beginning of the month we had gotten 30-day temporary tags and some insurance for the car. We knew that it didn't have a chance in h*** of passing the emissions inspection. We had discovered that the only way to get out of an insurance policy is if the car would break down.

So, in general, we can see how God is blessing us. Our lives are more complicated (Jennie works 3rd shift, for example) by not having a car, but we're managing, for the meantime.

Ritalin and Suicide Link?

WebMD Answers: "Is there a link between Ritalin and suicide?"

A mom of a child with ADHD expresses her concerns about whether Ritalin may cause suicidal or violent tendencies.

The short answer: Kids can be at a greater risk when left untreated. You may, however, want to read the full article and, hence, get the long answer.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

My baby sister Mandy is 25! Wow! A whole quarter!

"If you'd never been born, well what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a door knob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes!
Or worse than all that... why, you might be a
WASN'T!
A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't.
A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present.
But you... you ARE YOU! And now, isn't that pleasant!"
-- Dr. Seuss, from Happy Birthday To You!, via QuotesBlog

Testing mail to post feature

This is a test of the mail to post feature.  Did it work?

Update: I guess it did!

Connected!

For the time being, anyway.

I decided to install one of those trial CDs that AOL sent us via mail recently. After some poking, prodding, many reboots (our PC is 5 years old), I finally got us connected.

It had been nearly two weeks since I last logged on at the library, and my mailboxes were in much need of cleaning out.

So much to catch up on. It will have to happen later, though. I have to get to bed. I have a therapist appointment later today at 10 AM.

JOKE ALERT - Big Planes and Little Planes

A mother and her son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago. The son, who had been looking out the window, turned to his mother and asked, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?"

The mother, who couldn't think of an answer, told her son to ask the flight attendant.

So the boy asked the flight attendant, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?"

The flight attendant responded, "Did your mother tell you to ask me?"

The boy admitted that this was the case.

"Well, then," she replied, "tell your mother that there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time. Your mother can explain THAT to you."

And that's all I have to say about that. Thanks to Mom for forwarding Karen's email!

JOKE ALERT - OWW! That Hurts!

Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on gurneys next to each other outside the operating room. The first kid leans over and asks, "What are you in here for?" The second kid says, "I'm in here to get my tonsils out and I'm a little nervous."

The first kid says, "You've got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up they give you lots of Jell-O and ice cream. It's a breeze."

The second kid then asks, "What are you here for?"

The first kid says, "A circumcision."

The second kid says, "Whoa, Good luck, buddy, I had that done when I was born...Couldn't walk for a year."

Thanks to Mom for forwarding the original email from Karen

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Nine years ago, at 11:20 AM, in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, my bride Jennie walked down the aisle to become my wife! Whoo Hoo! I love you, honey!

It's Been Awhile

Not being able to get online that much has helped me to have more balance in my life. I used to spend so much time online that ignored everything else around me.

I'm reading more now. Books and newspapers. I really enjoy crossword puzzles, too.

I read this great book by Kathy Buckley entitled If You Could Hear What I See. Fantastic!

I've just been told that I have a few more minutes before the library closes.

Miscellaneous Word Associations

Cicadas - Humidity - swimming - fans - central air - library - music - guitar - callouses - scabs - healing - moving - career - bartending - vacation/break - games - interest - singing - team building - dog training - stay on task - smelly gasoline vapors - bill collectors - overdrawn bank accounts - God - alone - introspection - something other than TV

R.I.P. Ronald W. Reagan

Computer and Car Drama

Greetings once again from the library! Yesterday I spent some time toying with the home PC. Our 19" monitor had gone out, so I plugged in a 13- or 15-inch one a friend gave us. It appears to be working okay, except that I have to use 800x600 resolution now. Also the buttons that stretch the screen vertically and horizontally are stuck right now. Fortunately, this happened after I got the screen to a decent size!

We also have an HP All-in-One printer/scanner/copier/fax, and it has been behaving badly. I replaced the black ink cartridge, and now it incessantly tells us that we need to insert/reinsert the color ink cartridge. We'll need to wait awhile to purchase a new color cartridge to see if that works, but for now, it exists as a nice paperweight.

The big reason for the home PC activity is that we're having to get temp tags and insurance for the car Mom has given us, a 1983 Datsun Maxima. It had been registered and insured in her name during the past year.

On Saturday I called around and got Jennie and I a 6-month policy for the car. I don't know whether the car will last that long, but we'll see. We need to have proof of insurance documents in order to get temporary license tags, so I asked the representative to fax us the documents.

Needless to say, they didn't come through. Yesterday I saw that the PC had QuickLink, some faxing software that came with it. We'd never used it before, but I figured it was worth trying out.

Jennie called the folks at the insurance company this morning, and they faxed the documents to our PC. I was then able to save them to a diskette to bring to the library to print out. Unfortunately, they won't come up in any of the office applications.

I think we'll have to return home, save the documents in a more ubiquitously-known file format, and then come back here to the library to print them out.