SUV For Sale

Well, that wasn't as tough as it seemed.  Craigslist turned out to be a pretty simple affair....I do keep the "Craigslist Killers" in the forefront of my mind, though.  What if some creepy guy or worse - creepy guys show up?!  

The scurvy didn't get him
so he's looking for some wheels!
Nice teeth.

Fantastic.  Well, I can manage.  I always have.  But maybe as a good precaution I should take the car to a public parking lot for any interested viewers.  It's only sensible that I don't have unknown guests arrive at my home when I'm alone.  Of course, what is alone really?  I have a 4.5 lb Chihuahua who thinks she is a Doberman and I know how to use a handgun.  

My Rootin'-Tootin'-Shootin' Picture

Well, let's sell a car already....

A Very Good Salesman

When I met this Pirate Husband of mine, he was wearing cuff links.  He had impeccable table manners.  His personality was abrasive but he was good in the boardroom. (I said, "boardroom".)

This was years after I met him!

He's a real salesman; he should get an award for his sales panache.  I have seen that man go into a major fire department who had the intention of suing our mother company and come out with a fricking purchase order.  Oh, my goodness, he's good, he's really good.  

We sold communication equipment.

They only wanted to sue us for awhile. Thankfully
one lady fire fighter was so charmed by him, she said,
"You sexy...and you know it, too." He actually blushed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2cfA45mUI

All of this comes to mind when I think of the sales job he's done for his grand adventure.  It was supposed to be win win while I wait at home... ... ...bon voyage.

Where haven't I been lately?

Time for some fun.

Anna Stolfo

Every once in a while you meet someone who triggers a comfortableness that feels like an old friendship.

I met Anna this past Friday.  We started chatting and I could have stayed with her for hours, maybe shared coffee, and perhaps one of her famous freshly made cannolis.  

Yum.

It has been more than fifteen years since I was once in Rinaldo's Bake Shoppe in Dayton, Ohio.  I was there to pick up a strawberry filled cake for a party at Lion Apparel, where I used to work. Something about their bakery stood out in my mind and Friday I just had to get there.  

Anna was behind the counter and she buzzed me in; the store has been around for decades and unfortunately the neighborhood has been in deep decline for at least the last two decades.  The door stays locked and the windows barred.  Who can blame them? All those delicious made from scratch pastries would tempt even a saint.

So, I said to Anna that I needed some baked goods and was eeny-meeny-miney-mowing over which ones looked best.  Then I announced that I needed something special for my daughter-in-law.  Anna's eyebrows went up and in her adorable Italian accent she asked, "Is she a good one?"  "She's the best!" I answered.  "Then she needs the best; I'll be right back."  With that Anna headed to the back of the bakery and came back with her filled-on-the-spot homemade cannoli.  Well, for heaven's sake - that was special treatment!  Or really good sales!

We began chatting about good daughters-in-law and such when around the corner came Rinaldo.  Oh my goodness, how cute they were together!  

As we talked together I began sharing about my Pirate Husband off on his grand adventure.  Anna was shocked I wasn't with him. As Rinaldo came over and put his arm around Anna, resting his hand on her hip, I asked, "Is he bossy, Anna?" She looked perturbed and said that he was bossy and impatient.  He just smiled.  I imagine she has to swat him away throughout the day. I just grinned!  

Anna gave Rinaldo "a look" when she said they had retired twenty-two years ago and are still working every day.I shared how we have worked together every day, side by side, for more than a decade and it's a big adjustment. 

Anna nodded when I said he made me so angry when I couldn't reach him and imagined fifty ways he could have died, crying all night long until he called twelve hours later.  She knew.  She understood.  She asked if I had a good life insurance policy on him!  Now that was the best piece of advice I've had in a long while and I mulled over it while I sat in the car devouring my Boston cream pie doughnut.  

Rinaldo nodded and smiled, told me I had definitely better come back...all the while having his arm around Anna's waist and his hand on her hip.  I loved it.  

http://www.rinaldosbakeshoppe.com/History.asp

Sell His Car, He Said

Sell his car, he said.  Oh, really?  Yep.  Just wash it, clean it out, and put it up for sale.  Okay.  

Today I had time to take the thing to the car wash but when I pulled it out, it had a flat tire.  But, thankfully, my Pirate Husband had given me instructions on how to put air back into it.Fantastic. Did I say that already?

Nuts!

Double Darn It

Apparatus called the air compressor....fine.

Wrong Attachment

Proper Attachment

I managed.

Had to pull his car closer.

Took the little cap off & put it in my pocket.

Figuring out how to attach these two items was a bit tricky;
who knew you could use either side of the attachment?

Must have been enough air.  I made it to the car wash and
back without any trouble.

Now, how am I gonna sell this thing?!

Living and Dying

I live in a small town.  I like to tell people that I'm from the middle of Cornfield County, Ohio.  Since I was ten years old I've lived in the country or in small towns.  I've worked cornfields detasseling corn and even walked what is known as the "Green Mile" in the back forty of this town.  

It's not exclusive to this small town that everybody knows everybody, as well as everybody's business.  Most folks are neighborly and still like to share a bit of their lives when you pass them in the neighborhood.

That's how it was with Jim and Sally.  They lived across the street from us for more than a decade.  They came to our annual winter party and were great fun.  Jim was just the sweetest old soul; kind, even meek, I'd say.  Sally was full of sass and vinegar.  She was the first woman police officer in this town and she loved to tell stories about the old days.  Sally was so full of life that I could not believe she was in her 80's; she was a tall and robust blonde.  

Jim and Sally's house went up for sale today.  He passed away last year and Sally passed away earlier this summer.  We don't know their family but we did see some folks coming and going, packing up boxes, and carting them away.  

It got me to thinking about all the things I keep.  Thankfully I'm not a collector of trinkets; I'm probably more a collector of people.  I wish I'd been able to say goodbye to Miss Sally, maybe say a prayer with her. It's good to remember to "love thy neighbor". 

This is Your Life....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2CpQWg2pA

                                                                       "This Is Your Life"

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you've got now
Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life are you who you want to be?
This is your life are you who you want to be?

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose

Lonely

"...may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you--haunt me then. ... Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” 
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVRysN_33fc

"There's Just No Place Like Sauna"

I hear these words from my Pirate Husband almost every night. Being married to a Finnish man of the generation who was born in a sauna, it's the first thing he built in our home.  

For the most part I had planned to write about my adventures and not my lamentations, however, it may take some getting used to, this being alone.  Bear with me please, I do intend to grab life by the horns - maybe go out and have some fun.  But I'm still in the adjustment phase.  This too shall pass.

Sauna is - well, how can one describe sauna?  First of all, Americans do not pronounce the word correctly.  It is said like, "sow-nuh" not "saw-nuh" and there's a lot of steam going on in the place - an infrared sauna? - pffft - please, that's not a sauna!  You need rocks that are nearly glowing with heat and you must hear that sizzle when you throw water on them.  Aahhhh...the steam.  Things in your body that are toxic are pushed through your pores and carried away with all the sweat.  You never feel so clean as in a sauna.  Hot bath?  Hmph - "you're soaking in it, Madge."  (Does anybody remember Palmolive's Madge?!)  Hot steamy shower?  No, you never sweat out the toxins as you do in sauna. Most Finns go to sauna totally nude; even with business acquaintances - there's nothing you'll hide in the sauna.  Me?  I like a towel; it's an American thing...or maybe it's just me. 

1. Saunas relieve stress.

2. Saunas relax muscles and soothe aches/pains in both muscles and joints.

3. Saunas flush toxins.  Some toxins do not leave your body but through sweating.

4. Sauna cleanses the skin.

5. Saunas can induce a deeper sleep.

6. Saunas bring about recreational and social benefits.

7. Saunas improve cardiovascular performance.

8. Saunas burn calories.  Ah, yes, please!

9. Saunas can help fight illness.

10. Saunas just feel good.

The best sauna I've ever experienced was in the middle of absolutely no-where Finland.  My husband's uncle - who is a man I dearly love and cherish - Uncle Eero, prepared his 200 year old smoke sauna for our visit a few summers ago.  Oh my word, the aroma of smoke and birch leaves and tar on the walls; you can only know if you have been in a real smoke sauna.  

I miss Finland.

This was an amazing day.  It was raining outside and the rain water blurred the windows in which Uncle Eero had placed candles. It was a totally sexy thing to do for someone in his 80's (I do love that man & his precious wife, as well!).  Some Finns like to roll around naked in the snow between sauna sessions; the heat and cold shock the circulatory system like nothing else.  Well, I've done that once.  It worked. I was shocked.  I just hope the neighbors weren't watching! This is irrelevant to my perfect day memory! Kissing my Pirate Husband in the rain, hot and steamy from a 200 year old sauna, sans the towels....oh - my - word.  I do miss that man!

  

Loving a Pirate Husband....or Just Westley

“I love you,' Buttercup said. 'I know this must come as something of a surprise to you, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. Your eyes are like that, did you know? Well they are. How many minutes ago was I? Twenty? Had I brought my feelings up to then? It doesn't matter.' Buttercup still could not look at him. The sun was rising behind her now; she could feel the heat on her back, and it gave her courage. 'I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago that there cannot be comparison. I love you so much more now then when you opened your hovel door, there cannot be comparison. There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. Do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? I will do that. Do you want me to crawl? I will crawl. I will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but Arabian wine, I will go to Araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do. I know I cannot compete with the Countess in skills or wisdom or appeal, and I saw the way she looked at you. And I saw the way you looked at her. But remember, please, that she is old and has other interests, while I am seventeen and for me there is only you. Dearest Westley--I've never called you that before, have I?--Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley,--darling Westley, adored Westley, sweet perfect Westley, whisper that I have a chance to win your love.' And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done; she looked right into his eyes.” 

Pack Animals

From the Encyclopedia Britanica:  

animal social behaviour

• TITLE: social behaviour, animal
  SECTION: Social interactions involving the use of space
  ...school (fish), and tribe (humans) and more generalized terms such as colony, den, family, group, or pack. ..such as mating, nesting, feeding, sleeping, huddling, hibernating, and migrating. The plains of sub-Saharan Africa provide many examples, including lions sleeping in groups under thorn acacia trees, packs of hyenas (family Hyaenidae) cooperating to bring down a zebra (Equus quagga, E. grevyi, or E. zebra), migrating herds of wildebeest (Connochaetes), and lekking male*...
  
  
  
  cooperative foraging (biology)
  
  
  in biology, the process by which individuals in groups benefit by working together to gain access to food and other resources. Such cooperation ranges from the use of “ pack tactics” that involve elaborate signals to corral individual animals from large herds of prey to activities designed to overwhelm with large numbers the physical and chemical defenses of plants.
  
  
  

  I just think I'm a pack animal.  I'm not really that fond of living alone, nesting, feeding, sleeping, hibernating, and foraging all by myself.  Looking at the stars at night is just not the same as when discussing with another human being. It just isn't in my personality to walk through each day and night alone.

  
  

  I have a mate; I'm the other half of someone else.  

  
  
  
  Harry:  "I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night." 
  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  “He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

  
  
  *A lekking species is defined by the following characteristics: male displays, strong female mate choice, and the conferring of male indirect benefits...

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

Just Say "NO!" to Chocolate

She took solace in chocolate while waiting for her Pirate Husband to come home.

We live in a culture that still has illusions that every woman is willowy, yet strong.  But this illusion must be dissolved with a good look in the mirror of reality.  Ouch.

It is time to get back in the ring and begin fighting the encroachment of adipose tissue upon my derrière.

For the last week I have been back on the treadmill and limiting myself to sensible meal portions.  No more eating out or taking solace in the best coffee cake ever (3 sticks of real butter…my motto has always been, “if you’re gonna have it, then have it, just don’t have all of it” – have real, don’t have fake or reduced calorie). 

 

Back on the treadmill!

Losing weight is not rocket science, it’s basic math.  A pound is 3,500 calories.  To lose a pound a week I’m going to have to walk off 3,500 calories on the treadmill. 

The best part is that this is entirely under my control.  I don’t have to have permission from anyone.  I don’t have to pay anyone.  It’s no one else’s fault or problem.  I can fix this.

When I do have the opportunity to be with my Pirate Husband, I want to look my best.  Over the last six months there’s been so much planning and preparation – to the point of exhausted evenings – which always leads to exhausted mornings – that I haven’t exercised.  At my age, and that is something I don’t just divulge to the world, six months of letting myself go …is not like 25 years ago when I took six months off and let myself go.  Things GO!  Muscle is gone…and when the skin is no longer as firm, oh, things hang.  They sway.  They swing.  Heaven help me!  

It can be done.

 No, I’m fighting the good fight on this one.  Aging cannot be stopped but, brothers and sisters, I’m not going down without a fight.  I will not take solace in chocolate!  I will not be defeated!  I will prevail…at least, if I cannot prevail, I will do my very best to staunch up the landslide…and there’s always spanx to keep it from turning completely loose and wild.

Of course, the words of advice from my favorite girlfriends, "If you can't tone it, tan it."

SixteenTons: Taman blogin yllapito nailla nettiyhteyksilla tunt...

SixteenTons: Taman blogin yllapito nailla nettiyhteyksilla tunt...: Taman blogin yllapito nailla nettiyhteyksilla tuntuu tuskallisen turhauttavalta. Olen nyt toista paivaa Franfort MI 'ssa. Pohjoistuule...

DIY - Drain Cleaning Update

Okay, so I didn't really grab my drill purse; I don't even have a drill purse - yet.  But I did gather a bucket, paper towels, a large plastic bag, rubber gloves, and something that looked like a small, flat screwdriver but turned out to be some kind of file.

It wasn't so hard after all, although it was kind of nasty. I began by just unscrewing those white things around the pipes. (I do apologize for my lack of technical plumbing terms!) They were not so tight that I couldn't use a little muscle and remove them by hand.  Note:  "righty-tighty & lefty Lucy".  

A small amount of water came out when the pipes were pulled away and that was the purpose of having the bucket underneath.  

Ewww!  This is the gross "stuff" that has been clogging my drain and causing trouble.  But that isn't all that has been causing trouble.  This was a good place to begin the cleaning, though.

 I took the bits of pipe to the laundry room sink and began scrubbing the inside with a toothbrush and some powdered cleanser...with bleach.  

Again, none of this was difficult, just not pleasant. I also took the file tool and shoved some paper towel pieces down the drain to clean from the top to the uppermost pipe. Unfortunately, the paper towel pieces became lodged into the pipe - the copper part that I didn't have any access to except from the top or from the bottom.  Here's where it got difficult and I thought I was going to have to call a plumber.

But I just didn't want these guys to show up!

So, I began in earnest to jam and dig down the drain with that file tool.  Then I came up from the copper pipe end and just kept poking at it.  Out came one piece of paper towel covered in nastiness but one more piece was not letting loose.  I made sure my trusty bucket was in place and turned on the hot water, all the while jamming with the file tool and an old toothbrush.  That did the trick!

 I am so proud of myself!  I have an unclogged drain in my bathroom and now it is running freely.  It's not my favorite chore but it I can handle it.  

 All that work in the bathroom has not created any desire to go to plumbers school; neither did it inspire me to start on the garbage disposal in the kitchen.  But look how well this vase works to catch the drips!  That will work for awhile...until inspiration motivates me to dig in and get this job done, too!

Garbage Disposal Leak in the Kitchen

                       

DIY Plumbing

Do-It Yourself

Do It Yourself…plumbing.  Okay….as soon as I returned home from the lonely seashore, waving goodbye one last time to my Pirate Husband, what awaited me at home but a leaky garbage disposal pipe and a clogged bathroom sink.  Great.  

I've never been one of those bossy types leaving “honey-do” lists, neither have I been one of those helpless damsels in distress.  So, I Googled it...apparently, these things can be fixed by most anyone.  So, let me gather some tools….now where’d I put my drill purse?!

It’s not that I believe a woman can do everything a man can do; it’s just that sometimes life calls on a woman to rely upon herself.  

Let's see what happens....

"I Courted a Sailor"

"A man's got to do what a man's got to do," he said. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMYlg7_iFlA

I courted a sailor for six months and many,
I courted a sailor, now he's far from me.
I courted a sailor for six months and many,
I courted a sailor, now he's far from me.
On a fine summer's evening he said his heart was grieving
On a fine summer's evening these words he said to me

CHORUS
Oh I'm bound for the waves, the waves dearest Annie,
I'm bound for the waves, the waves upon the sea.
Oh I'm bound for the waves, the waves dearest Annie,
I'm bound for the waves, the captain calleth me.

CHORUS

Me heart has been yours now for six months and many,
Me heart has been yours now and will always remain.
Me heart has been yours now for six months and many,
Me heart has been yours now and will always remain.
Take with you me ring and me heart you'll always bring,
Take with you me ring when you sail away to sea.

CHORUS

I'll wait for me sailor for six months and many,
I'll wait for me sailor till he comes home from sea.
I'll wait for me sailor for six months and many,
I'll wait for me sailor till he comes home from sea.
I'll wait for you me dear, for time we'll know no fear.
I'll wait for you me dear till you come home from the sea.

CHORUS

I've married me sailor for six months and many,
I've married me sailor now he's safe with me.
I've married me sailor for six months and many,
I've married me sailor no more he'll say to me