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!