Category Archives: Editorial

Welcome to the blog

On the Road Again

Posted on April 2, 2012 | 1 comment

About to be, anyway. I just want you to know that skiers everywhere enjoying The Greatest Snow on Earth need to thank me. We’ve had a dry winter but as soon as I sent six pairs of boots (hiking to rain to mud to snow and heavy snow) on a truck East, it started to snow and it hasn’t stopped. Last year whenever I wore my snowflake sweater, it snowed. But it snowed a lot last year.

Don’t tell anyone, they’ll just bring me back and make me threaten to move out of the State again! Wait, the State and ski resorts may pay me well for this service, I may look into it.  State seer. Oh no, that’s Brigham Young. State snow predictor? Who knows?

A neighbor called yesterday and said she has boots to borrow so I can take out our dog Zoe. Another neighbor is planning a going-away party for us Saturday night, at our place. They’re having painting done that day and I think this will be more suitable than a restaurant, cozier by the fire.

We have met some very good folks out here in the mountains, and they (and the mountains) will be missed. Our birds have let me know it’s OK to go, however, a lone Greater Sandhill Crane flew above my car last weekend en route to having the last best burger in the State. I think he showed up early to search for a date (they mate for life) as our couple will probably be here by the end of the month.

The male redwing blackbirds are calling out for a hot date. In my mind, that’s where uniform epaulets came from, as the brighter the red and yellow on the bird’s wings, the more likely he is to get lucky. I already know about buttons on the uniform sleeves, to keep them from wiping their noses!

Nothing’s changed. I just got a text to help with a sweet Lab pup. Luckily I’m a pro because there was no collar and I had to loop the leash to take him out. Then he tried to get my gloves and a pair of socks. True gentleman that he is, he dropped them when asked.

And it’s still snowing! They’re shoveling right now (we’re in a ski condo where HOA fees pay for plowing and shoveling).

So we’re off to the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, on Sunday. Luckily we have a great car dog, who’s not allowed in my husband’s car but is in my SUV. She even has a 4″ orthopedic bed back there. Great sleeper, too, she only pops her head up on an off-ramp.

The wind has picked up considerably and I’m hoping we won’t have to drive through serious snow this weekend. All I can do is hope. The only place I control the weather is here! (Just kidding, of course).

Our stuff is arriving tomorrow or Friday and we’re not ready for it but my husband will get a truck and pick it up and place it in local storage until I arrive next week.

We have a very small, but nice place for three months with a city view on the 17th floor. I think Zoe’s walk schedule might change. Two really long walks and two short ones, like here but factoring in an elevator. I don’t think in eight years she’s ever been on one! Her nails are trimmed, I gave her a bath and she just needs a good combing and we’re good to go.

I feel as if I’m leaving you, and I’m not. I just may have to take a day or three off. With good wishes for you and your family, I say Cheers! from Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , ,

Please Listen

Posted on March 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Call your company’s main number, and listen to the choices. Listen to the muzak that is played when you wait for a human to come to the phone. Is it scratchy, awful stuff? Do something about it.

Please do this in any business, especially our government offices that our taxes pay for.

Thanks, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

I had something to say

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 1 comment

then it all changed when I found out my husband’s bank account had been cleaned out and as co-signer and spouse on all our accounts my bank wouldn’t talk to me about potential theft on individual transactions.

So now the transgressions go from the thief (I’m trying to find out when the initial theft occurred) to the bank who won’t talk to me as co-owner of the account, to my husband who is out of town on business and our bank had put a hold on and now cancelled his card without authorization.

We just moved to a new city and just bought a street map.The bank won’t talk to me because it’s not my card. Even though I’m on all accounts. My husband is two hours away by car on business and the bank has cancelled his card, has hung up on me and can’t assure he can get home tonight.

So now Identity Theft is my problem. It happened, so I have to deal with it and we’re the suspects according to my bank of many years.  Does anyone know what it wrong with this or how I can fix it. It is not my particular debit card so I am not able to tell them what the false charges are.

Thanks, Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial, Friend Alert

Tagged , ,

Open The Floodgates

Posted on March 25, 2012 | 2 comments

We have no health care. If something happens in the next week we have to pay for three months of COBRA because my husband was laid off with 1/3 of his cohorts in a bizarre turn of events.

Luckily, if things go well we will have health care the day after our last day to elect COBRA. This is how Americans are dealing with day-to-day life.

People who are for or mostly against the nation’s health care plan, which people who denigrate our President and Commander in Chief call “Obamacare” now sit before the Supreme Court.

One person today asked who “deserves” health care. When there is employment, our employers foot part of the bill as an incentive to work there. But everyone deserves decent health care.

The problem is that Congress and the President have their own health care for life. We don’t. They don’t understand how it is to be laid off and have no money to pay for COBRA for 18 months trying to get a job when they need to house and feed a family.

I believe the conservative interests in our country don’t care about working class families and how their lives are impacted by either layoffs or family farming not being able to make do against government subsidized agricultural giants.

Heck, my family runs a ranch in Texas and my mother-in-law works for the federal government and gets health insurance for her and her husband. It shouldn’t be that way.

Do I believe that every person living in the US of A should be forced to have health insurance or be penalized? No. That is a scam of the insurance industry who pretends to hate this law.

For hundreds of years, since Lloyds of London was established, insurance schemes were perpetrated on the public so insurers could make and invest their money and never give it back.

That continues at least in the USA today because insurers make sure they’re regulated state-by-state, and not federally like banks. But the SEC is lax on a lot of things, too. So insurance can run things by state and make more money if the laws are looser, if they serve more champagne and Oysters Rockefeller to seal the deal, with a check in hand.

Are there a few problems with this law? Yes, there are with all of them. But our founding fathers didn’t have a problem with saying that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was our right. Newt amended that yesterday to assure that only “young” Americans had that right.

If people want to put aside millions for their own private insurance and “conceirge” medical care that’s fine. Just give the poor and middle class a chance. Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , , , , , ,

News

Posted on March 22, 2012 | 2 comments

So much has happened in the past few weeks, I don’t know where to start. Well, I was pretty darn sick for two of them, including driving halfway across the country where my husband lost me and the dog in the dark and luckily smart gal Dee drove as close to Lake Michigan as I could and hoped my phone had a few seconds left on it to tell him I was between the Discovery Center and Art Museum/Calatrava.

We’re in a tiny place but making the best of it. I’m off the kitchen counter as of this morning and have my laptop, 24″ monitor and cordless keyboard set up on a $24 foldable plastic desk with a padded folding chair my husband picked up for me last night. The plan is to buy another one, keep it in storage, and use it if we have a big dinner in our new place. Throw a tablecloth on it, set it nicely and voila, we can seat 10-12!

The windows are open, the high today was supposed to be 67 and it’s perfect! Even though we’re on the 17th floor with seagulls wafting by, with an open window and glass corner that’s dog Zoe’s favorite spot today, so I moved her bed and pillow over there.

There are a bunch of dogs in these towers and we meet people every day at “dog time.” I haven’t met any non dog-owners yet and hope to meet some of husband Jim’s cohorts at a hockey game tomorrow evening. They have a private box and have invited staff/spouses to attend. Hopefully I’ll find something to wear and luckily I’ve been informed that all 60 of us will have name tags (easier on the newbies!)

I still fight my battles day by day, trying to keep it down to one or two. Today I couldn’t put a bag of trash down the chute because someone on one of 19 other floors failed to properly close it. That was easy. The cable company was more difficult as the first person I spoke with told me that my agreement with the building was set in stone and I couldn’t order or pay for any more channels. I asked “Are you telling me that your company is in the business of making money and I’m offering money and you refuse it?” She said yes. Sad.

Yesterday I called and just asked to upgrade my service and it took over an hour and four different agents from two companies but at least we now have basic cable, including NatGeo and Military because Jim likes to check those out on the weekends.

That beats five hours with our bank of over 15 years to change account addresses. Moving across country is not for the faint of heart.

I’ve been helped by friends as far back as the fifth grade. I guess we Great Lakes folks stick together. I’ve spoken to high school, college and post-college friends who all lend moral support.

Our next big thing is our friend’s burial with full military honors at Annapolis, where he will be interred. That’s four weeks out and we need airline tickets soon. He was a Captain in the US Navy (ret.) and married us nearly ten years ago. He and his wife were like family and while I haven’t seen him for a few years, I miss him nonetheless.

Other next thing is finding a place to live, and bringing the furniture we’ve bought and brought during this marriage up here from Texas where it’s been in air-conditioned storage for three years! I think we’ll get a two-bedroom place and have one as an office. Guests will stay in a hotel, or if it’s my brother-in-law and nephew they’ll bring cub scout gear and stay on the floor somewhere. Sorry J&J! Cheers and hope your weather was as nice as ours today, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged , ,

Of “Relo Cubes” and Moving

Posted on March 18, 2012 | 1 comment

Friday afternoon, without telling me, my husband got a U-Haul truck and cleared out our 5x5x5 “relo cube” from the ABF freight terminal near work. I wasn’t ready for this, 1.5 weeks into our brief sojourn into a teeny apartment with rented furniture to which I want to bring practically nothing until we find a permanent place to live. We don’t even know yet from work which city that may be, so are currently in limbo.

I was quite judicious in my selection of only one piece of furniture (a printer stand that doesn’t look like one) and 12 boxes. One for Jim, the PlayStation III, the rest for me. Mostly stuff to make the kitchen palatable. I’ve been dealing with the Cort Furniture “housewares package,” making Jim’s eggs with a cheap teflon plan and over-sized plastic spoon.

Today (it’s 4:00 a.m.) I will pack up most of Cort’s kitchen package above the frig to have room for my specialty utensils as I only have one drawer in the kitchen and right now it’s filled with useless things.

I’m taking only what I need from the boxes and we’ll return the rest to storage next door. Oldest commercial elevator in town. Wooden rails at each story, old wood floor and you must work the metal cables to pull yourself from floor to floor. Priceless! We got a larger unit than we thought so we can cherry-pick what we need, from the printer to my summer clothes. We have two piles on either side with an aisle down the middle (6×8 total) with eight all-weather tires up front. Though we were told not to change out our snow tires until the end of May as there’s “always a storm” in May.

Yesterday was St. Paddy’s Day but we spent it relo’ing and I unpacked all but two of the boxes. One is bathroom stuff (consolidating from three baths to one) so I used the printer stand drawers, one for Jim’s shaving kit and my makeup bag, and the other for Zoe’s brushes and shower hose. The open area is for toilet paper (handily holds 12 rolls) then I put an existing basket on top and decoratively rolled four new matching dog towels so it actually looks pretty.

Jim was convinced we didn’t need the printer stand but if it moves his shaving kit up two feet (he’s very tall) he’s all for it now.

Now I need an office. My 24″ monitor is in a box we took in the car, along with my trackball mouse. I’ll get a table that fits along the wall or in a corner window going out to the balcony. Add a new toothbrush stand, toilet brush, and paper towel holder and I’m ready to go do our taxes this coming week! I’ve already run Fed and State but need to clarify some deduction information before filing.

Two issues we had here with the furniture is that the place is too small for a dining area so we got three barstools and they were too high. They were replaced Friday, and we also had to switch out the queen bed for a king so that Princess Zoe would be happy. Yes, our dog has spent eight years on our bed, since Cousin Val took out her hips and I had to watch for her biting her stitches. Thanks to you, Val, Zoe will NOT sleep on her bed on the carpet, even with the travel pillow we bought her a year ago that she loves!

My aches and pains are lessening from lifting boxes, and I have my food processor, spices, electric tea kettle and essential utensils (pictured on this blog). And while we got ingredients for burgers yesterday, I was too beat to cook so we got tri-tip on root veggie mash from The Eatery for dinner. Aside from “Wobbly,” (family cow) it’s the tenderest beef I’ve ever eaten. Yum! It’s nice to have even a partial paycheck after ten weeks and a move across the checkerboard states! Cheers and have a great weekend! Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Cooking Utensils, Editorial, Home Improvement, Pet

Tagged , , , ,

A Different Life

Posted on March 16, 2012 | 2 comments

This place brings me back to my past. I see all the church spires and St. Patrick’s day is tomorrow. It makes me remember HOMES in our history books, as the Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

I grew up on Erie and my mother’s family grew up on Ontario. I never lived a block from the Lake before, and now I’m looking down, other side of the lake, from the 17th floor. Seagulls waft by. I don’t want to be here, especially in limbo as we’re in a teeny apartment with rented furniture awaiting closure on where we might live.

My husband took a full-time job but it’s consulting and may be 90 minutes away and that’s a daily commute we will not live with. So we’re in limbo before we even really move. It’s surreal to move two cars, a big box (still in storage) and a dog halfway across the country and not know where you’re going to live.

Thanks to some great folks we got this place to get our feet on the ground. And thanks to childhood friends for giving us the lay of the land.

Hey, I’m back in the Great Lakes. No green beer for me but we may celebrate tomorrow with everyone, as there seems to be a tavern on every corner. May as well meet the best one. Here’s to moving from mountains to lakes, Cheers, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

If I Needed You,

Posted on March 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

would you come to me? Great song on Crazy Heart. Makes me think of good friends here that we leave tomorrow.

They’re all ex-military or cops with concealed weapons permits and shotguns who are willing to help me stand up for my rights tomorrow if need be. Let’s hope I don’t need them and can stand up for my own.

See, the good thing is that my husband is back after a week at his new gig. I’m thinking we can get this thing done together but it’s nice to know we have friends in the neighborhood. Friends who’ve already called the Sheriff on their own and know we’re in the right. And it’s sad that one person would pick on a sick woman who’s temporarily alone just to get more money.

If you needed me, I would come to you, I would come to you and ease your pain. Thank you, husband, and friends who will be dearly missed. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged ,

Parting is Such…

Posted on March 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

sweet sorrow? Or pain in the butt. Going-away parties are like mini-funerals. It’s different now after a layoff, finding a new job and learning a new city.

This one will be sad because it’s the year-round neighbors and we’ve all been together for each other over the years.

The days have been more difficult as I’m exhausted and have lost my voice and one individual is making our life difficult. But I’m not going to think about that now. My husband arrives in a few hours and people come over to make merry before we leave tomorrow.

More news from our new city and perhaps those on the way. Writing will help preserve my voice. cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Spamalot

Posted on March 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

You’ll love this one:

“Thank you an incredible publish, may examine your personal others content. thank you your notions within this, I soon became somewhat made an impact to by this article. Thanks again again! You earn a good aspect. Portrays natures best by the wonderful facts here. I believe that if a greater number of people thought about it like that, they’d have a very better time get the grasp ofing the matter.”

If I knew his English teacher, he/she would be fired. And his parents would be prohibited from procreating. Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial

Tagged