Category: This and That

  • Weird Words, Part 9

    Oopsy-daisy I don’t use this much in its entirety, but I have been heard to say oops or whoops in polite company. When I’m alone, I might be a bit more colorful. A while back, while buying a new battery for my husband’s car, the handle broke as I was picking it up. I slammed…

  • Things I Just don’t Understand, Part 2

    Handicapped License Plates First let me say, I understand the need for these in certain situations. Someone confined to a wheelchair will need more space to get into and out of a vehicle so providing a parking space that is larger than most is a good thing. Also, someone who needs supplementation from an oxygen…

  • How to Paint a Bathroom

    I don’t normally do numbered or bulleted lists, but here goes: 1.  First select the paint color. (But of course this doesn’t take into account the fine art of negotiating with your significant other necessary to do that, or the hours, days or weeks that might be involved in said negotiation.) 2.  Decide on the…

  • Random Thoughts, Part 2

    Parallel Universes and a Perfect World How many times have you heard someone say something and your unspoken (or maybe not unspoken) reply was, “Yeah, sure, in a perfect world.” I hear that little phrase, or some close variation on it, more and more. Is our world becoming more and more imperfect? Or are we…

  • I Caught my Husband’s Cold

    If Bernd gets sick, I almost always catch what he had. Because of his job (optician; the guy who sells you your glasses after your exam), he comes into contact with a lot of people. Not all of them are in the best health. He does his best to keep the viruses and bacteria at…

  • Random Thoughts

    Bait and Switch My husband, Bernd, once did a a search for affordable term life insurance. We both have whole life policies, but they have a declining balance and as we get older, they will pay out less and less when we die. There is a side fund attached to the policies that, if we…

  • Income Taxes

    I hate doing our income taxes. Yes, I could pay someone to do them, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I used to buy an income tax program, but with our current method of accessing the Internet the connection is too slow to download them. Tried that last year. Wasted all kinds of time…

  • How to Really Learn Something

    “The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” — Mortimer Adler When I was in high school, I took a number of science related courses. They were hard. The information I needed to take in was huge. The concepts were sometimes alien. But…

  • Hare Brains

    Yesterday, as I was on my way home from running errands and grocery shopping, I thought my heart was going to stop. There is this wacky couple mile long stretch of road between my last stop and Prescott Valley. So when I exit the parking lot of Costco, I get immediately over into the inside…

  • Waiting for the Hot Water

    Waiting for the Hot Water

    Every morning before dispensing my supplements, I wash my hands. I’ve rubbed our cat’s belly, given the dog a good scratching all over to help her wake up. Maybe I’ve cleaned the litter box. Often, just as I am about to wash my hands, Bernd is ready for our good-bye kiss ritual and wants me…