spring in the air

I keep searching for the signs. First robin, no. First green shoots, no. First green grass, no. But there are less tangible signs, seen everywhere in the neighborhood. People are moving. People are buying new furniture and throwing out the old. They stay at home birds are greeting the dawn with friendly chatter. One can almost hear them saying, "Well, Sunshine, when are you going to stay awhile? We've been missing you all this time." The skunks are out and about, seeking their Awakening. Men are looking over their lawn mowers.

It always amazes and amuses me that one of the first invisible signs of spring is men talking about their mowers. Day after day, they've been talking about shoveling, heating, ice, and one day at the lunch break, they all start talking about their lawn mowers. In my experience, it's been as if someone flipped a switch. Winter talk is over -- let's go on to better things.

It will still snow, freeze, blow ice, be cold. They'll still complain about all that work, but immediately change the subject back to the mowers.

Women do the same thing, to a lesser degree. They talk, in public settings, about flowers. In more private conversations, the discussions are about vegetables.

Long before the snow has melted, before the ground has thawed, before any signs appear -- men are mowing the grass, women planting, and let's not forget the skunks scenting the air.

Yes, Spring is on the way.

help needs helped

Everyone needs a hand now and then. Sometimes an applauding hand, but more often the need is for a helping hand. There's nothing wrong with needing help, and there's nothing wrong with asking for and accepting help.

There is something very wrong with taking help for granted.

Today's 'children' are too often guilty of that. They have taken no responsibility for themselves, so that when hard times happen, they greedily grab up every offer of assistance, demand more, and than wonder why no one respects them.

It doesn't matter if they are 25, college (paid for by parents) graduates sitting on their behind playing video or computer games while they wait for the job offers to pour in. These are the job offers attached to graduation . Who ever heard of working for a job before working at one?

It doesn't matter if they are single moms with multiple children of multiple sirage. Many of them -- not all -- are waiting for someone else to pay their rent, their childcare, their this or that.

They are not any different from the first example. They are no different.

They expect help handed to them, because no one has taught them any different way. They haven't even been taught to ask for help. Why would anyone expect them to think of saying "thank you."?

No one has taught them how.

No one has shown the way.

Child Abuse Prevention

There are classes and months and groups devoted to this topic. But when it comes right down to facts, there is no Mr. Everyman way of preventing child abuse.

You can see it, hear it, feel it in the air around the child at risk, but there is not anything a bystander can do. If you call the authorities, you will be grilled and questioned and examined, while the child is still being called names, smacked around, and neglected. You have to be able to prove that there is abuse or negligence that leads to abuse. It does no good to "prevent child abuse" unless you have an abused child to show the authorities. Bruises. Burns. Brain injuries.

How many children have had their brightness dimmed because the laws do not allow "Child abuse Prevention"?

catching up

It's been a crazy weather week. Heck, today was a crazy weather day! We had spring warm up temperatures, ice, rain, then snow. The forecast called for two or three inches of snow, but it wouldn't accumulate. They sure called that one right! Strangest thing I've heard of for a while.

Found out that the show I was writing about, The Tudors, wasn't even an original BBC series. It was created and broadcast by Showtime. Which makes the future "premiere" of just-watched episodes more ironic.

Then there's the toilet paper commercials. The latest annoying one is the guy who stands in the hall hollering "we're out of toilet paper". Then he gets either a buzz cut or a face full of lint. Okay, where do these people keep their toilet paper? In my house, it's in the bathroom. Or at least near the bathroom. No hollering down the halls and playing catch with it here.
There has to be a better way to make their point. Unless they are trying to say stupid people use their brand.

The ads that appear here in this blog are entertaining. Some of them are obvious from my key words, but most of them are more subtle than that. I say my granddaughter had a fever, and ads appear for pediatric thermometers. I mention donating hygiene products instead of food, and offers appear for both paper towels and canned goods.

Now, if I could just convince the computer that I do NOT shop in Dayton, I'd be happy.

At least for a minute.

premiere

Two or three weekends ago, I watched a program, The Tudors, on BBCAmerica. It was ten episodes, One through ten, and it was repeated at least once. During the programs, the commercials were touting the new premiere (there's another kind?) of the series on Wednesday nights. That was interesting. The Tudors, especially wicked old Henry VIII, were interesting people, all five of them. And I was ready to take up the shows where they left off -- shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution.

Come that Wednesday night, imagine my surprise when the "new premiere" was episode 1 of the  exact same series that had been on at least twice that Sunday.

I've observed this before. The Harry Potter movies have had more premieres than they have fans, or so it seems. They have premiered on Pay TV, on cable TV, on network TV, and most recently they have premiered, individually, on this or that channel. Harry Potter has premiered on ABC Family channel about two thousand times. The 'premieres' now include a Wednesday night premiere or Sunday morning premieres.

I checked the most recent online dictionaries. Premiere is still defined as a first time appearance. Not a detailed first time appearance.

Not a synonym for rerun.

I don't watch Wednesday night premieres anymore. I've already seen the show.

We did it!

Yesterday my granddaughter came into my bedroom. I was sleeping, and she patted my face with her little hands, stroked my face, and said, "Mammaw, Mammaw," until she woke me up. I sat up, Put on my glasses and said, "What, Baby? What do you want?"

She jumped up in the air, clapped her hands, and started twisting her arms and butt around. "We did it!" she shouted. "We did it! Yay!" She had obviously been involved in watching Dora the Explorer, and she helped.She danced and sang while Mammaw laughed and got out of bed.

What a wake up. It isn't every day that we can wake up with a "we did it!" attitude, but it should be.
That will be my goal.

Today, I did it!

Free on the Internet

Free on the  Internet.

Free credit scores: with a membership in beautiful benefits you'll never need or use. These can cost anything from $99 a month to $199 a year. Maybe more, but those are the ones I've looked at. The good thing here is that you cannot cancel until 30 days have lapsed, (and then there's a cancellation fee)and your informational brochures will be delivered in about six weeks.

Free samples, usually health & beauty substances: just pay shipping and subscribe for monthly deliveries. The shipping fees are more than the product. There are sites devoted to sending people free samples -- after they sign up for at least one thing off each of ten or twenty different pages. And they still need shipping paid in advance.

Free reverse phone look up: I really like this one. They look it up. They tell you the carrier. But if you really want to know who the number belongs to, get ready to pay up. $1.99 for each look up or by a membership.
The look up is free. The info is not.

And there's the seasonal. Free income tax: Step-by-step guidance while filling out your return, checks and double checks that everything is being done properly. Filling out the forms is free. Filing is not. There's a filing fee, with the tax preparation companies.

People get all enthused about all this free stuff. Then their finances are compromised as shipping, memberships, and automatic deliveries are taken out of their banks or added to their credit cards.

People: Stop and Think. How free can it be, if they need your credit (or debit) card number before they will send you anything?
Nothing is free, expect to pay.

Just know when why and how much, and enjoy the freedom of the 'net.

Weather and Health

Whew! Another night of snow. This kind of steady snow fall is more legendary than usual in this part of the world. I think we've had snow on the ground since Thanksgiving. Normal for some places, and it's not unheard of in the lore of the area. The kinds of stories they used to tell us were tall tales, and that diarists of the day exaggerated. Seeing this year, one has to wonder.
At least, one does if one thinks about it.

Every one did finally recover from the Cold from Hell, but it looks and feels like we're getting ready for round 2. Would that be the Cold from Heck?
Anyway, cranky, cranky baby today. Grouchy Mommy, testy Mammaw. Nobody female in this house was doing well at all. I think Baby may be getting a yeast infection from being on antibiotics, It's too soon to tell, but I know how to handle that -- and it would certainly make me cranky.

I apologize for not writing anything more interesting. I haven't been able to stay at the computer long enough. There's things in the works, but Life, being Life, is putting up the usual roadblocks for me to overcome or detour around. Haven't figured out, tonight, which it will be.

But it will be one, or the other, or perhaps an entirely unseen option. (Helicopter? Rockeater?)

Fat Like a Fruit

The over hyped world of weight loss has too many women convinced that if they are fat, they need to decide what fruit they resemble. Their fruit shape indicates their probable illnesses (even if they have no other indicators or symptoms.) Their fruit shape somehow indicates how they can more effectively lose weight.

The apple diet used to be eating apples with every meal. Now it is what you look like.

That's where there's a problem. The whole 'look like' thing.

When she's coming at you, she looks like an apple. All that can be seen is the large sized upper portion.
When she's walking away, she may be pear shaped, because what is seen is the big juicy bottom.

Only the tape measure can tell.

Truth is, she may be a perfect hourglass. 50-40-50 is close to the same shape as 35-25-35 --an hourglass.
There is no hourglass diet. Research suggests that there may be no need for one.

So, large ladies, check with your doctor for general health, and check your tape measure for your shape. You may not be a fruit at all.

Forgive: Like a 2 Year Old

Dealing with my granddaughter on a daily -- and nightly -- basis, I marvel at the resilient spirit of the child. You can tell, smack (at hands), wrap, time-out, make her do all sorts of things she doesn't want, just because you are bigger (her point of view)and wiser (your angle). When she wakes up from the forced nap, or when she can't reach the fork or scissors she was running with, there she is climbing in your lap or up your back, laughing.

When you have to swaddle her to tame her for sleep, and she screams and bites and spits until she settles, and she finally sleeps -- when she wakes up, it's you she comes looking for. Your name that she chirps from her bed, or calls through the empty rooms.

How great it is to see such love and forgiveness. To know, somewhere in your heart, that this mean and hateful behavior on their part is somehow good for you. That that person is wonderfully looking out for you.
And that when you wake up, or get done screaming, or otherwise misbehaving, that person is going to be there for you.
Isn't that a wonder?

Children seem to know how to hold on to the love, and to let the other stuff go. Or at least to accept that 'other stuff' as part of the person we love.

It's not hard to see that we should all love like a two year old.