BOO!

Finding Fall Foliage

We decided that it was time to take a drive in the countryside to see the fall foliage. The end of October in our area is a suggested time. However, it helps if the sun is out, as that usually enhances the colors of the trees. Our day was drab, dreary and threatening rain. It was also chilly and quite windy. Not my type of day, but we were not going to be put off by the bad weather. The first three photos were taken at Green Lane Park which is part of the Philadelphia Reservoir. It is located in Perkiomenville which is quite some distance from Philadelphia.

Green Lane Park is actually the start of the Perkiomen Trail which goes all the way south to Oaks. The trail is 20 miles and it can be walked if anyone cares to do that. Not me. I will stick to my treadmill.

This photo was taken from a bridge. In person it is quite spectacular, and I am sure it is even nicer when the sun is shining.

This one was taken from the same bridge. If you enlarge it, you can see a swan being protected by a flock of Canada geese.

This mountain shot was taken in Vera Cruz. Pennsylvania, not Mexico. I wish.

This is the same mountain range. I especially liked this farm scene but I can't say why. It just kind of caught my eye for some reason.

We spent the entire day just driving around and occasionally we would stop if something intrigued us.
At one point we visited a new Walmart store. Alongside of it is Blommer Chocolate. They are noted for their chocolate candy and especially for their cocoa. Let me tell you, the aroma drifting through the air was absolutely marvelous. So much so, that I had to go inside Wally World to get something chocolate. I settled for a box of low carb bars made by SlimFast.

All in all we had a good time but I would have enjoyed the day much more had the sun been shining. Oh well, we can't have everything.

Guilt

There are many times where I feel very vulnerable to life and living. Albeit, those times are very short, only seconds sometimes, but enough to make me feel so very tiny in this huge universe.

For the most part I am currently (and have been since my job 'left' me 15 months ago), very protected. I have my husband to thank for that. He's doing his best to make sure that I am safe. And because of that, there are many times when I have huge guilt feelings.

It was long thought that I would be the one who would continue working long after he retired. He is four years older than me, and he tried to stretch it out and work as long as he could. It sure doesn't pay to plan things.

I wish to take this time to thank (not!) our former employer for being so very cruel toward us after 13 years of working in the office for me and 11 years driving truck for him. Yes, I know it's bad news to dis an employer but, hey, thanks to them we no longer work there. So as far as we are concerned, they can take a flying leap.

It's just a shame we weren't allowed to leave with our dignity intact. But, due to the unforeseen circumstances, we have been forced to do otherwise. Did I say that that bothered me, about the dignity? It doesn't. Am I still bitter? No. But I do wish they would be a little more discreet in the way they treat older folks.

And, as I always say: What goes around comes around.

I heard they recently lost a major account as a core carrier. That means they were the number one carrier for that account. For who you ask? Think Tony Stewart's sponsor. Or think of Lowe's biggest competitor. Yeah, that's the one.

Vengeance? No, it's called retribution...and it is one sweet feeling.

What A Fiasco

A few months ago my husband took his bike to the local driver license testing center so that he could take the tests necessary to be able to continue driving. When he got there he was told he must make an appointment giving them the specific day and they would then assign the time.

He was not allowed to take any tests (paper or driving) and was turned away. What a waste of one's time. About 7 years ago for some odd reason we had decided to let his motorcycle license lapse. I think it was because at that time we thought he would never ride one again.

Beginning in January of this year, PennDot made some new rules. So what else is new. It used to be that you could just keep renewing your permit each year. No so anymore. Now you have to take the test on a computer before you do anything else.

Well that's OK if the computers work. Some of them are so old and inefficient that they mess the people up that are taking the test and before you know it you have flunked. But try and tell that to those people that work there. They don't want to hear it. Probably because they hear it so often they have become immune to it.

Well, eventually he passed his computer test. His next step now is to call Harrisburg and make an appointment. How assinine is that? You cannot access any of the state licensing centers via telephone. There are no listings. They receive no incoming calls. I don't even know if they have any type of telephone system either.

Why is it the average person is at their mercy? It's very frustrating to not be able to have access to a service that is provided for us by the state. It's kind of like banging your head against a wall and there's no wall there. If that makes any sense.

So his next step is to call and schedule that appointment. Meanwhile he is not allowed to have any passengers on the bike with him and he must keep his riding to the daylight hours. Forget the fact that he has been riding bike since he was in his teens. Hello?

Dagnabbit

This is what happens when you combine a glass-top table and a freak gust of wind.

The umbrella was in a sand-filled stand but it wasn't open at the time. If you make the photo larger, you can see the poor umbrella under all that shattered glass.

I'm thinking the wind got under the table and lifted it because it pulled the umbrella right out of the stand.

I was standing in the family room looking out onto the deck when I saw it happen. It was like my feet were planted in cement. There was nothing I could do, it happened that fast.

So now we have four chairs and no table. We never brought the chairs out of the basement because we didn't want the cats' claws ripping the cushions.

I guess we'll be looking for a table next spring. It's always something.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa

My beloved Mets were done in by that other team. I apologize to all you Cards fans out there for what I am about to say.

There are two Cardinals players that stand out, not for the way they play ball, but for the way they look. One has a severe tongue problem (Belliard) and one looks like a girl trying to be a guy (Molina).

I know I'm far from perfect, but those two made me think I was watching a freak show. And it didn't help that they beat my team.

Needless to say, I will not be watching The World Series. Good God, I don't want to see either one of them ever again. Creepy.

A Day At The Farms

This past Sunday we embarked on something I haven't done since my daughter was a wee child. Our county had what is called an Open Gate Farm Tour. All types of farms open their gates to the public. Most had free refreshments and some gave visitors items associated with their farm. At one place we received a dozen eggs free.

Our first visit was to a fruit and vegetable stand right up the street from our house, and yet we have never stopped off when we have so often passed by. They have a few animals behind the stand like this little fellow. His mommy was nearby.

They also have a few Texas longhorns and here are two of them:

Next was Gress Mountain Ranch where they use tame rescued animals to use as counseling and therapy for children, teens, and adults. I never knew it existed and they, too, are in our backyard.

From there we went to Heidel Hollow Farm where we got the free eggs. This is a place my husband was familiar with as he used to deliver fertilizer to them years ago.

My favorite place was Holben Valley Farm. They have around 50 head of Black Angus and a few Limousine cattle. The animals are pasture-raised with no antibiotics or growth hormones added to their feed. They sell their beef to the public so I think we will be going back for some. It is so much better than that stuff they call meat in the supermarkets. Here is a picture of the young ones hamming it up. They are kept separate from the adults to insure that they get fed well.

Our last stop was Skyview Acres which absolutely blew me away. We went up a long dirt road and at the end of the road was a huge stone home. It was just gorgeous. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it, and you can't see it from the road. ( Blogger only allows me to post five pictures at a time so it wouldn't matter.)

The pastures are surrounded by vinyl fencing (nothing shabby there). There is an on-site museum that houses antique carriages, coaches and hearses, all horse-drawn. Six Friesian horses are housed alongside the museum. Up until then, I had never heard of Friesian horses, and I thought I knew everything there was to know about horses. They originated in Holland. The tails and manes of the older ones reach the ground and they are never cut. This picture does not do them justice. They are black (no other color is acceptable, not even a bit of white) and are absolutely gorgeous.

This farm is in the business of renting out the horses along with whatever it is you want pulled by them. (There are two horses in this picture)

This is a view of the countryside from the pasture. The house and the museum were to the left. To the right just beyond that portion of the pasture was a wooded area. Skyview is certainly the best name they could have come up with, as it was breathtaking.

We had a good time and the best part was getting to see our neighboring farms and their contribution to society. I am looking forward to next year!

Screwed Again ~ Not!

Saturday morning we took our F-150 King Ranch truck for a 3,000 mile service checkup and oil change. And since the dealership didn't do some things right when we bought it three months ago, we requested a do over. That entailed a special exterior coating, a special leather treatment for the inside, etc. We paid extra to have those things done but they weren't done to our satisfaction. As a matter of fact, the leather wasn't even touched.

Once we arrived there we were told the things we wanted done would take more than one day. And since they are closed on Sunday, we wouldn't get the truck back until late Monday. They had told us over the phone that they would supply a loaner vehicle. And we thought we would be dropping the truck off, taking their loaner vehicle, and then coming back later the same day for the truck. Yeah...right. Here's what really happened:

Their idea of a loaner? How about an Enterprise Rental vehicle. And what did we get? A Windstar minivan. Which, by the way, does not fit either of our images. We are far from minivan people. We did, however, manage to crack each other up over the course of the first day with our minivan jokes. I will not share them with you because I know there are minivan lovers out there and people who do fit the minivan image so we will leave it at that. OK?

Here is a picture of the minivan, and all I can say is at least it's a Ford.

The Enterprise guy explained things to us about the vehicle and then asked us if we wanted to buy their insurance at $15.99 per day. Say what? We have never rented a vehicle before, so that kind of took us by surprise. Not to mention the fact that we were totally not prepared to deal with a rental in the first place.

If we went with our own insurance instead of theirs and anything happened, we would have to shell out the $1,000 deductible we have. No thanks. So we opted to use theirs. As we drove away I commented on two things: 1) The dealership did not tell us that more than one day would be needed and 2) they did not tell us we'd have to pay insurance for a rental car. Had we known ahead of time we would have taken two vehicles down so that we had one of our own to use. Usage of the rental car is covered under the bumper to bumper coverage we put on the truck. The insurance is not.

To make a long story short (and you know I have trouble doing that), we ended up talking the dealership into absorbing the cost of the rental insurance. After all, it wasn't our fault.

And to top it all off...three days turned into four.

Enterprise is one of Dale Jr's sponsors (last year anyway, I don't know about this year) and had he handed the keys to me personally, well I would have paid the insurance no questions asked.

Still Here

It's been a very busy weekend and today is just as bad. Hopefully I will be able to post something within 24 hours. I have a lot of material to draw from so just bear with me and keep coming back.

Not Thrilled At All

Although I am not superstitious, I still don't like when the 13th falls on a Friday. There's just something a bit eerie about it.

I tempted the odds with my first marriage by tying the knot on the 13th. Guess what? It didn't work. My daughter was baptized on the 13th, my brother was married on the 13th, I graduated high school on the 13th. What the hell were we thinking? Thank God none of those days were on a Friday.

Did I say I'm not superstitious? Maybe I should rethink that. Anyway, is it Saturday yet?

Mystery Solved

A few weeks ago (September 12th to be exact) I wrote about some large, black garbage bags that went mysteriously missing. The title of that post was It's A Mystery To Me.

I used the garbage bags to wrap around cardboard boxes, using plenty of duct tape to keep them in place. The bags were used to keep the boxes dry during rain storms so the cats would have decent shelter.

At that time I never did figure out where exactly those garbage bags went to. It seemed like a human act because I never, in my dreams, would have thought an animal would not only get them off the boxes, but take them away too. It just was not possible.

Well, this morning I finally got my answer and it is no longer a mystery...

Inside one of the two boxes I had an old tablecloth. It was nowhere to be found this morning on our three acres. Absolutely no~freaking~where. And it was one of those times when I could say WTF and really mean it. As I stood there scratching my a...er...head, I looked over the deck railing at the side of the house. And there it was! By the old groundhog hole I had covered so well. At least I thought I did at the time. All the while I was gloating, thinking I had pulled one over on ole mister grundsow. Little did I know it was laughing its hiney off every time it saw me when it was out in the yard.

It seemed as if it had tried to drag the cloth into the hole and couldn't so it gave up. I believe it can get out of the hole but not in at the angle of its new opening. So I wedged a piece of board and a brick on top of the board into the new opening that had gone unnoticed by me. It didn't seem possible for it to get out either, but it must have at least tried. These are some big mofo groundhogs we have here, and I am now quite sure it cannot use the hole anymore.

If not, and it gets ahead of me again, the half German in me will just keep at it until I am declared the victor. As if that's going to happen.

Another Happy Milestone

HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY, RALPH DALE EARNHARDT JR!

I'm So Glad The Mets Won Because...

...Dale Jr., while leading on the final lap of Sunday's race, was taken out by an over-zealous red-headed stepchild. And I hope Brian Vickers chokes on his win because he didn't deserve that one.

Dale Jr. was on his way to a win, or possibly a second or third place finish. He would have made a huge gain in the points, but mister Vickers wasn't having any of that. He's a Hendrick driver so I shouldn't expect any 'smart' moves from him. What he did was totally uncalled for, not to mention he took his own teammate out too. Vickers doesn't care about his team anymore because he is leaving Hendrick at the end of this season and going to another team next year. And he was too eager to get a win before that happens. So much so, that he didn't think things through.

...and then, to top my day off really good, I watched the end of the Cowboys-Eagles game. Another fiasco.

So, like I said, I'm so glad the Mets won. 'Nuff said.

Mets Swept Dodgers In 3 Games And Will Move On To The National League Championship Series

It's Finally Here!

I just love the racing at this track. It should be very interesting this year with the new surface. Almost like racing at a new track. Everyone will be on the same playing field. No one has an advantage. Should be quite interesting. And to make it more intriguing, it's an impound race.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Dale Jr. taken at last week's track in Kansas. I wonder what he's thinking? I just love that look on his face. Go get 'em Junebug. Show 'em you own Talladega, just like your Daddy did.

This Changed Our Plans

There are a lot of places we want to visit now that we are able to go during the week. One of them is Country Junction which is north of us, about an hour of driving through some very nice scenic country. It is located at the foot of the Pocono Mountains. Country Junction is billed as the "World's Largest General Store." It covers three acres, and there are three buildings.






Up until earlier this week, those were our plans; however, there was a fire and everything is gone. All the buildings and everything that was in them, including some animals that were in the pet shop. That is the saddest part of it all.











So I guess we will have to wait until next year to visit, as the owner stated he plans to rebuild. So much for the best laid plans...

A New Chapter In Our Lives

No, we did not file Chapter 11. That's the best image I could find for this post. Sorry if I got you all excited.

Life is filled with many chapters. Some people just have more than others. Some chapters are good, some not so good, depending on how you look at them and life itself.

My husband and I are starting a new chapter. You know how they say the best is yet to come? Well, we are hoping that time is here, now. As of October 2nd, we are both officially retired and because it's so new for us, having never done it before, we are not sure whether it's good or bad. I'm sure it will take some time for us to adjust. Maybe, maybe not.

Neither of us chose to take retirement at this time of our lives. I had a lot of good years left in me to stay in the workforce, as did my husband. But there's something about young people these days not being able to work with or deal with people older than they are. It's like they don't even want to be around them.

I used to laugh at that idea when I was just starting out way back when. But older folk were so different back then compared to people of the same age today. Like 100 years different.

We're not ready to be put out to pasture. We're not ready to be brushed aside as if we don't exist. We are a force to be reckoned with.

It took me many months, well actually a whole year, until I was able to reconcile with the fact that I was no longer working. It's hard to get over a certain routine. But my reconciliation had more to do with just a routine.

I was angry. So angry that I started this blog and tried to rid my anger here. It didn't work. Not until I wrote my first anniversary post. That's when all the anger finally left me.

I fully expected my husband to be angry after he visited his former workplace to turn in the key to his tractor trailer. He lost his job because of a very young (under 25) female manager of one of those coffee franchises (starts with an S and ends with an S). It seems she didn't like his sense of humor last Thursday when he made a delivery there. She called her corporate headquarters and they in turn called my husband's corporate headquarters. He never stood a chance. You see, the trucking company we both worked for has to cater to that coffee company and treat them with kid gloves.

I have no idea what went wrong with her and I can only think she was having a bad day. Either that or she is simply a man hater. Yeah, that makes sense. My husband has a terrific sense of humor, and he got along with everyone, including all his customers. And to tell the truth, I would love to pay her a little visit. Say hello to my little friend.

So we closed one chapter and move on to the next. I'm sure it will be quite painless. Our house and both vehicles are paid for. We have no credit card debt. We are now free to come and go as we please. No alarm clocks. No deadlines. And this winter when it snows we can stand inside our house and watch all the other lunatics trying to get to their place of work. And we will finally have the last laugh.

Written Prior To His Freedom

(I typed this a few weeks ago. Little did I know what was coming down the road. I will post about that tomorrow.)


"They" used to pick at me all the time.
I kept to myself; tried to mind my own business.
In the end it wasn't enough.
"They" proved to be oh so much stronger than me.
I knew it, but I prolonged it as long as I could.
But "they" won and I lost. (Or so they thought)

And now "they're" at it again with someone who is very very close to me. Picking away ever so slowly.

Why is it when a person (if that's what you want to call some of those low-lifes) is put in charge of people, they no longer act human? Why? They actually go back to some of their early ancestors and act just like them: cavemen. What is it that changes them? Power? Their ego? Or is it just "I'm better than you..."

I saw such changes from my little corner of the world. And there was nothing I could do about it. Oh, it's not that I didn't fantasize, because I did that on a daily basis. It was the only way I could keep my sanity, what little I had left.

I don't care who it is or where they work, no one should have to fear being where they are. Ever. The biggest employment problem today is that the majority of states (Pennsylvania included) are "at will" states, meaning employers can fire anyone they darn well please at any time for any reason. Employees of those states HAVE NO RIGHTS!

You'd think with new management (hah, that's funny, a possible oxymoron if you will ~ well, the moron part is right), would be more considerate. Find out about your "new" employees before you nitpick. I lost all respect of the one that was in place, and the new one never had any of my respect. Never will. And it makes me sooooooo happy to be able to say that.

Gee, I guess I'm still a bit angry. Ya think?

Hopefully we wll be the stronger for it all because as I always say "What goes around comes around." Those are my famous last words. I learned that saying from the lawyer that taught my law class. I use it all the time. And darned if it isn't coming true. "They" know who I mean.

Oh, the little devil at the top? He represents "them."