Floaters

For the most part I ascribe to the saying of "what goes on the road stays on the road". But this time I have to tell. My room at the Holiday Inn last night was on the Atrium Floor. The hallway to the rooms has a view of the indoor pool and hot tub. It looked very inviting and I planned that after the conference events for the evening, I'd jump in the hot tub for a little relaxation. As I was hurrying to my room to don my suit, I looked to the hot tub to see who I might befriend. Well....... hmmm..... There in the hot tub was a pair of "Double Ds"... and they were floating, freely - "untethered". AND there were other people in the tub who didn't seem to mind - of course, they were all men. Now I know that I am in a very liberal state, but this was sort of a shock. I couldn't help but stop and stare. As the bubbles would swirl around the tub and the people moved, the Double Ds floated and kind of appeared to bob up and down in the water. I was reminded of bygone days of fishing with my dad. We would fasten red and white bobbers on the fishing line to alert us when we had a bite. After a few seconds, I decided that I couldn't probably go down to the tub after all. I actually tried to figure out how I could get back there with my camera and snap a shot without being noticed. I'm not sure how long I stood there on this walkway looking through the railing. A bare chest is one thing, but these were "remarkable" to say the least. The most remarkable thing about them was that they were on the body of a 300 pound bald man who had no teeth.

I must confess that I am not a svelte size 6 so I can empathize with folks who struggle maintaining a healthy weight. It's a challenge.

When I got to the room, I put on my gym shoes and headed for the nearest treadmill. It's amazing what can provide inspiration.

Finch Fever

I have decided that I really like the color yellow....especially on birds. These are the birds that gather outside my window on the newly installed bird feeder. The yellow birds are Gold Finches (I think). The red one standing in the tray is a House Finch. They eat thistle seed which my husband says will ultimately cause a problem because what they drop will germinate and grow. I don't care. I will kill lots of thistle plants if it means that I can watch these little fellows out of my window. I started to name them and then ran out of options. So far, I have "Goldie", "Lemon Head", "Butter Head", "Banana Sam", and "Caution". The one in the tray is "Red Rover". I can't tell any of them apart, so it really doesn't matter.

Appliance Withdrawal

"My name is Deb (Hi Deb) and I am an appliance addict."

In an effort to reduce electrical usage and because of a wretched excess of cooling power, we have decided to eliminate one appliance (perhaps two) in our home. As empty nesters, we do not have an immediate need for two full size refrigerator/freezers, one upright freezer, one college dorm sized refrigerator/freezer and one "pop machine". Now the question is which of these appliances will be the one(s) to go.

The primary refrigerator/freezer (a side-by-side model) is the appliance least likely to be selected as the one to be retired. It is the newest appliance we have and although the side-by-side format is very inconvenient (you can only efficiently store long skinny food like bacon, hot dogs and salmon fillets), it fits perfectly in that space in the kitchen and is the color to match all of the other kitchen appliances.

The "pop machine" was purchased as one of the great finds at a local farm sale/auction for $35 about 15 years ago. It is a Coke machine. For those of you from the South, I mean a genuine "Coke" (as in Coca-Cola) can vending machine. It is located in the garage and has been a great novelty for storing mass quantities of Miller Lite and Diet Coke. The coin mechanism has been rerouted and a push button switch installed which when pressed releases your selection of six types of beverage. (BTW, the Minute Maid selection is the one that dispenses the beer.) This unit is probably 35 years old and has a condenser with freon in it. It's known for delivering the coldest beverages in Union County. It even dispensed a piece of jewelry on our 25th wedding anniversary. It has sentimental value but it is probably the highest usage of electricity on the property. But it's really cool - who else do you know that has a real Coke machine in their garage? IMHO, it is a top contender for retirement.

The upright freezer was purchased from Sears in 1978 and delivered to our first home - the trailer house. It was the first major appliance purchase of our marriage right before the portable dishwasher. It lives in the "food room" in the basement. It is typically packed with so many frozen items, that you can't fit another item in it. This appliance stores mostly meat, ice cream and frozen canned orange juice and frozen margarita mix. There are also a few unlabeled disposable Ziploc containers which hold either Orange Sherbert or frozen chicken fat. The freezer pisses me off about once a year by creating so much frost that the door no longer will create a tight "seal" and it forces an emergency manual defrost procedure. This never happens on schedule - but always when I have the least time to do it. On occaision, it happens when I'm on the road and Doyle gets the job. A 30 year old freezer is probably not very efficient in using electricity and since I'm already mad at it for its recent behavior this week, it is the most probable candidate for retirement.

The secondary refrigerator/freezer was acquired in an appliance swap with our good friends Jerry and Carol. It is copper colored and has the freezer on the bottom. Its main function is to store excess vegetables during the summer harvest and frozen corn, tomatoes and stuffed green peppers. It's probably also 30 years old and while not very efficient, it also has value because we really need another refrigerator/freezer on many occasions because the big upright freezer is always full.

The dorm refrigerator was purchased when Roxie left for college in 1999. It has served Roxie, Lucas, and Whitney through their dormitory years. It is nice sized and fits well on top of the storage cabinets in the garage. It gets used to hold excess asparagus (in season) as well as the every other year surplus of apples we have when our trees over produce our demand. It would be a good solution to replace the pop machine since it could probably hold at least a two week supply of the beverages. But then we'd be just like every other family with a refrigerator in the garage. We would lose some of our "cool factor".

So, we are in the evaluation mode. We have decided to do an "eat down" of the upright freezer. We have pledged that we will not put one more item into the freezer, but will only remove food until we can unplug it for a trial run. Wish us luck - if you have any advice, please comment. This is going to be a tough couple of months. We'll take it one day at a time.

Not Going There

Confessions of an OCD "Sorter"

One of my good friends pointed out that I am an obsessive "sorter". We were eating lunch one day and I had a bag of baked chips. I tore open the bag and began eating my chips the way I always do. I sorted all of the whole chips in a pile separately from the broken chips and then began eating the broken chips from smallest to largest. When those were gone I then ate the chips that were whole.

I also sort my coins before I count to see how much money I have. I sort them by size rather than by value. I put them longways inbetween two fingers in a nice orderly row. Then I count.

I sort my ice cubes when I drink pop from a glass - smallest to largest. When I put books together on a shelf, they are sorted by size and not by author. Tallest on the left - always. When I staple papers together, they MUST BE STRAIGHT or the staple comes out and I do it over. Stamps must be perfectly aligned and equidistant on both sides from the corner of the envelope.

When I play cards, they must be sorted by suit and then by rank - highest to lowest - left to right.

It is very distressing for me to see a picture which is not level. I have no desire to visit the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" - it would make me sick to look at it.

When I walk, I find myself counting my steps without even knowing it.

Our kids were named in alphabetical order - Abby, Roxie and Whitney.

Are these really that odd? Am I the only one who sorts and aligns?

As least I don't alphabetically sort my cans of soup in the cupboard.