Psssssstttt...What I Saw Wednesday

I saw my Hair Spray in the bathroom cabinet right by the hinge that opens and closes the door. I closed the cabinet door and that hinge was just too close to the can...

and I heard this aweful pssssssssttttt noise. I opened the cabinet door and got hair spray all over me and the bathroom. See the little hole right above the words "Ultra Strong"...
Hair spray is real sticky.

2 Second Rule-Tuesday Tip

The two-second rule is a way for a driver to maintain a safe following distance at any speed. The rule is that a driver should ideally stay at least two seconds behind any vehicle that is directly in front of them.

You do it by spotting a landmark, such as a light pole or street sign, then count "one thousand one, one thousand two." If you reach the landmark before you get to two, you are too close. The interesting thing is that the distance shortens and lengthens based on your speed to keep you just 2 seconds away from rear ending someone.

And how do you know that, you may ask. Several sessions of safe driving classes, but I was never there for a rear ender :-). Oh, and if you are over 60, you can get a discount on your car insurance if you take the class (they don't ask you why you took the class, just if you took the class)

Easter-Monday Memory

When I was a child, my mother always made sure my sister and I had new Easter dresses. Mom would dress in her favorite suit of the season and with hat and gloves we all dressed up to pay reverence to the resurrected Christ. Mom made it clear that we were getting new dresses to show our love and respect for the Savior and not because we needed to be cute or well dressed.
I don’t know if I instilled that in my children, but I do remember one Easter dress event with them. Tori was about 3 years old and Celia was about 1 year old. I made matching Easter dresses for the three of us. They were yellow and white (double knit polyester :-)). The girls’ dresses had little orange appliqué carrots on the front.

Saturday night, I had hung the dresses on the door in the kitchen so they would be fresh and ready Sunday morning. When we got ready to go to bed Saturday night, Tori started to cry. When I asked why she said “if you don’t turn the dresses around and hide the carrots the Easter Bunny might eat them and ruin our dresses.”

I love children.

Thursday Thought--Make the World a Better Place

As I drove to work today, I saw four people standing at the bus stop. Interestingly, my first thought was that they were all together because they were all dressed in dark cloths and had on shirts or jackets that, from a distance, looked like they matched.

However

As I got closer to them I noticed they were strategically positioned so they would not make eye contact with each other or have to speak to each other. For some reason this saddened me.

And I thought...
How did we, as a society get so that we don't interact with each other on a casual, friendly basis?
How did we move to a position of self absorption so that we avoid contact with strangers?

Let's change that.
Join me in this movement.

I will:

1. Speak to strangers on the street -- just a simple nod and hello
2. Greet the clerk in the store with a smile and ask how their day is going
3. Smile at little children in public and tell them I appreciate how nice they are acting
4. Get to know my neighbors better
5. Listen carefully when someone talks to me
6. Speak to people on the elevator
7. Speak to people on the bus or at the bus stop

Will you?

One Good Day Among Many...

As Jenny lay in bed that Sunday morning in the twilight state between being asleep and being awake she felt the old familiar joy of starting a new day with the man she loved. What would today bring? As the foggy waking up dissipated she slowly remembered that what the day would bring was not what she had dreamed of.

Keith lay in the bed next to her. She could hear his heavy breathing. His wavy blonde hair tussled over the pillow like a little boy. Though his face and body were at rest now, those beautiful blue eyes that sparkled when he laughed and the way his mouth was always turned up as though he would burst out in laughter at any moment brought a smile to Jenny’s face even as she thought about the labors of the day ahead. With love in her heart she got up. It was 5:00 a.m. The acid smell of urine on the sheets permeated the air.

Jenny took a hot shower to ease her aching, overworked muscles. She was only 5’4” tall and weighed just 100 pounds. Yet she shouldered her responsibility with a glad heart knowing Keith would do the same for her if the circumstances were reversed. After the shower the ritual called for daily hygiene and cosmetics then dressing comfortably and layered so the temperature could be right for Keith.

Jenny went into the kitchen and decided to give herself a little treat today. She turned on the oven for a little extra heat in the room, put a teapot on to heat the water and got out her favorite hot chocolate mix with hazelnuts, the one she had been saving for a time like this. Today was Jenny and Keith’s fifth wedding anniversary.

As she sat sipping her hot chocolate she wondered if Keith was even aware of what day this was. It didn’t matter, she would celebrate just the same and then give her gift of love to him for the rest of his life and receive his gift of gratitude in return for the rest of hers. Ten minutes she gave herself, just ten minutes and then it was 6:00 a.m. and time to start Keith’s day.

“Good morning merry sunshine, what makes you shine so bright?” Jenny sang her usual wake up call.

“Gmmmmg” Keith always tried to respond.

Jenny rolled Keith over on his side and got ready to hoist him into the wheelchair. The chair was anchored and, with the pulley system Keith’s brother had set up for them, she lifted Keith into the wheel chair and headed for the bathroom.

“Keith, what soap scent do you want today, apple, peach, or pear? “

“Puhhhh.”

“Pear?” Jenny stopped pushing and came around in front of Keith for a response.

His blue eyes sparkled and she knew she had guessed right.

To be continued...

Sandi Grandberry (c) copyright 2010

At firs I was...

Almost

We almost finished the remodeling
We almost emptied all the boxes
We almost have the living room put back together
We almost have one room ready
We almost have the electrical stuff getting done
We almost have ...

Are we ever finished
Or do we live in a perpetual state of almost...