Flashback Friday

Let's kick it

Farewell TWIT @ AOL

As I sit here tonight - like I have 1,658 times before - getting ready to pour out my heart, soul and mind to you, my faithful readers, I just don't know what to think. It's hard to believe that on July 31, 2004, I started a blogging adventure called That's What I'm Thinking. And it's even harder to believe that faithful readers have visited TWIT almost one half a million times since it's birth. Believe me when I tell you that that makes me weepy.

You all have read day after day my ramblings about things at work, at The Compound, at the VFW and other parts of my life. You've left comments, have emailed me and have given me encouragement when I felt like I didn't want to blog anymore. You've given me awesome suggestions for journal entries, and you've become a valuable part of the TWIT family.

It still amazes me that other than the times I can count on one hand, I've managed to post to TWIT every single day since it's birth. It's not an an easy thing to do; other bloggers will back me up on that. Even though I'm the world's biggest procrastinator, posting an entry everyday in TWIT was something that I felt I just had to do. And I felt like something was missing on the rare, rare occasion when I was unable to post.

Enough of the reminiscing - now it's time to move on. Tomorrow night at midnight will mark Phase 2 of TWIT -- it will start a new adventure at it's new home at Blogspot. The first four and a half years have been on hell of a ride, faithful readers. I can't wait to see what's in store for us. I hope I don't let you down.

Welcome, Sarah Palin

In a strictly bipartisan announcement, TWIT would like to welcome Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to the 'Ville tonight. Actually, it's Jeffersonville, not Louisville. In case you're not from around here and don't know, Jeffersonville (aka Jeff) is just across the river from downtown Louisville.

Tickets were handed out earlier this week, and early reports say that there could be 30,000 people attend the rally tonight. I have to say that in all of my years of attending concerts, I can count on one hand the times when there were about 30,000 at a concert; it's pretty mind blowing to think that that many people would be attending a political rally tonight. But it's not just here in the 'Ville - political rallys have been bringing in humongous crowds like that for this election. I think that it's awesome that people care enough about their candidate of choice to fight the traffic and wait for hours just to get a glimpse of their candidate. If everyone felt that way, we would have a record turnout on Tuesday for Election day.

Way To Go, Titans

TWIT would like to congratulate the Tennessee Titans on their win over the Indianapolis Colts last night at Monday Night Football. The Titans won 31 to 21, and kept their perfect record in tact. They now are 7 - 0 for the 2008 season.

It was an awesome game - it was the first complete Titans game that I got to watch in HD on the big screen TV. It was as if I could hear the rumble and feel the draft as the players were running on the field. The colors were so crisp and clear, not to mention big.

TWIT would also like to contragulate the Titans on their 10th season anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since the Houston Oilers started an expansion team in Nashville. The rest is history.

Good Luck, Tennessee Titans

TWIT would like to with my favorite sports team the Tennessee Titans good luck tonight as they take on my least favorite team the Indianapolis Colts. The Titans are playing the Colts on their home field at LP Field in Nashville tonight, and you can watch the game live on ESPN. This is the first Monday Night Football game versus the Colts from their home field since 2004. The Titans are going into tonight's game with the only perfect record in the NFL so far -- 6-0; the Colts are currently 3-3. The Titans hope to keep their perfect record in tact by opening a can of whoop ass on the Colts.

Link Of The Week

This seems like an unlikely Link of the Wink to be posted by someone who doesn't cook, but here it is any way. This week's Link of the Week is brought to us by my dear friend, quasi-co-worker and faithful reader Big Mama. She's a busy woman, and I'm sure she uses her crock pot so she doesn't have to slave over a hot stove when she gets home from work. She found a great site that has a bizillion crock pot recipes. Well, maybe not a bizillion, but it has a lot. Visit http://www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/index-5b.html and get to slow cooking.

Flashback Friday

Power has been restored at The Compound and the surrounding area, so I'm bringing you Flashback Friday a day late. But better late than never.

In case you haven't paid much attention to some of my journal entries over the past four years, I love going to concerts. My parents took me to my first big time concert when I was just a kid and I was hooked. I would save my allowance, babysit, and offer to do chores to earn money for concert tickets. With the way ticket prices are now, at times I still need to babysit and offer to do chores to pay for them. But I digress. Buying a concert ticket is downright nerve racking these days. With scalpers, I mean "ticket brokers" on eBay and their own websites, it's almost impossible to go to an actual store or outlet to buy tickets for decent seats these days.

Concert ticket buying has a lengthy evolution. Back in the day, the process of buying concert tickets was almost as exciting as the concert itself. Record stores (another good topic for Flashback Friday) and the concert venue were just about the only place you could buy the tickets, and if you wanted good seats you would just go there a few hours before the store opened up and waited in line. As time went on, people would get there earlier and earlier and it wasn't uncommon for some people to get in line the night before the tickets went on sale.
Next was Ticketmaster. In Louisville, Krogers grocery stores added Ticketmaster outlets in some of their super stores, and you could go and get your tickets at the grocery or call Ticketmaster and order your tickets over the phone when they went on sale. Many a time my fast fingers and a case of good luck were able to get me good concert seats because I was able to get through on the phone a few minutes after the tickets went on sale.

Along came the lottery. This cut out the need to wait in line for hours. In case you're unfamiliar with this process, as you got in line you would get a ticket with a number, and a few hours before the official time of ticket sales, someone from the store or venue would draw a number and that lucky person would be the first in line. Then everyone would line up behind them according to their numbers. Personally, I hated the lottery system. If a person wanted good seats for a concert and was willing to wait in line all night long to get them, then by golly they should have them.

Then came the internet, and concert ticket buying will never be the same. You don't even have to leave your house or make a phone call - you can buy tickets through Ticketmaster or you can go to "ticket brokers" and pay 3, 4, or more times the face value for good seats. Why, just minutes after tickets go on sale you can go to eBay and usually be able to find front row seats for a hefty price. I'm not being extravagant or trying to sound uppity, but my concert rule has always been if I can't get seats in the first ten rows, I won't go, no matter how much I love the artist. Now thanks to eBay and ticket brokers, I can peel [lots of] my hard earned cash and get good seats. The older I get, the more I'm willing to pay for convenience.

During yesterday's big lumberjack experience, I believe a miracle occurred. Actually, two miracles to be exact. The first miracle was the fact that none of us crushed our feet or hands while moving the gigantic slices of the tree around. It was if we had a guardian angel watching over us. The second miracle is what we believe to be the image of the previously mentioned guardian angel in not one but two different gigantic pieces of the tree. I'm thinking of putting one of the pieces of wood on eBay. If that woman could make $28,000 from selling an old grilled cheese sandwich because she thought the Virgin Mary's image was on it, surely I could make a couple hundred bucks for my guardian angel wood image.

Timber . . .

I rushed home from work today, and made it home in about 20 minutes, in hopes of fitting in a 30 minute bike ride before supper. But as soon as I turned into the driveway, I had a sinking feeling that wasn't going to happen. My first clue was two trucks full of limbs in the driveway, forcing me to park in the yard between our house and Miss Rosemary's. The second clue was a 80 foot tall oak tree cut up in sections lying partly in our backyard and partly in the neighbor's yard. I went into the house, put down my purse and lunchbag, grabbed a pair of gloves and headed outside to do my duty.

I guess I should give background first. Two years ago during a wicked storm, the tree was hit by lightning. At the time, the only casualty was a squirrel's nest in the tree catching on fire. As time went on, Dad knew that the tree would eventually have to come down before it came down on our house, garage or gazebo. The deciding factor was when Hurricane Ike moved through the 'Ville last month and we had the massive windstorm. Thank the Lord the tree made it through, but we knew it would need to come down. Dad got quotes and made a deal with the service that would do the dirty deed today.

Flash forward to this evening. Dad was still surveying The Compound, and me and our neighbor Bev put on our gloves and got to work. We used muscles that we didn't know we had; I can assure you this because as I type this right now those muscles are hurting. I'm very proud to say that we made it through the moving of the gigantic tree parts without any foot or hand injuries. In fact, the closest thing we had to an injury was when Bev dropped her end of one of the gigantice tree pieces and it landed on my foot, but thanks to my quick reflexes I was able to get my foot out of the way with only minimal pain.

Dad said his only priority was getting all of the tree pieces back on our side of the property line; he said they could sit there till next year until he has time to get them split up and hauled off. But at least we'll never have to worry about the tree falling down and damaging The Compound.

Ten Photos That Should Have Not Been Put On The Internet

1. Penny the red-haired girl that was reported missing

2. Man standing on top of the World Trade Center with a plane coming toward him in the background

3. Gigantic shark jumping out of the water towards a Navy frogman hanging on a ladder from a helicopter

4. Moose dangling by its antlers from a power line

5. Dog pooping on a picture of any President

6. Aerial view of the U.S. taken while the northeast power outage was going on

7. Astronaut on the moon with a Confederate flag

8. The tsunami getting ready to hit the skyline of a Thailand city

9. An Asian boy with a ghost standing next to him

10. George Bush Sr. and Jr. fishing on a flooded street in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Get Well, Susan Lucci

TWIT would like to wish Susan Lucci's foot a speedy recovery. Just this morning during rehearsals for tonight's "Dancing With The Stars" episode, Ms. Lucci's foot started to swell, and after getting an MRI it was discovered that she had fractured her foot. Always the tenacious one, she insisted on going on and received great scores on her disco dance tonight. Susan and her partner Tony Dovolani performed everyone's favorite disco dance, the hustle, tonight. You sure couldn't tell she was dancing on a fractured foot - she didn't miss a step.

Of course, I gave all of my 8 votes to Susan, mainly because of her hair-do tonight. It was awesome - her hair was the reddish color and style of Cher's current hair color. Note to Susan Lucci if you happen to read TWIT: I think you should keep this new sassy hairdo.

Link Of The Week

Since I started blogging, I've paid a bit more attention to what people around me say, do, or write - the funnier, the better. And you know from previous posts that I will not hesitate to write about something stupid that I've come across. This week, I found a site that deals with all things stupid. In fact, it's called This Is Just Stupid. This site isn't just the blogger's take on what is stupid - you're invited to send in photos, videos or stories about something you think is stupid. Don't be stupid - please visit the site at http://www.thisisjuststupid.com and check it out.

A Hard Lesson In Economics

When I got home from work last night, Mom asked me if I wanted to try and sell some of my clothes that I've [happily] grown out of. Our neighbor Nadine was going to have a yard sale today, and she told Mom she could bring stuff over and try to sell it if she wanted. For the past couple of months I'd been toying with the idea of putting some of my blue jeans and nice shirts on eBay, but I never found the time to take pictures of them and actually put them on eBay. So I told Mom I'd lug the stuff out there this morning and see if I could make a few bucks.

I had about 15 pairs of jeans, pants and shorts, and over 20 shirts. A few of the shirts cost over $40, but they weren't doing me any good just hanging in my closet. I priced the pants at $2 a piece and all of the shirts [reluctantly] at $1 each. My first sale of the day netted me a whopping $5 - a lady offerred me $5 for 6 nice cotton t-shirts, so I jumped at her offer. Then a few minutes after she left, two other ladies came and bought some more of my shirts; each of them buying a shirt that cost $40 retail when I bought them two years ago. I took their money and as they were walking off with the expensive shirts, I muttered out loud "I paid forty bucks a piece for those shirts and I just sold them for a dollar."

My grand total today was $10. I don't even want to add up the total value of the shirts I sold today; at this point, I guess it doesn't really matter. Mom said it best. She said "That's ten dollars more than you had when you got up this morning." Good point, Mom. Good point.

Flashback Friday

Sweeps week is coming up, and that means that the daytime soaps will be pulling out all of the stops to get viewers to watch. Why, just yesterday, tornados hit Pine Valley and caused death and destruction to my favorite show, "All My Children." One of the commercials they've been running for a couple of weeks featured Dr. Jake Martin, a character on AMC, giving viewers reasons to tell their bosses for calling in sick yesterday and today so they could stay home and watch AMC. I'm not ashamed to say that even though I tape AMC everyday, if my office had been fully staffed, I would have entertained the thought of calling in sick to work so I could watch the tornados hit. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as staying home to watch something special on daytime TV.

As a kid, I guess I had a disadvantage when it came to staying home from school for no reason: my Grandmother (and Grandfather) lived with us, so they were in charge during the day while Mom and Dad were at work. Gram was of the adage that if you were too sick to go to school, then you were too sick to be up and around in the house watching your favorite shows on TV. When I was a kid and even as a teenager, there was no such thing as faking being sick to just stay home. Grandma could see right through it. And since she could see through it, I didn't even try it. Well, I tried it once, and it didn't work.

I was 11 or 12, and one of my favorite stars at the time (sorry, but I can't remember who it was) was going to be on the "Mike Douglas Show" that day. I so wanted to see them, so I devised a plan to fake being sick so I could stay home and watch the show. I figured that since Grandma always watched it, she'd let me lay on the couch and watch it while I was "sick." Wrong. She said that if I was too sick to go to school I was too sick to watch TV, so I spent the whole day in bed. Now, if I'd been more devious, I could have snuck and turned on the small TV in my bedroom and watched the show anyway, but even at a young age I knew Grandma was very smart and she would find out and bust me. Needless to say that was the only day that I ever faked being sick to stay home from school.

My Broadband Is Out

My broadband is out - it must have been the tornados in Pine Valley. Hopefully I'll be back up tomorrow. Thank goodness for texting.

Set Your VCRs and DVRs

After weeks of spoilers and rumors, the day has finally come for "All My Children" fans - tomorrow is the day that tornados hit Pine Valley and according to the commercial I've seen a hundred times, AMC will be changed forever.

Not one but multiple tornados hit Pine Valley and from what I've read online and in the magazines, every family on AMC will be affected. Two main characters are going to be killed off as a result of the destruction and one baby will be born amid the devastation.
Eden Reigel will be coming back on tomorrow's episode in her role as everyone's favorite, Bianca Montgomery - just in time to be back in Pine Valley when the tornados hit. If I were you, Binx, I think I might have checked the Weather Channel before heading back to Pine Valley from Paris, France.

The ABC site is promising state-of-the-art special effects tomorrow when the tornados hit. Hair will be blown around and make-up will be smudged, but we can rest assured that our beloved Erica Kane will make it through the tornados with nary a hair out of place.

Special Request Tuesday

A faithful reader contacted me with a special request. As always, I will bend over backwards to accommodate my faithful readers, so I didn't hesitate to start researching the topic. The faithful reader posed a very interesting question: had I ever heard about people feeding raw meat to their dogs. They went on to explain that they knew someone who fed their dogs raw chicken and other raw meats. As soon as I heard the words "raw chicken" I have to confess I felt the warm water start coming up in the back of my throat. As soon as I had the chance, I did some research and here's what I've found on the topic of Raw Feeding.

Wikipedia tells us that raw feeding is "the practice of feeding domestic dogs and cats a diet of primarily uncooked meat, edible bones, and organs." Once again, I feel the warm water starting to come back again. At first I thought this was just crazy talk, but the more I read about it, I have to admit that it didn't sound as crazy as I first thought. Supporters of raw feeding believe that the natural diet of an animal in the wild has evolved to consume what it is most adapted to. They try to mimic a similar diet for their domestic animals. It makes total sense to me -- animals have been around for thousands and thousands of years, and wayyyy back in the day they only had raw meat to eat; people back in the days of the Bible didn't have Purina or Iams food to feed their animals, and those animals were fine enough to reproduce and keep their species alive.

Raw feeding supporters also believe that a balanced raw diet gives the animal a healthier coat, cleaner teeth and breath, reduced stool volume and odor, and better overall health. They are usually opposed to commercial pet foods, which they believe is detrimental to an animal's health. They believe that dogs lack the necessary enzymes to digest grains and plant material, causing bacteria to form on the teeth, in the mouth, intestines and bowel. Opponents of raw feeding believe that the risk of nutritional imbalance, intestine problems and food borne illnesses posed by the handling and feeding of raw meat and bones would outweigh the benefits. Veterinary associations worldwide have warned of the animal and public health risk that could arise from feeding raw meat to pets and have stated there is no scientific evidence to support the claimed benefits of raw feeding.

I don't have a dog, but if I did, there is no way in blue heaven I would feed my dog a raw chicken, or any other raw meat for that matter. I would not feed my dog something that I would not eat myself. For the reecord, let me say that as a kid, I have tasted canned and dry dog food on a dare, and it didn't kill me. Even kids have sense enough not to dare someone to risk their life by eating raw chicken.

Link Of The Week Special Request

A co-worker emailed me this link earlier today, and I told her that I would post it in TWIT, knowing that my faithful readers would be happy to help out.

The fine folks at Henkel (the makers of Right Guard, Dial, Purex, Soft and Dry and a host of other products, are having a contest among schools in the U.S. - the school who receives the most votes will win $25,000. We are very happy to report that J.B. Atkinson Elementary School from Louisville is one of the ten finalists. As of this morning they were in third place. We have until October 19 to vote. Take a moment and visit http://www.henkelhelps.com and click on the "next" arrow until you see "J.B. Atkinson Elementary" in the larger box just to the left of the "next" arrow. Click on the picture of Atkinson and then you can enter your email address to register your vote.

Thanks in advance, and please take a moment to copy and paste this info into an email and send it to everyone in your address book. Let's do our part to help a local Louisville school win.

Link Of The Week

In case you've been hiding under a rock and haven't heard any news or read any newspapers or magazines lately, October is breast cancer awareness month. This is a repeat Link Of The Week, but it bears repeating, and as long as there is a TWIT, you can count on me giving a link to this site every October. Visit http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2 and take the 6th Annual Pink Ribbon Challenge. Just click the big pink "Click here to give" button and your click will be counted. Your click will give mammograms to women who cannot afford them. So please put the site in your favorites and click on it every day.

Farewell, Eileen Herlie

TWIT is very sad to report that soap opera actress Eileen Herlie has died. The soap legend was 90 years old, and died on Thursday from pneumonia. Eileen played one of the most beloved characters on "All My Children", the motherly Myrtle Fargate, for over three decades. Eileen joined the soap in 1976, and became a surrogate mother for my beloved Erica Kane.

Herlie was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, and worked for several years in the Scottish National Theater and in the English theater. Among the hit London plays she appeared in was Jean Cocteau's "The Eagle Has Two Heads." Her movie credits include two filmings of "Hamlet," the Richard Burton version and the 1948 Laurence Olivier production, in which she also played Gertrude. Her other movies include "Freud" (1962) with Montgomery Clift and Sidney Lumet's "The Sea Gull" (1968) with Simone Signoret, James Mason and Vanessa Redgrave. Before joining "All My Children," Herlie was a regular on Broadway. She made her debut in Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" in 1955, playing milliner Irene Molloy in the comedy, which starred Ruth Gordon as Dolly Gallagher Levi.

Herlie's AMC character Myrtle ran a boarding house in the fictional Pine Valley, and was always there to dispense her wisdom to Erica and other characters who sought her guidance. In fact, Myrtle was just about the only person who would not hesitate to put Erica Kane in her place, all the while Erica would take what Myrtle would dish out and leave Myrtle with a smile. An eery coincidence surrounds Eileen Herlie's death this week: rumor has it that her character Myrtle is going to be killed off on AMC next week when tornadoes hit Pine Valley.

Myrtle was one of my favorite characters on AMC, even though she didn't get much air time. In fact the last time her character appeared was back in June. She loved Erica Kane and her family unconditionally, and was a very classy lady on the soap. One of my favorite things about her character was when they showed her at her boarding house, she would offer her guests spiked lemonade. Of course, she'd have a glass with them.

You will surely be missed, Eileen. The show will not be the same without you. My beloved Susan Lucci said it best; "I'm sure Eileen is lighting up the sky's in heaven with her flaming red hair and lovely Scottish accent," Lucci said. "The earth's loss is heaven's gain!"

Flashback Friday

You might not know this, but my official job description title at work is Production and Inventory Coordinator. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Basically it means that I tell the factory what to build and when to build it. The life of production scheduling isn't very glamorous, but I can say it's never boring. The one constant about my job is change - we are constantly changing our schedules. I write my schedules in pencil and I use the highest pound paper I can find because I have to erase so much. At times I sure wish I had a Magic Slate to use.

I'm sure you remember the Magic Slate, and most likely had one. The slate was actually hard cardboad with a black waxy surface. On top of the black wax was a clear or sometimes light gray sheet of plastic. You'd write on the slate with a little plastic stylus and when you wanted to erase, you'd just lift the plastic sheet and clear it all. I was pretty hard on Magic Slates as a kid. I would either bear down too hard when I wrote or drew on it and would end up leaving deep gouges in the black wax. And if that didn't happen, I'd usually tear the plastic sheet as I was lifting it to erase.

You don't see many Magic Slates in the stores today; electronics and the very popular white dry erase boards have replaced them. But I sure wish I had a gigantic Magic Slate at work to use for my schedules. It would make erasing a hell of a lot easier.

An Omen At The Compound

We believe that a miracle occurred tonight at The Compound during supper. While Mom was frying some chicken tenders, she noticed that one of the pieces of chicken looked just like a horse's head. She yelled for me to bring the camera, saying that she had something for me to take a picture of for my journal. Imagine my surprise when I did in deed find the chicken tender very journal worthy.

Some may call it a miracle or a coincidence - I call it an omen. It just so happens that yesterday, Churchill Downs announced that the Breeder's Cup would be back here in 2010. Yep, an omen deed.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to put the Churchill Downs Breeder's Cup horse head on eBay and make thousands of dollars from the sale of it because Dad ate it at supper. Oh well. At least Mom and I thought it was cool.

I'm Moving

It's taken awhile to get the details and kinks ironed out, but today marks day one of TWIT's big move. Starting November 1, TWIT will be found at its new home at http://puddin-thatswhatimthinking.blogspot.com. (Note: Of course, if you're reading this at Blogspot, then you already know that I've moved. Now back to the original post.) All of the content will be the same, and thanks to Blogspot and the blogging gods, every single post from the past 4+ years copied over succesfully. But I did lose some pictures that have been posted - about half, to be exact. So for the rest of October, I'm going to be spending every spare moment going back into TWIT at AOL and will copy the pictures and repost them. Let's be real - I don't know if I could stand it without the picture of the Nun Bun or of the Miracle At Gate 4 at TWIT's new home.

Top Ten Overused Words Or Phrases Heard During The Current Financial Crisis

1. Bail out

2.  Subprime

3.  Golden parachute

4.  Foreclosure

5.  ARMs (adjustible rate mortage)

6.  CDOs (collateraized debt obligation)

7.  MBSs (mortgage backed securities)

8.  Default

9.  Subprime lender

10. Subprime mortgage

I'm A Winner . . . Finally

It took five weeks, but I'm very  happy to report that I finally won a game in our fantasy football league at work.  Until this past Sunday, I was a pathetic 0-4.  But yesterday my players came through for me and had a very good game day and I won a game.  Maybe I'm being over-zealous and am celebrating prematurely; the team I played against this weekend has one player playing tonight on the Monday Night Football game, so there is a chance (although a small one) that he could actually win.  In order for that to happen, his player, a tight end, would need to get 56 points.  Last week, the player had a record-high thirty-something points, so I really don't see him getting 56 points and beating me this week.  Yeah, I'm gloating a bit, but hey - I finally won a game.  Well, almost won a game.

Link Of The Week

As you already know, I'm all into cycling now. I try to ride at least ten miles a day, and try to stay up on the latest cycling news.  The latest info I heard is about a bike recycling site called Pedals For Progress.  Here's what Pedals For Progress is all about:

Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated over 115,000 bicycles, 1,000 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to partner charities in 32 developing world countries.

Furthermore, Pedals for Progress promotes bicycle repair businesses in the developing world. Typically, a community owned non-profit bike store will get the first containerized cargo shipment for free (about 450 bicycles), but that repair store then has to earn enough money selling the repaired bikes to pay for the next shipment.

Pedals for Progress isn't just donating used bicycles: It's also helping developing world economies by promoting self-sustaining bicycle repair businesses.

Please visit http://www.p4p.org and help them if you can. 

Kamikaze Raccoons

It dawned on me this morning that I might be slightly OCD - I found myself counting the number of dead raccoons I saw on the side of the road on the way from The Compound to Wal-Mart.  In case you're wondering, the total was eight.  Yep, eight dead raccoons on the Greenbelt Highway this morning.  And that's just on an approximate three-mile stretch.  I'm sure there were probably more.

Maybe they all have a death wish this week.  It wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see two or three but eight?  WTF?  I told Dad about it and he said that with the weather being cooler at night now, more of them are out and about stirring around, and he reasoned that they just hadn't learned how to cross the road.  I have to agree with him on that one. Truer words were never spoken.

Flashback Friday

Fall has arrived in the Ohio Valley, and has brought with it cooler temperatures.  This week, the lows have been in the upper 40's and low 50's all week long.  I've worn a light jacket to work every day this week - a sure sign that it is in deed getting cooler, because I'm probably the most hot-blooded person there is, so when I wear a jacket you know it's cold.

On the way to work this week, the first true sign of cooler weather appeared -- people and kids waiting at the bus stops had on their heavier coats.  I'm not talking windbreakers like I wore to work this week - I'm talking big coats.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and cooler weather would sneak up on us.  As a kid, I hated wearing coats, mainly because even as a kid I was hot natured.  After incessant whining about being too hot in my coat, my parents and grandparents finally got the hint and would dress me in lighter coats in the mornings before I would head out to the bus stop. 

As an adult, I often hear friends and co-workers complain about their kids leaving their coats on the school bus or in their lockers.  My parents can vouch for me on this, but I can honestly say that I never left my coat on the bus or in my locker.  Even though I couldn't stand to be hot, I always remembered to bring my coat home even if I wasn't wearing it.  I've known co-workers who have had to buy 3 or 4 winter coats for their kids because they keep forgetting them and losing them at school.  Maybe they're hot natured kids like me. 

The Year Of Trying New Things

Faithful readers, it's been one wacky week for me.  First I set a record for trying two new things in a week's time, and just hours ago, I broke that record by trying a third new thing in a week.  At supper tonight, I tried fried okra.  And it wasn't bad.  It was down right tastey.  In fact, I had a couple of spoonfuls. 

For years I've seen Mom and Dad eat fried okra and have turned up my nose at it without bothering to try it.  I imagined it would be something similar to fried slime, since okra is slimey when you slice it.  I sure was wrong.  It wasn't slimey at all.  And Mom fried it in seasoned cornmeal so it was crunchy and very flavorful.  I can't say that I will probably order it the next time I want to binge and eat something fried, but I will definitely eat it again. 

I'm having some major tooth pain right now, and while I don't think I'll be eating anything hard or crunchy for awhile, who knows?  This weekend if I come across something new that's soft, I just might go for it and try it since I'm on a roll.

Breaking News From Blogdom

It has been one hell of a day, faithful readers.  This morning I hopped in the BMW and was going to drive it to work today since it had been awhile since I had driven it.  Imagine my surprise when it wouldn't start.  The battery was dead.  The more I thought about it, it dawned on me that it had been about two months since I'd driven it.  But I digress.  Another thing had me all out of sorts today.  This morning before leaving (or should I say attempting to leave) for work, I got online to check email.  I sure was not ready for my second major surprise of the day: an email from AOL letting me know that as of November 1, AOL Journals would be closed.  Yep, you read that correctly - in one month, there will be no more TWIT at AOL.  I thought I was going to hyperventilate or go into cardiac arrest, like you might be doing right now as you read this.  But let's all take some deep breaths and calm down.  There will still be TWIT - it just won't be at AOL.   Thank goodness AOL won't be leaving us high and dry - they are working feverishly and will come up with a way to transfer our AOL journals to a new blog host. I'll know in about a week where TWIT's new home will be and believe me you will be the first to know.  Other than the format and the URL address, everything will be the same at TWIT - every single post, photograph, and comment will [hopefully] be moved over so we won't lose a thing.   

And in case you're stil wondering, I was able to get the BMW charged back up tonight and you can rest assured that from now on I will drive it to work one day a week.