Bathroom Break with Reality

Have you ever walked into a ladies restroom and found a man inside?  I did and it was Monday (proving the cliché` “you know it’s Monday when….”).  Monday morning and five cups of coffee equaled a bathroom stop @ Wal-Mart.  I walked in and said “gentleman” was using the commode as a urinal WITH the door open.  I immediately thought I was having a lyme/menopausal/alzheimer’s moment and promptly walked out and checked the sign at the entrance…..yes it said women’s.  He was walking out about that time (after NOT washing his hands), I’m sure I gave him a strange look as I was walking back in the door!

When I told my husband the story he said he would have immediately told the man he was in the wrong bathroom.  I replied that I didn’t want the man to whirl around (form a mental image here) when he was startled by a woman’s voice in the bathroom.  I thought about it later and the chances he was weird at the very least and a flasher or worse were high.  I did report it to a cashier and she had seen a man deliberately choose a women’s bathroom the day before.

So what would you have done? Would you have screamed, demanded he leave, or tucked tail and checked the sign like I did?

Japan, Six Degrees of Separation, and Gaman

I have a feeling that people will remember where they were on 3/11/11 like they remember where they were on 9/11/01.  Not with the same horror of mans inhumanity to man, but awe and horror at mans infinitesimal insignificance in the face of Mother Nature. I woke up early in the morning for some reason and saw something about the earthquake posted on facebook.  I turned on the tv and watched with horror and fascination for hours when I should have been asleep.

I was wondering why I was so fascinated by all of what was going on in Japan.  I had felt bad for the people in Haiti last year, and for the tsunami of 2004 and even contributed a bit to charities but I hadn't truly thought of it very much.  I watched Katrina hit the coast with horror and amazement but I had visited Gulfport more than once and loved the city.  But Japan is around the world, I knew no one there and was related to no one or so I thought.

The theory of six degrees of separation was brought home to me though in a photo of tsunami refugees in a shelter the other day.  Many of the Japanese people do not have strong oriental features or what I think of as strong oriental features, and these two elderly ladies looked like my grandmother and my aunt.  This stuck in my mind till I put 2 and 2 together and did manage to come up with 4.  I do have relatives in Japan and they are related to my grandmother and aunt.  It's a long story but there is a family disease (Machado Joseph Ataxia) that is transmitted genetically.  Everyone who has it is related to a group of Portuguese sailors, everyone.  There are families with this disease (which I do not carry the gene for, thank goodness) in Germany, Portugal of course, Japan, and the United States among others.  So through a wandering Portuguese sailor I do have relatives in Japan.

All of that didn't explain why I was so fascinated by this disaster.  The people enchanted me, their stoicism in the face of horrible deprivation and loss, the ability to go on after witnessing that horrible black wall of water was so different from what we expect to see in a disaster.  The nuclear disaster is giving them more worry but their attitude is one of Gaman which means quietly enduring difficult situations.  This seems to work for these people. The lines for food, water, and gas are orderly, no shootings, no looting, the idea the squeaky wheel gets the grease is not even an option there at this time.  I wonder if perhaps we could all take note of their dignity in the face of tragedy and perhaps learn a lesson from it all?

If you want to read more about Gaman and Japan's history of disasters you can go to this link.  Macado Joseph information is located here.  There is also a wonderful article about Japanese stoicism here.

A GREAT FamilyThanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving.  This is a long story but some of the lines contained within are worth it, trust me. I know it's supposed to be great every year but sometimes it isn't? This was my nephews idea. It was all a big surprise for my brothers 70th birthday (there are only two of us, brother and I, 16 or 17 years difference, depends on when you ask). Anyway it was all a big surprise, my brother knew my husband and I were coming and maybe his son, my nephew.  The rest was a surprise....we were missing one of my brothers nieces, the step kids, and of my brother grandkids but we had a great deal of the family together...
My daughter her boyfriend and his two sons showed up first, that was a big surprise to my brother.  We made like this was the reason we kept telling brother we needed more ice, chairs, silverware, etc.  Then his daughter (giving rabbit ears in above picture) appeared.  I wasn't there to see it (I ran out to say hi) but they said his mouth actually dropped open, he said "I'll be dammed" and he grinned and went for the door when he spotted them out the front window. 
A great time was had by all, the "I'll be dammed" will go down in family lore as we usually figure out when something is "up."  Everyone was there, even the 5 dogs...(two were left behind with sitters). It had been a long morning, lots of coffee, I decided that I had time to visit the facilities before the blessing.......I knew I'd made a grave mistake when it was deadly quiet before the flush...I came out of the bathroom to face like 30+ eyes.....then my niece said in an impatient voice tapping her foot ......"Jesus is waiting!"  My daughter said the blessing and she did make it through it but then we bent over double....was just too much...  So now we aren't really a sacrilegious family, but that will go down in history.
So then I put the above photo on facebook, it has been blurred and crinkled to protect the not so innocent...We were trying to decide which family photo we liked best on facebook.  My daughter who wasn't there got on and said "I'm the pretty one." I replied gently, "but you weren't there."  She said "I'm still the pretty one." 
So you get the gist of how the whole thing went....TOO much food and laughter.
I'm just wishing everyone could have a Thanksgiving like that at least once, even including asking the lady walking down the street if she wanted to be in the photo......no we didn't but it was mentioned......and no we hadn't been drinking...

Children's Luggage and Tis The Season

You know what next week is right? Thanksgiving and then we know what comes, full blown shopping frenzy.  CSN has ways to combat that frenzy, from Children's Luggage, to  handbags, furniture, clothes, and one of my favorites, dog crates. The overnight bag pictured are only $20 a piece and are perfect for kids going to grandmas house, in fact that is the name of the bag! The bag is made of nylon and polyester, and has reflective cording for safety.  The wheels are inline skate wheels and the handle is telescoping so it adjust for different size kids. CSN offers this and so much more this holiday season for gifts or even for YOU!!

Here are some special deals CSN stores let us in on.  Since these sites are offering exclusive savings at incredible discounted prices, promotional codes will not be accepted.

CSN Baby
CSN Games
CSN Exercise and Fitness
CSN Toys and Games Online

Now think about shopping Friday morning after Thanksgiving early, then think about sipping coffee in your pj's while surfing from these sites or even doing it earlier in the week?  Sort of a no-brainer if you ask me? 

What Do Black Friday and Children's Luggage Have In Common?

I'm going to talk about children's luggage and tell you how you might find some black Friday deals.

I admit I'm doing this for CSN, tomorrow or later today I'll have a review of children's luggage. I don't do reviews for every store however. I do research and stick to reputable organizations with good track records. Are you dreading black Friday?  If so you might want to check out the deals CSN stores have to offer.  Shopping online with CSN is easy.  CSN offers free shipping on items over $69 that can be shipped via regular shipping methods.

Watch for my review tomorrow or later today!!  I'll have a bit more on some other deals CSN has to offer also.

I'm looking seriously at their handbag section.

Ground Zero And The Mosque

I thought about writing this last week (we aren't going with prescribed blog format here, just what comes off the top of my head)  then I said naw......there are enough people talking about the mosque @ ground zero in New York.  Then I saw this video or what I could see of it because my internet connection is limited.




It seems that a man of vaguely African heritage (do rag on top of head basically, why not offend all while I'm @ it not just the conservatives, why should they be special?) walked through the crowd of protesters that were gathered @ the proposed Islamic Center close to the former site of the Twin Towers or Ground Zero.  (BTW you should check out the hallowed ground they are right, Mc Donalds, Strip Clubs, Chinese Restaurants, I know my insurance agency was next door too)  So this guy who is a carpenter is walking through the crowd of protesters and they basically attack, especially one dude in a shiny shiny blue hard hat and green t-shirt.  He really wants to fight the guy who looks vaguely foreign.  You all know the end to the story, the man with the white African hat was going to work @ the  memorial @ ground zero, he is a carpenter there.

What does this teach us?
1.  The guy in the shiny hard hat just bought it.
2.  Do not judge people by their do rags.
3.  First impressions are often wrong.
AND most importantly except for the Native Americans WE were ALL foreigners once.

I Thought Trouble Came In Threes?

This isn't South Texas, actually it's green down here.  The heat thing?  It's worse down here I swear than this photo.  Of course it's just as bad everywhere.  Who cares if it's 98 or 105? Deadly hot I can't stand outside and survive for long periods of time hot is just HOT.

So the refrigerator broke last week?  The truck broke the week before?  Well this weeks problems decided to condense themselves to this morning.  This may be a good thing but it led to some rather short fuses and nerves.

1.  Air conditioner fan broke in front of the semi.  That wouldn't be such a tragedy because there are two ac units on trucks except our other one had a leak in the freon and he plugged it off so the one in back REALLY doesn't work.  BUT this gave him an extra fan to install in front until we could find another fan which took 3 stops.  Freightliner truck, you'd think a freightliner DEALER would have a fan?  Silly silly you!!  We had to go 3 places to find a fan and freightliner couldn't even tell us where to find one.  (Pharr Texas)  He got it running first thing this morning by pushing on said fan blades while fiddling with the knob, a fact which he should not have told me because I was meditating on his great mechanical skills before his confession.

2.  We got locked out of the motel room we stayed in last night.  OK, we left the key on the dresser and then decided we needed back in the room because it was HOT @ 5:30 AM in the truck and the dog and I might as well be in the cool while he worked on the truck and then he could come back in and get cleaned up (he hadn't actually GOTTEN to the fan blades to PUSH on them yet), BUT being brilliant OCD people we were going to be ORGANIZED and EARLY and got out of the motel room @ 5:30 for our 8 AM appointment 10 miles AWAY!.  5:30 AM  not supposed to be HOT in the truck!!  Then the new key the night manager (boy) wouldn't work and he had to come make it work for me...
.
3.  After finding a new fan motor  much later this morning and putting it in we were following behind a gravel truck, Diamond Rock BTW but I know from previous experience it's useless to call them.  POW a rock hit our windshield and it will have to be REPLACED soon.

4.  You thought we were through didn't you?  We go to clean out the trailer (husband has been doing trailer cleaning as he is still in the----she wouldn't go trucking with me for 8 years, I'd better not screw this up------phase.  But since I used to clean trailers out all the time I decided I needed the exercise.  Trailer wouldn't start.  For all of you non trucking people it's a reefer.  A GIANT refrigerator or freezer.  Would be nice to have it started since it's 100 and we will be doing physical sweeping inside of it.  I swept and he fixed the unit, it had lost it's prime or ground or something.  Sweeping wasn't too bad but the dog did get rather dirty "helping".  This is AFTER I washed his feet, twice.

So we are still married.  I haven't demanded to be taken to the nearest airport, he made me take the dog carrier out of here anyway.  Hopefully the rest of the day will be better?  Thank goodness I married a mechanical person!