A Senior Embarrassment

     A few days ago my wife said , "Let's go to Tony Romas for Father's day lunch. Tony Romas usually has a special offer on Father's Day."

     I said, "Whatever!" I wasn't really listening.

     So yesterday off we went to Tony Romas for lunch. We had our lunch and my wife asked if there was a Father's Day special. The waiter replied that he didn't know as the special deals were given to him just a few days before the event. My wife thought the waiter didn't know what he was talking about.

    I usually leave a restaurant long before my wife. She can fuss about things just fine when I'm not there.

    On her way out she checked at the front desk about the Father's Day special. The young gal looked shocked and said, "If it's Father's Day I'm in trouble." That's when my wife got it sorted out. Yesterday was not Father's Day! What a surprise! What an embarrassment! So I'm glad I left a restaurant early! It's one of those really embarrassing moments and it's good not to be there.

    So you've really got to watch those seniors. They can get things mixed up and really embarrass you!

    So do other people embarrass themselves by screwing up big time or is it only me?

And I Still Hate Garage Sales

        For the last two days I have been running a garage sale at my place. I have written before about my dislike of garage sales.

       The event actually covers much more than two days. Sorting has been going on for the last two years. In the basement things have been laid aside to go on a garage sale. Then everything had to be priced.

       So all the boxes were brought up from the basement. The first weekend the sale was scrubbed by the weather. It was rainy. This weekend the weather looked like it was good to go so everything was moved outdoors and the sale started at 1:00 PM . Things were very slow. Not many people were doing the garage sale thing.

      Since I don't have a garage, only a carport, I have to be careful with the weather or all my treasures could get wet. We covered the tables with plastic and a tarp. Other things were just put in the backyard. The forecast was for a very pleasant night.

Some of the treasures laid out for sale

More junk

    

Anybody want chairs?

  At 1:08 AM there was a big flash in my eyes. I jumped up and wondered what was the matter with my eyes. I gave my head a shake or two and nothing fell off. Then there was a loud peal of thunder directly overhead. That was a bad thing! So that explained the flash in my eyes. That was a good thing. So surprise ,surprise there was a thunderstorm. In fact, there were two thunderstorms. Thunderstorms occurred even though there was nothing in the forecast. So some of my treasures did get wet.

      So the garage sale marathon finally ended. Articles were sorted again. Some things would go in the garbage. Some things would go to a charity store. And some things went back in the house for another day when we have  garage sale.

      I'm looking ahead with dread to the next garage sale! Do any of you hate garage sales?

Mistakes Cost a Tree Its Life

      I have been living on this street since 1970. When I came here the district was seven years old. The city has a policy of planting trees along the street. I had two ash trees in front of my house. When I moved here the trees were probably 12 ft. high. In 44 years I've watched them become  large and beautiful trees. I've featured a photo of one of my trees in a previous post.

My  ash tree a few years ago

     The house across the street is one of those that sells quite often. New owners took possession of it about 3 weeks ago. Two days ago I looked out to see somebody beginning to take down a 50 ft spruce. I had watched them plant this spruce. It was a fine tree but it was not placed in the correct place.


     Then, there was the ash. It was rumored that the ash was to be taken down too. Now it is against city bylaws to cut down one of their trees. The guy started to work on the ash. Fortunately, somebody drove by and reported the situation to the city. The city boss showed up immediately and asked the guy what he was doing. He told them the owner said it was his tree and to take it down. Work was stopped. More city officials showed up. They decided that the tree could not be salvaged and they would take the rest of it down.

  

The girl in the bucket doing her work

All the equipment to take down one tree

 So as a result of mistakes a very nice neighborhood tree was sacrificed. 

Be Cautious When Communicating With Seniors

       Communication with seniors can become great comedy. Slips can be made and the communication takes great leaps of logic to confusing ends.

      Things can easily get twisted in senior communication. Seniors don't hear well so they may hear things that are very different from what was spoken. Seniors can be thinking of something else and relate what was said to a completely different topic.

      Yesterday was my turn to provide some comedy in the communication field. I had advertised my canoe on Kijiji. Someone phoned and asked if she could see the canoe and wanted to know what time she could come. We agreed on 2 PM. I asked her what her name was. The first time she said her name , I didn't get it. The next time I got Maxine out of it. I repeated Maxine,' and said, "Okay, Maxine at 2 PM."

     I went outside in the afternoon. Shortly before 2 PM my wife answered the phone and someone was explaining they couldn't make the 2 PM appointment , but could she come at 3 PM. Again , my wife asked for a name and got Kathleen. And said, Okay Kathleen, we'll see you at 3 PM."

     After these two occurrences I'm not sure who the person was who actually phoned. They never showed up. Probably both of us were wrong. Why didn't "Maxine " or "Kathleen" correct us?

     I go with my wife to some of her medical appointments. Physicians will ask her a question and she goes on about something else. Finally, I say, "Answer the question". Doctors have good reasons for asking a question. Logic is going on in their heads as they want to relate the answer to the previous question and decide what to ask next. Some physicians will go on from a non answer. I wish they would rephrase the question and insist on an answer. "A final answer!"

      Now I admit that I provide my share of senior miscommunication. I admit that I don't hear well. I also admit that I don't listen very well. I can get into trouble in a hurry. Sometimes I come home and suddenly think, "Did I ever mess up that conversation." 

      However, life goes on. somehow we get through things and make sense and meaning of the conversation.

That Darn Squirrel Again

      A few posts ago I told you about a squirrel that built a nest under my barbecue cover. What was humorous is that the exact same thing happened to my daughter about ten days before my episode. Of course, I gave her a rough time about her squirrel until the same thing happened to me.

     The story of my squirrel starts some time ago. She appeared last June and set up territory in my yard and several other yards. That was the first time we had a resident squirrel in this area. In August she began gathering cones for her winter larder. It was amazing how fast she could clip off spruce cones and toss them off the tree.

     In September she began building a nest somewhere. How do I know? I have covers that I use to cover plants in September to protect them from frost. The covers usually lie around the yard. I noticed that an old mattress cover seemed to be disintegrated faster than usual. Oops. Mrs squirrel was  using some fine fiber to line a nest!

     Today I reached in a wooden shed that I use for storing tools and another garden items.   All of a sudden the covers exploded and there was a thump thump and a squirrel went flying out of the shed. Oops, another nest! Sure enough a fine nest was built in the old mattress cover! So the rascal had found the old mattress cover that she used last September and just used the whole thing for a nest. What a smart critter to find the mattress cover! Now I have no photos because I didn't have the camera. And having a camera wouldn't have made any difference as the event happened so fast That I would not have had time to even reach for  camera.

    So I thought I was pretty smart by getting rid of the nest under the barbecue. I thought she wasn't coming back so I put the cover back on. Little did I know that I was being fooled. That squirrel is twice as smart as I thought she was.

I Need Help With Memory

     I do not have a good memory. I have lots of excuses for my poor memory but none of them are good. In fact, I have a very poor attitude towards memory.

     When I was a child I hated memory work. In Sunday School I had to memorize many bible verses. For memorizing a certain number of bible verses  I would get a pencil and then an eraser and God knows what else. Now when I stop and think about it there's very little that I remember of any verses I memorized. I memorized the 23 rd Psalm. It starts...The Lord is my shepherd...there's something about green pastures and something about still waters. That's it! The rest is gone!

     We had to memorize poetry in school.I hated it. I remember not one line. In our final high school literature exams we had memory work on the exam. It was always so many lines of Shakespeare. Again I remember not one line.

     As I said my reasons for a poor memory were all bad. Obviously I had a very poor attitude. Today I enjoy listening to people recite poetry.

     Now for the last few days a rogue blog has been appearing on my blog. This blog is not on my reading list.  It's in a foreign language. Things like this really catch my attention and I stay away from them and don't open anything. I don't want to open  can of worms or worse.

     I immediately began to search and find out how to get rid of this unwanted blog.  So this is what I found. Click on the star in the upper right of the dashboard. Next click blogger help. Then click on trouble shoot areas. Then click on report abuse. Next click on spam, malware and phishing. Under phishing provide the url of the offending blog. This will bring up a form to make your report.

      I did all these things. It only took a minute for them to come back with the answer. They reminded me that I had checked off that I could be informed of new products! Darn! I'd forgotten that! It was nice of Blogger to be able to remind me of what I had done. They were also kind enough to tell me how I could stop the mystery blog from appearing. 

      I find that blogger is extremely helpful when you go through this procedure. They come back with something that is easy to understand.

     Now I have to stop and ask, "How much does blogger or any other program keep track of on me?" I think I know the answer.

Would You Change Your Blog's Name?

        I found out that a friend was thinking about starting a blog. He hadn't got any further than thinking that he had many good stories to tell. That discussion got me thinking about what happens when someone sets up a blog.

       I knew no one who had a blog. I had looked at blogs . But, I had no one I could go to and get some hands on advice. 

     One of the first things you are asked to do when setting up a blog is come up with a name. I had a name in mind before I actually got around to setting up my blog. I had gone to a one room rural school from gr. one to nine. I wanted to honor that little school for I had  while I attended. I thought house would make things inviting and I could use this to make people feel welcome. Other than that I had no idea that a blog name could be used to bring more traffic to your site! My decision was completely romantic.

       I think most bloggers write things because they want people to read what they have to say. For most people the writing comes easy. They have lots to say and can make it interesting. But there are some mechanics that can be used to get a bigger audience.

       Here's where I step out into uncharted territory. Some blogs seem to stand out and grab your attention. Aha! A professionally done web site. Great color combinations! An eye catching header! Attractive side bars!  Lots of great photos! Regular features! All these things count but then, you get back to that stupid name!

      I have started two other blogs for clubs. One  blog is called Natural Wise. So if someone uses natural or nature there's a good likely hood that search engines will take you the Natural Wise.

      Have you seen eye catching names? Have you seen a name that search engines would like? Hiawatha House is ranked first on the search engine listings for Hiawatha. On the other, hand how often does someone Google Hiawatha something? I  don't think my name is bringing in many readers. Fortunately there are many other ways to gather readers.

     So my question is, "Would you change the name of your blog if you thought it would attract more readers? Are you attached to your blog's name like I am? "