Winter Golf

We went out for a drive today around Smithville Lake.  While there we thought "How about a round of golf?".  Our first stop was the driving range.  Uh, oh, it's closed.  We scratched our heads wondering why they would close the driving range on such a beautiful day, and then we found the reason.

The ball retriever cart was stuck in the snow!  Oh well, we'll just have to start our round without any practice.  Off to the tees!

Decisions, decisions.  Outlaw or Posse.  Which one shall we play?  I wonder which is less crowded?

The Outlaw looks promising.  We see some footsteps heading to the tee, but no one is in sight.  They're probably a few holes ahead of us.

After running out of balls on the first hole, we decided to call it a day.  While leaving the park, we saw the restroom, which for obvious reasons is closed in the winter.  Why did they shovel a path to the door?

One Year Ago

Tuesday a year ago, I was bowling with our team in Senior league.  It was taco Tuesday so I had a few tacos before bowling.  I was thinking the tacos didn't agree with me because after each frame, my chest was burning.  During the third game I started to fear it wasn't the tacos.  I wasn't smart enough to head to the hospital and shortly after midnight, I had my heart attack.  It is hard to believe it's been a whole year already.

Today was league day, and again, taco Tuesday.  I couldn't bring myself to eat tacos so I had lunch at home.  I felt strange and a little scared at the bowling alley, but after throwing a few lanes with no 'heartburn', I started to relax.  Now I am looking forward to 2010 being a great year!

365

I took the plunge.  I'm going to see if I can do a 365 project this year.  I did day one, so I'm well on my way!  I have a link to the project on the right side of this page.  Tomorrow we'll know if I can actually do it two days in a row!

A New Years Eve to Remember

About 9 or 10 years ago, we hosted an on line video chat room.  Our room became very popular because we took strict control and kept it fun.  It was a safe place for people to come and relax and talk to other people.  The video aspect made it a lot of fun and resulted in some hysterical laughter at times.  We met people from all over the world.  We even had a band from Italy playing live music in our room at times.  A woman from Australia met a man from New Jersey in our room and eventually got married.

One of our best New Years celebrations ever was in this room.  Because we had people from all time zones in the United States and many others from around the world, we were able to celebrate New Years for someone each hour of the night.  Yes, it was a long night.  But one I will never forget.  I miss that room.

The End of the Year

It's been almost a week since our first big snowfall on Christmas Eve.  It's been snowing off and on since then and is snowing pretty good right now.  Hopefully my snowblower will be fixed this afternoon and I can tackle the driveway.

2009 started out with a scare and ended with Norine out of commission.  In between, we did manage several nice trips.  Early spring was New Mexico, late spring Colorado, and fall the Grand Tetons.  Despite a rough beginning and end, 2009 was a pretty good year.  Hopefully 2010 will be even better!

Christmas Snow

Hot tub anyone?

Christmas 2009

A winter storm hit Kansas City Christmas Eve.  It started in the early afternoon with ice and then changed to snow around 5 PM.  The wind kicked up and we had a very snowy, windy night.  Christmas morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow.  Of course my ole trusty snowblower decided not to start, forcing me to shovel by hand.  How archaic!

Lisa and Bob came over for Christmas dinner.  We fixed salad, honeybaked ham, cheesy potatoes, and Watergate Salad.  Lisa and Bob brought the rolls (there's a story there, but I'm not telling!) and some crackers and dip.

Although I took this picture of Bob, I wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing.  The package he's picking up was for Norine's mom.  Bob proceeded to open it finding a gift of some nice women's perfume.

Lisa and Norine annoyed us with the hamster and chihuahua app on their iPhones.  Actually it was pretty funny listening to those animals repeat everything we said in their tiny voices.

I'm not sure if Bob was yawning or yelling at the new Kansas City Chiefs coach.

Can you believe it?  I actually got Lisa to look halfway normal for the camera.  Usually she does this:

We ended the day with a trip to the nursing home to visit Norine's mom.  We were afraid we might not get up there because of poor driving conditions, but Bob drove like a champ.  Lisa only screamed at him a half dozen times or so.

It turned out to be a very nice Christmas!

The Eagles

Today we braved the cold weather and headed north to the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge.  Every year around the first week of December, the eagles (birds, not singing group) flock to the refuge.  This year was no exception.  It is so fascinating to see these majestic birds in the wild.  We drove the 10 mile loop through the refuge and saw a lot of eagles.  We also had a flock of pheasants fly across the road in front of our car.  The noise of over 100,000 snow geese was amazing as we slowly drove through the refuge.  Tomorrow is eagle days at the refuge.  They were setting up food areas, bus shuttles, and all the other things that go with large crowds.  So glad we beat them to the rush!

The Eagles have Landed

Well, maybe not yet, but soon.  About an hour north of us is the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge.  Around the first week of December each year, about 300 bald eagles are in the refuge.  I have been to the refuge several times, but never when the eagles were present.  I am determined to make it this year.  I'm watching the counts and as of last week, there were only 18 eagles.  They will be flocking in any day now so I will keep a close watch.  Stay tuned and hopefully there will be some eagle pics here soon!

Thanksgiving in the Park

Today is Norine's first official day of not being homebound.  Although it was quite chilly, we took advantage of an otherwise pretty day to take a walk in Loose Park.

There were a few people walking dogs, some children playing, and ducks on the water.  A very peaceful setting.

The fall colors are gone, replaced by colorful balloons.

The silhouette of a tree without leaves lets us know winter is on it's way.

It was our first Thanksgiving in a long time without family around.  It made the day a little sad, but also made us realize that our families have grown up and that things are different.  It's so quiet....time for a nap...

...and now a word from our sponsors...

We never watch a television show live.  We record the ones we like on Tivo and then watch them on a delayed basis, sometimes as soon as 30 minutes after they start.  We do this so we can skip through the commercials.  Tonight we were watching the most recent episode of "V".  My finger seemed to be getting tired from an inordinate amount of commercials.  When the program ended, I decided to do a little analysis.  We went back to the beginning of the program and recorded the amount of program time vs commercials.  There were 5 commercials totaling 20 minutes during the 60 minute show.

In the 1960s, an average 60 minute show would run for 51 minutes.  Thats 11 minutes longer than tonights episode of "V".  That means commercial time has increased from 9 minutes to 20 minutes for an hour long show.  That's a 222 percent increase in commercial time!  If you watch any of the old shows that are being broadcast, you may see that they've cut up to 9 minutes of showtime for the increased commercials.

Not only are they increasing the amount of commercials, they are increasing the volume because they know that people head to the kitchen or bathroom during commercials.  They want to make sure that you hear them in other parts of the house.

What can we do about this?  It's not going to go away.  They know that people will see the commercial and buy the advertised product.  We can purchase the show through services such as iTunes or Amazon, but then we have to store the show and pay $2.99 or $3.99 for each episode.  Hardly worth it for something you can get for free.  We can wait and buy the DVDs for the season.  Again, it's expensive and you need to store the DVDs that you'll probably never watch again.

The ideal solution would be to turn off the TV and do something productive.  But hey, I like to watch some of the shows.  Is something wrong with that?  It's entertainment.  I will just sit back and realize that by pressing the fast forward button until my finger gets sore is saving me about $3.99 for every 40 minutes of TV I watch.  Let's see, I press the fast forward for 20 minutes of recording time.  since it's fast forwarding at 3x normal speed, I'm only holding the button for about 7 minutes.  If my calculations are correct, I'm earning $34.22 an hour for sitting in my recliner, pushing a button.

Hey, I can live with this!!!

Allergic to Bullets

This is old but I still love reading it.  Although I don't think the story is true, the message is valid.   I tend to let some insignificant things aggravate me and I need to have this where I can read it when I get that way.  I will post it here.  That way I can always find it.

Jerry -

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. "Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "the first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "...The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a deadman'. I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead'." Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Chiefs and Chopper

We do most of our shopping at Price Chopper, mainly because it is one of the closest stores to us, but also because of the quality of their produce, house brands, and fresh food.  We occasionally get fried chicken from their deli because it is usually fresh and very tasty.  Much better than the colonel, in my opinion.  Last Friday we were in the Liberty area and stopped at the new Price Chopper store.  It was a very upscale looking store.  They even had a wide selection of Muir Glen tomatoes.  Since it was dinner time, we decided to get some chicken.

When we got home, we discovered the chicken was dry, mostly cold, and very old tasting.  Not spoiled, but more like chicken that had been sitting under a warming light way too long.  I went to the Price Chopper web page and submitted a complaint.

This morning I got a call from the deli manager, Cindy, who was very apologetic and wanted details so she could find out what went wrong.  She sounded very sincere and promised to take action to ensure that the food is always fresh and hot.  She offered a gift certificate which I said wasn't necessary, but she insisted.  When I got off the phone, I felt like I just talked to someone who really cared about her customers and wanted to make things right.  She didn't try to defend her department and made me feel like a valued customer.

I give Price Chopper an A+ on customer service.

Oh, and Kansas City area people will understand the title of this post.  ;)

eBay, Yard Sales, Craigslist, Donations

As we continue to go through a lot of stuff that we haven't used in years, we ponder the various ways to get rid of things.  I have used eBay quite a bit for items that are easily mailed and have a decent value, but I have often wondered about Craigslist for the larger items.  The yard sale route is not for us.  The last time we tried a yard sale, we opened our garage and within 10 minutes some guy came by and offered us a nickel for something.  A nickel!  I think we had it marked for a whopping quarter!  We sent him on his way and closed our garage door, never again to attempt a yard sale.

For the most part, donations have been our preferred method of disposing good quality goods.  We feel we're helping someone out as well as getting a tax deduction for the merchandise.  But what about the big item stuff?  Craigslist sounds perfect!  Now that we have a travel trailer to sell, I thought it was a good time to give it a whirl so I put my first ad on Craigslist.  Within an hour I got a response.  Some guy asked if I would give him a rent to own option.  Did he really think I would accept that?  Is this the yard sale guy that had a nickel in his hand?

I suppose I will just stick with eBay and donations.  As far as the trailer, I'll wait for spring and try some other advertising venues.

What is my point with all of this?  Nothing.  I just wanted to kill some time while Norine was getting ready so we could go out to look for framing supplies.

Three Weeks

It's been almost three weeks since we got back from the Tetons.  A lot has been going on and the time has been flying.  Shortly after returning from the trip, we booked a place for next year.  We'll be going with friends and we reserved a nice house in West Yellowstone.  Well, at least it looks nice in the photos.  The owner was a pleasure to talk to so we're expecting a good experience.  Since we'll be in West Yellowstone, the focus of the trip will be Yellowstone NP instead of the Grand Tetons.  I only hope that we enjoy the trip as much.

A week after returning, Norine had her first knee replacement surgery.  She's doing great and I'm actually enjoying doing things around the house.  I'm getting a lot of little projects done, some of which have been haunting me for years.  I've even made some progress on the basement.  Not a lot, but some.  I really want to get the basement in order since basically half our house is down there.

What I'm enjoying most is cooking.  I'm trying to get more adventurous and have actually produced a few decent meals.  I am not letting Norine's incapacity lead to more carry out.  In fact, we've had very little (maybe none) from carryout since she got out of the hospital.  I'm progressing from the easy dishes to the more complex.  Today I started pork posole.  It's two day recipe, but it was smelling so good today, that it was very difficult to resist.  Stage one is refrigerating overnight and I will finish it tomorrow.  While at the grocery store getting the ingredients, I had to fight two women over the remaining pork roasts.  They were on sale for $.99 a pound and going fast.  Fortunately I was able to wrestle away the required 6 lbs of roast.

I look forward to the day when Norine is back on her feet.  This is a very difficult time for her, but I know she will be glad she did it.  I expect 2010 to be a lot more active for both of us.