Aging

Observations on Growing Older ~Your kids are becoming you...and you don't like them...but your grandchildren are perfect! ~Going out is good. Coming home is better! ~When people say you look "Great"... they add "for your age!" ~When you needed the discount, you paid full price. Now you get discounts on everything... movies, hotels, flights, but you're too tired to use them. ~You forget names .... but it's OK because other people forgot they even knew you!!! ~The 5 pounds you wanted to lose is now 15 and you have a better chance of losing your keys than the 15 pounds. ~You realize you're never going to be really good at anything .... especially golf. ~Your spouse is counting on you to remember things you don't remember. ~The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don't care to do them anymore. ~Your husband sleeps better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than he does in bed. It's called his "pre-sleep". ~Remember when your mother said, "Wear clean underwear in case you GET in an accident"? Now you bring clean underwear in case you HAVE an accident! ~You used to say, "I hope my kids GET married... Now, "I hope they STAY married!" ~You miss the days when everything worked with just an "ON" and "OFF" switch.. ~When GOOGLE, ipod, email, modem ... were unheard of, and a mouse was something that made you climb on a table. ~You used to use more 4 letter words ... "what?"..."when?"... ??? ~Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere. ~Your husband has a night out with the guys, but he's home by 9:00 P.M. Next week it will be 8:30 P..M. ~You read 100 pages into a book before you realize you've read it. ~Notice everything they sell in stores is "sleeveless"?!!! ~What used to be freckles are now liver spots. ~Everybody whispers. ~Now that your husband has retired .... you'd give anything if he'd find a job! ~You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet ... 2 of which you will never wear. ~~~~But old is good in some things: old songs, old movies, And best of all, OLD FRIENDS!! Love you, "OLD FRIEND!" Send this on to other "Old Friends!" and let them laugh in AGREEMENT!!! It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived!

Oy! Memories! MJ's "Leave Me Alone" from the 80s

On jump-starting the economy

The solution is not to credit. Post WWII "up" economy buying power was not built on credit cards. Credit? Yes. Cars, houses. But even in 60s credit cards (pre-VISA card) belonged to a few businessMEN, and NOT to women. Wrong, yes, but fact. Point - economy was not credit card driven. Outside of big credit for houses, cars, etc., things were saved for, bought on lay-a-way, which still exists, by the way. How hard is it to pay for something you want badly enough in 3 months, without interest, with no reference to your credit, and no bad mark on your credit if you "default"! You get money you paid back, but they keep the "fee" you paid upfront, if you do that, and put it back on the sale rack. Drawback - things reduced on sale usually get a 2 week lay-a-way. Plus - you can pay any amount at any frequency so long as you meet a minimum agreed-upon amount monthly. I remember my late mama buying, on credit card, and said, confused, "What did people do before credit cards?" Then it came to her, "Of course! They laid-a-way!" I told her "Guess what, mama! It still exists, today!" She was shocked, "Richway, K-Mart, Belk. They all do 3 months." She asked the clerk at the register, and she confirmed, yes, they still had lay-a-way. Mama was flabbergasted that it was not being used much and that she'd forgotten about it.

I am $79.95 poorer, but....

Well, I am $79.95 poorer, but at least the refrigerator got a clean bill of health, for now. The man checked it thoroughly, and confirmed what I suspected: it started behaving again (late last week, a day or two after I phoned in for the repair man to come), before he got here. It was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. At first, he thought not, because the freezer wasn't at zero F (-17.78 C), but was floating around 32 F (0 C). Then he realized it had just slipped into its "defrost mode" before he got here. So, he watched it for a while and found it went in & out of that just fine. He checked it out thoroughly, and found no signs of problems, leaks, etc. The only "things" he found were a clogged freezer drain, which he flushed for me, and that it's nearly empty, and he pointed out that promotes inefficiency. I assured him, as soon as my money is in (due today), that can and will change. He also told me what to look for, how to know if a compressor goes, and how/where the "off" switch is, which I did not know. I told him that was good to know, incase it started doing things it wasn't supposed to do. He agreed. However, he did give me some tentative bad news that was definitely unwelcome. I was just about to ask him what the average lifespan of a refrigerator from that era was, as it is 11 years old, when he volunteered the information: 10 to 15 years. So, he said, at 11, mine was definitely on it's final run, but not having problems - yet. He also explained the kind of things that would be worth fixing on it (fans, seals, etc.) and the kinds of things not worth fixing on it (compressors). In the former case, he said calling him would work, but in the latter case, I would be better off buying a new one. SIGH! Yea, right! Well, all I could tell him was that it had better hold until I get my credit card paid down so I can get one then if I need one, etc.

Ray Noble Orchestra,Tony Martin,Paul Robeson,Noel Coward,Fred Astaire,Buddy Clark1930s-Ray Noble-41-50