Happy New Year – 2010
December 31, 2009 at 10:01 am (Current Events, Day to Day)
Tags: New Year Greetings
The Tragedy of Holiday Season Fires…..
December 26, 2009 at 6:15 am (Current Events, Day to Day)
Tags: Holiday Tragedy, House Fires
The past two weeks here in the local area have been especially tragic when it come to homes burning along with the associated deaths of family members. A mother and three very young children 5, 4 and 3 years old died in a fire a few days ago and about a week before a mother and her adult son died in a house fire. Certainly fires of this type are always tragic but during this time of the year with the holiday season upon us it does seem all the more tragic.
The reason I blog about this today is that our neighborhood also lost a home to fire in the past week. A home right across the street from me caught fire a week ago yesterday in the wee hours of the morning around 2:00 am or so. By the time all the commotion and sirens had wakened me, the situation was under some degree of control and the residents of the burning home consisting of four adults had safely made it out. They were all, however, transported to the hospital due to smoke inhalation. And although there was no human loss of life they did lose both their dogs in the fire, a Pekingese mix and a Miniature Schnauzer whom I know were like children to them.
I am posting a short video I took of the fire itself along with a couple of other photos I took a few days later of the house that burned along with the damage incurred from the house next door from the heat. I was amazed at just how fast they got the fire extinguished once in position to do so as can be evidenced toward the end of the video.
done
The photo below is of the burned home itself. Almost all the direct fire damage seemed to be the back half of the house. To look at the front of the house you would not know there had been a fire but when it comes to fires, we all know looks are deceiving. Also note that the plywood you see that is not burned was put up after the fire to board up the home.
(Side of Home – Click to enlarge)
(Back of Home – Click to enlarge)
The photo that follows is that of my neighbor’s home who lived right next door to the home that burned. It is amazing to see the damage incurred to their home just by the heat of the fire. It does go a long way in highlighting the danger of houses being built to close to each other.
(Neighbor’s Heat Damaged Home – Click to enlarge)
You just never know when tragedy like fire might strike and cost you your home. I have had a couple of close calls in my lifetime and do tend to worry about that sort of thing more now that I am getting older. Leaving a burner on the stove on is something I seem to be very conscious about.
Okay, so much for sad and bad news. Time to move on……
A Christmas Greeting….
December 24, 2009 at 7:23 am (Current Events, Day to Day)
Tags: Christmas Greetings
Maybe it’s just me but……
December 18, 2009 at 7:25 am (Current Events, Day to Day, Show & Tell)
Tags: Auntie Anne's Fundraising, School Fundraisers
A few weeks ago a young girl, probably junior high school age, rang my doorbell and wanted to know if I would be interested in buying an item from a catalog to help her school buy some new band uniforms. I’m sure you all have had a similar knock at your door at one time or another in the past.
I looked through the catalog which contained items such a cookies, candies, etc and I finally settled on a box of large cinnamon coated pretzels. Not something I would personally like but thought it might be a good gift for one of my sisters to use in their annual Christmas gatherings. Now the damn things cost $15 which was a bit high I thought but nevertheless, it was for a reasonable cause.
Anyway, night before last around 6:00pm the doorbell rang and it was the young lady delivering my order. I thanked her, closed my door and proceeded into the kitchen with the goodies. As I sat the box down on the kitchen bar I noticed very large letters on the box reading “KEEP FROZEN”. I picked up the box and looked closer and the warning was written on every side of the box to include top and bottom.
(Click to Enlarge)
(Click to Enlarge)
The box wasn’t the least bit chilly to the touch so I opened it up and there were these six very large pretzels in a sealed cellophane bag. I pushed down on the pretzels inside the bag and they were as soft as a pillow to the touch. The inside of the cellophane bag was covered in hundreds of droplets of water.
(Click to Enlarge)
I then noted on the box that to prepare the pretzels, you put the “frozen” pretzels in the oven at 400 degrees and bake for 6-8 minutes. Yesterday morning I then visited the company’s website which makes the product, found the product listed along with this warning: “This product must be kept frozen at all times”. I’m still not quite sure why, in the case of these pretzels, that is so important but nevertheless I have to assume the warning has a basis.
Now to the “Maybe it’s just me…..” part! What in the hell is that school thinking having junior high kids selling products that have to remain frozen until they are ready to be served or they will ruin? Just how in the world does the school think they can first of all, distribute the product to the kids in school and then depend on the kids to deliver the products within an hour or so to the purchaser before they begin to defrost? Is it just me or was there an idiot in charge of this school’s fund raising activities? What do the kids do if the people aren’t home? I would venture to say few, if any, have available storage space in their home refrigerators to store these kinds of items packaged in boxes. I would also venture to say that a majority of the people purchasing items from these kids work and won’t even be home until 5:30pm or later.
I certainly don’t blame the little girl for this fiasco and it’s not the money. In fact, almost all the kids around where I live for the most part ride buses to and from school and some don’t get home from school for an hour or more.
Please….feel free to enlighten me if I have over-reacted here but it seems to me there was a lack of common sense used in the case of this school fundraising project! 
Veteran’s Day – 2009
November 8, 2009 at 12:04 pm (Current Events, Day to Day, Remembrances)
Tags: DAV, Veterans Day, VFW
(Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Veteran’s Day is the day this country sets aside to honor those who have served this country, both in peacetime and in times of crisis and war. Although it is a day set aside to primarily honor the living, it has also been our tradition to include those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in their duty to their country. In that vain, please click on the link below to see a fitting tribute created a few years back from USA Forever. Org…….
God Bless Our Veterans
Attention Walmart Shoppers…..
October 28, 2009 at 6:11 am (Current Events, Day to Day, Show & Tell)
Tags: Adult Urns, Caskets, Cremation Urns, Funeral Planning, Pet Urns, Wal-Mart, Walmart
Attention Walmart Shoppers
See Today’s Special On Aisle 13
Well, are you sitting down? I was completely shocked three days ago when I ran across information that led me to believe that Walmart was selling ‘caskets’. Yep….you heard me right! CASKETS!
I immediately proceeded to the Walmart website, typed in “caskets” in the sites ’search’ window block and walla, there they were! All fourteen of them. And not only that but they also sell cremation urns for both pets and people, not to mention a few necklaces for keeping sample remains of your loved one to boot. Below is a webpage sampling.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Now do you believe me? Still don’t huh? Okay, then go to the Walmart website by clicking “here“, locate the ’search’ window near the top of the website page, type in either ‘casket’ or ‘funeral’ and see what comes up. Then you’ll have to believe me unless you think I have put a ‘Walmart Casket Virus’ into your computer somehow! 
Pet Urn – Adult Urn
(Click to enlarge)
At first I thought maybe this was all a hoax. You know, someone in Walmart upper management taking this Halloween thing just a little too serious but I’m slowly but surely beginning to think otherwise. I couldn’t resist doing a search for tombstones but all I got with that search for returns was movie titles. But I no longer put it out of the realm of possibility!
In closing I have to say in all seriousness…. “Did you see the prices on those caskets? Those are some seriously good prices if you’ve ever done any serious planning for one’s final internment, including the prices on those cremation urns!”
Although I have visited a couple of funeral homes in the past year or so getting some ideas on funeral costs, I have yet to commit to anything. I just may go ahead and order one of those Walmart caskets and just use it as an extra guest bed in my spare bedroom until I need it! 
Where’s My Puffed Wheat….??
October 26, 2009 at 6:16 am (Current Events, Day to Day, Show & Tell)
Tags: Breakfast Cereal, Kroger, Puffed Wheat, Quaker Oats Company, Quaker Puffed Wheat, Sgt. Preston and King, Shirley Temple, Television Commercials, Wal-Mart
I live about six blocks or so from my neighborhood Kroger store so it is only logical that I do most of my grocery shopping at that location. For some reason only known to Kroger’s upper management I suppose, they stopped stocking my favorite breakfast cereal, ‘puffed wheat’, a couple of months ago. They continued to stock puffed rice which is sort of a sister to puffed wheat, but no puffed wheat.
It should go without saying what a crisis this presented. Who doesn’t have their favorite cereal? When I asked my local store’s management as to why this had occurred, they were pretty much clueless. That struck me as somewhat odd but nevertheless, that seemed to be the way it was.
I then proceeded to visit a couple of other Kroger stores and it was the same story – they had removed it from their shelves. I then began looking for other stores that might stock my cereal and came to the stark realization that there aren’t near the number of grocery stores there used to be. In fact, within twenty miles of my home there was only Kroger, Wal-Mart and a Knight’s Food Store. None of which carried Puffed Wheat, name brand or otherwise. They all still had the ‘sugar/honey coated’ versions of the cereal but no one had the original or a facsimile. There did not seem to be any of my beloved puffed wheat in the entire town….or surrounding suburbs!
I guess this is the kind of crap you have to deal with if you live too long!
I eventually went on-line and sent Kroger’s customer service a complaint expressing my bewilderment and disappointment over their decision to discontinue the product. I’m sure after receiving that complaint they will respond expeditiously by having puffed wheat back on their shelves immediately!
So, how much would you pay for your favorite cereal? Well, I ultimately resolved my crisis to a degree by going to the Quaker Oats company’s on-line store and purchasing several boxes of puffed wheat and having them shipped to my home. After shipping costs, that averaged out to be right at $6.76 a box. That’s probably just about double but I’ll say one thing, it was fresh!
As sometimes happens in these exercises we are sometimes forced to go through and endure, I did find out an interesting fact or two. Quite coincidentally, 2009 is the 100th anniversary of the introduction of puffed wheat as a breakfast cereal. It was April 25th of 1909 to be exact. Now who would discontinue stocking a cereal with that kind of heritage? Well who else – KROGER!
Check out these ads….
(Click on image to enlarge)
(Click on image to enlarge)
Then there were all those Saturday morning radio programs that were supported by Quaker Puffed Wheat to include Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Sgt. Preston and his dog King who tamed the Yukon, most of which ultimately ended up on television. And of course with the advent of television, we got those classic commercials….
And now after all that history regarding the greatest cereal of all time, stores have opted to not stock it? The only cereal “Shot From Guns”? It’s not just a breakfast cereal – it’s part of our heritage!
Obviously few others, if any, will be concerned with my trials and tribulations regarding my beloved puffed wheat ordeal but nevertheless, it always feels better when you release your frustrations out into Cyberspace. For those of you however who are on the edge of your seats, I will certainly add a postscript to this post if and when Kroger ever responds to my complaint! I’m sure no one would want to miss that.
Remembering Soupy Sales….
October 24, 2009 at 6:56 am (Current Events, Remembrances)
Tags: Milton Supman, Soupy Sales, White Fang
As a kid I was never really big on watching kid’s programs such as Howdy Doody which was the really big kid’s show for my generation. But then when I was in high school along comes this crazy, slapstick sort of guy whose show just seemed to make my day on a regular basis.
And I was a huge ‘White Fang’ fan to boot and loved the way he and Soupy interacted on the show. Of course White Fang talked by just making grunts and growls in a simulated conversational manner while Soupy handled the interpretations.
Thanks Milton Supman (Soupy’s real name) for your light-hearted spirit and the many light-hearted moments you gave me and many others over the years. May you forever rest in peace.
Important Information – A Must See Interview!
July 11, 2009 at 8:53 am (Current Events)
Tags: Health Care
I felt it necessary to step out of my “hiatus” status briefly to pass along information I felt important for my fellow Americans to be aware of with regard to the current on-going health care debate.
If you have any interest whatsoever with regard to the health care debate currently taking place in this country, I highly recommend taking the 40 minutes or so required to watch the Bill Moyer interview of Wendell Potter, past Cigna Insurance executive, which aired on PBS this past evening. To say it was an eye-opener with regard to the health insurance debate would be a gross understatement! To see the entire interview, click on the link below….
Bill Moyer’s Journal – Interview of Wendell Potter
The Jersey Boys…..
January 3, 2009 at 12:14 pm (Current Events, Music, Show & Tell)
Tags: Broadway Shows, Four Seasons, Franki Valli, Jersey Boys, Music, Nostalgia, Oldies but Goodies, Tony Awards
This is one of those blog entries that gets to be assigned the blog category of ‘Recycled’. I previously posted this entry on an old blog I use to have which has now gone into a Cyberspace black hole. I wanted to post it again for two reasons. One is I think these guys are great and secondly, I wanted the link to their website to be close at hand so as to be able to listen to snippets of their music and singing from time to time.
The “Jersey Boys”, if you don’t know or recall, is a Broadway stage production based on the careers of The Four Seasons and how four guys from the wrong side of the tracks rose to show business fame. At the 2006 Tony Awards it won for “Best Musical”along with two of its performers, John Lloyd (playing Franki Valli) and Christian Hoff (playing Tommy DeVito), winning Tony Awards for “Best Actor in a Musical” and “Best Featured Actor in a Musical”, respectively.
Terrific singing talents to say the least, they emulate with such precision the vocals of the Four Seasons that it is almost hard to believe they aren’t who they portray. Click on this link, Jersey Boys, and enjoy audio snippets of the following songs:
Sherry
Big Girls Don’t Cry
Walk Like A Man
Dawn (Go Away)
My Eyes Adored You
December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)
Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
Let’s Hang On (To What We Got)
Rag Doll
Who Loves You
You have just got to love it when the music of your generation steps up once again to take its spot in the limelight. I can still remember first hearing the Four Seasons. A style at the time which was a bit new, yet still captured those street corner doo-wop harmonies that my generation loved.
