Did she REALLY say that?

Our home town newspaper has a front page article every Saturday called "Taking It To The Streets" The staff comes up with a question and asks various people they encounter to respond to it. Their responses and pictures wind up in the article.

Yesterday, the question was "How do you feel about using nuclear energy?". One lady's response was (and I quote)"I'd be interested in doing some research on it. If it's radioactive or anything like that, then I wouldn't be interested in using it." Seriously? Could nuclear energy possible be radioactive?

Oh, by the way, the lady was blond.

Flashback Friday #76

At The Car Wash

Hi, and welcome back. I know that the weather doesn't support the title of this post. We are currently under a winter storm watch here in Ohio. Who would wash the car in this. I would LOVE to wash my car right now. It has more salt on it than a bag of Ruffles potato chips.

Anyway, We had a new car, and wanted to keep it looking good. We had recently purchased a Chevy Nova (what is it with our family buying cars? We bought a Pinto too.) Mom took the car to the new "touch less automatic" car wash in Westerville. These are the ones that you put your car on a conveyor and it goes through the wash and dry cycle of the car wash. Handy dandy.

She put the car on the conveyor and sat back, waiting for the car to get clean. About half way through, the car jumped the conveyor belt and hit a piece of the wash apparatus. The wash personnel had to shut down the car wash, and help get the car back on the conveyor.When we got outside, we noticed a five inch gash in the front passenger fender of our new car. Mom was aghast!

"Look at my car!" she exclaimed. "What are you going to do about it?" The manager pointed out a sign at the entrance of the car wash that said "Not Responsible For Accidents". He told her that she took the risk by putting her car in the wash. They weren't going to do anything. Mom called Dad at work and told him what happened. He gave the manager a piece of his mind, but there was still no recourse. Mom was crushed.

We drove that car with the gash in the fender until it no va (that's Spanish for "it doesn't go") Mom never went to a car wash again, we boys always bucket washed all our cars after that.

Front Page! Yes!

Many of my long time readers know that I love the LOLcats website. I have captioned several pictures since joining. Today, while surfing the "News" tab on the sight, I read this captioned picture:


see more Political Pictures
I read that, and thought, that looks familiar. Then I looked at the credits. Picture by New York Times. Caption by SirNottaguy-Imadad. Wowza! I made the front page! I high fived Lady Lemon who was sitting nearby and did a little happy dance inside. It made my day.

The picture in my wallet

A little over 25 years ago, I was involved in a photo shoot. If I remember right, it was around the Thanksgiving before Lady Nottaguy-TYG and I were wed. Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows that I don't often put my picture on this blog (I don't want to scare any of my readers off, or frighten anyone). Here is a picture of us shortly before we were married:

Don't try to adjust your monitor, or clean off your glasses. I didn't take a picture of the picture with a cheap camera. That is what a picture will look like if you carry it in your wallet for 25 years. Every time I get a new wallet, this picture is the first to be placed in the picture holder. I have newer pictures of us together, but this picture has an endearing quality to it that I just can't describe.

Happy 25th anniversary to the wonderful woman who has put up with me for all these years. I love you!

Flashback Friday #75

The "black" shoes

Hi to all, and welcome aboard the Flashback Friday Express. We're heading back to 1977, so fasten your seat belts because we're ready to depart.

We I was younger, we really never had anything to speak of. Times were tough, so anything you could get for free, you acted on it (A habit that I have to this day). Since I was a "husky" child, and couldn't wear my brother's clothes when he grew out of them, I didn't have his hand-me-downs. Not to fear, my mom had a co-worker who had a son a year older than me, and a size bigger. This is where I got my hand-me-downs.

I didn't mind most of the stuff he gave me. Most of the pants needed hemmed, since he was taller. There were a few shirts that I didn't care for, but still had to wear. It was the one pair of shoes that I really didn't like.

To say that these shoes were ugly would be putting it mild. They were a three toned brown saddle shoe with at least a two inch heel. They looked like something a pimp might wear. Or a clown. The toe and heel were a very dark brown. The upper was a "Crayola" brown. There was a light brown triangle on each side. The soles were black. I tried to find a picture that even remotely looked like them, but without success. Good thing. You probably would have needed to use eye bleach.

When I first got these shoes, they were too big. Mom kept them because I would grow into them, and they still had a lot of life left in them (that was probably because they were kept hidden in the back of the closet by the previous owner).

When I did grow into them, I didn't want to wear them. Since money was short, and shoes didn't grow on trees, I was told that I was going to wear them. Since I HAD to wear them, I had to come up with a plan. And that I did.

Building model cars was one of my favorite pastimes. I rummaged through my model paints until I found what I was looking for. BLACK. I took that black model paint and painted those ugly brown shoes. When I was finished, they didn't look bad. If you didn't know that they had been brown, you never would have been able to tell. About once a month, I "touched them up" with the paint, then applied a layer of black shoe polish. I wore them until the ninth grade.

Do you have any horrid shoe stories?

It's coming down ...again.

While shovelling the sidewalk from the beginnings of the 4-8 inches that the weatherman says we are going to get, my neighbor hollers over" Do you think if we all yelled "Uncle" at the same time, it would stop?"

It's worth a try.

They're not donuts, they're power rings.

I spotted this news item yesterday and nearly fell off the chair with laughter.


more funny pictures

Flashback Friday #74

School Valentines Day Parties

A grand welcome back to all (both) of my readers. While spending some time with my grand son this week, we got to talking about Valentines, since his party is today (Friday). Last year I picked up some Valentines at a large major drug store at a severe clearance price. I bought three boxes of "manly" valentines so he could chose which ones he wanted. I spent less than a buck and made him very happy. (BTW- He chose Transformers over DC Super Heroes & Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles)

But I digress. I was taking to him about the valentines we had when I was his age, and the parties that went along with them. His valentines are about the size of a business card, and you fold them over and seal them with a sticker. I told him that some of the valentines I had were nearly the size of a paperback book, and they all came with their own envelopes. Each box also came with a large "Teacher" card. The only cartoon characters I can remember being on them was Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

That was if you went with the store bought cards. I can remember making, and receiving homemade cards made of construction paper. Remember when you first figured out how to cut a heart from a folded sheet of paper? The fancy cards had peppermint or cinnamon hard candies taped or glues to the center of them.

I always felt sorry for Charlie Brown. In his class, you only had to give valentines to the people you liked. He never got any. In my classes, a list of all the students was sent home, and you made a valentine out for everyone (even the little girl that had a crush on you, and you thought she was gross). One year, our spelling test was the valentine's name list. We had one kid who had an Eastern European last name (Polish I think) that only he got right on the test.

In giving valentines to everyone, that meant you got valentines from everyone (including the crushy girl). What did you put them in to take them home? Surely you remember decorating an old shoe box? Since shoe boxes weren't always available, I also used cereal and oatmeal boxes (I guess, technically, oatmeal is cereal too).

Who can forget the munchies that the parents sent in for the parties. Pink iced sugar cookies. Cupcakes with conversation hearts on them. Rice krispie treats with cinnamon hearts mixed in. We are talking major sugar buzz here.

What do you remember about school Valentine's Day parties?

20 years ago, on this day...An icon fell.

Do you remember where you were at when you heard that Mike Tyson was beaten in the ring? At 33-0, you expected that a fight with a little known boxer, James "Buster" Douglas would last about 35 seconds. When the news came out that Tyson was beaten, the boxing word was set on it's ear. I had followed Tyson since the Olympics. He was a beast.

It was the beginning of the end for Iron Mike.

I had never heard of "Buster" Douglas. My wife had. I was the sports nut, but she knew the new heavy weight champion personally. She went to high school with him. I was impressed, she wasn't. "He was a punk back then." she explained. My dad thought differently of him. He thought that Buster was a nice guy. Dad built a privacy fence for his house in Columbus.

Celebrating Big in the Big Easy

For those of you who have been in a coma or a cave for the last 24 hours, The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl last night. This is the same team that 30 years ago, their fans wore paper bags on their heads with "Aints" written on them.



In my opinion, the two biggest plays were the onside kick to begin the second half (gutsy call) and the Tracy Porter interception with a little over three minutes to play to ice the game.

With the Saints clinging to a seven point lead (against Peyton Manning isn't anything to rest on)
Porter intercepted Manning and returned it for a touchdown, and a 14 point advantage.

Drew Brees was named MVP. This is the same player who tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder in his last game for the San Diego Chargers. The Saints took a chance on him, and rest has been history.

I'm not a big fan of either team that played. I couldn't root against either team. I wouldn't have been upset if the Colts had won. How can you not like Peyton Manning? I'm just glad the game was exciting. Madri Gras is coming up in a few weeks. It will be absolutely crazy in New Orleans.

You've Got Snow!

That's what the weather would have said if it was like an e-mail alert. We got snow, and lots of it. Somewhere around seven inches. It started shortly before I got off work yesterday, and was still snowing when I ventured out to shovel about 9 AM this morning. I wouldn't mind snow if it would stay off the roads, sidewalks and driveways. Alas, snow is no respecter of persons. The rain we got with our January thunderstorm two weeks ago was more to my liking. You don't have to shovel rain. Here's a picture of our car before I cleaned it off:

Just kidding, This happened somewhere in Eastern Europe. Here is the real picture of our car:

Believe it or not, there is a red PT Cruiser hiding under there. It took a while to find it.

This is the street in front of our house around Noon. We have had maybe a dozen vehicles go past our house. NONE of them have been a snowplow yet. When the plow does go by, I'll have to dig the driveway out again. Oh, for a magic wand.

Here's a picture of the big tree in the back yard. If you look real close, you will notice 2-2 1/2 inches of snow balanced on the top of the chain link fence. When it snows so much that many of the links in your fence are filled in, it has snowed a lot.

Later in the day when I was on my 4th shift of shoveling, the sun was shining bright. I'll say it again, If you don't like Ohio weather, stick around a while, it'll change.

Flashback Friday #73

A Kind Word

A hearty greeting to those who have ventured upon my ramblings. In today's post we will examine the powerful affects of words.

About the middle of my 7th grade year, the powers that be decided to move our 5th period study hall. we were meeting in the cafeteria/ library, but I think they wanted us out to better prepare for the lunch rush. There were about 15-18 7th graders in that study hall, and we were quite shocked where we got moved to.

Our school was older, and to make up for a lack of space, a trailer was moved in to make another classroom. This is where everyone went for health class. But during this period, it wasn't being used as a health class. It was a study hall. An 8th grade study hall.

I don't know about your school, but at mine, the seventh graders lived in fear of the eighth graders. We all knew that they became horrible flesh-eating monsters after dark, and were just plain undesirable to be around. In a word, we were terrified just being in their presence. It didn't help matters that we were marched in, comments like "What are those nerds doing here?" and "Why do the little kids have to be in here?" filled the air.

All of us 7th graders were wide-eyed and terrified. I don't think any of us cracked a book that first day. Then something happened that broke the ice.

An 8th grade girl sitting next to me slid me a note. I don't remember the note word for word, but the gist of it was this:

Hello,

My name is Jill. What's yours? You look frightened. Don't be. I know the guys talk big, but it's all talk. You are here in study hall to study. It's a time to get your work done so you don't have to take it home. If you ignore the guys, they will leave you alone. They have stuff they need to get done too. Just take a deep breath and get to studying.

Sincerely,

Jill

You don't know how nice it was having her write that. We remained friends through graduation(not real close, but always kept a friendly rapport). Her kind words back in 1977 are still remembered vividly today.

Did a school mate ever go out of their way to do something nice for you?

22 years ago

22 years ago at this time I was getting ready to go to work at my place of employment for the very first time. I started in the department in which I am now group leader (aka "Nanny). I now hold the 16th slot in seniority plant wide, and in a couple months, could move to 14th, pending retirements. Next year, I get another week of vacation, making a total of five weeks. Time flies when you're having fun. Are we having fun yet?