Cookies Crumble

The new dream date turned out not to be available on weekends. Once I've worked all day, picked M up from swim practice, dropped him off at driver ed, come home walked Chloe, & made dinner, then it's time for comfy clothes, a book or the tv and that's about it... I'm dizzy just thinking about it all. Some of my friends have two or three kids, I don't know how they do it. Add being single to the mix and trying to get out on a date or two during the week - and well, that's probably why I'm single. It's just too much. I can conjure up some charge for a date maybe once during the week for a two or three hour spree - and then I'm good until the weekend. Come the weekends - there's wide open time for a special date and add that to an evening with no commitments early the next morning and I'm ready to enjoy myself! That's just the way it is - and a guy with not time on weekends is missing out. So the fortune cookie crumbles...

I LIKE

Green

My dog’s soft pink belly

Freshly cut grass

Wooden boats

Salt water air

Ice Cream

Almond scented lotion

Early rain

Sunny windows

Fruit trees

Reflections

A soft wind

Pepper & eggs

Campfires

Starlit skies

Books

Lilacs in bloom

Leather furniture

Kitty cats

Red wine

Bath powder

Bouquets of flowers

Birds

Dogwood trees

Stained glass

Freshly laundered sheets

Chocolate

Sweet kisses

Water Colors

Country gardens

Autumn leaves

Family photos

Soft slippers

Meatballs

Crackling fires

Big throw pillows

Warm hugs

Freshly fallen snow

Hand Knit Sweaters

Down Comforters

Home made soup

Spice scented candles

Fortune Cookie

"An Unexpected Relationship will become permanent" was the message that came in my fortune cookie after having the most delicious date of recent recollection. DF found my profile on one of the more remote online match services. I had posted but not joined and thought this was just another boilerplate line - Hello Gretchen. Enjoyed your profile. We have much in common.

Then I looked and His profile read:

About me

Well-educated, successful, intelligent, and professional. Playful, self-confident, strong, and independent. Stylish and sophisticated. Emotionally stable and financially secure. Good listener, great sense of humor, loves to laugh and smile. I enjoy deep conversations about life's challenges. I am somewhat shy and reserved at first, but open up quickly when I'm with the right person. I love dining out, cultural activities, plays, shows, concerts, going for walks and hikes. I am a committed and involved divorced dad and I need a match who understands this. I want to continually grow emotionally and spiritually and seek someone who is interested in the same.

Seeking

My ideal match is professional, smart, clever and has a great sense of humor. She is energetic and enjoys family but she also knows when she needs time for just the two of us. She is a great listener and communicator. She likes to get taken care of but knows how to take care of herself. My match is emotionally and financially stable. She must love and respect children, for I have two, a son and a daughter, who are with me a lot and for whom I am a "hands-on dad". She must be honest and open about everything and have a great relationship with herself.

So I joined just to talk to him, and we went out - pitter -patter.....

Road Kill

M has had his driving permit for about 2 months now. I have been like a broken record with a statement along the lines of 'speed limit is just that - the limit. You must drive at a speed that allows you to anticipate and respond to anything that might be in the road from a pet, to a person, to a car gone out of control.' "Yeah, OK Mom!" he would answer. Aside from missing his very first ever right hand turn, M has been driving a bit fast, but otherwise with coordination and common sense. Then he had his first mishap. It was dark and there was an oncoming car. We were coming around a curve in the road when a big white something with big glaring eyes was staring strait at the car! I saw it - but M was concerned with the music and the conversation and took no notice until it was too late. We actually heard bones crunching along with the heart wrenching THUD-THUNK-THUD-THUNK - yes both tires! And I dont know what was worse at that point - the sensation of the dead animal or the horrified smothered cry that came from M! Little creatures for miles need heed their fair warning to stay as far away from Cheshire CT as possible!

I Threw the Flowers Away

I never thought I would live to say that a man left me flowers and I threw them away. They were from PD. I dated him briefly this spring and he projects deep feelings for me, which I do not think are reality based. Our dating was not fluid - consistantly fun, or overly exciting. There were moments of downright embarrassment, frustration and anger along with a trickle of some other kind of dynamic that I've heard folks mention as an addictive, unhealthy attraction. I soon realized that I was not comfortable with this and I drifted , stopped making time for him and stopped communicating in any meaningful way, and when that didn't send him packing - I had to come right out and tell him that he does not offer what I am looking for and I am MOVING ON, so please do not contact me.

He has a pathetic side that appeals to my human decency and every once in a while I answer an email or I speak with him.

I was pretty creeped out to find the flowers on the porch - with no florist card - but a trinket that would let me know the flowers were from PD. This means he was on my property!! I sent an email letting him know I am interested in someone else and that he MUST STOP. The flowers are in the garbage.

Arrghghrr -

Back When

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's & 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE
actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but
we weren't overweight because

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the
bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chatrooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers
and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Forwarded to me by a friend - I don't know who wrote it.

Up a Tree

It is now Tuesday night and if there was any question that I was up a tree this weekend - I can no longer deny it.
I'd been neglecting the yard for months - the heat persuading me to find other, more rewarding things to do. But Saturday was just so beautiful that I stepped out to enjoy it with my coffee. Before I knew it I realized that the huge branches from the last storm really needed to be carted off. Of course this meant getting out my saw - no chainsaw in the garage - this could be a blessinging! So out with the hand saw and like a mad litte beaver - I began hacking away at the branches. While I was at it I decided - I might as well get after that one really large dead branch that I had wanted removed for the past five years but never had anyone to do it for me and .... well, one thing led to the next and before long I was up in the tree - with my saw - wedged between the oversized slingshot shaped branches and leaning over to cut down another huge branch that had been gnawing at my aesthetic senses. When all was said and done - three branches the size of small trees had fallen - I was pretty good at this! Until....

How is it that getting up the tree was so easy? My antics of getting down could have won me the $100,000 prize on Funniest Home Videos. My surgically reconstructed hips decided to lock into place and stay happily straddled in a position that in other circumstances and interactions would have been quite nice. . . but 20 feet up and around a tree was a whole different story.

SO this is my reward - legs - that needed no help looking hideous, now sporting these wonderful insignias:













And the yard, why it looks just as it should! All clean and neat and free from debris that never should have been there to begin with. So when folks ask in horor - 'what happened to your leg???' and I reply 'remember those unsightly branches jutting out of my big chestnut tree??' they will say - -' hmmnn I'm not sure I do....'

oh well - they're gone now...

Scape Goat

scape·goat
animal_sounds_03-goat.mp3 (1396kb)








n.

1. One that is made to bear the blame of others.
2. Bible. A live goat over whose head Aaron confessed all the sins of the children of Israel on the Day of Atonement. The goat, symbolically bearing their sins, was then sent into the wilderness.
3. Michael Brown??? From the Hartford Courant, "You can lead a former horse association lawyer to water, but evidently not very fast."

animal_sounds_11-wolf.mp3 (820kb)

Magnetic Attraction

Bright, Capable, Confident, Happy, Autonomous, Curious, Passionate

Considerate, Sociable, Engaging, Accepting, Affectionate

Spark in one’s Eyes

Curl on one’s Smile

Depth in one’s Stance

Deliberation in one’s Stride

Warmth in one’s Hug

Hope in one’s Spirit

Eternity in one’s Soul

Resourceful, Successful, Healthy, Aware, Balanced

Sexy, sexual, Delicious

Compatible

Available

Steamed Cheeseburger to die for

OK- today I caved for the smell of BK out on the compulsive behavior strip at lunch time. I don't know why I was attracted to it because every time I eat there I get sick. I told myself out loud - 'I'll just go back to the office and eat my turkey rollup and tomato - it will be much better for me'. Willpower over ruled as I passed BK, then Wendy's and finally the golden arches. I was off the strip and almost back to my healthy lunchbox when I saw a sign that said Steamed Cheeseburgers and Pizza. My raging hormones, in need of a junk food fix took control and I found myself in line. I was sure I had the wrong order when the woman behind the counter handed me my bag. It weighed a TON. "Steamed Cheeseburger?" I asked. "Uh-huh" she said. When I reached in to grab this enormous foil wrapped bundle - it felt more like a half of a baked chicken - it was HUGE! The meat was two inches thick with a 1/4 inch of cheese, another inch of lettuce and a slice of tomato the size of the lid on a Chinese soup container - all served up on one of those big bulky rolls. I couldn't open my mouth wide enough to take a bite! It was fast food to die for! And, who would've guessed, from Quick Mart?? (Was this a twilight zone moment?) Needless to say, I won't be hungry for a while. We don't want to discuss my hormones....

Is driving REALLY necessary?

Today on my way home from work the cost of gas was 20 cents per gallon higher than it was yesterday - and yesterday in a period of 6 hours, prices were raised 30 cents per gallon! So - we have witnessed the cost of gas go up 50 cents per gallon (20%) in a 24 hour period! And I have seen on the news that it is worse in other places, and that it is likely to continue to get worse. Instantaneously the suffering in the south is trickling to all of us. As we watch in disbelief, and our country is reminded of its powerlessness to protect its people from the wrath of a storm, must we also be punished by the greed of those who are exploiting the event for their own gain? What price will they pay for their next tanker of gas? Where will they get it? How long does a tanker last??? Are they all suddenly empty? Let's pay when the time comes. Don't we anyway?

Dubbya was heard on the news saying 'it is time for the American people to conserve - please don't buy gas if you don't need it". This is a clear representation of the utter lack of ability this man has to relate to common American people - who I am still bewildered- voted for him! If I were to begin to predict what will happen next - it will be that at these prices, nobody will be able to afford to go to work - we will be ambivalent to leaving our homes and driving anywhere at all.