CHIRP! CHIRP!

Where I live there aren't many birds around in the winter. I do not know if it's because they all flew south. Or if  it's because I do not put out suet and bird seed for them. I can hear the ones that are here, chattering. And that always makes me smile. But catching a glimpse of them is rare. So imagine my delight seeing this little fella out and about at the local supermarket. Made my day. Does anybody know what kind of bird it is?

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

My pets are creative and sweet. They find all sorts of places to entertain themselves. But this particular spot caught my eye. A cat in a bag. Too cute for words, right?

THE ICE HOUSE

We live in an old drafty house. The place is sixty plus years old. Our furnace is living on borrowed time and we know it. While it does a fair job of heating up the place, the house does a lousy job of keeping the warmth inside. I guess we're lacking in the insulation department. Therefore icicles form on the outside eaves and gutters of the place in the winter. This year has been the worst we've ever seen them. ICICLES are EVERYWHERE. And with temperatures slowly on the rise, they're starting to melt and get dangerous. I got hit in the head  with one earlier today. So my job is going to be to take a shovel and see if I can dislodge as many as I can without getting hurt again. Do you have icicles at your house. What do you do to get rid of them???

OLD MAN WINTER

Once again, last week we got hit with snow. This time about 10 to 12 inches on top of what was already there. I wanted to scream. With these temps in the single digits and below zero it was bone chilling to say the least. Forget global warming. I daresay we are entering the next Ice Age. Old Man Winter is really starting to get on my nerves.  For those of you who love the fluffy white stuff, I agree it can be beautiful. But when you are older it causes complications. All this cleaning off cars and shoveling is getting more than a little tedious. It's downright stressful and physically exhausting. Frustrated because my car was buried in a snowdrift that I couldn't dig out from. I hurt my back trying. I honestly didn't know what to do.  What would happen in an emergency? None of the neighbors offered a helping hand. My husband's COPD prevented him from doing much of anything outside. So it looked like I was stuck here, housebound, indefinitely.  I prayed for a miracle. And on Sunday morning it arrived. Two strangers, angels in a pickup truck, knocked at our front door and asked if we needed help digging out. We said, "YES!" And they went to work. When they finished my hubby gave them $30 for their trouble. It was a small price to pay for peace of mind and freedom from the snow that had been holding us prisoners. 

NOBODY PULLED A FAST ONE

My car, a Dodge Stratus was 10 years old last October when it finally went kaput. My husband and I knew fixing it wasn't an option. So we started looking at new cars. New to me, used in general. After seeing a television commercial for a local dealership, I saw what I wanted. A 2011 Toyota Camry with low mileage. So... we went down to the lot to have a look at it, up close and personal. And then we took it on a test ride. It was a good, solid car. And at a great price. Though, I must admit I wasn't sure about the color. I've never been a BLUE person. But it was what it was. So I decided to wait a week, have them hold it, and see if I saw something I liked better. I didn't. So we went back and pounded out the deal we wanted for this car. At the closing they tried to tell us the starting price was about fifteen hundred dollars higher than the price on the windshield when we originally saw it. They insisted we were wrong about that price. I knew they were. You see I had taken photos of the car when we first saw it. I simply reached in my purse and pulled out my camera. SURPRISE! SURPRISE! Then showed them the date stamped pictures I had taken with the price clearly visible. And suddenly all the bull coming out of their mouths stopped.  I got what I wanted at the price I could afford.  It pays to document things... so you do not get taken advantage of. Have you ever had someone try to pull the wool over your eyes???

SOUNDS OF SILENCE

When my husband is home, he likes following the stock market on CNBC. So,he DVR's shows that appear during the day pertaining to it. Then... he watches them in the evening. My desk and computer are in the room where he sees these shows on tv... so when he's doing it, I'm stuck listening to them too. This aggravates me. After complaining about this numerous times, my hubby came up with an idea to help silence the financial markets for me. He bought me a pair of noise canceling headphones. That way... I can enjoy the things I want to, when he's watching what he wants. I can't hear him and he can't hear me. It's a win-win situation for us both. And I get to look like a disc jockey. Kinda of cool. Do you have any secrets for sharing a space?