Wednesday, January 31, 2007

cell phone etiquette

Let me preface this post by saying, I am NOT an anti-cell phone crusader. I have one. In fact, it's the only phone I DO have. I do use it when I'm driving, as long as I'm not merging onto or off of a busy section of highway, or traveling on a busy street.

It's quite possible to use the things without creating a hazard or being rude to the world.

But this morning, I had one of those experiences that reminds me why some people ARE anti-cell phone crusaders. On the freecycle mailing list, a lady had mentioned needing moving boxes. I had a bunch of copy-paper boxes so I offered them to her. She just left picked them up.

It was quite odd ... her phone chirped just as she walked in, and she said, "oh that's my brother." She then proceeded to carry on a conversation with him, and with me, at the same time. Odd. Really odd.

Now I have a friend who ALWAYS calls mine just as I'm needing to talk with someone - it's some kind of a telepathic gift. :) But it's astonishingly easy to just hit the button on the side of the phone and turn the ringer off. One doesn't HAVE to answer it. And, if you call the person back in a few minutes, the delay doesn't do any visible damage to the conversation.

The funny thing was she seemed like an otherwise-socially-adept lady. She was pleasant, she had a helpful little girl who picked up a stack of the boxes without being asked. It was very strange.

Monday, January 29, 2007

any ideas for me?

I'm sitting here working on the newsletter for my condo association. I'm trying to think of short, interesting or funny articles to include along with the standard chidings about not throwing furniture in the dumpsters and not allowing outsiders to use the laundry.

Any suggestions? In previous issues I've put in the statistics from brainy-zip about our neighborhood. People seemed to like that. I've got a mostly-elderly readership, so things that are passed around the internet until people have them memorized would all be fresh and new to this group. :)

everyday miracles

On the MeetChristians forums, one lady posted about getting her first pair of glasses.

It brought back a neat memory of getting my first pair. It was in the fall just before the 4th grade, and my family were looking at a deer out in the field, and I said, "what deer?"

Not too long after that I met my first eye doctor, and got glasses. I remember just wandering around looking at things, because it was all so CRISP! I can still picture the tomato plants out behind the shed ... I just stared at the detail of their leaves against the red tomatoes.

Really - If I didn't have vision correction, my eyesight wouldn't be functional at all. I certainly can't read or recognize faces without glasses or contacts. Without my eyes, I have no marketable job skills. I suppose I'd be living in my mother's basement, and spending my days eating chocolates and watching soap operas!

It is one of those every-day wonders ... that those of us with bad eyes can just go trippingly through life with very little inconvenience, let alone handicap!

A good friend is going for lasik surgery on Friday. This is one of those things I've pondered occasionally. It would be so wonderful to wake up and be able to see ... to not have to carry spare glasses in the car, lest I lose a contact and get stranded somewhere. Pondering ...

Trinka

Friday, January 26, 2007

Time to admit I'm not getting to the gym


I like lifting weights. I really do. I like the solitary, non-competitive aspect of it. Plus it's WAY cool to notice that I'm stronger than I've ever been before.

BUT ... what I don't like is having to drive over to the gym in the evenings after work. I don't like the noise. I don't like the busy-ness. I don't like waiting for machines others are using, and I don't like feeling nervous when others are waiting for the one I'm using.

So, I ordered myself this weight machine today. I'm a little dubious that it will do all the things the ones at the college did. BUT ... if it's located in my spare bedroom, it will be MOST convenient. Plus it's small-ish in size compared to a lot of them.

I was quite smitten with the bowflex machines, but the price did not intrigue me at all. I found this machine on the Overstock website, and it's within my "amount of the tax refund you're allowed to spend" budget.

It does weigh 125 pounds ... so it should be interesting to try & haul it up to my condo. But I suppose if I'm going to lift weights at home, I might as well get started as soon as they arrive.

Hmmm ... better get those taxes mailed out this weekend. They've been done for a couple weeks, but TaxCut hasn't had the final updates available to download yet. I guess it's time to check on that one again!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

living among the Dutch

The Grand Rapids/Holland area has a large Dutch population.

One would think that one white American couldn't possibly be a minority while living amidst other white Americans ... but there are times when I realize that I am.

It's their attitude towards housekeeping that fascinates me, while at the same time proving to me that I am definately on the outside of this blonde-haired, blue-eyed group.

A few examples:

  • Yesterday while out for a walk, I saw a nice little mother and daughter stop their car on the street, both hop out, kick off the snow from around the tires, and then pull the car up onto the driveway.

  • A Dutch friend who frets about people in her area who have let ... horrors ... weeds grow in their yards. (You may remember my earlier post about the weed lady near the church? This is NOT the same woman ... it's obviously a fairly common phobia.) Now, growing up, our yard, and the pasture across the fence, were composed of precisely the same plants. The only difference was the length. And there were times, the length wasn't even all that different, if the lawn mower wasn't working properly!

  • I often tease the janitor here at church that she cleans behind her water heater with a toothbrush. I made the mistake of telling this (what I thought to be patently-obvious sarcastic story) to another lady. Her eyes lit up, and she eagerly responded, "oh, how does she get back there?!!!?"

  • There is the often-heard fretting about people whose cars leak oil onto driveways. My thought ... "a driveway is a place where you park cars. Cars occasionally leak oil. Hence, the driveway is the perfect place for leaked oil to BE."

There was a time when I thought myself to be a relatively neat, clean person. And then I moved here. The longer I live here, the more inferior my estimation of my housekeeping skills becomes! There are times, at the end of a long, busy week, when I half expect the health department to burst down my door wearing bio-hazard suits and demand to inspect my condo.

Hmmm ... study ... did happen a little last night, but only under peril of appearing at my ladies' Bible study tonight woefully unprepared. I enjoyed some time in John 5 & 6. It's interesting to see how much the physical and spiritual is contrasted in John. Everyone was looking for Jesus to meet their physical needs for healing, or food, or a king to overthrow Rome. But He came for something bigger than that. He came to meet the spiritual need that underlies it all - to become right with God by having the problem of our sinful nature dealt with.

But speaking of the physical ... I heard the author of Under the Overpass speak Monday night. He lived for 5 months as a homeless person, and wrote this book about it. I haven't read it yet, but I have it on order from the library. It was an excellent challenge to be mindful of the physical needs around us, and to see people as individuals.

Exercise is still happening about 5 days/week, though I've been mostly walking. I haven't seen the gym in almost 2 months. After work I've been so weary that I just haven't been able to face a noisy room full of people, or the 15 minute drive to get there. It's just SO nice to have a quiet walk right outside my front door, and then retreat to my "to do" list.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

staying home waiting for the Publishers' Clearing House van

First, a confession:
Every morning, when I sign on, I go to the Publishers' Clearing House, and enter the sweepstakes.

I then have a brief interlude where I daydream about living in a paid-for house.

Then I get to work, so I can actually stand a chance of earning some money that would contribute to a paid-for house. :)

OK ... with that as a foundation, today as I was making my coffee, and having my standard, irrational, pre-caffeinated-brain thoughts, it occured to me: "what happens if the Publishers' Clearing House van comes, and I'm not home? Would they come back?

This befuddled idea was immediately followed by a vision of myself sitting home every non-work hour in a bathrobe, staring out the window, waiting for the prize van to arrive. Yikes! This proves I've gotta be careful not to make any major life decisions pre-coffee!

***Warning -- paragraph that follows will be deadly dull to anyone who's not related to me!***
Maria ... nice to see you! If you get a second, drop me an e-mail so I have your address. My email address is just my first and last name and I use gmail. :) I'm also told your mom is using email, so I'd love to have her address too!
***OK ... end of personal paragraph****

Exercise ... still happening, though I haven't been to the gym to lift weights in ages. I need to get back in that habit. I just flat-out hate going out after work. There's something so calming about pulling my car into the carport, and knowing I don't have to leave again for 14 hours! (See ... maybe sitting home watching for money to arrive wouldn't be so bad after all). :)

Reading/Studying ... yikes. Nope. Not happening. I've actually been watching television and playing a hand-held tetris game in the evenings.

This. Situation. Is. Pathetic. I realize that. I can feel my brain turning to mush.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

I feel just like a Clinton ...

I'm shredding 1998 records in preparation to throw them away.

So I'm sitting here surrounded with bags of confetti, and more than a little on the floor.

It's rather relaxing, actually ... wanton destruction with no consequences (other than needing a broom later!)

I find it fascinating that as recently as 1998 we were still paying for pagers for all of our staff. It seems like cell phones have been around MUCh longer than that!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

announcements you rarely hear ...

unless there is a presidential funeral being held in your town ...

"Please turn off your car alarms, so the vibrations from the cannons won't set them off."

Monday, January 01, 2007

if a person were able to sleep in past 7:00 ...

I am a morning person, all the way through to my bones.

So now ... by 10:16 on New Years' Day, I have already put away all my Christmas decorations, re-organized the basement, and checked on a motor-home I'm selling for my mother on ebay. (really! )

What I WANT to do is vacuum. But, being a person who's never been able to sleep in, I don't know if (for the sake of my neighbors who CAN sleep in) it's still to early to politely make noise.

I think I'm giving them 'till 11:00, and that's it! The Christmas tree residue NEEDS to be cleaned up!

Trinka