Random Musings on Different Topics

1)      People walking/jogging/driving by themselves and using their ipod or smart phone with both earbuds in really confound me.  I cannot believe that many adults do not think about their personal safety and do not want to be fully aware of things going on around them.  How is that adults do not give any consideration to safety and awareness?  If exercising outside, do you not want to hear people and cars coming up behind you?  If driving, do you not want to be able to hear emergency vehicle sirens so you will know to pull over to the side of the road? Why do adults not use their common sense and use only one earbud when doing any of these activities solo?  I have a hard time fathoming how people can take such a possible gamble with their safety at times.  I am grateful that my hubby does have concern for his wellbeing and uses common sense and only uses one earbud for his ipod when he walks alone. 
 
2)      I saw a guy walking down the sidewalk today barefooted.  Eww eww eww.  So gross.  I looked to see if maybe he was carrying some kind of shoes.  But nope, his hands were empty.  So I theorized that he really hates his feet and hopes to cut one foot or the other and give himself gangrene.

3)      Our 3.5 year old fairly active dog is becoming lazy and possibly even more worthless than normal.  It was confirmed today that he prefers the elevator to the stairs in our building – he stopped in front of the elevator when I was trying to walk him to the stairs.  Has the ‘lazy and inactive American’ syndrome infected my dog?  He’d rather take the elevator about 60% of the time when going in/out of the building.

4)      So I heard Chris Brown’s latest song – Fine China - and these lyrics were part of the chorus:
         
          It's alright, I'm not dangerous
          When you're mine, I'll be generous
          You're irreplaceable
          A collectible, just like fine china

Here are my thoughts:

Line 1 – he’s LYING.  He is dangerous. Does he feel guilty about singing that line?

             Line 2 – Yeah, he’ll be generous alright.  Generous with his fists and rages
            Line 3 – He does not treat his real life women like they are irreplaceable.  And I am sure
                            once he is done with them, they are glad to be gone.
            Line 4 – More like broken china.  That makes it trash - not a collectible.

5)      Heard at an Ethiopian restaurant recently “Imagine coming to an Ethiopian restaurant and getting too much food.”  My thought was – could you imagine a native Ethiopian person coming to the states for the first time and visiting a restaurant serving foods from his homeland?  His eyes would bug out at the amount of food offered in one sitting and think “what the hell!  I had to fly several thousand miles to get this much food at one time.  Ahh man, that ain’t right.”

 6)      If you ride a scooter or a motorcycle and are a sitting at a red-light several cars back and you ride your scooter or motorcycle up the right side of the cars to get to the front of the line – you are an asshole.  Plain and simple.  If a person does this on a bicycle, I can understand their wanting to do this because cyclists do not have an engine. 

 7)      If you are an instructor for a driving school, and you (the instructor) are driving the teaching car, I do not believe you should run red lights!!   Even when there is not a student in the car, driving instructors should set good examples for the public in general at all times, especially when they are driving the teaching car.  I mean, from whom do you think we learned to drive???!!!    **BTW, actually saw a driving instructor run a red light.**

 
8)      In the past couple of months, one of the roads I take home from work is a residential road with lots of cars parked on the street.  There is this one car that wasn’t a Ford Crown Victoria but the equivalent from another car maker.  (I know, not very observant.  But whatevs.)  The one thing that I did notice though was that for a few weeks the back end of the car was sitting very low.  At first I thought that they just had house things or luggage in the trunk.  About 2 weeks go by and the back end is still quite low.  So now I am thinking there are dead bodies in the trunk – shouldn’t the neighbors be concerned and call the police. 

So finally one day the car is gone.  I then think that the criminals decided to finally hide the bodies or the neighbors wised up and at last called the police.  As I drove down that road a few days later, this Ford-Crown-Vic-look-alike potential crime scene, I mean, car was back.  I guess the car owners decided to bury the bodies.  (I think the car should be searched.)

We Had a Better Vacation!!

So if any of you recall, hubby and I went on a cruise in February and by the end we were miserable people.  Well, on June 9^th we left for vacation to the Turks and Caicos Islands!!!!   This vacation was incredible, and we were much happier and satisfied with our week in TCI.  And even better, this was a trip in which hubby did not have to work like he did on the awful cruise. 

We went to the island of Providenciales of the TCI with a couple friend of ours and had a blast.  Since our flight was at 9a Sunday, hubby and I wanted to be at the airport about 7:30a, which meant we had to be up no later than 5:30a to get ready and finish packing.  We arrived at on the island about noon, went to the rented out townhouse, and then walked around the town of Grace Bay.  Anyway after eating an early dinner and having a couple of drinks, we were in bed around 8:30p.  What a long day. 

Monday and Tuesday were spent on the fabulous beach. (Per our normal selves we had a large bag of stuff and a cooler full of beer.  We cannot go anywhere without taking a crap load of stuff that is ‘necessary.’)  The beach was beautiful and fairly empty.  The water was gorgeous and clear and a few shades of blue.  It was dream like.  I was incredibly happy to see water like that with my own eyes.  I had seen that kind of water on tv shows and in magazines, but I just could not bring myself to fully believe that marvelous water was in fact a reality.  Marvelous!  Wednesday we spent the day at the pool of the townhouse.  There I practiced swimming (am a real beginner) and learned to float with patient hubby’s help. 

So Thursday, I was able to do another thing I had been dreaming of for years.  And that was to RIDE A HORSE ON THE BEACH!!!  Hubby, our friends and I had a great time.  The other wife and I were really excited to ride horses on the beach and in the ocean; the husbands were not thrilled at all.  But they were nice husbands and did it with us girls because they knew how happy this would make us. (Thus in turn making their lives happier.  Ha!)  Hubby was assigned a Belgian horse – think the size of Budweiser horses.  He said he felt like a Viking up there and all he needed was sword and shield.  Haha!  It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the stables to the ocean, and we rode in the water for about 30 minutes.  My horse wanted to swim but I was a little nervous about going out far enough for him to swim because he was a shorty.  After that thrilling adventure, we came back home and got ready for the beach again.  We were in the water so long we pruned.  This time hubby and I stayed long enough to watch the sunset.  It was quite pretty, but if there had been no clouds, I am sure it would have been stunning.

Friday, we had another amazing adventure and this time the husbands were really delighted about it.  It was a half day sail and snorkel tour on a sailing vessel.  And they happily served up ‘happy juice’ – aka rum punch.  On this tour, the boat captain took us to two spots.  One place for snorkeling was on a reef and the shallowest part of that area was about 15-20 feet.  I was going to stay on board and get in the water at the next spot.  The captain and assistant captain (or whatever 2^nd in command is called) convinced me to get in the water.  They were extremely helpful and patient.  I was given the orange ring used save people and a noodle to use since I am a beginner swimmer and really panic when my feet can’t touch the bottom.  I was so frightened and nervous.  But I did it.  I went over board and began to learn how to SNORKEL!!!  I was extremely thrilled and proud of myself.  That time I was in the water maybe 10 minutes and that was all I could handle.  But I did get to see a few things once I convinced myself to put my head in the water.    At the next stop, which was at a beach, I swam and snorkeled even more and felt much more comfortable in the water and putting my head in it.  I truly loved my new found sense of freedom.  It was exhilarating!  I am already ready for my next snorkeling adventure.

We came home Saturday and it was nice to be back home.  But, HOORAY for happy and wonderful vacations!!!  :-D

path to the beach

hubby learning about Turtle

yay! 

so peaceful

fish at the first snorkeling spot

beach where I spent a lot of time snorkeling

sailing boat captain and 2nd in command

OTTO’S TOY

If you have ever been into a pet store, and specifically went to the dog section, you have probably seen a toy that is a stuffed animal but instead of having regular stuffing, it has an empty water bottle.  Dogs like the crunchy sound of an empty water bottle.  In the store I frequently shop for Otto’s things, these can cost about $10 bucks.  And I have purchased 2 of them.   After about 2-3 months of pretty frequent and rough playing, the toys finally died.  Meaning they were ripped apart and could not be sewn back together.  Well, after the death of the 2^nd toy, I decided to make one for Otto using one of Caleb’s old t-shirts.  I cut out part of the torso, knotted one end and went to sewing.  Before sewing up the opposite end, inserted the empty water bottle.

The toy turned out ugly and my sewing skills need some work, but all in all it worked out quite well.  It withstood tug-of wars, fetch and chase.  Since the fabric of this shirt was old, the fabric itself got some tears in it pretty easily and quickly.  But my design (the sections I sewed together and knotted) held up quite well.  So despite its ugliness and the fabric ripping after the 3^rd day of play, my design worked quite well.  And for that, I am a little proud.  J

Here are some pics of putting it together, the finished thing and Otto playing with it.

HIKING

We really enjoy being outdoors, hiking through woods and seeing nature.  It is such a beautiful place to be.  This weekend we are outdoors quite a bit.  Yesterday we walked at the Chattahoochee River State Park for 5 miles and today we went to Sweetwater Creek State Park for 3 miles.  After doing both, we quickly realized we are ‘flat-landers.’  By that I mean, we much prefer walking on flat land as opposed to trekking up steep hills.  The Chattahoochee path we walked was level, read, easy; the Sweetwater path we chose was difficult and felt mountainous at times.  At the top of a couple of strenuous hills, we decided to stop and have a look at nature.  Having a ‘look at nature’ was not a euphemism for stopping to catch our breath and rest.  Wink wink. ;-)

Here are some pictures of our walk today.  Otto had fun playing in the water.  After the walk, he was as tired as us.  We were tired but quite happy.  Love walking through the woods!