Woman in the Middle

Since it is Halloween, I thought it was a good time to tell a true story of such unimaginable horror you better be sitting down.  Are you ready? It is the story of television before VCRs, DVDs, Netflix, streaming video, and other fun things like that. It is the story of television in the 1960s and 70s.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, you watched what was on television right then. If you were out of the house you made sure you got home before you favorite show came on or you would miss it. If you were invited out or were trying to schedule a meeting, you not only looked at your calendar for other appointments, you also checked to see when your favorite shows were on so you could schedule your life around them. If you, god forbid, missed an episode of your favorite show, you searched around at school or work the next day  until you found someone who had watched it and then you made them tell you about the whole episode, scene by scene, because that was the only way you were ever going to know what happened, unless, if you were lucky, that  particular episode ran as a repeat in the summer.

This brings us to another horrifying aspect of television in the 1960s and 70s, repeats. During the day and on local television stations both day and night, there was this thing called repeats. That is why, for you youngsters out there, your parents know every episode of I Love Lucy, Gilligan’s Island, and the Beverly Hillbillies. Old shows would run over and over again, day after day, and at times were the only thing on!

During the day, the only new programing on television was game shows and soap operas. Again, you had to watch whatever was on TV at that moment.  Watching game shows helped several generations of children learn useless trivia from annoying hosts and B and C level Hollywood actors and actresses. It is the memories of those game shows that make people of a certain age get all misty when reminded that Paul Lynde was the center square. Don’t know what that means?   Ask someone who is over 50.

Did I mention that you could only watch what was on TV right then? In the summer of 1973 that was the Watergate hearings. Every major TV channel televised the Watergate hearings day after day, kind of like the OJ trial but with no glove and no murder.  While the adults went to a workplace with no computers and no internet, us kids stayed at home and, to escape the sweltering heat, watched the Watergate hearings, because it was the only thing on TV.

I will stop now. I am sure by now you are sweating and your heart is beating frantically from this scary tale. Go watch some TV, whatever you want. And fast forward through the commercials. You will feel better soon.

My Hubby and his PT Cruiser got rear ended on the freeway a couple of nights ago. I am very happy to report that he is fine. The car, not so much. This got me to thinking about how, no matter how good your (or the other driver’s) insurance is, an accident is a time sucking vortex. Our Youngest Daughter was clipped by a drunk driver in February 2010. She was not hurt (cue angels singing!) but the car was. Twenty months later we are still dealing with the fall out of that accident. There were court appearances she was subpoenaed to attend, time with the insurance company and repair shops, and all the work my husband did to save money and put the car back together. Now the DMV has given us a list of four things we have to do to register her car this year, everything from a smog test to going to our local police station and getting them to sign off on the safety of the car. It took the DMV months after we sent in the registration check to tell us this wonderful news, of course.

So, instead of doing research for my book, or cleaning out my garage, or, heaven forbid, sneaking off to watch Storage Wars, I will be dealing with car issues today and next week. All because some guy on the freeway wasn’t paying attention and a woman on Limonite Avenue had too much to drink.

Icy drinks make me happy. Too happy really, as the scale keeps telling me! But, in spite of that little problem, I wanted to mention Starbuck’s latest drink, the Salted Caramel Mocha. I am not a huge caramel fan and add the fact that it was salted and it didn’t sound like my kind of drink. Then my Eldest Daughter got one and I took a sip. Oh! Heaven in a plastic cup! It tastes just like kettle corn and I LOVE kettle corn! If you have one I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Yum!

In June 2008 I was planning on having all the relatives and family friends over for a large high school graduation party for my oldest daughter. In preparation for that I spent the six months leading up to that party sorting through every drawer and closet in the house, trying to whip our smallish house into tip top shape. I made numerous trips to local thrifts stores to get rid of it all. Even after the party, I was still making my regular pilgrimages to the thrift store drop off.

Fast forward to January 2010 when we accidentally found the house we are living in now. That started a whole new frenzy of digging and sorting and many, many, MANY more trips to local thrift stores. Once we moved and started unpacking boxes we found even MORE to get rid of, had a garage sale, sent even more to the thrift stores, and I finally started feeling like maybe, just maybe, we were getting to the point of being cleaned out.

Back around the beginning of June I was thinking of having another garage sale but, after cleaning and sorting through the garage, my Hubby and I decided that we really didn’t have enough for a garage sale and I started hauling all but the bits and pieces of furniture to the recently opened Pet Adoption Thrift Store. Nothing feels better than helping puppies and kitties with my old junk!

Then my Eldest Daughter had the bright idea of holding a garage sale to raise a little spending money for her trip to New York City. My Youngest Daughter thought that was a good idea also, since she wanted some additional spending money as well.   Oh no! I had just gotten rid of all that stuff….  So they both cleaned out their closets, which had just been cleaned out two weeks before. I cleaned out my closet. Then we cleaned out all the old board games that we never play anymore. I poked around and found a few more things. At this point I was having a mental conniption fit that went something like “SERIOUSLY, ALL OF THIS WAS JUST CLEANED OUT!!!”

I am happy to report that the girls made about $200 all together and we got rid of all the big pieces of furniture. I am sorry to report that I have probably  gotten rid of another two dozen boxes and bags of stuff since then.  Just yesterday I gifted the puppies and kitties with another box and bag of stuff, the Salvation Army with a box, and the local library with two bags of books and magazines.  Where does it all come from? Is my garage a junk breeding facility and the previous owners forgot to tell me? Maybe my house is actually a portal to another dimension and the junk of another civilization is coming into the garage…or not. Maybe, just maybe, we have too much stuff.

Excuse me while I go toss more stuff out of the garage.

Information on the Pet Adoption Thrift Store can be found at:

http://www.petsadoption.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125&Itemid=159

My husband recently bought us our very first GPS. It is just a little portable unit. Sunday was the first day we used it, when we hit the road to the Western Science Center (see yesterday’s post). It is set to use a woman’s voice to give us our direstions.  While they are handy little things, I do wish they were more polite! That woman, I mean machine, has the extraordinary ability to interrupt me every time I start to say something to my Hubby! Another problem is that she, I mean it, is not programed to pronounced words of Spanish origin. She, I mean it, said “Jer-u-pa” Road three times between our house and Jurupa Road (the J is pronounced with the H sound). It was making me very cranky.

When we got near our destination, we needed to get off on Cajalco Road, pronounced by area residents as Ca-hal-co. The woman in the little machine kept saying Ca-jal-co. Sigh!

After leaving the Western Science Center we decided to stay on surface streets for a while, just to see something different. That got the little woman-machine all messed up, causing it to recalculate over and over again. I think I was just messing with her/it by this point. Then she/it tried to get me back by insisting we turn right on Cottonwood Avenue, even though it was a dirt road. At the last second we saw what she/it was trying to pull and we didn’t do what she said. Eventually, ignoring the GPS most of the time, we found our way back onto the freeway. Then I extracted the ultimate revenge – I turned her off!

Just checked out my local paper’s website. They have posted an article that will run in tomorrow’s paper (Tuesday, October 25th) about a recent planning case that went before the city council of my brand new city. It was the very first planning case, actually. Anyway, since I spoke at the council meeting, the reporter wanted to talk to me. One little itsy bitsy quote attributed to me made it into the paper….and I think I didn’t sound stupid. That is always such a great relief to me!

Occasionally my Hubby and I manage to get out and do what we like to call a “Road Trip.” Yesterday was the first time in many months that we actually got to hit the road! We went to the Western Science Center in Hemet, California. I always forget how beautiful the hills are in that area, even when they are clothed in their end of summer brown.

The Western Science Center was created to house the incredible collection of fossils unearthed when more than 150 million cubic yards of material were moved to create the three earthen dams needed to form Diamond Valley Lake. They discovered everything from the remains of tiny animals to “Max,” the largest mastodon ever found in the Western United States. Max is on display at the museum, along with other finds including three different types of giant ground sloths, bison, and saber tooth tigers.  The museum also includes displays on geology, ancient peoples, and history of the settlers in the valley beginning in the late 1800s. The Western Science Center was designed with children in mind and there are numerous activities for them. We saw opportunities for them to make their own fossils and trace metal plaques of various prehistoric animals. Short films played in the adjacent movie theater.

Hours when we went are Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission cost: Adults $8.00, Seniors (62 and over) and Students with ID are $6.50, Youth 5-12 $6.00, and children 4 and under and Active Military are free. For an additional $2.00 you can get an audio tour. I felt that there was plenty of information in the museum and the audio tour didn’t add much. The Western Science Center website is http://www.westerncentermuseum.org/

Across the plaza is the Visitor Center for the lake. It is open Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free! It tells in more detail about the building of Diamond Valley Lake and has displays about the California aqueduct system, water conservation, etc….   The Diamond Valley Lake website, which includes information on the visitor center,  is http://www.dvlake.com/index.html

While you are there, there are also opportunities to see the lake. Check out the website for viewing points.  It was a nice Sunday drive from our house to the Western Science Center and we enjoyed our day out, even if the GPS couldn’t find a Starbucks for me on the way home!

I have had a half full bag of planting soil in my front yard for way too many months now. Yesterday I finally decided to move it, use it up, and otherwise get it out of the yard. Well, when I picked up the bag, surprise, a huge colony of ants had taken up residence under it. Not only did I expose thousands upon thousands of ants, but I looked closely and could see hundreds of little ant eggs as well. Fascinating!

After I got the soil put around some plants in my yard I decided to go back and look at my fascinating ant colony again. Much to my amazement in just 10 short minutes the ants had picked up every one of those eggs and moved them out of sight, underground, into another part of their colony. Wow! That was fast work!

I am cleaning up my house for a reunion tonight of people from one of my former workplaces. (I seem to be getting an ever longer list of former workplaces.) I sure could use some busy worker ants to come in and clean up around here in 10 minutes flat! Wouldn’t that be great? The fast clean up, not the ants! LOL!

When we got home from vacation back in September we found our kitchen overrun with ants.   Unfortunately, they weren’t cleaning up a thing!

I popped out of bed yesterday and put on a lime green Hawaii t-shirt, capris, and flip flops. I was feeling in the mood for a Starbucks run. Well, as I ran out the front door I realized it was foggy and cool outside. Surprise!  I was wearing that outfit because I mistakenly thought the weather yesterday would be like the weather the day before. Silly me.

Later as I was sitting at the computer and a bit of a chill set in, I decided I was wearing my “Ode to Summer” outfit. It was probably one of the last days I would be wearing summer clothes for a while. OK, let me rephrase that. It was probably the one of the last days I would be wearing capris or shorts for a while. If I put on long pants I can still get away with short sleeves and flip flops!

Yep, that it what autumn is like for us here in inland Southern California. The heat starts to ooze away, the plants start to perk up now that the unrelenting sun is tempered a bit, and getting into a car that has been sitting in the sun is no longer like getting into an oven.

I think there are going to be a lot of posts about weather on this blog. I apologize right now for that.

My hubby, one of the handiest men on the earth, installed another dog proof lock in the kitchen. The package said “child proof lock” on it, but that isn’t what it is in our house. The dog developed a nasty habit of getting into the side of the cupboard under the sink where we keep the kitchen trash. So Handy Hubby installed a dog proof lock on that door to keep her out. Soon, she discovered that if she opened the door next to it she could get at the trash from the side. My Eldest Daughter came up with the idea of putting a chair in front of that door. Problem solved! Until the dratted dog moved the chair and still got into the trash which, of course,  contained chicken bones.

It is the very nature of trash that it is filled with things you want to throw out. A recent trash expedition by the dog got her an entire package of lunch meat that expired in July. I slept on the couch that night, both to save the dog and to save the wood floor. I am happy to report that, except for a tummy that gurgled, the dog has survived both the ancient lunch meat and the chicken bones without a problem. We don’t want to take any more chances however. Besides, I am really tired of cleaning up the trash strewn all over my kitchen.