get your motor runnin...head out on the highway...

...lookin' for adventure and whatever comes our way. Booooorrrrnnnn to be wiii iiillllddd!
hahahahahahahaha!!! Yeah, that's us. Two old folks hittin' the road with only a general plan and some destinations in mind. OMG! Are we nuts!?!??!!? Ok, ok, I'm ok. 
My fella and I are going to take an epic road trip in the near future. We want to travel through the great northwestern part of our beautiful country. We want to see Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, the Black Hills, lots of stuff! When we leave though, we will not have made a single hotel reservation. We're just gonna wing it. We'll drive until we're tired. We'll stop and see whatever we feel like; the largest ball of string, the biggest cow statue in the world,  a funky little car museum, you know, whatever! Honestly, 'what to take' took more planning than the actual trip. Do we need flares? How about bear spray? Oh, binoculars for sure. Camera, check. Paper maps, check. Portable phone battery, check. What about a tool kit and a first aid kit!? Flashlights, check. CD's for those areas with no reception. Oh! And food! No, you can't just eat crap all the time. I mean jelly beans and chips are good but come on. How about celery and peanut butter. Apples, grapes, cheese, lunch meat. Lots of water. Homemade jerky! A blanket. Travel pillow. Books! I should have a mini van. Because I like to have stuff with me. We're going to see things we've never seen before. We're going to be adventurers. Road warriors! We're seniors. We're bad ass! Woooooooot. Hey, better late than never :-)

Guns n trucks

Last week, the annual NRA Convention was in my home state. It was a big deal. Mostly because of the projected attendance numbers...80,000 expected! That's A LOT of people. It was held just a block over from where I work, so I took that Friday off. I'm not  a fan of that many people OR traffic like that! 

I have a cousin who is a gun maker though, so we kind of had to go. OK, I kind of had to go. My fella was happy to go :-) Honestly, it wasn't bad. I mean really, if your a gun enthusiast, how cool is it to be able to go to one place and see it all?!?!?!?!?!! 

The thing that really cracked me up though? I'll tell you...everyday I park in the State parking garage, for State employees. It's not open to the public Mon - Fri from 5:00am to 5:00pm. During business hours it's filled with sedans and SUV's. Some mini vans and some trucks. Lot's of motorcycles in the summer. But the weekend of the NRA??? 90% pick up trucks!! When we pulled in to park, I laughed for 5 minutes. The whole entire garage, level after level was filled with pick ups! Funniest thing ever. I didn't know that owning a truck was a prerequisite to owning a firearm! Oh, but only if you're white. That was the other funny thing to me, not a lot of diversity at an NRA convention. How ironic.

:-)

The other day when I go home from work, I was talking to my brother on the phone. We weren't done talking so I just sat in my car in the driveway, until we were done. I know that sounds dumb but the audio is through my car and if I turn my car off and get out, it switches over to my phone or my hearing aids. I never know which is going to happen. Plus, when I go in the house the dogs are joyfully, loudly, celebrating my arrival and it's distracting :-)  So I sit in the car. I was in the car for awhile...my brother is a talker. After about 6/7 minutes, the garage door opens and this is what I see;

My little Grumpy Funko Pop. I laughed right out loud. My fella is pretty funny sometimes!!!

Really?

Forbes posted a list of the top 30 highest paid musicians last year. I don't listen to pop music but I know most of the names. There were some though, that I'd never heard of. And, there were quite a few that surprised the hell out of me! Guns N Roses?? I like Jimmy Buffett but I wouldn't have guessed he'd make the list. Same for the Eagles! Anyway, it was a fun list and you know I like lists :-)


30. Rolling Stones $39 million
29. Billy Joel $43.5 million
28. The Chainsmokers $45.5 million
27. Garth Brooks $45.5 million
26. Metallica $46 million
25. Elton John $46 million
24. Foo Fighters $47 million
23. Jennifer Lopez $47 million
22. Drake $47 million
21. Paul McCartney $47.5 million
20. Calvin Harris $48 million
19. Lady Gaga $50 million
18. Jimmy Buffett $51 million
17. Luke Bryan $52 million
16. Pink $52 million
15. Depeche Mode $53 million
14. The Eagles $56 million
13. The Weeknd $57 million
12. Kendrick Lamar $58 million
11. Beyonce' $60 million
10. Diddy $64 million
9.   Roger Waters $68 million
8.   Guns N' Roses $71 million
7.   Jay-Z $76.5 million
6.   Taylor Swift $80 million
5.   Katy Perry $83 million
4.   Bruno Mars $100 million
3.   Ed Sheeran $110 million
2.   Coldplay $115 million
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And the number 1 top earning musicain(s) of 2018 is.............U2 $118 million

Nature shows

Do you remember a looooonnnnng time ago, when Disney had a TV show on every Sunday night called The Wonderful World of Disney? I loved that show when I was a kid. I loved allll the nature/animal programs. 

Flash forward many decades and televisions later (2006) and the BBC introduced Planet Earth. Wasn't that incredible? Some of the footage they shot was just breathtaking. By the end of the series though, I had one beef. WHY was it necessary to show so much killing?? Did it improve the program by showing a baby elk getting killed by a pack of wolves? I hate that. I still hate it.

There's a new show on Netflix called Our Planet. I got about 20 minutes into the first episode and they had already shown a baby bison get attacked and eaten and this poor, completely pitiful flamingo chick, dying. I bet there is some magnificent footage and things I've never seen, included in the series. But now I'm not going to watch it because I know every segment is going to end in death. And if you have small children, why the hell do you want them to see that? Don't take their joy away!!! 

cord cutting

We entertain the notion of ditching cable on a pretty regular basis. We just haven't committed yet. Forbes says that 33 million households ditched cable last year. Mostly, I would guess, because the're unhappy with cable pricing. Oh, and younger people don't watch traditional TV. I used to work in the cable industry. Here are some things I learned; the cable company has been talking about ala cart pricing for decades. While the consumer finds that very appealing, the cable company doesn't always have a choice on what networks they want to and can broadcast. for instance, the cable company wants to provide you with HGTV.  Discovery Inc. owns HGTV and they say, sure, we'll give you the rights to broadcast HGTV but you also have to broadcast Velocity, OWN, Food Network, TLC, etc. Now the cable company has to pay the fee for allll of those instead of just HGTV.

I think cable gets a bad rap sometimes. They're essentially just the middleman. But I get tired of paying for cable for a few reasons...One is that you can get all the network channels for free, with an antenna. Another is that there are a 1000 channels with very little on that the average viewer is watching. And the ADS!!! Holy crap! A one hour television show has 22 minutes of ads! And how about when they take 3 hours to broadcast a 90 minute movie?? Ugh. Lastly, I hate all those insignificant channels they're forced to give you. You know the ones...they show the same movie 3 times a day for 2 weeks. They have to do that because they don't have enough programming to fill 24 hours. And how many news channels do they think we need? There are about 30 of them right now. It's so ridiculous.

More isn't always better. Sometimes it's just more.

color by God

Sometimes in the morning when I leave for work and the sun is just starting to peek over the horizon, there's a truly magical color in the sky. It's kinda of a pink, coral, rosy, violet, cotton candy color. It's not a real color. You can't duplicate it and it doesn't photograph well. And if does photograph well, you're sure when you look at it that it's been photo shopped. I tried to take a picture of it;

See, it didn't turn out well. I bet you know what color I mean though. When my fella and I were in DC and went to the art museum, I looked for it. Some artists, clearly gifted artists, are so skilled at painting the sky/clouds/sunshine, but still, they don't get the color right either. I looked. It's a magical color. 

Peeps!

If you love sugar, Peeps are for you! Did you know though, that Peeps come in flavors!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Holy WOW! Sign me up!
Today, a co-worker and I had our very own Peeps buffet :-)
It was sweet. We tried the first six, below. Our favorites? Orange Sherbet and Root-beer. The only other one that sorta had a flavor, other than the regular Peeps flavor, was the pancakes and syrup, and that was mostly because it did sort of taste like maple syrup. We're still open to trying other flavors though, because...PEEPS!!!

It's the little things.

Where have you been?

To; YLUB, Chuck's daughter and my honey, I'm still here!!

I know it's been awhile. After my last post, for several weeks, I felt like every time I wanted to say something, it was just negative. And I don't want to be a negative person so I just skipped saying anything. 

What could you be negative about? you ask? Well, I didn't like turning 60. It stinks. Mostly, I'm over it now but dang. It was tough for me! I was feeling blue and sorry for myself. It was awful. I'm still having little spurts of blue but it's ok. I'm trying to get back into the groove :-)

oops

I commute. Total, about an hour and 45 minutes, every day. Every single day I see drivers act like they're the only one on the road. Every single day, I see drivers doing their worst! Oh, ok, maybe not every day. But a good 4 out 5. Frequently, and by that I mean several times a month, I think to myself...I've been so lucky. I mean statistically, I'm bound to get into an accident sooner or later!
Uh huh. My day came. You know that horrible feeling you get when you look in your rearview mirror and for a split second you think, they aren't gonna stop? Yeah, that feeling? Ugh. It's worse when they actually DON'T stop!!! I just knew it too. I had been watching him for a couple miles because he'd get right up my ass, then back off. 3 or 4 times. Then, when traffic ahead of me was stopping, as I started to slow down I looked back again and thought, he's not gonna stop. So I stopped a little further back from the car in front of me, just in case. Then I looked back again and thought, yep, and closed my eyes. BAM! Jackhole. I can't even tell how ANGRY I WAS! Boy did I chew him out!!! I know that was kind of dumb - he could've been a real jerk, or on drugs! But I was SO ANGRY!!! whew!
There were a couple brief moments when I felt bad for him, but they passed quickly. Here's the front of his car

My car will need a new bumper and right tail light but I think that's all. I love my car. I figure I'm good now for another 20 years :-) Thank heavens. That was so stressful!

weather

At the beginning of the week, forecasters and prognosticators said, 8 - 12 inches of snow on Saturday (today). The next day they said 3 - 5 inches. Then they said 4 - 6, 5 - 8, and 3 - 5 again. We decided to shop early this week, to avoid the panic and rush on french toast; eggs, milk and bread. So we went Wednesday night at 8:00...PM. We walked in, looked at the lines and came home. Seriously, everyone in town was there, 1/2 them at the registers. Oh brother. It's SO RIDICULOUS! I mean really, even if it DID snow 12 inches, how long do you thing you would be stuck at home? A day, 2 at the MOST. Good grief. So my fella went at 7:00AM on Thursday and it was deserted. Nice. Last night I was really looking forward to all that new snow, being all cuddly and warm today watching it snow all day. It's noon and so far all it's done is rain!! sigh 

music in my ears :-)

Today I'm listening to music at work, in my ears. I'm trying to finish up these reports that I HATE doing. It should only take me a couple hours every two weeks. Instead, it takes me the whole two weeks. sigh Anyway, my goal is to finish it this week, for the last quarter of 2018. Good grief. So far I'm doing pretty good! I'm listening to 80's country music. So fun. Conway Twitty, Ann Murray, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Merel, Willie, Hank Jr., The Judds, Dolly, Eddie Rabbit, Sawyer Brown, Don Williams. I started listening to country music in the 80's so this feels kinda nostalgic for me. I dig it. Just now, there was a song called Tight Fittin' Jeans, by Conway Twitty, which he couldn't record today! I was smiling the whole time. They sang about sex differently in the 80's. It wasn't so blatant. It was much more subtle. I think that made it more fun. All those innuendos, using your imagination and wondering. It's making my morning A LOT more enjoyable!

All the world's a stage

Nobody ever uses that statement the right way. Shakespeare wasn't talking about a stage that actor's do their thing on. He was talking about the stages of life. Did you know that? Anyway, there are a lot articles out there about the stages of life. This one is pretty good;

http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2016/the-four-stages-of-life/

I was thinking about all of that because, by the end of the month I will have entered a new decade. Usually, that kind of thing doesn't phase me. This year though, I HATE IT. It's taken me a little bit by surprise, that I don't like it. To be honest, I'm actually depressed. Isn't that dumb? Ugh. I think that some of it is that for the first time ever, I'm feeling my mortality. I'm truly passed middle age now and on the back side. That's new to me. Also, I'm not happy with the person I am. That's new to me too. Maybe it's just years of being bombarded with that whole stupid, narcissistic idea of being the best version of yourself and self love. (a different discussion for sure). Kind of like when my mom said that she hated turning 30 because she grew up with that idea that "you can't trust anyone over 30."
It must be a "stage" of reflection. You know, what have I done with my life, what have I contributed/accomplished, blah blah blah. And I don't need anyone to bolster my self confidence or anything. I know I'm ok, I don't need a list. 
I'm feeling very sorry for myself I guess. I know I'll get over it but damn! It sucks right now.

Lists!

I love lists! I love reading them and I love creating them...all the time!

Here is Amazon's Best of 2018 list;
* 2 Billion product ordered around the world for delivery in one day or faster.
* Most purchased item - Fire TV Stick
* Top pick for kids - Play-Doh 10-Pak
* Go-To-Gift - Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes
* Beauty bestseller - Mario Badescu Facial Spray
* Fastest Deliveries - 9 minutes
* Most binge-watched original series worldwide - Jack Ryan and Homecoming
* Most streamed artist - Justin Timberlake
* Most requested song via Alexa, globally - "The Middle" by Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey
* Favorite album of the year - Telling All My Secrets, Mitchell Tenpenny
* Most borrowed books - Harry Potter, the Handmaid's Tale and the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
* Most read book of the year - Say You're Sorry, Melinda Leigh
* More than 50 million free games were downloaded
* Most awarded original series, which won more Emmys than any comedy series has ever won for a single season - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
* Prime member bought enough organic apples from whole foods market to bake 350,000 apple pies

Science + technology + ethics + a whole lot more

This is a fascinating article!!!

http://time.com/5492642/dna-test-results-family-secret-biological-father/

It's about the results of one of those take-at-home-dna tests! I know some people that have done it and thought it was completely worth it and interesting. I'm going to do it. I think it's so cool. But if you think you family has secrets, you might not want to! I'd still do it. I want my husband to do it. I think his kids would be interested to know those things about him, later. My mom's going to do it too. Her great grandchildren will probably think that's cool, in about 30 years. 

By the way, welcome to a new year, full of things that have never been.