Disney

I love Disney animated movies. Especially the old ones, where every cell was hand painted; like Bambi and Snow White. I also like some of the newest ones, like Frozen, Encanto and Moana.

I love the streaming channel, Disney +. One, because they have all the Marvel movies! 😃 They also have some great channels, like Nat Geo

I'm not really a fan of Disney amusement parks though. I think Walt is turning over in his grave, at the cash cow they've become. For instance, if I just want to go to Disneyland for the day, depending on the date, it could be $179!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Disney World tops out at $159 a day. But if you go in August, on a Tuesday, it would only cost you $109. I think that's so ridiculous!

They say that business isn't that great for the Disney brand these days. So they fired their CEO and got Bob Iger to come back. I don't think the previous ceo understood that Disney wasn't broken, he didn't need to fix it. They shouldn't be involved in politics or trying to be "woke." Disney is supposed to be about kids and making kids smile. No agenda. 

Aaaaand this whole thing with DeSantis and Florida is so stupid. Again, stay out of politics. And if you don't like his policies, hey, you're going to outlast him for sure, just chill out.

As for the movies? Just tell good stories. Stories for kids, not their parents. Geesh.

life, death, love and grief

I know how fortunate I am, that until recently, I've never lost someone I truly loved.  

A couple of weeks ago, my brother passed away. We knew it was coming, but I guess we weren't expecting it to happen so soon? Anyway...I told my fella, "I don't know how this is going to go for me, so I'm sorry in advance if I'm mean to you." He's been pretty wonderful.

I got the news from my sister-in-law about 11:30 at night. In those first couple of hours, I just didn't know what to do with myself! I was so fidgety. I was angry. I was sad. I paced. I cried and cried. 

In the days that followed, I felt all the things.

Physically, sometimes I couldn't catch my breath. Sometimes I felt a physical pain, like a weight on my chest. I'm tired. Sometimes I’m nauseous  

Emotionally, I'm angry that he didn't take better care of himself. I'm angry that he didn't do what the doctors told him to do. He just did whatever he wanted. While that might have been a good way to live in his mind, it sucked for all the people around him, that loved him. Then I think about the things I wish I would have said to him, the last time I saw him. Then, I'm incredibly sad for my mom. I can't imagine what it feels like to lose a child. I'm incredibly sad for my brother's children. They've lost both their parents now. Who is going to love them unconditionally? Who has their back? Then I wonder...I wonder if you know that you're dead. Does something happen in your brain that tells you that? I wonder if he was scared. Did he have regrets? That hurts me, for him, to think that. Then I think, I don't have anybody to say to, 'remember that Christmas when...or remember when we told mom _____ and really did ______?' He use to say frequently, "you know we aren't normal, right?"...because we were so close. He said he didn't know anyone that got along with their sibling(s) like we did. 

I'm still feeling all the things. I cry in my head a lot. Weird. For 30 years, we had a running joke going about cows. I saw this funny little cow thing at Hobby Lobby the other day...I cried in my head.

Mostly now it just feels weird. I wish I could think of a better word or way to say it. But it's just so WEIRD. How can this be? That he's not here anymore? How is that possible? Weird. I guess that's "denial."

Before his health started to fail him, he was one of nicest people I've ever known. Genuinely nice. He thought everyone was interesting in some way and he had meaningful conversations with strangers all the time. He laughed easily. He just wanted to have fun all the time. He was so stubborn! See? now I'm mad at him again! Weird. He loved being a dad. He loved all the commotion. He had a strong work ethic and was a loyal employee. He had fish and a bird for pets when he was young.  He was never really a dog or cat person. He was a skateboarder and had a paper route when he was a little guy. He was a NASCAR fan and an avid Raiders fan! He had stunning blue eyes, which he passed down to one of his daughters and a grandson. He loved having a garden and growing peppers. He really liked spicy food. He liked to cook, from an early age. His favorite movies were comedies. He loved to go fishing and he liked camping out. He was game for anything. I loved that about him. He had SO many friends! He was lucky in that way.

Sigh. I'm sure going to miss him. 

 😥 9/28/1964 - 4/19/2023 💔

Hell

I keep seeing this headline..."A guy says he had a heart attack and went to hell. Here's what he saw."

I finally caved and read it. 👀 It turned out to be one of the best laughs I've had in weeks. Here is the link to the article;

A Guy Says He Had a Heart Attack and Went to Hell in 2016. Here's What He Saw. (msn.com)

Now, I don't want poo poo his experience, and it does sound pretty horrific. But here's the thing, the "guy" is a priest. Toward the end of the article the priest says his hellacious near death experience made him realize he needed to forgive people who had wronged him, instead of hoping for their punishment.

Ummm, seriously?! You're a freakin priest and you were hoping for people to be punished? Yeah, there's a reason you went to hell, dumbass.

Rodents and other small mammals *REVISED 3/27

We don't live in the country. We don't live in an urban area either. I guess that makes us suburban?

Anyway, there is a lot of wildlife around us. Most of it is totally ok with me. Well, I don't appreciate the racoons eating all the bird food and/or pooping on the roof of the house, but other than that, I don't mind too much. 

Last Fall though, some small critter has taken up the interior of our living room wall, as its home. It drives my fella crazy! He can hear it, scurrying around in there. It's become our mission to seek out and destroy the culprit! Mwahahahahaha

First, we plugged up all the obvious holes we could find outside.

Then we set out mouse traps. After a week, we didn't catch a single thing.

Then we drilled small holes in the wall and squirted cayenne pepper in the walls. That worked for a second.

Then we started looking for poison. You would be so surprised to find that that's not a very likable way to get rid of an animal. So we opted for the humane way - trap it in a cage and release it back into the wild, far away from US.

Monday night he put the cage up in the attic. Tuesday morning he found a mouse in there! 

(3/22) Tuesday night he put it back in the attic. Wednesday morning, another mouse. 

*(3/23) Wednesday night he put it back in the attic. Thursday morning he found a mouse in it! 

*(3/24) Thursday night he put it back in the attic. Friday morning he found a mouse in it!

*(3/25) Friday night, back in the attic. Saturday morning he found a ground squirrel in it.

*(3/26) Saturday night he put in back in the attic. Sunday morning her found a mouse in it.

Honestly, I thought that it was probably going to be a chipmunk up there. Nope. I bet there are A LOT of mice up there! Shoot. I hope we can catch them all. I'm super happy though that they haven't found a way into the house. If that happens, trust me, death is imminent!

*I'm pretty sure the ground squirrel was the culprit in the wall. That sucker was PISSED off in that cage! Since we're still catching mice, I guess this qualifies for an infestation. Ewwww. The little squirrel kind of boogered up the cage though so we're switching over to a bucket trap. the bucket trap is a lid that fits on any 5 gallon bucket. I has a swinging flap on the top so when a critter steps on it, it flips 'em down into the bucket. Pretty cool. I'm so NOT happy about this mouse thing. Grrrr.

Vacations

Do you like planning your vacations? Or are you one of those people that will happily go along.

I like the planning part almost as much as the actual vacation. I like finding the places to go or see or stop at. This year we are combining a road trip and visiting family into a 2 week vacation. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois in 4,000+ miles By the time this trip is over, my fella and I will have been to 34 states, together! That's so cool! 

Along the way we will go to/see/stop at;

the National Cowboy Museum

a couple of vintage motorcycle museums along the way

an old stage coach stop

Fort Reno

Cadillac Ranch

The Big Texan Steak House - they have a 72oz steak that you can have for free if you can eat it in an hour! 4 1/2 pounds of beef. It's $72. Since 1960, 11% of the people who have tried, succeeded. I could do it. hahahahahahahaha

Santa Fe - really looking forward to this!

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

The Continental Divide

Winslow Arizona - because of the song...you know, "standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see, it's a girl my lord in a flatbed ford slowing down to take a look at me..." Sorry honey, but I have to.

Several of the trading posts along the way

Ghost towns!

fun route 66 things

Bryce canyon

Old train rides in old cities

seeing family, on both sides

Yep, the planning is fun 😊

Brits

My fella and I are watching a British show called, The Great Pottery Throw Down. It's a reality show about, hahahaha, pottery. At first, we chose to watch it because we don't know anything about pottery. Now we do! It's all very complicated. There are contestants who are mostly home 'potters.' Every week they are challenged to create something different. Did you know there were so many different kinds of clay? And glazes? It's really interesting. There's a host(ess) and 2 judges. One of the judges is chap named Keith Brymer Jones. I love him. He's SO emotional - it's delightful. Whenever one of the potters makes something beautiful or different, he get's all teary! It's fantastic, his passion.

Anyway, it's the first British show I've actually watched and I just want to say, Brits are very quirky and easy. Brits seem to be so much more light hearted than we are. They aren't nearly as hung up on sex or cussing or fashion as we are. It's really nice! Oh sure, I know it's just tv and they're probably all on their best behavior, but still. We're on season 3 and every group so far has been charming. I'm going to look for some more British shows and check it out 😊

Favorite Days

Do you have favorite days in your memories? Not necessarily the best day(s), but your favorite. I guess they could be the same though. Like, getting married was a best day for me but it isn't really one of my favorite days. It was stressful and a blur.

The first favorite day/memory I have is when my mom took me to see the original Doctor Doolittle, at a movie theater, for my ninth birthday. It was just her and me. It was very special to me. I remember it being a big theater - do you remember those? She laughs about that because she says she did it because she couldn't afford anything else. 

Another favorite day of mine was when I took my kid brother to Venice Beach. I was 23, he was still 17. It was a Saturday and I didn't have anything to do and neither did he so I said, hey! let's go to Venice Beach! Neither of us had ever been. We had a blast! We saw some of the craziest things!! We even saw the chainsaw juggler - before he was famous. There was a lot of crazy stuff to see on Venice Beach.

The morning I fell in love with my husband. I thought I was going to burst, like I'd just had 10 pots of coffee and I might shoot off into space. That was the best feeling ever!

Seeing the play, Jesus Christ Superstar, with Ted Neeley. For me, it would've been like seeing Yul Brenner in The King And I. And then meeting him after the show. It was awesome. He was so kind and generous with his time, to everybody who had stayed behind to meet him. When I asked him to sign my program, he asked me where and I said, oh, anywhere is fine. He said, "no, you pick a page. It will matter to you later."

I had another favorite day with my brother too. I want to say it was about 20 years ago. Mom and I were in California visiting and he and I went out for the day. Mom was with her childhood friends, Bonnie and Tom. My brother and I just spent the day together driving around San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. It was a super fun day of eating, drinking, laughing and being brother and sister!

Our honeymoon when we arrived in Cabo San Lucas - before it was a thing, when it was still a little seaside town in Mexico. There was the restaurant, The Giggling Marlin, glass bottom boat tours, white sandy beaches, blue waters. It was my favorite honeymoon stop.

The first time I ever saw Garth Brooks in concert. It was in Kansas City. He had already retired but did these 9 shows in 2007. My fella drove with me 500 miles so I could do this. He was awesome. My fella. Oh, yeah, Garth too.

There are plenty more but these are the ones that always pop into my head.

Protecting LGBTQ rights?

Earlier this week, the LGBTQ community, (well, mostly teachers who had the day off) showed up at our Statehouse to protest our version of the "Don't Say Gay" law in Florida. Here, they call it, the Slate of Hate bill. The digest of the bill says;

Sexual orientation and gender identity instruction. Provides that a school, an employee or staff member of a school, or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction may not provide any instruction to a student in kindergarten through grade 3, including a presentation, in which the goal or purpose of the instruction is to study, explore, or inform students about: gender fluidity; gender roles; gender stereotypes; gender identity; gender expression; sexual orientation. Defines "school" for purposes of this provision.

Honestly, if I had a child in kindergarten, I don't want some teacher with an agenda, talking to my FIVE year old about sex or gender identity. Geesh. 

Some of the comments on Twitter were so stupid.

"if you don't agree with this bill you are normalizing pedophilia!"

 "So what's next? Book burning, start concentration camps for people who are different then you?" "so if my daughter tells her 1st grade teacher that she has 2 mommies, what is that teacher going to say?"

Some people said, during the hearing, that this bill would prevent kids of LGBTQ parents from being able to talk about her family at school. Really? Is that what the bill says??? Come on.

After the initial reading in the House, some amendments were made. Instead of saying sexual orientation or gender identity, they amended it to 'human sexuality.' Another amendment was to require a parent at the beginning of the school year to give written consent if a child is going to use a different name other than their legal name.

What does that mean? Boy, they better be specific because lots of kids have nicknames or short names that don't even look like their legal name. People, people, people.

Why don't they just say, you can't teach sex ed earlier than 4th grade. Isn't that what they really mean? I don't know. There are so many other BIGGER issues in this state. 

...speaking of how much is enough...

MIT says the living wage in 2022 before taxes for a family of 4 in the U.S. is $104,077 a year. That's a livable wage. The lowest is $88,720, in Texas and the highest is $147,248 in San Jose.

In my hometown, the living wage for 2 adults, no children, are as follows;

Food - $7,352

Medical - $6,655

Housing - $9,634

Transportation - $9,634

Civic - $5,878

Other - $8,394

Required income after taxes - $47,678

It's a little curious that transportation and housing are the same. And that seems pretty low for housing. Maybe they aren't including property tax and insurance. Also, I think we spend more than that on food, annually. My fella and I are doing pretty good considering one of us is already retired.

You can go here, https://livingwage.mit.edu/ to find yours.

It's interesting.

Your dead body

What a gruesome thought; what's going to happen to your dead body??

Eaten by wild animals at the bottom of the cliff you fell off of while trying to take the perfect selfie? Nibbled to the bone by the fishes you were forced to sleep with. Blown to bits and pieces in a war torn country. 

Or, if you could choose, will you be buried? Cremated? Well there's a new choice on the horizon!

https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=31323334-50bba2bf-31367a34-4544474f5631-aaaeb36ffd4a43ea&q=1&e=42856d72-930f-4ba1-9c64-e9eedad02b90&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcnb.cx%2F3lIpYf7

I don't know how I feel about this. It makes sense but it goes against traditions. Where will the proof be, that you existed? You would just be a story. Oh! This is SO WEIRD! 

How much is enough?

I saw something a couple years ago that said, When you have more than you need, build a longer table not a higher fence. I love that. Even as a country, we can be so giving and so selfish at the same time. On crowdfunding pages alone, like Go Fund Me, over 17 billion was raised last year in North America alone!

My fella and I talk about that often, in regard to corporations, etc. How much money do you need anyway? I mean, I don't begrudge Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or the Walton family. They worked hard to get where they are. But personally, how much money do you have to have to be happy? As an athlete, why is your skill worth 20 million a year and how much of that do you really need to live a happy life? What drives people to want to have ALL the money? Greed? Fear? And I'm not saying everyone who has a lot of money is like that. 

Also, I'm not talking about the criminal element in immigration or the effects of big government, blah, blah, blah. I'm just asking on a very basic level, but think about how brave a person has to be to leave their home, all of their belongings, their friends and families, to endure unknown hardships to come to this country, for a chance at a better life. It's heartbreaking, the way we're told to think about it. 

DIY yourself

Arts and crats fairs/shows are very different if you're artsy craftsy. If you aren't, everything is pretty cool because none of it is something YOU could do! If you are artsy or craftsy, you look at people's work differently. for instance, I can walk by a booth and think, oh yeah, that's cute - and not have to stop. I already know what it took for them to create their art or craft and that I could do it too, if I wanted. But if they have something that's super cute or really creative, I want to stop and look at it. I want to try and figure out how they did that. I'm interested. Plus, I really appreciate their talent, patience, skill...etc.

I read a delightful little book once called, Steal Like An Artist. The author talks about finding your inspiration. About copying the work of the people you love until you eventually find your own style. He also says, nothing is original. Everything comes from something else. You have to start somewhere! On Instagram, you can find people who create art and things, in just about any category. Sometimes I save a screenshot of something they've done because I like the colors they used or the way they twirled the paper in a leaf.

Some artsy people or small businesses are totally transparent about what they do and/or how they do it. Others are super secretive! When I participated in the art fair a couple years ago, several people asked me if they could take a picture of something I had for sale. I always said, sure! A couple people asked me what kind of paper I used. I told them. It doesn't hurt me to share that knowledge with them. If they want to make it themselves, they should! Anyway, it always kind of surprises me when people keep their process a secret. For instance, I follow a quilling page on Instagram of a woman who makes quilled earrings. She's amazing! I like to see her art. It's not something I'm interested in doing though. Another follower asked her if her earrings were waterproof. She said, yes. And it took her many, many attempts and many, many different products to achieve the waterproof coating that she was satisfied with. Then she said, but don't ask me what it is because I won't share that with you. Do your own research and figure it out yourself. Dang. I thought that was kind of rude. I mean really, what's it going to hurt her to tell someone? Geesh.

Random things

* First up, the Super Bowl. Oh you know, I'm not a sports fan...but I love an event. I used to be a big NBA fan, so I remember how exciting the championship game(s) is. They worked hard to get there. Their fans are excited. So I watched the score on Google. It looked like it was a pretty good game, not one sided. 

Today everyone is talking about the ads though. Which ones were hits and which ones were meh. AOC criticized the Christian ads saying, Jesus would not fund commercials to "make fascism look benign"

Here's one of the ads;

https://youtu.be/QEEq5VTfmic

Webster's says fascism is;

a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

I wish she would shut up.

* Next up, headlights. For many years now, I've been complaining about how bright car headlights are. Honestly, ever since I had cataract surgery they are blinding me at night! Well damn, it turns out that it's not just me!!! Yay!!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/other/american-drivers-have-a-blinding-headlight-problem-it-could-last-for-years/ar-AA17qXoS?cvid=ac493adb7e7446499fe594c82213bc5f

* And what the heck happened to the Westminster Dog Show?!?! I'll tell you...they moved it, permanently, to May 6th. At least I haven't missed it.

* In Vermont, the ice-fishing tournament was canceled after 3 fishermen fell through the ice and died. I don't know - shouldn't someone have known that the ice was too thin before l
they let people compete on it?

* And this doesn't have anything to do with anything but it's so puzzling to us! The lady across the street, who loves to decorate her yard for every holiday? The crazy Halloween one? Currently she has 2 sheds in her back yard and a 2 story playhouse and maybe a small pirate ship. Today she's having another shed built. It must look like a tiny house neighborhood back there! 

We need to figure out our drone so we can spy on our neighbors :-)

Aging

When did I become an old person? Older person. Oh, a "mature" person. A senior citizen. What? I've started getting mail from our benefits department about my milestone birthday. Hold up there people!! I know they do that to prepare for you for getting ready for retirement and Medicare. It's still weird.

A long time ago I saw a little sign that said, How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? That's a fun question. I think I'm still in my 40's somewhere. In my head. Now, my body is a different story! My body says, yep, definitely not 40's! I guess this is when things start to wear out. I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't hurt. I suspect that's why some 'seniors' are grumpy...they have chronic pain. That would suck. I injured my back putting up the Christmas tree, and for 2 MONTHS it hurt me. It's exhausting to be in pain all the time. 

It takes longer to do things. Physical and thinking things. I saw some dumb humorous story about old people and bird watching - that when you're younger you could care less about the birds in your backyard. Then I realized, well of course! When you're young, you're busy making a life for yourself...taking care of your kids/spouse/partner. You don't have the time to watch the birds, or smell the roses.  That's the part of getting older that I like. Now I have the time to do those things. Watch the birds. Watch the snow when it falls. Take leisurely walks. Spend more time cooking and trying new recipes. Reading. Learning new hobbies.  

My brother said he misses all his friends getting together and the big parties at holidays and game days. Now everyone has moved away or they just don't do those kinds of parties anymore. I told him, of course not, they're all old now! You've already had that kind of fun. You can't party forever. It's a pain in the butt. Move on! "Fun" becomes something different when you get older. Lots of mature people find out that they like things they never knew they liked! Like reading, or doing puzzles, or cooking, or sewing, or gardening! Lots of mature people find out that doing some kind of volunteer work, gives them purpose. 

As long as you're in good health, getting older is pretty great.

What are you watching?

Over the holidays, we caught up on a lot of the newer movies. 

Top Gun; Maverick. It was good action movie. If you liked the 1st one, you'll like this one too.

The newest Elvis movie was a lot better than I was expecting. It was actually more about him than his tabloid life. Also, Tom Hanks was pretty good as Colonel Parker.

The new rom-com, Ticket To Paradise, with Julie Roberts and George Clooney was just that, a rom-com. so typical and a little dumb. But, it was light and breezy and that's nice sometimes. Samaritan with Sylvester Stallone was a pretty typical guy revenge movie-meh. 

The Glass Onion  was fun. I liked it better than Knives Out. Maybe I felt like I had to pay too close attention in Knives Out? Honk For Jesus was interesting. It's about a black couple that run a Baptist church. Quirky. Proof again that religion is a show. Moonfall - meh. We watched the whole thing but mostly because it didn't suck and I didn't feel like looking for something else. Bullet Train, with Brad Pitt was fun in a campy kind of way-lots of over the top fights and shoot em ups though. Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson was another cute rom-com.

These aren't new and they're both with George Clooney and we liked both of them; Money Monster and Up In the Air. Both of them, good dramas. Also, an older movie, (2014) called The Hundred Foot Journey, was delightful.

We're watching Bosch on Amazon Prime. I like this one. I like all the characters. It's kind of intense though so whenever we watch an episode, I need something happy...so we watch an episode of Modern Family. We didn't watch it when it was on originally. Sometimes it's just dumb funny but there are enough clever funny moments that I keep watching 😀. Last week we started watching Person of Interest. We've only watch 4 episodes and I like it but I can see how it might become kind of repetitive. I'll keep going for awhile though.

And on Netflix, if you're looking for good stand up, Tom Papa and Jim Gaffigan are the best! We've laughed and laughed and laughed!