Why Couldn't It Have Been ME?!?!

I have an ipod.  It should have been me!  Man how lucky!

 

It may well have been the best 99 cents Alex Ostrovsky ever spent. Early yesterday, he paid that amount to download ''Speed of Sound,'' a song on the Coldplay album ''X&Y,'' from the iTunes Music Store, the Internet music shop that Apple Computer started less than three years ago.

He did not know it, but it was the billionth song the site had sold, and Apple was not about to let that go unnoticed. So at 12:45 a.m., Mr. Ostrovsky's phone rang. It was an Apple employee, telling him that in addition to the song, Apple was giving him a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store. It is even establishing a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name.

Real Work Memos

I was going thru my inbox and cleaning out some of these old emails that I never deleted and I came across this one.  This one was sent to us by a male employee who is a New York transplant.  It was funny at the time.  He is crazy anyway!     

 

Subject: Secret Santa (or other more neutral symbol to represent the coming holiday season)

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

In keeping with holiday traditions, I would be interested in having a Secret Santa (or other more neutral symbol to represent the coming holiday season) drawing to include all interested parties. I have taken a small census and found $15 to be a good suggested price target.

If you would be interested, (or have another constructive suggestion) please let me know by replying with one of the option buttons above.

Celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Chinese New Year, Divali, Kwanzaa, Luciadagen, Ramadan, Saturnalia, Shichi-Go-San, St. Nicholas’ Day, Taeborum, and/or Winter Solstice as you see fit.

Seasonally Yours,

You Coworker

A Lesson In Stress Management

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked,

"how heavy is this glass of water? " Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. " "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. "

Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well.. Just get up and dance.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once .

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull . Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

" A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour."

Customer Service

On two recent occasions I have been less than happy with the service I have received at local restuarants.  Why?  Racism or what people's perceptions are. First on the list Outback.  I took some friends who were visiting me from out of town to eat there.  It was me, my friend and her daughter.  They by the way are white.  I slid into the booth first and my friend and daughter were on the outside.  The waiter we had looked to be in his early to mid 20's.  He literally threw a napkin at me and placed napkins by my friend and her daughter.  He walked away so fast that I did not have time to catch him.  It was a saturday night and the place was crowded.  We all ordered water.  We all drank water, but  I was the only one who ordered tea in addition to water.  The only person how got a refill was my friend and daughter.  My water and tea were never refilled.  And  again he was almost running away from the table each time he came to do anything so literally we could not catch him to get his attention.  We had no idea he was approaching the table either.

 

He was almost like a fly flitting from thing to thing.  I was getting very annoyed.  I know that he assumed that my friend was paying the bill.  Our food was brought to us by another person, so we never saw him again until payment time.  He appeared out of nowhere and politely handed the bill to my friend.  She handed the bill to me.  I just looked at him and he looked at me.  With a very wierd look on his face. kind of like, hell, i got this one all wrong as to who was paying.  I took out my credit card and it is one of those mini cards that go on your key ring.  I haded it to him.  It is a platinum card.  He had the audacity to look at my card and say, "What sort of bogus, micky mouse card is this? " and then he walked off with it. 

 

A few minutes later he came back and was all of a sudden very nice and was trying to act gracious when he gave me my card.  Trust me when I say he did not get a tip from me.  He even tried to speak to me then for the very first time and say how cute my little card was and that he had not seen one so small.  I did not say a word.

 

Last weekend I went to a local seafood restarurant and while our waitress was nice, she did not go out of her way to give us any service extras.  We were seated and while I know that the chef has nightly specials, we were not told about them.  She just asked if we ladies were ready to order form the menu.  We did and our meal was just fine.  It just made me mad that I could hear her as she seated others around us.  She gave them the specials that evening and then went on to take orders.  She got a tip but it was small.  When I give small tips I make it a point to tell the person why.  I leave a note with the tip as to why it was so small.  That way maybe they will do better next time.   

 

People still have a lot of pre conceived notions out there and racism.  The bad thing is I am a good tipper and if anyone would actually give me good service at a restaruant, they would be pleased with the tips I give.  I have gotten lots of good service and given lots of good tips.  Some people I guess are doomed to stay in their pot of ignorance, cooking and stewing in it until they die.            

Attention All Employees

Attention All Employees

>*As a result of the reduction of money budgeted for >>department areas, we are forced to cut down on our number >

>of personnel.*>

>*Under this plan, older employees will be asked to take >>early retirement, thus permitting the retention of younger>

>people who represent our future. Therefore, a program to >>phase out older personnel by the end of the current fiscal>

>year will be placed into effect immediately.*>

>*This program will be known as SLAP. (Sever Late-Age>>Personnel). Employees who are SLAPPED will be given the >opportunity to look for jobs outside the company. SLAPPED >>employees can request a review of their employment records >before actual retirement takes place. This review phase of >>the program is called SCREW (Survey of Capabilities of >>Retired Early Workers).*>>

>*All employees who have been SLAPPED and SCREWED may file >>an appeal with upper management. This appeal is called SHAFT >(Study by Higher Authority Following Termination). Under >>the terms of the new policy, an employee may be SLAPPED once,  >SCREWED twice, but may be SHAFTED as many times as the >company deems appropriate.*

>>*If an employee follows the above procedure, he/she will be >entitled to get HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired >Personnel’s Early Severance) or CLAP (Combined Lump-sum >Assistance Payment). As HERPES and CLAP are considered

>benefit plans, an employee who has received HERPES or CLAP >will no longer be SLAPPED or SCREWED by the company.*

 >*Management wishes to assure the younger employees who >remain on board that the company will continue its policy >of training employees through our Special High Intensity >Training (SHIT). We take pride in the amount of SHIT our

>employees receive. We have given our employees more SHIT >than any other company in this area. If any employee feels >they do not receive enough SHIT on the job, see your >immediate supervisor. Your supervisor is specially trained >to make sure you receive all the SHIT you can stand.*

>>*And, once again, thanks for all of your sacrifices and >years of service with us.*>

>* *>*THE MANAGEMENT*

Reflections

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

'
Neat picture found at Liquid-Matrixity

Taken while visiting at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort

Monsters at Walmart

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

There are monsters at my Walmart. I see them every now and then , when they decide to show themselves to me. It all started about 6 months ago. It was evening, dark and I had just entered the Walmart parking lot. I was traveling about 8 miles per hour looking ahead when my attention was diverted upwards. To the roof. Up on the roof mounted near the front of the store are cameras. Those cameras are always up there. I guess that is for shop lifters. If they actually make it out of the store, I guess those cameras can pick up on car and liscense plates for tracking.

The night was clear, a few clouds overhead with no stars visible. For some reason something told me to look up. I did. I caught the glimpse of a shape that suddenly scurried out of my view. I looked back to the lot and then looked up again. Nothing. Was that an employee? Was he adjusting cameras? What was he doing on the roof, at night? I did not think much of it....that time. Maybe a hunchback was up there. I thought of Notre Dame.

About a month or so later, again I was traveling in the lot and again I looked up and saw a shadowy figure scurry out of my view. Fast. It was not like an employee getting done with a project and walking away. It is like something/someone not wanting to be seen and rushing away. I began to think that it was not an employee. Does Walmart hire someone to spent their shift up on the roof everyday? Manning cameras? Seems unlikely to me and this was at various times, always at night.

Then odd things began to happen inside Walmart. I would get a feeling that bad things were around. The hair would rise on the back of my neck and I would get a really odd feeling that evil was around. First I would shrug it off. I do have an active imagination. But that feeling would not go away. It would be so strong, I would have to leave the store. I felt in danger and that I had to go.

I still continued to see "things" up on the roof. I decided that I would look around the next time I felt that "feeling" when I was shopping. One night I was in housewares near the door mats, looking at mats. Mine was worn out. That feeling came over me. I looked around and did not see anyone in the immediate area. I pushed my buggy out in the main aisle and walked slowly down the aisle looking at each side aisle. I passed the first one after the floormats where the towels were. Noone there. I walked to the next aisle and there was a woman looking at merchandise. She was a young black woman who appreared to be in her 30's. I looked at her briefly and she looked up at me. Her eyes were glowing red. Like bloody half moons on the bottom halves of her eyes.

I was frozen in time for what seemed like an eternity. She still looked at me. I left my buggy in the middle of the aisle and left. Was she dead? Was she a ghost? I do not know. I only know she scared the shit out of me. Am I a ghost whisperer? I don't know. I was freaked. Once I got home I decided that I had imagined the whole thing. I put it out of my mind.

A few weeks later, I was again shopping in Walmart and was walking down the aise near the lightbulbs and the hardware department and I saw a young black man standing next to a woman with a buggy and he looked at me. He was dressed in saggy pants and some sort of striped polo shirt. Again the glowing, red demonic eyes. I again immediately. Now I thought that these were ghosts or something. After doing searches over and over again for glowing red eyes. I believe that these were shadow people. Especially the thing on the roof. This also happens at home. I see things moving out of the corner of my eye. It is unnerving!

I have read that shadow people are attracted to people but are they also attached to places? Are they attached to the local walmart? Or just me when I am in walmart? I have seen the glowing red eye people a total fo three times. The last time it happened was about 3 weeks ago.
I felt that evil feeling and I saw a small child with glowing red eyes down one of the aisle. I started to leave the store. I had just passed her aisle and turned back to really prove that it was my imagination. I backed up about 4 steps to look at her again and she was gone. There was no mother or father or anyone else in the area. Just her and me and she had vanished.

I was at Walmart just last night and again the thing on the roof caught my eye. I stopped the car right there and stared at the roof. No other movement once that thing winked out of sight. I asked at customer service if there was someone on the roof as I saw someone up there. They said noone would be up on that roof.

So what is it? Is walmart haunted? Am I? Why am I seeing shadow people and why are the eyes always glowing? Frankly, I just want to see other Walmart shoppers and nothing else.

Batman and Osama bin Laden

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.


Batman may be the only one to catch Osama! Sad. I have always loved the Batman TV series and the movies. We shall see about this comic.

ABC NEWS

Beware, terrorists! The Caped Crusader is targeting a villain more sinister than the Joker — Osama bin Laden.

At the WonderCon 2006 comic-book convention in San Francisco last weekend, legendary comics writer and artist Frank Miller revealed that Batman would hunt down bin Laden and al Qaeda in his next DC Comics graphic novel.

In "Holy Terror, Batman!" the Caped Crusader goes after the terror leader and his organization after Gotham City is attacked by terrorists. Though the graphic novel's title is a take on Robin the Boy Wonder's catchphrase, Miller said there was nothing campy about the story.

Miller's reinvention of Batman in the 1987 graphic novel "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" is credited with reviving interest in the superhero and helping launch the series of Batman movies in the 1990s and 2005's "Batman Begins." He said his anger over both the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent acts of terror worldwide had inspired his latest work.

"Emotionally, it's really raw," Miller told the WonderCon audience. "Imagine the powerful rage when someone crosses the passion between a man and a woman or a man and his city."

Batman.com

Taxpayer's Dollars at Work!

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

THE KINKY KATRINA SPEND SPREE
By GEOFF EARLE

---

February 14, 2006 -- WASHINGTON — Sex toys, Swedish massages, tattoos, jewelry — that's what was purchased with Katrina emergency relief aid, according to shocking audits released yesterday.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials wasted millions in taxpayer dollars and even put up Hurricane Katrina evacuees in luxury hotels — including a New York hotel that billed the feds $428 per night, federal investigators revealed.

The probers also found widespread abuse of $2,000 debit cards that FEMA provided to evacuees.

Disaster victims were supposed to use the vouchers for emergency.

Abu Ghraib Abuse

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

The Australian television network SBS program "Dateline" broadcast the pictures and videos Wednesday night. One of the more graphic videos shows five men wearing hoods and masturbating for the camera, presumably under orders from their guards.

The photos and videos reportedly date from 2003 -- the same time that previously released photographs of prisoner abuse were taken.

Olivia Rousset, the SBS reporter on the story, said she came across the photographs while researching a story on guards at Abu Ghraib.

"We hope that the release of these photographs will bring about further pressure to hold high-ranking officials accountable for what we now know to have been systemic and widespread abuse occurring throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Amrit Singh on "Dateline," adding that she had not seen the images.

More here: CNN

The Bully

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Middle School 6-8th grades

My middle school years were terrifying times for me. They were also good times as well. The worst of it was dealing with bullies. I had two in particular who I remember to this day. I was going to a school pretty close to were I lived. So close in fact that I could walk to and from school. Being the daughter of a school teacher, pretty well made me the perfect target for those two girls. Heifers really.

One girl was a little chunky, short hair -what my mother would say was a "pepper head." Let's just call her Pepper. Pepper lived in the neighborhood but at the opposite end of a very long street. She and another girl lived to torment me on the way home from school. The other girl let's just call Bubbles. Bubbles was a very large almost obese girl. She live on another street in the neighborhood about a block away. She lived closer to my house than Pepper did.

It was a daily ritual in the beginning. I would be walking home minding my own business and trouble would begin. We had a bout a mile to walk thru some woods on a trail until we got to the neighborhood. That wooded are was the place I came to avoid. I would be walking with a few friends or even by myself and they would begin to verbally taunt me. I would ignore them. They would begin to jostle me and push me, books falling out of my hands. They would do this for several weeks. I still ignored them. Then one day, I heard the verbal threat that they were going to beat me up. I heard them behind me talking about putting on rings to scratch up my face and I began to run home. They never caught me. I began to make sure that when they left, we were not in the woods at the same time. I would leave before they did or make sure that they were well on the way home before I left.

I lived in fear and I learned to run very fast to be safe. I did tell my mother about these girls daily and that I wanted her to do something to help me. She never did. I begged and begged. She refused to help me. I continued to run and live in fear each day at school. One day, I guess they realized that I was leaving school much later to avoid and they were waiting for me. I had to run that day not to get cut with rings in my face. That is what they said the planned to do that day. I again went to my mom. No help from her.

I then began to walk the long way home. There was a way to get home that was not a path thru the woods-which was the shortcut. It was on the sidewalk but that way to get home was three miles. After a long day at school and then to walk three miles home was a chore. But that is what I had to do the last year of middle school. I begged for my mom to come and pick me up. She refused. She did not really take anything regarding these girls seriously or maybe she was just being her non caring self when it came to me. That was it. I was on my own. So walk three miles I did. And my mom got off work before me and was home before I got out of school. By car the school was about 5 blocks away. It would not have been much for her go pick me up everyday.

In the dead of winter, the blowing rain, I walked three miles to get home each day. I would come home drenched to the skin on some days. That was when the bucket umbrellas were in style. Bubbles and Pepper did not want me to take the shortcut home. They wanted me to walk the longest way home. The were both hefty girls so I knew I was safe that way. I never had another problem on the way home that way.

What was left? The way "TO" school in the morning. I never had any problem getting to school taking the path in the woods. The path was near my house and I always got to school early. Well, I used to walk with a very good friend each day. Let's call her Verna. She was a very pleasant girl and we had a good friendship. Or so I thought. Well Verna would stop by my house everyday on her way to school and we would walk together. One day she never showed up. I waited and waited and decided to walk on so that I would not be late. I did not see her in school as we had different classes and schedules. I did not think anything of it.

The next morning I waited and waited. No Verna at the scheduled time. I waited to see if she was just late. I saw her walking and she walked right by house and did not stop. I grabbed my books and ran out the door to catch up with her. I did. I asked her why she did not come by or stop at my house. Afterall , we had been walking together in the mornings the whole school year and she was my playmate as well. She said, she could not walk with me anymore. I asked her why and what was wrong? She said she just could not walk with me anymore. I aske if it was because of those two heifers Bubbles and Pepper. She did not say. Only that she could not walk with me anymore.

I was crushed. I had just lost my only friend in middle school. I was totally isolated at that point and along. I walked with Verna to school the rest of the way in silence and we never really spoek again. She did not come to my house anymore in the afternoons either. That hurt me to my soul. I was so disappointed in Verna, you just do not know how much. I have no idea what happened. Was she threatened? What? Who knows? That hurt I have carried with me to this day. It was a terrible sense of loss and mouring when Verna refused to walk with me. She was the one little piece of hope I had in middle school and it was gone. I could not believe that she could be so easily swayed. She seemed so sincere and she came across as a kind, genuine person and as a true friend. It hurt. Eventually I began angry with her for not being strong enough to stand up for our friendship or me.

Soon after that I was on my way home --the long way-- of course and I had a verbal exchange with Bubbles and her very snakelike sister. I went home ccyring and I again went to my mother for help. Begging her to do something, to call their parents, to go to their homes and put an end to this. Finally almost at the end of the school year she finally did. When I came home crying she finally got in her car and went to Bubbles house to speak to her mother. They were ignorant uneducated people. This was still when intergation was just happening and the education for black people was not up to par at all. Talking to then was just like talking to cave people. Finally Bubbles and Pepper did stay away from me for the last several months of school. It got around that you had better leave me alone or my mother would be showing up at your house. Just think of how much better my 3 middle years could have been if my mother had only done this sooner.

After that for high school, I left the public school system and went to private schools and had absolutely no problems with anyone at high school. The calibre of people were totally different. If I went to the public school, I would be with those same hateful girls.

Years had passed. Twenty or more and I was eating lunch one day at a Wendy's and a woman who at first was a stranger walked right up to me and called me by name. I looked at her. She said her name. I did not know who she was. She said her name again and said she was went to middle school with me. It was Pepper. I looked at her stonily. What the hell was she doing talking to me? She began to talk to me right there with my coworkers listening. She said that she wanted to say she was sorry for all the horrble things she did to me. She said she was sorry again and that she terrorized me for no reason and that I never did anything to anyone. She also said that she and the others were jealous of me because I had the perfect life they wanted. I had nice clothes and a nice house and had nice things and they did not and it was pure jealously. I also had both parents. She said her house was broken and at that time in middle school she was being raped repeatedly by her mother's boyfriend and she was angry and alone and had noone. So I became the focus. She also said she had found God, turned her life around and she was again sorry for everything she had done and that she had hoped one day, somehow, we would cross paths and she could apologize to me.

I just looked at her. My coworkers all just sat there in silence and I burst into tears. Pepper began to cry too. I told her that I had been waiting all my life to hear something like that, never expecting to ever hear it. She said she never forgot all the horrible things she did and I did not deserve what happened to me for those three very long years. There was constant torment..not only the walking back and forth to school thing. She said that she had been carrying all that with her for years and knew that I had to have been carrying that baggage as well. She then gave me her card and phone and aplogized again and went on her way. I have never seen her again.

After that, I was a mess for the rest of that day and since then I have thought alot about that day and forgiveness. I was able to forgive her. She did not ask for forgiveness, but I was able to once I heard her apology and it was sincere. 20 or more years had passed and I had no clue who she was at that time. She was a stranger and I did not even recognize her. A weight was instantly lifted from me with her apology.

Irony has set in. I was in a grocery store and saw Bubbles. She was working in the deli cutting meat. From the looks of her a very hard life and obviously no formal education. I never shopped there again at that deli.

About 4 months ago, I was in Target shopping and saw Verna. She is a pharmacist there. When I saw her I was still angry and hurt and disappointed in her for giving up our friendship for whatever reason it was. She spoke to me immediately. I spoke to her, just pleasantries really. I still had the feeling of her telling me she could not walk to school with me anymore like it had just happened the day before. I vowed never to use that pharmacy again and I have not.

Now I have been able to let that go. I went to bible study last week and we had a lesson on jealousy and how it is just fear. Other people being fearful they will never have what you have and hating you for what you have. I do not know what happened with Verna, but I have let it go. She must have had some motivation and whatever it was, it was not good and had nothing really to do with me. I was a true friend to her. Now, I do not think we could ever be friends again. I am not looking for that, but at least I won't still be angry at her when I see her at Target. Whatever that was about she is the owner of it. I have let the disappointment go. No need to waste that emotion on someone who does not value me or friendship the same way I do.
My heart is lighter and my spirit is free-er! And that is a good thing.

Guns and Cheney Don't Mix!

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

He was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi.

Armstrong in an interview with The Associated Press said Whittington, 78, was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest during the incident which occurred late afternoon on Saturday.

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington until the ambulance arrived.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney "was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits," she said.

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until the day after it happened.

More here

The Room

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Seeking a little more knowledge about your inner self?

Enter the Room.

Grandpa Munster Dies

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.

Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.

"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.

Wow, I was sad to see this. He is an icon that I grew up with. I remember coming home every day from school and watching tv before homework and dinner. I would watch The Munsters daily, as well as other golden oldies like the Green Hornet, Bat Man, Ultra Man, The Addams Family and Leave It To Beaver. He will not be forgotten in my book.

When you are a little child, the people on tv seem like they will live forever, almost in some ohter tv universe that we are not a part of. And you believe that for a very long time. Only as an adult do you realize the mortality of it all and that things happen. Al Lewis provided me with priceless hours of fun and laughter in a time that was much simpler.

Honesty

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Last week I decided to buy a rattan chest for my bedroom to replace an old shelving unit that the television was sitting on. I went to one of my favorite outlet stores (about 20 miles away) and found one exactly shaped like this one except is has some rattan on it. Mine is just a chest without the drawers. The top opens up for storage. I never looked in it while at the store. I assumed it was empty. It is lovely. It cost about $125. It was fairly light to pick up so after a 40 minute decicion making session in the store I decided upon this one and placed it in my buggy. It was big and just a corner of it was actually in the buggy. Mostly it was sitting on top perched at an angle.

I got to the check out and the girl at the register just scanned the tag. She never opened the lid either. I got my receipt and was on my way home. Well, it has been in the garage since the day I bought it. I just unloaded it and left it, leaving it for today, superbowl sunday. I planned to do what every self respecting woman does on superbowl sunday..rearrange the furniture. There is nothing better to do than that if you are not a sports fan.

I went to the garage and cut off the price tag and opened the lid and inside was a smaller, duplicate of my chest, nestled in there with a price tag of $79.00. Obviously the store staff did not realize that there were chests inside chests individually priced. I, at first, thought it was supposed to be like that, 2 for that price, until I examined the tag. The tag has a different sku number and price.

Well, now the dilema. What to do. The store is 20 miles away, it has been a week and am I really supposed to return the $79 chest now or just keep it? I have polled family and friends and they all say keep it. They say you did not steal it, so it is yours. It is the stores fault for not looking in the chest at check out time to see if it were empty. They say the store should check items like that anyway to see if really dishonest people are stealing things by concealing them in other items. The store has to be responsible for keeping up with it's inventory.

So here I am with another chest, a freebie which will be put to good use. What do you think? Should I have returned it? I already have it in place in its new home in my home and it looks good! Would you have returned it?

Coretta Scott King and Last Hope

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

The cafeteria of the alternative medicine clinic where Coretta Scott King died this week was full of true believers on Wednesday afternoon, all swearing by the anticancer treatments of a man who never went to medical school and has a long history of fraud allegations against him in the United States.

That man, the hospital's founder, Kurt W. Donsbach, was presiding in the brightly lighted room, asking for testimonials from his patients. Several said their doctors in the United States had told them to go home and wait to die. Then they came to the clinic and discovered that Mr. Donsbach's treatments worked.

"Nobody takes your hope away here," said a 65-year-old Catholic nun and registered nurse, who has ovarian cancer and asked not to be named.

To his critics Mr. Donsbach is a huckster who lures people in fragile condition to his clinic in Mexico with empty promises of revolutionary treatments. They say some become seriously ill or die from infections contracted at the clinic, known as the Hospital Santa Mónica.

To his admirers he is a practical healer who uses a combination of unconventional techniques to help the body's immune system fight off cancer rather than bombard the body with chemotherapy and radiation.

"We don't have miracle therapies," Mr. Donsbach said. "We have a mosaic of doing many different things to impede the progress of cancer in the body."

Huckster or healer, Mr. Donsbach and his hospital are part of a long tradition in Tijuana and nearby Rosarito, where clinics offering treatments not approved in the United States have flourished for years under a government not famed for regulatory scruples. In 1980, Steve McQueen, the actor, received an anticancer treatment in Rosarito known as laetrile, made from apricot pits. He died a few months later.

Mrs. King came to the Hospital Santa Mónica last Thursday, suffering from ovarian cancer that had spread to her intestines, doctors here said. She was also partly paralyzed from a stroke. Her daughter Bernice King and a nurse accompanied her.

Mr. Donsbach said the family had heard about his clinic from members of their church congregation. "They were faced with a wall," he said. "There was no answer in allopathic medicine and they wanted to try anything that might be beneficial."

But the doctors who saw her, Humberto Seimandi and Rafael Cedeño, told reporters they could do nothing for her either. Mrs. King's health was so precarious that they never started her on any of Mr. Donsbach's treatments. They said, though, that they tried, unsuccessfully, to restart her heart when it stopped beating Monday on the fifth night of her visit.

Disco Music for the Wayback Machine

Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.

I just got some new music. I was longing for the days of my youth when disco was king (still is in my book) and punk rock was just around the corner with Whip It and Devo. When I look at all the rap music today, it is simply lacking. The early 1980's had the best music ever! It was very danceable and had the best beat. I had the best times going out to disco's and doing the pretzel all night long. And let's not forget the hustle. Donna Summer.

Ring My Bell! This is what I purchased. Great combination of songs!

I had to get some Bob Marley too. I love him and have never bought any of his music. I have listened to plenty of it, but never bought any until now.