STUPID THINGS PEOPLE DO

Some people seem to do really stupid and annoying things and I don't think they realize they are doing it. For example take the panic alarms on cars which were designed to be a safety feature, just hit the panic button, the headlights flash, the horn blows, blows, and blows. I loved having this and when I first got a car with this feature I just knew, if any person up to no good, followed me to my car they were busted because I could hit my panic button for everyone to hear then help would come quickly. Well think again. There are simply to many stupid people in the world letting this alarm go off on a daily basis that it is so commonplace, as we hear it over and over that we think not about someone needing help, we simply think "Another stupid person who tried to lock his or her car with the remote and hit the panic button." Do you think this too? I hear the panic alarms day and night in my neighborhood, I never check to see if there might be a problem because it has become a constant, everyday thing and I hate it. I really become annoyed when it goes on and on before the person who owns the car has enough sense to turn it off. I once watched in amazement, a lady who tried to unlock her car with her keyless remote but instead hit the panic alarm, she then proceeded to get inside her car with the key and began driving away with the lights still flashing and the horn still beeping. I went out to the parking lot and helped her turn off the panic alarm.
Another thing that bugs me are people who drink only bottled water thinking it is better for them than water from the tap. Have we not all read articles, watched news reports that tell us that bottled water in most instances is filled from a faucet and lots of times with a water hose? I realize that bottled water is convenient and is in most vending machines these days. It can be nicely tucked into a purse or lunchbag and taken with you when on the go. I drink bottled water on occasion myself but have also filled my empty water bottle with water from my kitchen faucet to tuck into my purse or lunchbag to take with me too. I think the water from my faucet is actually safer and has flouride, is filtered, and is much cheaper than buying water from vending machines or by the case at the grocery store. I know that someone out there reading this will totally disagree with me and say what I'm doing is just plain stupid, but I would strongly suggest that you check out your facts first and do a little research on bottled water and then tell me that I am wrong.

I am also a smoker and I know that most people these days hate us smokers. I am happy for all of you who hate us so much that we have been banished outside in all kinds of weather, we cannot smoke in most public places, forget sitting down in a nice resturant and enjoying our after meal cigarette, or even going to a bar and having the right to smoke while having a drink. It's out. I once had a nasty lady come up to me while I was enjoying a cigarette break at work, outside away from everyone, fifteen feet away from the entrance, being cautious as to not break any rules in a parking lot where anyone who was offended by my cigarette smoke could easily go around me. This lady made a point to come up to me and put her finger right in my face and say. " I can't believe that you are smoking, My husband just got out of the hospital and has heart problems due to smoking." "You need to put that nasty thing out before it kills you." I looked at her in amazement and said " What about the 4 bottles of booze that you have in your little brown bags? Do you not think that the booze might kill you too?" I finished by saying that " I can at least not be intoxicated while driving when I am smoking." she left in a huff but said not another word about smoking or anything else. I am a very courteous smoker and I do not try to bother anyone else who does not like smoking. If you don"t like to be around it then go into the entrance another way as the parking lot is huge and you do not have to make a point of purpously walking in front of me and waving your hand, glaring at me as you go by. My parents still smoke and are 79 and 72 and aging very well, they still live alone and have had no major illnessness due to smoking, no heart attacks, no strokes, and no cancer, in fact they have aged very well. I know smoking is not good for you, I know I should quit and could save a lot of money, but I enjoy my cigarettes and will smoke as long as I choose to. I believe that all this crap about secondhand smoke is in the most part bogus, I believe that most smoking related illness is genetic, it tends to run in families. You nonsmokers out there are probably thinking that I am the stupid one now and you have as much right to your opinion as I have to mine, but if you see me outside smoking and it bugs you please go around me, don't wave you hand, don't give me dirty looks. It's a big world out there, you don't have to walk through my secondhand smoke unless you choose to.

Another thing that bothers me is cell phone abuse, everybody has one and they are great for checking with the kids, to take along when you are expecting that all important call, and they are a big plus when you have an emergency, otherwise turn them off or let your voice mail pick them up and return the call at a more convenient time. Don't block the isles at the grocery store by coming to a dead stop in front of me fumbling in your purse or pocket trying to answer your cell phone, Don't hold up traffic when the light changes from red to green by not paying attention by yacking on your cell, Don't pace back and forth by my window at my shop talking on the cell for 45 minutes when you could have been in and out having all your erands completed and home already if you had not been yacking on that darn cell phone. This is a true story that to my utter amazement I and other people who witnessed this incident still have a problem believing that this stupid mother needs or deserves kids. I watched from the window of my shop on a nice summer day, a mother, with two children,a boy and a girl coming up the sidewalk on their way to the Rite Aid Pharmacy. Mom's cell rang, she answered it, she paced back and forth in front of my shop window for quite a while, she paced back and forth up and down the sidewalk for quite a long time as well, the children wanted to go into the store as they were very bored with mom just totally shutting them out and talking on the cell phone. Mom after about 30 minutes of pacing up and down the walkway finially sat down on the side of the flower planter, the children were running up and down the walkway like crazy. The Rite Aid Pharmacy has automatic doors that are dangerous to children and animals that are unsupervised. The little boy and girl then startrd running in and out of the doors while Mom sat on the side of the flower planter, with her head down and her hand at her forhead sort of holding her head up, talking on her cell phone for another 30 minutes or more. One of the clerks at Rite Aid came out of the store trying to get the children to behave and stop running in and out of the automatic doors with no luck, she then noticed the motherwith her head in her hand, sitting on the edge of the flower planter talking on her cell phone. The nice clerk was concerned that perhaps something might be wrong with the woman and walked down the walkway to check on her to make sure she was alright. The stupid women snapped at her nastily and said "Of course I'm alright and your inturupting my call." the clerk looked totally puzzled and went back into the Rite Aid to check out her customers. The children at this point grew tierd of playing with the automatic doors and went to get Mom's car keys to retrieve a ball from the car. Mom meanwhile is still on her call while the children are playing kickball in the parking lot, kicking the ball into other cars, hitting windshields and store windows in the process, they then begin to climb up on to Moms minivan, jumping up and down on the hood, climbing onto the roof top of the minivan and jumping onto the hood. People were gathering on the sidewalk watching them in total amazement, the little girl then jumped off the roof missing the hood and fell onto the walkway, screaming with a banged up bloody knee. Then Mom finially came, picked her up and went inside the Rite Aid, still talking on her cell phone with the children tagging behind, into everything they could grab and touch along the way. This is definately cell phone abuse and I see it happening more and more each day.

These are a few of the things that bug me, I could go on and on about stupid things that stupid people do. I would if I thought it would make a difference but I know that it will not because some people, may be book smart, but they have absolutley not an ounce of common sense. I wonder how they have made it in life this far and wish them lots of luck in the future as they are for sure going to need it.

How I Love Halloween

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I suppose I am still a child at heart as I still LOVE Halloween. I get the house decorated with lots of decorations in early October and most of the decorating takes place on the huge front porch of my 100 year old house. I have lived in this old house now for 20 years and the porches are what sold me as they add so much character, we have three porches in total and they are not only a great place to decorate for the holidays but also a great place for family gatherings, surprise parties, and relaxing, The one that I relax on most is off my kitchen and is screened where I sit and read on my wicker furniture, with my cats who lay on the railings watching the birds and squirrels in the 100 year old hemlock pines that line the back yard, The cats enjoy sunbathing here while I am enjoying my morning coffee, and my dinner in the evening. There is another porch under this one that is also screened and goes into the back yard where underneath the hemlocks grows lots of English Ivy and not much else as the hemlocks shade the area and are constantly dropping needles into the soil making it to shady and the soil is very acidic which makes it hard to grow most plants, even grass does not grow here but I have found out that poison ivy thrives here along with the ivy. Off this porch in my woodsy back yard where I like to make my Halloween graveyard.

My boys are all grown now with lives of their own and I miss the Halloween parties and parades from their younger years and the adventures of going door to door with them in their favorite costumes and hearing them saying Trick Or Treat and watching their faces light up with delight when they received their treats from the kind people behind those closed doors.

I have spider webs with spiders, lots of pumpkins and scarecrows, skeletons, a huge life size Frankenstein who sets in the porch swing, a large witch flying with the moon behind her that hangs on the wall of the front porch, a lighted tombstone,a little ghost who is so darling, who is child sized that sits by the front door and of course a fog machine, along with various monster heads that are motion activated that scream,laugh eerily or wail when the kids come to the door where when they step on the doormat, it makes screaming noises, we also play some spooky Halloween music to set the mood and they absolutely love it. There are kids from years ago, some of who now are parents of their own children who tell us how much they loved to visit my house for Halloween as it was the spookiest, coolest house on the block. Last year a young man told me I had serious competition a street over. I asked him what that house had that I did not and he said a fog machine. I now have a fog machine and it is a really cool item as when you push the remote control button you get a little or a lot of creeping misty fog depending on how long you hold down the button. I think what I enjoy most is putting on my favorite Halloween costume and passing out the candy to the large and small trick or treaters and watching their faces light up with delight and their eyes looking around at all the decorations in awe, some braver than others who try to hit or kick at the skeletons or Frankenstein and some who creep onto the porch slowly and seem a bit afraid, some make mom or dad come off the street with them to the door for security I suppose.

We had approximately 30 to 40 trick or treaters this year and I enjoy telling them how cute they look in their costumes that are quite a variety, most with painted faces, my how the costume's have gotten better since I was a child. My favorite costume this year was a toddler dressed in faux fur that looked real as Yoda, he was following his older sister alias Snow White and was so in to the moment that he did not care about getting a treat, he was adorable. I saw lots of great looking spider man costumes, their seemed to be a lot of those, witches, and of course Dracula, also two kids from the hood who were dressed as jailbirds with signs declaring them to be Paris Hilton in jail. Imagine that, Lots of princesses, brides, etc.

I always enjoyed being either a princess or a witch and I remember one year when I was about 9 years old that I had a particulary bad Halloween night. We had a lot of fun in those days and we got shopping bags full of candy and some really good candied apples from a close neighbor year ofter year that I always looked forward to. My Dad was with us that year and I was the oldest of four children with a sister five years younger than I and two brothers one being 2 years younger than me and one seven years younger being the baby of the family. We had been to so many houses and the younger children were getting tuckered out and we had loads of candy,as in those days you got full size candy bars and not fun sized ones. I climbed up quite a few steps to small wooden porch, knocked on the door and yelled Trick or Treat, the door opened and I got my goodies and said thank you to the nice lady, then promptly tried to cross the porch the wrong way and fell several feet off the wrong side of the porch bruising me up a bit but most of all hurting my pride for being so stupid. In those days we had the plastic masks with the little eye holes that pulled down over your face and were attached by a plastic band and boy were they hot. Daddy decided that we should head home after that and we started home hitting the houses on the opposite side of the street as we went. We finally arrived at our driveway and I told Dad that we had to visit our next door neighbour, so that I could show off my princess costume and get my candied apple that she made every year. Dad said he would call and tell her that we were to tired and we would come by the next day to get it. I begged him but he said the younger siblings were to tired to go to just one more house. I told him I was a big girl and I wanted to show Mrs. Comer my costume and enjoy that candied apple before bedtime, I promised him that I would go no further than Mrs. Comer's house and to take my younger brothers and sister home and I would be right back. Dad always had a way of letting me get my way and agreed that I could go and come straight home. I was hot from the plastic mask on my face so I pushed it up on top of my head while crossing the yard to the Comer house and intended to walk up the steps to the Comer's front porch, pull the mask down to show off my princess costume before ringing the doorbell. I started up the steps to the Comer's porch and there were three older, taller boys behind me laughing with their masks covering their faces. One of them grabbed me and pulled my princess mask down over my face, he then pushed me down and took my shopping bag full of candy. I was shocked and lay crying on the ground by the first step to the Comer's porch when Mr and Mrs. Comer came running to my rescue. Dad also came running across the yard and the Comers told him what had happened. Boy was Dad pissed, his face was red and he asked Mrs. Comer to walk me home while he went in search of the candy bandits. Dad was worn out from dragging the two younger siblings this Halloween night and I don't think I have ever seen him move so fast, he ran to his car and took off to find the boys who had taken my candy, only to return about 30 minutes later, which seemed to me an eternity. He had not only gotten back my shopping bag full of candy, but two others shopping bags full of the boys candy as well. He told mom that he had found three boys walking just up the road and one of them had two bags of candy and they happened to be my friend's brothers and were about 5 and 7 years older than me. The Drennen boys. Dad went to their house and told their Dad what they had done to me and their Dad made them give their candy up to learn a lesson. I thought my Dad was quite a hero and needless to say I enjoyed those mean old Drennen boy's shopping bags full of candy for many weeks to come.

Happy Halloween All!!!!!!!