I had wanted a Subaru Outback for several years, so I finally decided to look for a nice used one. After checking several used car lots I found a 6 year old Outback that was in great condition. It had quite a few miles on it and the body and engine looked clean and in great shape. The car was a dark Maroon and Silver color; just what I was looking for so I purchased it. I needed to get an all wheel drive because of the mountainous area I live in.
Our city sets right between two mountain ranges and surrounded by mountains on all sides with several ski resorts within a few hours drive. Since our streets are usually covered with snow and ice most of the winter Its almost a must to have all wheel drive capabilities.
I purchased my car in September and drove it all winter. Having no garage I had to park it in the driveway and let it weather the bitter cold and winds. I never had any problems with it not starting or going through any kind of weather. So I was very happy with my latest purchase. We had a fair amount of snow that season and I was loving the way it got around. Like a lot of people I washed and waxed it once a week to keep it looking good and rust free.
Spring had come and the weather was warm when our Daughter and her two girls came to visit.They live about 350 miles away and usually come three or four times a year. The oldest girl, her name is Iz, and she is 5years old and loves to play outside. Iz was in the front yard one day collecting rocks for her collection and we were all in the house visiting.
My nephew looked out the picture window to check on Iz and see that she was ok and still rock collecting. He saw her with a rock in her hand and she was making marks on my nice shiny Maroon and Silver Subaru. He mentioned that Iz was making marks on my car with a rock and her dad immediately went out and shouted at her WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PAPA'S CAR? Iz stopped and looked at him and said " I was just drawing a picture of mountains".
She had started at the back of the car and scratched marks all along the side and around the hood and along the other side. I thought for sure he was going to spank her butt. As he looked at the marks he could see the landscape of the surroundings of our mountains. He pulled her aside and explained that we do not make marks on anybody's car. Then mama came out and was furious with her. Mom made Iz come inside and apologize to me for drawing pictures on my car. I went out and looked at it, and I could not get angry at her. Even thou it was upsetting, the drawing was a work of art. I came back in the house and got my camera and took a picture to keep as one of those great grand kid memories.
I took my car to the body shop where they were able to buff the marks out. Some of the marks were fairly deep but the polish filled in the gaps. Now it is back in the driveway looking bright and shiny again.
I am so proud of my daughter and son-in law for the way they handled the situation. I know it is difficult to restrain oneself in a time like that. Their visit is over and they are back home, and I have a photo that brings back fond memories and a smile.
Life is full of surprises and I am trying to simply live and enjoy it.
Earl Baldwin
Earl
Usually optomistic
Directory of ezines
Friday, March 1, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
A Rough Holiday
Right after Thanksgiving the big shopping season started and family was making plans to come for Christmas. We haven't had a family Christmas at our house in 11years, so there was a lot of planing and gifts to get ready. Both of our daughters with our four grand kids ages 4 to 20 would be celebrating the holidays together for a full 10 days. We were so excited that they were coming, but I was thinking this is not a very good time.
I had lost my job in September and had not been able to find other employment, so we were living off our savings. It doesn't take long to put a strain on the bank account when there isn't any income for 5 months.We still had a lot of gifts to buy and meals to plan for each day. I was out almost every day filling out applications either in person or online just trying to find some part time work. It seemed that employers were looking to hire , but I was not getting any return messages or interviews. As frustrating as that was we were able to get most things done and ready for company.
Saturday morning came and our daughter called to say her 4year old was vomiting and running a fever. They had packed the night before and was already to leave for their 350 mile trip to see us. We encouraged her to come anyway and if she needed to go to the doctor, she could do it here. Six hours later they were here and the excitement was running high. We helped unpack the truck while listening to our granddaughters ( 4yrs. & 7yrs. ) tell about their trip,and wanting to be picked up and played with.
It had snowed about 4" two days before and was a good moist snow for building a snowman or sledding. One of the last things to get unloaded was their plastic sleds.They said there was no snow on the way until about 50 miles from here, so the closer they got, the more excited they were to go sledding.. We live in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and it snowed 1/2" every night for the first week they were here. No more than about 100yards from our house is a big steep hill that a lot of the kids come and go sledding on, so you can guess how my afternoons went. Most of the time it was with our 7 yr old ,but the 4 yr old did get to go out once and had a blast.
Christmas evening was filled with a Christmas service and carols, then soup and sandwiches! After dinner it was time to open some of the presents. Each person was given one gift and then they opened them one at a time. After a couple of hours it was time to put milk and cookies out for Santa, and then off to bed. Waking up in the morning, it was no surprise to discover Santa had stopped by and brought more presents.
Christmas day was full of snacks, food, and more snacks. The kids were playing with their new toys and reading in the books Santa had brought to them. All of our grand kids love to read. Mainly because mom and dad have read to them since they were one day old. Our 4 year old granddaughter is in preschool and can read out loud 3rd grade reading books! She amazes me how fast she processes words and sentences.
The next day every one wanted to go shopping at the mall to spend their gift cards and get a little walking exercise in. While the grownups were in the shops looking at clothes I took the girls to the Pretzel shop and Orange Julius for a little snack break. We had fun just sitting and watching the people go bye.
Back home I had put some cut onions around the house to absorb the germs and bacteria. I wanted to try a home remedy I had read about for curing colds and flu germs. We were all starting to get the sniffles and coughs and I didn't want it to get any worse. There was only a couple of days left before everyone was going home so it was a last minute effort to kill all the germ bugs.
Our company is all gone and it's 2 days until a new year. We cleaned up the house and thru away the onions, confident the germs were all gone. On new years eve day both of us had running noses and coughs, then by 11:pm we couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed. We woke up in the morning sweating with a head and body aches. The onion cure did not work! We both had a full blown case of the flu. We are starting the new year out with the flu and hoping for good health for the rest of the year.
NOW TO GET BACK TO JOB HUNTING.
Earl
I had lost my job in September and had not been able to find other employment, so we were living off our savings. It doesn't take long to put a strain on the bank account when there isn't any income for 5 months.We still had a lot of gifts to buy and meals to plan for each day. I was out almost every day filling out applications either in person or online just trying to find some part time work. It seemed that employers were looking to hire , but I was not getting any return messages or interviews. As frustrating as that was we were able to get most things done and ready for company.
Saturday morning came and our daughter called to say her 4year old was vomiting and running a fever. They had packed the night before and was already to leave for their 350 mile trip to see us. We encouraged her to come anyway and if she needed to go to the doctor, she could do it here. Six hours later they were here and the excitement was running high. We helped unpack the truck while listening to our granddaughters ( 4yrs. & 7yrs. ) tell about their trip,and wanting to be picked up and played with.
It had snowed about 4" two days before and was a good moist snow for building a snowman or sledding. One of the last things to get unloaded was their plastic sleds.They said there was no snow on the way until about 50 miles from here, so the closer they got, the more excited they were to go sledding.. We live in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and it snowed 1/2" every night for the first week they were here. No more than about 100yards from our house is a big steep hill that a lot of the kids come and go sledding on, so you can guess how my afternoons went. Most of the time it was with our 7 yr old ,but the 4 yr old did get to go out once and had a blast.
Christmas evening was filled with a Christmas service and carols, then soup and sandwiches! After dinner it was time to open some of the presents. Each person was given one gift and then they opened them one at a time. After a couple of hours it was time to put milk and cookies out for Santa, and then off to bed. Waking up in the morning, it was no surprise to discover Santa had stopped by and brought more presents.
Christmas day was full of snacks, food, and more snacks. The kids were playing with their new toys and reading in the books Santa had brought to them. All of our grand kids love to read. Mainly because mom and dad have read to them since they were one day old. Our 4 year old granddaughter is in preschool and can read out loud 3rd grade reading books! She amazes me how fast she processes words and sentences.
The next day every one wanted to go shopping at the mall to spend their gift cards and get a little walking exercise in. While the grownups were in the shops looking at clothes I took the girls to the Pretzel shop and Orange Julius for a little snack break. We had fun just sitting and watching the people go bye.
Back home I had put some cut onions around the house to absorb the germs and bacteria. I wanted to try a home remedy I had read about for curing colds and flu germs. We were all starting to get the sniffles and coughs and I didn't want it to get any worse. There was only a couple of days left before everyone was going home so it was a last minute effort to kill all the germ bugs.
Our company is all gone and it's 2 days until a new year. We cleaned up the house and thru away the onions, confident the germs were all gone. On new years eve day both of us had running noses and coughs, then by 11:pm we couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed. We woke up in the morning sweating with a head and body aches. The onion cure did not work! We both had a full blown case of the flu. We are starting the new year out with the flu and hoping for good health for the rest of the year.
NOW TO GET BACK TO JOB HUNTING.
Earl
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
My paper route
It's been almost four months since I officially retired at age 70. I don't think I was home for three days and I was out looking for a part time job to keep me busy and supplement my income from Social security. I found what I thought was the perfect thing for me to do; Deliver newspapers. Since I am an early riser in the mornings, getting up at 2:30am would be no problem.
They gave me three days of on the route training, which was a big farce. Total darkness and zigzagging up and down the streets not seeing the house numbers at all; Then I was on my own.The next day I picked up my 300 papers and started out. Thought I was doing pretty good, I had only tripped on cracks in the sidewalk twice and was pretty sure I hadn't missed any houses.
I finally finished the route 3 1/2hrs. late with 17 papers left over. I had no idea who I had missed so I just discarded them and waited for a call to redeliver the missed ones. The next morning there was a note in my bundle of papers that 17 houses were missed and their house numbers.
I did not have to re-deliver the papers, just a reminder to check each house off the route roster as I deliver the paper. There was no sequential order to the roster of house numbers. So as I checked off each house and drove to the next it took a lot longer to deliver the papers. I was supposed to have all of the papers done by 6:30am and at 9:00am I still had 45 papers to go. As the week went by I continued learning the route and being late along with a few missed papers.
Monday morning the next week I was called into the office for some additional training and route changes. I had complained about the route having no order to the main and side streets which coordinated with the house numbers. After a short discussion and some training, they printed me a directional map with the house numbers in numerical order.
I thought now I can finally do my job and start making some money. Things actually started going along pretty smooth; I was getting the papers delivered on time and had only a few changes in subscriptions. I noticed I was filling up with gas every week; and with gas at $4.00 a gallon it was eating up all of my profit. Then at the end of the month when I received my statement and figured up my expenses, I was earning $2.05 an hr. (Shock )
It didn't take long for me to decide to give the route up. With winter coming on and plowing through the snow this was not for me.
I want to stay busy and active in some kind of Part time employment for seniors. So now I am in search of a new occupation to learn.
Part of keeping fit in the golden years is staying active whether it's doing manual labor, or belonging to a fitness club and exercising.
A good fitness site that I have found that you can use in your home is thefitnesswiz.com
They gave me three days of on the route training, which was a big farce. Total darkness and zigzagging up and down the streets not seeing the house numbers at all; Then I was on my own.The next day I picked up my 300 papers and started out. Thought I was doing pretty good, I had only tripped on cracks in the sidewalk twice and was pretty sure I hadn't missed any houses.
I finally finished the route 3 1/2hrs. late with 17 papers left over. I had no idea who I had missed so I just discarded them and waited for a call to redeliver the missed ones. The next morning there was a note in my bundle of papers that 17 houses were missed and their house numbers.
I did not have to re-deliver the papers, just a reminder to check each house off the route roster as I deliver the paper. There was no sequential order to the roster of house numbers. So as I checked off each house and drove to the next it took a lot longer to deliver the papers. I was supposed to have all of the papers done by 6:30am and at 9:00am I still had 45 papers to go. As the week went by I continued learning the route and being late along with a few missed papers.
Monday morning the next week I was called into the office for some additional training and route changes. I had complained about the route having no order to the main and side streets which coordinated with the house numbers. After a short discussion and some training, they printed me a directional map with the house numbers in numerical order.
I thought now I can finally do my job and start making some money. Things actually started going along pretty smooth; I was getting the papers delivered on time and had only a few changes in subscriptions. I noticed I was filling up with gas every week; and with gas at $4.00 a gallon it was eating up all of my profit. Then at the end of the month when I received my statement and figured up my expenses, I was earning $2.05 an hr. (Shock )
It didn't take long for me to decide to give the route up. With winter coming on and plowing through the snow this was not for me.
I want to stay busy and active in some kind of Part time employment for seniors. So now I am in search of a new occupation to learn.
Part of keeping fit in the golden years is staying active whether it's doing manual labor, or belonging to a fitness club and exercising.
A good fitness site that I have found that you can use in your home is thefitnesswiz.com
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