For those of us who are allergic to cats:

If you want a cat, but are allergic, just click on the picture above, print, and enjoy.

Never threaten someone who's making your lunch.

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One nice thing about not having kids is that I don't have to deal with things like daycare, or knowing where they are, etc.

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Post # 300 (A true milestone because I've never stuck with anything so long).

HEY, IT COULD'VE HAPPENED.

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Carole King

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever gonna make it home again - it's so far and out of sight. I really need someone to talk to, and nobody else knows how to comfort me tonight. Snow is cold, rain is wet - chills my soul right to the marrow. I won't be happy 'till I see you alone again, 'till I'm home again and feeling right."

One of my all-time favorite singers from the 70's was Carole King. She was such a groovy chick. I loved every song from "Tapestry" but one - Smackwater Jack (to this day I've yet to find anyone who liked that song either). I've only ever owned "Tapestry", but I like the other above albums also.
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You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Just hanging out in 1973.

IT'S REALLY HARD TO BREAK OLD HABITS

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My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

Security Blankets

Up until about 1972, I had a security blanket. I called it my "blankie" (this is so embarrasing). Anyway, it was blue and it had a silky top edge that I liked the taste of. Whenever I had to go up to bed into the dark upstairs, my blanket was always in my arms. Whenever I was upset, my blanket calmed me down. Whenever I was sick, my blanket was right there in my bed for me to curl up with. We watched many episodes of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers together. I was devastated when my parents threw it away. It was like losing a friend. Boy, those were the days when a simple blanket made everything seem okay.

I woke up, it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I heard, was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words. It came reeling in like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and drums. Oh, won't you stay, we'll put on the day, and we'll wear it 'till the night comes. I woke up, it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I saw was the sun through yellow curtains, and a rainbow on the wall. Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon - oh, won't you stay, we'll put on the day. There's a sun-show every second. Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today, and the streets are paved with passers-by, as pigeons fly and papers lie waiting to blow away. I woke up, it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I knew, there was milk and toast and honey, and a bowl or oranges too. And the sun poured in like butterscotch, and stuck to all my senses. Oh, won't you stay, we'll put on the day, and we'll talk in present tenses. When the curtain closes, and the rainbow runs away, I will bring you incense owls by night - by candlelight, by jewel light, if only you would stay. Pretty baby won't you wake up, it's a Chelsea morning. - Joni Mitchell

HAVE A HAPPY DAY

Bless the beasts and the children. Give them shelter from the storm.

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Webdings Chart

AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, II, JJ, KK, LL, MM, NN, OO, PP, QQ, RR, SS, TT, UU, VV, WW, XX, YY, ZZ.

aa, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff, gg, hh, ii, jj, kk, ll, mm, nn, oo, pp, qq, rr, ss, tt, uu, vv, ww, xx, yy, zz.

00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99.

)), !!, @@, ##, $$, %%, ^^, &&, **, ((.

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Your Linguistic Profile::

35% General American English

35% Yankee

15% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

http://nationalgeographic.com/grimm

I have always loved fairy tales. The following 5 fairy tales are among my favorites. I tried to make them as short as possible, without missing anything important. You can read the entire stories by clicking onto the above URL.

Click on the picture for a larger view of "Little Red Cap".

The Frog King (the abridged version)

A princess was playing beside a well. Her golden ball accidentally fell into the well, and a frog offered to fetch it if she would let him live with her. She agreed, he fetched the ball from the well, then she took the ball and ran off, giving the frog the shaft. The frog showed up at the palace anyway, and although the princess wished not to comply, her father reminded her that she must keep her promises. By the end of the night she's had it with the frog, and throws it against her bedroom wall to kill it, but instead the frog turns into a prince. They got married, and probably had kids.

Mother Holle (the abridged version)

As a girl is spinning wool by a well, her shuttle falls into the well and sinks to the bottom. The girl's step-mother tells her to jump in and get it. She jumps in, sinks to the bottom and finds herself in a meadow. She travels and ends up at Mother Holle's house, where the girl becomes Holle's housemaid. She's a good, faithful worker, but gets homesick and asks to leave. Mother Holle sees her off but literally showers her with gold. The girl finds herself home, covered in gold, and her stepmother wants the same for her other daughter who is lazy and really the worst of the 2 daughters (sorry, but it's true). The bad daughter arrives at Holle's house via the well, thinking she'll eventually get showered in gold also. She gets hired by Holle, but does such lousy work she gets fired. She receives a parting gift shower also, but instead of gold she gets covered in pitch and it sticks to her forever.

Hansel And Grethel (the abridged version)

Hansel and Grethel (Gretel) get ditched by their parents in the forest. The kids get lost and end up at a witch's house. The witch promises them the world, but the next day she puts Hansel in a cage for the purpose of eating him. Gretel manages to push the witch into a blazing oven and kill her. The kids escape and find their way back to their father's house. The Stepmother has usually passed away (in some versions).

Snow White (the abridged version)

A queen gives birth to a daughter, names her Snow White, then dies. The girl grows up to be very beautiful, and her stepmother becomes envious of Snow's beauty. The queen gives orders for the girl to be killed, but Snow runs away and gets a job as a live-in housemaid for 7 dwarfs in the woods. The queen locates Snow's new house and poisons her with a laced apple. Snow White recovers after being kissed by the Prince, she becomes queen, and the wicked stepmother usually dies a brutal death, depending on whose translation you are reading.

Rapunzel (the abridged version)

A man was caught stealing vegetables from a witch's garden. In return for sparing his life, she received the man's first born child, a daughter. The witch named her Rapunzel, and then locked the girl in a tower where the girl remained a prisoner. Her hair became extremely long, and the witch would climb the tower using Rapunzel's hair. One day a prince climbed the tower and he and Rapunzel fell in love. The witch found out about the relationship, cut off Rapunzel's hair and sent Rapunzel away. The next day, the prince climbed the tower thinking Rapunzel would be there, but the witch greeted him instead and poked his eyes out. After crawling around the earth for a few years (because he was blind), he and Rapunzel found each other and they got married. Somehow he got his eyesight back, and nothing bad happened to the Witch.

THE END

MQMHEPMM

Jaws (the abridged version)

In a summer resort island, a woman goes swimming at night and is taken by a shark. The fact that there's a shark in the water goes unnoticed until a boy is devoured while on his raft in front of people, during a busy beach day. The sherriff (who is afraid of water and yet lives on an island), a scientist, and a fisherman hunt the shark and finally kill it. The sherriff survives, but in the movie the fisherman dies, and in the book the scientist and the fisherman die. No one really comes out ahead in this one.

Crappy Jobs

Some jobs are crappy, some jobs are humiliating, and then there are those jobs that are both crappy and humiliating.

I ALWAYS LIKED GARAGE APARTMENTS

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These are 2 of my paintings that I completed just before the gallery closed. The one on the right is unfinished. They both measure 32" x 42". Oil on canvas. It was a wonderful experience creating and selling. I must note that the blobs of white you're seeing in these paintings are sheep. I started painting about 10 years ago. I was painting houses at the time, and I had the urge to start painting pictures. I couldn't decide on the subject matter, so I figured if I was painting houses for a living, houses would be the main subject of my paintings.

I honestly had never seen the work of Grandma Moses when I started painting. People would compare my work to hers, and I really couldn't respond because I had no idea what her work looked like. The images took their own form, I never tried to paint like anybody else. My work is strictly from my own head according to my own likes and dislikes. I never use pencils to draw out my designs first. I just paint as I go, and my paintings develop their own stories.

What an incredible feeling it was, that someone would pay money to own one of my paintings. I'll always miss those days.

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Cape Cod, my birthplace.

Wood End Lighthouse, Cape Cod

Because I was born there, I am a true Cape Codder, even though I didn't grow up there. We did spend alot of time in the Summer there, though. My cousin Stephen wasn't born on the Cape, his family moved there just after he was born. He will never be a Cape Codder. Never. Being a true Cape Codder, at one time, meant something. If you were born there, you belonged. If you weren't born there, you were considered forever to be a "Wash-Ashore". However, there are so many people living there now that come from other areas that it doesn't really matter anymore - which is just as well because it was all so stupid. I always loathed status symbols.

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As a kid, even I knew that this kind of note would never pass scrutiny.

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In 1977/78, if you turned on any radio at any given moment, it seemed that every station was playing a song by The Bee Gee's. Back then, I really wanted to look like Barry Gibb (the middle one). Back then he was just plain cool. A pastor whose church I attended a few years ago, looks just like the one on the right, but I can never remember if the guy on the right was Maurice or Robin.

Relax, it's not that bad.

I started to turn gray about 2 or 3 years ago. My hair is what you call 'salt and pepper', although I must say I've got more salt than pepper these days. Some people get upset when they turn gray, but I believe it's better to have gray hair than no hair.

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Like Satchel (the dog), sometimes I just don't put two and two together....

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A 1977 present.

Dad gave me this in early 1977. He worked at Texas Instruments (the manufacturer of this game), so I got some of the new stuff that TI produced before it hit the shelves in the stores. Like The Little Professor, it was basically a hand-held calculator game system. I really forget what 'games' were on it, but I just loved it. I always loved games and puzzles where I had to use my mind. I never cared for 'battle' games. 1977 was also the year Space Invaders came out, and EVERYONE was hooked on SI except me. It was also the year Star Wars came out. I guess '77 was the year of space things.

As soon as I started using this, The Little Professor ended up in a drawer somewhere, and I played with Dataman for about a year.

Commercials

I love commercials. They're short, and some are extremely funny. The above cartoon isn't really funny, but I needed an illustration for this post (actually it's extremely stupid, but I work with what I have). Commercials I don't like are the ones where you know that they're lying to you. I also don't like personal injury attorney commercials or borderline pornographic commercials, either.

Click on the cartoon above for a larger image if you want, but you're really not missing anything if you don't.

NOW THIS IS FUNNY.

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Bright before me the signs implore me:

Help the needy and show them the way.

Human kindness is overflowing,

and I think it's gonna rain today.

It came today:

This, my friends, is my latest ebay purchase: a 1978 edition of Dynamite magazine! I was hooked on Dynamite up until 8th grade (I guess I'm still hooked, but for sentimental reasons now). Dynamite was a magazine you bought in school as part of the Scholastic book program. Usually they included a cheezy article about who was featured on the cover, puzzles, cartoons and short stories, and usually a poster attached inside the back of the mag. This one included a shark poster, and 6 'trading cards'. There's also an article inside introducing the VTR (the predecessor of the VCR). Back in 1978 they cost $1,000 (take my advice, never buy electronics when they first come out).

I didn't have the above Dynamite back then, but it was always my favorite cover. I must say, if I had to choose between the Beatles or the BeeGee's, the BeeGee's would win every time.

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Superheroes

I never got into the 'super hero' thing, i.e. Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, etc. I could never understand why nobody knew Clark Kent was Superman just because Clark wore glasses....... just doesn't add up. It all seems so silly.

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Superheroes Part II

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