Time for a holiday?

It has been soooo frelling cold up here, I thought we could all stand a little beach time. Too bad, this is a close as we will get for awhile yet. I still might have to tweak a bit, but I think it is a nice change. Lets us all dream about sandy beaches and palms. Again, let me know if it is miserable to you as viewers.


I don't really have a post planned, so lets see what is on my computer for pictures. Ah this was fun. This is my parents, Dad trying on his old RCNVR uniform about 25 or so years after the end of WWII.
Pretty handsome sailor, no?

Of course 25 or so years does things to the body!


And for those too young to know, or from other countries, RCNVR: Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserves. Oh and we had a hell of a time getting him back out of it afterwards!

Click to see them better.


Good Morning All.

We take so much for granted!

Our parents, (mine, the Bag Lady's & cousin Leah's from The Goats Lunch Pail) were all raised during the dirty 30's. They all knew what it meant to work hard, or starve, or freeze. They knew what it was like to have a lard sandwich - and be grateful for it. They knew why Canada joined WWII, they knew why we have Remembrance Day ceremonies and the significance of voting.

They worked hard to make life easier for their children. We had it relatively easy, yes, we had black and white telly, computers were huge things that took up whole rooms and required a degree to run them. Our education was taken for granted, it was law that children had to be educated. Most of us did not have to go find work at 15 or 12 or even younger. Some did, but for the most part I am talking about lower middle class and up - we are the ones that take things for granted.

As none of the three of us that blog had any children, I now have to generalize about the rest of our generation. They want to make things easier for their children too! This results in their children taking even more for granted. If they don't have at least three TV's and Cell phones and iPods and games stations not to mention the latest and greatest computer, they are hard done by. They want their cars when they get their drivers licenses and they get chauffeured by mommy or daddy until such a time as they do get said license. Most will do just enough at school to graduate, some will make an effort and go on to higher education but some will drop out when they get old enough.

So, this is what started me thinking along these lines:

We have a new tenant in the building that the office is in. He was brought here from Mexico to work in a food kiosk in the mall. The owner of the food outlet, is paying the rent, power etc on the suite and paying Juan (not his real name) a regular wage on top of this. There will be another joining him soon - also from Mexico.

Yes, Alberta is booming and we can't find enough people willing to work for 10 or 12.00/hour to sling hash, so we import them. We have three suites with West Indians in them for the same purpose.

I honestly can't say what I expected this fellow to be like, except that he is nothing at all what I expected - if that makes any sense. He is from Chihuahua, says he was raised middle class ( I think he was being modest), he speaks four languages fluently, French, Italian, English and of course Spanish. (He was starting to learn German too before he left.) He asked if I knew of anyone in the buildings that might speak any one of these languages so that he doesn't lose his skills. I did finally remember one woman from the Netherlands that speaks French, so I sent him to meet her (after I asked her of course).

He came and chatted again the other day and mentioned that no one he has met yet seems to be interested in cultural things like Opera or the Arts and he was wondering what he could do. And why don't we learn any language other than English here? We do, it is just most of Western Canada that learns French moves to Eastern Canada. It seems that in Mexico to learn another language takes money, unlike here where it is taught in school.

This lead to a discussion of how much we take for granted - oh, and the fact that he landed in the red-neck province of Canada. We have culture - don't get me wrong, we have a symphony and opera and plenty of theater and art galleries, lots of clubs with live music etc. It is just that the people he meets at work, or in the apartment complex are mostly blue collar workers. Or are working two or more jobs just to pay the damned rent. I pointed out that you don't need an education in this province to make bucket loads of money - you just need a strong back and a willingness to work hard everyday.

He said, but what do you do with all that money you make? Well, they either spend it on expensive toys & vehicles or save it up and go to Mexico for the winter. I took pity on him and printed off the Opera schedule and the Symphony schedule and told him that the Friday paper had a pull out section with all the things to do about town. Of course, he also wanted to know where a Catholic church was for Sunday - yeah, like I'm the last person you should be asking about that - however, I did find the info for him and he can attend in Spanish, Italian, French or three or four other languages if he so desires.

He has only been here a week, so Sunday was his first taste of real cold and blizzard conditions. I hope he manages through the rest of this week - the temperatures are going to be in the low -30's to high -40's all week.


He got me thinking though, what do you take for granted? That your car will start? The grocery stores will always have full shelves? Water will always come out of the tap? Lights turn on at the flick of the switch? Your internet connection?

Good Morning all.

Which is which?

I have just replaced my scanner (the other one died about four years ago) and have been archiving old pictures. My Sister (The Bag Lady) & I have both posted about how much we looked alike growing up, so, here are a few more to laugh at. These were taken in 1965 - yes, that long ago that is why they have no colour.



This is Sister:



This is me:


Now comes the challenge! Which is which? Who is who?



It was easy when we didn't have coats on, but it was April, so I imagine we were getting a bit chilly. The grown up boy in the middle is our oldest brother - he is about 10 years older than I am. No idea why the other brother isn't there.

No I didn't deliberately cut off feet or any clues as to the dresses under the coats. I have my suspicions, but I would really like Sis to confirm - the rest of you can just have fun making guesses.

I am too lazy to make this a contest and moderate, so just comment and we'll see what we come up with.

Good Morning All.

Oh Soooo Close!

I am looking at cars, cheap cars, under $1200.00 cheap cars. As I was perusing the for sale ads on-line the other night I came across an ad too good to be true. I read the ad, my he sounds serious! Here is the gist of the ad:

2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse - FREE - Yes, you read that right FREE. I bought this car for that cheating B---h that I married. It was her dream car and now the S--T can't have it! Call between 7.00 AM & 7.00 PM First call takes it.

What I wonder is, WHERE THE HELL WAS I at 5.00 when he first put the ad up? I didn't see it until well after 7.00 PM, but that is a $26.000.00 car! Base price! Even if it were a standard, I could drive it, I would hate it, but I could drive it.

Of course you would be stupid to believe that he wouldn't change his mind, or sober up or the wife would shake her thang and they would want it back. I mean yes, you would get a proper bill of sale and in order to register or insure, you have to buy it for at least a dollar. But oh, to dream for just a few minutes! Needless to say the ad was gone in the morning, like it had been a figment of my imagination.

So, I am back to tying to find the cheapest, newest, best overall condition car I can. This could take awhile.

Good afternoon all.

Thumbs up!

The Doctor walked in with thumbs up! He knew why I was there and wanted to end the suspense fast! This is why, in spite of how much he ticks me off, I keep going back to him.

So, it is the beginnings of another fibrous lump and who knows how long it will take to appear. When it is big enough to be of concern, I will deal with it then. I just have to remember that it will eventually form and not panic the first time I feel it. The very first lump I had removed three years ago was of this sort, nothing to worry about and it is fairly minor surgery. It in fact is at about the same location, just the other breast.

In the mean time, I just have to put up with my kater-whompas tits. You all remember the song Madelina Catelina, with one tooth points North and the other points South? Well, in my case it is nipples! One is almost 50, the other is oh, about 30ish.

Thank you all for your concern and kind encouraging words. I am going to go and feed myself now.

Good Evening!

Well, it's Friday

The test results are back at the Dr.'s office! Unfortunately the Dr. is not :(

The nurse/receptionist (I am not sure it was the nurse) would not tell me anything, which could mean bad news. She had to put me on hold and when she came back was more "prepared" in telling me that the Dr. would look at them Monday and he had several open appointments through the day and well, I could just come in and see him on a walk in basis. It really makes me think it is not good news. I hope I am wrong though and I won't know for sure until Monday so there is no point worrying about it.


On the other hand, it snowed here yesterday and this is the view from my patio doors.
All those of you that ski, that is powder! Makes it easy to sweep, but enough already! I still have to figure out the settings on the camera, but those are not bad pictures. The wood that you see in the second shot, is the A frame for my swing and the rockers for the matching chair - in other words, just crap on the patio.

I will post on Monday, hopefully with good results!

Good Afternoon All!

Odds & Ends

On Monday, I described the test that was done on my left breast, if you are interested in more information, I found this link on my local health region's website. There is from that page a link to what calcifications in the breast can be. No, I have not got the results yet, probably by Friday - hopefully.

I do have the results of the bone density test. I have lost some density since the last exam (which was about 2002) but I am not osteoporotic yet. That is the word the Dr used, I am taking a guess at the spelling. He told me this when I went in to see him on Tuesday because I had not yet stopped bleeding from Monday's test.

Yes, you read that correctly. On Monday afternoon, I noticed that the little waterproof bandage they had put on at the clinic was saturated, so, as I happened to have some of the same type of bandage, I changed it. The first was dripping wet, by 20.00 (8.00 p.m.) the second bandage was half soaked, but when I went to change it, it didn't seem to be bleeding anymore, so I put a fresh one on and didn't worry about it. When I got up in the morning, you could tell that I had been bleeding still through the night, so I sauntered off to the Dr. I figured by this time a Steri-Stitch would not be a bad idea. The incision was only about a quarter inch long, but with all the digging they had had to do, it had been stretched a bit.

My Dr. kindly put three Steri-Stitches on and sent me on my way. I had to pick up a few things on the way home and ride the bus, so as I was walking up to my apartment, I thought, gee, I wondered if I started it bleeding again! I had, so I stuck another bandage over the stitches. This morning after my shower I changed that bandage and so far, it appears to still be clean. Lets hope it stays that way!

*****

Boy-Toy Needed

While I was at the Dr, I forgot to ask him about something else, so I looked it up on the web and I think I have found out why I think I keep getting yeast infections. They are not yeast infections, but I have something called "Use it or lose it" or Medically known as Atrophic Vaginitis. This occurs when you have your estrogen killed off, either through natural or forced menopause and the cure is sex. Well, that and lubrication. What I don't understand is why no-one told me to get a boy toy or at the very least a vibrator! After all, the Dr's prescribed the Tamoxifen to kill the estrogen, the least they could have done is suggested daily lubrication.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "dry spell".

*****

How stupid is she?

My boss is not computer literate at all! Well, she is just not very literate anyway, but that is not what I am here to bitch about today. Neither is her husband and he supposedly works with computers and is all technical and stuff. Yeah right! They brought his old computer to the office and I think I posted previously about refreshing my memory and setting up a data base? Well, the desk they found to house the computer is not a good desk and the bottom of the monitor, when it is on the shelf for the monitor, is about two inches lower than where the top of the monitor should be. Clear as mud right? My solution, in order to not break my neck, is to put the monitor on the flat of the desk and ignore the shelf, it has a cordless keyboard and mouse, so you can put them anywhere, it doesn't interfere. Well, hubby insists that the monitor must be on the shelf! So, I printed off a sheet that shows how to set up a computer station ergonomically. Now this computer when they brought it over still had family pictures and hubby's crap on it. Eventually he came and removed it, but added a bunch of other software that didn't need to be there, because he knows best.

So, finally the boss decides to get (and talks the owner into paying for) internet service. Well, this shows how slow the computer is running. By the way, it is 1.7 GHz, not really slow, it needs to be re-formatted to get the crap off and it will be fine. I offered to do this, if hubby would bring me the O/S disks. Hubby goes out and buys himself a new laptop and gives the office his newer computer, which he has loaded Vista onto. I haven't checked but aside from having more RAM and hard drive space, I think it is only 1.8 GHz, but, he hasn't had it long enough to fuck it up, so it works just fine for now.

He loaded Limewire onto it, now granted my only experience with limewire was a couple of years ago and it has probably changed, but, I got nothing but spam and it made my computer vulnerable to hackers, so I don't think it is a good idea to have this on something that is supposed to be a business computer. And no, I am not going to put a link to it from here, I had to re-format my computer from the last time I had it on. If it has changed and improved, feel free to let me know. He put it on, because he purchased an i-pod for his 36 year old daughter for her birthday - the 80 Gig one. She is also computer illiterate. She didn't want the first computer that was in the office because it was too slow. Well it is faster than what you have now, which is nothing honey! Anyway, she has access to the office and can use that computer whenever she wants to.

Oh, I digress. The boss told me to "download the work stuff" and her hubby would clean up the computer and bring over the next one and set it up. To me "Clean up the old one" (oh, they sold it to someone in the complex) especially as you have sold it, means re-formatting it to get rid of all traces of anything you had put on there. Any idiot with the right software can pull up anything you have deleted. All deleting does is scramble the data and cut off the links to it, it is still there until it is written over. (In case you didn't know that goes for your cell phones & blackberry's too.)

Well, I get a phone call from the boss on Monday after my procedure while I am trying to nap and she asks me why I didn't delete the stuff from the office! Well, honey because no-one in their right mind gives away or sells a computer without re-formatting the drives! I didn't say that, but I did ask her why hubby hadn't cleaned it like she said he was going to.

So, I went in today and explained in words of two syllables or less what needs to be done to a computer before it leaves your possession. I don't know if she will pass it on to hubby, or if she does, what it will come out sounding like. Yes, the woman they sold it to is only learning computers now, but what about the next person to own the computer? I am glad that it is not my data floating around. It is an IBM, which means it didn't come with O/S disks (never buy IBM - for just that reason) which means at the very least he has to buy a program like Clean Sweep to scrub the data off.

As for the database I was working on? I have it on my computer here at home and will work on it to refresh my memory. If they want to buy it from me when I am done, I will sell it to them at a good price, otherwise they can purchase one that is commercially available.

The new monitor is up on the shelf and although it is a widescreen and not as tall as the old one, I still cannot work on it there with out having to tip my head back and getting a crick in my neck. Until I know that Limewire is safe, I am not putting any data on that computer that could be hacked. We do have laws that require us to protect the data of our tenants and I for one do not want to have it come back and bite me in the ass.

*****

Bag Lady's Blather

As some of you know the Bag Lady is my sister. The Cowboy's uncle is visiting indefinitely and he is a pain in the ass. He will curtail the Bag Lady's ability to respond in her usual witty fashion by reading over her shoulder as she types and reads. He will do this while talking a mile a minute and smoking non-stop. So, if her responses are not what you have come to expect, please do not be offended. She will try to get her blogging done while the old fart is sleeping.


And that is all I have to impart tonight - Good night all.