One of my absolute favorite movies is a movie from the 60s called Support Your Local Sheriff. This movie is chock full of classic one-liners. If I could have been a writer on any movie, this one would have been it. One of my favorite lines is delivered by the female lead and it pretty much sums up my life theme. After something else disastrous and off-the-wall happens to her, she yells, "Why do all these stupid things keep happening to me? I don't know but somebody'd better do something about it real soon!" Yup. Sums it up. I've also had this horrible thought that anyone that comes in contact with me unfortunately gets a little bit of that luck rubbed off on them. Completely unintended, I assure you. In some ways I feel like a pariah. Sometimes funny, which is when I choose to laugh about it, and sometimes sad.
Which brings me to tonight's story. A little back story first. Anyone familiar with my hubby knows that he drives a big blue truck. One day not too long ago he comes home from work with his face shining like one who has just had a true epiphany. He's going to name his truck Babe, because it's big and blue. For those of you unfamiliar with this reference, Paul Bunyan's big blue ox is named...you guessed it...Babe. I thought this was pretty clever.
Tonight we decided to make a Lowe's run because we are working on some home improvement projects (stay tuned, once this starts I'm sure they'll be something that will end up on here). As most of you that live around here know, we haven't had rain in quite some time and it finally decided to rain yesterday and today. So, on our way home we're just down from our house when we hear a huge THUD on poor Babe's roof. I wish we could have had a camera mounted on the dash for this one. We both ducked like fools like whatever it was was going to come through the roof. Mentally, that part is still pretty amusing. The rest is not. Who knows what this was-my only guess is that it was a piece of a limb that picked that exact moment to fall on our heads. What are the odds, really? He was pretty quiet all the way home from that point. If a grown man could cry, I think this would have been the moment. Poor guy.
PS-I think Babe will be okay. A little buffing and a little love, and it'll be good as new. I'm also glad we weren't in my car, because at this point I wouldn't be sitting here writing, I'd be writhing in a corner in a fetal position because I would have had to replace a ton of glass. See what I mean though? If he'd been alone that limb would NOT had hit the truck. Sigh.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
An Addendum. Already.
Already I am providing helpful lessons from learning them the hard way. That last post was almost cyber trash as I did not save before I hit submit and it disappeared. I did some internet finagling and it somehow found it. So there ya go. Always save. And I'd also like to point out the use of alliteration in the title of this post. Okay. I'm done. Always save.
More background
I was thinking perhaps I should provide a little more background. Not so it'll make more sense, but just so you'll know. You know, where things sometimes just make sense in your head but then you try to explain to someone else and you get that blank stare? This may be like that. Just warning you.
That being said, I was going to explain why the email was called "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I sent myself two links in this email-one on how to make plaster letters you could (ideally) put on the wall, and one on landscaping with pea gravel. The link on pea gravel is self-explanatory and not nearly as interesting as the link on plaster letters. I probably shouldn't consider anything that has an exacto knife and plaster of paris in the tools list. But hey, even after all this time apparently I've still got some optimistic tendencies. To sum it up, you apparently cut out cardboard, shape it in the letter you want, and pour in the plaster. Easy, right? Well, I've had my reservations about making this particular craft, but apparently other people have had more trouble since they felt the need to include this warning in all caps:
PLEASE DON'T POUR PLASTER DOWN THE DRAIN - IT WILL HARDEN AND CLOG IT UP
Seriously. This was definitely on there. Has this occurred to some people as a good idea to get rid of plaster of paris? To be honest, I should probably keep my mouth shut since this blog is about life lessons learned the hard way. But I have to get my kicks somewhere, and at least I didn't do this one.
That being said, I was going to explain why the email was called "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I sent myself two links in this email-one on how to make plaster letters you could (ideally) put on the wall, and one on landscaping with pea gravel. The link on pea gravel is self-explanatory and not nearly as interesting as the link on plaster letters. I probably shouldn't consider anything that has an exacto knife and plaster of paris in the tools list. But hey, even after all this time apparently I've still got some optimistic tendencies. To sum it up, you apparently cut out cardboard, shape it in the letter you want, and pour in the plaster. Easy, right? Well, I've had my reservations about making this particular craft, but apparently other people have had more trouble since they felt the need to include this warning in all caps:
PLEASE DON'T POUR PLASTER DOWN THE DRAIN - IT WILL HARDEN AND CLOG IT UP
Seriously. This was definitely on there. Has this occurred to some people as a good idea to get rid of plaster of paris? To be honest, I should probably keep my mouth shut since this blog is about life lessons learned the hard way. But I have to get my kicks somewhere, and at least I didn't do this one.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
What am I getting into?
It has been suggested on more than one occasion that I should write a book. I'm not quite sure what I would write said book on, but it has crossed my mind. I should have honestly stayed an English major in college, but as they say hindsight is 20/20. The only problem with this book would probably be an extreme case of ADD. Self-diagnosed, of course. I'll have an idea and won't get more than a snarky paragraph in before I can't go any farther. So, in the spirit of starting off with baby steps, I'm selling out to blogger nation. In other comparisons, this will be along the lines of a 30 minute sitcom instead of a two hour full feature. I think I can handle this.
I'm sure you've at least read the title, or been forced to since the page isn't long enough to have scrolled down enough for you to look away from it. I'll go ahead and supply the answer because I'm sure your life won't be complete and sleep will elude you until you know. Often at work, if I'm bored or on hold with someone who thinks their time is more important than mine, I'll surf around my favorite site for ideas I'd like to do someday. In order to find such idea in my overflowing personal mailbox at a future date (considering I even remember I sent it to myself) I'll put in the title helpful keywords so I can search for it later. One of these such titles was "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I thought to myself at the time this would be an awesome name for a band, but as it ended up it became the groupie instead of the lead singer. So there you are.
I'll just let this take its own course and see where it goes. Please feel free to comment or email anything you'd like. Well, within reason of course.
I'm sure you've at least read the title, or been forced to since the page isn't long enough to have scrolled down enough for you to look away from it. I'll go ahead and supply the answer because I'm sure your life won't be complete and sleep will elude you until you know. Often at work, if I'm bored or on hold with someone who thinks their time is more important than mine, I'll surf around my favorite site for ideas I'd like to do someday. In order to find such idea in my overflowing personal mailbox at a future date (considering I even remember I sent it to myself) I'll put in the title helpful keywords so I can search for it later. One of these such titles was "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I thought to myself at the time this would be an awesome name for a band, but as it ended up it became the groupie instead of the lead singer. So there you are.
I'll just let this take its own course and see where it goes. Please feel free to comment or email anything you'd like. Well, within reason of course.
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