Stuck on Stupid

Don’t you just love my titles of my posts.  I usually  mention the words somewhere in the post.  It is not totally about being stuck on stupid.  I just liked the sound of it.  Actually I hate having to name a post.  Maybe I should just number them.  Anyway…….

We were supposed to go camping this weekend.  We made reservations months ago and paid for the fees.  It was somewhere in Kentucky.  My husband cancelled the camp site yesterday.  We only get like half the money back.  They charge cancellation fees and for the first night. 

My son has been sick for the past week.  He didn’t go to school for the past 3 days.  That is why we are not going camping, going out of town.  I don’t want my son to be sick when we go camping.  That would not be fun.  A virus is going around the school and a lot of kids are out sick, diarrhea, throwing up.  They even closed a school over in Alcoa, TN, yeah they make aluminum foil there.  They didn’t close our schools, but they sent me an e-mail saying that so many children are sick, that they will not gather the homework to send home.  I wanted to get the homework, it will be a lot to make up when my son goes back to school. 

 

Now for a Stuck on stupid photo.  I was sitting in my vehicle.  My husband went into the Goodwill donation area to donate something to the Goodwill.

It was beside the Dollar General store.  I love the Dollar General store because they sell the gum I like to chew, Clorets.  I saw this old guy with his truck parked crooked in the driveway.  That is where the cars drive.  He was just standing there and parked in front of the NO PARKING sign.  I guess he can’t read.  I took his

picture to put on my blog.

I read this digital photography blog.  They give tips on how to take better photos.    They had one post about taking pictures of strangers.  There is one club on Flickr that people have to take pictures of 100 strangers.  You go up to someone and ask them if you can take their picture, or don’t ask……I didn’t ask this guy, by the looks of him, I would not go up to him and say “Hey, mister, I noticed your are parked in front of that No Parking sign and you are sticking out in the road, the part where people drive by…..can I take a picture of you?”    Nah, I don’t think I would ask that. 

I was reading up on the laws about taking pictures and it says you can take a picture of anybody out in public.  You can even take pictures of cops too, they don’t have the right to stop you…..legally….but they might, just because they don’t want a picture taken….especially if they are beating up somebody….but you know that would be when people whip out their camera’s and take video of it and put it on Youtube.  If I do see someone interesting, I will take a picture of them, if I can do it in secret. 

A man standing in poop.

I just wanted to start this post with the worst thing I think anybody could do.  The thought just makes me sick.  Have you ever went to a park that had pit toilets.  They are usually out in the middle of no-where and there is the little wood building with a metal thing with a seat over a hole in the ground. (an outhouse).  Well this guy crawled inside of one.  This lady went in to use the potty and looked inside and there was this guy in there hiding…..in the poop….inside.  I guess he wanted to watch her go potty or poop.  I mean how gross is that.    I can’t even stand to go inside those things.  I hold my breath and run in and hurry and die if I have to take a breath.  I sit there and think  “Oh it stinks, I can’t stand it.”  If it really stinks I just don’t go in.  I would rather go find a tree and squat than to go in a outhouse.  The guy was also arrested just the other day inside the toilet hole again.  Some 11 year old boy went in and saw the guy down in the hole so he ran and told a ranger and they arrested him.  He said he dropped his shirt and crawled in to get it.  He said he took his shirt off to sit on the toilet because it was dirty.  They said if he would not sit on a dirty seat, they didn’t believe that he would then crawl into the shit to get a shirt.  Oh…..just the thought.  I feel sorry for the officer that had to cuff the guy and take him in to book him.  I think I would have brought a chain and drug him back to jail. 

Anyway…..on to my next subject.  A hummingbird.  The little hummingbirds buzz around my hummingbird feeder all day.  They zoom all around.  My husband was working in the garage and had the garage door open and the back door open too.  My husband is re-doing my kitchen and he was making a counter top for my new kitchen cabinets.  When it is all done I will take pictures.  I heard him talking out in the garage and I wondered who he was talking to.  I went out into the garage and said “Who are you talking to?”  I didn’t see anybody.  He pointed to the ceiling by the garage door opener.  “I am talking to that hummingbird.”  He said.  There was a little hummingbird, just sitting there.  Then the bird started flying and going up and hitting the ceiling, over and over and over.  He could not figure how to fly out of the garage.  He just figured if he flew up, he would get out, but bop, bop, bop, he just kept hitting the ceiling and then he would just sit on the garage door motor again.    I said to my husband “Get a net and guide it toward the door.”  He got down this big net we have.  My son wanted the net for the beach, to catch shells in the waves.   He went over by the bird, who was starting to panic, and put the net up.  The bird flew around and around in circles in the garage.  He finally flew over by the garage door between the ceiling and the open door.  My husband pushed the net up beside the bird and the bird just stepped on the rim of the net and stayed there.  Then hubby put the net outside and said “Go on, fly away.”  Then the bird flew away.  I can’t believe the bird stayed on the net while my husband was taking it outside. 

Coinstar find:    We went to Wal-Mart today.  My son was with us.  My son loves to check the Coinstar machines.  He gets down and always tries to look under them.   When he got up and came over to me some guy said “Hey, catch this.”  He thew my son a quarter.  “I wanted to give you that, I never saw anybody look under the Coinstar machine.”  He then walked off.  It was a quarter that I have been wanting for my quarter book.  I gave my son a quarter for it.  Now I only need a Utah quarter to have my quarter book complete.    I took a picture of the big find.  My son found 2 pennies and something that looked like a penny.   He then walked over to the pay phone and found two quarters, so I have that in the daily find.    The strange coin says PGA Tour, Charter Member , Partners Club.  It is the same on both sides.

This is all the coins.  I put them on my son’s Lego truck. 

And James, you can always use these pictures.

My Coinstar find

Today we went to Kroger.  They have an old looking Coinstar machine.  It has a little basket on the front, besides the coin return.  I look into it and found 3 things.  I snatched them up.  One strange item was there.  Let me show you. 

A tip for a drill or a screw driver.  A Canada  5 cent coin with a beaver dated 1963  and a beat up 1965 penny.  OK, here is the other side.

I put them on my Beta tank lid, in case you were wondering what the background is on the 2nd one.

My book came in the mail today.  I went to the bookstore the other day and they ordered me a book and said it would be 10 day.  I think that was last Friday.  It came fast.  It is a book on my Nikon D80.  Now I need to read it. 

I went out and beat around my green bean pole plant.  That thing is a giant.  There were so many beans on it and some I can’t reach because it is 8 feet tall.  There were lots of dead leaves and icky bugs that look like lady bugs but they are yellow with black spots and bigger than lady bugs.  They are on all the leaves and are eating my entire plant.  I spend a lot time picking them off, but there are so many leaves that you can’t find them all.  I must be allergic to the leaves because my face had a bad rash all over it when I came into the house and my arms were all itchy.   I went and looked in the mirror and my face was all red.  I went and took a shower and washed my skin.  It finally stopped itching.  I might just chop the whole thing down.  It is almost time for them to start dying out anyway. 

I went to the pet store and bought a new clear rock for my Hermit crab tank.  The rock cost $1.69.  I also bought 3 shells for them.  One crab really checked them out but then went back to sleep.  I put in a flower from my cantaloupe plant last night.  They ate almost all of it.  I read that they like flowers.  I think I will give them one of my squash flowers tomorrow.  I picked a red pepper.  The only one that grew on my pepper plant.

I will cook it with chicken tomorrow. I am going to cut it up and cook it with onion and then put in the chicken and make fajitas.

Tighty whities

expression “used with a disparaging connotation, as if white briefs were the most uncool underwear choice going.
I buy my son white underwear briefs to wear because, they come in big packs, they cost less than all the other underwear. I can get nice ones at Sam’s Club. I can wash them with my white clothes. My son likes them. At school though all the kids make fun of people that wear white briefs. They say “You are wearing “tighty whities”, like it is gross. Oh really, I say, hummmm what about this guy?

Now those are tighty whities……and he is cool and rich.  Ok my son’s white briefs  is not tiny like those but still, those are not boxers.  I asked my son “What do the kids wear then?”  They wear plaid boxers.  I bought my son some plaid boxers to wear today.  See he has gym class and has to change into his shorts and t-shirt for class.  He tried on the boxers.  He hates them.  They are different, kind of drafty.  I said  “Just say that Beckham wear briefs and all the sports guys wear them too.”      I think it is awful that the kids make fun of someone for wearing underwear.  Or maybe he should say “Yeah, well my grandpa wear boxers, so you are wearing grandpa boxers.”    I told him to wear his underwear under the boxers, if he likes the briefs and then after class go to the restroom and take off the boxers  and put them in his locker, then he still has the briefs on.  I don’t know if he will cave in a wear the boxers or stick with his beloved briefs.

Update:  I bought him some Fruit of the Loom boxers, the kind that feels like t-shirt material.  My son really likes them, so I guess he will wear those to school.  No more being called “Tighty whitey.”

Finding worms and fishing

It has rained a lot this year.  My tomatoes are not doing that great.  They grow huge and then rot really fast.  There are a lot of black spots all over the leaves.  Today I went out and whacked off a lot of the leaves and cut off the dead parts.  I have to pick the green beans.  They grow so fast.  They don’t taste good when they grow huge.  The plants are just loaded with leaves and beans.  I was looking over the leaves, a lot are dead from bugs.  I found a big green grass hopper on the leaves so I caught it and put it in a jar.  He thought he was hiding really good in the leaves.  He was probably just eating away and didn’t notice me, standing behind him, grabbing his long green leg.  I had on my gloves.  I would not touch a bug with my hands.  I don’t like to touch green bean leaves, they are scratchy and hairy and things stick to them.  There are bugs on them too and spiders.  I noticed a few cucumbers that need to be picked too.  Tomorrow.  You have to wear gloves and cut them with scissors.  They have little thorns all over those. They rub off easy, but it will stick into your skin if you touch them.

I was pulling a lot of weeds that grew up in great amounts in the mulch.  There was so much to pull that I got a little hand shovel and was just digging them up.  I noticed that there were a lot of worms, so I got a baggie and put the worms into the bag and a couple of white grub bugs too.  I was going to go down to our little neighborhood lake and fish with them.  

My son came home from school and I told him I was going to go fishing with him.  I fixed dinner and tried to talk hubby into going with us.  He finally caved and we put my son’s bike into the back of our car and drove down to the pond lake.  I had some latex gloves on and grabbed the grass hopper out of the jar.  I told my son to put it on his fish hook.  He first put the hook through a wing.  I said “No, that won’t do.”  He finally put the hook into the grasshopper and we stood there, watching while he cast it into the water.  It flew across the water and went into the glassy looking water.  The big yellow and red bobber floating on top, the line laying in loops all over the top of the water.  I said “Reel it in a little to take up the slack.”  He reeled it nt.  The bobber moved then went under.  He reeled in the line.  Looked at the hook….nothing, the fish ate the grasshopper in a flash and left an empty hook.  I put on a grub worm, a big fat white bug.  The fish didn’t want that.  My son gave up and got on his bike and proceeded to ride around the lake several times.  I sat there and fished.

At first they ignored the worms.  I just waited and waited. 

I ended up using a little red and white round bobber.  The fish then started eating the worms off the hook.  Every time I put on a worm and threw it in, they would yank on it and eat the worm.  They were small worms and they were hard to hold and get a hook into.  I finally had a good hit and the bobber went way under the water and I reeled in the line and there was a fish on the hook.  It was a small fish, but it was a fish. 

I took the picture and then we put it back into the water.  We went home. 

I watched that movie Duplicity.  It is hard to get interested in.  It takes a long time to figure out what is going on because they keep jumping around in the story.  They show the now part and then years ago and then the now part and then like 2 years ago and it just keeps jumping around, till you just don’t really care what is happening.  My hubby fell asleep, he said it was boring.  I watched it all, but it was not that entertaining.  It really dragged along.   When it ended, I was like “Is that it?”

Fried bologna biscuit

Today my hubby said to go online and rent a movie from Redbox.  They are these machines that you can reserve a movie, pay $1 and then go to the machine and pick it up.  I rented the new movie Duplicity.  You can read about it here.    I go and pick it up and then hubby drives over to this convience store to go in and get something.  I wait in the car.  I am just sitting there and looking around.  There is a food place right across the street called Hardees.  I notice the signs in the window.  That big hamburger, called a french dip was looking pretty good in the photo.  I then notice the Fried bologna biscuit sign.  Holy cow, I have never seen that for sale.  A fried bologna biscuit.  Is that for breakfast,  I think it is, it has egg and cheese on it.   Would you ever eat one?  I wouldn’t.   Oh and I took a photo to show you. 

And look who is in the drive thru line, probably going to get one of those fried bologna biscuits.
A cop.
It was 10 AM, still time to get breakfast and a coffee.

New Socks and cute hummingbirds

I got up this morning and told my son he had to go to school.  I said I would drive him, instead of making him ride the bus.  He said the kids on the bus call the 6th graders Twinkies.  7th graders are cupcakes and 8th graders are boys: Ding Dongs and girls are Ho-Ho’s.  That’s just great, ho-ho’s and ding dongs, sounds like whores and dicks to me. 

I turned onto the busy road and right then a car was in my lane coming fast about to hit me head on.  He was passing another car on this two lane road.  There was no where for me to go, there is no shoulder, just a steep hill.  I was getting scared of getting hit, but the car he was passing slowed down and he darted over into his lane before he hit me.  I was all nervous after that and told me son people are nuts that drive in the morning and he can ride the bus from now on.  I am not getting out in that anymore.  I look over and he did not have his seatbelt on.  I made him put it on.  He didn’t have it on because he had his huge backpack, full of books, on his back.  We probably would have been dead if that guy had hit us head on anyway. 

I got home and turned on the TV and watched Good Morning America.  The weather guy, Sam Champion, was standing in the studio in front of a crowd of people.  I hate when they have him standing in front of the crowd.  It is distracting to watch him talk because people around him are waving and looking stupid because they are on TV.  I paused it because this one woman looked scarey.  Let me show you.The woman on the right in the blue shirt, (She bought the good morning america t-shirt).  Her hair is a mess.  I would have bought a wig to wear if my hair looked like that.  But then I noticed the girl on the left, look how her face froze in the pause.  He he.  Then the two eyes over Sam’s shoulder, too funny.  If you ever watch that show, look at the people in the background. 

Anyway, my husband wanted me to go with him to the mall. He was going to take our vehicle to Sears to balance the tires.  I am feeling a little better today, so I went, only if I could go to the Borders bookstore.  They sent me a coupon for 15% off a book for my birthday.  I went into the bookstore with my coupon to get a Nikon D80 field guild book.  They didn’t have them, but they ordered it for me and gave me free shipping.  The girl waiting on me said she had a Nikon D80 camera and loves it.  She is going to college and taking photography courses.  I told her I wish I could take some classes but it costs $300 a class, so I will just have to settle with my $20 book.  She gave me some tips on how to use the camera.  She said to always set the white balance, which I didn’t know.  I will have to read the book to see what it says. 

I went to Sam’s Club and got some new socks.  I love thick soft plush socks for winter, to keep my feet warm.  I got these.

I went to the pet store and got my Hermit crabs a heater for their home.  I have been reading that they like to be warm so I got the heater.  It cost $20.  Hermit crabs are not cheap to keep.  They don’t do much right now, just dig in the sand and sleep all the time.  I am hoping that if I warm them up, they will walk around more and be happy.  I also want to order some pretty shells for them to put their bodies into. 

I also was watching the hummingbirds eat from the feeder I bought.  They buzz around that thing all the time.  When one is feeding, others dive bomb it and chase it off.  They feed from the feeder all day long.

One lady said on her blog that her feeder was covered with bee’s so she got rid of it.  The birds would not go near it.  She showed pictures of it and it was totally covered with bumble bees.  I am glad that does not happen to my feeder, that would scare me.

Alone time BS.

I got an extra copy of a magazine that was supposed to be over with last month.  One last copy to beg me to send them $20.  I don’t read the magazine that much because it has so much advertisements in it.  I was eating my breakfast this morning and just opened the book in the middle.  It was this kitchen makeover.  They kept their old stove, a 1950 white ugle stove and used it as the “centerpiece of the room.  They also bought a refridgerator that was new but also had the rounded ugly old look.  She then had tiles in 9 different colors plastered all over the walls.  She had a wall of cabinets, but wait, one of the cabinets opened up and there was a bed, she pulled down, for a guest.  “You can stay in my kitchen, but we get up all night to get drinks of water, but don’t be bothered by us…”  She bought a light weight table to push aside for the bed to be down, so if you do stay, don’t bump into the table, in case you have to get up and oh don’t let the noise from the fridge bother you too much. 

Then I read an article of this mom who lost her job.  She has a 2 year old and some older children.  Oh, gasp, she had to take the 2 year old out of daycare, because she could not justify spending the money now that she was not working.  She did find a babysitter that watches the 2 year old for 1 day a week, for the child to have away time and mom to have her alone time.  I think that is bullshit.  What did she have a baby for if she can’t stand being with it.  Oh and her kids have to just learn that they can’t get those blue jeans they want, because mom has to pay the babysitter every week.

That is why I don’t want to pay the money for a renewal on a magazine subscription.  Those people have their values all screwed up.

A wonderful find in my mail box.

I have a cold.  It hit me 2 days ago.  My son is also sick so he is home from school.  He called me Monday at noon to pick him up because he was sick.  When I called the school yesterday morning to call my son in sick, the lady said that a lot of kids are sick from that room.  She said they have Swine Flu.  My son is coughing and got hit with diarrhea this morning, so I had to call him in sick today.  I just cough really bad and have a stopped up nose.  My sinus are hurting bad.  I put on a humidifier in my room and that helped a lot last night.  I really hate colds. 

The mail came today and my son ran into my room with a package from James in the UK.  We opened it up and I got the award he sent for Coinstar finds.  James, my son also gets down on the floor and looks under the machine.  I tell him to get up and just leave the ones under the machine alone.  I found a penny the other day in the machine.  Most times there is nothing.  My son finds lots of stuff.  The other day he found a casino coin.  Here is my son with the coins you sent.  He loves them a lot. 

The bus stop

I forgot to set the alarm for school last night.  My hubby woke me up at 7:05 AM.  We leave for the bus at 7:25 AM.  That didn’t give me much time to get up, make my son’s lunch, and wake up.  The bus stop is just down the end of the street, probably 2 blocks.  I think my son is getting a cold, or has a cold.  He was coughing a lot last night.  My throat feels sore and it is hard to swallow.  I will most likey get a cold too.  He was healthy all summer.  Now that he is back to school (for one week), he is getting sick again.  I saw a dead animal on the road, driving to the bus stop.  It was a cream tan color animal. (hubby said it is a possum).  “What kind of animal is that?” I said to my son.  He looked at it.  “I don’t know, it is all squashed.” 

It wasn’t a cat, wrong kind of fur.  He told me to take a picture of it so he could see it.  I said I was not going to take a picture of a dead animal, road kill, in the road.  I didn’t really want to look at it up close.  As I was sitting there in my vehicle, waiting for the bus to come, a big concrete truck turned onto our street.  Now the street is not wide, only 2 cars wide.  I have to sit there on the road because there is no shoulder to pull over on.  The concrete truck stopped in the road beside me.  I sit back far enough so that people can go around me, to turn.  The concrete truck started backing up.  I thought “What is he doing, I can’t go anywhere.”  Then a truck turned onto our street, while the concrete truck was backing up.  I waved at the guy to back up because that concrete truck was going to back into him.  He backed up and the concrete truck back up and finally pulled onto the other road and drove off.  I guess he was lost.  I was just glad he didn’t back into the school bus that was due anytime to stop.  I drove home and didn’t stop to take a picture of the dead animal. 

I will put up a picture of a living creature though.  We went camping this weekend up in the Smokey Mountains.  It is in the Cherokee National Forest, a place called Indian Boundary.  It is in the middle of nowhere.  There was a really nice campground, next to this beautiful lake.  We went fishing. 

My son was fishing and he said a snake was in the water.  It came close to the bank and stuck it’s head out of the water and looked at him.  It flicked it’s tongue and went back into the water. 

A little while later, as I was fishing, a snake slithered over, in the water to where I was.  I took a picture of it.   It didn’t come out of the water, it just looked at me and then went away.  I was ready to run.