There comes a moment in time when your beloved dog smells like a pile of indescribable offal. Bonnie had reached an intolerable stage and finally, all the stuff I ordered — shampoo, detangler, steel combs, brushes arrived. I told Garry last night we were going to bathe her today. He agreed, but I don’t think he was actually listening.
Clean!
So when I paused the morning coffee and said “We are going to bathe Bonnie,” he looked like I’d struck him with lightning. You can’t pause the coffee. It’s just not done. But it was today. It was already two in the afternoon. We’d slept through most of the rainy day. It was cold and wet and miserable. I didn’t see any point in getting up anyway. Yesterday, Garry got his first best home haircut.
Today, Bonnie got her very unprofessional kitchen grooming. She doesn’t look groomed. Mostly, she looks cleaner and smells better. I know she smells better because Duke gets very excited by floral scents and the moment we had her out of the bath, he was hot and horny.
At 13, nothing makes Bonnie hot and horny except food.
That was our day, more or less. Our money finally showed up, so I spent a lot of it paying down credit cards, buying grow lights for the plants, and calling doctors for prescription refills. I ordered masks because you can’t go into town without them, though who knows when they will get here.
By the time I was done, there was surprisingly little money remaining.
On another topic, four figures in the Book of Revelation symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world. The figure representing conquest rides a white horse. War sits on a red mount. Famine rides a black horse. Plague sits on a pale horse. They are often called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
We are always at war and conquest never seems to come out of it. We are living through Plague and it seems that Famine is just around the bend. Death has been having a high old time for the past three months.
Also, I think our really bad government deserves a place on the team. Total incompetence should ride in a big black Humvee, don’t you think?
There is a rumor, perpetuated by television shows, that bloggers earn a living. By blogging. Someone in Hollywood seriously thinks people like me make money doing this. I am depressed to admit it, but not one cent have I ever made from this site — not counting the occasional free book for review.
I don’t advertise on this site. In fact, I pay WordPress to not put their advertisements here. My dream is not to monetize my site, but be such an incredible writer that the world will shower me with money — just because I’m me. I won’t have to ask, and I will owe nothing to anybody. And I could pay the bills!Yes!
Money for nothing. It brings tears to my eyes.
Somewhere, a blogger must be making money on his or her site, but I don’t know them. I’ve been around the world, blog-wise. I have yet to see a single blogger bringing in the big bucks. A few people have tried to at least keep even by putting advertisements on their sites, but the amount of money this earns them wouldn’t add up to a good meal in a fast-food joint.
Anyway, advertising annoys readers. Sites with spammy ads and weird pop-ups make me want to go somewhere else. Since the Internet remains one of the last, free places on earth, that’s what I do. I go elsewhere. I don’t do this for money. I don’t even do it in the hopes that someday it might make money.
I don’t run advertisements, have no connections to any organizations with money. I get offers for free applications for an “honest review,” but between the lines, I read “positive, glowing review.” I turn them down. But no one has offered me a Mercedes yet.
I turn them down. “Money for nothing” is a delightful dream and that is all it is.
If for some obscure reason, you want to buy me off although to be fair, I can’t for the life of me imagine what anyone would get by buying me off — unless you want my bills. I’ve got a lot of them. Regardless, you’ll have to do a lot better than any offer I’ve gotten to date. I’m sure everyone has a price, so I probably have one too, but no one has come close to meeting it. And on top of that, I’m not sure what I have to offer that anyone would pay for.
Meanwhile, if all else fails, I will work for a really good New York (preferably Brooklyn) style pizza. With extra cheese, extra sauce, onions, peppers, and maybe meatballs. Or high-quality pepperoni.
We all have regrets, that’s for sure. You can not lead a life without them. You may regret your first stumble and fall — if you remember it. You may regret dropping that toy or that cell phone. You may regret letting go of the balloon or a house that rose dramatically in value right after you sold it. You may regret throwing away food, furniture, or clothing. But why cry over that?
As you grow, I guess there are plenty of things to regret. How about the day you did not do your homework? How about the time you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar, literally or figuratively? How about the time you were grounded for not doing _________ (fill in the blank).
School years can be filled with regrets. Many of them will actually have to do with getting caught, rather than what you did. Of course, if you fell off old man Jones’ garage and broke your arm, you will probably regret that. If you picked on someone smaller and got your butt kicked, you probably regret that too.
When you could not work up the nerve to ask Sally or Janie or Billy to the prom, you may regret it years later. This especially stings if you find out the person you wished to ask, liked you too and was hoping you would ask him or her out. There are a lot of friendships, especially at the high school level, they may have developed into something, if only you had the courage to move forward.
This is especially tough for gay boys and girls who feel they may be the only gay ones in their class and are afraid to approach anyone on this topic. Recently, I learned a high school classmate was gay so I went back to look at his yearbook picture. I wanted to see if he was the person I remembered. He was smart, handsome — someone I would not have thought I could approach.
Adult life may be filled with a series of sorrows over decisions made. Should you have gone to college? If you went, did you pick the right school? The right major? It is easy to spend time at the fraternity parties and local bars. Will you later wonder if studying harder would have made a difference in later life?
There was a good friend of mine through elementary and high school who also went on to the same University as me. We took many of the same classes. We frequently studied together. Many times, our studies started with a trip to a deep-dish pizza place where we would order pizza and pitchers of beer. Since deep dish pizza took a long time to make, we might get 30 to 40 minutes of studying done before the pizza was delivered. After that, it was just pizza and beer. I guess I don’t regret this one too much.
After college, I cultivated many groups of friends. A lot of these friendships revolved around hanging out local bars watching sports and drinking beer. In later years, it might involve karaoke. We enjoyed our nights. As I look back on those years, I am not sure I remember who came along or what occasions were special. They were just nights out. It was more about killing time than fulfillment.
Then, of course, it would be easy to regret all the money we spent in these various places. Some nights, we poured money over the bar just as fast as they poured drinks into our glasses. Buying drinks for others, especially if they did not have a lot of cash, seemed like a great idea. They probably do not remember me, just as much as I do not remember them.
My mother spent a lot of time in the local lounges, one in particular in my lifetime. The time spent took up more than 50-years of her life and all of her spare money. At these places, I am convinced she felt she made a number of deep friendships. It was important to get to these places on Friday or Saturday night to see her “friends.”
When she had a stroke at 73, a couple came to see her once or sent a card. After the first few weeks, over the next 16 years, we never saw any of these people. I wonder if she regretted the time spent at the lounge. I will never know.
If you married the wrong person, you may have deep regrets. If you joined with several incompatible partners, you could pile up many regrets. Falling out with family members always leaves plenty of regrets, even when there’s nothing to be done about it. Friendships and marriages are often chosen in haste. They need to be corrected and forgiven (at least forgiving yourself) rather than regretted.
Then, there’s Edith Piaf:
The thing about regrets? There’s nothing to be gained from them. You should learn from mistakes, but regrets aren’t worth anything. You can’t get back time lost. You can’t get back money spent. You can’t undo a painful history. There’s nothing to be gained from dwelling on mistakes.
Take the lesson. Move forward. Dump the regrets and find a more positive approach to life.
Regrets, I’ve had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course Each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this I did it my way.
Don’t look at yesterday when today encourages you to look ahead. You can never change what already happened. Maybe you don’t really want to. Everything you’ve done — good and bad — is part of you.
That’s true too, but not necessarily the healthiest way to go.
We all have regrets, that’s for sure. You can not lead a life without them. You may regret that first stumble and fall, if you remember it at all. You may regret dropping that toy. You may regret letting go of that balloon. You may regret throwing food on the floor. You may also regret spilling the milk, but why cry over that?
As you grow, I guess there are plenty of things to regret. How about the day you did not do your homework? How about the time you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar, literally or figuratively? How about the time you were grounded for not doing _________ (fill in the blank).
School years can be filled with regrets. Many of them will actually have to do with getting caught, rather than what you did. Of course, if you fell off old man Jones’ garage and broke your arm, you will probably regret that. If you picked on someone smaller and got your butt kicked, you probably regret that too.
When you could not work up the nerve to ask Sally or Janie or Billy to the prom, you may regret it years later. This especially stings if you find out the person you wished to ask, liked you too and was hoping you would ask him or her out. There are a lot of friendships, especially at the high school level, that may have developed into something, if only you had the courage to move forward.
This is especially tough for gay boys and girls who feel they may be the only gay ones in their class and are afraid to approach anyone on this topic. Recently, I learned a high school classmate was gay so I went back to look at his yearbook picture. I wanted to see if he was the person I remembered. He was smart and handsome and someone I would not have thought I could approach.
Adult life may be filled with a series of sorrows over decisions made. Should you have gone to college? If you went, did you pick the right school? The right major? It is easy to spend time at the fraternity parties and local bars. Will you later wonder if studying harder would have made a difference in later life?
There was a good friend of mine through elementary and high school who also went on to the same University with me. We took many of the same classes, not all. We frequently studied together. Sometimes, OK many times, our studies started with a trip to a deep dish pizza place where we would order pizza and pitchers of beer. Since deep dish pizza took a long time to make, we might get 30 to 40 minutes of studying in before the pizza arrived. After that, it was just pizza and beer. I guess I do not regret this one too much.
After college I cultivated many groups of friends. A lot of these friendships revolved around local bars to watch sports and drink beer. In later years it might involve karaoke too. We loved our nights out, at least we thought we did. As I look back on those years, I am not sure I remember who came along or what occasions we enjoyed most. They were just nights out, killing time.
Then, of course, it would be easy to regret all the money we spent at these various places. Some nights, we poured money over the bar just as fast as they poured drinks into our glasses. Buying drinks for others, especially if they did not have a lot of cash, seemed like a great idea. They probably do not remember me, just as much as I do not remember them.
My mother spent a lot of time in the local lounges, one in particular in my lifetime. The time spent took up more than 50 years of her life and all of her spare money. At these places, I am convinced she felt she made a number of deep friendships. It was important to get to these places on Friday or Saturday night to see her “friends.” When she had a stroke at 73, a couple came to see her once or sent a card. After the first few weeks, we never saw any of these people again over the next 16 years. I did wonder if she regretted any of the time spent at the Lounge. In her case, I just don’t know.
If you married the wrong person, you may have deep regrets. If you married several wrong people, I guess it could be a lot of regrets. Friendships and marriages are sometimes chosen in haste. They need to be corrected rather than regretted.
The thing about regrets? There’s nothing to be gained from them. You should learn from mistakes, but regrets aren’t worth anything. You can’t get back time lost. You can’t get back money spent. You can’t undo painful history. There’s nothing to be gained from dwelling on mistakes. Take the lesson. Move forward. Skip the regrets.
Don’t look at yesterday when today offers you the opportunity to look forward. You can’t change what happened. Maybe you don’t really want to. Everything you’ve done — good and bad — is part of you.
Regrets, I’ve had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course Each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this I did it my way.
They are paid healthy salaries, enjoy the best health care in the country and draw a salary after retirement, even when voted out of office. What a great job to have. I’ll take it!
Then, you ask for more money from us who have little more than an opinion to give.
So, here’s an idea: How about doing the job you were elected to do, without requiring us having to cough up contributions, for which there seems to be an endless number?
And what gives corporations the right to make huge donations and project opinions that are as likely as not unshared by employees? Employees who, for fear of losing their jobs, are hesitant to express any political opinion which is not in line with the handful of upper management rich people who have the funds to make those big donations?
Wouldn’t that donation money be better spent by passing it on to the employee’s salaries, not to mention, sharing those the giant bonuses given to executives they don’t need it since their already huge salaries are more than sufficient to cover any living expenses they might incur?
So, why do the wealthy need tax breaks? We don’t ask you to contribute to our lives, donate to our household budgets or help us pay our mortgage or car loans. All we ask is to be allowed to take care of ourselves with dignity. That you as our representatives, prevent the rich — who can pay for anything out of pocket — from taking away what little we depend on to scrape out an existence.
Just think of what kind of country we’d have if everyone was poor. Is this what is meant by making “America Great Again?”
Impoverishing everyone? Ignoring science? Destroying the planet to the advantage of the few who might profit? Maybe even returning slavery to create a cheap workforce? Employing social media to carry on petty quibbling while allowing foreign governments to meddle in our elections. Not to mention racial, religious, ethnic and other cultural injustices while great, and potentially greater natural disasters occur all around us, all over the world?
What small people Americans have become. We were great when we fought injustice, however briefly it lasted. Whatever happened to justice? Who ARE we?
And meanwhile, you want me to give you money? Who are you? What makes you think you deserve my money? Or anybody’s money?
I’m not big on numbers, but I had to deal with them anyway. Our banks have this sneaky way of offering you “free money” that of course, isn’t free. It’s just free of interest if you pay it off within a specified amount of time. Very tempting. The secret is that no one pays them off in time or on time or within the time limits.
I thought it would be a good way to deal with some of the stuff that needed repair in the house. The hot-water heater and the broken heating unit, the sagging window, the massive infusion of mice and ants — and … well …
It all added up and suddenly it was more than I could reasonably handle. I could barely manage it, but it was hard and we’d never dig out. I couldn’t get a big enough loan to take care of the house and its needs as well as the cards, so everything else will have to wait. Hopefully, nothing will collapse or fall down while I wait for a better situation. I spent all day adding numbers and trying to figure out if this was a decent deal.
It is a decent deal. Not a great deal, but not bad, either. All of the big cards will get paid down. I’ll save a couple of hundred dollars. In six months, I can renegotiate a lower rate and a reduced payment.
Tarpit in Los Angeles
I’m not done with numbers yet. I’m still going to have to manipulate numbers to make room for this big payment that will pay for all the smaller payments. I feel like I worked for a week.
Beware anytime the banks seem to be giving you something. They are never giving away anything. They’re just luring you into a trap, sucking you down into the tar where you will die with the mammoths of old. With banks, it’s always a tarpit and you will always end up a loser.
I’ve had enough pizza. I like it, mind you, but I’ve had an awful lot of it. Especially since we discovered frozen pizza we can throw in the counter oven. DiGiorno’s sausage made with marinara sauce is my favorite. It tastes pretty good. The dogs appreciate the crusts, too.
There is a rumor, perpetuated by television shows, that bloggers earn a living. Someone in Hollywood thinks people like me make money doing this. I am depressed to admit it, but not one cent have I ever made from this site — not counting the occasional free book for review.
I don’t advertise on this site. In fact, I pay WordPress to not put their advertisements here. My dream is not to monetize my site, but be such an incredible writer that the world will shower me with money — just because I’m me. I won’t have to ask, and I will owe nothing to anybody. And I could pay the bills!Yes!
Money for nothing. It brings tears to my eyes.
Somewhere, some blogger must be making money on his or her site, but I don’t know them. I’ve been around the world, blog-wise. I have yet to see a single blogger bringing in the big bucks. A few people have tried to at least keep even by putting advertisements on their sites, but the amount of money this earns them wouldn’t add up to a good meal in a mediocre restaurant. Moreover, advertising annoys readers. Sites with spammy ads and weird pop-ups make me want to go somewhere else.
Since the Internet remains one of the last, free places on earth, that’s what I do. I go elsewhere.
I don’t do this for money. I don’t even do it in the hopes that someday it might make money.
I don’t run advertisements, have no connections to any organization who will pay me for anything. I get offers for free applications for an “honest review,” but between the lines I read “positive, glowing review.”
I turn them down. “Money for nothing” is a delightful dream and that is all it is.
If for some obscure reason, you want to buy me off? You’ll have to do a lot better than any offer I’ve yet gotten. I’m sure everyone has a price, so I probably have one too, but no one has come close to meeting it.
Please, feel free to keep trying!
Meanwhile, there will be no big money coming from this blog. Not without a humongous payoff. That life of luxury? Waiting in the wings.
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
