And your point is?

Very few of my blog post have a point. Don't get excited, this one doesn't either. A few observations I had this week.

First, I've mentioned in the past and even just a few posts ago, about the "Next Blog" button at the top of my bolg that I like to hit. Something else I noticed other than the numerous knitting blogs, is that the format of my blog is a bit dated. I'm amazed at some of the backgrounds, apps, video's and other things that people have figured out how to get on their blog. I've been doing this blog since July 21st, 2007, and I just figured out how to put music on my blog. Perhaps I need to look into the other stuff available, but then again, I'm not trying to impress anyone.

Along that music line, I noticed something on my own blog. One of the songs I added to my playlist, is "I'll Fly Away," which I talked about on an earlier post. The version that you may be hearing now is by Jars of Clay, I don't think they have the old school groups on the site I pull my music from. I love the song and Jars does a good job with it, but there is an issue with putting that kind of music on MY blog. As I'm re-reading what I wrote, I realize that my post talks about crapping my pants, as I'll Fly Away plays in the background. I guess it isn't a big deal, but my words take away from the song and I felt a little uncomfortable reading the words I wrote, while "To a home on God's celestial shore" is sung in the background. Maybe I need to switch over to some Red Hot Chili Peppers when I write stuff like that.

I learned a new lesson this morning, that you may or may not have ever experienced, depending on where you live. We had a little snow last night. Enough that I wanted it off my driveway, but not enough that I need to use the snow blower. I headed out with my new shovel, since my last shovel was ground down to the handle. My new shovel was made here in Iowa and I was told by the hardware store guy, that it was indestructible. I won't doubt him, since he knocked the crap out of one of the shovels at the store to show me. I told him I was sold, but would buy the next shovel on the rack and not the one he just beat into the floor for five minutes, just in case. The boys "helped" and we got our driveway cleared. Our neighbors a few doors down are out of town, so I told the boys we needed to clear their driveway as well. Here is the part I learned. When you clear someone else's driveway, you have no idea where the rises in the cracks of the concrete are and are in imminent danger of causing bodily injury to yourself as you push your shovel through the snow. One raised piece of cement and you drive your shovel into it, which causes the handle to hit you in the pinatas. Luckily, their driveway was in much better shape than mine, so I didn't have that many rises, but one is all you need.

Another example of how I'm a bad influence on Marcy. We took the boys out to lunch at a place that kids eat free on Saturdays and met some friends. That was great. These were kids that Marcy watched when she did in-home daycare and of course, they are all grown up. On our way home, we were sitting at a red light when I looked over and saw a lady in the passenger seat with their Schnauzer dog sitting in between her and the driver. I told Marcy to try and get the dog to bark. I know, childish, but in my head, I hear that dog bark and watch the lady shit herself and probably beat the dog. OK, now that I think about it, could have been mean to the dog, but at the time, I thought Marcy would laugh and give me the "That's mean," speech that I've heard 1,000 times. To my surprise, she started making faces and barking at the dog. The lady didn't see us, but the stubborn dog wouldn't bark. He made a move that made me think he was going to, but alas, we left the light disappointed. Marcy and I had a good laugh. I asked her, of all of the things I've asked her to do, what made her pick that one to try. Maybe she is loosing her ability to deny me my laughter. This could be good, I've got all kinds of ideas. My little brother and I, when we were kids, used to take the little packets of Koolaid and slip them in grocery carts when the carts owners weren't looking. In those days, the customer didn't empty their cart, the checkout person did. We thought it would be funny for people to either notice at checkout, or even better, when they got home, that they had these little packets. We never got to see the end result, but it was a challenge to get them in the carts un-noticed. Plus, we were laughing so hard, people probably figured it out later, but it was harmless and amusing, to us. I know my sisters are going to want to tell the story of this same brother and I knocking over an entire rack of socks at a store, but that has nothing to do with anything. That was an isolated incident of extreme embarrassment, for all of us. The socks were on those funny little hangers they use to come on and I think they might actually be on dress socks. That rack fell like a tree and the socks, surprisingly, scattered like marbles on a tile floor. There were fricking socks everywhere. For some reason, our decision to run and pretend we knew nothing of it, did not sit well with our sisters, so we had to "hang" them back on the rack. And by "hang" I mean we set up the rack and tossed the socks on it like were decorating a Christmas tree with wet towels, then we ran. I felt sorry for the poor low person on the roster who had to re-hang all of those socks. This happened 30 years ago, and I'm guessing they almost have them all hung back up. I'm amazed at how many socks fit onto one of those racks, who knew?

I'm going to toss a mini rant here at the end. On this same drive home from lunch, we came upon a long line of cars and wondered why the traffic was so backed up. I watched as the stop light that everyone was waiting at, changed from red to green, to yellow and back to red in the same amount of time that it took you to read that. I'm not exaggerating. You had about two seconds to stomp the gas and try to get through the light before it was red again, and I'm guessing the guy behind you was right on your ass trying to squeeze a second car through a light that one car couldn't get through legally. I was surprised to see there wasn't a cop sitting there issuing tickets to everyone who went through the red. One town over and the lights have cameras that catch red light runners, so my guess is, when they get this idea to head quarters, those lights will be switching just as fast, and that city will have 5 brand new schools, 2 new libraries and the fanciest police station you ever did see. Why can't we get, with all of the technology we have, lights that don't make you wait 1/2 hour when there is no one else around and .34 seconds when you have a mile long line trying to get home. Is that too much to ask?