Beneath the Wraps

I’m not one to advocate or endorse products.   I know I need to lose weight.   I get soooooo tired of all the weight loss commercials featuring Marie Osmond or Jessica Simpson . I have tasted one of the two products advertized and was not impressed.   But then there was another celebrity diet with food I have tried and liked and best of all:   we could also purchase the products at a regular grocery store.   We wouldn’t have to rely on the mail or join a weight loss club and be on the mailing list for eternity.   Once at the store, we learned that said product was twice as much as any other frozen dinner – as well it should be.   The products offered just taste a whole lot better.   But still any of the brands added up to costly.   We decided that we would skip the frozen breakfast and just eat smaller portions of whatever we prepared for Jenna's morning meal.   And then we began our first week of frozen dinners (which i...

If I had to gander a guess, I would say there are more forms of transportation in the water than on the land.   But I’m just guessing. There are tugboats, canoes, kayaks, yachts, ships, motorboats, sail boats, house boats, ferry boats, water taxies, steam boats, rafts, jet skis, paddle boats, surf boards and submarines to name a few.   Most of the water transportation that I’ve been on have been rides at amusement parks – rides that may very well work without the water, so I don’t guess they count – though the Water Skeeters at Lagoon and the Canoe Ride at Disneyland did require physical work unlike the tugboat kiddie ride or Tom Sawyers raft. So, outside of the amusement park I have ridden a ferry – well a few of them rather.   But the ferry in British Columbia was quite different from the said ferry that takes passengers on a guided tour.   We (or dad, rather) actually drove our car onto the ferry in British Columbia and dise...

We have only two months left of the mother-daughter book group.  After our last meeting the librarian had placed the next book near the back of the room. I don’t know how many copies were there. Jenna and I were the last ones to retrieve. The book for this month is Flint Heart by Katherine and John Paterson.  It appeared to be easy reading, but I also saw the words “pixies”, “fairies”, and “trolls” perhaps.  No, no, no, no.  Had it been written in first person, maybe.  But overall it is NOT something that appeals to me.  I loathe fantasies and all of those fantasy creatures and all the bizarre names of characters and places.  I checked out a book and a CD figuring Jenna could read along at her own pace as she has always seemed to enjoy that make-believe aspect.  But her comments thus far have been, “It’s weird.” Though I guess it’s been weird in a good way, she hasn’t gone into detail about why . Meanwhile I de...

Notice the date!   April First is April Fools' Day – Hence the title.      I think customers are lacking in intelligence for going to Wal-Mart (or just admitting it) and waiting in endless lines to be waited on by clueless employees who appear even less intelligent than the customer (who, by the way, is still waiting in line) I realize it’s wrong to stereotype, and I’m sure that somewhere in this Universe there really are happy Wal-Mart employees who seriously do understand their positions and really do enjoy being there as the Wal-Mart commercials would like us to believe.  I have personally just never met any of them. Embarrassing as it is to admit this: yes, once again we ended up at Wal-Mart.  Roland wanted to get some head-phones to give to Jenna on her birthday.  I thought it was a great idea!  He chose Wal-Mart so that he could charge it.  NOT a great idea.  Especially since we didn’t actually ha...

Jenna’s off for ten days for Spring Break.   It appears that spring is also on a break. It did make a brief appearance.   But mostly it’s been winter and fall.   We have seen a few trees in bloom. We have also seen autumn leaves on the ground.   I don’t recall ever seeing autumn leaves in January, let alone  March. On Monday I saw autumn leaves still clung to the neighbors tree.   They are gone now. Winds have been howling. It has been spring, winter and fall all in one day.   Not much summer, though there have been some who’ve jumped the gun and were wearing shorts and flip flops in February.   I didn’t think it was that warm.   I’ve taken poor Highness for a walk only   one day.   It was warm.   There may have been a breeze.   But not the heavy wind that usually knocks me in a coma. Yesterday we could hear the rain   ...

          I remember seeing mailboxes in my neighborhood and at different corners when I was growing up.  I remember getting two Dr. Seuss books to give to my siblings.  I remember walking from our house to the nearest mailbox and counting the steps that I took and recording the number in the book. I don’t actually remember the number, but I know it was less than 100. Well, in one of them it was.  I don’t think I did them at the same time and so they may have had two different numbers.           I have considered the mailbox an endangered species for some time.  Mailboxes started vanishing to very far and few between.  I used a mailbox I passed between transfers when I rode the bus to one of my places of employment.  The last time I walked passed said location – the mailbox wasn’t there.  It was gone!  I didn’t know where the next near...