Blog

By Donna Hale Chandler

Each holiday season I tell myself that this year I won’t worry if I don’t get everything finished that I plan. I won’t worry if only a portion of the decorations are in place – less is more, right? I won’t worry if that last gift doesn’t get purchased – receivers should be happy with what they receive, right? I won’t worry that family and friends will enjoy themselves at our annual holiday get together – if they’re not enjoying themselves, they can leave or not even show up in the first place, right? I will not worry about having enough food. When it’s gone, guests just stop eating, right? I will not worry about picking a date that is convenient for everyone. If an invitee can’t attend, the party will go on, right?

Wrong! I WILL stress about every one of those things and probably add a few more worries to the list.

No matter how hard I try my holiday plans somehow go awry. I tell myself that no one notices other than me but each year I am disappointed with the holiday and each New Year’s Eve I make the very same New Year’s resolution that I made the year before. And I know that this year will be no different.

I WILL NOT STRESS OVER THINGS I CAN’T CONTOL. (Wish me good luck on that one.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

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Gram use’ta say

“Love is more than words.
Love is action and attitude.”

By Richard L. King

People should learn to be more considerate when driving. Especially older people, I’m 74 and I consider myself to be one of them, but so many of them drive like idiots. Oh, I know that being an idiot is not restricted to us old farts, but when you start out as an idiot, then start getting older, you double your chances.

Here’s an example…. You’re driving down the boulevard (any divided two lane street) and traffic seems to be moving exceptionally slow. You’re running late and you’re in the left lane….. (The lane normally considered as being the fast lane) and there is a line of two or three cars in front of you, but you can see that it’s clear for a long ways in front of that lead car. The thing is,,,, this fast lane seems to be moving slower than the slow lane. You put up with the poking along for a while then you decide to slip over into the other lane trying to get around the slow poke. (I’ve never seen a statistic to support it, but it’s my belief that slow-poke drivers are responsible for more traffic accidents than any other single cause and it’s because everyone else overreacts.) Invariably, when you finally get around the jam up, you’ll find that it’s some old codger driving well below the speed limit without enough brains or consideration to get over into the slow lane.

PEOPLE!!!! They call it the FAST LANE for a reason!!! That sign saying slower vehicles stay in the right lane is there for a reason. If you’re going to poke ass along below the speed limit, it’s there for you!!! Please have enough common sense and courtesy to get over where you belong.

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #408

About: Respect
“You can’t buy, beg or borrow it…
It has to be earned.

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By: Donna Hale Chandler

I’m thinking of particularly high heels worn by women when they want to dress to impress. You may be confused as to why these would be considered ‘noisy shoes’. If so, let me ask you this, have you ever been so sick that you were hospitalized. Have you ever tried to rest in a hospital? Just about the time you doze off a cheerful nurse comes to draw blood or check vitals. This constant intrusion on your sleep may be annoying but we all know it’s necessary.

After a day of constant in and out by staff, it’s finally evening, getting dark outside. You turn down those bright hospital lights, close you door and try to drift off to dreamland. And that’s when you hear it — high heels walking down the hallway toward someone’s room. They are loud – click, click, click on the tiled floor. Your eyes are once again opened, awake, sleep interrupted.

At last the high heels seem to have reached their destination and it’s quiet once again. Lean back, relax, clear your mind, close your eyes, sleep is not far away. AND THERE IT IS AGAIN —- click, click, click — they are returning! You wonder about these women in the hospital hallway, in the high heeled shoes. Are they so clueless that they can’t fathom that the click, click, click is disturbing to the ailing patients or are high heels just naturally noisy to distraction.

Who invented high heels anyway? The person was obviously HEALTHY. Perhaps a warning label – “Not to be worn in hospital hallways” should be required.

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Gram use’ta say

“You don’t marry your sweetie’s relatives,
but it’s a must that you get along with them.”

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By: Donna Hale Chandler

I can remember as a child there was most always a pitcher of sweet tea in the refrigerator, particularly in the summer. For special dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc., the fancy crystal glasses came out – only for the adults, of course. The children drank milk from jelly glasses so if one hit the floor, nothing of value was lost.

The ‘brewing’ of tea always seemed to be quite a production to me. Boil water. Place 3, or was it 4 teabags in the teapot. The tea bag strings with the label on the end must hang over the edge and held in place by the lid. The boiling water is poured into the tea pot, over the tea bags and allowed to steep. How long to steep? Always a mystery, but evidently if allowed to steep too long, the tea was too strong, steep not long enough and the tea was too weak. My mother must have had in inner timer because she knew exactly when that tea should be poured into a pitcher where it was immediately sweetened before placing it in the refrigerator.

If a guest wanted unsweetened tea — well that NEVER happened because tea wasn’t ‘finished’ unless it was sweetened and letting each person sweeten their own was unheard of, unless you were drinking hot tea and only rich people drank hot tea. Working folk drank coffee, black but we’re talking about tea.

For a treat my granny would have a tea party with me when I visited. She would pour hot tea into a pretty tea cup; make quite a show of stirring in a teaspoon of sugar, no more than 1 teaspoon. Then she would saucer her tea. Don’t know what that is? Well, it takes the ‘fancy’ right out of tea party because that’s when you pour a bit of the hot tea into the saucer under the cup. Holding the tea cup in your left hand, you blow on the saucer of tea to cool it and then drink it from the saucer. This is done until the tea is cool enough to drink straight from the cup. My granny was the only person I ever saw drink hot tea and the only person I ever saw who ‘saucered’ their tea. She was one special lady.

I still enjoy sweet tea and am thankful that it can be purchased already made at the grocery store. With my cooking skills, I’d surely burn the water.

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Grams use’ta say

“A good kiss must last at least 10 seconds.”

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