Santa Time

Well it's Christmas time again. After many years in Retail it's kinda nice not being in Retail. Sometimes I think I miss Retail, then I wake up from the nightmare.

Anyway time for my favorite Santa joke.

Santa comes down the chimney, and to his surprise a very good looking playmate type women is lying on the sofa. She is wearing a very revealing, can you say Victoria's Secret type spaghetti strap night gown.

She says "Hi Santa, would you stay awhile with me, I can make your Christmas very Merry."
Santa replies " Ho Ho Ho Me must go, I can not treat my children so."

She gets up from the sofa, starts walking towards Santa, one strap falls from her shoulder, revealing not a small portion of her upper anatomy, "Please stay Santa, we can have such a wonderful time" she says.

Santa replies " Ho Ho Ho Me must go, I can not treat my children so."

Walking a little closer to Santa, the other strap can not contain her ample presents, and the night gown falls to the floor. She is now dressed the way she came into this world, she says, "please stay Santa, I want you for Christmas.

Santa replies, "Hey Hey Hey, I might as well stasy, I can't get up the chimney anyway.

Deer Hunting ?

It is called Deer Hunting, why I really don't know. It should be called Deer sitting or Deer waiting or freezing your butt off in the cold waiting for a deer to walk up so you can blast it.
Been awhile since I went Deer sitting, so this year I was reminded how cold you can get waiting for one of Bambi's relatives to show up.
I am still waiting, Bambi's relatives must have been out of town.
The internet is loaded with info, a very few of Bambi's daddies ever make it to trophy size. I laughed when I read a lot of sitters are taking Doe, waiting for the Big Un to show up. They let the young bucks go, hoping they grop up to be Big Bucks. BUT people with cars are very good at killing off these youngsters, and if the cars do not get them something else does.
So now the pin heads that try to estimate the population of Bambi kin are having trouble because the harvest ( nice word for blasted deer) is scewed because of the amount of antlerless deer blasted. Most deer won't send in the census forms to be counted.
I guess I will go back to deer sitting, the gun sitting season ends soon. And I don't sit with a bow, that usually requires sitting in a contraption up in a tree.

I should have known !

My sister and I would like to apologize to the millions of social security recipients that did not receive their COLA this year.
What happened was that we both applied and received our social security this year. Of course this put a double whammy on the system.
If we were in a lottery and had 999 of 1000 tickets we would still not win. Not even second prize.
I guess we should be happy that the whole system did not collapse.
Well Obama lamma ding dong mentioned giving another 250.00 to the retirees, I did not get that last year as I filed my ss request later in the year.
He needs to keep that money, my kids are going to have a heck of a time paying back what he has spent in his 1st nine months in office.

Hair today Bald tomorrow

Well the picture here was today, the one on my blog close to tomorrow.
This one I have hair. No glasses (contact lens). The old hard lens, made your eyes red. This pic says 1968 Chapel Hill. That would be Woolworth's in Akron, Ohio.
I am playing at playing that guitar, I am doing good to play the stereo.
In the background you will see some almost obsolete items, film, transistor radio batteries, and me.
If you ever wondered what I looked like without a mustache, glasses, 80+ pounds, and with hair take a close gander at that picture.

Birthdays & Facebook

I was never one to remember peoples birthdays.
I remember a few, my wife's I never forget (self preservation.) I remember my birthday, my wife won't let me forget.
Now I am on Facebook and I can see whose birthdays I missed. Most recent example was my sister's. But I miss other people's bds too.
Looked at my profile the other day and found out I was invited to my niece's bd last june. I do not keep up with facebook either. Got 57 invites to play games, support this group, or join this group. You can join or ignore. I choose to do neither it is a passive ignore I guess.

So if I miss your birthday, I will more than likely see it on facebook and feel bad for a minute or two.

If I dont join or support don't feel bad.

I rarely open fowards in my Email. The forwards I do open are from people who rarely forward something.

If you haven't received a forward from me do not feel left out, I do not do forwards more than once or twice a half decade.

Spellcheck

Today's modern word programs have a wonderful feature called spellcheck. I am such a poor speller at times even spellcheck can't figure out what the heck I'm trying to do.
Then there are the words that sound alike but have different meanings, English people have a word for it but I can't spell it. Well I can spell it but not the 50 cent word for sound alikes.
Watt, what. there, their, here, hear, rain reign, pin, pen and gazillions more.
This spell check gives a choice if you spell mardrt it gives you a choice of Madrid, Margret, Marat, Mordred, or Maturate.

How did we ever get there ?

Back in the Olden days, traveling by car was a lot different than today. Want to go to Florida ? No Map Quest or travel sites.
You might have belonged to AAA or another travel club and they would mail you maps and travel guides.
Most folks went to the local Gas Station, Service Station, or Filling Station and got maps FREE. Yes Free.
Go to a local do it yourself gas station today and ask for a free map. If the station is large enough they might have Rand McNally maps FOR SALE.
Don't ask for directions, the person behind the counter put the address in their GPS unit and followed the voices.
Now if you look at the open map you might have noticed the interstate Highways are missing. This map was from 1958 and no satelites for gps, no interstates for 99% of the country.
I can remember a car trip to New Orleans in 1958 in a 1957 Ford Wagon, Mom, Dad, my sister and I and our baby brother. Mom left a Cloth diaper along the road somewhere in Mississippi. Worst part of the trip was Bogulsa, the paper mill stunk up the area for miles.
I don't have a gps unit but I do use the online map services and I do have an Atlas and map in my vehicle.

I Love Cats

This is my favorite stuffed toys. I do not sleep with it, it lives on top of my chest of drawers. Chest of Drawers hmmm this thing looks like a chest and it has 6 drawers thus the name.
Well I digress, I really do not like cats as much as this dog. I have not knowingly consumed a feline.
I have dined at a Chinese restaurant, so who knows.

Crap by the pound

Our local Goodwill stores get so much crap oops merchandise donated to them that they had to open an outlet store. If you want to see people at their worst go there ( this can be another blog). For the most part this "stuff" is sold by the pound.

Well I found a box of 78's nicely packaged. Figured how can I go wrong. Here is how...... the box weighed 23 pounds, cost about 15.00.
A 23 pound box of old 78 will get you about 50 records. Only 1 was broke.
Got home and opened my wonderful discovery..........Every cotton pickin record is Mexican. They were made in Mexico, sung in Spanish. The only ones I can understand are the instrumentals.
So now I will become a major purveyor of collectible ( I hope) Latin music on Ebay. Hencho en Mexico = Made in Mexico.

Historic Ohio

Ohio has a lot of these roadside historical markers. On this day I decided to stop and look at this one. I find them difficult to read at 60-65 mph. Seems this one was not far from an area where we had a disagreement with the British in the 1812 war.
Also some early pioneer put down roots here. I snaped a few pics of the area. I think there might have been a few more trees here an 1812. I am pretty sure the road was not as nice if a road was even here.
There are one or two of these markers here in the Xenia area. I will get some pictures of these also. In this area the Shawanee Indians had a huge town. Blue Jacket and Simon Kenton lived in this area. Simon Kenton was brought here as a prisoner, he escaped married a local girl, moved to Urbana and is taking a dirt nap in the Urbana Cemetery.
As I travel around I am going to slow down and read a few of these markers. I just might learn something.

Puddle splashin

When was the last time you danced in a puddle ? Well a 2 year old and a one year old had a great time dancin in this little bit of puddle water.
It looks like fun. Maybe next time I find a puddle I might take off my shoes and give it a whirl. I just hope no one has a camera when I do it.

New and Improved

Sometime in the last 100 years, since this miter box was made by Diston,I would guess they made and released a New and Improved version of this classic.
BUT how can it be improved if it is NEW ? Look up the definition of new. Ok I looked it up for you:

• not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered; "a new law"; "new cars"; "a new ...

• fresh: original and of a kind not seen before

Thus, if a manufacture says it's new and improved, watch what you are stepping in.

Serving Size

If you have ever read the side of a food container there is a lot of maybe helpful information in the little rectangle. Besides calories, fat percentages and other mumbo jumbo there is SERVING SIZE.
Serving size is determined by some anorexic in a government office.
The other day I measured the serving size for one of my main breakfast items Peanut Butter.
If you don't know a serving size for Peanut butter is 1 Tablespoon. I found that a Tablespoon of peanut butter will cover 1 slice of toast, now that being said, the thickness of said peanut butter is thinner than most garbage bags. I guess it is about as thick as a Kroger bag.
Another interesting serving size is ice cream. A serving size of ice cream is 1/2 cup. I always thought a pint of ice cream was a small serving. I leave a 1/2 cup on the dipper . Well not really, it is ice cream after all.

Hmmmmmmmmm

I was looking at my post history and as of the 12th I had 13 posts, so today being the 13th this will be my 14th post, thus avoiding the double whammy of 13 posts on the 13th day. Thank the stars today is not a Friday.
I was watching some of the hearings on Sotomayer today, boy are they going to have to shovel that place out when they are done. She has started the double speak already. Yea I might have said that but even if I meant it, I wont do it at least not until I get the job and then you are stuck with me.
No she did not say that, it is my translation.

tools etc

I am still trying to get control of my garage. In this process I am going through my tools and finding some astounding information. I have at least 6 pipe wrenches and maybe more. Of course they are of various sizes that is not counting the ones I have given to others.

I think I may have bought one many years ago. The rest I have acquired through the years. I found at least one in a home we bought, It was a huge sucker, with a 24” handle. I have used it more than once and the size was what I needed at the time.
My main question is how many pipe wrenches does one need. I know a plumber may need 12 or 15, but a home owner needs 2 tops. What am I to do with the 45 metal files of various sizes and the 15 or so vice grip style wrenches.

I have somehow acquired 3 hatchets, I might have bought one in our camping days. I have a small coffee can full of punches, metal chisels and nail sets. I threw away about 10 pounds of rusty, worn and mixed up nails, screw, washers and bolts, which leaves me with about 50 -75 pounds of the same in 10 assorted cabinets, thats not counting the jars, milk jug and coffee cans of the same. I did give 6 or 8 cabinets full of the above to my kids.

Hammers, I have a herd of those also in various sizes weights and configurations.

Screw drivers are like hangars, they multiply in the deep dark recesses of a tool box, and even in the light of a screw driver holder. But screw drivers are somewhat malicious, If they find out you need a certain kind or size, they become scarce.

I need a nice tool box to store all these tools. But I have a choice, I can buy a kick butt tool box or for the same price a 1988 van. I think the van will hold more tools, but not be as organized.

Speaking of tool boxes, I do have 4 or so portable boxes all kinda small, most are rusty and the closing thingies don't work so good and you can not stack them either.

If I loaded all this up and took it to a recycle center, I might get $25.00 bucks for the whole mess. I guess I will keep it, Who knows I might need to use one of my 5 wire strippers.

Fun with Genealogy

Off and on I have tried to trace my family Genealogy. I'm not as "hardcore" as some people and maybe not as diligent as I should be. I have used various family tree programs. I am on my 4th or 5th one right now. I have used this Companies product the longest and have been through 2 free versions and 1 paid version. Right now I am using the free one.
My wife's Aunt and her son have done a great job on their family. Me I have lots of dead end's and missing people. Some of the missing might be best left missing and some of the dead ends are just that, dead ends.
One of our Great great great etc grandmothers had a couple of out of wedlock children, one of which is our great great great etc -1 great grandmothers. To quote Marty Povich the baby's daddy is unknown.
Actually through the John Holt Journal we got a hint, it said dad was a cousin. BUT in the 1800's a cousin could be a neighbor, uncle, cousin, or a shirt tail relative. So that hint was a good one=dead end.
We have a couple Civil war soldiers, at least 2 Revolutionary soldiers.
The Garrett Holt families have been here a long time, no recent arrivals. Garrett's before 1860, Sam McCoats came from Ireland around 1810. Springers and Holts were here in the 1760's, Regan 1830's, Davis early 1800's if not sooner. Some of the other braches in this tree are Richards, McBride, Reed, Bartoe, Bolton, Hartley, Romine, Baker, Holland, Young, Bryan, Ellenbarger.
The nationality is heavy Irish, with English. Bartoe is originally from Alsace Lorainne region of France which is on the German, French Border so that could be a mix of German French.
To be continued.

Garage Finds

Cleaning out the boxes of crap, accumulated over the years. Found an old photo of my Great Grandfather and Grandmother, posed with her Sister (Aunt Minnie) and her husband Virgil Willis.
Photo had to be taken prior to Nov 5, 1930. Virgil and 2 of his sons were killed in the Millfield mining Disaster.
Also found a picture of a boy and his dog. Don't know the boy or dog.
If you need a 1923 Income tax guide I got one.
How bout a viewmaster or a tobacco holder if you want to roll your own.
Road maps from 1950's, 60's.
School books from early 1910 to 1930.
A hair curling iron with a cloth cord.
A fan with a a pretend protective cover, I bet you could get at least 3 fingers in there.
Got a couple pretty cake plates.
A desk lamp brass, unknown age, but cord needs replaced.
2 ladies dress straw hats from the 60's.
A crap load of picture frames..
Some things I am keeping, the picture of a hound dog drawn by my uncle that hung in Grandma's house for years. My stuffed horse aptly named Horsie. His best buddy Monkey, who was a monkey has been missing for eons.

Yard Sale time coming up. Whatever is left over I may give to Goodwill, but if I do donate it I may ship it to another state. I sure would not want to buy my own stuff.

Logoria

Many moons ago I had a high school English Teacher, Father something, I do not remember his name. Anyway when someone was over talkative, he told them they had logoria. I went to a Catholic High School that featured 4 years of Latin. So logo is latin for word, Ria is overflow, so logoria is an overflow of words. Seems to me 24 hour news channels and some of these blogs (mine included) may suffer from Logoria.

I tell some people I had 7 years of high school latin, 4 years regular 3 years summer school.

Rambling about whatever

Going through my boxes of stuff that piled up in the garage. Some going on Ebay, some to yard sale, then to Goodwill or some charity. Found an interesting letter sent to my father-in-law from his brother. It was dated Feb 1942.
His brother talked about rounding up scrap metal for the war effort and everyone was doing fine, seems like brother had indulged in adult beverages and decided to write this letter.
It was neatly typed on TOILET PAPER. I want to see a computer do that.

What do you do with wedding photos from 1942 ? Guess I will scan them and back them up, then toss them, no one wants them.

Found some very old photos studio jobs from long time ago, not our family, no one was rich enough for the clothes or the photos. From an auction ? Might scan those and post them just for fun.

Some of the stuff I have will be real collector's items in another 60 or 70 years.

One of my projects is typing up some of the experiences of my father-in-law as he grew up and became an adult. I am about 30% through those. I type with one hand and three fingers. St Charles High School failed to see the development of the computer and since it was a college prep school typing was not offered. I guess they thought everyone would be in a job that would have someone type for them. Will post parts of his stories later.

An interesting thing taken for granted

My oldest son, John, was watching the history channel with his great Uncle. They were watching a WWII documentary of the Japs last attempt to repel the Americans on Okinawa. Uncle was not to engrossed in it but was in the room.

On comes a film clip of a Jap Bomber coming in low over the trees. It was landing on the American Airstrip, and had 40 or 50 Jap soldiers on it. Very casually Uncle Jim says " I remember seeing that" .

Sometime later I asked him about that incident, he told me yea, he was a radio man and they sent him down to the beach with a couple other Marines to look for a beach invasion. This was the days before advanced radar and other detection devices.

I also asked him if he saw any action. He said no, since I was a radio man I was never closer than 100 yards to the front lines. Well occasionally they had to string wire for the radios to the front. In 1945 portable radios were huge by today's standards ( they had vacuum tubes), the batteries were heavy and short lived. His main job was to repair the radios and charge the batteries. He may not think his job was a big deal but I think it was very important.

Ebay ain't easy

So you want to sell on Ebay. As the title says it ain't easy.
First you got to find something to sell. So you have to find out whether you can make any money on it. Certain items are not allowed to be sold and other things no one buys. For example, those old 33 lp's you have in the garage or basement are a tough sale. On the other hand the old beer signs esp. Hamm's Beer will sell like crazy.
So you need to spend some time seeing if your item will sell and for how much.
So now you have to list it. Before you can list it, you need to take pictures. The pictures need to be in focus and taken so the item can be seen. Some items one picture is plenty, for other items you may need 6 or more.
Your not done yet, you need to load the pictures on your computer, and more than likely do some editing such as cropping and maybe color adjustment.
Now you have to list the item. Write a title line 55 characters. Need to use words that people will use in the search. Rules apply to what you can use in the title.
Now find the category to list the item. This is not easy as you think. Is that glassware going in glassware or collectibles. Yep you can list two catagories, but pay extra.
Now you have to find some fancy words to describe the item so it will sell. Don't forget shipping terms etc. Now put a price on it, your earlier research will help. Post a picture, you did remember where that picture is located.
Shipping terms, yea you need to weigh it or guess how much it will cost to ship the items.
Pretty much done. Check your email during the auction, you may get some questions. auction over, now you need to ship it. Find a box, pack it safely. Good news if you have a decent scale you can print your postage from home.
Cost to sell an item. Insertion fees start around .25, 1st picture free, 15 cents for additional pics. If you sold it you pay a final value fee plus paypal get some of the pie. I figure if you sell an item for $2.oo it cost about 1.25 or so. I sold an item for 152.50 plus shipping, my fees were over 13.00.
Good Luck

The Eagle did his thing

Looked at my bank account and low and behold my 1st Social Security arrived. I guess I am retired. Going to do a part time temporary job sometime after Easter. 30-40 hours a week for 4 weeks or so.
Started back on Ebay. Doing fair to middlin. But dang , doing Ebay is a lot like work. Spending 20 hours a week or more listing, and packing and shipping.
Then to add insult to injury, grass might need cutting soon. Retired and still no time to cut the grass.

At&T Sucks

Due to the high prices and small amount of long distance calling we do, I canceled my At&T long distance service. The dirty low down ^&%^%)( charged me $10.00 to cancel service.
But the best was the service clown tried to sell me additional internet services.
I told him I would not buy a sandwich from AT&T if I was starving.
What great customer relations there, how soon do you think I will buy a AT&T product.

Genealogy

Seems that a lot of retired folks take up genealogy. I have been at it a few years. My favorite program is up to v7, I started at v4 and this was not my 1st genealogy program.

Finding the right folks for your family is the biggest problem. Common names are difficult because there are basketsful of these people. Unusual names are difficult also, no one is hunting those people. One of my favorites was great grandpa McCoats. McCoats is not a name of any interest to Us genealogist. Some of the McCoats were more than likely shortened to Coats. But what happened to my Family is ols Sam McCoats came to the Us, married and proceded to father a housefull of girls. Not one son to carreyone the name. I know he had a sister but family legend said he had a brother who was a Doctor that the British hanged.
I'm still looking for www. britishhangings.com.

Oh well since I'm sorta semi retired I can keep hunting for these people.

Help Wanted Ads

Help Wanted Ads

The Sunday newspaper at one time was overflowing with want ads a few months ago. This Sunday's want ads looked like a Tuesday edition. Usually you could find 10 or 12 car dealerships looking for the next super salesman. This week only 2 were looking for the ultimate car salesman.

I know the Internet has diluted some of the advertisers but even the job sites are not overwhelmed with advertisers. Times like now might call for drastic action. I might have to actually get up, get dressed in job hunting clothes and go place to place looking for a job.

Today, I will call some of my contacts and gets some job leads from them. Then I will make sure my job hunting duds are ready for action.

To get that $13 a week stimulus from Obama lama ding dong, I will need a job.

I am sure the porkulus package will have a job for me. Hmmm I'm not a heavy equipment operator, I'm not a construction worker, I do not sell electronic equipment to the medical industry, I 'm not an auto worker, I am not a bank manager or wall street broker, but I would be happy to take one of those 500,000 a year jobs saving a bank. Not that I could save a bank but the guys in charge right now have not done so well.

Then again I can apply for my social security and apply for foods stamps.

Time to Retire ?

My last employer thought maybe it was time for me to retire. Economic conditions caused a layoff. I might need to start drawing my social security, might as well get it while it lasts. But if I draw Social Security my unemployment compensation goes away.
Oh well social security will be more money and I can still look for work.
I will do more on Ebay, get my web site up and running.

I find it interesting that insurance companies are looking for salesmen, I have had 2 calls from 2 benefit related insurance outfits. Who in the heck is buying Life or accident insurance right now?
Last time I talked to these guys, I had to pay for a class and pay for the test and pay for a license, then get paid only if I sell the policies.

Spring will be here soon, maybe I will buy a fishing license and go fishing.