Things on a Plane

According to the FAA regulations of today - when you fly, you can take in your carry on luggage:

Aerosol Cans
Cigar Cutters
Corkscrews
Cuticle cutters
Gel Filled Bras
Knitting needles
Nail Clippers
Safety Razors
Scissors (Yes! Scissors! Metal with pointed tips, but blades no longer than 4 inches. But I would not dare take a chance with mine. They are too expensive)
Toy Transformer Robots
Toy weapons, but only if they are not too close to the real thing.

Hmmm, well, can’t do any damage with any of those things, right? I think I’ve cut myself with everything on that list except the Aerosol can and that I sprayed in my own face because sometimes I just can’t see that little black dot. That’s why I don’t use it any more. Thought sure I would go blind or get cancer from breathing that stuff in.

But you cannot take a

Saber
Meat Cleaver
or a
Sword (drat!)

You also cannot take, just about any sports equipment no Hockey sticks, Lacrosse sticks, baseball bats, pool cues, Bows and Arrows, Spear guns, Cricket bats, Ski poles, or Golf Clubs. Guess they have figured out what most moms and dads have not figured out and that’s that Sports are Dangerous! (Wonder why they left out Cleats?) And I can attest to the fact that the Actual Lacrosse player is dangerous – one of them ran into my son during a practice and that broken collar bone was no fun, still isn’t, and will always bother him when it rains.

Now, this also means you cannot take your Billy clubs, your black jack, your krubatons (I’ll be goggling that later, as I have no idea!), and likewise a resounding no, on your Nunchakus, Night sticks (thought that was a Billy Club?), stun guns, shocking devices, and Throwing Stars (drat! I love my throwing stars! One of them has a picture of Bruce Lee!)

And, I know you are not surprised at all but your guns are out. All of your guns, your BB guns, your pellet guns, your hand guns, even parts of your guns separated in a zip lock won’t get on, your starter pistols, nor your flare guns may board. You can only take your toy guns, as long as they don't look to very much like a real gun. So, best to leave all your guns and gun parts at home.

And all of you carpenters have to ride the bus unless you check your tools; your axes and hatchets, your cattle prods, and crow bars, and wrenches and screwdrivers – it’s a nope. Not even in the zip locks. However, if a lot of your tools, like the scissors are shorter then 7 inches, you will be able to carry them on. Oh. How comforting. But at least they are required to be ‘sheathed and securely wrapped to prevent injury to the baggage handlers’ (no mention of the people on the plane. Hmmm.)

The list goes on, but just so you know, they do allow Jello and Pudding and Whipped Cream, duty free alcohol, but not Cheese in a pressurized container! Gotta watch that Power of Cheese thing, I guess.

Many of the things they didn’t allow after that last terror thing in that airport in Britain, they allow now, if it’s in a teeny tiny little container. Itty Bitty, teeny tiny, and also, put your teenies in a Zip Lock Bag. Only the Quart Size.

Now – here’s your stock tip ~~

ZIP LOCKS! You gotta have a zip lock to get on a plane. Especially the quart size. You heard it here first. And me, I think I invented using zip-lock on a plane! But it was more for protecting my things from being gnawed over by strange mitts! Oh well, now it will be to protect my little teenies.

Story of the Week

Three year olds have to be watched every minute, don't they? As much as we'd like to think they are okay for just a sec....

This little guy was not only a fan of Sponge Bob with the Square Pants, but my guess is that he's also watched a little bit of Rug Rats, or maybe his dad has taught him his way around tools.

Whatever the reason, he saved himself with the assistance of the Fire Department of Antigo. The story is here. I'm just glad to hear he's okay.

Another Thursday

So here I am on a Thursday still limping around. I've found a whole new way to walk that doesn't cause me that much pain. The new doctor I've seen has recommended Physical Therapy, and I have an appointment for next week. I'm feeling like I should do something before then like get some kind of exercise, but then again, I have this fear of another muscle spasm like the one that landed me in the emergency room ~ twice.

So instead of exercising, I'm eating donuts and watching television. And television is just so boring. Truly. I should be reading. I know. But my concentration level is so low. I think I'm being over shadowed by all the things I want to do that I can't do.

Madam Blueberry is doing well. We're having exams this week and next. Seems like an easy week for me. We're not as far behind as I thought we would be! She's baking once a week and we eat whatever it is very quickly. I think we are all like addicted to sugar now?

I just got her Shakespeare book in the mail - The Merchant of Venice - and I had forgotten that I ordered it. Apparently, I thought I ordered it from Amazon but when it didn't come with my last order I thought I didn't. It came from someone named Eleanor in Washington state. But it's here, and it's a brand new book so that's good. We have the movie with Al Pacino, and it's a great one.

Mr. B is liking, and not liking, his job all at the same time. He likes what he's learning, and he is determined to make himself seen as someone valuable to them. He sees little signs that that is working. Each day there seems to be some encouragement. Actually, it doesn't work quite that way -- it works like this.... he comes home one day all up and feeling proud and then the next day, bam, something happens and he feels awful; and then three days go by, and he feels good, and then one day goes by and he feels bad. So all things measured, I think the good might be out weighing the bad. And, this is a field that he is interested in learning. So, I put forth to him the idea that he is actually being paid to go to school. Seems to me you have to look on the positive side of things to survive.

Tomorrow I have a day off. I am getting a pedicure. For my birthday. Hahaha. No. Just because I want one. I’m using the birthday as an excuse because I think I need an excuse to do something for myself. I like getting pedicures. I had actually booked the appointment before I knew I had the day off. If I had known I had more time, I would have booked Madam Blueberry an appointment with me. It's just a fun thing to do together. One of those guilty little pleasures of life, I suppose.

"Short is the joy that guilty pleasures bring" ~ Euripides

And it's true, they don't last long, but I find it an enjoyable thing to do.

Oh, by the way, I realized that eating the donuts - be it four or two or even one - doesn't really satisfy anything, so I'm thinking, why bother? Maybe this is the last of my bingeing. I guess I'm feeling deprived. Deprived of what? Maybe control. A feeling of a lack of control can raise stress levels. That's probably what contributed to my back issue in the first place maybe. I internalized the stress. And I over think things.

But that's okay. I'll get it right. I'm just taking a little detour. Like the long way around, you know?

Also, I could be wrong, and I've just got a bad back that gave out on me! But seriously. I do think everything is connected. I just need to get all my dots in the right order! This random chaos is wrecking havoc in my career choice of being a calm human being! (What did she say?)

Didn't mean not to write

I have been neglecting my blog. And that is not a precedent I want to set, One’s blog should be tended carefully, and not carelessly.

To catch up, I’d have to look at a calendar – Let’s see on the 7^th of October I found myself in an extreme amount of pain at about 7:15 in the AM. My daughter was also up and found me on the floor and said, “mom, you’ve gotta go to the Emergency Room,” and she called my son Sean, who came right over from next door where he lives, and took one look at his mama on the floor and said, “mom, you’re going to the emergency,” and he immediately went and got his older brother Bill who also lives right next door– both boys woken out of sleep – and they loaded me into the car to some safe place, but new to the area, I wasn’t quite sure of my directions and the first place we went to was closed. I made another choice and called out the directions I thought were correct, but they ended up being wrong.

My pain was not stopping. That kind of pain that one can’t just get away from, I mean even labor pains ebb and flow, and bob and weave, but this pain showed no mercy. So off to the other emergency place I thought I knew, we flew.

But that’s all I can write about right now. I can’t sit for long because even though it’s been a week, the pain in my leg has to be controlled with pain killers and I don’t like to take more than two a day, and I’m passed my limit. I’ll have to take a sleeping aid to make it through the night. I’m setting a record for ignoring my blog. That’s not a good precedent. I enjoy my blog

I’ll tell the rest of the story at a later time. But God is good. Always, God is good.

Today's notes

Things of the day in no particular order:

1. Cleaned my house. Brought Jacob here to play with his new toys. Tuesday was his birthday, he is now officially three years old, so he had some really cool and interesting new things to do. And I am happy that things do look better around here. I got spoiled with a clean house there when my house for sale, and we lived under the Clean House All The Time rule. It was so lovely.

But. Even though Jake had the new toys, he played with this . And waited, he did, excitingly for the train! The luggage cart was used to haul his trucks to the garage for repair, and for rides of himself to appointed destinations. Nothing like a child's imagination.

2. A suggestion ~ If anyone in the world has not started to declutter their house, now is a really good time to start. The holidays are coming upon us very, very soon. And one can always use extra space around the holidays. Donate it, make it straight, or give it the gate.

One of the things I did, in my trying to organize here, is create a kitchen that holds only what we use on a daily basis. Then, I put the other kitchen stuff I had, which is plenty, in containers in the laundry room, in some kind of fake order. I'll go through it again after Christmas, and whatever I didn't use, I'll give away to a place near me called Jesus of Hope Thrift Store.

I have no regrets for all the things I threw or gave away. I did for about 12 minutes once on a Tuesday.

3. My niece from Lakeland is coming into town today. She was in one of those schools that was put into lockdown on day in late September, that made CNN the day that criminal shot the officers in Kathleen, Florida. Anyway, she coming in to West Palm Beach on the train, and the train is late. It's late because someone got killed by the train on the tracks in Orlando. Sad. I live near the tracks now, and People really shouldn't fool around with the train. You think you might have time; but there is no guarantee. Sometimes it's just a work train and it's just going back and forth, but sometimes it totally is not.

4. Mr. B is on his way home. He's late tonight. Overtime pay, but is it worth it? I suppose, if you want to buy food and books and pay rent, it is helpful.

5. So gasoline prices are down? Well, ha ha ha. Food prices are up. It's just a political game they play. It's like the property tax - property value game. They lower your taxes, but raise the value of your property. So do you get ahead? The only way you might get ahead, is if they are giving out cabbage.

6. Want to know how to stop the war? This will do it pronto. Go to Washington and tell everyone that Congress, and the President and all his men, should immediately go out the back door. There, waiting for them will be buses. Load them on the buses and take them directly to Paris Island. That's where the Marines train a few good men.

Have them deposit their suits and ties in a zip lock bag, and put thereselves directly into combat fatigues to begin their basic training with their destination being Iraq at the end of three months. What odds can I get that, within three months, someone will come up with a really good plan to get us out of Iraq? Sometimes you just need the proper motivation.

How did I become Anonymous?

I am perplexed. For some reason I have become Anonymous in the Comment Boxes. Not just on mine, but on any that I post. If anyone out there reads this blog and sees this question perhaps you can tell me ~ How did I become Anonymous and more importantly, How can I fix this?

It seems that I have lost my URL identification. I looked through Blog Help and didn't find what I needed.

Until then,
I remain, forever and the same,

Miss Roxie,
but to some
Anonymous

Oh October, How I love Thee

I don't know why I wrote that. I guess I just felt poetic at the moment.

Things here are still a tad unorganized (stop laughing). I worked all weekend at putting things away and still getting rid of things, and I'm tired. And still things are to be done. Mr. B went shopping at Home Depot ~ and, no, I did not go because I always want to stick a pencil in my eye while I'm there ~ and he bought more shelving. Yes, this will be the House of Shelving. "Where is it?" one will ask when looking for something, and someone will say, "On the shelf."

Okay, so that's one thing. What's the second thing? I can't remember.

My sister is coming this weekend (newsflash ~I just got a call, and she is coming tomorrow night, and I am excited about that. So that could be why I feel some pressure to do more straightening out/up or around because I would like things nice for our visit. I love orderly for visits. It helps me relax.

She and her husband and my great nephew Nathan will be sleeping at my son's house, who is right next door, so that part is good. He has an extra room with a real bed for guests.

I have heartburn today. And my mother says it's because of the self imposed stress of things not yet done. I was thinking I was eating too much pineapple. I don't know, but it's really uncomfortable. I think I'll try the Prisolec over the counter stuff for two weeks, and see if I feel any better.

I have just now got my list of all of Madam B's schoolbooks! I do hope I’m not missing anything else! A couple of them just arrived yesterday. I was going to go to Barnes and Nobles to pick up the books, but things were just so pressed time wise, I ended up ordering them and they were delivered to my door. I found the Math Tests last nigh in a blue crate, and the Science in a box of old work from years previous. How these things didn’t end up together in one box is so beyond me at this time. But I can’t dwell on it or I would go mad, mad, mad, I tell you!!

So bit-by-bit, this is a crazy year, but things will come together. She has already been working about 3 hours a day on what she has, so she's not really excited that a plan of adding more work is in the works! But she will adapt. She always does come through. This year, maybe a bit more verbally, so is that to say, ‘she found her voice and it says ‘no, no, no, I say’ …?

Oh my, I just remembered! She finished her Shakespeare book – Comedy of Errors - about two weeks ago, so there’s another assignment for me! I have Henry V, that we tried once before, but it’s a tad to heavy for right now, so something lighter might be better.

Maybe tomorrow we will go to Barnes and Nobles ….Get a coffee, and chill. Jacob will want to play on the Thomas the Train table. Maybe I won’t do too much chillin’ after all. We’ll see.

A bit of Shakespeare before I go –

A bit from Sonnet 60 ~

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand...