Recent Comments

1. 17 days ago on Arlo and Janis

   I was waiting to see the doctor and a woman was on her phone telling someone her address, birthdate, and social security number, as well as her daughter’s birthdate and social security number. If I’d been an unscrupulous person, I could have stolen both their identities and caused untold damage to their financial lives.

2. about 2 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   Way back when we were renting a tri-plex (it was actually an old house divided into 3, 2-bedroom apartments), and our first-born was 7, our second was almost 3, and I was heavily pregnant with our third, we were potty-training kid number 2. He was taught that the only thing allowed in the toilet was “potty”, and I made sure the bathroom door was closed and child-proofed when he wasn’t in there. Our landlord, who was difficult at best, called us one evening to tell us his water bill had gone up and the toilet in one of the other apartments was clogging up regularly and he blamed my son. He made us call and pay for a plumber to fix the problem. The plumber didn’t find any toys in the line, but rather a large amount of “feminine products” clogging it. The plumber knew it couldn’t have been me, and told our landlord it was likely the two women in the other apartment, as the third one was rented by an elderly man. Long story short, the landlord didn’t believe him, and told the plumber that he could bill us for the services. Needless to say, the plumber did not charge us and we moved out after our daughter was born, after the landlord and his wife told us they had no idea that I had been pregnant and they were going to raise our rent $100/month for an extra person.

3. about 2 months ago on Stone Soup Classics

   I wasn’t allowed to wear any makeup, nor shave my legs, until I was 16. Then it was just a little lipgloss for special occasions.

4. 3 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   I’ve never been to Indiana Dunes, but I’ve heard of it. I’d love to visit one day. When I was a little girl, my family used to have a summer home on Lake Michigan near Grand Haven. We lived in Southeastern Michigan and it was always exciting to “go across the State” to see Summer friends. My grandparents lived near Lake Erie, and when we came home from the “lake house”, I’d spend the rest of the season at my grandparent’s home. I would ride my bicycle out to the Lake and sit for hours watching the boats. I hope someday to live in Michigan again, as I miss the Lakes. Where I live now, the nearest lake is a 45-minute drive, and it has no beach.

5. 3 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   There are a number of sandy beaches on all the Great Lakes. Ontario has both the Grand Bend & Ipperwash Beaches on Lake Huron.

6. 3 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   I drove my younger (by 5 years) brother around every once in a while. Once, when I was 18, on “Senior Skip Day” (the day most of the high school seniors skipped, about two weeks before graduation) I went to my brother’s school, got him out and we went to the mall. I liked driving him around in our ’78 Blazer, but not so much after I got the Chevette. He was tall and had difficulty getting in and out of the car.

7. 4 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   The first time my middle son drove in his High School driver’s ed class, he turned left at a light and ran over the median, breaking the front axle of the car. They had to wait for a tow truck and a replacement car for at least an hour. The school sent a note home to let us know about the incident and assure us that our son was unhurt and not in trouble. But, he learned a good lesson and when the time came to get his license, he passed both the written and driving test on the first try. A lot of kids in our town take those tests multiple times before they pass. As far as the wrecked car went, my husband and I donated one of our cars to the school when we purchased a new one the next year.

8. 5 months ago on Arlo and Janis

   When our kids moved out, we knocked out a large doorway between our sons’ rooms to create a library. Between my husband and myself, we have 10 large bookshelves and 8 small ones. We separated the stacks into fiction and non-fiction with further distinctions by subject or author. The children’s books take up 6 of the small bookshelves and we made a little reading area with soft pillows, bright rugs, and child-friendly art for our grandchildren. In the “adult” areas, we have comfy chairs, soft rugs, and small tables with individual lamps. My husband surprised me with an old card catalog for my last birthday and I’ve been typing up cards for all the books since. We have thousands of books between us, both hardcover and softcover, including all my childhood books and his reference books, as well as fiction from all genres and we’re constantly adding more. I love sitting in there, smelling all the books, reading, and working on puzzles to hang on the walls.

9. 5 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   I’ve spoken of this previously, but when my Oma died last year, my cousins raided her house and took most of the furniture for their children. Fast forward to this year, and I’ve recently discovered that most of that furniture was sold in a yard sale that my cousins’ children orchestrated. I was livid when I found out. I had always wanted the big, old dining room table and chairs (seating for 12 with 2 “leaves” and made of mahogany) and the china cabinet (also mahogany). I was told that the “kids thought that stuff was too old” and used the money they received from the sale to purchase “better” things from a big box store.

10. 5 months ago on For Better or For Worse

    We had a driver’s ed program in our high school. I was 15 the year I took it. They had 2 cars, an old Gremlin with a ripped up back seat and a Pacer that had a broken driver’s seat. The seat wouldn’t stay in any position except all the way back, so we had 2 bricks that we put behind it and the person who sat behind the driver had to keep their feet on them so they wouldn’t move. The whole time we were out driving, the instructor smoked and would have us stop once in a while so he could buy more cigarettes. Then, after going through all that, I ended up having surgery on my feet the first Summer I was eligible to get a license, and the next year I had another surgery. I didn’t get my driver’s license until my 18th birthday.