International Traveling

. . . without a passport.

I have missed playing Memory Monday, but that just means my post is a more current memory – that is easy to do when life keeps this pace.

I have noticed, if you look hard, there are more things to see or do in our own backyard than we might realize. Now, it might mean doing some twisting. It might even mean cheesing it up a little.

In June I cheesed it up for a day trip. International traveling without a passport, if you will. The experience offered its own light in the road experience.

Back during April, when all the severe weather hit, I noticed interesting names of communities in our area. There are some that I knew – for example Cairo, Georgia and Havana, Florida. But I noticed a few others too, and that is when I decided for the day trip.

So we set off on the journey. The first stop: Damascus, Georgia.



Yes, I had us get out and take a picture. As we jumped into place, Will and I are being silly, the boy are less than excited.

As I said, it was a light in the road experience. Demolition D, driving for this adventure, was not only not really open to the idea, let alone getting out to take a picture, he down right threw a fit! So after some words were exchanged, the light clicked that he better enjoy, it was not all about him, and I realized we might get to our final destination a little faster than expected.

Back in the van and South we headed. After Damascus, we headed to good ol’ Amsterdam. Turns out this community is not even un-incorporated. Whew, D was relieved – no picture taking.

We skipped out on the side jags to Cuba and Scotland. I do believe if there was no sign at these spots too, we might have had an elevated level of frustration.

Next, Havana, Florida.

I originally had planned to stop in this tiny town. I have never been there before, but have heard of great trips to this spot. It is known for its antique shops, which I figured would not go over well with the three amigos. So we drove right on through. I think it will be a trip I would like to make with Will in the Fall – as a window shopping trip, not international travel.

Havana was a hub for the cigar industry – until cigar production moved to Central America. The town practically dried up as folks moved away to find jobs. But the town remains and had a come back – with antiques. A town with a population not even hitting 2,000, they have 30-40 antique shops.

As I was reading about this tucked away spot, I read this and wanted to share: “One reason for the success - and the camaraderie of Havana merchants - is that rather than trying to work against one another, they work together.”

With the economic woes that globally abound at this time, isn’t that quite a statement? Doesn’t that show how those actions have proven successful? Working together …great concept.

So back to the trip; As I said we did not stop there, but I did have a guy friendly stop planned. It was not in a town with an internationally famous name.

Naw, just Tallahassee, Florida. When we arrived at the final destination, smiles returned to Demolition D’s face and The Man became excited. What better way to make up for cheesy attempts of memories than an Antique Car Museum.

And yes, I guess you could say there was still some cheese with this pink Cadillac all rigged up with lights and speakers – but this cheese was perfect.

(texting pictures of cars . . . technology and antiques meet)

There were batmobiles too . . .

Boats and boat motors . . .

And even the Little Rascals foot powered toy car . . .

Now this following picture, maybe some of you can clear up my memory on this one. I thought I took a picture of the information, but I cannot find it. Drumrolllllll . . . .

This is the original Studebaker(???) used and wrecked in the movie "Tucker" (???). Inside you can see where the explosives were set up to explode and flip the car. Now, I do not remember this movie, and I do not remember this scene. But the boys enjoyed seeing how the car was tweaked to make the stunt great!

In the end, the trip was memorable and it was fun. The boys thanked us for a great day and what is better than that!

Monday Memories is hosted by Gayle at Planet M Files (today she is remember Cape Cod).

. . . Elvis has left the building . . . .

A Veggie Avoiding Vegetarian

Time to share our adventures has been at a minimum.

I have shared some about the business closing and now the end of the business is in sight and I am taking a few days off to recurperate and ready myself for the final - getting as much sold as possible and moving all that is left out and into storage.

I have not shared as much about home. We transitioned into having another adult child come to live with us. That makes four adults and two teenagers.

A recent commenter asked how we were doing with this change. We are still transitioning.



Traveler was due to leave for the Netherlands August 4th. Two jobs were being worked to save money. Tickets purchased. But no go. Her boyfriend broke up with her two weeks ago so plans have ended. She sorta knew it was coming, we have heard comments that began with "if we are still together" for months. Of course there is hurt and disappointment. She did say at one point, she was more upset about not going to school there than she is about "him." There has been good cries, pedicures, trips to see friends in Atlanta, new tattoos.

So new plans are being sorted thru and turned over - we hope. We are transitioning.

When Ocho moved in in February and Traveler in May, the agreement was they would place $300 a month into savings - sorta rent that goes towards their being able to move out on their own. A way to help them out - a way to be a host without being sucked dry and enabling them to step towards responsibility and self support.

Also, they would keep their rooms neat - not perfect, not spotless. Neat.

They would help out around the house, and we failed to say this, but thought their would be some family interaction.

No curfew - as long as we do not hear them during the night and they let us know ahead of time if they will not be coming home for the night.

Ok, here we are in July. This arrangement has been a little more challenging than we counted on.
The rooms, well let's just say gaaarosssssss. After Will asking for two weeks for them to do some cleaning, we took it upon ourselves to spend 4 hours one evening cleaning.



And then we charged them! Yes, a cleaning fee.



Ocho has kept his cleaner since, I guess he would rather we not go through every nook and cranny again. Traveler, that is still a little iffy. But they have been warned, next time we do not wash the clothes, the laundromat will, and they can go and pay to retrieve their clothes.

The curfew issue, oh well, the best laid plans is all I can say ...

Savings deposits? Well that was going fairly well until a car repair, a breakup and a couple tattoos.

Helping around the house. Ocho will if you can catch him at home and awake and micro-manage it. "You cooked (for himself), please clean all the food off the counters." "Remember, it has been your turn to clean the bathroom for two weeks now."

Traveler has been more interesting. We cracked up the first time Will asked her to help the boys clean up the kitchen after a big lunch. "But I am wearing a dress!" Take it off or put a T-shirt on over it. Two weeks later, please empty the dishwasher, "but I want to go see" so and so! "Then you might want to get busy. Only once or twice has there been no resistance.

I do all mine and Will's wash in one day to get it over with and to keep the washer open for the rest of the household. I had not washed clothes in about a week. One day about three weeks ago, getting ready to do our laundry, I noticed the clothes detergent was almost out. I decided to play a little game. I bought some of those really neat Purex 3 in 1 detergent sheets. I kept them in my room. The point of the game? To see when someone would say we were running out of detergent or buy some. Ocho and Travler had washed several times in that previous week. Nothing mentioned about the detergent.

As I said, that was three weeks ago. The Man and Demolition D have been gone, so they did not have any wash until this past week (I did supply them with the nifty sheets). D told me we were out of clothes detergent. I supplied. To this day, neither Ocho (who is 19 and works, does not go to school) nor Traveler (will be 22 in August and works) have said we are low on detergent. Nor have they said we are out of detergent. Nor have they purchased detergent. Yes they have washed clothes - but with no detergent.

Amazing.

But the latest is my favorite.

Last Christmas, Traveler stayed with her mom and came to our house to use the internet and eat. She said "mom doen't have any food in the house." At first I thought that strange, but as the holiday moved on, we kinda guessed why - she probably was tired of working 12 hour days to come home and be taken for granted and feed fully capable people who can afford cigaretts, parties, hobbies and such, but not even pick up a loaf of bread.

So now Traveler and Ocho are living with us. I am going out on a limb to display this (I know it could be more organized, but I don't have the time or inclination at this current point in time).

This is just behind one door.

Two weeks ago there were 6 cereal boxes. There is popcorn, breakfast bars, more peanut butter, chips, etc.)

(there is gazpacho, tortillas, cheese, asparagus, okra and eggs too)

I show you this for a reason.

Last week, while Will and I were at our jobs, working away, Traveler came in the kitchen and said to Demolition D, "When I stayed at mom's I always came over here because there was food here, now that I am living here, there is no food."

I may be wrong, but I see food. And remember, Traveler is a vegetarian - I have items in the freezer, fridge, and cupboards to provide nutrition, minus the meat. Now granted, you have to take a can opener to get to the tomato soup. One might need to boil the pasta to go with the sauce. Maybe cook some rice and open the can of black beans. Might have to thaw the veggie dogs to actually eat. Might have to slice the tomatoes and cucumbers and mix up for a salad. But there is food.

So, as for the question, how are we doing? We are doing. At times we are enjoying. At times we are pulling our hair out. At times so glad to have a little more time with them. At other times completely dumbfounded by their perspective. But all in all, we are good. We are learning ~ we hope they are, but so far the actions do not show it.

When it is time for them to depart, we do know they had an opportunity to set themselves up to start out on the right foot. We know help and guidance have been offered.

In the end though, it will be up to them to make it work. And they will. Even if they trip some down that path, they will stand back up and move forward.

Happy Friday!

Here is to a great 4th of July weekend to all of you . . . start with a chuckle . . .

Don't Like The Heat?

...get out of the kitchen.

And I did!

The Man is at Boy Scout Camp this week (about 30 miles away). While there is staff on site, each Troop also needs parents to stay in the camp at night and be available during the day. And they need it 3 deep.

Since the shop will be closing and Tuesday's are a light day, I volunteered to be one of the parents out there today, closed for the day. Will volunteered for nights Thursday and Friday.

I was somewhat dreading it - heat, mosquitos, gnats, dust and tween boys.

I. Was. Wrong.

It was the best thing I could have done! All my frustrations and burdens of work and home seemed to evaporate away for the day.

To begin the day with a sunrise like this:

Who could not have a good day. I arrived at 6:45 this morning to a quiet camp that was quickly replaced with groggy boys heading off to breakfast and then on to their activities.

At breakfast, I sat at the same table as The Man, but at the other end. I did not want to hover and crowd. Not a minute after I sat down, The Man saw me, picked up his tray and came down and sat across the table.

Wow! Another great heart touching moment in the morning. I followed him around all day!

I walked . . .

he pedaled . . .

and canoed

We swatted flying pest, skipped over poison ivy, ducked spiders . . .

There were bows and arrows

even me . . .

Photo taken by The Man

Walked some more . . .

As I followed The Man and this scout onto the bridge,

I heard, "man I wish they had not killed that cotton mouth"

Me: "why"

The boys: "he was fun to play with"

Me: "a cotton mouth????" Now I am choosing to believe (especially since it is dead and the issue is void) it was just a little old harmless water snake. And I am choosing to believe that their idea of playing with it was throwing sticks off the bridge at the snake 15 feet below. But I have to say, it was the comment of the day!

psst . . . no snakes in the above picture.

It was a great day. In the midst of all this, I finished a book I had won from Mocha with Linda . I found something I had written in a notebook (one that I grabbed to write out some blogs). Then I realized mid afternoon that something was missing. Stress, besides that little bit induced by bug buzzing. No Frustration - I had not thought once about the three offspring at home so graciously loving their version of the life of riley(ooops, a little sarcasm snuck in).

THIS was an unknown mini break. Tomorrow is family night and I am looking forward to that and then have agreed to cover for one of the other parents Friday night. Aren't life's surprises great?

Now there is more from today, but I thought this layer of the day was long enough for one post, soooo, I will post some more later!

AT&T - No Grey Areas There

Oh the joys of closing a business!

When opening the business three years ago, I agreed to a three contract with AT&T.

The contract was up in April. I did not think of it until the end of the month. I did not receive/or hear anything. I assumed the payments would go on as were, just no contract.

Bad assumption.

I have been trying to reach someone since the 15th of June to drop the unused fax line. I finally reach someone today. Guess what? I am in another three year contract!!!

Why?

Because I did not notify them 60 days before the contract expired that I did not wish to continue a contract. Of course, 60 days before that time I did not know I would be closing the business, but I sure wish I had realized that about the contract so I could have reduced it down to only a year!

Now, when the phone is turned off, I am stuck with a penalty fee. $20 a month for the duration of their contract. Yup $660 to AT&T for really nothing. No options to negotiate the contract down to even half the time.

So much for retention of customers, my hesitation to turn off my home landline due to loyalty to that company just disappeared.

If you are anticipating the possibility of the current economy sinking your business, be sure to check all contracts now! Change it! It doesn't matter if you are getting kicked in the behind and sinking, they are happy to push you down faster!

The Exception

i before e, except after c,

or when sounding as a, in neighbor and weigh

As I was leaving Sam’s this morning, KLove was discussing a law in England, well, rather a law that is in the process of being passed, that would ban teachers from teaching the above sing song rule for spelling.

The reason? The exceptions.

As they asked the person that called in to spell sufficient, I realized I never have used that rule for that particular word, but I have used it for the word received often. Then I wondered “how many exceptions are there?”

So I decided I could either sit down on my keister and google it or enjoy my caffeine leisurely. Both won. So I seized the moment and found common words, and some weird words - phenolphthalein, phthalei, monteith. Ok not necessarily weird, just not used in my day to day vocabulary.

Did you know that a monteith (an exception to the i before e rule) is that large punch bowl with the notched rim to hold the cups?

My conscience has now told me it is time to forfeit this inveigle post (ok, that might not exactly be the proper use of that word, but I am trying to be artful with this post) and seek protein.

Maybe some breakfast would be a good idea!

Do you still use that rule with some words?

Demolition D and Driver's Ed

This summer is quite busy!

Between normal working AND closing the store - there is Demolition D's schedule. He had a week off from choir tour and then has spent this week in Driver's Ed.

He. Was. Miserable.

Now, we have been working on driving since he obtained that wonderful permit to learn. The first 72 hours were great. Then reality hit and it has been an adventure.

The beginning of 2007, Georgia implemented Joshua's Law. Simply put, if you wish to drive at 16, you have to have driven 40 hours, including 6 hours of night driving, a workbook completed and each driving experience documented and signed off on. Or you can take a Driver's Ed Course, approved to meet Joshua's Law ($325). Or you can wait until you are 17. I really need him to be able to drive this fall.

I originally opted for the workbook. But I really wasn't sure about some of what they wanted. Then we had a re-ocurring issue. Red lights and left hand turns. The first time he tried to go through a red light, left hand turn, he said, with the most dumbfounded look, "I thought you could turn left on a red light?!" As I finished wondering what he had learned studying for the learner's exam, I explained to him that you cannot.

A week later, same interesection, I sat in the passenger's seat confident that my thorough explanation a week earlier had be clear. Clear as mud. He tried it again. Then got mad at me. Yes, I raised my voice. Once again reviewed the issue.

About a month later we were on our way to church and approached an intersection to make a left hand turn. The light was green, he entered the turning lane (a little too fast, as I told him to slow down, and he does not, I realize he is planning on turning. Right then. I say "there are cars coming!!" and he responds with "but the light is green!!"

No, he did not go through it. And I closed my mouth until after church. After church we discussed all that happened and then proceded with left hand turn driving. Every few blocks, a left hand turn was made. We made circles around this side of town, but we became very familiar with left hand turns.

We have set out on left hand turn drives a few times since.

But this made me rethink my signing off on this workbook or sending him to the Driver's Course.

The Driver's Course won. It also will help reduce his insurance.

Monday through today, he attended the classroom setting, 8:30 -3:00 daily. They were BORED out of their minds. He will only get 6 hours of driving with an instructor and that will be the last week of June. But we have been told this course met Joshua's Law's requirements. Well, except for the now added Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program (another class, another expense).

Today, he enlightened me. Today, as we drove out of the driveway, he says, "mom, you know what they told us? If I am driving and someone in the car does not have on their seatbelt, and I get stopped, I get a ticket for them not being buckled."

I looked at him dumbfounded. See, we have talked about this for years. Just earlier today, I realized he did not buckle, so I stopped the car and just sat there until he did (I don't say anything, I just sit - he knows I will continue to sit there until he does buckle). Will got a ticket when Ocho, probably 14, did not buckle and Will was pulled over. He received a ticket for Ocho not being buckled. That story has been told many times.

So I tell you this because I had this thought. I don't believe anything I say is actually being retained or taken into consideration. This kinda scares me. All this wisdom I have shared. All these scenarios to aid in his developing good decision making skills. Makes me wonder, what got through? I hope more than I think.