Call a Plumber!

Why is it that just when I get into a busy season of the month, my nose starts running? It's not that I feel sick - no fever, no aches & pains, no headache, no stomach bug - just my nose! It's either running or backed up and I feel like I have 12 gallons of water in my sinuses!
Yesterday I had my first full day of a cold - do I call this a winter cold or a spring cold? As the weather here has been pretty moderate lately. On top of feeling ucky, we were almost out of tissues and out of any allergy/sinus medication - which is the only thing that helps me. So I took a 12 hour decongestant yesterday afternoon. It tends to wear off before the 12 hours are up! Took night time Tylenol liquid medicine before bed and once I was able to get to sleep, it really helped - other than waking up grabbing tissues as my sinuses drained.
Having a cold is one thing - but it's another when I have to wash my hands each time I blow my nose - that's a real time clogger. With so much flu around, I don't dare not wash my hands and I sure don't want to "share" my cold with my family - even tho they shared first.
Parents, please tell your kids that sharing is nice - except they don't have to share cold germs! And since I have a little one in daycare, you just know he's in contact with anything and everything each day he's there.
I guess I shouldn't complaiin too much - I don't really get "sick". Couple colds a year, maybe a stomach bug everyone two - three years. And it also probably wouldn't be too bad except I'm the food preparer. Not only do I have to make sure every surface of my hands is clean and germ free or to cough or sneeze around the food, but I have to fix the meal - I don't know about you but when I'm all congested, nothing sounds good - not even to feed other people. So I let dh figure it out yesterday. Ended up with an old standby - hot dogs & chips. At least people were fed. I opted for chocolate milk.
Here's to feeling better soon!

70s Television

I was checking out Julie Fidler's "Stuck in the 70s" http://www.stuckinthe70s.com website the other day (as I do almost every day!) and she had posted about the "One Day At A Time" Reunion show coming up on Feb. 22nd. That, of course, got me thinking about all the shows I watched growing up in the 70s. Sometimes I changed my day and activities to make sure I caught my faves (what we called favorites back in the day!). I found a site - oh, no, I can't tell you what it was because I forgot to bookmark it - but it had the entire 1970s television prime time schedule so I went through it to see what I could remember. And boy did the memories come back!
"One Day at a Time" with Bonnie Franklin, MacKenzie Phillips, and Valerie Bertinelli was one of my favorites. Growing up in the home of a divorced mom, I could identify with the girls. I wasn't as "perky" as Barbara Cooper so it was MacKenzie whom I really thought I was like. Loved the Elton John references back then. Early in the 70s my Friday nights revolved around getting my PJs on early and settling down with a pillow in front of the TV to watch "The Brady Bunch" (I was the 3rd child in my family but my siblings were way older than me so it was as if I was an only child - this show allowed me to live vicariously in the large family I'd always wanted); the "Partridge Family" (how cool to be in a family that made records and went on tour? Of course my main reason for watching it was yummy David Cassidy!); "Room 222" (this allowed me a peak at what high school was going to be like!); "Love, American Style" - I was a little too naive to get the risque jokes; and "The Persuaders" with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. This was one of the few nights I was allowed to stay up late.
Of course there were the "grown up" shows - "Hawaii Five-O", "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones", "Longstreet", "Mannix", "Medical Center" (do you remember the "shocking" episode with Robert Reed portraying a man who was starting to undergo gender-changing surgery?!), "The F.B.I.", and a few more.
Seventies television would never have been the same without the comedies of "All in the Family", "Maude", "Mary Tyler Moore", "The New Dick Van Dyke Show", "Here's Lucy", "Chico and the Man", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction" and "My Three Sons". And who could forget the variety shows - "Donny and Marie", "The Carol Burnett Show", and of course "Sonny and Cher!" The three shows that I still catch in syndication or wish were in syndication are "M*A*S*H" (I could watch this show 24/7!), "Happy Days", and "The Waltons." Yes, you read that right - the "Waltons" - I know it was sappy and corny and all that stuff - but I couldn't get enough of it. First off there were 7 kids in that family - how cool was that!! Second off, it was during the Depression - a time my mom lived through - so watching this show together gave me a great insight into her life as a young girl. She would confirm and validate stuff they were portraying on the show and probably gave us some of our best conversations! The family really loved each other and were proud of their heritage on Walton's Mountain. I was always tearing up by the time the show was over.
Just goes to show that television has always played a part in our lives since it's inception. Back then everyone gathered around to watch Uncle Miltie! And Ed Sullivan introduced so many legends into our lives!
So what shows were you watching in the 70s? Which ones made an impact on your life then - how about now? Feedback is welcome!
'til next time - Wendy

Cleaning the Closets

For all of you who are like me and decide once every 6 months to a year that it's time to clean those closets out - this post is probably not for you - except to laugh and say "I've been there!" The rest of you will get a quick glimpse into what it's like NOT being a fastidious cleaner! First I need to explain our room - it's not all that big and we have a queen size water bed. Funny thing with water beds - you need to know exactly how you want the furniture arranged when you set it up because you just can't pick it up and move it on a whim! Besides the bed, we also have a large 6 drawer dresser with a mirror, a two drawer nightstand which is on my husband's side, a four drawer bureau - also on his side closer to the foot of the bed along the wall, another 2 drawer nightstand that sits in my husband's closet right now, and a clothes hamper. That doesn't include the footstool at the end of the bed which was originally put there to serve as a place to sit to put on shoes, etc. Now it collects stuff we don't know what to do with or haven't gotten around to putting away. There's also a large plastic tub filled with all those blankets and pillows I need to store somewhere. On top of that is a box that I need to pitch - my daughter's huge display doll came shipped in it. Well, the hamper was on my side of the bed - the side where the closets are. I have to move the hamper to the other side of the room before I can even open the left hand folding door of my closet. On top of that I had a file box with all my genealogy stuff in it sitting by the closet and two boxes that lay away items from Christmas were packed in sitting there.
Yesterday, I thought I had better get in that closet. No telling how many clothes are in there that I haven't seen in - well - since I last cleaned the closet. Ever notice that when you go to clean something like that, the piles of stuff get bigger and bigger? Whittled away at my clothes in the closet - has a rip & I don't' want to fix it, too outdated and won't wear, never could wear to begin with (this is usually relegated to stuff my mom sent me that are her hand-me-downs!), and "what was I thinking when I bought that?" I sorted them - into one box went a bunch of clothes one of my daughters might want. Another box is for clothing that I will give to the local charity. I carted a bunch of clothes to an (almost) empty closet in another bedroom as I can't bear to part with them - stuff my mom made or wore or were my grandmother's. It's nice to know they are there and remember the history and stories behind those clothing items. Then there was the trash pile.
Shoes - I don't have as many pairs as my mom - but I have quite a few. Several pair were out of their boxes, strewn on the floor of the closet. I got all those paired up and put back in their places. Now you know what this means - the next time I want to slip on a pair of nice shoes I'll have to go digging around again! Once my husband got me a hanging shoe rack. Those big things encased in plastic that you hang in your closet. If I only had a few sets of clothes it would have been okay. As it happened, shoes would fall out of it, the sides would half way collapse, and of course I couldn't reach the ones I really wanted to wear.
The Closet Shelf - what's on yours? Mine has a box - inside are all my children's baby blankets - there is no way I can part with them. They were either hand made or hand crocheted by grandmothers or great-grandmothers. Those are things that I want to pass down someday. On top of that box are a few more blankets that the box is too small for. Purses - my mom likes purses as much as she likes shoes. Consequently when one purse has outlasted its usefulness or style, I get it. They are perfectly good. Several of them look brand new - that's because she swapped out purses so much, none of them got a lot of wear. These are the "nice" purses that you use when you go out for the evening or take to church. Not the everyday "going to the grocery store, running errands, taking kids places" purse. So I have 4-5 of those on my shelf. Plus two stacks of jeans. If I don't have room in my closet to hang all my clothes, I certainly do not have enough room to hang jeans. Which is what my mom used to do with all mine when I was growing up - they were always hung up so there wouldn't be any unnecessary wrinkles in them. This was before the days when everyone bought jeans that had the color bleached out, were baggy, or had holes in them. Next to the jeans is a large shoebox - top has been lost. Inside are items I pulled out of a box on the bottom of the closet - one of my kids' baby books, my school years book (with all my report cards and school pictures), memorabilia from my school dances, my junior high autograph book (no, none of those people who signed ever became famous!), school magazines that my poetry was published in, and school awards. I want to keep these separate so I can make a scrapbook of my own "growing up" years just as soon as I'm done doing all the other scrapbooks I have ideas for!
When I finished up, I decided that the hamper had to be moved. I was tired of never being able to get into half of my closet. So I found an empty spot (I have an empty spot in my room?!) along the wall by the door & set it in its new place. I even managed to sweep most of the floor while I was cleaning yesterday. Next project in there is to clean my vanity off. And my vanity is not the regular "sit down and preen" sort. It's a shelf built in between the two walls of our two closets. I decided years ago that would be a wonderful place for my to keep my jewelry boxes (not that I have any "real" jewelry). I haven't been able to find complete sets of earrings for about 4 years - there is so much stuff piled on it.
So how is your "winter" cleaning coming along? Have you found many things you had forgotten you had?