A few weeks ago, we had issues with our sink and we had to hire a plumber.  The plumber was in the kitchen chatting with me when I glanced over at the wall and saw one of my pictures on the wall was crooked.  Being the polite person I am, I kept looking forward to chat with the plumber while oddly leaning against the couch to adjust the picture.  As I leaned over the couch with my feet planted, I heard several popping sounds.  The pain was excruciating, but since the plumber was there, I couldn’t yell expletives and cry like I wanted to.  I just calmly sat down and thought I might implode.  After the plumber left, I tested my leg and was able to walk around.  However, my leg was giving out on me, and I knew I was in trouble.  (I blew out my right knee playing soccer years ago and had 3 surgeries on that knee.)  I got an MRI the next day, and of course, my ACL was completely torn.

I discussed my options with a sports medicine doctor and an orthopedist, both who suggested surgery if I planned on doing any more than walking completely straight the rest of my life.  (And hope I never slip on ice or trip on a pine cone.)  Given how much the leg was getting on my nerves, and the fact I don’t want this knee to limit my activities the rest of my life, I decided to have ACL reconstruction done.  The surgery is actually today (January 12th, 2012).

I must say this is probably the dumbest injury I have ever had.  The doctor theorizes that my ACL was partially torn previously, and this little twist just tore it the rest of the way.  Whatever, I just know that I am incredibly mad at myself.  I am mad at the plumber too, but not sure why.

So, I will be taking a little break.  If you find you miss me, please feel free to dig through my old posts (with your Alexa bar on, of course) and poke around.  I may be bored out of my mind during recovery and end up online constantly, who knows.  Maybe if I get some good painkillers I will end up writing the post of my life, so make sure you don’t stray too far!

See you soon!

Christmas break in 2011 started on December 16th.  My daughter had a basketball game that night, and the following morning, we hopped on a plane and headed to Florida.  The weather was beautiful, the trip was great, and we returned on December 23rd.  After we returned, I ran around like crazy trying to get everything finalized for Christmas.  The holiday came and went, and the following week, I did…

Nothing.

I have never been less productive in my life.  I didn’t write (much), I barely cooked, I really don’t know what I did.  I guess I drove the kids to some practices, but I really have nothing to show for all the time I had off.

My lack of accomplishment is comparable to people that charge up their credit cards and then really have no idea what they spent all their money on when it comes time to pay the bill.

This ‘lazy December’ has made me realize I have to make better use of my time.  I know I was tired from the traveling and hosting Christmas, but geez, I don’t think I really needed a week-long reprieve.

One thing my break did do was re-motivate me to make better use of my time.  Quite honestly, I slept way too much during this break, and I never used to be someone that slept in.  However, when you hear the wind blowing outside and you know it is cold out, it is so easy to just stay under the blankets and sleep.

But then the comfort of warm sleep is countered by guilt.  However, while lazing about, I did a lot of thinking.

What I Learned From Being Lazy

1. Sleep is addicting.  The more I slept, the more I wanted to sleep.  I could sleep 10 hours at night and still crave naps during the day.  What a waste.
2. I can only relax so much.  If you told me that I would have nowhere to be and there was nothing I ‘had’ to do, I would have celebrated that thought in the past.  After having such an ‘unscheduled’ week, I realized I must have a project to focus on or something, or I will just flounder.  (In my defense, I do have an injured knee so I am somewhat limited in my activities, but that is a post for another day.)
3. We better have a lot of money saved before we retire.  That thought was already a given.  However, while laying around thinking, I totally understood how some people feel lost when they retire.  If this past week was how I lived my life every day, I would probably go insane pretty darn quickly.   Part of the issue is feeling trapped inside the house because it is cold and blustery outside, which is why I want to have the ability to travel if I hate the weather I live in.
4. I don’t handle change well.  OK, I have always known that about myself, but my belief was even more affirmed during my lazy week.  My life went from chaotic to traveling to completely unscheduled, and I have to say I missed my ‘normal’ life.  Heaven help me when the kids all go off to college…

I was recently in Florida, and it was the first time I have ever spent part of the Christmas season in a warm climate.

I have to say, it was strange.

The first time I saw a Christmas tree in Florida and heard Christmas music, it just seemed `off` to me. Now, I recognize that a huge part of the world has never experienced a white Christmas, so a sunny, 80 degree day in December is just status quo. However, for this northerner who is used to a gray sky and sub freezing temperatures, it was a wonderful treat. I just had trouble associating the climate with the holiday, but I think I could definitely get used to it.

I wonder though, if I did move south, would I appreciate the nice weather, or would it just be a part of ordinary life? I ask this question about many things: Do the trials and tribulations we face in life force us to appreciate the good things?

It reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode I saw once.

In the episode titled “A Nice Place to Visit”, a small time criminal is shot during a robbery, and is escorted to the afterlife by “Mr. Pip”. In the afterlife, the criminal is granted his every wish, and he must live with the results of his wishes for all eternity. Sounds pretty good, right?

At the end of the episode, the petty criminal says something to the effect of: “Wow, if this is heaven, I wonder what the other place is like?”. YMr. Pip then says “this is the other place…”

Although the scene described above is a work of fiction, it makes you realize that variety very well may be the spice of life. Perhaps wondering what the future holds and having some amount of influence on your destiny is part of what makes life so great, even more so than being given everything you could possibly want?

Of course, I am not saying that catastrophic events are a great thing. However, sometimes it can be hard to see how great your circumstances really are if there are never any bad times to compare the good with. Just like in the example I discussed above, if I was always surrounded with sunny, warm days, would perfect weather just become expected and not appreciated?

What do you think? Do you embrace the great things in your life more so after a time of difficulty? Have you found there are things in your life that you once felt so grateful for, and now you take them almost for granted?

It seems every year, I create some goals for myself that are very serious, and pretty hard to accomplish. Of course, I have the best of intentions, but I must admit that quite often, some of my goals fall by the way side mid-year for various reasons.

So this year, just for fun, I decided to come up with some goals that are not only attainable, but will improve my life in some small, and possibly meaningless, way:

1. Never will a sock with a hole in it cross my heel again. You might think “you need a goal for this?”. Well, yes I do. Quite often I will hold on to a pair of socks beyond what is reasonable. Well, no more. If a sock is wearing out, it will go straight to the garbage and not the laundry basket. I figure I am a reasonable adult, and I don’t have to wear worn out socks anymore!

2. I will read more. I spend much of my time running around and trying to be productive. I don’t take nearly enough time for myself and that is going to change in the new year. I am not saying I will be kicking back and reading Harlequin romances while my family is starving or needs to go somewhere. But, if it is a sunny day, I am going to head out to the patio and enjoy some lemonade and a book for a little while. I am going to wholly enjoy it and not feel an ounce of guilt.

3. I will not allow mail to stack up. I am usually pretty good about sorting through the mail each day. Lately though, my counter has been piling up with useless mail and it just makes me mad. In 2012, I will not relax until all mail hash been recycled, thrown out, or filed. This topic leads me to…

4. I will eliminate as much ‘real’ mail as I can. I am going to call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT to hopefully reduce the number of credit card offers I receive. I will also call to discontine any catalogs I get in the mail if I have not ordered from that company in the last year.

5. I will better plan my garden and put more time into it this summer. My garden was completely disappointing this year, and I need to figure out why. Not only that, but I never seem to plant enough seeds either. Well, this year will be different! I am not saying I will master hi-tech gardenening like I saw recently at Epcot, but I will have a greater bounty, even if it means I have to go outside and sing folk songs to my plants and provide words of encouragement for them to grow.

That is about it for my 2012 goals for now. I will probably come up with some more meaningful goals in the next week, but maybe I won’t…

What are your plans for the new year?

Recently in Kentucky, there was a middle school boys basketball tournament.  Tournaments can be a great way to get a sports team ready for regular season play, and quite often, there can be lopsided games.

However, I don’t know if there has ever been as lopsided game as the one that occurred between Pikeville and Kimper middle schools, where the score was 100-2.

Yes, 100-2.

Can you imagine how long that game must have seemed?  Geez, I couldn’t even handle the last game of the Detroit Tigers-Texas Rangers playoff series this year when the Tigers got routed 15-5.  I would have lost my mind if my child was losing (or winning) 100-2.  Actually, Pikeville was winning 25-0 within the first 2 minutes of the game.  (At least the coach stopped full-court pressing at that point and removed all the starters.  Details of the game can be seen here.)

So now, Pikeville is at risk for having their season canceled as punishment for drubbing the opposing team.

Really, there is no easy answer for this situation.  However, I don’t think canceling the season is the proper response.  The people that will get hurt in that situation is the kids, and they totally don’t deserve that.  Sure, maybe they should have toned down their play, but they are kids.  It is up to the adults in this situation to do the right thing.

What Could the Pikeville Coach Do?

Really, the Pikeville coach’s hands were tied to a degree (although there is no excuse for having a full court press for more than 2 seconds in that game).  I have seen lopsided games before and there is no graceful way to handle it. If you pass the ball around like you are playing cat and mouse, that is insulting.  You could require opposite hand dribbling and shooting, but that might have still resulted in a similar score.  I don’t understand why there wasn’t a mercy rule like they have in high school.  (At least in Michigan during the regular season there is a mercy rule, I have no idea what happens in tournaments.)   I am not saying the coach shouldn’t be punished in some way, but I definitely don’t think these kids should  be denied a season of basketball.

Who Schedules A Game Like This In The First Place?

Fact is, this game never should have happened, period.  If a tournament does not have an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ bracket, then only similar caliber teams should be scheduled to play.  (Although Pikeville and Kimper are still supposed to meet up during regular season play anyway, which is pretty messed up in my opinion.)  The losing school, Kimper middle school, is very small and had no business playing one of the best middle school teams literally in the country.  I look at where my kids go to school and there is  a total of around 135 kids in the middle school. It would be insane to put them up against some of the bigger, more talented division 1 schools in the area, and our athletic director would never allow it.

Bottom Line:  There Is A Lot of Blame To Go Around

There are so many people at fault for this situation, least of which are the kids, who at this point will bear the brunt of the punishment if the season is canceled for them.  The Kimper coach never should have signed his team up for the tournament, the Pikeville coach should have had more class (I am sure a coach with his experience knew that he was going to be playing a team way beneath his team’s skill level), the ref should have stopped the game at a certain point, and the tournament director should have never allowed the two teams to play each other.  Now, there is a big mess about something that is supposed to be fun:  kids basketball.

What do you think?  Would you cancel the Pikeville basketball season?  Would you fire the coach?  Or, do you think life should just go on without any repercussions for anyone, and consider it a lesson learned?  Would you rather if your child was on the winning or losing team?

I don’t usually pay much attention to emails that circulate around the internet, like how there is a 98 percent chance that if you travel out of the country, you will wake up in your hotel room bathtub with your kidneys removed and instructions to call 9-1-1.

However, the following email arrived in my inbox yesterday that really struck a chord with me (I have no idea who the original author is):

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

What struck me about this post isn’t so much about the ‘green’ movement, but more about how life was so much simpler when even I was a kid in the 70s.  I totally remember using a push lawnmower with rotating blades.  (We did switch over to gas eventually.  I do like that those old-fashioned lawn mowers are coming back ‘in-style’).

I also can’t tell you how many miles I walked in a week.  I walked to and from school, to the store, to friend’s houses, everywhere.  I don’t think being driven around to sports and such was even invented yet!  It was either on foot or by bike, period.  (We were all much thinner too!)

There are a million ways that life was different when I was a kid than they are now.  I have to admit though, I miss a lot of the ‘old’ ways. And, whoever originally wrote this email was right- we probably didn’t consume nearly as much oil/gas/electricity back then.  However, it wasn’t because we were being ‘green’, it was more because technology hadn’t advanced far enough yet.

I wonder where we will be in 100 years?  Will obesity be the norm?  Will the ONLY sports being played be organized? (We are close to that now.)   Will babies be potty trained in-utero?  It is hard for me to envision what life will be like that far in the future considering how much things have changed in just 35 years.

What are you thoughts?  Did you ever use a push lawnmower?  Do you remember having only one TV in the house?

It all started with some chewing gum…

I had chewed this brand of gum before, and didn’t really think much about it- until the pain struck.

See, I can chew and chew and everything will be fine.  Then a couple hours later, the pain will start in this one particular tooth, and only when I chew a certain brand of gum.  A normal person might decide to just not chew gum anymore, but not me.  Sometimes I get so hungry that gum is the only thing around, and it buys me some time until I can eat.  (Nobody in my family wants me to get too hungry, that is not fun…)

Usually, the tooth pain lasts a few hours and fades away.  This time though, it was relentless.  It was then that I remembered that I had a new crown put on the tooth above my sore tooth and suspected my ‘bite’ was not quite right. So, I got through the weekend with a lot of Motrin (should have turned to whiskey) and raced to the dentist Monday morning.

Why Can’t Treating Teeth Be Easier???

My dentist knows me very well.  Probably because my teeth are incredibly soft and apparently quite absorbent.  I have had many root canals and such, so quite often, I get bad news.

I hopped in the chair, had some idle chit chat, and explained my pain.  I told him I thought my bite might be a little off, and upon inspection with some mysterious blue paper, that did seem to be the case.  The dentist ground down my crown a little and then we had our discussion.

Since xrays don’t always show what is wrong with a tooth, the dentist explained the following possiblities:

1. The sanding down of the tooth will fix my bite, and the pain will resolve shortly.
2. There is an infection down in the root area.  If that is the case, the following is possible:

• An endodontist can rip the crown off and take out the post, clean it all out, and put it all back together.
• An oral surgeon can cut through the base of my gum and clean out any infection that way, leaving the tooth intact.  However, there is a major nerve connecting to my lip that could be damaged if that route is taken.
• The tooth could be pulled and I would get an implant.  (Tooth implant that is…)

So What Can We All Learn From My Tooth?

Today I was at a Wendy’s restaurant for a quick lunch with my daughter.  We ate our lunch, I tossed out the garbage on the tray, and we headed for our car.

When I got to the car, I couldn’t find my keys.

I was horrified at the thought that my keys may have been on the tray next to my leftover fries that were just dumped in the garbage. The image of pulling out that disgusting garbage can inside the restaurant and sorting through it to find my keys made my heart race. Fortunately, the keys were nestled at the bottom of my purse, and I was only briefly terrified.

I then came home and read a story on Foxnews about how a Florida man accidentally threw out his pregnant wife’s engagement ring, which he somehow picked up when he threw out his used razor.   The problem was, they didn’t realize the ring was missing until it was too late- the garbage had already made its way to the city dump.

The wife was reduced to tears and the husband was reduced to….. digging through the dump to find his wife’s ring

With the help from the waste management company who provided protective clothing and guidance as to where the ring might be located, the man started searching through the dump.  The section where his garbage was dumped was reportedly 10 feet high, and full of everything unpleasant.  However, as you would think only would happen in the movies, the husband emerged with the $10,000 engagement ring after only 30 minutes of digging.   I cannot believe how lucky he was to find the ring so quickly.  (And also how unlucky he was to throw it out in the first place.)  Think about it, since the ring was worth $10,000, he earned a $20,000 hourly wage by digging through the landfill!

So, my question to you is this:  Had you been the husband in this situation, would you have gone to the dump to find the ring?  Or, would you have considered it a ‘sunk cost’ and bought a new ring?

Have you ever been in a restaurant having a quiet conversation, when you notice the stranger sitting at the next table over is hanging on every word you say?

What did you do?

When I notice this happening, I usually just look over at the person in a way that says “please focus on your dinner and not my conversation”.

One time though, I took my response to a whole new level.

I was about 20 years old, and a friend and I were dining at a Big Boy restaurant.  We were at a booth, and there was just a wooden separator between us and the person in the next booth.  So, eavesdropping was very easy.

I was telling my friend the true story of how a helicopter had to land at the park down the street from my house because a man that worked in nearby shop had cut off his thumb (or so the story goes, not sure what really happened to him), and he had to be airlifted somewhere.  The woman in the next booth was really intrigued by my story, so I spiced it up a bit.

I started talking about how strong the wind was when the helicopter took off again and I said “It was so embarrassing because when the first wind gust game, my wig blew right off” and I grabbed my hair, as if it were my wig.  The woman of course started staring at my hair, just as I intended.

I don’t know why I was messing with this woman, she was sitting at the restaurant alone, and I suppose it is human nature to just tune in to your surroundings when you have nothing else to occupy your mind.  However, she was so obvious about her eavesdropping that I thought I would give her a more interesting story to enjoy.  My friend played along fantastically too, and was full of empathy over the fact my wig blew off and that I had to go chasing after it.

I have grown up some since then, but I still don’t know of a good way to deal with eeavesdroppers.  It isn’t even like I divulge anything exciting when I am out in public, I just don’t like that feeling of someone ‘hovering’ over my conversation.

So, what tips do you have for handling eavesdroppers?  Or, are you the eavesdropper?  If so, have you ever overheard something really surprising when out in public?  (I know I have unwillingly been an eavesdropper myself, when people are so loud you can’t help but overhear every word they say.)

Life presents us with many opportunities every day.  Sometimes these opportunities have nothing but upside, but quite often, there is some risk that accompanies the opportunity.

Usually, when the risk is just too great, you have to just walk away from what is being offered.  For example, maybe you are offered a great job with a start up company.  Salary is low but the stock options are huge, so there is potential for big pay-off.    This type of deal might be great for someone with little expenses, but if you have a large family to support, perhaps you feel you need to turn down that opportunity.  However, if the company goes public in 5 years and you would have been a multi-millionaire, you should not  live endlessly with regret.  Remember instead that  the job was never a viable option in the first place!

Then there are those little risks in life you can take.  For example, the Detroit Tigers advanced to the American League Championship Series this year, and most tickets sold for over $100 a ticket.  Fans were clamoring to get tickets even though the ticket prices were quite high.

Strangely enough, I was looking at ticket prices on Stubhub for game 4 and there were about 4,000 tickets available, starting at $14 a ticket!  Several people I knew that spent over $100 were quite frustrated that they had spent so much on tickets when they saw how cheaply they were available shortly before game time.

Who knew that tickets would ever be available once they were initially sold out, and at 1/8th of the cost of the original ticket?  You don’t know, and you can never know.  It is all about taking calculated risks.  For the person that is an avid baseball fan, I am sure they were happy they even got their hands on a ticket in the first place.  The sad thing is when they realize that they COULD have paid much less, the regret sinks in, and second guessing.

This is why hindsight is 20/20.  Had the reverse happened and they were able to sell their tickets for $350 apiece, they would have felt like the smartest people on earth.  The fact is, almost everything in life has risk, and you have to decide what you are comfortable with. Once you make that decision, try not to look back.  Accept that you made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time.  That is all any of us can do, although it is up to you to make sure you truly do have as much information as you can in order to make an educated decision and reduce the overall amount of risk you take on.

My overall point is this:  Educate yourself,  make the best decision you can, live with that decision, and learn from that decision.  Learn does not mean beat yourself up over your decision if things go differently than you hoped.  It means to make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice.

So, next time you sell a stock only to see it triple in price over the next 6 months, don’t swear off stocks and get angry.  Accept that you cannot control all of the world’s circumstances and see if you need to adjust your trading/selling strategy.  Live and learn, and try not to regret.