Stranded in Hazard-but only for a little while

So let me start by saying that today was a monumentally crappy day…  I got up- a little earlier because my bladder was yelling at me.  Got ready for work, had my coffee and walked out to my car.  I climb in and
Nothing. Nothing . Nothing. It wouldn’t start.  No click, no wheezing-nothing.

No big deal, we took Joe’s truck (I drove because I am a terrible passenger-white knuckles the whole bit-I blame my Dad but that is a story for another time.)  Joe noticed one of his tires was a little low and we were going to stop for air on the way to work but the one place was too busy and the other was inconvenient-we’ll stop on the way home.

We got to Hardee’s for breakfast-they took a little longer than usual, no big deal we can make up the time… Then we discovered that they forgot my straw… And I knew the universe was screwing with me.  I had about 50% crazy customers all day-there were some really good customers too.  The day seemed to fly till my last customer of the day… trying to authenticate him (we have to ask security questions) was like pulling teeth.  What should have been a 3 minute call was 20 minutes and I left work frustrated.

We got in the truck to head to Food City for air and PowerBall tickets.  I better go the speed limit with the way my day has gone.    

10 minutes from work… fwump fwump fwump fwump.  It wasn’t just flat, the tire was shredded.  So we pulled into the lot of this little auto body shop.  A police Officer pulled in right behind us to make sure we were okay-“thank you Sir, just a flat.  I’m going to call Mom for help.”  I had to walk up the road a little to get cell service (thank Heavens I didn’t forget it.)  We wait-it took Mom about 45 minutes to get to us… we listened to my iPod. I mentioned that I was thinking just yesterday that I need to find a way to spend more time outside and Joe said “just not this way.”  We stood and waited… the gentleman who owns the lot was nice enough to let us leave the truck there overnight.

Mom came to get us and I drove us to Wal-Mart to get a tire iron… There are few things that can make me feel better when I’m having a rough time of things… one of those is chocolate but I’m trying to cut back, one is alcohol and I try not to indulge too often because I have an addictive personality and the other is PJs.  PJs, jommies, jammys, pajamas whatever you call them, them make me happy.  I like nice soft ones with fun prints or pretty shiny stuff.  I’ve haven’t bought any lately because I haven’t needed them.  When we got to Wal-Mart I made a bee-line to the PJs.  I considered the cotton night shirts with the Halloween themes, the flowered flannel nightgowns and fuzzy sleep pants but I decided to go with the soft pink pajamas with the darker pink bows and the little black scotty dogs.  They make me smile.

We went back to get Joe’s tire and then home.  Unloaded Mom’s car and went to see if we could get my car to start. The *bleep* *bleep* started on the first try…  Grrrr. While we were putting the tire in the trunk of my car we talked about how everything happens for a reason… better for this to happen while Joe could have help and not while he was on the way to visit his kids, in a spot with no cell signal.  And I would not have gotten the new jommies.

I am wearing the scotty dog jommies right now… I know that when I go to bed I’ll wake up and tomorrow will be another day and it is bound to be better than today.

Thanks again for coming to rescue us, Mom.

As seen on television

The US has a great history of ordering stuff through the mail.  It started with the local mercantile or General Stores.  If there was something you needed, they would order it for you.  And, of course, you would have to wait forever for it to arrive and it was really expensive.

Then the catalog came along… One of the most famous and longest running was Sears and Roebuck.   We had a reproduction Sears & Roebuck catalog when I was growing up… I loved to look through at all the interesting things that could be ordered.   Sears started with watches.  Then he partnered with Roebuck and they added bicycles, farm equipment, cars, dolls, clothes, indoor toilets and eventually houses.  When I looked it up, I learned that Ben Franklin had a catalog order business selling science and academic books.

Around the 1930s, people could order stuff from the ads in the back of comic books and magazines.  In the 70s it was things like Sea Monkeys.  You can still order stuff from the back of comic books-mostly back issues.  Mail order this way was tricky.  Some of the ads were honest- some made the product sound much more exciting than it really was.  You may not have seen it but what springs to mind is an episode of The Waltons.  John Boy wants to build muscle so he orders the body building kit from a mail-order ad featuring a strong man type illustration.  When the ‘kit’ arrives, it’s just a booklet about resistance training.  When he is discovered, John Boy gets the “if it seems too good to be true-it probably is” talk from Daddy. 

Now we can order from tv, catalog, magazine and internet.  We can order just about anything… We would never have to leave our homes again.  I order fun shirts and electronics from Woot.com, books from Amazon and craft stuff (including yarn) from Crafty.com

But Wait-There’s More!

In the 1990s the Infomercial took over.  Exercise videos, diet systems, gadgets to make our lives easier and better.  Not that the infomercial is bad-it brought us some awesome products: Bare Minerals, Oxi-Clean and others.   You’ve seen them and probably thought about buying one or ten… sandwich maker, pajama jeans, pocket fisherman, stompies, and the Old Brooklyn Lantern.

As I’ve told you in the past- Mom watches a lot of Hallmark Movie Channel.  I have been convincing her that there are better things on TV than watching those movies all day.  So now most of what she sees on HMC is Murder She Wrote and other mystery shows on the weekends (This weekend is Perry Mason.)  The result of watching all this HMC is that we see all the short infomercials all the time.

Because of these infomercials, I visit the “As seen on TV” section of Wal-Mart and Magic Mart.  I have an alumawallet, Magic Mesh, Salon Express and the Genie Bra.  And Mom got herself and Orgreenic Skillet.  The infomercial for each of these is true… but there is always that little extra that they leave out.
My Genie bras are great, comfortable and supporting-kind of like a sports bra that lifts and separates.  What you don’t know is that they come with these triangle panels that you have to remove before washing and reinsert after.  The bras would work without the panels but they would not lift or separate.  Plus, you have to pull it up to get it positioned right.  I tried to pull it on over my head to my waist then pull it up from there, it rolled up and I had to take it off to get it unrolled.  My only problem with my Alumawallet is that it isn’t big enough.  We have used the Magic Mesh so well that it is falling apart.  The Orgreenic isn’t better than any other non-stick skillet.  The Salon Express needs a steady hand, room to spread out and special nail polish.

That said-I still buy this stuff… and what I’m really waiting for is Tag-Away, a supposedly natural way to remove skin tags.  2 bottles for $19.99 plus shipping and handling…

Odd little car

I love cars.  I especially love old and uncommon cars.  I daydream about going to car shows and interviewing car owners and taking photos of the owners with their cars for a classic car blog.

 A couple weeks ago, Mom and I were headed to Jenny Wiley Theater in Prestonsburg, KY. To see Grease-it was great, by the way.   We drove past this little car lot.  At the back of the lot I saw a little tan car that looked like an old Volvo or VW station wagon-but I knew it was neither.    I’ve been bothered by it since…What is it?  Where was it made? How much do they want for this odd little car?

Today I went back to Prestonsburg after spending my time at the library.  Aptly enough, the little car lot is called Little Auto Sales.  I parked and walked straight to this odd tan car.  Walked around it, opened the door and looked in.  And I took photos…

When the lot owner came over, I asked questions.  This is a 1967 Trabant- Manual 4 on the column-yes I said on the column, 2-cylinder.  He has done a bunch of work on it: new rubber around the doors, new seat covers and he has a tail light cover for the left side that he’s replacing this week.  He is asking $3995 for it.  I didn’t ask to look under the hood but I should have-I’ve never seen the innards of a 2-cylinder.

After getting home, and showing the photos seen above, I Googled Trabant.  They were made in East Germany… and they were very economical for the time.  It would not be a very good every day car.  It’s a collector’s car.  I imagine it’s slow (being a 2-cylinder,) loud and hard on gas.  It is cool looking though.  And getting to see it up close was totally worth the trip.

If you want to know more about these, Wikipedia has a page for the Trabant

I feel so old

I’m almost 40-Will be on Dec 30^th if you want to send gifts (I like gifts.)  I rarely feel or think of myself as my age; most of the time, in my head, I’m closer to 28 and apparently I look like I could claim it.  There are times when I’ll be talking to someone and think that they are within 5 years of my age, only to find later that they are 25!  Then there are times when I’ll be talking to someone and think they are way older…he was 35 but I think it may have been the bad mustache!

For most of my life I have felt younger; I think it had something to do with being younger in grade school.  I was right at the end of the cutoff date for starting kindergarten.  In grade school all but one of my classmates was older than me.  Then when I got to High School, I was the youngest in my graduating class-I think this may be a contributing factor in my inferiority complex.  It’s my own fault- when registration time came, my parents let me decide.  I sometimes wonder how differently I would have been had I chosen to wait.

There are a few things that make me feel my age:

finding out someone I used to babysit for is married with teenage children.

Seeing how grown the children of my family and friends are-especially if I haven’t seen the child in years.

Trying to go without sleep-I love to sleep and the thought of an all-nighter now scares the crap out of me.  I was a teen librarian for over 5 years and teens LOVE Lock-Ins-they get all hyper and sugar loaded.  The last one I worked was as a favor for a friend (I had already been fired and wanted to feel connected to the library field again)-it took about 4 cups of coffee, lots of candy and hyper teens to keep me going all night… I had fun then I went home and slept for 8 straight.

And now I can add road trips-not all road trips… just ones that include my Mom and shopping.  Last weekend we went to Dayton, OH for my Cousin Susie’s wedding reception.  The drive there was fine, we spent the night before in Lexington at Paul and Lori’s house (older brother and his wife-who puts up with us a lot.) The reception was great, laid back and very casual.  The hotel -Hampton Inn and Suites- was wonderful… mmm squishy bed with squishy pillows…if only there had been a hot tub. Nice helpful staff and hot breakfast included.  Sunday was the shopping day-I knew this going into the trip-I was the one using Google Maps.  I knew as soon as I had both Jungle Jim’s International Market and Sam’s Club on the same day I was in trouble.  I made Mom agree that we weren't going through ALL of Ikea this time.  There were a few other stops in there too… mostly places at least 2 hours from home.  We finally finished at Sam’s at around 6PM and headed toward home.  My back hurt from walking at Mom’s slower pace and I was glad that I had worn sneakers and had flip-flops to change into.

We pulled unto Food City in Hazard to “get the last few things on my list” (-Mom) at around 11:30. I fell asleep in the car while Mom went in to get bread and OJ.  I was completely wiped out the next day and I’m not sure I’ve completely recovered yet.  Today I feel about 35, so I’m almost there.

The Oil Change

I take my car to a mechanic for oil changes.  Now, that sounds a lot fancier than it is.  When I lived in Cincinnati, I would take it to someplace like Jiffy-Lube.  Most of what they do is oil changes with the occasional radiator flush and tire rotation; you are in and out in about 20 minutes if they aren't busy.  Here there is one fast lube place, a Wal-Mart and dozens of little mechanic’s garages.

If you’ve never been to a small town mechanic-it’s hard to describe.  I show up, tell them who my kin is (that means relatives in case you didn’t know) and they treat me like they’ve known me all my life… Ask after my family and neighbors; ask what I do and the like- all the while, letting me watch and ask questions about what they’re doing while they’re working under the car.  There are always 3-6 men in the garage whether they work there or not and at least one will be really old and missing teeth.  They always seem really interested that I would bring my car to a mechanic without male accompaniment.

A few months ago, I was having some trouble with my car; it was loud and didn’t have as much power as it should.  I took it to this place Mom told me about, apparently my brother-in-law worked there for a little while.  Mike was able to tell me what was wrong just by lying down in front of the car and wiggling a few things underneath.  I went to get cash-he doesn’t take plastic and Mom is one of the few people he’ll take a check from.  An hour after getting back to his garage, I was on the road with a new flex tube and a much quieter car.  And when I took the car back because the weld had failed and my car sounded like crap again, he said they had messed up and then fixed it without any hassle or charge.

So I walk in this morning and Mike asks how I’m doing-“fine and you?”  Then I ask after the possibility of an oil change-he says “pretty good” Mike asks if I want to leave the car or come back in a couple of hours.  I said “I’ll bring it back” and that’s the end of the conversation… he goes back to standing under the truck looking at the underside while the owner tells him what’s wrong with it. 

Oil changes, used tires and other small things are what keep small local garages in business.  I’d rather have my oil changed at Mike’s any day-his prices are fair, he’s fast and if anything is ever really wrong with my car, I know the name of a good mechanic.  Plus it keeps life far more interesting than spending 20 minutes sitting on a molded plastic chair.

In a couple minutes it will have been a couple hours and time to take the car back. 

I LOVE food

I Love to try new and different foods.

I especially love to try foods that go with places. I think of these as Vacation Foods; unique foods in new and different places.   One of the times when I went to visit BFF Sean in Boston, we went to this wonderful little microbrewery near Fenway park-they made the best burger and I had the hard cider they make to go with it… ommmmmmmm nomnom.  

On a different trip to Boston, Sean drove me up to Maine, where we wandered around on a rainy afternoon and stopped in a little town on the coast to eat… I had the crab cakes-they were wonderful-crabby and crispy.  On that same trip, we took a train to Salem on Halloween, for Samhain (pronounced sow an) a Wiccan Celebration about nature, the elements and compass directions.  What felt like thousands of people in the park all walked down to Old Salem after the Gathering.  Sean and I ended up in little Mom and Pop Pizza place; the pizza was great but the place was packed and you know how I feel about crowds.  We also wandered around in the psychic fair food booths and some of the open stores.  I bought my Nightmare Before Christmas metal lunchbox there.

Last summer I went to Santa Claus, IN with Mom and my sister’s family.  We mostly ate normal stuff like IHOP, amusement park food and stuff cooked at the campsite- my brother-in-law, Jamie is a great cook-so that was all good.  But we decided we were going to try something different-we went to a little place on the side of the road that sells buffalo burgers.  The burgers were good, but they were overpriced and small, we all ended up having to order a second burger.  If you ever eat there-be prepared.

The trip with the most memorable food was when I went to China.  Stephen, a friend from college who has been living in China since he graduated took me to some very interesting places to eat and I was really glad I took the Imodium with me.  I flew into Kunming, Stephen met me at the Airport, took me to the Hostel to drop my stuff, and then we went to find dinner.  About a block from the Hostel was a little street stall selling noodles and grilled squash with red pepper powder.  The food was spicy-but tasty.  Even though the travel books warn people away from them, we ate at street stalls most of the time I was there; spicy soups with noodles, meat grilled on sticks, Over the bridge soup (a local specialty mentioned in the travel books) and one particular little stall that warmed rounds of tortilla looking things slathered with stuff that looked like thick molasses then wrapped around a puffy dough glob… it was wonderful-squishy, sweet and warm; Mmmm better than doughnuts.

I met Stephen’s local friends and they were so honored to have an American to entertain, that they took me for a fancy dinner.  We were in a private room at somewhere or other and we were served all kinds of special dishes-the only one I remember was the deep fried bee larvae-it was crunchy. At another place, I got to try Hot Pot-we walked into what looked like a storage space full of kindergarten sized chairs and tables.  The tables each had a hole with a propane tank under it.  We picked the split bowl with fish stock in one side and spicy in the other.  They lit the tank flame to heat the stock and we went to pick vegetables and meats to add.  We added the stuff to the stock and waited for it to cook- it was so good.  If I could afford it, I would go back to China for the food alone but there are other places on my dream travel list to visit first.

I eat some interesting things at home too.  Some that I come up with myself-like whole pickles eaten with walnut pieces-a bite of pickle then a couple of walnut pieces… good combo.  I may try making it into a relish at some point.

Some of the things I end up eating at home don’t go so well-like the time Mom combined macaroni and cheese with ground beef and bean sprouts… It was just wrong-crunchy and squishy and the flavors didn’t go together.  I prefer tomatoes with my mac-n-cheese and ground beef.

Lost in Hindman

I’m a little OCD about my hair.  If it’s something small like my bangs being too long-I can fix that.  If it’s a fundamental structure issue like that I can tell one side is longer than the other, I want to get that fixed by a professional.  I’ve been trying different stylists since I got home (because I hadn’t found THE ONE) so when I heard that Trent- a friend from high school was reopening his hair salon, I decided to wait till he was open and give him a try… I patiently waited a couple of weeks and set an appointment for yesterday.  I was so excited; not only was I getting my hair cut I was going to get to see a friend I hadn’t seen in years.

 I got up and left the house a little early-to give myself time to find his shop.  I got into downtown Hindman-drove up Main St. (which takes about 3 minutes) and didn’t see the shop.  I drove down Main St. and still didn’t see the shop.  I was about to freak out when I saw Stacy, Trent’s wife and kids walking through downtown.  I parked my car and ran/shuffled (1. I don’t run and 2. I was wearing flip flops) to meet up with her.  I got to where she was and I was all “OMG Stacy! Where is the shop- I’m so late!”  Stacy-looking a little shell shocked- told me how to get there… She started with “Do you know where ______ used to be?”  Of course I didn’t… After quickly getting directions (thanks Stacy-sorry about the shell shock,) I left Stacy and ran back to my car.
Back on the road, I headed toward the OTHER part of Main St. again looking for the shop on both sides of the street-I got all the way to Leburn-about 5 minutes then turned around and since I hadn’t thought to take Trent’s number with me, I called home.  It was early enough that Mom and Joe weren’t out of bed yet.  I had to call three times before I got a person.  While I parked the car in front of two simple trailers, Mom woke Joe; he looked up the number.  While he was doing that, I looked around and saw it… the number! Then I saw the sign-THE CUTTING EDGE right there.  I had parked in front of the shop by accident.  I said something pithy like son of a B**** I was 17 minutes late.

I rushed in and told the epic tale of finding The Cutting Edge.  We laughed.  Trent cut my hair; it looked great and then I went to spend my day cataloging books at the library.  Later, when I met up with Mom and Joe for Chinese food and grocery shopping Joe said “How did you get lost in Hindman? …That should be your blog name.”

Just so you know… I did not get lost in Hindman.  I knew exactly where I was-I just didn’t know where I was supposed to be going-kind of like my life. 

Keep an eye out for my new blog of book reviews to be announced later. 
Edit- Here's the review site: http://bookreviewsfromnowhere.blogspot.com/
first review should be on there tonight.