Dreams mixed with a little silliness

“Somewhere over the rainbow way up high there is a land I heard of once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”

Sung by Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) Words and music by Harburg and Arland

It was the normal crazy week in the mortgage business. The dreaded words “Month End”. In addition, I am in the middle of test cases to obtain my credit authority.Yes, test cases.  I am earning Social Security and still taking test cases.  Fortunately, I only have to do 10 tests cases and I am getting ready to submit my fifth test case.  I have already successfully completed four.  I had to take the test cases since I left TD for a while and lending/credit authority isn’t grandfathered in.  When I first started at TD in 2011, I had to complete 25 successful test cases so 10 isn’t awful.  I am trying to squeeze them in during my normal work day.

In addition, my manger asked me to participate on a conference call since he was off the day of the call.  My response “sure”.

I accepted the meeting invite and moved on with my workday. 

The next day, I received the reminder it was meeting time. I hit the “join the meeting” notification.  As I looked at the page, I saw the words PRE-WORK.  PRE-WORK???? I do not do any pre-work. Oh boy. 

The meeting begins and I realize that the seven other individuals on the call are all directing their questions only at me! There are flow charts with so much info on each page.  I hate flow charts with their” if then, or, and, arrows, triangles and squares”.  I am using my laptop so I have to keep asking them to enlarge the chart.  About 15 minutes into the call I ask if it is too early to drink.  By the time the call ends, I am told they will send me more flow charts to review.  I ask if anyone has any aspirin?

Now it is time to get back to my test case.  I have totally lost my train of thought and file flow.  I have to start all over agin.

More importantly, I have to make sure Jennifer has gotten our Mega Million tickets. 

Hey, I can dream can’t i?

Soon the day is over thank goodness.

I am usually on the serious side.  Out of my siblings, I think I am the most serious.

Every now and then I get a case of the sillies.  My humor leans toward the sarcastic side.  Once you get to know me you get it.

Once the Mega Million numbers were drawn, we checked our numbers.

We had one number and Mega Bonus ball.

I looked it up and I have won $4.  Yes, $4.

For some reason, I found this incredibly funny.

I posted on FB, I would not be accepting calls today since I would be meeting with my accountant so he could advise me on how to invest my winnings. I was cracking myself up.

This morning I posted on FB that I had met with my CPA and he had advised me to take the lump sum distribution vs the 20 year payout.

I have decided to live on the edge and am throwing caution to the wind. I am taking the whole $4 and buying more lottery tickets! 

There is enough bad news going on in the world so why not some silliness to lighten things up a little.

And since I don’t get silly often except when I have had a few cocktails and then I think I am hilarious.

From the reactions I received on FB people thought my entries were pretty funny too.

Who can’t do with a little more laughter?

At least at the end of a stressful week, I found something to chuckle about.

Maybe,  I can roll my $4 in winning into $10 and from there $25.  The sky is the limit.

I can dream can’t I? And maybe laugh a little along the way.

See you next week.

PS something new I leaned this week. I don’t need to put two spaces after the period in a sentence on a computer.  This was only done in typewriter days.  Who knew?  Or am I just gullible and this is not true?

Sometimes it is about the Small Stuff

 I don’t think I am alone in putting up with little annoyances versus taking care of them. 

Then finally you have had enough.

My toilet had been running for days, well weeks ok being honest months.

It didn’t run all the time. 

It was a simple flush, lift the cover off the tank, push down the little rubber stopper and the water would stop running.  Then I would stand and wait to make sure the tank had filled up.

It’s crazy what we will ignore vs fixing.

The other night on one of my 3:00AM trips to the potty, I lifted the top of the tank and thought to myself, “This is crazy, I need to get this fixed.”

Yesterday, I called the local plumber who installed the new hot water heater last year. He was here in 45 minutes.  He then left to get the parts needed and was back in no time.  Within another 45 minutes, it was done.

For $138 including parts and labor, I can now flush and not wait.  

Small luxury.

Getting that issue resolved has gotten me thinking about the other “small” repairs that need to be done.

That also led me to a kind of wish list of projects to make my life a little easier or less annoying.

Time to get the sink in the bathroom that drains slowly taken care of.

Time to get the half of the kitchen ceiling light that is not working repaired.

My Bed frame is old.  It is supported by wood, plastic and some metal on the sides and wooden slats across the bottom of the box spring and mattress.  My dream is next bonus time is to get one of those beds where the head and feet can move up and down.  Then the frame won’t be as important but I still want it to be fixed. I am sure a handyman can somehow bend the frame and reattach the frame on the one side that is bent and broken.

See what I mean about putting up with things that can be fixed?

How about getting the handyman to replace the one, yes I said one missing bolt from the drop down stairs to the attic.  One bolt and I have put it off 5 years.  Instead each time someone climbs into the attic I say, “watch the steps there is a bolt missing.”

I have large mirrors in both bathrooms.  As happens with most older mirrors the parts around the edges are losing their mirror look.  A handyman could make a frame around the mirrors and cover the fading parts and painted the right color they would look pretty.

How wonderful would it be to have shelves on the wall of my garage.  I could store boxes and bins on them vs having them sit on the floor.  It might make more space.  Or even get some of those metal shelf units and have them attached to the walls so they don’t fall over.

I could also put some of the items stored within the house in the garage.  Some light things could go in the attic.  I have plenty of space up there but would need to decide what could be put up there that wouldn’t be needed often.

Decisions, decisions.

Jenn has done a great job painting some of the furniture in the past few years.  She just picked up some new paint to refresh some of her previous projects.  They show some of the normal daily wear and tear so a new coat of paint is just the kind of “small stuff” needing to be done.

Once those little jobs are done I go on to my big stuff list or dreams.

I have a walk in shower with a small step up into it.  I want one of those showers with a smooth floor to just walk right in add in a bench attached to the wall and finally a rain shower overhead faucet too (hey i might as well dream big).

The kitchen needs the most work.  New cabinet fronts, a new counter tops, new flooring, new sinks (one deep one and one regular one with no rim around the sink- nice to have a smooth edge), new faucets and new lighting too.

Oh and I would love to replace the old toilets with two new higher versions. (I did get an estimate on this)

Flooring throughout bedrooms, living room, dining room and hallways.

Oh and let’s add to the list a full inside painting.

I could even add a deck if I wanted but not sure if that would make sense money wise since I have the enclose porch with windows and screens that open.

Wow that’s a long list! Whew…..

Tackling the “small stuff” will make me happy and allows me to cross things off the list which gives me so much satisfaction.

The big ticket items can wait.  I am so lucky to have everything I do right now.  

Each day I wake up grateful for another day and feel blessed.

The “small stuff” can all be handled.

The “big stuff” who knows?  Eventually?

I don’t mind having the lists, it gives me focus and direction.

And those who know me well know I can wander without a clear path.

OK I have made a decision, next item on the list to take care of is the bolt on the attic stairs.

One less issue, concern or problem to take up worry space in my head.

As I clear out the worry space, it gives me more room to dream.

See you next week!

Movie memories

The first movie I ever saw in a theatre was “Tom Thumb”.  I remember my Dad and a pal of his taking my brother and I to a movie theatre on 149th St in the Bronx. I was mesmerized by the movie on a giant screen.

Then there were the hot summer nights when Dad and Mom would get us in our PJ’s and take us to the drive-in.  We would play in the playground until the movie was ready to start.  Then back to the car where they had set up pillows and blankets for us.  We kids always fell asleep before the second feature.  My parents brought snacks from home.  I always wished just one time Dad would take us to the snack bar to get something to eat.  Clearly it was not part of the budget.

Funny for me as a kid to think you had to be rich to go to the snack bar.

A few weeks ago I watched “The Sound of Music” for the first time in many years.

I traveled back in time to 1965 when my fourth grade class made a trip to the Rivoli Theatre in the city to see the movie. 

What a class trip!

The summer I was first married, my Dad told me he had seen two great movies we had to see, “E.T.”  and “An Officer and a Gentleman”.

We went to see them both at a drive-in. 

Great movies and great memories. 

Yesterday, the was a question about what was your favorite movie soundtrack on FB. 

The answers varied from “Saturday Night Fever” to “Dirty Dancing”.

My brother’s answer was “A Hard Days Night”.

Seeing his answer transported me back to 1964.  We were 9 and 11 years old. Mom was  not letting us go to the movies by ourselves at that point.  So Mom got a babysitter for my sister (sorry Cheryl) and took us to the movies.

There Mom stood all of 28 years old with her two children in a line of screaming teenagers waiting to give George and I a major treat.

I don’t think she hated the experience because as was common practice back then, she said we could stay and watch it again. Even through the screams  of the teenage girls. Hard to imagine you could just stay and watch a movie again without paying again to see it.

Another summer six years later, I was the one doing the treating.  I took my younger brother, Greg to see “Wille Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” probably 4-5 times within  a few weeks. 

It was not so much that he was enamored with the movie…..truth be told….I was enamored with the movie.

During my “Disco Days” , “Saturday Night Fever” was the movie to see with it’s great soundtrack.

The dancing, dresses and music was so much a part of my life during that time.

Before you know it, I am sitting through “Beauty and the Beast” with some Moms and Jenn’s friends as a birthday treat.  I remember one scene scared Jenn and a friend and they ended up sitting on my lap until the scary part was over.

Then along came Blockbuster and there was less reason to go to a movie when you could wait a few months and rent it for a lot less and keep it for 48 hours or a week depending on the newness or popularity of the movie.  I would stand guard at the return bin hoping for a recent release to be dropped in the return box. The phrase “be kind rewind” became part of our daily language.

We still occasionally went out to the movies like the evening I went with 15-20 coworkers to see one of the Twilight movies.

And recent releases like “Top Gun Maverick” are said to be must see’s in a theatre.

But for me, going out to a movie theatre might not happen anymore post COVID.

From my childhood, through adolescence, teenage years, newlywed, parent and adulthood the movies show what was popular at the time and in some ways the pattern of my life.

The last movie I went to see in a theatre was “It’s A Wonderful Life”.  Jenn and I made it a Christmas tradition to see it each year at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia a week before Christmas.  Seeing it on the big screen was such a treat and a great holiday event.

At the end of the movie, the audience always clapped, Jenn and I did too.

But now thanks to a certain Progressive commercial, I can hear the older man who is in all their commercials saying “No reason to clap.  No one involved in the movie is here” .  Too funny….

Happy 4th of July!!

God bless America!

See you next week!