Betty's Blog

April 2014 what's your favorite time of year? christmas? easter? the fourth of july? mine is right now... the day after i get through with my taxman! this great weight lifted from my shoulders! much like when you pull out the washer and dryer and wash the floor underneath... "now THAT job is done for now!" our guy is awesome. he has saved us a heap of money over the years. your four most trusted confidants: 1.-your taxman 2.-your doctor 3.-your lawyer 4.-your BEST friend my husband has told me that if you can have just ONE actual true friend in your lifetime, you are extremely lucky. the rest of the people you call your "friends" are, in fact, just acquaintances. people grow apart, move apart, develop different interests, etc. But a best friend knows all your secrets, never tells them, is the only one you would call for bail money, and the only one who stands beside you, no matter what. but you knew that already, didn't you?

Lamps I love lamps. Did you know that I offer a Lamp Service! I love making lamps beautiful again. Bring me your old, tired lamps and I give them a (yes, I'm going to say it)... lamplift! Sometimes they need to be re-wired. Sometimes they need a new shade with some kind of trim on it, a new harp, a new finial... Whatever it needs, I can do it. I've had a lot of happy customers! My Mom was Head Designer at the Greatwestern Lamp Co. that was in Forest City many years ago. She taught me all about lamps and how to choose a shade and make it look right. I'm grateful to her for that as well as everything else she taught me. So let me shed some light on your lamp problem!

Vernal Equinox Did you see that full moon just a few nights ago? gorgeous! there is a male cardinal who has daily beak-bumps with the rear-view mirror on my car. the last of the ice is melting off the roof of my north building and dripping into the back of the back room of the store. i'd like to find a remedy for that, but none is forthcoming. i've been neglecting to put my hood up lately. and sometimes not putting on my gloves. everywhere is the sound of dripping, running water. the air is still cold, but refreshing. i'm not parking in back of the house until it dries up some so i don't make deep ruts. tax refunds are appearing along with people anxious to use them. spring, my dear watson, has sprung!

Wrong Number i have a toll-free "888" number for the store and have had it for about 15 years now. lately, i have been getting a LOT of wrong number calls from people thinking that they are calling some legal aid number. i was able to figure out that the legal aid number is the same as mine except it is "800" instead of "888". i have spent a lot of time trying to find out why people keep dialing the wrong number. i found out that someone at the legal aid office has been giving out the wrong area code and it's been printed wrong on some cards that have been handed out. either way, the company has promised me that they will try to fix the problem. but i still keep getting the calls! and in case you don't know how a toll-free number works, it's the company you are calling who pays for the call! so my store is paying for toll-free calls from all over the country that do me absolutely no good! very frustrating! so yesterday, i decided to h...

Flying Squirrel we are all aging... some more gracefully than others. but there is one thing that i truly do not understand. exactly what is the purpose of those weird flappy parts under my upper arms??? bat wings? dewlaps? am i turning into a flying squirrel? so i went to wikipedia and learned that i have BINGO WINGS!!! Bingo wings Large, saggy flaps of skin under the arm are colloquially known as bingo wings, after the phrase was popularized by the comedy television program Bo' Selecta (about ten years ago)! Bingo wings is the build-up of fat and/or extra skin that hangs from the underside of the upper arms (i.e. over the triceps). It occurs most frequently in elderly and overweight people. The problem may also occur after significant weight loss, with flaps of loose skin remaining. The term itself apparently originated from the bingo hall custom of raising one's arm aloft and bellowing "Bingo!" The relevance of the term is that when claiming a bingo pr...

The River Everyone dies. whenever i watch an old movie, i like to look on www.imdb.com to see all the films the actors have made and if they are still alive... or if they are dead, when did they die and of what. were they married? how many times? any children? life is such a gift! countless authors have written about this short time we have here on this earth. but it doesn't really register until you wake up and realize that your own time here has an end. you think about what will happen to my family? will they be close? or drift apart? will they even remember me? will they tell their grandchildren about me? but that sounds like i'm only interested in my own destiny. and that would not be true. i like living in the town in which i grew up. i can go down each street and look at each house and remember all the people who used to live there. i can remember all the store fronts from my childhood and all of the different businesses that have already come and gone. i rem...

a february thought ...yes it's cold. yes, you are getting tired of winter. yes, you just want it to be over. i don't. i just know that the first 90 degree day that we have i am going to be wishing for a nice -7 degrees. no sweat. instead of complaining about the weather, how about being thankful you are here on this earth? with food in your belly and a roof over your head! and if you still feel like complaining, how about look into selling your house and moving south so that the rest of us can enjoy our weather?! something to think about.