Oh Yeah!!!

Damn, I'm too old for this stuff. Friday night (My) Syracuse Orangemen won in 6 overtimes. Then on Saturday they had to go one extra period to win again. It has been a fun couple of nights watching the games.I haven't had the endorphins howling like this in a long time. Now they go tonight against Louisville for the tournament championship. It's almost going to be anticlimactic. How can you ask them to dig down one more night and Larry the Cable guy em? We shall see.

I told you the other day I had to go see the WC's employment guy. Let's call him Mike.(only because that's what his name is) Well Mike wants me to start looking for work,which in itself doesn't seem like a bad idea. I've worked for like 42 of my 55 years why should I stop now. I feel like emotionally I'm ready. The last time I tried. The part time van driver job I tried to take didn't go so well. I couldn't take it with the house move,coming down off a pretty extreme manic episode and crashing and burning into a depression that saw me hospitalized twice in a two week period. Good times! Really lousy time to try to go to work,what with half of America out of a job. Well in the mean time. I'm in a mild depression now. {Relative to the last one anyway} but my problem is my hip and leg are bothering me quite a bit. I just can't stand or walk for more than 5 minutes at a time without my hip burning like crazy.I was out pooper scooping the yard the other day and it took about 15 minutes you would think I ran a marathon for the way my hip and lower back were burning when I waddled back into the house. I read of some of you guys walking and I'm envious.Not to the point of wanting to short sheet your bed or anything but... I'm just having a hard time dealing with the physical limitations. It's not just a matter of willing my way through this. I can't drink another cup of coffee or get out and walk around the truck at a rest area to wake up. Just to make that damn appointment at the Grocery warehouse.{At which time I still might sit waiting to back in for 4 hours after my appointment}( but I digress again) I've always had a mental toughness a don't give up kind of spirit. The physical limitations have kicked my butt though. But I shall try again. I think it's time. Hell, my female hormones must be kicking in, I'm starting to sound like I have PMS or something.

So Mike (can I call you mike) has 3 pieces of paper with a potential job on each one. The first one he shows me is for a part time sales job which is a sales job (high pressure) at East Coast resorts,which is a camp ground membership sales gig. How do I know they are high pressure you ask? Because Cindy and I are members there and were lucky to get out of there by the hair on our chiny chin chins when we bought (got suckered) into our membership. So I told Mike I wouldn't work there even if they paid me a million dollars a week. Mike, I've reconsidered if you can get them to pay me that I'll go to work for them for a month. That ought to set me up pretty good. If that happens my friend (yeah that's right only one) and family will be getting a call. Not to offer them any money,but to buy into the camp ground. The second job he had to show me was for working on an assembly line putting together things like jewelry and such. I'm about as dexterous as Nancy Pelosi in a truth telling seminar. It just taint happening. The third and last one was for being a Census taker for the up coming census. I figured I could do this. I would get a break driving between each house because out where I live the houses are spread out a little so I would have to drive to get there giving the ole hip/leg a a break. Well I called the number on the paper he gave me. After being connected to a real live person (after pressing one for English) and he told me they had enough people in my area right now to check back in the fall. Yeah right me and the other 10,000 people in the greater Syracuse area looking for work.So to make this really long post come to an end. I'm going to go down Monday and sign up down at the Unemployment office in Fulton. We shall see. For those of you that read this whole post and wish to leave a comment you'll get a ten word discount on my next post if you mention the code word (Whiner). See ya!

Complaint Department!

 

Ok you get one complaint make it a good one!

Why?

 

I'm trying to conjure up a post. I just don't feel very motivated to even try today. How do you make "I'm watching TV,taking the dog out to go potty, and playing on the computer" very interesting? See even you don't have an idea do you? I have an appointment with the employment counselor hired by the Workman's Compensation Insurance carrier tomorrow at 11:00. I've already let him know that I'm pretty limited to what I can do. I can't stand for more that 5 min. and walking very far is out of the question. Hell maybe I can get a job in Government. I can move paper from one side of the desk to the other every once in a while. I'll have to hold out for a good computer on my desk so I can get online while I'm at work. Momma and I are going to go to lunch after my appointment. Besides that I don't have much else going on. Oh wait!! Tonight was Pot Pie night. MMMMM good. As some of you already know,they aren't homemade but they're still pretty good.

I'll close with this little bit of wisdom from my favorite words of wisdom web site.

Money Fun Fact
Presidents George Washington and John Adams had to employ protection money - paying off certain pirates in the Mediterranean Sea with a couple of million dollars - while Congress debated the creation of a U.S. navy.Source: absolutetrivia.com
Save Money at SavingAdvice.com      See things haven't changed much. We're still paying off certain Pirates we just call them Congressmen now.

Honest Abe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"So I said to him,Barack,I know Abe Lincoln,and you ain't him."

Artist: Andy Thomas

Ya know I've been thinking some lately. I know. No I didn't hurt myself. Everybody likes to rail on the rich and say that they are greedy and money grabbing. To some degree some of the rich have been. For those that have built up their business in the U.S. taken it somewhere else because they could save money on taxes or more so to save in labor cost. I say pox on there houses. But another way to look at it is.

We as a people work for someone else as a rule. {Well if your not laid off right now anyway} We depend on them for our income. Which we then turn into Rent,food and the other necessities of life. So what I'm  trying to say is we gave our right for self determination as it relates to income to someone else. We're at the whim and fancy of "the man''. I've posted on it before a while back, back in the good ole days, 90% of America worked for themselves. So maybe it's time we got back to those days. I know many of us probably can't or just don't want to take the chance on self employment because it seems risky.

The more people that get laid off the worse it's going to get. What's the Government going to do when the top income workers that pay the taxes are broke?  Where are  they going to get the money for all the Social Programs they want to ramp up? The unemployment rate right now is 8.1%. But there is a hidden under employed market with many people working part time because that's all they can get, that brings this number up quite a bit higher. Is there something you know how to do that you could do for yourself in your own business?

In the back of my mind I'm keeping open the possibility of maybe getting into expediting down the road. I think it's something I could do physically but I'm not sure. It's fun to dream about it though. Here is a link to a site about expediting that I go to all the time. Now isn't the time to do this as the loads just aren't there. If you read through the forums on this site you can get a taste for just how bad it is. Some people are sitting around days for loads after getting empty.Of course any possibility of doing it at all  would  depend on Momma wanting to go with me, which probably ain't going to happen any time soon as she really likes her job and all. But like the Ny lottery always says. "Hey you never know". There's justa something that gets in you when you've done that kind of thing for a living that is hard to get out of your system.

So I'm going to close with this little bit of wisdom. For years we've been like frogs sitting in the pot. It was great while the water was comfortable we just sort of hung around and enjoyed. Well as the water started getting warmer and some of our buddies started either getting plucked out or jumped out while the getting was good, we said to our selves ah good more room for me. But now that the water is boiling and they're coming after us it's a different story isn't it? Our way of life is slowing eroding around us.Any ideas what we can do to stop it?

Oh really?

There has been a clamoring out there for me to do another post. Ok,not clamoring. 1 person mentioned it casually. I justa haven't felt the drivel that I had meandering through my mind was worthy of a post. You know I had beaten this dead horse for all it was worth. It was time to move on to some new subjects.  I fully intend to do that. But first. I was at a new blog I happened across that describes me pretty well in it's name You really should check it out here. I'm quite shocked really I wouldn't believe it had I not seen it myself. He has a picture of one of the regular readers of this blog in the link here. I  wasn't going to  link to it... in the interest of full discloser and to let everyone that is planning on taking the trip to Cancun with us, I wanted to let you see a recent photo of her. I'm not going to out this person by name. You know who you are. It doesn't make me think any less of you really. If the truth be known I really wouldn't mind sharing adjoining rooms.  Ahem...

Now on to my promise. If any of you read Momma's blog post recently the beast has moved on to his reward. It's amazing how the death of a pet can have such a profound effect on you. I mean,it's not as if I played with the damn bird every day. He was a parakeet for crying out loud. But the last few days of watching him struggle to get up on the rail to feed him self and just sit in the corner of the cage, were just really painful to watch. He had the name Beast for a reason. He was one tough hombre. I wish I had half the gonads that he did. He led a full live and went down swinging. I realize now how much of a pansy I have become. I used to perceiver no matter what. Now I'm into full whine mode.

I continue to have this cloud of depression over me. It's like that rain cloud that follows Linus all the time. It's been around for like a month now and seems to be inching ever lower. My ability to get irritated is on high alert. It's like at a drop of a hat I can get aggravated. Good thing I'm on Wellbutrin. My Quack (did I say that out loud?) wanted to know if I wanted him to add something else for a while. They are so quick to just throw pills at you. I told him I thought I would be ok. I'd let him know if I needed anything else. It's amazing though isn't it. Heck, I could have just said yeah doc I'll take some of this,some of that... It's weird they always ask if I am feeling suicidal. I know,I know it's their job. I must project this look that prompts it. So in the interest of full disclosure "I am not suicidal" Although I haven't read Stan's latest comment yet.

I'll close with a fun thing. Our blogging buddy Ana from Brazil has a neat little Geography tester there on her site. Check it out. It will test ya a little bit. I drove all over most of North America in my driving career so that helped me a little. Ana hasn't said rather she's coming on the trip to Cancun yet.

Day after hump day

 

Some of you have been mentioning that we ought to start up a get off the weight club. I've done some research and come up with a resort for our first meeting. Check this place out Peter of Pyr fame has agreed to pay our way on this trip. It seems he was one of the 10 people in New Jersey that won the Mega million jackpot the other day. I for one take back half of what I've been saying bad about you. Your a (stan)d up guy thank you!

Here's another little ditty from my side bar that none of you probably saw. Very interesting stats.

Money Fun Fact
There are 5 million households in the United States with net worth in excess of $1 million. About 2.7 million of these households have at least $1 million in liquid assets not including homes. This compares with a net worth of only $35,000 for the average American household. Source: millbill.com
Save Money at SavingAdvice.com

Stephany, Indy found this on line today. I caught him in here on the computer. He has taken to going on some of your guys blogs and making stupid comments. Please forgive me.  He fakes lying down with me to take a nap. Soon as I'm snoring he's getting on line. Stan,all the put downs have come from Indy. I would never say half of the things that he has said to you in comments. I apologize.

Red box

 

 

 

How can you go wrong for $1.00? Cindy and I have gotten to where we rent a movie at Red Box every so often. Aren't I a cheap bastard? Well remember that last time we went to the movies it cost us $29.00? $.50 for gas,$1.00 for the movie and pop corn at home sure beats that.I didn't have any goobers. How in the heck are you supposed to watch a movie without goobers. 

 

 

Has any one else out there been watching the show "The Biggest Loser"? {I don't think it's fair they named a show after me without getting my permission} Anyway, It is kind of inspiring to watch all the changes. I'm getting somewhat motivated to try to lose myself again. I've gone on tears where I can lose 50lbs. The problem is I gain it all right back. I'm sure many of you can relate. What I need is a good Manic episode. My last one I lost over 50 lbs. I'm only half kidding. The last one ended up with us buying the house we live in now. Although it turned out ok I did end up in two hospitalizations for depression at the end. I definitely can't do that again. I pretty much refuse to go into a Psych ward again.

I went out to Lenny's {My social worker} for my twice a month session. He says he can tell I'm into a pretty good dip. Meaning the depression is pretty strong right now.   We'll see how I'm doing then.I glad I'm on the Wellbutrin or no telling how low I would go. I sleep about 5 hrs at night then still have to take a morning and an afternoon nap. I'm hoping that when Spring gets here I can try to take some walks.  I'm not sure how far I'll get with my knee and hip and all, but I'm determined to try anyway. I'm sure Indy would appreciate it. He's bulked up some this winter too. For some reason when I go out to the kitchen to get a snack he thinks he's entitled to one also.

I have a new policy about paying the Mortgage I want to talk over with momma. It's called Don't Pay and the Messiah will pay if for you plan. What do you think? Our mortgage is $699.00 per month. If I just don't pay it for 3 or 4 months. I pop off a letter to Comrade Obama and ask him to write a check for it. What do you think? It's a rather simple plan I know. But I think it could work.

NO COFFEE

A couple of more images that the fine folks at Google we're nice enough to let me borrow.

 

I decided to change my header on this blog. It seems the CIA is following Stan everywhere he goes now. So because of him I must be on the list of people to harass. Everyday now for the last couple of weeks my phone has been ringing once or twice when I pick it up no one is there. So I've decided to throw them off track. Maybe they would think this is a legitimate blog if I had the truck staring them in the face.

The American Farmer and Business Owner

A man owned a small farm in Alabama. The Alabama Wage and Hour Dept. claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.

“I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent.

“Well,” replied the rancher, “There’s my ranch hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week plus free room and board.

The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 per week plus free room and board. Then there’s the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.”

“That’s the guy I want to talk to, the half-wit,” says the agent.

“That would be me,” replied the farmer.

The joke is courtesy of The backwoods home.com it's an interesting site about saving money,living off the land and stuff like that. Heck the way we're going we are going to all have to go back to the days of living off the land and hunting for our food. Do you hear that Stan. No more Sunday dinners at Nancy Pelosi's house.

There's a push on for Truck driving schools to fill up their remaining training spots. There is a local tv station's article that I responded to. You can see it here read it then go to the comments. You'll see where yours truly jumped in with his big mouth. I justa can't help myself sometimes.There are a couple of other places across the country doing the same story must be an overriding theme.It seems to me that the article's should be researched more and the truth about what it's really like for the over the road driver. In this kind of economy people are willing to take just about any kind of job that they can get. But if you have a family and you think that jumping in a truck is going to be the end all,you got another think coming. To make any money at all,$35,000 to $40,000 your going to have to stay out for 2 weeks at a time or more. You see just how big this country is real quick. You don't just come zipping home from Texas if you live in Syracuse If your single and want to travel, I say go for it. It can be an adventure of sorts. (If you count grumpy receivers and dirty bathrooms) an adventure. I hope I'm not sounding to negative here. I really did enjoy the freedom of the open road, the no boss looking right over your shoulder,the stopping when I wanted to stop as long as I was on time with my load,some of the beautiful views you get from that left seat. I just wanted to put a real spin albeit a little negative one without going into to long of a diatribe.

Sorry I wandered away from usual babbling on about nothing  I'll probably be back to that on my next post.

Chocolate Candy

Image is courtesy of google Images.

 

I used this image today so I would be sure that Stephany,and Precious Rock would read it. You can have two each then pass the bag on. I hope you all enjoyed my 300th post. I put quite a bit of work into it. It took me hours to write it. I was going to take a break today from blogging to rest up from it. But noooooo, here I am persevering,going above and beyond just to get my words of wisdom onto your computer screen. Damn, I'm starting to sound like Stan again.

As some of you know I used to drive truck. It's something I did for a long time so it's kind of hard to get it out of my system. So to keep myself in touch with  being on the road I check in on quite a few different trucking blogs. There are really some pretty good ones out there that really paint a pretty good picture of what it's like to be on the road. I have put a few on my side bar for you to check out if you feel so inclined. You can really get into the mind and life of these "Knights of the Highway". Remember these Men and women bring us 90% of the goods we consume everyday. Doing it in a safe and timely manner. This is justa partial list.  Here's a couple of pictures of my last truck that I{The bank} owned. It was a 2000 Mack Vision.  Notice the gourmet meal that Momma had prepared for us.

  I happened upon a website the other day that has major newspapers from all around the country on it. The name of it is Newseum.org It's got most of if not all the major papers on their site. Heck you can click on the Syracuse, Ny one and see if you can see the picture of me streaking at the SU game this afternoon. I'm only kidding Ana I'm going to be watching it at home. Seriously though, you can click on the website of the paper and see it better than the page that comes up.  I've got to warn you. I checked out a lot of them around the country. The grass is'nt greener anywhere else. There are layoffs all over the country. Those 25 and 50 laid off here and there add up.

Darn it as I'm typing this post I'm looking up at that picture of the Hershey's Kisses now I WANT CHOCOLATE.

300th post

Today is my 300th post since I've been in the blogesphere. I wanted to make it special so here you go:

My 300th post

Justa lazy Friday

How cool is this picture? I copied this off the Traffic Land.com website for Washington State. I copied this because this is one of the companies I drove for. Heck maybe that's the truck I drove. I don't think the odds of that are to great. They have 16,000 tractors. I enjoy checking on the weather and road conditions in different parts of the country and just happened to time checking this one just right. I think it's so neat that you can check traffic all over the country  from the comfort of your home.

I was checking out "The Street" web site last night. Those of you that like to keep track of the big Pharma companies might be interested in this article isn't it just to bad. It's about time they got side effects instead of causing them,don't cha think?

I'm pissed off, I went to the Airport this morning to pick up Precious Rock. She wasn't there!! You see Momma and I are switching houses for a week with Precious, obviously Ms. Rock thought I was kidding. She said she would like to see some snow because she lives down there in Arizona where the rattle snakes live. I wanted to get out of the snow. And I wanted the chance to stay at a Posh apartment in Arizona. So I thought we had agreed to switch. I was looking forward to laying around the pool reading my "AARP" magazine and getting some sun. But,noooooooo...

I leave you with a joke I found on line somewhere. I'm getting pretty bad about linking back to places. So shoot me already. 

Batman and Robin are camping in the desert, set up their tent and are asleep. Some hours later, Batman wakes his faithful friend. "Robin, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
Robin replies, " I see millions of stars."
"What does that tell you?" asks Batman.
Robin ponders for a minute.
"Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo.
Chronologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three.
Theologically, it's evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
What does it tell you, Batman?"
" Robin, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent."

Stan is this your buddies?

Free Credit Report...

We are right on schedule to break some snowfall totals.Our local weather geek Jim Teske has a write up on his weather blog. We're still looking at 2 more ft if we get what the averages are for the rest of the year. Any body want to switch houses for the next two months?

Every time I let Indy out to "go to the potty".(Hey that's how he says it) he bugs me to go "bye bye in the car" So I had to run down to the thruway authority to talk to them about an over charge on my bill.Indy said he'd he'd like to tag along so...They had me getting on the thruway in Albany N.y. which is about 150 miles east of here. We never go that far away from home.  Long story short they're going to credit me. Hey $10 bucks is $10 bucks. On the way down every time I stopped at a light Indy would want me to roll the window down so he could stick his head out . He  stays looking out the window till it gets to be to much wind. Usually about 40 mph or so. When he sticks his head back into the car he looks like he was in a wind tunnel. You ever notice that if you blow into your dogs face that it bugs him and he turns his face a way,but he'll stand there for 10 mins and let the wind blow in his face when riding in the car.

I almost got momma to break tradition last night. No not that dirty minds! (Hey at my age getting lucky means Cindy goes to bed before I do.) Any way! No, on the way home Cindy and I were yakking  on the cell phone which we do at least half of her way home from work. I made the effort to try to convince her that we should go out to eat last night. Her response was. "But it's Pot Pie night!" Waaaa... So Stephany. We did have our traditional Wednesday night dinner. Beef Pot pie and a veggie (Canned Peas). I have to admit it was pretty good a-g-a-i-n. $5.00 for dinner is a little better than the $20 something we would have spent. For some reason it's a tradition now.

You know when you get a song in your head that just won't leave? Well I've got one in there now that has been banging around for a couple of days. You would think it would be something like, ''Give peace a chance'' or "We are family'' or some such uplifting song. Nooooo not me. I've had that commercial for "Free Credit Report dot com.'' running through my noggin. Isn't that pathetic?

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
"Nothing, I just helped him cry." I got this from redsofts.com justa wanted to share it with you.

 

Clilck on this if you thought you were having a bad day

Not Justa mad as Hell.

I've given myself this award. That's right Stan,I am into self gratification from time

to time. I'm not mad as hell right now. I just wanted to give myself an award,and to

make it available for anyone that needed it. Feel free to take this award yourself.

It's not an award that can be passed on. The responsibility to get mad as Hell falls

on the individual. But be careful as this write up from Fox news will tell you. I

don't tend to get mad much any more. I used to rant and rave over some perceived

injustice. All it ever did was make me tired. Cindy will tell you I used to go on and

on. Now in my old age I just sort of shrug it off. Maybe it's because I've been down

lately. So in an effort to energize my self and get back on my horse, I'm giving

myself the award. Stephany if you read this Pot Pie night is tomorrow night we will

be serving at about 07:30. It was a pretty good day here overall. No snow for a

change. Momma has a good informative post tonight if you want to mosey over there and check it out.(Hell I think she

even says something nice about me)

Justa nother Post

Money Fun Fact
You know that the odds of winning the lottery are not good, but do you realize how difficult it is? If you purchase 50 Lotto tickets each week, you will win the jackpot every 5,000 years. Source: motherjones.com
Save Money at SavingAdvice.com

Those odds aren't very good are they? They were about the odds of a girl saying yes if I asked her to dance back in high school.  But do you know what the odds are if you don't buy a ticket? Momma and I buy $4.00 worth of lottery tickets a week.{Ok more counting the scratch offs} that's our one vice that we allow ourselves. We don't smoke or drink so allow me at least one vice.

I was pretty busy today. I had to go back to my Orthopedic Dr. today. Actually it was his Nurse Practitioner I saw. She took a couple X-rays of my knees. It showed Arthritis which is what I already knew. She continue to maintain that I am Permanently partially disabled. The Independent Medical Dr. I went to a few weeks ago wrote on his report that I was Temporarily partially disabled. Some where in between lies the truth. After that I had to come back across town to the Chiropractor. He did his twist and crunch thingy he does and said see you in three weeks. You know as I look back on this paragraph I realize that I lead a pretty mundane life right now. Besides sitting at this computer,watching the boob tube less and less. I ain't got much else going on. Pretty soon I'll be down to typing  "nothing going on today see ya tomorrow". 

Justa an easy Sunday

Here's how the one word meme works:
Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from and of course at least four others who haven’t been tagged yet to the best of your knowledge. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

1. Where is your cell phone? Man-basket

2. Your significant other? Cindy
3. Your hair? graying

4. Your mother? Different                                                                      
5. Your father? Dead

6. Your favorite?Yankees

7. Your dream last night? nothing
8. Your favorite drink?Coke
9. Your dream/goal? Lotto

10. What room are you in? office

11. Your hobby? Whinning

12. Your fear?Momma

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive                                                        

14. Where were you last night? recliner                                                                  

15. Something that you are not? female

16. Muffins? Pie

17. Wish list item? Summer

18. Where you grew up? Haven't

19. Last thing you did? drove

20. What are you wearing? Jeans
21. Your TV? Off

22. Your pets? Three

23. Friends? One

24. Your life? complicated

25. Your mood? Grrrrrrr!

26. Missing some one? Nope

27. Car? Dodge

28. Something you’re not wearing? Boots

29. Your favorite store? Save-A-Lot

30. Your favorite color? Blue

31. When is the last time you laughed? Everyday

32. Last time you cried? Months

33. One place that I go to over and over? Toilet

34. One person who texts me regularly? No
35. My favorite place to eat? Wendy's

36. My favorite food? Omelet

37. What did you do today? Grandparented

Precious Rock sent this meme out on her post today and suggested that if we read it then we had to considering ourselves so tagged. If you haven't done it yet consider your self so tagged.

Justa looking inward.

As I sit here tonight at the computer I wonder if I can put together a couple of words that aren't a joke,an insult or some other useless banter. I've been given the nickname in our family of CDHB that stands for Chief dead horse beater. Those of you that have been following along with the thread since I have been back in the saddle here at Justakrusen know why. I get onto something and I don't let go. Some examples of this are, picking on Stan, eating a bowl of Rocky Road ice cream every night for like the last three weeks or so.Picking on Stan.Picking on Dumocrats.Picking on Stan.etc,etc. I came across a question asked of Dr. Dobson of focus on the family fame on a news blog that I check out every day. Here it is.

QUESTION: I'm a teacher and I love my students. There is one kid in my sixth grade class, however, who drives me nuts. He works overtime trying to make everybody laugh. What drives this impish child? Why does he want to make life miserable for me?

DR. DOBSON: We all remember the kid you're talking about. He's called "the class clown," and some other things that are less flattering. He is a trial to his teachers, an embarrassment to his parents, and an utter delight to every child who wants to escape the boredom of school. There are millions of class clowns on the job today. It's my belief that boards of education assign at least one such kid to every class just to make sure that school teachers earn every dollar of their salaries.

These skilled little disrupters are usually boys. They often have reading or other academic problems. They may be small in stature, although not always, and they'll do anything for a laugh. Their parents and teachers may not recognize that behind the boisterous behavior is often the pain of inferiority.

You see, humor is a classic response to feelings of low self-esteem. That's why within many successful comedians is the memory of a hurting little boy or girl. Jonathan Winters' parents were divorced when he was seven years old, and he said he used to cry when he was alone because other children teased him about not having a father. Joan Rivers frequently jokes about her unattractiveness as a girl. She said she was such a dog, her father had to throw a bone down the aisle to get her married. And so it goes.

These and other comedians got their training during childhood, using humor as a defense against childhood hurts. That's usually the inspiration for the class clown. By making an enormous joke out of everything, he conceals the self-doubt that churns inside.

That understanding should help us meet his needs and manage such a child more effectively.

So in the spirit of trying to change and thereby rid my self on the moniker CDHB I've decided to take high road. I'm going to attempt to from now on stop doing everything I've mentioned in this post and things I haven't except for one.

I'M STILL GOING TO PICK ON STAN. He's just too easy. If you would like some serious reading from a member of the family check out my better{much better} half Cindy's post today over at Mrs.Justakrusen.

Justa Winter Wonderland~

Three contractors were bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago, another is from Oklahoma, and the third is from Minnesota.

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor took out a tape measure and did some measuring, then worked some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Oklahoma contractor also did some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Chicago contractor didn't measure or figure, but leaned over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."
The White House official, incredulous, said, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The Chicago contractor whispered back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Oklahoma to fix the fence."
"Done!" replied the government official.
And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work. Borrowed this from The Poor Farm blog. I don't really think it's a joke though.

 

Winter is back here in Fulton, NY with a vengeance!! We got about 8" of snow last night. We we're going to go out to dinner with our friends Shawn & Pat. So I took Cindy into work today and we were going to meet them after Cindy got out of work. On my way home from taking Cindy in. Shawn called and said that Pat was sick so we'd have to reschedule.That's ok with me really because we got about another 8" while I was gone with about another foot called for tonight. Don't cha just love winter. I just got back from picking Cindy up from work 66 mile round trip. Syracuse Didn't get much at all but we got hammered here at the house. I bet we have 2ft with 3 & 4 ft drifts and it's still coming down.

 

Peter here is that picture of my man basket. It's helps me keep track of things.

The distinction between myself and Stan is that he uses a fanny pack. I leave my man basket at home, he takes his with him on his hip. {laughing}

Justa recognizing some blogging buddies

I really wasn't going to do a post today. I went on everyone else's blogs {you know who you are} and I just didn't feel like I had anything to add to the conversation.But then I said what the hey. Congratulations to Stan on his well deserved reward! You can got over to his site and Stephany's to find out about it. Some great news our blogging buddy Precious Rock is back blogging. Check out her site if you haven't and welcome her back. I was going to do a little rambling post on my Dr appointment this morning blah,blah,blah there now you know everything that happened at the Dr. Ok, I know some of you are just sitting on the edge of your seat. My blood pressure was 130/86 not quite a physical specimen but not bad either. The main problem was I had gained 40 lbs since the last time I saw him in August. He also put me on an additional antidepressant Seraquil 25 mg I'm supposed to take it at night. Does anybody know anything about this one? I don't think I'm going to fill the prescription and start taking it until I talk to my Social Worker tomorrow. Hey Stan,will it make me start seeing Penguins?

Justa adding to the family

Remember I told you that the most favorite daughter that I have ever had, and her husband were expecting? Well here is a picture of them. This is a really neat site Magmypic.com where you can have some fun creating pretend magazines. Check it out and have some fun with it. Cindy and I have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. Haven't we Steve & Donna. Pete & Courtney, Don & Sally etc,etc.etc. They all refuse to talk to me. That will change tonight. Cindy bought the winning Mega million lotto ticket for tonight. My phone will be ringing off the hook tomorrow night. Stan don't bother calling. I'll just say "Stan who?"