Do people still read blogs?

Wow, I haven't checked my blog forever - over a year. I guess I just don't have too much to say. If I want to vent, however, I try to calm down before I put it down on paper, before I will say something I may regret.
Does anyone else have all these things, places, sites that they sign up for on the internet and then after awhile don't go to that site anymore. You then find that when you do want to go back there, you have forgotten your password or sign in name. At the time you sign up, you think, wow, I've figured out this really cool username and password that I will find easy to remember. NOT! As time goes by, other more important stuff comes into your life and the other that you thought would ALWAYS mean so much to you fades for a while and when you need to pull on that information, it's not there or there are so many different ones that you have chosen, that you are not sure which one you used. Hence, the password question that you are supposed to know the answer to. But what if you have forgotten your username? Most times the questions work, but it is hard to come up with a simple solution to creating meaningful, passwords that are easy for you to remember but for hard someone else to figure out.
So, needless to say, I really had to think hard to get back into my blog site. Solution would be to use it more regularly!

More of a Rant than a Muse

Doesn't anyone have any pride in themselves anymore? Doesn't anyone know what the feeling of a good day's work is - something that you can be proud of. I have worked at the same place for way too long - just shy of 35 years. When I started there as a quiet kid with no experience of the world except for life on a farm, there were a couple of people who worked there who one could respect, once could look up to and admire. If you ever heard them talk about themselves and their work, you realized that they actually had a right to brag a little. When I look back on the way these fellows were, they were hard working, hard living - but they did things that you could respect, and in turn they respected you.
They have long since retired and passed on. They did not know how a young kid looked up to them and how the young person took on some of these ways in order to become a respectful person. This good working relationship did not last. Now we have people who are there to kiss ass, suck up to the boss, the boss is an idiot - not fit to be one - no backbone. The things they do ( I cannot call it work) are just enough to get by, it is shoddy, it is not something to brag about. We are in the customer service business, and the crappy attitude and work they portray is shameful. I really wonder what the customers think.
There is one of the 'old timers' still working there also and he is one who started there as a young kid along with myself and worked alongside the older fellows when I started. He looked up to them and he learned from them and they ran a "good ship". Now he is shunned by the other slackers, but he still keeps on going, doing the best he can do, and he does a damn good job of whatever he takes on. But these slackers, and idiot, loudmouth bosses and co-workers get the credit for him making the place look good.
Where is the fairness in this case.
Today some little thing, not sure exactly, broke the camel's back, so to speak and I got angry. Now for me to speak up for anything in the outside world is unusual. I know that I do not come across as I would like to. I let things build up until finally one day they just get the best of me. That is when I wish that I could just calmly go in to the boss, sit down and have a meaningful discussion, tell him how disappointed I am in the way things are and hope that he sees the light and smartens everyone and everything up. OH, but that would be Disney. So I curse a little, and I fume and I almost cry and make a fool of myself. Then I feel bad about it for days on end. I don't think anyone else really notices, and if they do they just think I am being - well I guess I really don't know what they think - but I get down on myself.
So, I thought that I should put this on my blog. It gets it off my chest. I hope that it is therapeutic. I hope that someday, someone out there may come across this and understand how I feel.
I hope the world is better tomorrow and that someday I can say something meaningful and it will make a difference.

looking back on Christmas

Well, the season came and went. It was kind of quiet for us, in a way. Of course, by the time it is actually Christmas, my spirit has fizzled. It seems that if I haven't gone shopping or done something special towards Christmas by November, early December, then it doesn't really matter if all the fuss and hubbub of the season happens. I did not send out cards again this year. I intend to write to a few of my good friends or give them a call in the New Year, but so far this hasn't happened yet either. It's not that I don't think of them - they usually pass through my consciousness regularly and I assume that they are living much more interesting lives than I am, so I am sure that they really don't want to hear too much about my mundane life.
Maybe I will let them know about my blog, and they can check up with me on here.

not so great at blogging

time goes by quickly and I just don't blog like some other people do. I guess I always think about what I might have to say and if I think too hard, then I decide that maybe I shouldn't put it on here.
I see on my last blog that I said pets were a good thing in my life. Well, just at this moment, my husband has come home and our dogs are so excited to see him. They are in the house and when they look out the window and see him drive in they start this yodelling, well that's what I call it. It is really quite humorous to me. I suppose other people who have other things to occupy them might think that I am getting to be one of those 'dottery' (not sure if that is a real word) old ladies who talks baby talk to her pets!!

time flies

wow. I know that I don't check the blog that often, seems like I don't have a lot of info to put out there. I could be on here everyday with a complaint or two, but who likes a complainer. It is good to vent, but if you do that often enough - to the person on the receiving end it becomes the same thing.
Well, last blog I was excited about spring and looking forward to summer and renewal. Well , we had a summer with great weather. It was too short, the days went by too fast and here we are, with fall coming and leaves already starting to turn color and harvest under way.
We have had a few friends and acquaintances over the past year who have been struggling with illness. Some are still going through it, others haven't made it, so when one keeps getting dismal news reports about the persons around them any thing positive is great. It could just be a certain age that you reach when all this starts to come to the fore front of your life.
What are the positive things in your life? Mine would be my pets/dogs. They are always so happy to see you and be with you and the simple things in life, like a walk makes them happy.

Spring & Income Tax

It is spring here. The water is running all over the place. In some places they have way too much and it is causing havoc with the roadways. The last two days have been cloudy and a bit rainy, but when the sun does come out now, it is really going to turn green. I live in a part of the world where we see definite changes in seasons. Now the dead grass from autumn and winter will turn to a new, fresh green and the flowers will start to bloom. We already have the pussy willows out and in the garden in front of the house the siberian squill ( a little purple flower) is blooming. Many of the earliest of songbirds that migrate are coming back and pretty soon the frogs will thaw out from their muddy winter homes and begin their endless chorus in the pond out back. It is lovely.
Now that being said, how wonderful the world is, the downside to spring is the fact that income taxes have to be figured out and sent in to the the tax centre before the end of April. For years I used to always forget that the deadline was April 30, I would think that I had to have it done by the end of March, so I would struggle through my forms and papers (or rush them in to the accountant) and get them done just in the nick of time before the end of March - only to realize that I was a month ahead of the deadline. Now that I have finally got it in my mind that the deadline isn't until April, I (the great procrastinator that I am) now keep putting it off, working at it slowly, gathering my information then panicking the last couple weeks because I have to get this done. I am definitely going to have to go back to the old method of panic in March!!! I use a tax program and it is very easy - all you have to do is answer the questions and it figures the rest out for you. The hard part is keeping track of the stuff you need throughout the year. Yes, it is easier to do it throughout the year - but I am not organized enough and also, once I have sweated over it for a month in the spring - I just forget about it for awhile. But then the 'awhile' turns into the next 11 months and so the cyle continues.
So, I had better quit procrastinating and get back at it before the weather turns beautiful and I want to go outside and take it all in.

travel

It's cold here. I have a cold, which makes me feel miserable. But ever since the new year, whenever I here from friends or family, their news is that they have just returned from or are just about to leave to some sunny beach on some island by the equator or Mexico. And it depresses me. Why? Because someday, I too, would like to just lay on the beach and party away the night drinking rum or tequila or just touring around seeing the sights and the different lifestyle of the locals. And what is holding you back you may say. Well I suppose nothing really, other than the fact that I haven't travelled and on my first excursion or so, I would like a travelling companion to share the wonderfulness with. My significant other doesn't want to travel with me.
Oh, yes, there are thousands of other persons out there who would stick their hand up in the air and say "I'll go with you" "Pick me, pick me" - truth is, I think I have said that on occasion myself. But, really, shouldn't you know the person you are travelling with and shouldn't you share some of the same interests in order to make it a great experience?

Yes, I could go alone, but I figure I spend a good percentage of my time alone. No really, when you think about it - I do have people around me at work all day and my companion when, I am not at work, is around, but mostly doing their own thing - so I feel if I were to travel I would like to have my companion share the joys with me. Not only the joys, but the disappointments and the hassles as well.
Travel with someone else, other than my 'significant other' is for when you have done these things together enough so that my desire for this lifestyle may be satiated and I would be able to enjoy the experience with someone else should I want to do it again.
So, for all of you out there who have a husband or wife who says they do not want to do the things you like to do with you - how do you handle it? How do you encourage them to share this aspect or your life with you if you feel that in the end they really would enjoy doing it with you even if they make out that they wouldn't!