Dedtired, Love it. All that's missing is the sign that says "Midvale School for the Gifted". Remember that cartoon?

Specifically trying to hold off Mariah Carey singing "All I want for Christmas is youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" - that song makes my toes curl. It gets played way too early and way too often. It was almost okay at first but when I had heard it for the billionth time it was more than enough!! The lyrics of the song are kind of a put down, "I don't want a lot for Christmas, all I want is you?"

You all know I love my neighbourhood dogs. This is Willie. When he sees me out and about, he'll pull his mom across the street to see me. Here he is waiting for his liver treats. He looks like a Werewolf! LOL

Tell the lady, carolb, to "Quick - call a neighbour, have her tell him that she needs some advice, urgently - then ask him whether it'd be better ... to tie a noose around his neck ... or the top rung of the ladder!" o j A few weeks , when I was hitchhiking near a local indigenous settlement where many go to buy cheaper gas, when a woman stopped beside me, we talked through an open window, and I think I had the door open when she aked me, "If I let you share my car with me for a few minutes, will you promise not to hurt me?" When I said, "Ma'am - if you don't hurt me - I won't hurt you!" ... she let me enter. Less than a few kilometres down the road, she told me, which almost NO ONE does, her name was "Christy". Isn't that interesting, I said, "Christ-" with a "y"! I figured that she must be an unusual person. We had an interesting discussion. When stopping for a traffic light in the village nearby, when she stopped so close to the car ahead that I think that two people couldn't have walked aababrabreabreaabreasabreast between them ... with my back pushing the back of the seat, I said, "Far be it from me, who no longer has a licence, to make suggestions about driving ... but in the unlikely event that the driver behind you doesn't stop in time but bashes you - you'll need one repair to your car, guaranteed. If there's some space between your car and the one ahead, maybe you can stop in time, but if almost no space - almost certain that your car will need a second repair job". "That's certainly worth thinking about", was her reply. When I told this story in the hearing of a man a few days later, he said, rather gruffly, : "If you'd said that to me ... I'd have told you to get out and walk!". A retired paratropper, who recently with his companion were property manager and housekeeper for several years at the estate home nearby of the owner of a major window manufacturer ( where I worked for a few years) and is active in the village church, picked me up when he came to buy gas on the way to the old guys coffee hour at the church. When I told him this story, he said, "You don't tell a guy how to drive a car!!!". He drives a Lincoln - with partner went last week to their digs in Florida for the winter. ole joyfuelled