Story of the Day 11/ 30/ 2015 - Part 3 of the Thanksgiving Story of the Day

It is Sunday. It is Aaron's third day of taking care of the dog and he is eager to relinquish the dog-feeding, poop-cleaning chore back to Daniel.

The day stretches out and Daniel isn't around.
Aaron is still in charge of Lucy and still thanking me that I never got him a dog for a pet.
Finally, it is Sunday night, and Aaron gives the key back and starts to tell Daniel about the poop and the pills.....and, it turns out that Daniel knew about the poop, and he had told Aaron just to leave it alone.
Except that Aaron missed that message.

He missed it because Daniel had left it as a voice message for Aaron.
Aaron who is deaf.

Story of the Day 11/ 28/ 2015- Part 2 of the Thanksgiving story

This is a follow up to yesterday's Story of the Day- the tale of the doggie poop.

Aaron started taking care of Lucy, yesterday, Friday morning.

This afternoon, for lunch, he was invited to eat with a group of people, and one of them was Daniel's roommate.
During the meal, Aaron told Daniel's roommate that the dog had pooped all over the upstairs; and the roommate said, "Oh yeas, Daniel knows about that."

"What?" gasped my son. He couldn't believe that his friend would leave him to take care of a dog to clean up...I mean a house full of dog poop to clean up, but apparently he had.

Aaron also, the next time he was in the house, noticed that there was a long list of instructions on the refrigerator. Now, Daniel had only told Aaron to feed the dog and let it out into the yard, twice a day...but the instructions were rather more lengthy....

And on them were very specific notes on how to give Lucy her anti-anxiety medication in a tablespoon of peanut butter, which was on the counter.
The peanut butter was on the counter.
But there was no medicine.
Except perhaps in the trashcan, because, again, Daniel has now been caring for this dog a couple of weeks longer than originally planned.

So, now Aaron is realizing that he has the care of a rather anxiety ridden , under-medicated pooping machine.

Aaron returned home from lunch and, again, thanked me for not getting him a dog.

Story of the Day - 11/ 27/ 2015 - the day after Thanksgiving

Today is Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

My son, Aaron, worked yesterday. He works two jobs; one is an internship with the Boy Scouts and the other is a part-time job at a movie theater. While he was working, yesterday, he got a phone call from a friend. His friend, Daniel, asked Aaron if he could watch a dog for a few days. Daniel wanted to take time to go visit his mother.

Daniel doesn't have a dog. It turns out hat he has been watching a dog for a family, for several weeks…. For longer than planned, because he thought the family would be back, by now.

Aaron asked him if he would get paid. Aaron assumed that in watching a dog for several weeks, Daniel was getting some cash to compensate him for the time and effort.
But he wasn't.
Nada. Nothing.
So, Aaron's desire to get some cash for doing this over the long weekend turned to dust. Don't forget, Aaron works at a movie theater. He earns about $8 an hour, and has very limited, erratic hours, so that the theater does not have to provide benefits or anything else to the lowly employees.

I told Aaron that I was surprised that a family had expected someone to take care of their dog for several weeks for free. But Aaron explained to me that Daniel is like that - he was probably offered money and turned it down, wanting to be nice.

At any rate, Aaron agreed to watch the dog , and after several texts , got the address and the details; and, through third party , got the key.

So, this morning, I went to the grocery store and the drug store, and Aaron went to take care of the dog, who needs to be fed and let out, twice a day.

By the time I returned home, Aaron had called home and spoken with my husband several times. First, because he thought he had the wrong address, then because the dog was not...compliant. And a third time, well, I forgot what my husband said that was about….


So, as I was taking the lettuce out of the bag to put it away, and the phone rang.

And because of what mu husband had just told me, when I got home, I was not surprised to hear Aaron's voice.

Aaron told me that he was calling because he felt a strong urge to thank me.
Because I had never let my kids have a dog.
Of course, I had never let them have a dog because of allergies, mine, theirs, my husbands.
And Aaron had not appreciated how fortunate we were to have allergies, I mean to have not had a dog, until now.

You see, while feeding the dog, Aaron realized that there was an odor. The house is an open floor plan, and Aaron, upon looking around, realized the dog had taken advantage of that to poop in every room.
Well, not quite every room, but every room in the upstairs of a rather large house.
Some of the feces were old and crusty, and some were still soft and especially odiferous. It was, however, all disgusting.

My son yelled at Lucy- the dog, and he sent her outside, hoping she would figure out that poop belongs on the lawn.
Then he set to work cleaning up mound after mound of brown stuff.

He called me, mid-cleaning, because he had to vent.


And to thank me that we had never owned dog.

"You know, " he said, "yesterday, when we went around the table saying what we were thankful for...well, this is what I should have thanked you for- for not letting us have a dog."

Then, he spent some time surveying the house. If Lucy was going to defecate everywhere she could, then, he reasoned, it might be smart to limit her range. The garage seemed the best option. it dooes not have carpet. But there is , apparently, no working light, and it is " messy", as he described it to me. The kitchen has too many ( three0 large doorways, so that was out, there is a smaller living room ( as well as a larger one), and he thought he could limit her to that room. I asked about her food dish- I mean, maybe the family doesn't want her food dish in that room. He told me that Lucy likes to drag her dish into the small living room, anyhow. And, besides, having some spilled food and water on the carpet in this one room is immeasurable than having poop on all of the carpets.


Again, he thanked me for not having dog.


He also wanted to know if he should take sen toilet paper and set it over each area he has cleaned, so the family would know.

Not a good idea, I tell him .
I do not say it, but I suspect Lucy might decide to eat the toilet paper ,and then that will add to the next home decoration.
I do tell him that, regardless of where she has pooped in each room, the family is going to need to have all of the carpets thoroughly cleaned...unless they like it that way.
It is always possible that this has been Lucy's ongoing behavior over the years they've had her. That they are used to it, and that they really shorted Daniel by letting him watch this dog for free.

I also ask Aaron why he doesn't leave some of the poop for Daniel to clean. Obviously, this occurred on Daniel's "watch". It is nice to clean some of it, but all of it???
But, Aaron tells me, Daniel is timid.
It is very possible he smelled the odor , but didn't want to go into any rooms and "invade " the family's private space.

Aaron thanks me , again, for not having a dog, and he also thanks me for letting him vent.
I tell him, that, honestly, it was enough having to clean up after kids. They also, on occasion, decided to pee and poop in odd places. He says" like on the Monopoly board" by one of his siblings who had taken off her diaper, .
Yes, And in a bucket.
That one was Aaron- and he defends himself by saying that at least the bucket was in the bathroom- the correct room.
"Yes", I reply, " but, I kept smelling something in the bathroom,and I thought there was a problem with the toilet....at least, until I went to mop the flor and lifted up the bucket...."

I do tell him that this will be great material for one of his stand-up comedy routines.....if not just for a Story of the Day.

So, we hang up, and he goes back to cleaning up poop, and I go back to putting away the groceries, and then to typing up this story.

Story of the Day 11/ 16/ 2015

“Mom, did I get in trouble before?"

I got this text from my daughter, late this evening.
It made me worry about what she had done that I had not yet been made aware of....She doesn't drive, so I know she had not put a dent in the car. She is not spendthrift and I can't imagine her charging $200 on a pair of boots, so what could it be? She doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke...I can't think of what this could be about.

I texted her, and she sent me this, to calm my fears:

"I just want to make sure I didn't do anything criminal in the past."

Only, now I am more worried. Criminal? Is this my daughter, or has someone stolen her cell phone and thinks they are texting their mother?

I text back, "What do you mean?"

It turns out that my daughter is applying for a summer internship with the government, and she wants to make sure that she properly discloses everything wrong that she might have done. I text her back and ask what in the heck she thinks she might have done that was criminal.

It turns out there are two things of concern.

The first is that she threw a snowball at a car. The car was driving down our residential street and she was in the front yard. She was about 5 at the time. A young five, as still in preschool. The woman stopped the car and got out and yelled at her about the awful thing she had done, so my daughter is worried that she did something criminal.

I also yelled at her, and told her never to throw snowballs at cars. Since I do not yell, often, at least not at kids, this also impacted her memory of this.

The second incident involved her being stopped by the police when she was driving.

She was 15 years old and she was practicing parking in the Foxhole Elementary school parking lot on a Sunday in the summer. The school was closed, and my husband was seated beside her in the passenger seat. He drove her down to the school, to the parking lot, and she was practicing starting and stopping the car, and then he planned to drive them home, but, apparently, a police officer noticed them and thought it was a highly suspicious activity to be engaged in on a summer day at about 3 PM, and he stopped her.

It actually turned out that we should not have been letting her practice, because she did not yet have her learner's permit. We erroneously assumed that it was okay to practice in the empty lot, since it wasn't a street, and we wanted her to get used to the standard transmission in our Honda, before getting her permit...and my father had let me do the same thing, some 35 years earlier, in the empty school parking lot in Ohio, so I had assumed it was okay...but it was not.

My poor husband was totally innocent in this. His parents had never taken him anywhere to practice driving; he had learned to drive all on his own, as an adult, so it was entirely my bad advice.

At any rate, Sarah was admonished by the officer, although he did not issue her a ticket. And she never drove again until AFTER she had the permit...at which point we went back to the empty parking lot on Sundays for a few weeks before letting her out on the road. But this incident, too, seems to have scarred her.

I explained that neither incident was criminal, and that she had nothing to disclose, but she was still worried.

You see, apparently, for this position, this question will be asked of her during polygraph test.

So, I told Sarah to tell them that she was involved in two questionable activities and to provide the interviewer with all of the embarrassing details.

We should all live so dangerously, or criminally, or……..

Story of the Day 11/ 12/2015

I was on my way to Trader Joe's when I decided to take a detour.
In the very same strip mall , just a few storefronts to the east is a Pier One. Over the years, I have spent a decent amount go money in Pier One buying things for Hanukkah. Things meaning dreidels and candles and menorahs.
But, I didn't even look at their selection, last year, because they didn't have one. Well, they did, if you lived somewhere else, but someone in the corporate office had decided that this Indianapolis location didn't sell enough; so when I went inside, last year, to see what they had, they had " nothing".

The saleswoman was very apologetic, but there was nothing that she could do.

I expected a repeat of last year's experience, because, believe it or not, not a whole lot has changed here in Indianapolis, this past year, with regards to the Jewish population. Individually, yes.
There have been deaths, there have been births, but the Jewish community did not , during the past 12 months, grow by 2,000 all of whom are out shopping.
So,I went in thinking I would be wasting two or three minutes asking about something they didn't have.

But, when I told the woman who greeted me within 30 seconds of my entering the store what i was looking for , she took me right over to a Hanukkah display.

On the table, amidst a slew of other sparkly things, was a very beautiful dreidel. I reached down, wondering what it was made of and then recoiled , as soon as my fingers touched it.

"It's beautiful, isn't it" chipped the saleswoman.

"It is a Christmas tree ornament," I replied.
In fact, it was a blown glass tree ornament complete with a little gold braid loop on one end for hanging on your tree.

The woman reached over and picked it up.

"Oh my!"

I looked at the rest of the display.....there was a lovely table runner....in a package. But when I picked it up, I realized that it was a mantle cover and the illustration showed it hanging above a fireplace just set for the stockings to fill.

And then there were the wreaths. Blue and silver wreaths, to hang on your door and let everyone know that you were celebrating Christmas.
But ever mindful of the Jew-colors!

There was a menorah and candles, but they had been relegated to a dark area under the table- one of those square wooden box, almost shelf things.
Their placement was enough of an insult that I would not have considered spending money at the store, even if they were the only bona-fide Hanukkah candles in town.

As I turned to leave, the saleswoman, who was now wandering round the display, picking things up and realizing what they were actually showing, was very apologetic.
This was without my even needing to explain to her what was wrong with the rest of the display.
I assured her that I knew it was not her doing, and I was also aware that the display is made to conform to directions sent by the corporation. They actually lay out in a photo of what goes were, so sticking the menorah and candles in the dark, hard to reach spot was a corporate decision.

An hour later, at home, after putting away my groceries, I located a comment form , on line, and sent Pier One my opinion of their display.

It was a nice display for Christians wanting to stick some token Hanukkah decor up on their trees for their significant others, spouses, roommates, or whatever. Then theyr token Jews could thank them for their thoughtfulness, I suppose, if not for their sensitivity.

No, I did not say that , but I thought it. I was actually very polite.
Even by other people's standards.

If I had seen the Pier One ad, before sending it, though, I might not have been.
he one detail I semi to have missed was the trees. They had a nice pair of blue and white Christmas trees for us Jews to decorate with......

I have attached the photo , so that you can enjoy how they think I should be decorating my home for Hanukkah, this year...

Story of the Day 3/ 31/ 2015

I dropped the food processor.

I am cleaning for Passover and changing things to "Passover" mode as opposed to regular year mode.
Believe it or not, I cannot use my regular year food processor during Passover, but have a separate one just for the holiday.
If you keep kosher, you think , "Oh yes."
If you do not, you think I am crazy.
This shows that people who do not keep kosher are more on the ball than those who do.

At any rate, in the process of moving the Passover food processor out of the garage and into the kitchen, I dropped the box.
I completely and totally dropped it , as in what was up was down and out...and the plastic parts, all 4 of them were now more like all 40 of them.

I went on line to see what it would cost to buy the replacement parts and I realized it was actually less expensive to purchase a new food processor- the exact same one, only new.
BUT only cheaper if ordered from Wal-Mart.com. On line, not at the store.

So, I ordered the food processor ( since I also had a free shipping code), and am waiting for them to deliver it,
on or before Thursday, April 3, 2015.
That is the date given on the order confirmation.
It happens to be one day before Passover starts..a little close for comfort, but manageable.

This morning, thing were looking up.
I received an email from Walmart that the food processor had shipped.

This evening, just before running off to work, I received a second email that it was "en route".

Curious as to where it was being shipped from and where it was now, i clicked on the link,
and found out, to my surprise, that Federal Express had already delivered the package,
to Antioch, California.


Lovely, except, you see, I live in Indianapolis, Indiana.

A slightly closer examination told me that they had delivered the package on January 3, 2014.

I then realized that they delivered the wrong package, to the wrong person, although, in that case, hopefully it was the right package to the right person,
and not ......
And, obviously, this person in California lives in avery different time zone than I do.

I thought, "Oh well, just be patient."

But then I decided that maybe I should contact Wal-mart for the correct tracking number, just in case.

It turns out that I have two options, I can go to WalMart.com and deal with their " help" questions, none of which seem to fit this situation,
or I can send them an email.
Of course, it only allowed me to sen date email after asking me , numerous times, if I really wanted to send the email.

After sending the email to them, I received a message ( not an email, this just showed up on their site) that I should expect a response within 24 hours.


I have decided to go to work and then com home and go to bed, and not panic until , at least, Thursday.
Except, I wonder, which year?