Deb's thoughts

The following website allows you to listen to the police,fire and ems calls from the city of St. Charles, St. Louis and St. Louis county.  I found it Friday night and have enjoyed it immensely!  One nice thing I found is how quiet my neighborhood really is, only thing going on within walking distance of my house is accidents, falls, a fire and a couple of domestic squabbles.  I wake up sometimes at 2 or 3 in the morning and can't go back to sleep, so it's a great way to pass the time.

You can listen to calls all across the country, including calls from the Denver Colorado area.



http://mo.scanamerica.us/index.php?

I just found a very interesting website: http://www.stumbleupon.com/

You answer a couple of questions, pick out your interests and "stumble" around the internet.  I have found some of the best sites, some I would not have found on my own

I'm not promoting anything, just passing on some interesting information.

Well, here it is Friday night,  I'm on vacation until Wednesday. Took a few days off for my birthday , finished the stuff around the house that I wanted to get done, ran all my errands today, decided what to wear tomorrow night when we go out, and I've been thinking about a few things. 

I will be 54 on Monday, but my brain says I'm still about 19 or 20, really! It fools me into thinking I can do things that I can no longer do.  I think I can still dance all night, I think I can still run up the street, I think I can still stay out all night - the fact is I can dance for awhile, but I'll suffer for it later, I can run about 1 house up the street (hopefully I won't fall), and I'm lucky if I'm awake at 10pm.  I used to celebrate my birthday by going out all weekend and partying, dancing and having fun, now my birthday wish is to just rest. 

When I was a teenager some of my friends called me "Gidget" cause I'm only 4'11" and smiled a lot, now my "sweetie" calls me "rice crispies" cause I snap, crackle and pop when I move!

Don't get me wrong - I am not upset about my age, I mean - look at the alternative!  I am also truly blessed to be in good health,  I've no medical problems other that a bit of arthritis and these weird headaches they are still trying to figure out.  I do realize that 54 isn't  "old",  but I just realized the difference between the way I think I am and the way I really am.

I use to sit around work and discuss what  we did over the weekend, or the party we were going to, or having.  Now I sit around work and we compare medication, doctors, surgerys or our wish for a few days to do absolutely nothing! 

One of my co-workers went "paint balling" about 2 weeks ago, he's about my age.  He is still in pain!

I have a neighbor that is 82, next Thursday she and her husband will celebrate their 60Th wedding anniversary!  Isn't that wonderful?  She is threatening to divorce him before then tho,  she wants to sell the house and move into an apartment, he doesn't.  He is 85 and still cuts his own grass!  She still drives (although I have to admit, when I rode with her I kept reminding God that the Bible says he takes care of babies and fools, and I was a fool to get into that car, so He better take care of me!) 

But, know what? I honestly would not want to be any younger than I am.  I really have no desire to be 20 again.  I've decided that I may not be the "youngster" that I use to be, but I'm still one heck of a woman!!


What are your thoughts on birthdays? On getting older?

This was an e-mail I received, thought I should pass it on.

According to today's over-zealous regulators and petty bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and maybe even early 70's, probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. If we dare to chew on our baby we got severely chastised or slapped. That bed was needed for the next baby. We slept on our backs or our stomachs, whichever way was more comfortable. We slept in back rooms with the doors closed so no one would wake up.

We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.

Hitchhiking was what we did to get places when there were no buses and we didn't have a car.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. It was a sad rite of passage, when as a child, you were too tall to stand up in the back seat and look out!

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat, and the more the merrier.

We drank water from the tap and even the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We ate cupcakes, fudge, candy, and drank soda pop with cane sugar in it, and we were never overweight. Diet drinks were for sick people.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one got sick.

We would spend hours building our scooters from a few boards and a pair of skates. We rode them, and our bicycles, and our skates with no knee pads, no elbow pads, and no helmets. We learned that falling hurt, and we learned to avoid falls.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day , and often well into the night, after we ate supper. No one was able to reach us during any of this time. No cell phones or pagers, just Mom yelling out the front door or calling our friend's house in an emergency.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 256 channels on cable, DVD movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut, some even broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? They were what we called things that happened usually because of our own carelessness, not because of someone else's. The idea that someone would sue because they spilled hot coffee on themselves would have been a joke!

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and shot our BB guns, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to get better or do something else.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.

And you're one of them!

Congratulations.

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and the so-called government regulated our lives for their own good !!!

I had so much fun with mincooper's blog, I thought I would see how many people remember these?  Any funny, exciting, scary experiences with any of these?

Candy cigarettes

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers. Cream on the top of the milk.

Snowballs (snowcones) that came in a square dish?

Licorice sticks? Mary Janes? Kits? Bit-o-Honeys?

Newsreels before the movie {our evenings news]

Half hour Serials (cliffhangers) between movies? Like Superman, Sir Galahad?

P.F. Fliers, Keds, and high top tennis shoes that cost $2 a pair

Party lines with special rings: 2 short rings and you answered.

Howdy Doody

Green Stamps

Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers

Mimeograph paper

Beanie and Cecil

Roller-skate keys

Cork popguns Home made chinaball popguns

Rubber guns made with spring clothespins and rubber strips cut from inner tubes. Remember rubber inner tubes? Great raw material for all kinds of projects.

Drive ins

Studebakers

Washtub wringers

The Fuller Brush Man

Reel-To-Reel tape recorders

Tinkertoys Erector Sets

Lincoln Logs

15 cent McDonald hamburgers 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum

25 cent a gallon gasoline

Making pop corn on the stove top

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

Catching lightning bugs (fireflies) could happily occupy an entire evening?

Catching mosquito hawks (dragonflies) a whole afternoon? And there were green ones, blue ones, orange ones, tiny ones, and great big huge ones?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was a cold?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

You were sent to the drugstore to test vacuum tubes for the TV.

When Kool-Aid was the only drink for kids, other than milk and sodas.
When there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyers), and the only time you wore them at school, was for "gym".
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up.
When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there.
When nobody owned a purebred dog.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then.
When your mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.
When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done, everyday.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking,.... for free, every time. And, you didn`t pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot!
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.
When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed ...and did!
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Does anyone else suffer from Computer Addiction?

You know, that over powering feeling that no matter what your plans are, you HAVE to sit down at the computer.  You say to yourself  " I have so much to do today, so many things I want to accomplish today. I'm just going to check my e-mail real quick, then get busy." and 5 hours later you are still "just checking" emails?

First you check your e-mails and maybe answer some, then you check your blogs, find a few things you want to respond to, then you check your myspace page, then check your e-mails again, just in case someone responded to your blogs, comments  or e-mails. If no one has, you wonder why, maybe you need to refresh the page, check e-mails again. You play a few games, just to relax after checking and answering those e-mails and posting those blogs, then you have to check your e-mails again, refresh the page again, (you just know that everything you said was so intelligent and insightful that everyone wants to respond, must be problems with the web site)  then a few more games, give the website time to get itself right, refresh the page, check your e-mail and blog sites again, play a few games (got to relax, don't you know), now your hungry, throw something in the microwave, check e-mails and blogs while you're waiting, food done, sit down at the computer, check e-mails and blog sites again, eat, respond to e-mails and blog comments, play a few games, and the cycle continues until you have completely wasted the day!  Oh, I forgot have to check all the news sights, might miss something.

My name is Debbie and I am a computerholic.

 

I have never been much of a believer in the need for vitamins.  I always felt that if you ate right you are getting pretty much of what you need.  When I was having problems with the "change" (that's a whole nother blog, one probably not for here), my doctor recommended a particular vitamin. He said they would help me feel better.  I took it for a month, didn't really think I noticed any benefits, so I stopped taking it for a couple of weeks.  I was getting a bit stressed out about some things that was going on and a few people at work were sick, so I decided to take the vitamins again hoping that it would  help my immune system fight off what ever was going around work. This time within just a couple of days I noticed a BIG difference - I was thinking clearer, had more energy - and did not get the virus going around work, my hair looked better, my nails were stronger -   I decided to continue with them.

There was so much of a difference that people closest to me at work noticed them,  my hair was shinier, they noticed my extra energy, they also noticed something I had not  - I was losing weight.  The only thing I had done differently was start eating  oatmeal every morning for breakfast and the vitamins.  One of the girls I work with decided to start taking them.  She has lost almost 20lbs and I have lost a total of 15 as of today.  The weight came off slow, about a pound or pound and a half a week.  I noticed it most in my stomach.  She also eats oatmeal every morning along with the vitamins.  Neither one of us works out. 

If you are curious about these particular vitamins here is the link to the website where I buy them, this is the cheapest I have seen them. I bought my first bottle at a health food store and they were $32.  http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=1682
If you decide to buy some, let me know I can give you a coupon for $5 off.  I am not promoting these, just trying to pass along some information.  Hope I'm not breaking any rules.

I am not saying for sure that it is the vitamins, maybe its the extra energy we had, it wasn't the nervous, jittery kind of energy, it was just because we felt better. These vitamins have everything in them,  Maybe it's the oatmeal - I don't know.  There are now 3 people at work taking these!  Also noticed they help with stress.   I have to admit I am totally shocked at how I feel when I take these.  I really don't notice it while I'm taking them, but boy if I miss a few days, believe me I notice it.

What do you think about the need for vitamins?

  Today we mourn the passing of an old friend, by the name of: COMMON SENSE
Common Sense lived a long life but died in the United States from heart failure on the brink of the new millennium. No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools, hospitals, homes, and factories helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness. For decades, petty rules, silly laws, and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life isn't always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn!), reliable parenting strategies (the adults are in charge, not the kids), and it's okay to come in second. A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends; body piercing, whole language, "new math" and Ebonics. But his health declined when he became infected with the "If-it-only-helps-one-person-it's-worth-it" virus.
In recent decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of well intentioned but overbearing regulations. He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers. His health rapidly deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his condition. It declined even further when schools had to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student but could not inform the parent when a female student was pregnant or wanted an abortion.
 Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports. Finally, when a woman, too stupid to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense threw in the towel.
 As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding questionable regulations such as those for low flow toilets, rocking chairs, and stepladders.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers: My Rights, and Ima Whiner.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

I just want to thank every one on this site.  I sometimes go to another site and read the comments on the stories there, and the difference in these two sites are like night and day!  I was reading the comments about the tragic accident on Highway 40 and almost every comment was arguing about who was responsible, people making typing errors,
(that seems to be a major crime on that site).  Have you ever walked into someones home and you could feel the tension?  Remember that tense uncomfortable feeling?  That's how I feel when I read the comments on that site.  When I come over here and start reading the blogs and the comments that follow, it's like coming home. I feel relaxed, comfortable and safe to voice an opinion or to comment on someones blog.

I may be wrong but I don't remember seeing angry, hurtful, racist comments any where on this site, I see them in almost every comment on the other site. 

People here  call themselves "Fox Family" and that is truly what you are. I am not a writer or a blogger, I have written more since joining the "Fox Family" than I ever had.  Seriously, I really think I have almost a phobia about putting my own words on paper. When my children were in school and I would have to write the teacher a note, I would re-write it 7 or 8 times before I would be satisfied.  When I was in school I loved taking tests, until it came to the essays.

 Anyway, I'm getting off track here, I just want to say THANK YOU, for welcoming me, & for making everyone that comes to this site feel welcome and valued.

I'm not sure what category this belongs in, but let's try entertainment.

Have a great night everyone.