#226-DID I WARP HIM FOR LIFE?

Yes, I'm out of my mind!

WOW! I AM USUALLY SO VERY LONG WINDED.  

SO TO REWARD YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME THROUGH MY LONG POSTS, HERE IS A SHORT ONE (about time!)

I was reading a story when I was reminded of what I said to a young boy (whose mother was allowing him to run around under and through clothes racks).  My daughter, then around 16, was in the dressing room of a fairly nice store, trying on clothes.  This kid who looked to be about eight, reached up for the doorknob of the room my daughter was in.   I knew my daughter would freak if he opened it.

I had already had enough of this little stinker and his neglectful parent so I put a scowl on my face and said in a quiet, low, menacing voice, “You touch that knob and I will cut all of your fingers off!”

The kid jumped, and immediately sought out his mother.  He stayed glued to her side for the rest of their visit.




Now, this was an awful thing to say to a kid, and I know that.  But, maybe my comment made him think about what he was doing and that mother was right when she warned him about strangers.  Then again, maybe it warped him for life (I hope not).

PREVIEWS OF MONDAYS TO COME:

#227-ANOTHER FINE MESS!

#228-A SCREAM PIERCED THE AIR!

#229-AND THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO GET LUCKY

kt 3/15/12

#225-DOROTHY, TAKE ME WITH YOU!

Somewhere around the year 2004 we had a tornado scare in the small town in which I live (aren't you impressed with my grasp of the English languge?).  I had moved in with my parents to help my father care for my mother.  She had Alzheimers and, at this time, was in her little kid stage.  Her memory was totally shot and she clung to my dad like a shadow.


One day I came home and she was sitting in his recliner with him.  Now, you have to understand that this was a one person recliner and there she sat all squished in beside him with this silly little grin on her face.


I stopped and took in this beautiful sight in for a while and then I said to my dad, "Pop, you have the perfect wife.  She never complains, she always wants to be close, she doesn't want presents and to go out for dinner.  She doesn't remember anything you did wrong and is now content to watch your stupid TV shows with you."  But I digress...


One night, the tornado sirens went off.  The three of us gathered in a long hall in the center of our home (My dog, Luke, and my cat (Mad Max) were shut in the small bathroom).  This hall was deemed, many years ago, as the safest place in the house (as Dad refused to spring for a cement shelter).  I quickly gathered up the gear that is always close at hand during tornado seasona small mattress on which to lay and some quilts to put over the top of us (plus an emergency kit to hug).


The storm was raging outside and this is what I heard:

MOM:     Bill... (louder) Bill... (then louder) BILL... ... (and even louder)                B I I I L LLLLLLLL!  

(you see my dad was hard of hearing).

DAD:      WHAT!!!!!!!!!


MOM:    What are we doing here?


DAD:      TORNADO!


MOM:     Oh!  (in a soft little voice).


Then, about 5 minutes later I heard:


MOM:     Bill... ... Bill... ...BILL... B I I I L LLLLLLLL! 

DAD:      WHAT!!!!!!!!!

MOM:    What are we doing here?

DAD:      TORNADO!

MOM:     Oh!.

The siren stayed on for about 30 minutes and this EXACT repetitive dialogue continued the entire time.  By the third time I seriously considered running out the door and into maelstrom and yelling, "Dorothy, take me with you!" 


kt 3/3/12 

   

PREVIEWS OF MONDAYS TO COME:

#226-DID I WARP HIM FOR LIFE?

#227-ANOTHER FINE MESS!

#228-A SCREAM PIERCED THE AIR!

#229-AND THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO GET LUCKY

#224-I CHOOSE CONTROL

I would like to get a serious for just a minute. Someone very special sent this to me and I want to share it with you:

Though you have some control over things outside yourself, the most powerful and important control you have is over your own thoughts and actions. Indeed, it is through self-control that your greatest possibilities can be realized. People will attempt to tell you that you have no choice, that when certain things happen you must react in a certain way. But you most certainly do have a choice. You do not have to be a victim of circumstance, no matter what that circumstance may be. You can choose the way you respond, and you can take control of your circumstances by being in control of yourself. Imagine all the things you could accomplish if you had a servant who obeyed your every command. The fact is, you do have such a servant and it is you. So what are you commanding yourself to do? How are you controlling the powerful and valuable force that is your life? When you attempt to control others, they will resist you. Yet when you focus on controlling your own thoughts and actions, the positive possibilities are unlimited. You have within your complete control someone who is capable of many great things -- you. Use that control wisely and it can take you wherever God has planned and desires you to go.

#223-SLOSHED!

In the early 60s I was attending college at San Jose State, in San Jose, California.  Being a college town and close to San Francisco it was a town filled with a lot of energy and interesting character's.   It was here that I witnessed an incredible scene.


The apartments we lived in did not have cloth washing facilities so we had to go to the local laundry-mat.  We usually went as a large group and made kind of a party out of it.  The guys would come by and see how many times they could go around in the dryer before throwing up (just one fun thing in their arsenal of dumb stuff).  We played music and talked (and drank beer).


One such night an old lady with baggy stockings, a black straw hat, and rumpled clothing came in carrying a pillow case.  We noticed her, but were having too much fun to notice that the pillow case was moving (well, one of the girls, after the event, said she saw it moving but thought she might have had too many beers).


Anyway, the ruemy old lady walked to one of the washers and dumped the contents of the pillow case into the washer.  She pulled out a quarter (yes, back then it only cost a quarter) put it into the machine and it started filling.  


When the washer started to thrash, a terrible sound to fill the room.  It sounded like a long low moan.  Then when the spin rinse kicked in it a sounded more like a broken siren.  This horrific noise filled the room.  I have never heard such a sound.


We all stopped talking mid sentence, shut off the music, and turned around trying to focus on the origin of the terrible sound.  We concluded, at once, that the sound was coming from washing machine #6.  The old lady was half leaning, half laying, against it as if she hadn't noticed the awful sound coming from her machine.


At first we thought that the motor was making the noise but when final spin kicked in the noise suddenly changed into a blood curdling scream.   We were all frozen in place with looks of fear and confusion on our faces.


When the spinning stopped, the old lady opened the lid, removed a soggy, groggy, long haired, black CAT and headed for the dryers.  It was then that we were shocked into action.  We yelled at the old lady, grabbed a towel and wrenched the cat from her arms.  The old lady appeared to be ambivalent about our concerns.

Actually, that cat's eyes weren't quite
as focused as this ones.

The ruckus had attracted the police who had to endure the enraged yammering noise of 15  hormonal females.  The police noted our complaints, and loaded the old lady (and the soggy-groggy cat) into the police car. 


We all congratulated ourselves for being fine upstanding citizens (and uttered a sigh of relief that the cops had not noticed that more than that cat was "sloshed" that night.  (There was A LOT of underage drinking going on in that laundry-mat). 

I guess this is what it would have looked
like if we had let her put it into the dryer!

PREVIEWS OF MONDAYS TO COME:

#224-I CHOOSE CONTROL

#225-DOROTHY, TAKE ME WITH YOU

#226-DID I WARP HIM FOR LIFE?

#227-ANOTHER FINE MESS!

#228-A SCREAM PIERCED THE AIR!

#229-AND THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO GET LUCKY

kt 2/26/12