team USA

I’ve been watching the Olympics this week. We made special arrangements to record the USA and Canadian hockey games! If you know me you know I’m a Blue Jackets hockey fan. Michael infected me. The Blue Jackets are Columbus’ hockey team.

The reason we were so interested in the Olympic hockey games is that several of the Jackets players have gone back to play for their own country. I think there are three who played for Canada and one more playing for one of the Nordic countries. Michael keeps up on all that and just tells me what to watch. And of course there were a couple playing for the USA.

So it comes down to this: tomorrow Canada and the USA are playing for the gold medal! How exciting is that! I’ll actually be happy no matter who wins. I have a vested interest in both teams. Michael, of course, is USA all the way.

this and that and the other

Well, my second son is off to work. Maxim and Mika have had their early morning potty break and gotten sent back to bed with their ‘mama’ (Rachael doesn’t go to work until 1:30 today) My little boys have had their potty break, begged for a couple bites of my breakfast and they’ve gone back to bed to nap away the next few hours. My cats are up and are playing nicely on their cat tower. Everything is quiet in my world.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it on here, but for a couple months I was in a quandary over the Medicare supplemental insurance situation. I have never had any medical insurance to speak of in my whole life—a few months when I was teaching in public school I think, but other than that I’ve not been able to afford it. Now that I’m 65 our benevolent government told me that I had Medicare. Well, dandy. But the catch was that I needed to buy supplemental insurance because, wise and kind as they are, the Congressional Fathers do not pay all of our medical costs. They only do 80% of any expenses that might be incurred. Phooey. Who designated the US Congress as my Daddy anyway?

I was sorely tempted to chuck the whole thing in the trash. The only thing that kept me from doing just that was the same thing, partly, that sent my father through two surgeries and many trips to the Roswell Cancer Center. I felt responsible for saving my kids grief. I knew that if I were to become sick or be hurt, my kids would want to see that I had medical attention. And that would cost money neither they nor I have. So I began reading all the reams of information sent to me by the SS system and all of the insurance companies anxious to provide me with assistance. And it just got me more confused.

Our government is so good at double talk and excessive explanation-that-leads-only-to-more-confusion. I am not a stupid woman, not exceptionally brilliant, perhaps, but far from stupid or thick-headed in the intelligence department. And here’s the point of the whole thing. They STILL didn’t tell me what I needed to know. The talked and talked about supplemental insurance and what was needed and what was available. In a very short paragraph they mentioned the Medicare Advantage Plan. It was presented in such a way that I discounted it immediately. It seemed that I would need to buy private insurance that would cover all my medical needs and then I wouldn’t need to go through Medicare. Oh yes. I couldn’t afford THAT when I was working. Now that my income was reduced to ¾ of that amount how exactly could I afford it now?

Here’s where the blessing comes in. About 30 years ago I met a young man in our congregation who sold insurance. God is absolutely AMAZING. He planned 30 years ago to solve my problems in 2010! Is that not fantastic!

Okay, to go on. My entire Medicare dilemma began in December when I received notice that I would be eligible for Medicare in March (my birthday). That is also when I began getting more mail than anyone else in the house because of all the insurance solicitations that started coming to me.

About that same time or a little before, I got an email that said, “Are you the same Vondi that used to go to church in Dover? You had a pretty little girl whose dad was Navajo.” ( I don’t think that is an exact quote, but it was something like that.) Here it was the young man I had known thirty years ago. Brother Steve! It was good to hear from him and catch up on the years in between, but I didn’t connect him with my Medicare dilemma immediately. As the mail kept piling up, I remembered that he sold insurance! So I asked a couple questions about the whole thing.

As it turned out, he was involved right then in the end of year turn-overs in Medicare coverage insurance. Bless his heart, he was willing to drive up from Cincinnati to explain the whole thing to me! Aren’t the people of God great?!

I will talk about the whole Medicare situation later. If you are close to 65 email me, leave a comment or get in touch with me otherwise. You need to start thinking this through a LONG time before your birthday.

FarmVille and FishLife

About a week ago I connected with the massive website called Facebook. A friend of mine posted a video, but when I clicked the link to see the video I couldn’t access it without first ‘joining’ the site. I did that, but got so involved in the process that I never did get back to the video I came to see in the first place. From day to day since then I’ve become more and more deeply immersed in the activities there.

They have an ongoing ‘chat’ feed where one can post short messages about anything. Generally, they aren’t obscene, but the attitude and energy is often pretty questionable. There are any number of game type activities that involve operating in a virtual reality scenario.

I’ve become fascinated with two aquarium games. ‘Game’ hardly describes them. You must keep a closer eye on the fish and the aquarium health than I ever did my real ones. I have to check back several times a day to clean the tank and feed the fish or, ‘horrors’! I go back and find my fish all gray and belly up. LOL What a shock the first time that happened.

There is a Farm area. I have two farms, one in Farm Ville and the other in Farm town. I plant crops which mature and can be harvested anywhere from 2 hours to 4 days. If I neglect to go back in a timely fashion the harvest shrivels up and dies. I have to pay to have the little plots of land plowed and pay for the seed and then wait until it is grown. Then I ‘harvest ‘ it by pointing a scythe shaped icon at it. Harvesting it piles up ‘coins’ and then those can be used to buy more seed etc, etc. Just like real life.

I have two cute little farms. The first one has three cows and three sheep, two ducks, a pig and a rabbit in a pen. Of those, I only bought one cow. One was a gift and the third was a ‘lost’ cow that I adopted. The white sheep was a gift but the two black ones were “strays” that needed homes and I adopted them. The rabbit, the ducks and the pig were all gifts. Someone gave me a ‘rest tent” with a lawn chair inside. I bought a second one. That’s the only shelter I have, but I have lots of fruit trees and crop lands. .

The other farm has a sheep and a dog and a crazy chicken that wander all over my farm because I haven’t been able to harvest enough crops yet to buy a real fence. I tried making a little enclosure with one section of fence and hay bales but that wasn’t too successful, especially for the insane chicken. All I have there is one or two apple trees for shelter.

I also have a ‘café’ where I have four stoves and four serving counters with two waiters. I am, of course, The Chef. I decorated the café myself as I made money serving people etc etc. This one requires a LOT of attention because just like real food if I go away and forget it I come back to spoiled food –with virtual flies buzzing over it even!

Now here’s what the Lord showed me. I was allowing myself to be WAAAAY to wrapped up in the computer and facebook. The hours I spent in Bible Study were replaced by tending imaginary crops and feeding imaginary fish and imaginary people! The time I spent on line and in emails and discussion groups with real people talking about the Lord and the Church were pushed out of the way by stupid conversations thanking people for giving me a cow! And it wasn’t even a real cow! It was insidious and unrecognized until today when realization dawned.

The solution of course was easy. I simply didn't go. My cheeseburgers spoiled on the grill. My fish didn't die, but the tanks got all green and the neighbors had to take care of my virtual farms for the day.

There is nothing wrong with simple relaxing amusement, but it cannot control our life and our days to the exclusion of more vital things. We inhabit a world though where many live for amusement. Before I retired, I noticed many of those I worked with planned their entire week around their amusements. They neglected their children to pursue their own entertainment. Some bills went unpaid so pleasure trips could be taken. Houses were barren places because the focus of the individual's energy was on activities outside the home. There was no contentment or joy unless the person was occupied in "having a good time. " I hadn't gone to quite that extent, but for about a week, entertainment consumed most of my day.

God smacked me on the back of my head and said. "Shape up. And focus on the important things." I'll still play facebook games, but only when it doesn't interfer with living a real life.

sigh

I think I just signed up to follow a tweet that I'm not interested in.....

heaven help us!

I cannot believe it. I just registered with twitter! UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE! See it started out when I went to check out a friend's page... But it was on twitter and I couldn't access it without registering for twitter. I least I don't think I could access it. It's real easy to confuse me on these things.

So, like the technologically challenged soul I am, I went ahead and 'registered.' And now I have an account, but I'm not real sure how to use it!

Honest to Pete, I don't believe I'm tweeting material.

If anybody knows anything about using this whole twitter thingie, puhleze, send me an email or post a comment or just help! I've heard that people do all kinds of neat things with their pages.... Not me, kid! I'm amazed I to have one.

Oh yeah... I'm at http://twitter.com/honchess And don't be disappointed. It's a bare bones page. Like I said, I'm astonished that it's even there.

tribute to a coffee mug

We had a funeral at our house this morning.

As part of the Kroger lien accounting roll out, Rachael had to go in at 4:30 this morning to walk one of the assistant managers through the first day of the week opening procedures. I started her coffee and made a toaster strudel and then sat at the counter reading a book until she came down.

She pulled her favorite coffee mug from the cupboard and filled it; but when she picked it up to slurp from it there was an ominous Drip. It had a crack! Ooooh.

We have six or eight travel mugs on the top shelf so it wasn't like an earth shattering event, but the mug was history. Rachael sorted through the choices and found her second favorite. After she poured the coffee into that mug she stood reverently over the trash can and held up the cracked one.

"You were my favorite for six years, but now you gotta go. You were a good mug." and she dropped it in the trash. (insert a reverent moment here)

I make a joke of it but I can understand her feeling. I have a favorite mug too. My friend Dianne brought me a mug back from one of her trips to Kentucky seven/eight years ago (wow. How fast time goes!) It is shaped like a cone with a collar instead of a pointy top. There's a little plastic lid that fits in the opening. And there's a foam pad on the bottom to keep it from sliping on a sloped dash. My favorite thing about it though is that it is ceramic. I don't like to drink coffee from those thermal plastic things or even the stainless steel mugs either.
I used this mug for several years to take my coffee along while I was driving to work every morning. The clingy foam on the bottom let me set it on the inclined dash or on the passenger seat or even on my lap without tipping. The narrow mouth with the plastic insert lid kept splashes redirected back down in the mug. I used regular cups at home. Lots of times my coffee cup sat on the end table or the window seat while I did something else and drank coffee as I did it. The problem was that Gable always stole my coffee if I walked a way for two seconds!

All of the literature on dogs says that coffee isn't good for them. Some even offer dire threats of death! I have news for them. Gable has probably stolen quarts of coffee and it has never seemed to impair him one little bit. BUT after I found out it was supposed to I worried about it. My skinny-mouth travel mug was the solution. It was so narrow that it is difficult for him to get his nose in and the lid stops his pilfering completely! Now I use it all the time--even when I'm sitting at a table or counter where he can't hope to reach.

It went all the way to NM with me and I live in dread of its getting broken. Eight years is a l-o-n-g lifetime for a coffee cup in my house! But I could never find another one. There were plenty of ceramic coffee mugs, but they were all wide-topped and skinny-bottomed. They were made to fit in one of those coffee wells car manufacturers think are so handy. Oh yeah, like that would keep a nibby terrier nose out while it was sitting on an end table!

Yesterday when I was surfing the web I found one on sale!!! I was so

excited I ordered a white replacement and a blue back up!

oh my! it's good

Rachael came from work and brought me an Iced Caffe Americana (with cream and sugar) from Starbucks! Oh my goodness! Those are sooo good.

It is reallly ridiculous how expensive they are, but this is definitely a deal where "you get what you pay for" because they are the best coffee I've ever swallowed. It is fortunate that I don't have tons of money or I could easily become addicted.

Now THIS was my "Portabello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger'!

That's what I call a sandwich! Wow. I just wanted to share it with you. I also had a side salad. Everyone else had fries with it, but in deference to Doctor Nickleson and her low carb instructions I let the fries go. The bun was certainly enough carbs!

I tested my blood glucose two hours later and it was only 114, so I didn't do real bad with it.

If you live somewhere that you can get Carl's Junior's hamburgers (seems like a mundane name for this wonderful construction!) GO GET ONE! But don't get anything else. One of these is enough.