The Sunflower

The other a day my daughter in law sent me a picture of "the girls" picking sunflowers. It brought back a wonderful memory of my children. On his last day of kindergarten, my older son brought home a seedling in a sytrofoam cup. It was a tiny sunflower leaf the size of a pea. He was so excited to plant it in the garden on the side of the house. We planted it and watched it grow. And grow. And grow. By September the plant was 10 feet high and the flower was 9 inches wide. It was so heavy with sunflower seeds that it began to face down. We decided to shake it and all of the seeds came tumbling down to the ground. When it was time to pull it out, the stalk was so wide that we had to saw it down like it was a tree. I knew that I had taken a picture of the sunflower because it was so beautiful. Since I have many picture albums, I did not know which one it was in. I was on a mission to find the picture. I took out every photo album I have and went through them picture by picture. Finally, I found it. My two sons in front of the monster flower. What a wonderful memory. 

The Boats

Even though my husband's birthday was weeks ago, we celebrated with a lobster dinner last night. We took a ride to Pt. Jefferson. Although the day started off cloudy, the sun eventually came out and made us feel like we were on vacation. We looked at the boats and walked around in and out of the specialty stores. My grandson enjoyed looking at the cars being loaded and unloaded from the large ferry boat. My son taught him about the wind flags and what their purpose was. We ate dinner at an open air restaurant across the street from the dock. After another short walk, we ate ice cream. In two weeks we will have the same type of day with my granddaughters, in Cape Cod. I can't wait.

Friday at 5

We have all had this happen to us. Friday at 5pm you open your mail and find a letter or bill that has a problem. Since it is 5pm, there is no one to call. Offices are closed for the weekend. You think about the letter for three days until Monday morning at 9am, when you can make the phone call to clear up the problem. Even though we know the problem will be fixed in a few days, we spend the weekend obsessing about every scenario and conversation we will be having about it. I think that no one should open mail after 3pm on a Friday. That way we are guaranteed a worry free weekend.

Travel Agent

I have just taken over the role of travel agent. My boss is traveling to Russia in a few weeks and just realized that she needs a visa. In the last few days I have learned more than I need to know about Russian travel visas. I have spent two entire workdays making calls. My philosophy is that as long as she is paying me, I will do different tasks. If I play travel agent, I will not answer work phones or do my regular job. I learned that you need to be hosted in order to enter Russia, so you need a letter from the hotel where you will be staying. If you book on Booking.com as she did, you will never speak to a live person for advice. After 2 hours of calling them, being rerouted and then hung up on, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I called directly to Russia and found someone at the hotel who spoke English. I got all of the information I needed.

Optimize

The other day a message from my internet carrier flashed across the computer screen. It asked me if I wanted to optimize my internet speed. If I said yes, Verizon would run a program to sync my computer with the best speed possible. Since I have an older computer, I decided to let it be optimized. After running the program, my computer now runs slower. Now, I sit and watch a blue circle go round and round waiting to get on to the internet.

72 Hours

Everything takes 72. That's all I have been hearing for the last few weeks. For some reason computers run on a 72 hour update schedule. I needed a new insurance card. That took 72 hours to update. I need to change my prescription number. That took 72 hours to update. Who decided that 72 is the magical number? Why can't it be the moment you hit the "save" button. Why can't it be the next day? Why do things take three days to fix?

Food Feast

There was nothing good on television last night so I tuned into the Travel Channel and binge watched Bizarre Foods. I have been hungry ever since. I saw specialty foods from Shanghai, Memphis and South Carolina. I wanted to jump through the screen and take a bite. I could almost taste the soup dumplings, ribs and fried catfish. Everything seemed delicious. This morning I got up and did not know what to take for lunch. I decided to try Elvis' favorite sandwich of peanut butter and banana. I do not have time to fry it in white bread so I chose to make it on a toasted bialy. It smells great and I cannot wait for lunch.

Virtual Vacation

My boss is out of the country for two weeks. Her vacation gives everyone else a virtual vacation. No annoying phone calls. No messes to mop up. No inane chatter about unimportant things. We can all just go to work, do our job and be at peace knowing that no one will annoy us. A vacation without spending money is the best kind.

Chili's

Last night I ate at the Westbury Chili's and lived to tell the tale. I ordered the ribs and they came out room temperature. I hate to send food back and they looked cooked so I ate them. I had 4 out of six. Within two hours I got violently ill, from both ends of my body. I have never been that sick. Childbirth seemed like a walk in the park compared to the pain of this. After a few hours I called the restaurant to warn them about the ribs. The manager Chris (who will now be referred to as "the Putz") said that it could not be from his food as it takes 24-48 hours to get sick from food. He is wrong. If food has been siting and builds up toxins, the toxins will get you ill within 2 hours. I said that I was not asking him for anything, I just wanted him to check the kitchen and see what is going on. The Putz said that his kitchen is fine. I asked him for the corporate offices number and he said I could look it up online myself. This morning I wrote to Chili's and Monday I will call them. What if a small child got this sick? They would have been hospitalized. Something is definitely wrong in the Westbury Chili's.
 ***Update: I sent an email to the corporate office at about 8am and within 10 minutes a district manager called. He refunded the meal charge, is sending a $50 gift card, but most important, he is going to the restaurant this morning to check the kitchen and see why this happened. This is what a good manager does. I hope he finds out where the quality control went wrong.

You Tube

Years ago we had encyclopedias and instruction books. Nowadays we have You Tube. You can learn to do everything from baking a cake, to installing windows to doing surgery. There have been many times in my family's life when we were at a standstill while doing a project. We run to the computer and pull up a You Tube video. We play it and rerun it a few times and see how the experts to things. We have never been steered wrong from watching You Tube. It is better than going to a trade school.

Morning Talk

Every morning like clockwork, my phone rings. My sister and I have our daily morning talk. We review the previous day and discuss what the new day will bring. I could never imagine starting a day off without hearing her voice. The only exception to the rule is when she is on a cruise. We can repeat the same stories day after day and never get bored. We can solve the world's problems according to what we feel needs to be done. We laugh about nonsense. That is the best laughter. She is better than a cup of morning coffee.

Like Father, Like Son

Children learn from their parents. They are little sponges that absorb things even when you don't think they are listening. Yesterday my husband went to my son's house to help him put vinyl siding on his shed. It was a big project and they worked all day on it. I was invited over for dinner and when I arrived, my grandson ran out to greet me. Behind his ear was a pencil, just like the contractors have. It looked so cute. I asked him why he had the pencil behind his ear and he told me that his daddy does this when he works. My grandson was helping the men do their work and was even pretending to mark out the plans with his pencil. He wore his pencil proudly all day, knowing that he worked hard and helped out.

Suspenders

Fashion changes from generation to generation. When I look back on historical pictures I cannot fathom how women wore long dresses and high necklines during the summer or how men were always expected to wear a suit and tie. Dress codes have become more lax and things that were popular no longer are. I was driving the other day and saw an old man wearing suspenders. My father also wears them. As belts became more popular suspenders phased out. Now they are mostly worn with a tuxedo. Suspenders made sense. They held your pants up without putting the pressure on your stomach that a belt does. It was purposeful and comfortable. They suspended your pants from your body. Your shoulders had a job. No our shoulders are unemployed and our pants are pushed into our bodies.

Complacent

My boss has always been complacent. Ever since I know her she has never been involved in the day to day running of her business. Previous to working here I worked at another doctor's office where he was able to do any job that his staff did. He could do dictation, enter claims, file, enter labs and also do maintenance around the office. My current boss knows zero. She does not even have a password into the computer system. She delegates everything to me or the bookkeeper. Since her "bad judgement" event, she is now trying to learn what is going on and wants things her way. Forms that have been used for 20 years are no longer to her liking. Tried and true methods bother her. If I was young I would be upset, but since I am older I think of it as a live improvisation show. She is having daily meltdowns and trying to put blame on people. I just sit there, shake my head and wonder how many more acts the show will have.

Speak Your Mind

Years ago I remember my mother saying that as she got older she was able to speak her mind. I did not really know what she meant until I got older. I am now at the age where I will speak my mind. I no longer let people say things that I feel are untrue or unkind. Years ago I would listen and think to myself that it was wrong. Now I will voice my opinion. I am never nasty, although sometimes I may come off as being a bit blunt. Yesterday at the town pool there were 2 examples of "mind speaking". Two separate people said things that did not need to be said. There was no purpose for their comments. The people to whom these comments were directed, spoke up immediately and squashed the conversation. I was pleased to see that. The day went on as usual, but the two "offenders" knew that their behavior was wrong and hopefully will be more mindful from now on.

Meat

Humans are carnivores. We are meant to eat meat. We are not supposed to live on leaves. Last night I went with my family to a Bar-B-Que restaurant where we ordered a platter of assorted meats. Ribs, chicken, brisket, sausage and pork appeared on a large plate. Everything was brown. No greenery was on the plate for garnish. It was not necessary. We ate like caveman. The side dishes were homemade. I left with a full belly and a smiling face.

Buffet

I love Chinese buffets but I only go to them once or twice a year. Last weekend I went to one that my sister always goes to. When I walked in I think I heard the angels sing. It was the best buffet I had ever seen. It looked neat and clean and had a tremendous variety of food. I was so excited that I did not pace myself correctly and got full too fast. I was actually eating the food as I was walking around getting more food. Last night my sister called me and invited me to go to the buffet with her and my brother in law. I gave my husband his dinner and jumped ship. This time I was prepared and had a game plan. I ate, rested, walked and ate again. We stayed for almost two hours and when we left I was satisfied with how it went. No regrets this time.

Fighting To Work

Yesterday there was a bit of a blow up in my office. My two receptionists were arguing about who works more. Now here is where it gets absurd. They were not arguing about who works more in the sense of one doing more and one doing less. The fight was that both of them wanted to do more to help the other out with their workload and were not allowed to. The conversation went like this, "You never let me answer the phones when you are busy". "Well, you never let me do your timesheets when you have a desk load of work". One called the other hostile and that is when I intervened. I explained that wanting to help each other is a good thing and that they both have such a high work standard that they feel like they are not pulling their weight when they are not in control of the work flow. I told them that they have to relax with each other and not resent the other person for wanting to help. I told them that they were both ridiculous and anyone watching the argument would have laughed at them. Things settled down and we are back in business...for now.

Hot as Hell

Yesterday my new air conditioner was delivered and installed. I still have no air conditioning. How can this be, you ask? It was installed and when it was plugged in there was no power. The receptacle had burned out. We bought a new receptacle and installed that but now we have minimal power. I think the circuit breaker burned out. We called the electrician and he will be here this afternoon. My house feels like a pizza oven. Now comes the puzzling thought. Did the old air conditioner blow the receptacle and fuse or did the bad circuit breaker turn off the air conditioner? I can live with first scenario, but the second would mean that I spent $900 needlessly.

Nice Gesture

Yesterday my husband wanted to celebrate his birthday by eating Chipotle for dinner and having Ralph's Ices for dessert. Since we have a new Chipotle in our town we decided to go there. We ordered our food and as we were checking out, I mentioned to the cashier that this was my husband's 65th birthday dinner. She looked at the manager and the manager said to give him his dinner for free as a birthday present. They never asked for proof of his birthday. They just decided to do a nice thing to make someone's birthday special.

Lucky Day

Today is July 11th. 7-11. For some reason people attach luck to this number. For my family it is the day that my husband was born. I always tell him that he has luck. Things have run pretty well in his life so far and I hope it continues for a long time. Today is also free slurpy day at 7-11 stores. My husband wants to celebrate his birthday at Chipoltle, his favorite fast food restaurant. Happy Birthday!

Biddy

There are certain words that have gone out of style. They were popular years ago and were used in conversation weekly. They were a sign of the times and everyone knew their meaning. If I said any of them in conversation now, most younger people would not know what they meant. This morning I was talking about a young girl that I know that acts like an old lady. The expression "old biddy" came up out of nowhere. That word described the girl exactly. A biddy. Who remembers that word?

Heat Wave

There is a heat wave but it is in my house. Last night my main air conditioner broke. The worst time for an air conditioner to break is in the summer, but since that is the only time we use it, when else would it break? We did our preliminary air conditioner shopping last night and will actually buy one today. I need to comparison shop before I make any large purchase. Once I know the deal I have is the best deal I can get, I am okay with it. I am lucky that I was proactive and bought two tower fans just in case something like this happened.

Concert

Last night I went to a concert on the beach. I had no idea that it would also include a fireworks show. The beach setting was beautiful and the boardwalk gave a vacation type atmosphere. Somehow the smell of sausage and peppers frying on a grill makes  me feel as if I am away. The group sang all disco songs which was right up my alley. The weather was great and while there were a lot of people, it did not feel crowded. I had a very nice time.

Yo Yo Cho Cho

I am frustrated with health insurance. Since my husband has gone onto Medicare I need to COBRA myself onto his old healthcare plan. Being proactive, I started this process in May. It took six weeks for the plan to locate a form I faxed in 4 times. Finally they entered the correct information so I could move on to step two. On June 26 I faxed my COBRA application into the union and was told that a coupon book would be sent so I could pay. Yesterday when I still had not received a book, I called the union. I was told that they never received  the form even though I have a fax confirmation. As of today I have no insurance. I went to my son's house last night and faxed another form. I am waiting until 9am to call again check on whether or not they received it. I know it will work out, but in the meantime I am frustrated and would rather not have to spend time doing and redoing a simple task. The reason this blog is titled yo yo cho cho is because every time I call the union they ask what language I want to speak. They offer English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. When they ask you about Chinese, the woman goes through the disclaimer in Chinese and says, "Yo yo cho cho", which means 1199. Maybe if I spoke to someone in Chinese they would get the job done right.

Milking It

There are two types of people in the world. One that goes through unpleasant situations strongly and the other that milks it to the last drop. Since pool season has begun I have been seeing a neighborhood woman a few days a week. She is nice but nutty. She is the kind of person that makes summer entertaining but I would never choose as a winter friend. Even though I am older, I call her a "camp friend". It seems that in May she had a surgical procedure on her breast. Everything was fine and she had a few stitches. I had the same surgery in 1995 and went home and made macaroni and cheese for dinner. She has not stopped talking about her breast to anyone that passes by. Pardon the pun, but she is milking her breast surgery. According to her, she cannot swim, walk, exercise, lift, drive, hug, cook, etc. It was minor day op, nothing serious. She is using this surgery to get attention and sympathy. I am now keeping a count of how many times the word breast can be put into a conversation. "It is sunny out". "My breast cannot have sun on it". "Today is Tuesday". "Tuesday is the day my breast was operated on". "My birthday is in June". "June was one month since my breast surgery". I am not kidding. This is how her breast is slipped into every conversation. I am waiting to see how long it takes for someone to tell her to stop the breast obsession.

Efficiency

I like efficiency. I hate procrastination. Sometimes I am called a nag. The only reason why I nag is because if someone did what I asked the first time, I would have no need to repeat it. When I am asked to do something, it is done right away. With technology the way it is, people will email or text a request. Sometimes the email or text is not received so the task is not done. Then there is the discussion of why it was not done. Too many words and too much effort has gone into one small request. All I want is to have what I ask done in a timely manner.

July 4th

Today is the Fourth of July. It is also known as Independence Day. To some people it is "Do Stupid Sh*t and Pay For It The Rest Of Your Life Day". Later in the evening people who have no expertise in pyrotechnics will line up packets of gunpowder and set them on fire. Some will be lucky and walk away. Others will not be lucky and go immediately to the emergency room. They will suffer burns and the loss of fingers. Then they will act surprised as if they had no idea this could happen. I will be sensible and stay in my house watching television.

Summer in the City

We are back home after a lovely weekend. Vacations usually end at the Throggs Neck Bridge. We drove through winding roads in Rhode Island and quiet roads in Connecticut. We cruised on I-95 all the way through until we hit the exit for the bridge. The car came to a halt and we inched our way home. We knew that the vacation was done and we would have to shift gears and get back into city mode.

Elegant

The wedding was last night. The only word I have for it was elegant. The weather held up enough for an outdoor ceremony. The bridal party looked beautiful and my granddaughter walked down the aisle like a little lady. The bride was stunning. After the ceremony there was a cocktail hour with cheeses and pass around tasty bites of food. The meal was delicious and was followed by an ice cream sundae bar. The best part of the evening was watching my granddaughter dance. She has a sense of rhythm that made her dancing beautiful. She opened up the dance floor and did not stop celebrating until late at night. She was a pink dancing princess. The baby was a tiny pink fluff of energy. I had the best night.

Newport

We are in Newport for a wedding. The drive was a smooth one and up until the last few miles things went smooth. Google decided to send us north instead of south, but after a few miles we realized the error and turned around. The rehearsal dinner was in a courtyard in an elegant hotel and the food was delicious! I played with my older granddaughter all night and looked after my younger one for a short time. Today my job will be taking care of the baby so her parents can be part of the wedding party.