I've been screwed

Or at least I feel that way. Yesterday I took Somewhere to Cullum & Maxey to have my slide checked on because there was a hydraulic leak somewhere in the slide mechanism. In addition to that I wanted them to check the tire pressure while it was there. I did not ask if there would be a charge for checking the tire pressure (in hindsight, I probably should have and you can bet your bippy I will ask in the future.) They got the slide problem fixed and called me to come pick it up.

As I was paying what I thought was too high a price, $220. I asked for an itemization of the bill. Here you go, are you ready??? $47.50 plus tax to check the tire pressure. Yes, you read it right, $47.50.

I disputed that price and Bud Maxey, manager over the parts & service department and might I mention the individual who sold me my motorhome, told me the reason was they had to crawl under my motorhome to check the pressure on the inside tires. I asked why they had to do that, "I have valve extenders for the inside tires?" He said he didn't think so and I took him out to look. Sure enough I do, then he started telling me how they price out their hours and that I probably didn't actually pay that for the tire pressure check, it was probably that the slide pump took longer than I was charged for. Well, why didn't my bill reflect that instead? He said it was just easier to do it the way they did it! Bud kept hem hawing around but was not going to and did not cut me any slack.

I am on the lookout for another service center! I told him he sold me based on the service center's customer service. They always take care of their customers. Well I say that is a bunch of bull and I want to let everyone know they screw their customers.

Don't buy anything from Cullum & Maxey center. They DON'T take care of their customers. You bet I will ask from here on out. It was a very expensive lesson for me to learn. I just can't stomach the fact that I actually paid $47.50 plus tax for something that I have done before, repeatedly! Was it because I was a woman? Was it because they are feeling the hard economic times and need to do this to their customers to stay afloat? I don't know but it sure ticks me off.

Want to read something directly from Cullum and Maxey's website:
Our Commitment

For over 45 years, Cullum & Maxey has followed a simple philosophy: offer quality products, back them with quality service, and, most of all, make the customer's overall experience as enjoyable and hassle-free as possible. Instead of gimmicks and high-pressure sales, we try to create [read more]... What a JOKE!

It still hurts to sit down!

Veteran's Day

Today was Veteran's Day and there was a big parade downtown Nashville. It rained a little but the hardest rain held off until after the parade. Did I go? No, it was a state holiday and I went to learn how to winterize Somewhere.

I took her to Clarksville RV Supercenter and Jim walked me through step by step how to do it. I had watched my walk through DVD I took while taking possession of Somewhere last December but I learn best by doing. Now I can do it w/out stressing whether I got it right.

Gas was $1.99 today. Nice change from a few months ago.

I have made after Christmas plans. Jonathan, Taylor and I will be going to Stone Mountain GA for their Christmas event. We are looking forward to it. We will be staying in Somewhere in Etowah at Deborah's and then will go on down to Atlanta the day after Christmas. I can't wait. It will be fun. I won't be staying for the Snow Mountain but Jonathan and Taylor will stay. It's a big slide down the mountain on inner tubes on top of snow. I'm sure it's man made snow. I hope it's man made snow. LOL

I have a couple of new travelling companions that I want you to meet.
This is Buffett. I suppose he will jump in my suitcase to go on my cruise. He wants to be like the Travelocity Gnome. As long as he is good and doesn't make a mess, he can go anywhere with me. I know, I must be a lonely "old woman" to be taking TY beanies with me on trips. You just never know where he will show up. You can tell he is already checking things out on the computer to see where we will go next.

This is my yet to be named Pink Flamingo. She won't be going on as many trips, just the ones in Somewhere. She will be the RV Women's mascot when we have our get togethers. She will get to come out and play whenever she wants. Let me know what you think she needs to be named. I've been thinking of Carib for the Caribbean but I don't think she likes that so I'll keep trying and I'll let you know. I'm sure you will be waiting with bated breath.

How did I come up with these new companions? Remember I told you Cindy had a yard sale, well at an auction she went to she purchased about 200 + beanie babies and had the to sell in her yard sale. These two babies were in there calling my name and Cindy gave them to me. I didn't have to buy them, that's how they jumped on board with me. Buffett has a special riding place already and matches my theme of It's 5 o'clock Somewhere. Not sure about where the flamingo will go. She will find her place. My challenge is to keep Sedona away from them. She thinks they are toys for her, imagine that!

Debbie stopped by today on the way to the DR. She had forgotten that I was home on holiday today. She has an upper respiratory funk going on but boy does she look good. She has lost about 80 + lbs and is looking like a different person. I am so very proud of Debbie. She dropped off some hand me downs from Duchess to Sedona. Sedona wasn't feeling too proud in this UT sweater, since they are doing so badly this year, but then I told her it was really a Lady Vols shirt and she perked up. Can't blame her for that, can you? tee hee Thanks Debbie & Duchess.

Go Titans- 9-0.

Later...

Ave Maria Grotto

Sometime back when Theda and I went to Destin Fl we stopped at the Ava Maria Grotto in Culluman AL. I found this place on the Roadside America website following my friend Margie's lead on finding good places to stop to see interesting places on the way. With my AAA membership, admission was $5 which was a good deal and we were there about 3 hours.



The Ave Marie Grotto is at St Bernard Abbey in Culluman. The Grotto consists of a landscaped hillside of 125 small stone and cement structures, the handiwork of the creative genius, Brother Joseph Zoetl, O.S.B., a monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years.

I was intrigued by the detail and the materials used. I have made some similar structures using found items of sea shells, broken glass and broken china. Of course not to this detail and mass. I'll show a few of the pictures we took but there were so many, you just have to go see it.




Some of the titles of the minatures are: Bethlehem, The Tower of Thanks, St Peter's Shrine, Montserrat Abbey, Statue of Liberty, Red Cross Tower, Hansel & Gretel Visit the temple of the Fairies, The Holy Land, Leaning Tower of Pisa, City of Jerusalem & the Gate of Herod, Gethsemani, Crucifixion, The Resurrection, The Ten Commandments, Jacob's Well, Noah's Ark & the Tower of Babel, and on and on. It is well worth the trip to go.

It was a beautiful spring day and the gardens were beautiful.

What's been goin' on?

Several posts ago I had referred to the Life on Wheels conference and how helpful it was to me as I prepared to embark on the RVing lifestyle. I don't think that I have posted about the founder of this wonderful conference, Gaylord Maxwell, passed away on September 20. I had postponed going to the LOW until 2009 because I wanted to have a few trips under my belt so that I would make better use of the information I received at the conference. Now I read that there will no longer be a Life on Wheels. Now, I'll have to go to plan B and I don't know what that is yet.

Also, big in the news this week is that we now have a new president elect, Barack Obama. History was indeed made this week as Mr Obama is the first African-American person to be elected to the highest office in the US. I will not give an editorial on this selection, let me just say, I didn't vote for him. What does the future hold for us???

As of this writing it is only 14 days until my cruise and I can't wait. Last night I had my hair cut and colored. I look like a tri-gold bracelet! LOL Why do I say that? I wanted something sassy and I told Janey I wanted blond and red. She highlighted it first with blond and then added mahogany red to the highlights and of course with my hair being brown naturally, I'm tricolored. It is spiky short, so I am ready for the tropics.

I heard from my cousin, Teresa, in Maryville this week. She is now a Stampin' Up Demonstrator and is doing quite well. Her blog is if you are interested in checking it out. So proud of Teresa.

We just completed our third pay period in Edison and things seem to be smoothing out a little. I figured it would take about four for employees to really begin to feel more comfortable with it. Guess I was right.

Went last weekend to Clarksville to help with Cindy's yard sale and stayed in Somewhere while I was there. Of course Friday was Halloween and I took a few pix of Roger's children in their costumes.
I also had to take one of them being silly. The little girl in the center is one of their friends who went trick or treating with.
They got a lot of candy that helped us out the next day at the yard sale. We had to keep our energy up, you know. The yard sale was a bust for me, $26.00, but was very successful for Roger & Cindy. I just don't think it was meant for me to have or be a part of a yard sale.

I am taking Somewhere to be winterized on the 11th. I don't want to worry about her while I am gone on my cruise so this is the best thing to do. I am hoping they will let me do it while I watch. It can't be that difficult to do but I don't want to do it by myself the first time. I'll dewinterize for Christmas, I'm taking her back to Etowah so we can enjoy Christmas in her again. It's hard to believe it has been almost a year since I bought her. Haven't got to use her as much as I thought but it won't be long until she will be my home.

Having said that, I'm reevaluating whether I'll be retiring this year. All will depend on whether I sell my condo. I need to make some money on my condo and right now, I think it will sell, but it's getting what I need for it that will make a difference. I, like most everyone else, took a beating in the stock market. My financial advisor says I can still do it but I may need to hang on to my good paying job for a little while. Who knows, everything is up in air, and as the girls on the forum say, my plans are in jello right now. Love that phrase, plans are in jello.

OMG, big news from East TN, Philip Fulmer, head coach of the TN Volunteers, has been asked to step down. The Vols have had a horrible year in football and TN fans can be the most rabid fans around. I think they called for his head and got it. Now things are left up to Pat Summit and Bruce Pearl, UT basketball coaches.

The Tennessee Titans, pro football team in Nashville, are 8-0 this year. Only undefeated team in the NFL. GO TITANS! Don't miss my PSLs at all, love watching from the comfort of my home!

Later...

Southern Caribbean Cruise

Read and post cruise reviews
Okay, now I'm getting a little fired up about my cruise! It's been a long time coming. I touted it as my retirement cruise but it may just be a cruise because I need it. It is 8 days and it's on the Carnival Miracle. There are 10 of us going and it should just be a blast. All of us have cruised before except one person, Melissa. She is a newbee and it will be a joy to have someone who has never cruised before. The newbees always try to do everything possible on the ship. Once you have cruised as many times as me, you just go to relax and enjoy. I have a balcony this time, 1st time, always got an inside cabin. Most people tell me I'll never have another inside room once I have a balcony. We will see.

I haven't been much into posting lately. Just wanted to stop in and say hey and to let you know that me, Sedona and Somewhere are doing just fine.

Later...

Crocheted Plastic Bag Rug

Well, I finally finished my plastic bag rug. It has been so long since I have crocheted anything, I'll consider this my first run. Now that I have practiced surely I'll do better next time. I am planning on doing another of blue and yellow for the next step. Good thing is they can be washed in a washer but not dried. It was a good project for me. They stay put on the steps and don't slide. It was made with plastic bags you get at grocery stores, walmart, dollar general stores, etc. I guess I have contributed to the recycling and protecting the universe. I didn't help global warming because I think that is just a bunch of hooey!

Ended up boondocking last weekend and boy was it fun. It was so relaxing and didn't have to spend a dime. Somewhere was not dusty like I thought it would be, so all I had to do was to vacuum a little and dust, just like I would have if I had had my house closed up for about 2 months.

Gonna have her winterized at a place in Clarksville in November, before I leave on my cruise. That way I won't have to be concerned when I am gone. Then when it comes to Christmas holiday, I'll dewinterize it and drive it to Etowah again. It worked out so well for me, Jonathan and Taylor to be in there for our Christmas together. Gosh, think, next year, I won't have to worry about going back to work, I'll have all the time I need. Life is good.

Later...

Headed to Somewhere

Yippee, the Edison crunch is over for this pay period and aside from the fact that Edison paid 163 employees cash overtime (what a great surprise to them) everything went well. The glitch over the OT was a result of the system not being programmed appropriately for our rule of comp overtime instead of cash. Their glitch not ours. Whew!

It's time for me to take a little break in the action before next pay period, 10/15 and I'm headed to Somewhere. I am going to spend this beautiful Thursday evening cleaning and then head to Land Between the Lakes tomorrow for the weekend. I think I have some heavy duty cleaning to do because I have left my roll out windows open a little and the "corn" guy came in and cut and plowed the corn field. I have been putting a picture of the corn on this blog to measure the growth, however I was not there the last few months and the corn got big and now it's gone. But in the process it has been very dry in Middle Tennessee and it created a lot of dust while the farmer was doing his thing.

Somewhere has got to be very dusty inside and out. I'll probably go to the laundromat tonight and clean the bedding and wash down the walls, vacuum, etc. Gosh, it's gonna feel like home. I asked Cindy if she had closed the windows and she said no, so I can only imagine what it's gonna look like.

I know Sedona will be happy to be on the road again and I'll give you a report of my trip next time I join you on my blog.

Later...

Sedona is Two Years Old Today

Yes, Sedona is two today. She came into my life at 10 weeks old in November, 2006. Not really being much of a dog person before, I decided she needed to go to school. What follows is a recap of her experience at PupScouts in Nashville, TN. I hope you enjoy.

Week One-PupScouts 1/8/07

There were 10 dogs in class. All big, all puppies. Sedona was by far the smallest. First thing they give us was a Lowe's apron with 2 pockets, then they brought around 'treats" for us to put in the pockets, that would be the reward for doing good.

Next was the first command to the parents. Sit in your chair, take your dog off your leash and don't get up off the chair. OMG, do you have any idea how that made me feel. Teach assured me that they would not let anything happen to Sedona. She initially got out in the mix and then one of the dogs "touched" her and she let out the shrillest cry it made your toes curl. I immediately got up and Jane said, "sit back down, she's okay." I looked at her with sheer panic on my face I am sure and said, "Do you have any idea how difficult this is for me?" Of course she did.

Anyway, Sedona decided she liked to play with the adults and children better than those other dogs. Teach did tell me the others would leave her alone as long as she kept making those noises and sure enough, the big dogs/puppies just ignored her. Then my feeling got hurt as to why they did not want to play with my puppy. lol

As the one hour moved along, we practiced "sit"- of course Sedona already knew this one-go to the head of the class... "let's go" was a fav, each time they even attempted to try something, they got a treat. I learned that when they do something like, sit, let's go, down the key word is "yes." Not good girl, but yes. It's going to take some training for me too. I guess that's why I am going, right?

There was a German Sheppard who stayed in the corner the whole time. I talked to her owner and she is a rescue do who was abused. She was good but she just sat in the corner and observed. Teach said that was good for her to be exposed to sights and sounds and other people/dogs. She was beautiful.

Lab puppies, labdoodle, corgies, spaniel, mutt, all were there and it was such fun to see the interaction.

It was time to go "potty." See the thing about this is Sedona potties on a pad in the warm house, NOT in the outside on wood chips with all those other puppies around sniffing places they shouldn't. LOL She wouldn't go. Guess what, the minute she got back inside, she exploded and I didn't think she would ever stop peeing. They all loved that. Teach said that would be a problem if I ever wanted her to go outside. I'm thinking, why would I want her to go outside, that would mean I would have to go outside too. What was she thinking?

At the very end of class, they give us homework and an autograph book. Our assignment is to get our puppies exposed to as many different people as possible. When someone pets out puppy, we ask them to sign the autograph book. The puppy who has the most autographs will get a prize at the end of the class. Wish I had had the autograph book at Christmas, gosh, my family would have made up 52 names in the book. LOL

The last event of each training session is an agility course event. Last night was the tunnel. Puppies were going in and then stopping midway through, some owners had to go in after their little pup. Okay, we are going to the head of the class again. My little Sedona, prances over, goes into the tunnel by herself and zip, out the other end she comes. I said, "you don't understand, this one goes under the bed, behind the couch and other tight dark places, this is nothing." Then they made the tunnel longer, again, no problem. That was fun.

Did you know dogs get full of treats? To the point they don't want anymore? I didn't but she did. I have to not feed her supper next Monday.

Well, folks, this was probably more than you wanted to know but I wanted to share as much as possible. I would highly recommend if you ever get a new puppy to take her, if for nothing more than to socialize. PupScouts is an amazing place. Thanks, Pam for telling me about it. I can't wait until next Monday. BTW, did I tell you she slept the minute I got her in the car and went straight to bed when we got home? It was sooooo funny.

Until the next installment...

Week Two-PupScouts 1/15/07

Monday was such a struggle, do I go or don't I? 24 is on you know and it's MY show, MY show that when someone calls I won't talk...well okay, the decision is made, that's what they make VHS for right? (I am not in the TIVO world yet). I set my VHS and am ready to go.

Sedona has been excited all day and I know she can anticipate something big is going to happen today. We are both so excited that we get there about 30 minutes early. Oh well, can't blame me.

I thought it would be good for her to get her sniffing done and check everything out. Well, next week we probably won't get there so early and you will see why as I continue this little story...

...back on lead the other dogs are coming and Sedona can't be singled out as favorite (who says?) Oh my goodness I can see a change in some of the behaviors of the bigger dogs, not all but some. Same routine, everyone gets there, sniffs each other, paws one another and does the usual routine, I can only guess what they are saying to each other.

Sedona sniffs a couple and then goes to play with the children, she doesn't care a thing about the other dogs, she wants to be petted and played with, after all, that's how she has trained her "mother."

Ooh, who is this? Molly, spaniel, Sedona is actually playing with her and is letting her sniff her and is not making that gosh awful curdling sound she usually does when a big dog comes around her. Does she have a friend? Oh, they are so cute together.

Now enough, time for learning. Off lead and owners just sit and watch. Same thing, Sedona is looking for children, children are busy trying to watch their dogs. As they play, Molly as become Sedona's caretaker, she is watching out for her, it's so good to see that happen.

Now for the learning, Say name and when they recognize, give treat. We do this all around the room. We hear a lot of yes, yes, yes, yes, that's our word for doing something right. Of course they take Sedona as an example, she has done so well this week. I have practiced with her.

Next is sit, down (which is lie down, not off), go get it, let's go, you get the picture. Now it's time to go outside, Kristie tells me I can carry Sedona outside, she takes a little longer. We have a repeat of the outside from last week, what the heck am I supposed to do outside in the cold (and it was very cold and wet on Monday) with all these other dogs and people around me. Molly to the rescue, Sedona was hovered over next to the fence and Molly went over sniffed, and stood over Sedona like she was protecting her. Kristie is so proud that they have bonded. I am proud that they have too but would really like to see Sedona play instead of hover.

We go back inside and do a come, touch collar routine and that's it. This command is very important as they may have to have their life saved and need to know the COME command. You don't use come just to get them to come to you, I know, it's all different. But it's working for Sedona so that's what's important.

Before we leave we get to go to do an agility event. Monday it was about jumping up on a platform and then jumping off, duh, can you say, what's up with that, this is kids stuff? Sedona has been doing that as long as she could make it, I think she has springs in her back legs. Any way, they did this and then go to go through the very long tunnel. Treats are all part of this training, well, My Sedona, (did I mention how smart she is?) Jumps up on the platform and races through the very long tunnel but doesn't stop there, she turns around in the tunnel and goes the other way, and then as if that were not enough, she comes back to me at the end of the tunnel and I catch her. Ooh, how she loved that tunnel. Even though everyone laughed and her excitement and enthusiasm, Ms Kristie said we didn't want to condone that behavior and to not give her a treat. Well okay, what do you think I did? She was a good girl. I think she is meant for greatness.

I guess there are not a lot of exciting stories for her this week but it was fun and I'm glad we are doing it. Sedona was very tired so we won't be going 30 minutes early next week.

Btw, I asked about the patches...boo hoo, that's only for daycare and she won't get one when she graduates (hey, I already had the right bandana on which to put it.) but they promised what she gets will be special. Hope you all enjoy. Pix next week.

Week Three-PupScouts 1/22/07

Hard to believe that three weeks have passed since we started this little adventure. We got there a little later this week (Lady Vols, you know) and most everyone was already there. Sedona started out brave and adventuresome, until Molly (her friend from last week) decided she was soooo excited to see her, she scared the water out of her (literally.) Once she recovered from that, (do they really?) she was ready to check out the play room. Already off leash, the big dogs surround her so she goes over to Ally (little girl who would rather play with Sedona than teach her mutt.) and gets the love and attention she feels she needs.

We do the usual routine of sitting there and watching them play, well watching the others and Sedona sniffing the perimeter of the room hoping nothing will see her. I sometimes think she thinks she is invisible.

Now it's time to start the routines, we go around to each dog, say their name, have them sit, and give them a treat. By golly, Sedona has got this sitting thing to an art. Anytime she thinks she can get a good treat, she's down. It's so funny to watch her. Sometimes she gets distracted because she is keeping one eye out for the bullies and one eye out for the treat but that little bottom stays glued to the floor (sit) until she gets the treat.

We do the same routine with down, all the dogs have improved so much. The family who have the two Labs, Jack and Bonnie, are so cute. The mother and father let the boys do everything and you can tell that Bonnie's master has done much more homework than Jack's. Bonnie is a beautiful brown lab and Bonnie was Sedona's friend this week. She would come over and sniff and Sedona would even act like she was going after her when she would leave and then, STOP, dead in her tracks when she thought about what she was doing. It was so funny to watch her last night. Jack is the brother to Bonnie and he is a black lab. He is rambunctious and much to misbehaved to be around Sedona, or so she thinks.

Sophie, the Corgie, was full of herself last night. She was going around nipping at everyone; she had to be placed in time out. They are such cute dogs, stout dogs.

Oh, we had to go out side in the cold again last night, I don't know if they will ever figure out that this has absolutely no appeal to Sedona. Why they make her do this is beyond her! To get outside, we do a "let's go" with treats and turn left, turn right and then turn in a circle, all with treats but these treats are different, they are roast beef, real roast beef and the teachers are the only ones with these special treats. The evening was done for Sedona doing anything that had to do with me because I had just regular treats, not the roast beef. Did I say my dog had taste or what! It was funny because she just really got stubborn and wouldn't do anything; at least this was close to the end of our session.

Time for agility! Last night was the tire swing. I guess there are dogs that are intimidated by things like this but nooooo, not the A student, Sedona. She jumped up over that thing like it was nothing but hey; it was okay because she got one of those roast beef treats. So now it's time to put the whole agility thing together, there's the platform (no problem here) then the really long tunnel in an S shape so that the dog cannot see the owner at the other end and then they go through the tire. So it's, platform, tunnel, and tire. I let the leash go (I'm supposed to do that), up on the platform, through the tunnel and through the tire and I'm still standing at the platform. I couldn't move fast enough. She's a STAR, I'm telling you, she is a STAR. She loved that. Everyone laughed and then it was a small matter of catching her, she went back over to the tunnel and wanted to go through it again.

Time to go, everyone is crazy and then OMG, OMG, OMG, the big bully, Misty, some wiry ugly. high breed, misbehaving pedigree is coming quickly toward Sedona. She had the paw up and of course the "owner", the kid who is more misbehaved than the dog, doesn't do anything, down that big paw comes on Sedona, you talking about a cry, one any parent never wants to hear, came out of Sedona and I just about died. I told the kid to get his dog and he said I can she won't come, I bent down to pick up Sedona and the damn dog, Misty almost bit me. The trainers were busy so I just picked Sedona up, we are supposed to leave them on leash and not pick them up, well phooey on that, this is MY BABY. Anyway no harm, except to the ego I guess. It was not pleasant and it was sure scary for a moment. Not to worry, Sedona is fine and ready to go on my trip with me.

This week we are to play hide & go seek. This is so elementary to Sedona, we have been doing this since she was a little tot. Next Monday is graduation I need lots of autographs, I'll be bringing around her autograph book so that she will get a prize. We asked if there would be caps and gowns, etc, the trainer said we would pass on those until next time. Next time? Not sure there will be a next time. I need to look for a "little" animal class. Anyone knows of one. I love this place, just wished there were more small ones to play with.

Sedona went to a friend's house, Duchess. Duchess is a poodle who is about 1 yr old. It took about an hour but they started playing and acting like dogs. Guess I'm an impatient mommy and I want her to be such a social animal. I don't want her to be afraid of anything. She's so cute, I love her to death. Btw, she will be four months old on 1/29 so you all will get updated pix next week.

Later...

Work Travelling is OVER!

Well, Edison went live on 9/25 and besides a few glitches here and there and thousands of questions, it went well. The big question will come on 9/30 when it's time to approve payroll and see if all goes as well this coming week. It was not as bad as was originally thought. I am concerned that some of the features don't respond as they are supposed to. This weekend will give the Edison folks an opportunity to fix the glitches.

Time to get back to ME!

Went to see The Women with Cindy and Debbie. It was a fairly typical chickflick. I enjoyed all the characters and the clothes were beautiful. This is not a movie I would purchase for my DVD library but it was a good way to escape and hectic day. We ate at Rafferty's and then on to the movie. Great night out.

Yesterday, I went to Becky's to the pool. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to enjoy the fall sun rays. We were wondering if our "rays" would last until our cruise in 54 days. Probably not, but the thought would be a good one. The lemon drops were awesome. It would have been nice if we could have had a campfire around the pool.

Today I'm picking up all the clutter from the last six weeks of coming in and flopping. Houses sure get cluttered quickly.

Oh, in the midst of all the fun and frivolity, I purchased my very own McSpadden dulcimer. It's made out of black walnut and she is beautiful. She has a nice sound. Now if I could learn to relax while I play, I would be better off and the music could just come natural. I'll have a few songs perfected by Christmas with the family. Found the dulcimer on craigslist for a great price. 1st time trying to tune it, I broke on of the strings. I took it to work and one of the guys there helped me restring it so if it happens again, I'll know what to do.

I'm planning on a short trip in Somewhere soon. It has been at least 2 months since I have been anywhere close to her. Cindy started the engine up last weekend for me and said she purred like a kitten.

Sedona is home with me now. She is getting groomed tomorrow, she looks like a little skruffy homeless puppy. She will be two years old tomorrow and she has been such a blessing to me.

Later...

Almost over!

Man o man, what an interesting week. Travel/training is almost over and on 9/25 we will find out if the training on the new Edison program was successful. Like I always say, you can give the learner the information, what she/he chooses to do with it is up to her/him. Thursday will be the day which everyone will be able to enter their own time and managers can begin approving on 9/30. Time will tell.

Tuesday, 9/16, was an interesting time. It was the first day 38,000 employees could access the system, change their passwords and check out their personal information. OMG, didn't think it would slow down that much. I can only imagine what will happen on Thursday of this next week.

It has been so good to be involved in this huge change in state government but I would really like to have been able to take the buyout and be gone. I would like to be changing my front yard, often.

Speaking of that. If this darn stock market doesn't quit doing it's up & down, I'll never be able to afford to retire. If I am broke or can't sell my condo by June, I'll keep working until I can. Sure couldn't afford to retire and keep my condo. I'll take it one day at a time.

The gas is going crazy in Nashville. All the stations are running out of gas and the ones that have gas have cars lined up for five blocks or more. Seems we are the only place in TN having difficulty getting gasoline. Wouldn't you know it.

Somewhere hasn't been moved in a while so it's just as well since gas has been hard to find. It's not so much that the gas is high, $3.69 gal, it's that there is none. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to go up to Clarksville and check her out and maybe move her a little.

Tuesday on my way back from my last out of town training in Memphis I will pick up Sedona. Yipppeee. Gosh it seems like she has been gone forever. I hope she remembers me and isn't spoiled too bad. I sure miss the little one.

Speaking of little one, my friend Sandra who lost her furbaby has found a new baby. Maggie is a 1 lb 14 oz full yorkie. Haven't seen her yet so it will be fun to take Sedona over to visit with little Miss Maggie.

Only 62 more days until my 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. I will be so ready to get on the ship and relax.

Tennessee Vols are playing the Fl Gators and getting stomped. I think most of the team (QB) forgot to show up. It is half-time and the score is 27-0, Gators. UGH, I sure hate the way the Vols are playing this year. Well, I'll be darned, we just scored so it's 27-6. OOPS, the refs are looking at the play, will they call it back? The Vols may not have a TD. I'll let you know. NOPE, not a TD yet and the VOLS don't do well when they are that close to the goal line and the whistle blows, end of the 3rd quarter. GOT IT! GIVE HIM 6!, no make that 6! Yuck!

I'm trying to sell a few things on Craigslist so I can get my townhome "staged" for sale the first of the year. I need to declutter. Since I am beginning to wind down from working so much overtime, I'm beginning to think of all the things I need to do before I can put my townhome on the market.

Later...