Geico
begin rant/
Hey, Geico—do me a favor. Make a decision about which ad campaign you'd like to use, then STICK TO IT. Nothing drives me more bonkers than seeing ten different types of ad campaigns for a single product in one season. Cavemen. Geckos. Jason Campbell Celebrity Endorsement "I have some good news though...". Money with eyeballs
PICK ONE!!!
I'd rather take my business to a company that knows the meaning of the word "consistent".
/end rant
Labels: things that piss me off
Death By Chocolate
Man Dies After Falling Into Vat of ChocolateAnd I'm surprised nobody has used the obvious headline (though I did).
Yes, my sense of humor is perverse at times. (I do feel for the man and his family, of course.)
So. Anybody else glued to the TV yesterday for the MJ Memorial? It was nicely done, I thought. Classy.
Progress report on my garden: I haz tomatoes and peppers. My six tomato plants all have at least one green 'mater on them, and my nine pepper plants are all producing. There will be some food this fall! The corn looks good. I planted nine little plants, and someone promptly munched down one of them. But it recovered! I can't even tell it was ever munched. They are growing nicely, though nowhere near as tall as what I pass on the way to the barn.
My grass is also growing nicely, heh.
That's all. Might have a stash sale this month, so stay tuned.
Labels: breaking news, nothing important
Hay, Happy 4th, Belated
Happy 4th to everyone. I'm a bit behind. My Independence Day activities included helping to unload 20 bales of hay and trim the horrendous flare off of my horse's front hooves.
In the interest of saving on farrier costs (since my
AANHCP trimmer lives on the eastern side of the state and has to travel, and there are no AANHCP trimmers closer to me yet), I'm doing it myself for now. I sort of know how—in 2006, I was considering becoming one myself, and I took two clinics that year, one of which was an INTENSE two-day study of the anatomy of hooves, trimming them, mistakes, diseases, etc and included up-close viewings of cadaver hooves. Yes. The preserved hooves of dead horses. I thought I'd be grossed out, but I found it so fascinating I forgot to think about what I was holding in my hand.
Anyway, I learned just enough to be "dangerous", and before putting everything on hold because of the parental illness situation, I'd also invested $600 in trimming equipment, so... might as well use it. My interest in becoming one is renewed, too. It might be a good stepping stone on the way to PNH. It's a practical skill, after all.
Sunday, I assisted the barn manager with putting up a bigger load of hay. Twenty bales were nothing compared to yesterday. The entire load was 400 bales. It took the hay man three trips to deliver it all. We got 2/3 of that put up before the BM had to go to work. (No rain for the next few days—the last load can sit outside and be OK).
Putting up hay means one person stands in the hay loft and stacks the hay; another person stands at the bottom and loads the bales onto the hay escalator thingie that transports the bales from ground to the second story loft.
(photo: Legendary Farms)I was the loader. Keep in mind I am out of shape, overweight, and each bale weighs 50-80 pounds. Times 266 (approximately 2/3 of the load). Can you say "ow". I will recommend hay loading to anyone who wants full-body conditioning. It worked my abs, my biceps, my squat muscles, my knees... ALL of it.
The interesting thing is,
I'm not complaining. I actually LIKED doing this. (In 100-degree heat or 20 below wind chills, I might feel differently.) I also actually liked trimming my horse's feet (which involves standing in a bent-over semi-squat the majority of the time). I feel a good sort of exhaustion today.
The most interesting thing is the hay delivery truck. The hay man pulled this contraption with a big tractor. The contraption is a stacker. What an invention! All the bales are stacked on a flat bed, with a huge rake at either end. The bed raises like a drawbridge and lowers itself so one of the rake edges touches the ground. The bales are stacked two stories high, held in place by the top rake. Then, these arms that look like battering rams push against the stack while the drawbridge/flatbed thing with the rakes pulls away from the stack.
The hay man then retracted the battering ram arms. (If he set it up just right against the barn wall, the stacks stayed put; sometimes, they'd fall down, which we wanted anyway because it's safer than to try to pull them down with a rake.) Then, the drawbridge tilted back flat, and the front rake shot forward. It was wicked cool to watch.
I was curious, so I asked the hay man about the equipment, and found out it was originally developed in the West, in Montana and the states where the ratio of cattle to people is much higher. Not a lot of helping hands around, so they created a device to stack the hay and unload it. Pretty cool.
Here's a picture of one—found on the internet:
(photo: New Holland Agriculture)
I learned about the hay process, too, how it is baled. It's all so fascinating to me. And yes, I thought his tractor was sexy. ;-)
Labels: horses
Pull Up
Monday was my birthday. Whoo. I'm only owning up to 27. That was a good year.
It was a quiet celebration. A friend took me to Olive Garden (at my request) where I partook of the Grilled Steak Crustada with the four-cheese pasta, unlimited salad and breadsticks and Asiago-encrusted flatbread as seen on TV. I've been seeing the ads and just drooling.
I'm happy to say, it lived up to the hype. It tasted EXACTLY like I thought it would. YUMMY.
The soup (no leaves for me, remember?) was so filling I had leftovers of Crustada and pasta. Plus there was the Corona with Lime, and the after-dinner coffee. Their coffee is REALLY good, did you know that?
My sister blew my mind and sent a decent-sized check. Never saw
that coming.
And I have a birthday coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free entree at Qdoba.
Birthdays rock.
I did not get the job I interviewed for a couple weeks ago. Oh, well. God has other plans. I applied in person at two places today, though. And there are more offerings in the paper (to which I've applied). I don't think it's time to apply for public assistance just yet or stand on the corner with a sign—something tells me SOMETHING is going to slip neatly into place IF I can stay focused on it, and ignore the discomfort that is trying to distract me.
If you've read Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Joe Vitale or the other Law of Attraction (LOA) gurus, you know what I'm talking about. That pre-manifestation energy shift that causes discomfort within us, and that exhibits as impatience, anxiety, doubt, fear, hopelessness, desperation?
Yeah. That. It's just the signal that the energy is shifting to make way for the manifestation of your outcome, but we misread it and redirect our thoughts away from the goal and onto the
emotion that's coming up. Then we derail the manifestation.
That's why people say, "I set all these intentions and did countless affirmations, but this LOA Shiitake doesn't work." It works.
But only when we figure out the trick to it.I've figured out the trick.
Plug my ears and go "LALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU" to all the doubts and fears that try to rise up in me when I'm not paying attention, and stay focused on MY desired outcome.
I have two analogies. One is like breathing through labor pains, which I've never experienced, but I had bad enough cramps that I can relate. The other comes from personal experience.
When Wildflower was still alive, and I was still a bit nervous about riding balls-out fast, we used to go trail riding and whenever it got too fast, I'd panic and pull her up short. Such a tolerant horse, she just sighed and put up with me.
One time, I was out with a bunch of friends, and one wanted to break off and "cowboy" through the woods—go fast. I went with her. We got up to a canter. Then, gradually, we sped up until we were galloping—or cantering PDQ. Faster than I was used to.
This was the point where I'd normally get a thrill of panic and pull her up. But on this day, I didn't. I rode through the fear. I knew I was safe with her. So, I breathed deeply. I acknowledged the panic rising, the adrenaline rush. I kept breathing, focusing on my balance and staying in rhythm with her as she chugged along, hooves pounding the forest floor, wind buffeting my ears. At the peak moment when every fiber of my being was screaming out PULL UP PULL UP—
I pushed my hands
forward so I wouldn't pull her up. It peaked—the adrenaline rush was almost more than I could stand to experience—
Then suddenly, that feeling was behind me. It was like I'd broken through an invisible wall. All that remained was this exhiliarating feeling of hyper-awareness and joy. Freedom like I'd never experienced. I reveled in it as we continued to gallop along. Then my horse ran out of steam, and gradually dropped to a canter, then a trot, then we caught up to my friend and paused for a breather.
It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
And dealing with manifestation is like that. The adrenaline wall is like the misinterpreted emotions of fear, doubt, hopelessness and impatience that come when you begin to wonder,
what is taking this so long? Why isn't it happening? Asking these questions creates resistance, which derails the manifestation. It actually repels it. The moment you say, "why isn't it here yet?", it stops coming to you. Even if it is RIGHTHEREABOUTTOMANIFEST. It just veers off to the side like a dog that charges you then gets distracted at the last moment.
To conquer it requires staying focused on the goal, rather than the emotions—firmly refocusing on the goal if necessary—and to recognize the emotions for what they are: the signal saying,
hang on, it's coming. The manifestation is developing.The energy of it starts small and rises to a deafening crescendo that peaks right before it manifests visibly.
That energy crescendo is what we sense, and IT is the cause of the feeling inside we identify falsely as discomfort.
It's not. If anything, it should
excite us to feel this, once we recognize what it is. And if we recognize this, and ride it out even as every fiber of our being is screaming, PULL UP, PULL UP, stop the feeling from coming any closer... THEN we get over the hump and achieve our wildest dreams.
Let's watch and see what the next few days brings, shall we? ;-)
Labels: breaking news, horses, Law of Attraction, musings
RIP Farrah, MJ and Ed
Farrah Fawcett,
Michael Jackson, and
Ed McMahon.
God must not have been able to find much on Cable TV today, to have to call three legendary entertainment personalities home in one day.
RIP, y'all.
***
edited to correct: I wasn't online or in touch—I guess Ed died Tuesday.***
In happier news, the new realtor handling Grandma's house seems to be more focused. There is a historic renovator interested, as well as an older cousin who bears our family name (which is also the name of the street the house is on). I'm voting for it to stay in the family, because nothing would make me happier and make me feel better about letting it go. So—send a few words up to the Big Ear in the Sky about all of this (esp the house sale!) and keep happy house-sold vibes going.
Cuz it's my birthday on Monday, and I've been telling everyone, all I want for my birthday is to have that house SOLD (for a good price) and the estate closed shortly thereafter.
Rock on...
Labels: breaking news
The Power of Positive Thinking
This has nothing to do with the interview, though I thought it went well. Decisions to be made next week. Keep the digits crossed.
What this post concerns is the national or global mindset. If you understand the Law of Attraction, you know that what we focus on expands—meaning, we get more OF that. What we complain about is what we are focusing on. What we
agree to is what we focus on. When your friend says, "all people in X category are X", and you nod and say offhandedly, "Mm-hmm", you are in agreement with that statement whether you want to be or not.
In the Bible, it says, "wherever two or more agree, it shall be done."
If gas prices go way up this year, I can tell you whose fault it is. Blame it on Toledo. (I voted that they would go down, btw.)
Labels: Law of Attraction, positive thinking
I Don't Generally Complain, But...
/begin rant
Whomever is claiming my phone number and possibly also my last name and first initial but not first name, then signing up for things, not paying the bills, and letting the collections company give ME heart failure over it,
STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
First, it was Charter Communications last week. They left a cryptic robo-call message on my machine. It gave the name of the rep, the company name, and said, "please call the number at the bottom of your statement about this important matter".
Well, I've never even HEARD of them. So I googled. OK. It's a cable company. Still. I looked up their customer service number. I also googled to see if there were complaints about them (many, but not like my experience).
I called.
The rep said, "OK, if you give me your account number, I can look up the data, but it's about an unpaid bill."
OK... but I don't HAVE your service. Therefore, I don't have an account number.
The rep on the other end of the line asked for my zip code. I provided it. He was shocked.
"Uh, ma'am? We don't even service your state. So... it's not possible for you to have an account with us."
As I said. So... WHO IS USING MY NUMBER?
They said, because it's an unpaid bill, the service will eventually be disconnected, which doesn't affect me, of course, since I'm not a customer, but the calls should stop after that. So just bear with, and should an actual human attempt to make contact prior to shutting off services, try to intercept the call and explain to them this situation.
Nice. Let my machine fill up with these robo-things until the company gives up.
Oddly, there have been no further calls since.
Today, I get a robo-call from MCO or NCO Financial, stating it is an attempt to collect a debt.
Again. WHO ARE YOU? Nobody I do business with. They left a number. I called.
By the time the rep finished his rambling unintelligible spiel about how this was anattempttocollectadebtandthiscallmayberecordedforsecuritypurposes (at least, that's what I could make out), I was a bit irrational.
I said I'd received a call from your company and asked quite tersely who they represented (Charter, maybe?). He stated their own company's name. I said, "I don't do business with you nor have I ever heard of your company. And I've been having trouble with calls coming in on debts that have nothing to do with me, so I'd like to know who it is that is using my number."
He said "we're looking for a Ms. ______". And gave my last name. I repeated the name as if I'd never heard it before, just to be on the safe side.
He said "Yes, _____." And gave a female name that STARTS with my initial, but isn't my name.
I said, "Well, that's not me."
"Do you KNOW a _____?"
Nope!
"So then we have the wrong number."
I said, "Yes, and I'd like to know WHO this person IS because I'm tired of getting their calls!" I then told him about Charter.
He said jokingly, "Well, if you'd like to pay her bill for her, we'd accept that."
I said, "I have a better idea. How about SHE pay MY bills. That would work for me."
He chuckled and said "When we track her down, we'll have her do that."
I said good. He said my number would be removed from the list.
Now. Here's what I'm thinking happened. With cell phones and Vonage, it is possible to live in one part of the country but have a phone number from elsewhere. My friend moved to Minnesota for a year or so, but took a cell with a local Ohio number with him so he could call home for free. He never got phone service IN Minnesota. Didn't need it. So, it's plausible that he could have and probably did sign up for utilities in MN, and provided his Ohio number.
Same with my friend who stayed here a few weeks. He had Vonage. So his number was local to Nebraska. But he was in Ohio, and he got a cell phone here. Then he moved down South. I can only imagine...
So it is also plausible that someone either looked UP a phone number in another state bearing the same last name (sort of like identity theft but without the financial implications) so they could provide a number and get services without being easily trackable; or someone made up a number that happened to be mine; or... someone is purposely using my number.
I don't care which it is, just, whomever you are, STOP. Because I get enough calls of my own without dealing with yours.
/end rant
Labels: whines and rants
I Got An Interview!
Praise God, Hallelujah, I FINALLY got a job interview!!!
It's 20 hours a week at minimum, but IT IS A START. Let the floodgates open, let the interviews flow in, let the income roll, let my life turn around for the positive!
AMEN HALLELUJAH AMEN!!!! Thank you Big Guy in the Sky!
This and an acoustic gig, and I might just make it.
Cross yer digits, and keep me in positive vibes Thursday afternoon. :-)
Labels: breaking news
