Good Morning, America

...and South Africa
...and Philippines
...and WORLD!

Sorry, I haven’t been around for a while ... Life gets in the way. Just a quick update on my Life, but I promise not to bore you!

I’ve had doctors’ appointments with my parents...
I continue to travel 50 miles to my parents at least one day a week to help...
I’ve had to mow the yard...
AND I GOT A JOB!!!

Okay, the job!!! I am able to still work at home and help with my parents, which was an absolute “must” in my life! I am assisting a publishing company on the east coast by editing books for publication! And---IT IS FUN! Of course, I don’t get to read each and every book, but I have set aside some to read fully at a later date. It helps with the bank account and I am having fun...what more could a person ask??

I’ve also continued my fight over the shower curtains (see previous blog about customer service)! I didn’t win and I didn’t lose. I got the money back I paid for the 'dry-cleaning' curtains and I got the curtains back ... after they finally found them! I finally talked with a ‘manager’ who admitted they had been washed instead of dry-cleaned, which made them shrink 8 inches. I bought these shower curtains specifically for the guest bath about 4 years ago when my daughter got married. They each cost $40 and PEERLESS CLEANERS would only give me about 10 cents on the dollar toward replacement. One of the times I called, they stated I couldn’t have the curtains back because they had already cut me a check, to which I responded, “No one asked me if I wanted a check.” The manager was totally shocked when he found out how I had been treated since May 7. I received no compensation for the trips to the dry cleaners. I received no compensation for my inconvenience. I received a little gratification when I told the manager that my mouth was the best advertising tool and I would make every effort to voice my disgruntledness to each and every person with whom I come in contact! No biggie to him ... this company has been around a very long time. He stated he would have a “coaching session” with the manager at the store level.

Ya know, if businesses had less “corporate” and more hands-on managers, many of these problems would never happen. This upper-level manager I finally spoke to stated he had never heard about the problem until I called, although the store-level manager stated she had notified “management”. Come to find out, “management” was her “team leader”.

Okay, corporate America. Get away from “team” anything. Make employees responsible for their actions and don’t support poor behavior by conducting a “coaching” session. Let’s get back to the basics of good ole-fashioned CUSTOMER SERVICE!!

I’m done babbling!

Time-Out at the Lake!

Youngest granddaughter, Bridget,
at the lake...Pretty classy "shades"!

We finally got a couple days at the lake. No cottage; this is a reservoir near my hometown. We have been going there since it opened in 1965 and now our son owns a home right next to the boat ramp! We have a 20’ deck boat, which both of our children basically grew up on and both learned to ski behind! Our son, believe this or not, skied when he was 2 years old! We bought the “trainer” skis, which are tied together and the child doesn’t have to do anything but hold on to the handle! Our daughter tried it at 2 years old, but she fell and got a “snoot full” and wouldn’t try it again until she was 3 ... and she was successful!

Both of our children now have MASTERCRAFT ski boats and our son has competed in many skiing tournaments! YEP, we are proud parents and grandparents. Our oldest granddaughter, who is 3, tried the skis last year, but she had just turned 2 ... so we will give it a try again over the July 4th holiday weekend! CAN'T WAIT!

While we were out this past weekend, I was able to snap a couple pictures of the youngest granddaughter, who is 8 months old!

This is our
son & granddaughter!

The lake is a great place to relax, meet with friends and just “get away from it all”.

Please, if you have time, share with me some of your “relaxation” enjoyments ... we all need that little getaway when we can grab it.

OLA Plug:

Don’t forget to check out www.OLA.com , where you will find over 14 million listings for everything from soup to nuts. I’ve got more to list, but have been a little busy and hopefully will get to it in the next day or so.

Upcoming on the “listings” will be a very old small hand-printing set, including nearly all of the little rubber letters, which are placed into a metal grid and then used to make signs. I also have “The Master” oil spout, some silverplate flatware and some vintage shoe horns that will soon be available.


AND, To My Fellow OLA Bloggers: I have been very remiss in getting all of your blog links completed. Please be patient with me -- it will soon happen!

Have a terrific Thursday. As soon as the grass dries, I will be outside upon the tractor getting the yard mowed! The sun is shining, the sky is blue and it is going to be a terrific Thursday!

Thanks for your visit---and please, click on the “comments” button and leave me a note about your visit here and who you are, where are you from, etc. I have noticed that there have been visitors from all around the world ... we have such great international friends, I can’t wait to “meet” you!

Japanese Beetles and Those Little "Grubs"

I want to talk today about the little Japanese Beetle. Those damndable little pests have all but ruined my yard! I won’t go into all the details about the grubs, you can read read all about them here.



Last fall we noticed our front yard grass turning brown and dying. I thought it was because of all the rain we had. Then we found them! All we had to do was take the heel of our shoe and scrape against the sod. Well, there was no sod. All the dirt just “peeled” up and after going down about 3-4 inches---there they were. The little white buggers that were eating the roots of my grass to stay alive and emerge this summer into the ugliest, pestiest beetle ya ever saw!



After doing consider research and making many phone calls, I decided I couldn’t afford a yard man, I couldn’t afford the expensive stuff they sell at the co-op, so I settled on Bayer. Yep, just like the asprin! I even called our local extension office and they recommended this product even before I asked. They explained that it has some new ingredients in it that work extremely well. They further explained that because grubs are now emerging as a really huge problem in many areas of the country, most manufacturers of control products hadn’t kept up with the industry and Bayer had created a product that showed very promising results.

Let me just add, many, many people prefer milky spore. However, the length of time it takes for that to work, which I understand it does very effectively, we could lose our entire 2 acres of yard!

I applied a first round of Bayer Grub Killer Plus. a few weeks ago and just today, applied a second round. I’m gonna get those little buggers if it is the last thing I do!!! (And it may very well be---they are hard to control).

We won’t know the effects of the killer until later this year, but you can be assured I will be applying another round in July and August. Then, I will be applying their Bayer Grub Control this fall.

More Items Listed at

www.onlineauctions.com. I hope you will take a couple minutes to peruse some of the items that I have listed at www.onlineauction.com. And don’t forget, there are over 50,000 members with over 14 million items available at OLA. There are no buyers fees required, just registration and to sell---it only costs you $8.00 a month for unlimited listings!

I probably won’t be back until Monday. I wish you all a wonderfully pleasant weekend. Kick back, relax---take time to smell the roses!

Where Is Customer Service and Why Did It Go Away?

Sorry---I wasn’t writing on Tuesday. I FOUND A JOB! Actually, an at-home job, which fits in perfectly with the care of my mother.

But I don’t want to write about that today. I want to discuss CUSTOMER SERVICE or rather, the lack of customer service in our society today. And, along with that customer service comes the topic of “responsibility for your actions”.

Scenario: I took some rather expensive shower curtains to our local Peerless Cleaners. I’m not even going to hide their name ... not that many people from my area will even read this, but more importantly, they deserve to be called out.

Now, these were expensive. I bought them a few years ago when I was working and got them because our daughter was getting married and we were going to have house guests. I totally redecorated the guest bath and these were “the perfect find”!

They were 100% cotton, but the tag said to dry clean only. I was actually going to wash them, but I thought ... I don’t want them to shrink, so I will get them dry cleaned. This cleaner is actually about 9 miles away, our town no longer has a dry cleaner (anyway, one that I would trust or THOUGHT I couldn’t trust them.

The cost: $20.00. Kewl--I could handle that. But, when I picked them up and hung them, they had shrunk 8 INCHES...! That was my main concern for not laundering them myself, that they didn’t shrink. I called and took them back. However, as I was carrying them back into the cleaners, I discovered some unknown red spots.

The manager tells me they can ‘stretch’ the curtains and they would get the spots out.

Fast forward - very slowly - to 4 weeks later. Still no curtains. Still no compensation. They would only give me 5% of the retail value ($80) because they were 4 years old.

Fast forward - again very slowly. Peerless Cleaners has had these for 4 weeks. After I filed a claim for my money back and compensation for my mileage and reimbursement for new curtains, they had to check to see if the tag from the manufacturer was faulty. Then they had to contact their insurance company.

Oh---did I mention that they assured me that this process would be handled within a few days.

Not so. I still don’t have my curtains. I don’t have any compensation for my curtains.

And, I have not received the FIRST phone call from anyone at the company. Not the manager of the store. Not her team leader (supervisor, I am assuming), not the general manager, whom I have called numerous times. Everyone says they will get back with me. No one gets back with me. Up until today, I have been nothing but polite and kind, but certainly, I have displayed my unhappiness about these mishaps.

So, I called today. Told them to get the curtains back within the next 2 days and I wanted reimbursed for the original $20.

NOW---she’s not sure where they are.

I want customer service. I want someone to care that they have ruined an expensive pair of shower curtains (there were 2 at $39.99 each). I want an apology. I want a coupon for free dry cleaning. DANG, PEOPLE. I want to be treated like a customer.

Instead, I have been treated like this person who is trying to rip them off.

I know. It’s not going to get any better. The younger kids don’t know customer service because they haven’t been taught by their elders. The stores don’t give a rat, because they are going to continue to have customers, whether I shop there or not.

My money isn’t worth anything to this dry cleaneres. Their value of me, as a customer, is nil.

So, I will hopefully, eventually get my curtains back and make them do until I get new shower curtains. I will use my mouth as a billboard to tell everyone I know not to take their items there. As a side note, even the manager told me that it takes a long time to process claims because they have so many!!! NOT GOOD!

I just ask that anyone and everyone who has poor customer service at any business---STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS. Don’t let them mow you under and succumb to their asinine rules and policies. It is my money. It is my item. I have a right----(hopefully).

If you are a buyer or seller on www.onlineauction.com (or any other auction site), can you imagine the fallout if you provided poor service to your customers? Yep, there would be neg after neg after neg.

Now, I just have to figure out a way to NEG Peerless Cleaners in Fort Wayne, Indiana!

NOW--AS A REMINDER

I haven’t had a chance to list anything new because of my new job (which I will talk about later this week). However, please take a few minutes to go to www.onlineauction.com. and check out my items. I would truly appreciate it and hopefully you will find something that strikes your fancy!

WHY THE ADS ON THIS SITE

Some of the ads--certainly not all--help me through advertising reimbursements. Don’t hesitate to click on any of them--and if you do--thank you!

WISHING ALL WELL & SUCCESS

I hope that all buyers and sellers at onlineauction.com. are enjoying the benefits of online selling. I wish everyone well and encourage all who are checking out this blog to definitely take a shopping trip to www.onlineauction.com. I thank you and all 50,000+ sellers at OLA thank you!

Do YOU Remember the '60’s?

Okay -- I just gave my age away! Or close to it. But I was a teen growing up in the '60’s and they were the best times of my life.

We had “Teen Canteen” on weekends and in the summer during the week. Bands and music would play at the Honeywell Center in the town I grew up and in the summer, we danced on top of the upper deck at the community pool.

During high school, our favorite place to go was Fisher’s! Owned by a local family, it was a small snack-bar restaurant, had a fully-stocked candy counter and in the back were pinball machines, pool tables, a jukebox and everyone went to Fishers! We would go there during lunch, with tons of people piling into cars to make it there in time for a hamburger and fries -- (back when there were no closed lunches at school...you got to leave and report back on time for afternoon classes). Weekends were nothing if you couldn't 'hang' at Fisher's!!!

We cruised “The Point” (as in Penguin Point), we cruised Epps (another hangout, especially for nighttime after games) and later, we hung at “The Kettle”.

Speaking of cruising, when I got to drive for the evening out, there would be 4 girls in the car. Many times right before we would go home, we would stop at the local gas station. Each girl forked over a QUARTER and dad’s tank would be back to where we began! (Let’s not even go there---$4.00 a gallon...geesh)!

High school basketball and football games were “the bomb”. A social must! And after games, there were usually dances. It was my freshman year and the first dance after a football game. There was a huge fight in the gym with the opposing football team! I was scared out of my wits, but it was soo very exciting and certainly the talk for a long, long time!

We won the first conference football game (my hubby made the winning touchdown!) in many, many years during my high school years and the "office" would not let us celebrate. So, of course, the senior class president led the entire school on a walk-out! IT WAS SOOO EXCITING! An unauthorized day out of school and I still remember the shocked look on the principal's face when the class president announced it. Of course, the upper classmen knew what was coming, but us lowly underclassmen ... we HAD to follow!!!

Remember the floats at homecoming? We would spend hours at “flower parties” making tissue paper flowers for the floats! And of course, we all remember the crowning of the Homecoming King and Queen! The stadium lights would go out, the winners would be crowned ... and everyone was (or wasn’t) surprised when the lights came back on to shine on the lucky girl and guy!

All girls wore skirts or dresses to school. Special days, which happened once in a blue moon, we got to wear slacks! Guys had to have their shirt tales tucked in, had to have belts and wearing socks with shoes was an absolute must!

Does anyone remember the darling little “blue bloomers” that we had to wear for gym class? Oh Lord---enough about that!

Did your school have a cheer block? We did. We had little pullover cotton blouses that we wore. One side was orange, the other side was black ... school colors! Be in the cheer block or be square!

And, we can’t forget the drive-in theatre. If a carload of girls went, we always met back up at the car after the movie, laughing because no one even knew the NAME of the movie, let alone watched it. If we went with our boyfriends ... ‘nuff said!

Do you remember that school always started after Labor Day and was always out by Memorial Day? Graduations in our town were actually in the middle of the week (ours was on Wednesday). We had to wear certain colored shoes, the caps had to be pulled down upon our forehead (never pinned back to save our hairdo) and hosiery was another “must”!

This is just a short synopsis of life at my high school life. I hope you will share some of your experiences.

Additionally, if you are a teen in the '60’s (or even if you weren't), please

click here

for a great flashback to the best time of our lives!

Just a Little Reminder!

I'm still making a small living by selling online. www.onlineauction.com is "the bomb" for auction sites, so please check it out! There were certainly no online auctions in the '60's, but even with the "Age of the Internet" ... the '60's are still near and dear to my heart!

One More Thought

I am writing this on Sunday night. Today was our granddaughter's 3rd birthday and even though we celebrated with her a couple weeks ago, it was so sad not to be able to be with her today. She had a party, neighborhood children and adults came over. She got to pick out 3 balloons yesterday and one she picked out was "SpongeBob" because that is her little brother's favorite right now! How thoughful! (Probably no prompting by her parents!!) By the time we were able to get hold of her, she had "crashed" on the couch and we never got to sing 'Happy Birthday' to her on the phone. Her life will go on---our life will go on. Aren't grandkiddies "the bomb"!!!

HAVE A TERRIFIC MONDAY!

Happy Thursday!!!

Good morning to everyone! And Happy Thursday.

I am really jammed today and tomorrow, so new musings won't be here.

I do hope, however, that you feel free to click on the links, read previous blogs, and post your comments! I truly like hearing from people!

There will be more next week..but sometimes LIFE just gets in the way of other things we enjoy doing more!

Don't forget..check out my listings at gemini749...that's at www.ola.com. There are additional listings I have done for friends...you can click here to see those as well.

Please remember...items are ALWAYS cheaper at www.onlineauction.com

Happy shopping! Please be sure to email me if you have any questions regarding items listed! Thanks for looking!


Have a terrific day---a wonderfully relaxing weekend and I will see ya'll back here next week!

BOOMERS...The Over 50 Crowd & Proud Of It!

Hmmm...I don’t have anything in particular to discuss today. Well, other than reminding you to check out www.ONLINEAUCTION.COM

Blogging over 50! As the Generation X’ers have My Space and many other social networking opportunities, many boomers are just now acclimating themselves to a computer and the new world of blogging. Some are doing it for money, some are doing it to keep in touch with family and friends and some are doing it just for fun!

There are blogs for grandparents, blogs for senior travels, blogs for beauty and health and yep---there are even blogs for love connections and romance!!

I found this article on and was fascinated with Eric Zorn’s perspective of “Things I’ve Learned in 50 Years, A Partial List in No Particular Order! It is fun reading, but I believe only the boomers will truly appreciate its sensibility!

So, if you are reading this, if you are over 50 (or thereabouts) and if you enjoy surfing the web, be sure to click on some of the links I have provided.

Today is a short day...I'm not going to ramble and ramble about nonsense. I hope you will spend a few minutes or a few hours searching out wonderful sites for the Over 50 Crowd! Be sure to share them with me through "Comments"...I have a busy day lined up and will enjoy looking through them later!

There is so much information, so much humor and the time you spend will serve as a little rest and relaxation..something we all need to learn to do.

Enjoy the day.

It's Tuesday--Let's Talk Items For Sale!

But first--before business---a little update on the weekend's birthday party for little 3-year-old granddaughter! Here are a couple pictures of the birthday girl and her brother! She was sooo surprised to get the Barbie with all the princess dresses. Of course, she loved her tap shoes, leotards and tights...but she's not quite sure what it is all about yet! Wait until this fall when the tap classes start!!! Then you will get a full report! Little bro doesn’t stop moving long enough to be surprised at anything!

Now On To the Money Side Of This Blog!

I ask that you go to onlineauction.com., click on the NEWS in the yellow banner at the top. And please read. OnlineAuction.com is most definitely growing and all 50,000+ members can’t wait for the rollout of the new site the end of June-first of July.

Give the site a chance....a very good chance! It isn’t necessary to put all of your “eggs” in one basket. Don’t hesitate to diversify your listing sites. But definitely---give OLA more than a cursory glance! I, personally, think you will be pleased.

What’s for Sale?

I had a chance to list a few things yesterday at OLA!


First up is this Aluminum Tea Strainer. I do know that it was brought back from France in the 1950's by a family member serving in the military.



Next is this Cobalt Blue Stoneware Spittoon/Cuspidor. This piece is in remarkable condition, has one 1/16” chip on the side toward the bottom and has a wonderful, vintage patina!

Do you like vintage glass reamers/juicers? This Hazel Atlas Reamer is in perfect condition...no chips, cracks or breaks. It would serve as a marvelous piece to your collection...or you could actually make juice with it!





There is even more vintage aluminumware--I can’t believe this lot of vintage kitchenware hasn’t been snatched up yet. I have even added a couple more items to the lot, so it will be a surprise when the buyer opens up the box! Vintage aluminumware isn’t that hard to find, but it is sometimes difficult to find pieces that are in very good condition.

I had to get this White Corning Ware Stove-Top Percolator listed on OLA! There was a person who inquired about it while it was listed on another site, but s/he didn’t have the money at that time. I simply wrote them back, told them to keep an eye out for it on OLA....!!! Hope this person is able to grab it before someone else does! They will certainly be surprised that the asking price is cheaper than that other place!!

That's it for today! I hope you shop...I certainly hope you buy! Also, be sure to check out the may other items currently available at www.ola.com. There are over 13,000,000 (yep, that's million) items, all at great prices with no inflated shipping costs. Who needs to make money on shipping fees from the buyer, when OLA doesn't charge any Final Value Fees or listing fees. Don't forget--it's only $8.00 a month for as many listings as you want!

MAKE IT a wonderful day for you and your family!

An Exciting Weekend!

What a wonderful weekend we had with the grandkiddies. But we also had a major catastrophe with a storm that did considerable damage to our son’s property. I’ll give ya the scoop!!!

The family arrived late Friday night. And so did the storm. About 6:00 p.m., I just happened to hear that a tornado had been spotted in a rural area near our son’s home. I called his wife and she immediately took the baby and all 3 dogs and hit the basement. A short time later, after the rain stopped, she went outside and no particular damage. Then, she looked out across the sky, saw a dark cloud of dust or rain--she wasn’t sure which---and hit the basement fast again! Next time she came out, a huge tree was down in their yard and their pole building was heavily damaged. Now, they also have a very old bank barn and fortunately it was spared as well as a smaller, but very old barn.

Their boat and Suburban were parked in the pole building. The storm ripped off the huge overhead door, ripped into both front and back corners of the building and tore down a couple heavy support beams. Of course, the wind left 4 windows in the building totally intact. (Aren’t these storms strange how they actually hit!). Somehow, the vehicle and boat were both totally undamaged.

Our 20’ boat was parked outside in front of the building. The wind actually shoved this very heavy boat into the pole building, causing very minor damage to the boat. And again, in a storm’s strange way, it never even touched the small, aluminum fishing boat parked right in front of the building!!

Fortunately, all are safe and that is certainly most important.

GRANDKIDDIES VISIT

We had a wonderful time with the grandkiddies. They were able to play outside, even after the storm, jumping and running in mudpuddles! And of course, the 18 month old boy had a wonderful time riding on Papaw’s lawn tractor.

The soon-to-be 3-year old immediately saw presents on the dining room table. She told Mamaw, “I see presents, but I can wait”. How remarkable for a little one.

And wait she did! We hid the presents (not to tempt her any more!) and had a birthday party at her great-grandparent’s home on Sunday. She was so excited to open presents and eat her cake. She even did a great job at blowing out her candles!!!

I haven’t downloaded any of the pictures yet---so I may include those later! (Depends upon how good my photography skills were trying to capture active kiddies!).

Are you looking for things to do with YOUR grandkiddies when they visit? I found this site..thanks to ABargain4You at onlineauction.com. I found a bunch of things I can do with the kiddies on our next visit, so make sure you check it out. And, while you are at it, don't forget to check out ABargain4You at OLA!!!

ONLINE SALES

Actually, online sales at www.onlineauction.com
have increased, not only for me, but for many of the sellers I chat with on the community boards. More and more buyers are learning that the items listed are actually less expensive, because the sellers are not increasing the costs to cover fees.

Buyers---remember: There are no buyer fees. Simply register and buy!!! It’s that easy! Click here to view all of my listings!

Sellers -- remember: The basic cost at OLA is only $8.00 per month for as many listings as your little ole heart desires. AND ABSOLUTELY NO Final Value Fees!

LISTINGS
I’m actually gonna get my rear-end in gear and get some more items listed this week. So, please check back often at ONLINEAUCTION.COM for great bargains and unique items.