THE POWER OF THREE

Aha. I read the Bulletin Board section in the local paper every morning. Today's first story included a reference to "The Power of Three". Now I have a name for that phenomenon of things happening in threes. I also have a little quip in there today under "The MOM in Stillwater." People also send in favorite web sites and they print the "website of the day" at the end of the column. Today as I was reading the column I thought I really should send my Casket site website that daughter Mary had shared with me last fall. Strange coincidence? You guessed it. At the end of the column the Website of the day is the same casket site. Honestly, true story. If you have never seen this you have to go there. Jon likes the bookcase one. I like the purple velvet lined curio shelf. link:http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/people/16797127.htm

IT'S BEEN A QUIET WEEK

It's been a quiet week in Lake Woe-Be-Gone. We dug out from the 10 inches of snow. (Nice to have a snowblower.) Now we are listening to weather reports of another storm on the way starting this afternoon. They are predicting snow over three days starting with 2 - 4 inches today. We used to take this stuff in stride. It is winter and it is Minnnesota. 10-12" of snow over three days used to be normal. Our Sunday company cancelled last weekend. We have friends invited for Friday night. Perhaps those plans will be scrapped too.
We are taking a Safe Driving After 55 class that started yesterday. We have a nice instructor who has lots of stories and encourages audience participation. I was wondering how he would fill 8 hours. I even imagined using one of those simulators like they do in high school.
He started the class with a "test your knowledge" quiz. Question 1: "About 90% of the information we get to avoid danger in our driving environment comes through our ..........
(Fill in the blank). We were asked to say our answers out loud if called on. My husband answered, "wives". That says it all. I am a nag. Shades of mom and dad driving in later years. At the stop sign he would look left; she would look right and announce, "ready on the right Cliff". Never failed to amuse me.
The snow is supposed to start this afternoon. The class is held about 12 miles from here. Maybe there will be tips on winter driving that Jon could pick up, or he could just listen to me.
PS. I never got the true answer to question #1. Couldn't hear it over the laughter to Jon's response.

2 x 2 DEGREES OF SEPARATION

This has nothing to do with Kevin Bacon. Are you familiar with the game "Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon?" This is about "degrees of separation" from Leonardo Di Caprio. The picture was taken by son Andy at the London premiere of the movie "Blood Diamonds". He stood outside the theatre with friends snapping pictures as the stars arrived.
Last year our former pastors did a missionary trip to South Africa and Mozambique. She had some health problems and they did a little R & R at a seaside resort in Mozambique. The hotel staff told them there were other Americans staying there. Later that day they saw Leo who was filming "Blood Diamonds" in Africa.
We will watch the Oscars but haven't seen many of the movies. I did see "The Departed" and liked Leo in the role. It is a violent movie but he is good. With this double connection I think I will root for him to win for "Blood Diamonds."

OH THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL

If you watched local news or read the newspapers all last week , you would have been inundated with predictions of the coming storm. We have had a wimpy winter. It started in January, delivered about two weeks of frigid weather in February, but total snowfall has been about 8 inches. The state is experiencing severe drought conditions that are worrisome up north. Forest fires are a danger if we do not get spring rains or more snow. Duluth has no snow for the first time in 150 years. Lake Superior froze over without snow cover and is smooth enough for skating in Duluth harbor. Probably because reporters have had so little weather news this winter they have hyped this storm.

We were initially warned the bad weather would start Friday mid-afternoon. It would start with rain or sleet. That prediction was pushed back to after rush hour drive time. Good. Didn’t happen. TV forecasters next cautioned us it would snow heavily overnight. Better cancel Saturday plans. Time to stock up on videos and make that trip to stock up on bread, milk, and eggs. I guess that is what most people do. I look to see if I have enough books to read. I awoke to find less than an inch of snow but it was sleeting. Roads actually were slushy but fine locally. Freeways were racking up accidents. I didn’t cancel plans to meet friends at Curves and go out for coffee after. So far so good. Drivng to Curves I heard a prediction the metro would get 4 to 8 inches of snow. Thirty minutes later I heard we could expect 10-15 inches!

It is Sunday morning and we have 7-8 inches of fresh snow now. I wonder what the weathermen are saying. I’m not sure I need to check. Hopefully people have not been paralyzed by fear of what is coming, but I think some have. Good lesson here. This is like all the bad news we hear. Watch out for dire predictions.

It isn’t often we need to be over warned. We have a 4-wheel drive SUV and a 5 Hp. Snow blower. Our city crews have plowed the road once already after the inch of slush.

Years ago when VCRs first came out my father-in-law had to have one to tape the 10pm weather. He said he always fell asleep before watching it and he wanted to tape it and watch it in the morning. (Smile here.) A relative quietly remarked perhaps he could just look out the window in the morning. The advice is still relevant.

SO YOU'VE HAD A BAD DAY....

I got this picture via email, it didn’t happen to me, but it will put anything else that happens

today in perspective.

AMERICAN IDOLATRY

I'm a hopeless fan of American Idol and after watching the past two nights want to pick the final few. Last night's performance by Lakisha was amazing. It brought back memories of Fantasia Borino two seasons ago. She stood out among a pretty strong field. Before she sang I thought Melinda was the best and Melinda is very talented. My other pick among the girls was 17 yr old Jordin. The only guy I think will make it to the final four is Blake. Unless Lakisha has a meltdown I can't imagine her losing.
She learned to sing in church like so many others and seems refreshingly modest and soft spoken. Let's keep on eye on her.

PS: I'm still walking. An hour flies by when I walk with my friend Judy. Curves has become easy but I wonder if going consecutive days without a day off between is helpful. To build strength it is recommended to lay off a day. Now did I want to be a strong woman or a thinner woman? Think I will keep going daily.

I THINK I AM A HAM

This is shameless self-promotion from a typical "little sister". Always looking for attention. This is a story I submitted to local paper's Bulletin Board that was in today's paper. They did not change the online site today, so I am copying it below from Microsoft word:

My favorite aunt, now deceased told this story. She lived in a small Wisconsin town and volunteered as a “funeral lunch lady” at her parish. Like many other churches, friends brought hotdishes, jello, salads and cakes for the luncheon following the funeral. The “lunch ladies” made the coffee, set-up the tables and cleaned up after. The family of the deceased were asked to buy sliced ham.
There was a very sick elderly man whose family contacted the parish priest saying there would be a funeral soon. This activated the planning process and the family was told not to worry about the luncheon except their contribution would be the sliced ham. Done deal. The family bought the ham. He lived on. After a week they were beginning to worry. Grandpa was keeping better than that ham would! A few years later when my mom was ailing and slowly dying from kidney failure this became a byword for her to relate her condition to me. It was a “don’t buy the ham day” or the opposite. The MOM in Stillwater.