Random Acts

I titled this post "random acts" because, that's just what it is. A mish mash -which isn't really unusual for me -but this time, that's the intent -not accidental.

Mandy has a girlfriend here who she's been friends with since back in high school. Said friend, is married and has three children -ranging in age from 13 to 17 and Maya loves to go visit Jen-Jen and Nick-Nick (which is what Maya calls this couple). Their children -although a lot older than Maya -are among Maya's favorite people too -probably because all three of those kids cater to Maya, engage her in games, and well, just spoil her.

Last Friday, Maya was spending the day with Jen-Jen and her family and they happened to venture over to State College. They decided to stop at the Outback Restaurant for supper and this is a report from Jen-Jen of what transpired there.

They were seated in a booth and as kids of Maya's age (she'll be six in October) often do in places like this, they wiggle and jiggle around and in the process of doing that, quite often they gawk too at other people in their surroundings.

At some point with Maya doing a lot of squirming and bending her neck to see everything she could possibly see, Jen-Jen told her to turn around and sit still.

Maya began to turn around but in the process spied three older ladies seated near them, enjoying a bit of an outing.

And that's when Maya made this comment.

"Look, those ladies all have the same blue hair!"

Jen-Jen managed to keep her composure fairly well but told Mandy that her husband, Nick, spit his beverage all over the table and himself as he was laughing so hard!

Ah yes, out of the mouths of babes, huh?

We have a gas grill -that needs some work done to it to make the gas flow better, evenly, etc., and we also have a medium sized charcoal grill too -for a backup, in case the gas grill won't light or we run out of gas for it -whatever.

We bought one bag of charcoal and lighter fluid for the charcoal grill back in early June but have only used it once this summer because Bill had a terrible time getting the charcoal to light and to stay burning.

But this past Sunday, since the gas grill is acting up a bit and Bill hadn't had a chance to work on it, we were forced to use the charcoal grill and of course, again Bill had a heck of a time to get the charcoal to light, stay lit, burn, etc.

So yesterday, when I had to make a run to Clearfield to pay on my J.C. Penney's bill -which was due yesterday and I forgot about it until about 8:30 last night when it was then too late to get over to the store before closing time so now, for being one freaking day late I will get billed $29 in late fees on my next bill. This could have been avoided if that company would get itself into the current century and set up an online payment site for card holders. That's my opinion anyway. Can you believe it that a company as large as J.C. Penney's doesn't have an online presence where customers can pay on their account online? Makes me wonder too about people who say that they pay "All their bills online" if any of those people have a J.C. Penney's card then how do they pay that bill online?

But there I go -digressing a tad. Yeah, I know -that's pretty much my norm. I started out talking about charcoal, here didn't I?

Well, after leaving J.C. Penney's I ventured up to good old Walmart to pick up a few items in their grocery department and decided I would go get a back of charcoal there so we could then pitch what's left in the bag we have that doesn't want to light much less stay lit and heat up properly.

Surprise, surprise! Walmart had absolutely NO CHARCOAL today. The clerk in that department told me they sold out completely on Monday!

Dang! Now I have to go back to the store where we got the first bag of charcoal and get another bag and take our chances that the new bag will light and stay lit and heat up properly.

Now when I arrived at the Walmart store yesterday, as I got out of my jeep I noticed some previous shopper had just left a cart there in a parking space -right in front of where I had parked. They hadn't bothered to take the cart over to the place almost directly behind where I parked where you can leave carts in an orderly fashion. Things like that annoy me.

So I took the cart and wheeled it back into the store, taking it with me then as I made my rounds. And as I walked past the greeter at the door, the elderly gentleman thanked me for bringing the cart back into the store.

I remakred to him that it seemed to me the nice thing to do since I needed a cart and why make the job harder for those people who have to go around the parking lot and round up the carts and then, push them all up to the store. Especially on a day like yesterday when it was hot, sunny and also, very, very humid.

The greeter told me that I would be surprised at how many people never think to park the carts where they belong nor do many of them think to just grab a wayward cart to use in the store -as I had done -either.

I made my rounds in the store -got what I figured we needed and while doing so, I saw a lady from down home there doing some shopping too. I haven't seen her out and about for a long, long time and I know she's had a lot of health issues too but today, she looked great, recognized me and informed me that today just happened to be her birthday too. She was 82 years old today!

Although I wished her a very happy birthday then, I jsut want to give a shout-out to her and wish her many, many returns of the day! Happy Birthday, Bernie Humenik! And kudos to her son Paul, who came home last night from Pittsburgh to spend the day with his mother on this occasion too!

As I was leaving Walmart, putting the bags in the trunk of the jeep, there was a lady loading up the trunk of her car right next too me. We both finished transferring our groceries at the same time and closed our trunks. I started to push my cart over to the cart rack behind us and she reached out, took my empty cart and said, "Here, let me take that over for you!"

It brought my mind that I had taken a cart that hadn't been put where it belonged and in doing so, had done sort of a random act of kindness then and now, about two hours later, this woman was doing a nice deed for me. I remarked about that to her saying that this was evidence that "one hand does wash the other" doesn't it? Not that this was a big deal or anything -just a nice friendly gesture on her part but I just felt it all kind of played together with my having taken the cart I did and using it in the first place.

This week's been a big week for the family here -a lot of special occasions to celebrate, you see.

Monday -the 17th -was Mandy and Bill's Seventh Wedding Anniversary! Today - Wednesday -the 19th -marks the 12th anniverary since I first became a grandmother! Yep, today is my grandson Alexander's birthday! It is just so hard to believe that little baby -well, actually he wasn't really all that little as he weighed in at over 8 pounds and was I think 22 1/2 or 23 inches long at birth -but for most of his life, I have referred to him first as "My LITTLE Prince" and these days, I just call him "My Prince" cause he's not very little anymore! He's taller than me and as tall as his Aunt Mandy -which is 5 foot 7 or 5 foot 7 1/2! (I'm not quite sure how tall Mandy is but I know she's taller than me!

Tomorrow, Mandy, the kids and I are going to DelGrosso's Park (formerly known as Bland Park) over in Tyrone and we're meeting up with daughter Carrie and grandson, Alex there to spend the day together with him in celebration of his 12th birthday.

Friday and Saturday is the big Community Yard Sale that Mandy and a neighbor lady have coordinated, getting ads placed in both the Clearfield Progress and the Centre Daily Times about the big Grassflat Community Yard Sale. Hope all those participating have a good turnout for this -especially Mandy, since she had to spend a small fortune to place those ads about the yard sale!

Then, Saturday we celebrate yet another birthday. This time it will be my son, Clate's turn as he will turn 36 that day! But, because of his work schedule, he won't get home till late Saturday night so will have to see if he can squeeze in a visit here with us on Sunday for dinner or at the very least, some birthday cake. I'll have to make sure to have some strawberries and whipped cream on hand for that as his favorite thing is strawberry shortcake. Strangely enough though -neither Maya or Kurtis will touch strawberries -not with a ten-foot pole! What the heck is wrong with these two and their weird tastebuds, anyway? Probably just as well though because strawberries tend to give Kurtis a rash on his behind!

If you're doing any blog reading today, here's a little head's up too for you. There's a blogger who is celebrating a birthday today too and I was going to direct you to her place but I can't cause the site I have on my reader is now closed off. I thought I changed that but guess I didn't. Anyway -if you are an invited guest and follow the blog of "Smalltown RN" stop by and say hello to Mary Anne!

So that's what's happened and is happening for the rest of the week in my end of the world.

What's the latest now in yours?

Happy Birthday to grandson, Alexander William Genet and son, Clayton Michael Ertmer! Here;s the men in my life, sharing a toast and sporting their matching peacoat jackets that Uncle Clate got for Alex and for himself for Christmas last year!