Unnecessary car inspection

I went to get my car inspected today. It had a sticker on it that said 1 year extension. Somehow I didn't really get it and it seemed like I hadn't been to the car inspection in forever. But after I got into the building (after waiting in a short line) I found out that I did not NEED to come there until NEXT year. But since I was already in the building, I had to wait my turn.

Went to pick up some drugs and saw new parking signs. 11 spaces are now reserved for the Bridgeton Tourist center parking. That is a laugh. We don't have much tourism going on in our town and the thought of needing all of those parking spots boggles the mind. Two were occupied today. Another example of how the rules of the world keep changing in more strict and annoying ways every time something happens.
I dread all the new rules insurance companies are going to make after Hurricane Sandy.

Oh dear, I logged onto my work email and it was something new. It is called Roundcube - free webmail for the masses. Now, if the masses can just figure it out!
I knew they were threatening to close down the access point I use in December....I just hadn't figured out where else to go or how to proceed. I need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future, that is just how I am. I relate to the poster of the cat falling down the wall that says, I never left anything that didn't have scratch marks all over it.

Small business Saturday

I think this is my favorite. I wouldn't be caught DEAD shopping on Black Friday. That is cause I am not much of a shopper and usually my family is hanging out and going for a walk on that day. Article on Yahoo today discussed a boycott of Cyber Monday due to sweat shop conditions in some of the online warehouses.

Happy National toilet day. It is also National peanut butter month.

I am sleeping later and later in the AM. Took a nap after church yesterday. Am getting slower and slower. Perhaps I am grinding to a halt? To inpspire myself, here is my quote of the week....Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - M. K. Gandhi

The newspapers for reading for free are located at the library

Sign over newspaper rack at The incredible bulk, in Millville last night. Walked around for "Third Friday" with some friends. Festive lights, music, food, and gifts. The only problem was the COLD. We had a yummy dinner at a vegan restaurant. Very healthy food but they use takeout containers and plastic forks, which somewhat spoils the effect. I guess that helps to keep the prices down. Wildflower is the name of this restaurant which has been in business over a year. In our area, that is saying something. It was funny, though. We were sitting there eating our raw veggies and talking about all of our dental problems.

They had the DUMBEST segment on the morning show yesterday. They had five babies in high chairs. The Cake Boss baked a huge round cake for each of them. They were each a different solid pastel color. The baby was supposed to get down with the cake and after a timer went off, there was supposed to be an award for the messiest baby. I asked myself, WHY?!?!?! The babies didn't look like they even wanted to BE there or DO it. They forced one baby's hand into the cake and he started wiping his hands together, like why are you making me get so dirty? The cakes were so BIG that they totally obscured the babies. Boy, we are really desparate for entertainment.

Zoom zoom zoom, boom boom boom, the end

This is what my visually impaired friend thought about the new 007 movie, Skyfall, which we saw last night. She has trouble following the action, and there was a lot of it. It was grim. It didn't make me want to go to Scotland. Very minimal sex.

I never saw so many people at the movie theater. There was a Twilight marathon including the new one. I am planning to see it, but I do not like crowds. They even had those ski lift dividers for the snack area! It was quite a festive atmosphere.

Just had to get out the headphones. Annoying patrons in the library. I remember it well. People show up and demand that you make copies for them due to their lack of knowledge about the equipment and their disabilities. Then a loud litany of all their problems. The security guard was participating in the conversation about the government and how some people can get disability even though they never pay into it but this guy can't get it. He does not seem to be aware that his job is to SHUSH people, not to encourage them in their rants. (Alright, I realize, I am not very compassionate.)

"If Pepe hadna' gone bankrupt,

I'd probably be workin' 'til the day I died". Quoted by a retired gentleman I ran into at the Fibre Arts cafe this year. He was a very hard worker and appreciated by his employer, but his employer ran into hard times.

I am sad that this local meeting spot/coffee/fibre arts store and bookstore has left Bridgeton. The bookstore moved to Vineland and the Fibre arts shop to Millville. I enjoyed stopping down for a cheap cup of Community coffee and conversation.

Just finished listening to an audiobook, Just for laughs, for the second time. About 18 comedians which had been interviewed by Terry Gross for her NPR program, Fresh air, were featured. Perhaps Terry Gross is heard all over the nation but I am happy that she lives in the Philadelphia area and is always on NPR. I will just list my FAVORITE ones (perhaps a few names of celebrities will bring traffic to my blog?) Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, Denis Leary, Sacha Baron Cohen, George Carlin, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Steve Martin and Woody Allen.

Splash park and other travesties

They are finishing up the new "Splash park" in my local zoo. Just in time for winter?
My only problem with this splash park is that they ripped up a perfectly lovely section of azaleas to replace it with concrete things. And isn't it awfully close to the animals? They keep messing up the zoo. We had a charming little white bridge in the park. Some politician drove across it and thought it was too curvy and dangerous so they replaced it with an ugly rusty metal rail thing, totally spoiling the only charming thing in my town.

Just watched America's heart and soul, directed by Louis Schwartzberg in 2004. I am not very good about watching movies or DVDs at home, but I drove all the way to Ocean City to watch this documentary with about 10 women as part of a series at the library. There wasn't much of a plan to it...showed a bunch of interesting characters, real Americans, and some great scenery. I have been to a lot of the places, but I wish he had been more clear about exactly where we were. It seemed to start off with some regular working folk, then some really odd characters, then some extreme athletic types and finished up with some heart warming tales of people helping others. I think I may have met the cowboy named Roudy in Telluride, CO. I remember we went riding past the Elk which, amazingly, do not bolt when horses come by. The most interesting segment was zooming along with the bicycle messenger in New York City. I wish Ben, of Ben and Jerry, had more time. Then we saw a blind man climbing icy peaks (why?) and people dancing while dangling over cliffs. I cried when the guy with cerebral palsy was pushed by his father running in the Boston Marathon.

Someone loaned me the book Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadephia, by E. Digby Baltzell.
In theory, I was interested in this topic, but this was one nonfiction book that I just couldn't stick with. I am trying to get interested in history but sometimes it is just in one eye and out the other.

High times, the Playboy of the pot world

Not that I would know. I just thought this was an amusing comment. Very interesting program on the legalization of marihuana in Colorado. This was on NPR today with Terry Gross. I thought the segment on 60 minutes on medical marihuana a few weeks ago equally fascinating. Today there was a description of the dedicated, devoted indoor growers, some shirtless and shoeless and playing rock or classical, depending on the what the plants want. The growers even SLEEP with the plants. It is all very controlled and measured and I wish it would come to New Jersey.

Drove all the way down to the shore today. Not a very pretty day. But the weather was varied on the way down and beautiful in spots. Don't think I could live down here in the winter. It plays on my feelings of loneliness. Kind of sad right now. Only a few signs of the recent tragedy of Hurricane Sandy, but I only perused a few blocks. There were some piles of brush, some uprooted trees and sidewalks, and some sofas out on the street. I came down here to renew my library membership and see a film. Don't really like being home on these long, cold evenings. Of course, I don't really like driving around in the dark, either. Oh well.

How can people talk on the phone so much? Many times I see these people in the library with headphones on and they seem to be carrying on a constant conversation with someone. I don't get it.