Anybody with a computer and an email address will at one point have received a mail where in the end it will urge you to forward it to a number of your friends and good things will happen, the intimation being that if you don't, bad things will happen.
I have always refused to do this; I will not be party to this kind of scam but maybe, just maybe, there is something to it.
I certainly have had my share of unpleasantnesses
so when Alice called all excited about a big order that Christa had landed form Nordstrom and claimed that she was sure, almost, that it was due to her forwarding some mail that promised good luck and fortune, I thought that I might have to revise my thinking about this matter.
And then I thought again and
no
I will not bother others with that kind of junk.
I will bother them with my laments--like this one--but not with those thinly veiled threats and pathetic promises of good fortune.
There I said it.

Yesterday my car sprung another leak in the radiator.
Today my sewing machine broke a vital part.
Two things very important to my life and both have been with me for decades now.
So is this a sign ? A warning that from now on all is downwards ?
I really hope not, things are bleak without that.
The leak has been fixed and I am working hard on getting the part for my sewing machine
but
it sure gives you food for thought.
And it doesn't help that my bones are aching and that I feel old and useless
sort of like my car and sewing machine.
Ah well.

Gorblimey, I thought
this is truly beautiful
and ran to grab my camera which did not for once scream at me that the batteries were low
and I clicked to take a picture of this thing where a fog bank was slowly making its way from the sea following the river bed an covering the opposite side of the hill where I live, leaving the house on the very top of the hill exposed and lit by the sun.
Stunning, and I couldn't wait to send the picture to anyone with just the slightest interest in my neighborhood.
Yeah Right.
When I downloaded the photo I had a very nice shot of fog.
Nothing but fog.
That is not at all what I saw, so I blame it all on my camera.
It truly was beautiful, and now only I with my faulty memory know that.
So much for a picture is worth a thousand words.

So that was what it was all about..

some time ago I had a phone call--I do not have a lot of those --wherein a female, in rapid Spanish, was reading some prepared script.
WHOA, I said. Whoa. Slow down a bit, this is a foreigner you are talking to.
She slowed down for a few words before she took off again on her breakneck speed reading of the script.
WHOA, I said again. I don't get it. I am a poor foreigner. Bear with me. Slow down.
With that she hung up on me.
Good riddance I thought and then
the phone rang again
and a very pleasant gent was asking what went wrong, and I repeated what I had said to the female caller.
He chuckled and said that the female in question was known for her fits.
Good, so far.
A few minutes later my female caller was back with icy voice and very few words
yes or no
I figured that "yes" would get rid of her
so I said....YES
not knowing what the dickens I was saying "YES " to.
Now I know.
On my monthly telephone bill I suddenly have a charge for a thing that will allow me to make almost unlimited calls to the USA.
?
I never call and I have no intention of calling the states.
Now I have to go to the office and get rid of this unwanted xtra.
And I will be telling them about the surly female, you betcha.

Now this does make you wonder...
the other day for no reason that I know of, I thought back on a time when I was taking millinery lessons from a designer who lived in my neighborhood in Seattle.
Across the street from where I took my lessons lived some good friends of mine as well, so it all became a nice memory trip back to the days in Seattle.
Here is where the wondering comes in.
Today I received a mail from one of the guys from the house across the street, who had run into Sara at the opera and gotten my address...
what are the odds of this ? me thinking about those guys and they--he--responding.
There is so much we don't know and don't understand.
Now if I think really hard about.....who?
I'll save that for when I really need something good to happen.

I have been painting my kitchen and I have discovered that unless you are super careful
--and I am not
you will end up with stains on your clothing.
Now I can add to my collection of t-shirts with rodent holes the latest
the paint stained t-shirts.
Such a fashionista I am.