Musings

Phew! I’m glad that Christmas is finally over. I feel like ran a race in past couple of months and then in a flash it was over with the exception of pieces of wrapping paper, bows and scotch tape strewn everywhere and dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink. Talk about a let down.

We swore we’d never do it again! It’s too much trouble! It’s a lot of work!

But there we were again gathering the junk we have collected over these past 10 years since our last yard sale.

What were we thinking?

Unfortunately, we are collectors of "stuff," the preferred verbiage for junk.

Getting rid of stuff is almost impossible for us since “we just might need it one day,”or so we delude ourselves into thinking.

Stuff piles higher and higher in our two houses taking space and collecting dust until we finally decide that something has to be done and soon.

Have you watched ‘The Amazing Race” on television? If not, they have pairs of people race around the world, perform tasks and eliminate one couple per week until the final three couples are left.

The first pair to finish all their trips and tasks on the last episode wins $1 million.

This week they were in Moscow. Dallas & Toni, a mother & son, lost their money and passports when Dallas forgot his backpack in a cab.

Why is this interesting?

I lost a friend and a mentor this weekend. She “was a pistol” as they used to say and from what she told me used to carry one, too.

During my lifetime I have always had friends of all ages, but especially people much older than me. Mrs. H was almost 30 years my senior, but we were great friends.

Just the way she lived her life was an inspiration. Any time you asker her how she was she answered, “as ornery as ever.”

Her tough exterior hid a caring, loving person who was a nurse for many years not retiring until she was 85.

A big Atta Girl goes out to Volusia School Superintendent Margaret Smith for her voluntarily taking a 2 percent pay cut to help balance the board’s budget.

She said she wouldn’t ask the others to take a pay cut if she didn’t take one, too.

School board chairwoman Judy Conte is quoted as saying that her doing this “is sending the wrong message.“

The news is awash these days with the story of the murder trial of Russell Charles Bradshaw who was found guilty of killing Lisa Memro. It was a heinous crime, no doubt. What bothers me most about this entire incident is that this young man went to the Edgewater Police Department to turn in himself in and no one was there.

The place was locked up tighter than a drum so he used his cell phone to call 911 and tell them he was waiting to be arrested. And wait he did. The police officer for that area arrived and took him into custody.