The Seedling

Even though I haven’t lived in Massachusetts for many years now, this news makes me sad. After providing a place for regulars to congregate and serving good food for many, many years, Skips is closing to provide the way for newer development. Skips is a staple of the area where I grew up. I can still picture the counter when you first walk in. The memory is a little faded but still there. And it saddens me to hear that places I wen to and my parents went to will no longer be there. I worry that this is the fate of all my childhood memories. Will Kimball Farm be next? And what about my favorite ice cream stand, Sully’s? Makes me want to get to Mass quick so I can get memorial pictures before everything is gone.

Well, the listing of polar bears as threatened on the Endangered Species list is going to meet some opposition. Despite the fact that polar bears are very rapidly losing their habitat, Alaska is going to sue the government over the listing because that will threaten the state’s development.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. I mean, really!! You’re concerned more about your “development” than the survival of an entire species? Come on. It is inconceivable that they would eve think this is an ok thing to do. But then Scott reminded me that Alaska likes to do weird things like this and aerial gunning of wolves.

On Saturday I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with my friend Jethe and her daughter Natalee. For dessert I got a piece of Banana Cream Cheesecake. I could have ate all of it while at the restaurant but I chose to save part of for later. Well later turned into today, and it was less than appealing. The bananas were an interesting shade of brown and the whipped cream was hard. So I had to toss it and settle for Birthday Cake ice cream we bought a week or so ago from Safeway.

Ok. I have absolutely no idea where my house keys are. Last night I go to get them so i can get into my house and they are not in my purse or my tote bag. I spent a half hour searching through my bags and the car and cannot find them. Luckily we have a spare hidden in our yard so I could get in.

Once inside I continued to look for my keys but still no luck. I had hoped that they accidentally fell out in my work van, as I remembered the other day that my bag had tipped over. But I just got back from checking and no such luck.

I am really hoping that 1) Scott is hiding them as punishment for not keeping track of them or 2) I am so over-tired that I just can’t see them even though they are in plain sight.

Otherwise I am an idiot who managed to lose a key chain that has several keys, a whistle and a swiss army knife on it.

Thursday night after taking care of his mother’s pets, Scott notices that one of our tires (drivers side front) appears flat. So we head to a gas station to pump it up with air. We make it home and on Friday morning I get up early to check the tire pressure again. Sure enough, the tire is going flat again. So, I drive to the nearest gas station and pump up the tire again. It is obvious that the tire needs to be fixed so I go home, rearrange my doctor appointments, and Scott and I head down to Discount Tire to have the flat fixed. Keep in mind that approximately 2 months ago we had to buy four brand new tires because with a Subaru it is detrimental to the All Wheel Drive to only replace one.

We get to the store and the clerk tells us it will be 1.5 hours before the tire is fixed. That’s to get it fixed. Not replaced but plugged. Stunned as we were, we politely said ok, handed over the keys and walked to Jack in the Box to pass the time. Close to 2.5 hours later we have not heard from Discount Tire so we head back to the store. We arrive in time to see them pull our car from the bay and park it. It took almost 2.5 hours to plug a tire? What the hell!!!

So we go on our way and think things are great until Scott notices that both valve caps on the driver side tires are now missing. Gone. He asks: “Did you put the caps back on this morning?” Indignantly I reply, “of course.” I then relay how I KNOW I put the caps back on because I had to fish one out of the wheel well. Not only are the nice silver ones that came with the car gone, but they had the gall to put a crummy black cheap one on one of the tires. Like we wouldn’t notice.

How do people think it is remotely an ok thing to do to take something that does not belong to you? Maybe I am overly sensitive seeing as my car was stolen from me last September. It just seems to be a sad statement on life when a persons valve caps are not safe at the tire store.