The Blog is Unbelievable. Unless You Believe it!

That may be an oxymoron

I have decided that I will probably not to go to Florida Thursday morning. It seems like a waste of money to go for 2.3 days and I am fairly certain that Cha Cha really doesn't want me there; it is just a vibe I get. She would still be working for most of that time anyway. Spending any amount of time with me must be excruciating and, over the past two-and-a-half months, she has literally been unable to escape me. I am self-aware enough to know that I can grate on people after a very short while. It's a gift (not the self-aware part but the grating on people part). How has she managed to stay with me for over 30 years. The jury is still out - I may still go (27%). We have a union meeting Friday so there may be another reason to go to Florida.

Now I have the whole self-awareness thing stuck in my head; see how self-awareness eats away at us? It is like a tick.You know people that don't have that self-awareness gene. We are all without self-awareness from time-to-time but I am kind of jealous of the people who never know that they are annoying or clueless. I know I have been slow to recognize it when I have been annoying but I think I always see it eventually. I wish I could catch that not realizing part. We all have the lack of self-awareness from time-to-time but man, how liberating would it be just to do or say what you want all the time and not worry about the consequences. Better yet, you would not even recognize the consequences were consequences if they did occur. There is a difference between this and the people who are jerks and just know it - I am guilty of that from time-to-time too I know.

Jill would be proud on me; I have the blinds open today. I rarely have the blinds open. I LOVE the dark; I look so much better in the dark. She loves the light. I do not know why I have them open today. I love the sun but I prefer the dark. The blinds help insulate the house a bit too so the furnace doesn't have to work as hard.

There are a lot if overused phrases and terms in sports. While watching the Green Bay Packers - Dallas Cowboys divisional playoff game yesterday I think I realized what the most overused phrase/word is in America - it is "Unbelievable!" How can a great catch or a great run be unbelievable? I just saw it and I have seen similar catches before; seems believable to me. Actually, I have made some great catches in my day and I believed them.

It is 0705 now and I cannot help but think about that old commercial I used to see when I was a wee lad. I guess a commercial really made an impact and did its job if someone as old as I am can remember it from his yute. It was an ad for one arms of the military and the catch-line was, "we do more before 7 AM than you do all day." You know what, maybe it was athlete's training and not the military. Maybe it was for a cereal or something? Okay, it may be a great tag line but they didn't implant the "product." The job is to sell the product. Unbelievable! Anyway, no MATTer what the "product" was the line stuck and it is a lie - at least for today. Before 7 AM today: I worked six hours, cleared about eight inches of snow from our driveway. played with the dog in the backyard, sealed the hole in the neighbor's fence where Jeff was making like Peter Rabbit and escaping into their yard, made Fabio's lunch, cleaned the kitchen and wrote the first four paragraphs of this blog.

Every time I shovel the driveway I think to myself, "this is how Grandpa Helser died." He seemed like a fit man but something was amiss apparently. Back in those days people didn't eat all the junk we eat today (I guess they did eat a lot of fatty foods in those days though). I don't even remember him very well since he died when I was so young (I was three-and-a-half). I know his name was Robert Russell Helser and I have seem photos of him and I together so I guess he knew me a bit too. But I do know (or at least I have been told) that he died of strain from shoveling snow. I don't really want to be the one to carry on that family tradition. I guess if one person does something it is not a tradition so let us leave it as a one time incident. Weird, I just searched  his name and instantly came up with that photo. I learned a lot just by that. He dies when I was four-years-old and the date of his death (February 5th) is the date that Splenda (our daughter Chloe in case you are new) was born. He died EXACTLY 25 years before she was born to the day. I had also been told that the name Helser had been Americanized from the German name Holzhauer which means work-worker or lumberjack... This Ancestry.com thing says it was Americanized from "Holzer." It is still close as holzer means log or wood or timber or something of that nature (no pun intended with the word "nature"). I also see where his mom out-lived him, She died one year after he died. He was 52 when he died. Guess who was shoveling snow today and his going to be 52 this year? This blogger! My grandpa died at the age I am now - curiouser and curiouser. I also see that is maternal grandmother was named Andy Taylor. Maybe I need to carpe diem and go to Florida. I also may join Ancestry.com. I added that link there so I could go back and check that out later.

I should really start selling ad space here and go Pro Blogger

Question - why was I shoveling snow while Cha Cha was waking up in Florida? Answer - because she is the smart one. Alright, I am gonna search flights again and convince myself that I need to go to Florida Thursday. I do not think I will be able to convince myself though. Or will I? I think I am going to take some ZzzQuil too. I really do not HAVE TO be awake for 14 hours. Maybe I will try to accomplish that. Considering that four hours of sleep for me is a great accomplishment I may make six hours with ZzzQuil. Thank you for stopping by. If you have a plane and are flying to Florida Thursday and coming back Saturday and have an extra seat both ways please let me know. Have a great day. TTTT...MITM (out - hopefully cold for hours) TA! I really need sleep.