Nov 13, 2015
Facebook Friday… where I share the most noteworthy things I found on FB for the week…
First I found this…
I remember going to the Stardust Theatre a time or two. We would take a blanket to place on the hood of the car in the summer — and in the winter, you’d need that blanket to stay warm inside the car (it’s not like you could leave your vehicle running through two movies). You could see about everything once it got dark enough for the shows to begin. From parents with a car full of kids (cheap entertainment for the family), to teenagers walking around visiting with every other teenager in town. And there were plenty of steamed-up windows too. But never mine. 😉
And so you don’t think I’m in love with Facebook:
Because I’ve not shared a negative thing reference Facebook for so long you might be thinking I love it… here’s this great example to the left of why I don’t. I hate this shit type of thing for a multitude of reasons:
- One might assume the person who included the words within the image was no more than 10 years old. “U R” is only slightly shorter than “you are” and the grammar police in me cringes every single time I see it used.
- What is to gain by this? Obviously, we are supposed to feel guilty if we don’t type “amen.” And if we ignore it and scroll on past we are scum of the earth heartless! What other purpose is there?
- 18k people responded by commenting — most of them typed “amen.”
- 1,800 people shared it… so they could make THEIR friends feel guilty and heartless if they didn’t do the same.
- And… 45,000 people liked the photo. Where does Facebook find all these stupid people anyway? And obviously, at least ONE of them is a friend of mine or I wouldn’t have ever had this photo served up in my newsfeed.
This sort of reminds me of an incident I remember happening when I drove a school bus. I had a parent walk their child to the bus and excitedly show me a letter she had received from Publisher’s Clearing House. It was the one that said something like “YOU HAVE WON A GAZILLION DOLLARS” and in small print below… “or a free $1 item with your next purchase.” This woman was barely able to read and believed her life was about to change forever — at a time when she was living in a house with a dirt floor and trying to raise one handicapped child and his sibling. It’s no secret there are people that believe everything they read on the Internet and see on Facebook. Watch out for the traps and instead simply pick out the things that make you happy. Never feel guilty for not clicking “like” or “share.”
And finally…
My Dad spent a lifetime treating people the way he felt they should be treated. In our small-town grocery store, he spent just as much time talking to Edna, (who purchased cat food for her own dinner), as he did the customer who spent a good deal of money every week to feed a family. It’s simply who he was.
I guess I didn’t realize how much I am like my Dad in certain aspects, and so I laughed when I read Jerilyn’s Facebook status update. A minister tells her it’s a good thing to be kind and speak to everyone along the way and she has an “ah ha!” moment. I tried to tell her the same for decades and she blew me off. Life is funny like that I guess. And if YOU don’t go on Facebook right this second and type “amen,” on Jerilyn’s post and share it — you are heartless. Seriously.
Nov 12, 2015
Libby was never a fan of water. Although she was a lab and the whole water thing was expected, I can’t remember a time she didn’t do whatever she could to avoid getting her feet wet. Baths? She HATED them! Getting her in and out of the tub was nearly impossible. When I tried bathing her outside in the warm summer months, she was terrified of the water hose. I’ve dipped warm water from the hot tub more times than I care to remember and although it was difficult, she made it 100 times worse. Libby would seriously poop on the sidewalk rather than get her feet wet in the rain.
Dharma is totally the opposite. Because she’s too evil to be left alone even long enough for me to shower, I lock her in the bathroom with me. I have better luck with a shower (even though she’s hopping on her hind legs, grasping at the shower curtain trying to get in) because it’s quicker. A bath for me is no longer a relaxing experience. Every part of my body is shredded that she can reach as she hops and scrambles to get in with me — just barely too short. I figure I’ve got about a week before I am required to change my routine.
When I do give her that extra boost and she hits the warm water (once I’m safely out), she growls, barks, and bites at it. It reminds me of a ninja… bite in front, leap, and bite that bad water behind.
She may look all innocent… but she is far from it, you guys. She’s a little terror with a love/hate relationship with H2O.
Nov 9, 2015
How’s that title for variety? 🙂 I’m doing my very best to spice up your Monday morning AND give you something of value for the week.
2 WordPress Plugins I Recommend
Without going into a ton of technical details, I’m simply going to launch right in and tell you of 2 WordPress plugins that I recommend — no matter if you’re a business owner managing your own website or a blogger — I suggest you don’t go another day without these:
- Wordfence — this is a security plugin that prevents, patrols and protects your WordPress website against today’s advanced cyber attacks, hacks and online security threats. Now you might not think anyone would want to hack your site (like… what for? nothing to sell… nothing of value… no membership or credit cards details… right?) but they will try. While some do it for fun and to prove they can exploit vulnerabilities, others do it to insert malware that will spread to your visitors and other networks. Of course, there are other malicious reasons too. On whatifitdid.com, Wordfence has throttled users and has notified me and blocked many attempts to login to the admin area. There’s a free and paid version of Wordfence — you need this plugin if you have a WordPress website.
- WP Smush — WP Smush strips hidden information from your images and reduces file sizes without losing quality. The faster your site loads, the more Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines will like it. There’s a paid version of this too that comes with a yearly subscription and includes a ton of other pretty amazing plugins.
Indiana Weather
Mornings are certainly chilly in my slice of the world… right now, it’s a whopping 30 degrees a little after 8:00 AM EDT. Still, we’re moving right along into November and high temps are hovering around 60-70 degrees. I’m pretty happy about that. Not so happy about all the spider webs I see frosted up in the hedges though. Hope all these arachnids don’t think they’re moving in with me for the winter!
Bonus
And for an added surprise bonus… A TACO BOAT! Try these instead of flat tortillas, you guys. We love them — and yes, I know mine looks like a taco barge.
Nov 4, 2015
Population changes and a birthday have nothing to do with one another. Just clearing that up — don’t want you to think the birthday boy has anything to do with population growth. 🙂
I found something I thought was interesting today and I wanted to share it with you guys. If you’re not from or near Jackson County, Indiana, you won’t care one bit about it. Accept my apologies and invitation to return tomorrow.
I’m not a huge fan of statistics for the most part, but the population increases/decreases within Jackson County, Indiana’s cities and towns has me scratching my head. I was of the opinion that people were leaving smaller Crothersville and Medora — and migrating to even bigger Seymour and Brownstown. I was wrong! Check out the stats below:
Sources: US Census Bureau
| Cities & Towns |
Population in 2014 |
Population in 2008 |
| Brownstown |
2,956 |
2,981 |
| Crothersville |
1,599 |
1,508 |
| Medora |
699 |
538 |
| Seymour |
19,094 |
19,223 |
Crothersville and Medora GREW in population, while Seymour and Brownstown DECLINED in population. I’m wondering if that’s good news for the house I have for sale at 204 E Bard in Crothersville.
And finally… happy birthday to my favorite brother on the planet — Scott McKain! He always hates it when I post dorky photos of him as a kid on social media. Only because I respect his birthday wishes did I refrain from that this year. Instead, I simply posted this:
Nov 3, 2015
Time capsule Tuesday, you guys — and I almost missed it! I was too busy waiting for Crothersville’s election results, and although they weren’t as I expected or necessarily wanted 100%, I think all-in-all it’s not too bad. Ardell will certainly be missed (thanks for all you’ve done for Crothersville, Ardell!). The new council of five surely has their work cut out for them and I hope they work together for all good future things.
So back to 1968…
I couldn’t resist sharing this photo of the 1968 senior class sponsors that appeared in the 1968 Crothersville Yearbook, The Carruthers.
Dallas McKain (far left holding a cigarette), Al the bus driver, Polly McKain (who looks like she’s blind only missing a cane), and Andrea and Melvin Schlegel.
Cigarette smoking sure was more acceptable in the 60’s, wasn’t it?
And speaking of how time changes what is acceptable — I’m going to jump forward to 2004 and talk about tattoos and body art. The Crothersville 2004 yearbook contained two pages dubbed ‘trend and style’ that showed students (and teachers) body art – pierced tongues, navels and tattoos. School trustee, Reverend Ralph Hillenburg, stated at the regularly scheduled school board meeting that he had been approached by community members who thought these pages were published in poor taste and were inappropriate for a high school yearbook. He also voiced his opinion that he was in agreement, and also felt that the photos violated the school dress policy.
At the time, this was a pretty big deal. The story was picked up by the AP newswire and appeared in many media formats throughout the US. Member that? 🙂
And finally, (because I need a photo big enough to format properly on the main page), here’s what I’ve been seeing in the evening at my house in late October and early November…
Yes, I’m the girl that has a fire at night (low 50’s — high 40’s is chilly) and the A/C running during the day (mid-70’s). I sure do like fall, even though summer will always be my favorite season.
Because I’ve not shared a negative thing reference Facebook for so long you might be thinking I love it… here’s this great example to the left of why I don’t. I hate this 
I couldn’t resist sharing this photo of the 1968 senior class sponsors that appeared in the 1968 Crothersville Yearbook, The Carruthers.