Category: Glimpses of Life

Three inches of snow had fallen overnight.

As I looked out the upstairs window, I saw that our snow plower had come that morning.  The driveway was cleared of snow. Heading downstairs, I walked to the laundry room window and peeked to see if my husband had had a chance to shovel the walkway.  Ahhh – I had to add this to my list of things to do.

After breakfast I headed to the garage and grabbed the snow pusher. I was glad that my brother-in-law had told me about the difference between a snow shovel and a snow pusher.  This pusher made my job a lot easier.

Opening the side door in the garage that led to the outside, I was greeted with a beautiful blue sky. Stepping outside, I shoveled a pathway to the front of the garage doors and over to the front walkway. I was glad that this snowfall was light because it made my life much simpler.

Once the snow was shoveled, I headed indoors, went to the kitchen and started preparing my husband’s lunch for the next day. With the ingredients out on the counter top, I turned around and happened to look out the window where a cardinal was staring at me.  The cardinal kept still then looked this way and that.

I wondered if I could quickly grab my camera to take a picture of him. Moving slowly away from the window, I grabbed my camera, focused and started taking pictures.  “He” kept still with the exception of turning his head this way and that ~ as if he was posing.

I felt blessed by the opportunity to view and take pictures of this beautiful bird.

Approximately 30 minutes later, he flew away.

It has been said that “When cardinals appear, angels are near.”  So glad I had angels visiting me.

With the month of February now over, we just finished having 23 out of 28 days that were above average.  And, hardly no snow this winter which is way different from the first year we moved to Minnesota which had over 80 inches of snow.

The last 3 winters have been mild in the Twin Cities.

With temperatures in the 40’s, I’ve been able to get out and start walking sooner than normal with no fear of slipping on ice ~ a nice break from the indoors.  I even saw red berries on a tree which is quite uncommon.

But alas! Warm winters bring more bugs in the summer and living on a wooded acre lot means a LOT of bugs.

For now I’ll enjoy the warmer temperatures as the birds start migrating back ~ pretty soon our local hawk will be building its nest in the neighborhood.

A couple of years ago we went to a local fair and a representative from the Minnesota newspaper The Star Tribune was there and offered us a year’s worth of Sunday papers for only $1.00.

Wow, we thought.  That’s cheap.  They are practically giving it away.  We’ve been told by others that the reason they “give” the paper away is that they have to get a high subscription rate in order to charge advertisers certain rates.  Irregardless, we went ahead and signed up for the paper.

A year later we received a renewal notice for $26.00 for a year’s worth of Sunday papers of the Star Tribune.  I signed up again although we really didn’t read the paper as much as we thought we would.

Towards the end of the subscription, I called to have the paper temporarily stopped as we would be out of town.  When we arrived back home, the paper had been delivered ~ twice.  I called and lodged a complaint and was told by a supervisor to specifically ask to speak to a supervisor and they would make sure the paper was stopped.  The next time we went out of town I called and did as I was told ~ spoke to a supervisor and was assured our paper would be temporarily stopped.

But it wasn’t.  At this point, I called and asked them to cancel our subscription and was assured it would be cancelled.  My online account showed the cancellation and there was no money due yet the Sunday papers kept coming.

After 2.5 months of getting a “free” paper, we again were going to be out of town so I called and told them that they needed to stop the paper as we no longer had a subscription.  I was assured, again, that it would stop.  But it wasn’t.

When we returned from being out of town,  the paper had been delivered again.  Feeling frustration creep into my voice, I called again and was assured they would stop delivery.  The following Sunday ~ guess what? ~ the paper was delivered again.

So I called again.  This was now getting to be ridiculous.  I spoke to a supervisor and was assured … wait, I’m pretty sure I heard that same assurance before so after I hung up with the supervisor I sent an online complaint to the Better Business Bureau here in Minnesota.

When I pulled up the online information on The Star Tribune I was shocked at what I saw. They had 100% negative reviews but an A+ rating.  How can that be?

It seems ridiculous to me that a company that has 100% negative reviews can have an A+ rating.

Recently a friend of mine sent me an article re the BBB and how they appear to have what the article called a “pay for play” scheme. Although the article is from 2010, I have the feeling that it’s still quite applicable.

“To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.”

I had always believed that I could trust the ratings on the Better Business Bureau site but this is disturbing to me.  My trust in them has fallen to zero.

And the resolution to my problem?  Within 4 days of filing my complaint, I received a response from someone at The Star Tribune letting me know the newspapers would stop being delivered.

Almost 3 months later, I’m glad to say we’ve received no newspaper.  I’ll never subscribe to this company again.

Once, while driving home with one of my sons, he asked me why I was driving so slowly. The speed limit is 25 in my neighborhood but I was going 20 mph which, I believe, was too slow for him.

When I saw this sign on a car I thought it fit me perfectly.

Are we slower or more careful drivers the older we get?

One of the strangest things I had ever seen when we moved to Minnesota was the weather person who stood outside to give us the weather report.

In the summertime, no problem.  In winter though, these weather folks still go outside in their coats, hats, umbrellas ~ no matter the temperature and report the weather to us.

Odd, no?

On a cool Sunday morning while leaves were still falling, I decided to head out and leaf blow to gather all the leaves in one area of our yard.  Putting on a hat, a flannel lined shirt and wrapping a scarf around my neck, I grabbed the leaf blower and plugged it in.

Turning the leaf blower on, I did the back of our property and headed closer to the garage to work on the front.  From the corner of my eye, I could see my husband was also outside working with earphones on listening to music on his iPod.

“So many leaves,” I muttered to myself. “And this leaf blower is so heavy.”  We use an electric one so we don’t have to bother with purchasing gas.

All of a sudden, I felt my neck being pulled towards the leaf blower.  Looking down, I noticed that the end of my scarf had gotten sucked into the bottom of the blower. Holding down the leaf blower with one hand and the scarf with the other, I looked around and yelled at my husband who was behind me to unplug the leaf blower.  Alas!  He couldn’t hear me.

Unable to move without letting go of my scarf, I kept yelling and yelling for what felt like many minutes. I didn’t want to panic but fear was starting to creep up in my thoughts.

Yelling even louder, I finally got my husband’s attention and he went and unplugged the leaf blower.

Gathering my composure, I looked at the bottom of the blower to see why my scarf was able to get sucked in.  It had a cover on it but there were holes where the scarf was able to penetrate.

It’s interesting to me how I viewed this situation versus how my husband viewed it.  He was nonchalant about the whole thing whereas I look back and see that I could have been strangled by a leaf blower.  Not the way I wish to die ~ well, there really isn’t any way I really want to die.

A friend suggested next time I tuck my scarf inside my shirt or jacket.  Good idea ~