Observation Trek

 I was looking over poems I wrote some years ago. Some things never change, or only slightly change, like going for a walk in the early morning.

Observation Trek by Barbara Brooker

Gray striped kitten washing its feet,

Soda can flattened in the street,

Elbows bent at ninety degrees,

Cooling shade of old oak trees,

Toys stand waiting in the park,

Interrupted breakfast of a meadowlark,

Newly mowed look of a weedy lawn.

Things I noticed close to dawn.

I wrote this while we lived in Cumberland Iowa. Probably 1994 or thereabouts. 

Outside City Limits? Costco? Sam's Club?

 I know it might seem strange but yesterday we were indeed outside the city limits. We thought we might go to Costco and we still might. But ended up at Sam's Club in Ames.

A few weeks ago I gained 1,750 MyPoints by joining Sam's Club for $35. I have been a MyPoints member for nearly as long as I have been on the computer. 1992? or thereabouts. They send me ads in my email and I can click on them or not. I can visit the site or not. If I got behind I deleted it all. It was never a pain and I racked up points just by clicking a few times. It became an automatic thing almost. Every now and then I would redeem my points for money. Just a few weeks ago I redeemed points and added $50 to my Amazon account. So spending $35 because of an ad was a bit unusual for me. I had a motive. In Texas, Costco is close and easy but in Iowa it is not. Sams Club is closer. I am not at all familiar with Sam's Club so we are in a new learning experience. If we are not convinced in a year we simply will not renew.

For those who doubt me, you can look it up but Costco has been in existence longer than Sam's Club and it appears to me that Sam's Club copied Costco's floor plan and operating system. I will not quibble over it. 

Costco's sample system is much more user-friendly. In Sam's Club, you have to sign your name before you get your sample and I doubt that you can repeat as often as you want as you can at Costco. I know, it's a small thing. Costco's system appears more customer friendly to me.

Sam's Club has far more variety in what they carry although we could not find many of the items we had on our Costco list. Overall, on things we do buy at Costco and they do carry at Sam's Club, Costco was cheaper. Sometimes by as much as $3.00.

Gas is cheaper at Costco. The aisles are wider...much wider in Costco. 3 carts wide.

Time will tell.

Older than Google

Advice to old people

I always say I can get up as long as I have a paint can. With a paint can I can get started. I must add I have not tested the theory lately.

Oh ,what a day

 Having quite the time keeping up. Age...it has to be age. Doesn't it? 

An eventful day here. Our neighbors had a bad day. they lost a member of their family...I think.

 I always called him Weird Guy. A few weeks ago another guy came and he looked like Weird Guy, only younger, and thinner. Weird is wandering around your yard, talking to yourself, manicuring your yard with scissors. You read that right. Scissors, sewing scissors. The new weird guy wanders around the yard, talks to himself, and throws imaginary objects in the street. He gave off an aroma of anger in his body language. I called them Weird Guy 1 and Weird Guy 2. This morning there was a news flash that said there was a dead man discovered in Jefferson Iowa on a street near us. It took a while for the info to get sorted out but it seems Weird Guy 2 did himself in. Even the small part I know appears to be a sad story. Mental issues are so hard to deal with and the general public (Me) doesn't have any idea what to do about it, how to help, or even if should we help.

Found

 I finally found a program that can be used to edit photos. I had one I liked on my old computer but then I got mad at Microsoft again and switched to Chrome. It is Photo editor Pixlr-Free. Still getting used to it.

These are "found" pics that I have fixed up.

This one is of my mother Fern whose siblings called her Sissy with her mother who we all called Grandma Z.

And this one is of Sissy (Fern) and her brother Jack.