HappyTrails

Anyone else notice some new tactics while shopping at the grocery store?  Grocery stores are well known for many marketing tactics to tempt shoppers to buy a lot more than planned.  The highest profit producing products are normally set up within eye level and easy reach, and impulse buys at the checkout.

When my youngest son was little, it seemed items to tempt him were put at child’s eye level while he was sitting in the grocery cart seat, and within easy reaching distance of his little arms.  There were always more items in my cart than what I had placed in there myself.  The store did not make extra profit on me that way, they got to re-shelve the extra items that I missed being tossed in my cart.   The queen, er, I mean, German Gal, was definitely not amused.

A new tactic has now been added.  Most of us are bona fide coupon carrying shoppers with a list, and know what is on sale.  Obviously, it is time to try to thwart our plans.  Now, here is what I discovered.   New packaging — well, that does not sound so bad, does it?

Well, yes it does — and here are the subliminal messages I find:   Supposedly, if a manufacturer tones down the fancy packaging to look more like the plainer, less fancy packaging of store brand or generic items, shoppers might just pick the name brand over the store or generic brand product.  Since most people have to to do their shopping in a hurry or deal with fussy children, this leaves room for error.  And, if name brand looks more like the other lesser priced products, it will remain unnoticed until the grocery bill total has to be paid at checkout time, usually with no extra time to go back and get the right item.

Today is December 31, 2008 and I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!   Do not drink and drive, stay alive — and watch out for those grocery store prices!

Volcanoes are fascinating and have always commanded my interest — but never up close.  A trip to the Hawaiian islands some day would be fascinating with at least one side trip at a safe distance to view any gently erupting volcanoes firsthand, but, again, never up close.  A Supervolcano like Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, well, forget it about it, pictures and videos will more than suffice for me.  If that caldera ever erupts, most all of us can say good by.

What has peaked my interest are the recent swarms of small earthquakes, over 250 of them, and so far, the biggest has been a 3.9.  The caldera is somewhere around 60 miles long, and Yellowstone Park is right inside the caldera.  That would be a fantastic vacation, but German Gal here is practical.  It makes no sense to me to go trekking through all the natural wonders and scenic beauty, knowing that we would be walking on top of untold billions of tons of hot magma that scientists truly do not know the stability.  I am not going there to visit, and you can’t make me.

The current swarm of earthquakes is worrisome because there have been so many within a short amount of time, and that is unusual.   All we can do is hope and pray that the recent activity is not signaling a tremendous eruption to come.  The Discovery Channel has a simple pictorial explanation how Yellowstone moved through Idaho to Wyoming, and other interesting information.  http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/interactive/interactive.htm

Here is a video of the Mt. St. Helens’ eruption, but keep in mind, this is tiny, considering the devastation that could be caused due the enormous size of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Maybe I should quit surfing the internet so much, but it seems that by searching the same subject on many sites provides a better opportunity for a more balanced opinion, regardless of the subject.  Different sites have different opinions, and jump starts the process of beginning to sort out the weeds from the wheat.

It is not always an easy process to come to a real or solid conclusion.  The mainstream news usually all seems rather biased in one particular direction, and lots of pertinent facts and circumstances are left out.  That is one of the best reasons to read independent bloggers and other sites, as well as independently research the topics.

One of the items on the news today involved the Oregon Department of Transportation. Apparently, not enough revenue is being collected from just the gasoline taxes, so they want to find new ways to enhance their incoming revenue.  Voila!!  A mileage tax — but does that mean no more taxes at the pump?  I would not bet any money on that one.  You can read it for yourself at http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/12/28/news/local/1aaa02_road.txt

Anyone who has purchased a fuel-efficient vehicle or restricted their driving to save money will still have to pay — oh, and they want to do it using satellite technology so that your vehicle will not be neglected and miss out on paying this tax.  Talk about shooting a fly with a Canon here, really, satellite technology is needed to accomplish this?

It is really only supposed to be used to track total mileage, but what really bothers me is knowing that it could be used to track every last place you go very accurately.  That is not a good thing.  Our freedoms and privacy are already eroding like a weathered beach lately, and taxes are destroying our quality of life.

Why shoot a fly with a canon like satellite technology — why not just come out and raise the damn gasoline tax and be honest about it?  Setting up satellite technology would surely require a much greater expense to implement, and require more equipment to make it work, costing everyone more money — and then require a lot more tax money to be monitored and collected.  Politics is always so convoluted in the way things are done.

Innovative taxes are contagious and will likely spread to your own state or one near you. Is there anyone out there that wants an additional bill to pay when it could have been paid at the gas pump?  Perhaps judicious belt tightening on the part of states would be just as important as it is for all citizen taxpayers. The economy is really on a rough ride right now, and higher taxes are just going to make things worse and prolong the time it takes to make a recovery.

I am not lazy today, just tired with joint and muscle aches.  Could be the crazy weather we have been experiencing.  In about about the last seven days, we have experienced below zero wind chill and biting cold, then it went to rain, then back to cold, then warm enough to open the windows yesterday, and today we are back to cold with the furnace running.

There was too much to do today and not enough energy to handle it all.  My mother is visiting in Pennsylvania over the holidays, but stays with my sister in another county.  She really had her heart set on going out shopping.  This means a long drive out to get her, another drive around to the various stores, back to my sister’s home and finally back to my own.  A bit of a rigorous day for people who do not have fibromyalgia, and a tough one for those, like me, who do have it.

Controlling Your Own Fibromyalgia Treatment

A proper diet is important.  When you have fibromyalgia pain, you need to experiment with what helps your energy level or what kills it.  I switched from caffeinated drinks to decaffeinated drinks.  That was a help to be able to sleep at night.  Eating foods that are good for you, rather than fast food, or restaurant prepared foods with all the salt and fat laden offerings are another hurdle.  Preparing my own foods which are nutritionally good with very little salt and much less fat has helped as well.  My cooking is not dull or boring, just carefully made for what I specifically need to eat or avoid.

Sleeping was a big problem.  And believe it or not, German Gal actually parted with some money for an enormous down feather bed topper.  It was heavy and expensive to have shipped to me, but great to sleep on. This was an expensive purchase because it was hyper-cleaned to avoid allergy and came with its own extra covering.  Hubs did not much care for it, but dutifully fluffs it for me every night.  Did I mention it was pretty heavy?

The down feather bed topper was a good purchase.  Actually, I bought two of them…so now I have a spare when the one I am currently using wears out and will not support me.  Getting this was pretty important to me because of back muscle pain and other muscle pain.  I learned to also use some large, soft pillows that can be scrunched for support.  Muscle pain is caused because the muscles do not relax properly and trying to sleep on a normal bed is like trying to sleep on a cement floor.  You just cannot rest comfortably and relax.

Fibromyalgia Treatment

About 8 years ago it was time to switch doctors because the lovely ones I was using were really no help.  The dumbest one of the two I was seeing kept asking me how much alcohol I drank…well, time for a change.

Fibromyalgia Treatment

New doctor — I let the physician make his own diagnosis after I gave him the list of symptoms.  It was so weird that after tests results were in, I was ordered into almost 4 months of rehabilitation for muscle weakness and prescribed medication that helped.  Never once was I asked how much I drank, which to me, is a pretty funny question, since alcohol is only really for special occasions and not even every dinner we eat at a restaurant.

At least it sounds like medicine is progressing and physicians are looking into better treatment for fibromyalgia and even specializing in it.

I am feeling very neglected this year.  Every year we have extra calendars, but so far, no free calendar for 2009, not one.  Last year was special.  My dear friend Susie gave me a wonderful calendar with terrific pictures of the Three Stooges.  I think that was the Hubs’ all time favorite.  His other favorite was always the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live, but I have not yet seen any of those this year.  He will just have to make do with his posters.

This year, however, will be different.  We are hoping for two calendars, one religious one from church, which serves as a constant reminder of who we are and what we need to be…it is a great reminder, especially when you want to punch the um, ah, you know, living daylights out of some well deserving, oh, uh, um…nevermind, German Gal will keep this blog clean– somewhat, maybe, okay, for goodness sakes, I will try, you know, the New Year’s resolutions thing we do every year and usually forget about soon enough.

The second one we will pay for (if indeed the church provides us with a first one).  I understand that Sarah Palin 2009 calendars are a hot item on Amazon.  There are no Obama supporters in this house and a Sarah Palin 2009 calendar will work just fine.  We are definitely hoping to see a lot more of that gal in 2012 and beyond.

German Gal gets another gray hair every time an item is ordered where shipping and handling is due,  so we will troll the local stores first and check the prices.  After all, we still have a few more days until 2009.

Hubs admitted he thinks Sarah Palin not only is quite easy on the eyes, but we are both looking forward to 2012 — as others also seem like minded…

Hopefully I can drag Hubs out shopping sometime this weekend. There are good sales to go shopping as the retail stores seek to sell their overstocks on Christmas gifts and get their merchandise back in normal order.   Among the extra gift items at many stores specifically for the holidays are home beer making kits that also have the beer making supplies

Neat idea, but the price for a little bit of fun seemed high when stores were holding out for full retail prices.   The whole problem is that between Hubs and I, we would have trouble getting through 2 six-packs a year and maybe a small bottle of wine.  It would go to waste.  Now if the sales price were only half of retail, it could work out to a little adventure in learning how to do it.  The small beer making kits do not make big batches, so it might be perfect for us to try it.

If we like it, we can always order more beer making supplies once we have the kit, and if we don’t like it, we can always pass it on to someone more enthusiastic.

Beer, to some Lego people, it is like liquid bread — don’t you just love this Lego animation?

This 2003 model has less than 10,000 miles on it, and owner claims “car has an interesting movie star history” which the seller promises to share with a buyer who is serious.  Already, there are supposedly 9 interested parties who have made an offer.   Pictures are pretty nifty too, lovely red color, sleek styling.

According to some buzz on the web:  This is the restored car that Eddie Griffin destroyed while practicing for a charity race.  The restored Ferrari Enzo was previously offered for sale at a cool $1.3 million, but obviously did not sell, so now it is back on the market again at a discount.  Check it out after the video if you are interested, I am not qualified to tell you if this is the same car or not, or if the buzz is correct.

This is way out of my price range, I was looking at some used 4-cylinder Fords.  A much better use of that kind of money would be a charitable contribution to provide help to those in need instead of a fast ride down the road.  Sorry, German Gal is very practical.

Here’s a video of Eddie Griffin crashing a Ferrari Enzo:

Here’s the buzz on the web if you want to read the article:
http://www.luxist.com/2008/12/22/famously-smashed-enzo-back-on-ebay-for-a-discount/?icid=200100397×1215746580x1201052891  

Join the fun and create some of your own unique Christmas crafts or homemade gifts to add to your decorations and delight your kids.  Ha!!  My two sons are a bit too old for this, but I have reached the age where crafts are fun again.  We have kept the cute ones they made in preschool and when they have their own families some day, they can show their kids.

It is not important to have the genes for crafting that some people seem to possess where the ideas just come naturally.  Bookstores carry lots of books on how to create your own crafts for almost any occasion, so there is no excuse that you do not have a crafty bone in your body.  These homemade gifts are quite clever and many of them are truly gift worthy.  Hubs could do it, even though it has been a long time since the kids were in Boy Scouts and had to make little projects.

There are cute little crafts shown in the video below.  Whether you want to paint the inside of clear ornaments or create some elves to go on the tree with all the Santa ones, these look so easy.  Come to think of it, our Santa ornaments could use some little elves for helpers, so I will make a couple to go with each Santa.

My mom lives in Florida and flies up here to spend Christmas and New Year’s with her family.  Her friends have to keep in touch and tell her how much fun they are having swimming in their backyard pool and enjoying a barbeque.

Mom sold her home here and had one built in Florida specifically to escape the snow and cold when she retired.  That was her dream for her retirement and apparently a lot of other people as well.  When she had her home built, there were not many people in the area.  That was 20 years ago, and it is now heavily populated and basically comes with your choice of stores in any direction.  I really think that when I reach retirement age that a warmer climate might be just the greatest thing since sliced bread and convenience food.

Pennsylvania is the land of icy cold during the winter season (and, of course, land of taxes in every season).  The low earlier today was in the single digit realm and an icy rain is supposed to start tonight.  We were hoping for snow for Christmas, but it is likely to warm up too much for snow.

Blazing hot is not all that comfortable either, but for those of us who have never, ever celebrated Christmas somewhere warm where you do not have to dress up like the abominable snowman to go out, you just want to scream when you see stuff like this…it is so totally unfair, especially when I will not have snow for Christmas.

Little Christmas gifts that I can actually use go a long way in making me happy.   Personal gifts meant only for my own use make an appropriate gift.  Call me a bit selfish, but there are things that I do not want to share.  Keep your mitts off my CD’s, mine are clean and have no fingerprints, scratches or nicks on them, thank you.  The dog is the only other female in the house, and she does not care much for perfume, so that is a safe bet for me, too.

Some perfume or cologne that is a very light fragrance and preferably flowery or with a touch of lemon verbena is nice.  Nothing heavy duty like where you can smell every last place the wearer went.  Those women who work at cosmetics counters probably end up with lifelong allergies from all the tester sprays taken by customers.

The really great fragrances can be tough to find discounted, but you can make your own discounts on them by using your retail store coupons or cash back bonus awards that some retailers give.  Discounted perfumes might also be found after Christmas when stores have overstocks on merchandise, that is if you are brave enough to fight the crowds returning unwanted gifts.

Elvis Presley had some good songs out when he was alive, but please, don’t anyone give me this one — I already have enough Christmas music CDs.  Oh — and do not pass this up on the video, there are pictures of Elvis Presley on it when he was pretty young and before he went downhill…dang, he was really good looking.