tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81735352647640308522024-03-05T19:07:10.943-08:00Ms. CRANKYMs.CRANKY is a nice enough person who gets upset when people are thoughtless. That's what she writes about. Ms.CRANKY feels that it's real easy to have the world humming along kindly and even (dare she say) sweetly. You just have to use common sense and say --- "Would I want someone to swing a long pointy umbrella in my face"?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-78602746066065123382015-11-05T13:55:00.001-08:002015-11-05T13:55:26.771-08:00Ms. CRANKY AND THE DANCING CASHIERS<h2>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">or, <i>"It Takes So Little To Make Me Happy"</i></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky had
taken a test for a job, a very involved and convoluted test but loved the
challenge of it but then worried she hadn’t passed it and wished she had
had more time to look it over. So, when
she hit the streets of Manhattan after the test and a group of Italian-speaking
people asked her directions to the ‘Metro,’ she blanked --- Cranky’s brain was
still lost in the test she feared she had flunked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Metro,
metro?“ --- Cranky thought --- oh, right --- <b>the subway</b>! The Italian tourists were sweet and waited
patiently, somehow trusting she’d eventually come through. They were all on a corner of a major
intersection in mid-Manhattan. There had
to be a subway around somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally, it
came to Cranky and she pointed them to just a few blocks away, to a biggity-big
station that she had fogged out on, apologizing to them that she had just taken
a test and was confused. The bigger guy of
the group shook his head understanding the word ‘test’ and all were smiling and
grateful, bound on the ‘Metro’ to “Ground Zero” --- a term Cranky hadn’t heard in
a while.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then, on the
way back to Brooklyn and another commitment, Cranky stopped to return something
to a store, a major chain --- only to be told she was two days’ past the return
time and when Cranky balked, not wanting a pair of pants that didn’t fit, the
cashier handed her back the bag and said --- “Here --- take them, they’re
yours!” Cranky tried bargaining for a
store credit but to no avail. “Call
central headquarters” was all she was told and sadly went out the door carrying
a bag and contents she couldn’t use and everybody probably knows how cheap
(err, frugal) Cranky is. Plus, she hates waste and this was waste.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky was now
not only a bit shaky from the test and the failure to return something to a
‘known’ store but she hadn’t eaten anything so far that morning. She wanted to just pick up a cup of coffee to
take with her on the ‘metro’ back to Brooklyn and eat at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, when Ms.
Cranky searched and searched for a coffee cart (they are cheaper than most cafes
and, usually, have great coffee) --- they were nowhere to be found --- not near
Penn Station anyway. It was all hot dog
and souvlaki carts but no coffee carts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, underground
in the Penn Station Concourse, Cranky wandered among the many shops, not
wanting to spend a lot of money for not very good coffee. Then, she came upon a really good chain she
knew had good products if not cheap prices.
Has Cranky used the word ‘cheap’ over five times yet??? --- She hopes
not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, as Cranky
entered the shop and approached the counter to order, she came upon four young
cashiers behind the counter, all women, singing along with and dancing to a
very catchy Michael Jackson tune. Cranky’s
mood changed immediately --- they cracked her up! Out of nowhere, it wasn't even noon yet, on an
ordinary work day --- Cranky had come upon this burst of joy --- four girls, of
different shapes, sizes and heights, each with a broad smile, were dancing up a
storm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They were so
into their routine that Cranky danced along with them as she tried to order
coffee --- not easy to do over the din. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then,
suddenly, the girls pointed her to a stand in the middle of the shop where you help
yourself to coffee and, as Cranky pulled out money to pay, they hollered and
waved her away ---<b>‘it’s on us!’</b> they said and went on about their dancing. She
tried protesting, waving her bill in the air, but they just kept a-dancing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This was just
the medicine that Cranky needed to fend off the ‘probably-failed-the-test blues’
and the huge chain store that didn’t have a decent return policy. How wonderful to run into this ménage and on
an ordinary Thursday, in a crowded underground area, just up from where she’d
catch the “A” train. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, for
their joy and good will towards her, Cranky will now not seek out a cheaper
coffee cart when she is nearby but will go back to that shop over and
over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It takes so
little to be nice and it takes very little for Ms. Cranky to perk right up and
soldier on. ‘Perk up’, te he, not meant
to be a pun but a pretty good one anyway!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks for stopping by, as always,
and Cranky’d love to hear any of your stories of lovely happenings in the
ordinary days of your life.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky --- <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">from underground at Penn Station where
the subways run --- celebrating a good deed that meant so much --- cashiers who
dance, and, why not? --- and, oh, the coffee was so very good!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">rock on cashiers and counter people
of the world --- rock on!!!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-8978647575187369312015-10-16T09:58:00.001-07:002015-10-16T09:58:03.978-07:00THE METS!!!!<br />
Ms. Cranky though not a sports fan (?) does love when 'her' teams do well. She loves the spirit of her city when everyone's all revved up. Cranky even sometimes learns more about the specific sport at major times like this.<br />
<br />
So, the Mets' win last night in LA is very exciting to her --- no she'll not buy a ticket, not that she could --- there are none. No, Cranky wouldn't go <i>that far </i>but she does think she might just hop a train from Atlantic Avenue and zip on out to Citi Field just to catch the rarefied air. She thinks that just by 'being there' she'll be excited and will surely see a spectacle of her fellow New Yorkers --- all dressed up in their Mets hats and tees. Hey, it's not exactly like having the Pope around but it'll have to do for the time being.<br />
<br />
Not too many events can compete with that guy and his little beanie, at least for Ms. Cranky. Bring back the Pope, bring back the Pope. Cranky wishes he lived here, maybe they could volunteer at a soup kitchen together, they would have such fun.<br />
<br />
But, back to, ehh, sports --- what Cranky mostly loves about these sporty things is seeing the families together and can easily cry over a father holding his small son's hand as they take the subway to a game. If they might also have on matching outfits, Ms. Cranky will truly cry (but, not as much as for Pope Francis!).<br />
<br />
There's just one problem that Ms. Cranky has with all this sports stuff (besides boredom, sometimes) --- <b>how can they waste all that champagne???</b> It breaks Cranky's heart.<br />
<br />
Any waste bothers Ms. Cranky, ala her over-wrought recycling life. But, we're talking about champagne here!!! Champagne --- so, so sad --- a sweet sentiment, perhaps, but such a waste. Do something else with that sentiment --- like hold the cork.<br />
<br />
Or, overwrought teams could get one of those new gadgety machines that put sparkles in your water and use that and save the champagne for what it's made for --- to drink.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Nice talking to you, a cool but sunny day here, Ms. Cranky gets a few hours off after a hard week --- a bit of gardening maybe or, perhaps, a trip to the Pier in Red Hook --- just to look out on the water and remember there's more to life than complications; sometimes that's hard to remember. And, there's gotta me more to life than unresponsive bureaucracies!!! Hopefully.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Enjoy the baseball series but, remember --- hold the cork!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>See you next time, Ms. 'baseball fanatic for a few weeks' Cranky.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-76479977889905829352015-09-19T18:35:00.002-07:002015-09-19T18:35:23.676-07:00The Pope comes to America and gets an Italian entertainer, not an Italian-American entertainer --- how come???<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Ms. Cranky finds it ironic, though she understands somewhat,
that Pope Francis for his first visit to the United States, will be serenaded
while In Philadelphia by Andréa Bocelli who is from Italy, maybe a few blocks
away, should they have ‘blocks’ in Italy.</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />There are tons of great singers, opera and otherwise, in
Philadelphia. There is the Academy of
Music which housed an annual Pavarotti Competition for many years; there is a
bar-restaurant called Victor’s Café in Philadelphia which <i><u>grows</u></i> opera
singers.</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />Okay, Mr. Bocelli happens to be at a conference in
Philadelphia at the same time, but, ‘hello’ --- the dear Pope could hear him
<i>any time</i> --- in his own backyard (if they have back yards at the Vatican???) But, come on here, Cranky’s sure Andrea would
be very glad to just ‘pop by’ anytime --- ‘when in Rome.’</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /> Ms. Cranky, though trying hard to be understanding, can’t
help but think of all the wonderful American singers whose lives would be
changed forever with the experience of singing for the Pope. </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /> But, per usual, no one has asked Ms. Cranky’s opinion.</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><o:p> </o:p><i>Have a great day, a
lovely and safe Pope visit, a wonderful Jewish holiday. </i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Ms. Cranky</i></span></h3>
<div>
<i>any thoughts greatly appreciated.</i></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-53933517396550315252015-08-25T17:38:00.002-07:002015-08-25T17:38:49.832-07:00Modern (?) Life (?)<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(not written in 'Ms.Cranky' style, but, ...., thanks for looking, good stuff. mpk)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We couldn’t
both get down the sidewalk at the same time, so I waited. I had a cart and
three loads of clothes from the Laundromat that I was dying to get down the
street and up to my apartment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, they,
the adults and dog in-between <i>really took
their time</i>, oh, <i>she </i>saw me
waiting. And, she could have told the
man but she was busily talking to him though he was absorbed by his phone
screen and not paying any attention to her.
She could easily have told him to move a little quicker as I waited and
waited some more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But he could
have cared about her or anyone as he surveyed his contraption and walked as
slowly as he wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the man
finally looked up from his phone to walk past me, I thought he’d apologize,
say, ‘sorry, or excuse me.’ I would
have. But, instead there was just this
straight stare at me, quite hostile actually; maybe he thought I shouldn’t have
been ‘allowed’ on his sidewalk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later I
wondered who raised people like this?; who raised people to be so self-absorbed,
so non-caring of other people’s lives; maybe they saw my grey hair and thought
I was retired --- hah, like that will ever happen. And, even if I could be retired, I might
still be real busy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, besides
wondering who raised these people, mostly, I worried about the little dog stuck
in the middle of them. She deserved
better. She seemed a very sweet doggie,
if a bit confused by being very ignored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>II. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He weighed
me on the scales and said “Good for you;” I had seen him many times before when
I came to the doctor. I laughingly
explained --- “All I had to do was stop walking down the Dove chocolate aisle
of the local CVS and 6 lbs. fell off in a month!” I was sitting up on the metal table by now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He then tied
me up to the blood pressure machine and started it. I watched the machine --- good --- my blood
pressure was well within the norm. I knew how to read the machine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, it was
a good thing I did because three minutes later I was still tied up to it and had
memorized my blood pressure readings over and over. By then, the young tech had received a call
and was busily reading his phone which had a photo of a pretty young lady on
it. He smiled while reading, ignored me some
more, then, still smiling, started texting back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By now, I figured
I’d had enough of this, extricated myself from the machine, got down from the
table and hollered back to him my readings as I went out the door. I doubt he heard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At least, he
had forgotten to charge me my ridiculous co-pay! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Amazing.
And my acquaintance is worried ‘the Chinese are taking over the world’??? </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, it
wouldn’t be hard to take over </span><i style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">this</i><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">
world.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And this is why our new rip-off
health plan upped my co-pay and cut my benefits??? --- no more eyeglasses for
you dearie, no more preventive medicine for you, oh, and your blood pressure?
--- it’s good you know how to read it by yourself.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>III.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was
happily swinging my bag while walking across Court Street in Brooklyn, happy
because I was on my way to the great bread bakery (which also had
cookies!). I waited for the light,
walked out into the crosswalk carefully and noted a police car slowly coming
out of the street across from me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
walked merrily along, anticipating just a few cookies for later but as I walked
more into the street, I noticed that the police car from the side street turning
in --- <i>just kept coming</i> into the intersection, slowly, thank God, but it was </span><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">NOT STOPPING</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">, </span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">not stopping for the pedestrian (me) in the crosswalk. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My mood quickly
changed from merry to panic and my bag stopped swinging as I saw the grille of the police
car very close to me and realized the police car was not going to stop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Screaming, I was able to jump out of the path of the oncoming police car. Aren’t police people supposed to <i>protect you</i>
from reckless drivers and not be them?
What is wrong with this picture???<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The driver
opened his window and very nonchalantly murmured to me --- “Sorry, <b>we were</b> <b>looking at something</b></span><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,</span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">” --- ‘something’?, ‘<b>we’</b>?, why <i>we</i>??? And why <i>the</i> <i>driver</i>??? <b>Why was the driver ‘looking at something</b>’ when
his colleague could look at it??? Couldn’t one police person drive and the other
‘look’? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, could
anyone have bothered, maybe, <b>to look at
me??? --- me, the pedestrian about to be run over in her own neighborhood</b>, in a
crosswalk, with the green light by people she once trusted and whose taxes she
gladly pays for???<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I saw the
policewoman in the passenger seat next to the driver with a another contraption in her
lap. There didn’t seem to be an
emergency, they were just moseying along, peaceful as could be, except for
almost killing someone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I never cry, ever, ask anybody who knows me --- unless a pet is sick and then I cry all
over the place. But, there I was on
Court Street outside my favorite bakery, holding close the bag I had just a bit
ago been swinging so merrily, crying my heart out, trying to focus on the bread
in the window but realizing, instead, I had gotten way too close to not being
around to buy bread or anything else and I would have been downed by the very
people who hand out tickets for what they had just done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Your thoughts are greatly, warmly
welcomed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">mpk<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-85782966807847830082015-05-18T11:29:00.002-07:002015-05-18T11:29:34.315-07:00MS. CRANKY WONDERS --- IS THERE AN AGE WHEN ONE’S LANGUAGE CHANGES?<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All her life Ms. Cranky remembers older women calling
her ‘hon’ and ‘dear’ and ‘sweetie,’ most especially waitresses named Lil or
Gert. Cranky didn’t mind it, it was a
nice part of life and she didn’t think much about it. Until lately --- when Ms. Cranky became one
of ‘those people.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There was no warning nor preparation and no one told
her to do it. There was no instruction
booklet or ceremony gently moving her into the world of the Lil’s and Gert’s of
Cranky’s yesteryear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But, slowly, Ms. Cranky began noticing those old
familiar words creeping into her very own language, usually on goodbyes. “Bye, <i>sweetie</i>;
okay <i>hon, see you real soon…”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Did Ms. Cranky get older? --- Yes, of course, Ms. Cranky got older,
and, seemingly, very quickly. But, did
Ms. Cranky suddenly become a waitress in a highway diner with homemade coleslaw
and heavy off-white coffee mugs? No she
didn’t. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It took a while for Cranky to process this information
and to even realize she was doing it. She’d
hang up the phone and go, ‘Hmmm,’ did <i>I</i>
just call my niece-in-law ‘sweetie’? Was
that actually <i>me</i> saying ‘goodbye honey’
to my mentee? It was not thought out in
the least but it was definitely happening.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, over a bit of time, Ms. Cranky doesn’t mind the
change; she even thinks it’s sort of sweet (not ‘sweetie’). One day she simply realized her new speech
had become a pattern, an ‘okay’ pattern that came with the passage of time ---
maybe like lower-heeled softer shoes or needing eyeglasses or trying to decide
to color your hair or not?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ms.
Cranky wonders your thoughts on this matter and also wonders if it happens in
all cultures and what the names would be in Italy or Croatia or China? And, Ms. Cranky celebrates all the women who
came before her and their most welcome terms of endearment. A term of endearment is always enjoyed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">See
ya’ ‘round ‘dearies’!!!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">April
2015<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-29157956259690803122015-05-18T11:27:00.002-07:002015-05-19T09:56:10.685-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
a few photos from our winter --- long, tiring, slippery but, at times, utterly beautiful, this night even my neighbors were hanging out their doors admiring and admitting its beauty.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKyGpNPobTVLhSTmGFY40ZHR84dihluUKsbjC1n5wXy0-45vU8RQDtHI6Srl3hPMVZxKIQwyaa-HRS3uIEYO475ubEQwHBUlBxKSSEzxhlhVQ3HyoUQXh0eU4bZatIBiwKrYNymXFpsEj/s1600/DSCN0125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKyGpNPobTVLhSTmGFY40ZHR84dihluUKsbjC1n5wXy0-45vU8RQDtHI6Srl3hPMVZxKIQwyaa-HRS3uIEYO475ubEQwHBUlBxKSSEzxhlhVQ3HyoUQXh0eU4bZatIBiwKrYNymXFpsEj/s320/DSCN0125.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUFJE3WQGHo5d1_h2pSSOyWk-kuqCq7NIUEbh35N-TqoQvSs2IBMbZLvfNKdHG9EOdUojEZHdAgBBB7cbHOm5902HiiCmdMevDD0_IOwmhH-aDZcRKT2NNyU_SXImm0Bf3gdJXxQGu4aP/s1600/DSCN0151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUFJE3WQGHo5d1_h2pSSOyWk-kuqCq7NIUEbh35N-TqoQvSs2IBMbZLvfNKdHG9EOdUojEZHdAgBBB7cbHOm5902HiiCmdMevDD0_IOwmhH-aDZcRKT2NNyU_SXImm0Bf3gdJXxQGu4aP/s320/DSCN0151.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-8328289858603487142015-05-18T11:22:00.001-07:002015-05-19T09:55:49.919-07:00<br />the geraniums are outside now but in winter, they are in cranky's bathroom getting the southern light they so love. the skirts were in an exhibit in a building cranky works in, there were several colors of skirts hanging in the winter garden of the world financial center, moving some; in time the art installation was to be put to music, the different-colored skirts probably swirling about which cranky would have enjoyed seeing but never caught that act.<br />
<br />
thanks for looking, Ms. C.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYjrK4FMrqjfAoPC6ZWMD62TFoYGz9qFnxgA0CK0PKDjudny0sIWlU7-EcwaxMOMhvavLSqMhcmDiWOijPgSQoY4rXFnpODbx77B4RZ-MeuBhhiuyjlgFzQE4xR_yM7SMLyio_Z60fLs36/s1600/DSCN0041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYjrK4FMrqjfAoPC6ZWMD62TFoYGz9qFnxgA0CK0PKDjudny0sIWlU7-EcwaxMOMhvavLSqMhcmDiWOijPgSQoY4rXFnpODbx77B4RZ-MeuBhhiuyjlgFzQE4xR_yM7SMLyio_Z60fLs36/s320/DSCN0041.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5G7xR7nIvrs2EZozQxz4fOzC0ULXihc2tYBR-o_e5wCsSO1Few1GkaGW2Sp5QgKEzbDwkI0Ni2eetlheM7Izbavg56SVqArYKE3tzlBZsVc5qNoFnzCo7ZJGJsUDE8N59mfj7vkooQnW/s1600/DSCN0173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5G7xR7nIvrs2EZozQxz4fOzC0ULXihc2tYBR-o_e5wCsSO1Few1GkaGW2Sp5QgKEzbDwkI0Ni2eetlheM7Izbavg56SVqArYKE3tzlBZsVc5qNoFnzCo7ZJGJsUDE8N59mfj7vkooQnW/s320/DSCN0173.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-22110811300943293272015-05-18T11:00:00.000-07:002015-05-18T11:00:39.304-07:00POLLY WANTS A CRACKER, MS. CRANKY WANTS A CRACKER, BUT JUST A CRACKER. (And, please hold the seven-thousand varieties)<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ms. Cranky wonders if it’s too much to ask to just buy
a box of crackers anymore, regular old crackers, crisp and chewy. Cranky doesn’t want to dampen anyone’s
spirits or, worse, dampen a cracker and make it soggy (yikes!) but these exotic
cracker tastes --- hello!!! Are we that
truly bored?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Does Cranky really need a jalapeno-banana-with a hint
of lime cracker (<i>made up</i> <i>name</i>)???
Or, sesame, flaxseed, limburger cheese crackers???</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Can’t Cranky just get an old really crisp crunchy
cracker of yore? Okay, maybe the black pepper ones, okay maybe
those but please not tootie fruity. And,
boy does Ms. Cranky love her horseradish but she loves it in a proper tall slim
glass horseradish jar in her refrigerator, not in a cracker --- oh, all-right,
maybe horseradish. Cranky’ll concede to that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cranky wonders when all this ‘enhancing’ will stop and
at what point will the desire to gussie up a perfectly-okay product cease? Dill and sea salt, not bad, fire roasted
tomato, tomato and basil, rosemary, okay but Cranky does not need all this
confusion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cranky is confused enough by
daily life and dodging people walking into her with their appliances. Why a cracker too? isn’t there enough to
juggle? How much can the brain
handle? And, why are people acting so
nuts??? Probably because they can’t find
a good old plain cracker anymore, not to mention the exorbitant cost of a
box. Hello, millionaires club! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And, in the meantime, can we find out what’s in the
ingredients of all these exotic tastes???
Can we examine the labels? Ms.
Cranky does not believe that variety of this nature comes without a problem. Perhaps if God had wanted ratcheted-up crackers,
he or she would not have started us out with a plain old wonderful wafer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ms.
Cranky would, as always, love to hear your thoughts on any of this. Maybe she’s just being ‘too cranky’ here, she
admits that. Or, maybe, other people
feel the same way. She’d love to hear. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>And,
remember, never eat, plain or enhanced, crackers in bed. That is a given, if not much else is.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">April
2015<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-77291828935357104972015-01-26T10:32:00.000-08:002015-01-26T10:32:54.291-08:00RIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS --- a bit behind but the spirit is still there <div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ms. Cranky
was honored one night to be on a subway platform at Bay Parkway waiting for the
“F” train, with views so spectacular of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines
that she went to the end of the platform in the very dark. She was the only one there waiting and Ms.
Cranky is scared of, like, just about everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The new
World Trade Center which Cranky usually loves to hate, was spectacular,
shining, shining and the old Empire State as always lit up and, then, building
after building on each side of the river was bright and right below where she
stood, were the memorials rising up to the sky of one of the most beautiful
cemeteries Cranky has ever seen, a very old Jewish cemetery. Oh, and did Cranky forget to tell you of the
small slit of a moon just sitting up there in the very cold?--- Cranky finds
skies so spectacular in the coldest weather though her knees climbing those old
old subway steps weren’t doing as well as the night sky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then, a few
days later Cranky went into Manhattan on a brief outing, conveniently
forgetting how intense the ‘Christmas crowds’ would be even after Christmas. She had a few errands to do, and, then, hoped
to grab a decent cheap lunch and walk through Bryant Park.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was
really hard getting through the crowds, very claustrophobic but all could be
handled and went all-right till Cranky couldn’t find the reasonably priced
Irish bar where she’d had a great sandwich once and, since Cranky does not eat
breakfast, she was getting weaker and weaker and wandering up and down side
streets searching and searching --- ‘it’s gotta be the next block, etc.’
getting, more and more, err, ‘cranky’ so she, finally, dove into a dark diner
(unusual in itself, she should have ‘realized’) and quickly ordered a turkey
burger, the cheapest thing on the menu. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s when she was pushed by the
waitress to order ‘deluxe’ which she didn’t want. And, in time, Cranky would
find out that if you didn’t pay extra for deluxe, at least in this joint, you
weren’t even allowed a pickle on your plate!
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The waitress
had her so upset pushing for ‘deluxe’ --- “You won’t get lettuce and tomato and
fries” she kept repeating and Ms. Cranky would more-or-less-patiently reply
that she didn’t want ‘deluxe,’ this went on and on and, then, the barren turkey
burger with not a teeny thimble of over wrought slaw nor a pickle, arrived,
and, for some reason had a second roll on the plate, which Ms. C. found strange
but was too hungry to ask about it and started to eat. Anyway, she couldn’t do another ‘deluxe’
conversation. Cranky does admit to
munching a bit of the second roll --- who knew a turkey burger came like that
--- and, why? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, when she
went to pay her bill, Cranky was all excited and in a good mood to tell the
tourists who had arrived in the shop some places to go, where window displays
were still on, etc., Cranky loves pushing the delights of her city as you might
guess. But, when she got to the counter
to try to get a check, the stalwart deluxe-pushing waitress had over-charged
her for her very plain old turkey burger and, then, added on $1.45 (!) for the
extra roll Ms. Cranky had never ordered.
Is that a lot of money for a roll???<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Cranky
asked the waitress about all this, the woman started screeching --- ‘you get a
menu and check the charges, you cheat, you cheat’ and went on and on about Ms.
Cranky ordering a second roll. There
went the tourists sitting there, Ms. Cranky hoped to chat with. This was not the Xmas, New York City spirit
Ms. Cranky loved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cranky, per
the menu, changed the wrong charges on the bill to correct ones, crossed out
the aforesaid horrid roll not asked for, multiplied everything by 9% tax as
8.75 was too hard for her rusty math brain to handle. She left the money at the counter near the
cash register with the corrected receipt and even left the screaming waitress a
tip on the table, not as big as usual, but a tip. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then, Cranky sadly exited the diner without
her usual pep talk to the eager tourists as she was too humiliated and found
herself out on the street, still really hungry and not in too pleasant a
mood. This was not what she had planned
but, then, whatever is?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So,
stalwartly determined to ‘start again,’ Cranky walked up the side of the NY
Public Library building towards the beautiful Bryant Park with it’s even more
lovely tiny Christmas shops and great skating rink at this time of year, still
upset from the dim no-pickle diner experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Cranky
was walking up a stairway holding on to the railing on the right side (the
correct side to go up) a woman sent her son, actually pushed him to that
particular side, ‘the wrong side’, where he hit Ms. C. but did not totally
topple her. The boy was about 10 or so
but pretty large and the mother who had pushed him and seen it all, came
laughing behind him as Ms. Cranky tried to pull herself out of harm’s way. Ms. Cranky was not having a ‘great day in
Manhattan’ so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cranky
rarely gets mad enough to speak up but this time, high on the tails of the
turkey burger, extra roll, overcharge incident, she shouted back to the mother
--- ‘Thanks for sending your son to push me down the stairs’ --- but the mother
just kept laughing. Cranky’s words fell
on, well, not ‘deaf ears’ but huge thick purple ear-muffed ears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But, just as
Ms. Cranky might finally give in and feel a sorry for herself, just then, as
she re-arranged herself at the top of the little stairway, came a family of
four --- an older couple ahead, then, an teen-age boy and, next, probably, his
mother. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ms. Cranky would have thought
nothing of this group except for the fact that the younger woman, bringing up
the rear, was crying and as Ms. Cranky stopped to notice, the woman began
actually sobbing hard --- right there walking along, coming up from the
beautiful park. </span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;">That stopped
Ms. Cranky in her tracks, literally.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No,
she hadn’t found the cheap Irish bar hard as she tried, she had a barely decent
sandwich in a diner and had been mis-charged, then verbally accosted for the
mis-charge and certainly didn’t have ‘deluxe’ treatment, then, trying to
approach the beloved park, had a large child hurled at her by his laughing
mother who kept on laughing even as the boy fell into Ms. Cranky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It hadn’t been
a great outing but Ms. Cranky was not walking behind her family and crying, not
even a little bit. She quickly forgot
her own minor woes and felt very sorry for this woman. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cranky
approached the low white wall of the park which she so loved, where you could
look out all across. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She had finally
arrived there and blessed herself as was her old way and stood silently praying
for the poor sobbing woman, wishing she could stop whatever was hurting her,
hoping the woman’s pain would go away real, real soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Ms. Cranky,
sometime after Christmas, 2014</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Thanks for
stopping by, love to hear any of your Christmas stories, sweet and bitter. Please come again, writing more now.</span></i></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-69818183809027776592014-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:002015-05-19T10:01:13.706-07:00IF A DEAD PLANT WELCOMES YOU TO AN OFFICE, SHOULD YOU GO IN??<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #e06666;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">A
Ms. Cranky real, real short ---</span><b style="color: #e06666;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky thinks, without getting all new-agey and such,
that omens are important in one’s life unless you get crazy and start seeing
them in everything. But, some omens Cranky
feels are truly omens, like when she went to this health care provider --- in a
fancy building, all gussied up, with fabulous doorbells and entry systems and
buzzers galore but as soon as she walked in the door, she was greeted not only
by a large plant right inside the door but she was greeted by a large and very
dead plant. Ms. Cranky, nervous about everything
anyway and especially a new health care provider, thought – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"<i>This does
not bode well." </i>And later, she would
wonder --- ‘why didn’t they just move the pathetic plant to the back, why would
they have it <i>greeting people</i> at the
entryway? And, <i>what</i> are they trying to say???’ <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Omens can be silly, or a little too ominous, ha, ha,
but in this instance, Ms. Cranky wished she had walked out of that particular
place right then. The plant said it all,
though, in her obsessive care for growing things, she asked before leaving if
she would be allowed to ‘work on the plant’ and they let her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Water is always good for a dead plant, Cranky thinks,
especially one with dead flopped-over leaves that should have been bright green
but instead were brown or an even weirder burnt orange color? , <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yeah, water works and, as a health provider, you’d
think that might have occurred to the organization!? And, then, Ms. Cranky asked to borrow a
scissors and she cut off some of the dead leaves to give the tiny green part of
the poor plant that was left a chance, and maybe not horrify the next customer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks, as always, for stopping by, Cranky would love
to hear any similar stories. Suffice it
to say (to use a really trite phrase --- why not, it’s August?), Ms. Cranky did
not continue her relationship with this place for long, she tried, actually,
she tried valiantly but they answered their phones in the same manner they fed
the plant --- like, by ignoring them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>It’s a wild and wonderful and nutty world and it
helps to talk about it to one another.
Let me know your thoughts and stories.
Have a great end of summer.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>And, remember to drink plenty of water and share it when you have a chance ---</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fondly,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mrs. Cranky, August 22, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-91868142475803984212014-08-25T09:54:00.000-07:002014-08-25T09:54:35.465-07:00IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING (David Letterman’s new take on the phrase)<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><u><span style="color: purple;">a
Ms. Cranky short</span></u><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky likes David Letterman very much and his
quirky, to her, most natural sense of humor. Some of her friends disagree and Cranky herself
really doesn’t like Dave’s Chris Christie weight jokes at all but otherwise she
considers him a joy, a natural, un-contrived very original comedian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Take the other night; for instance, There has been a
campaign in New York, hopefully everywhere, since 9/11 --- “IF YOU SEE
SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING” --- the phrase is used on speaker systems on public
transit, it’s on signs all over the city; we, again, maybe everywhere, but certainly
in the New York area have heard it repeated for 13 years now. --- ‘if you see
something, say something.’ --- makes sense to Cranky.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, the other evening on late-night national TV, Ms.
Cranky’s favorite talk show host was taking on the new hearsay that there could
be bed bugs --- not anymore in the hotels of New York City --- but they might
now be on subways. So, Dave went on and
on about this the way he does --- straightforward, gap-toothed, Paul from the
band making his wonderful noises of agreement. (Ms. Cranky will miss Paul as
well, he is so part of it all.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then, Dave showed a video they had made announcing a
new city-wide campaign and Ms. Cranky who was not in a good mood at all, just
about fell on the floor laughing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They had this video filmed inside a subway car and
the announcer said over and over --- ‘If you see something say something”; then,
they showed average citizens, dressed in their golf shirts for summer, etc.
riding the subway and brought up the subject of the new threat of bedbugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, the motto quickly changed from ‘If you see
something, say something’ to “If you see something, <b><u>SWAT</u></b> something” and all these people in the video were shown
running around the subway car holding fly swatters and swatting intently at the
walls and windows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Remember --- if you see something (like dangerous or
strange, a package left unattended, for instance) say something<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, if you see a bedbug --- <b><u>SWAT SOMETHING</u></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Have a good day, everyone, it helps to laugh, it
really does, life is truly incongruous and Cranky will really miss this late-night
talk show host and his quirky most honest work.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Swat away David Letterman as long as you can. Ms. Cranky is so very appreciative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>posted August 25, 2014, show aired maybe Wed. or Thurs. eve of last week</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-13872692185723718842014-07-28T10:38:00.001-07:002015-01-26T10:39:04.494-08:00OF ALL THE GIN JOINTS IN ALL THE WORLD, ETC.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky is just back from her idyll in the
Adirondack Mountains where she goes each year to a writer’s retreat. She is in a good mood --- so far. She knew the mountain chain as a young girl
and was always happy there and still is though she travels to a different
section of the area now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was a
wonderful week, Ms. Cranky even did homework, a lot of homework and partied
less (oh, well) and came away sad to go but full of good intentions, fervor and
even a promise to her friends to get back to writing this column. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, then there was AMTRAK out of Albany, a train Ms.
Cranky loves as it travels, seems to glide, along the brilliant shining Hudson
River. She was in such a good mood from
her week of writing, friends and cookies when, of all the cars on the train and
all the seats in the cars, a very young woman behind her started shouting into her cell phone and
crying at the same time, really openly and loudly sobbing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky is very used to cell phone screamers,
they are the bane of her existence in an otherwise beloved NYC and all its boroughs
but she is not used to cell phone screaming on AMTRAK. Late Friday afternoons when Ms. Cranky always
comes back from camp are usually full of business people trying to impress you
with their ‘big important’ phone talks, she hates that too but they do not cry.
And on city transportation, cell phone screaming is simply accompanied by lots of
swear words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, this particular abuse of cell phones in public and
abuse of Ms. Cranky’s ears and peace of mind, had a new and very loud wrinkle, so
to speak. Ms. Cranky knew she could move
to another car but why should she? Her luggage
was above and some cute guy had helped her get it up there!!! Whew, and she and her friend were comfortably
ensconced in their seats rolling along the glorious river. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Comfortable, that is, until Ms. Histrionics
began right behind her. Why her, why??? “Of all the gin joints, etc.” One of Ms. Cranky’s favorite quotes from <i>Casablanca</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her friend tried to calm Ms. C. down and told her to
‘ignore it’ but that’s hard for Ms. Cranky being way too familiar with hysteria
and people who work at making things worse than they already are, which is a ‘calling’
for some --- like the convent might be for others.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky is very allergic to this behavior and can
actually break out. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hysteria gets the person nowhere and Ms. Cranky feels that she has enough of her own problems
so that when people throw theirs out in the world willy nilly, it’s very upsetting. She has her life and her home and earning a
living to worry about, not to mention a cat needing very expensive medicine,
the Ukraine, Libya, Iraq and the impeachment of the President --- just to
mention a few things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, after the fourth go-round of screaming and
sobbing, Ms. Cranky walked two cars south, then five cars north, to find the
conductor and get ‘rational information’, something the woman probably did not
want because usually in cases like this, Ms. Cranky finds that the person <i>wants to be in this place </i>and to ramp it
up even more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">The woman did not seem to know the name of the next train
station to get off so Ms. Cranky walked through the whole train to get the proper
information from the very attractive (either this was a good day for men or Ms.
Cranky had been in ‘the woods’ too long) and walked back through the railroad cars
to give the sobbing woman the information she probably could have retrieved from
her very smart phone in two seconds if she had stopped wailing into it.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This action on Cranky’s part quieted things somewhat
because now there was ‘a solution’ but not for long because usually the upset people do not really
want a solution. They want to be upset
and to drag you through the mud with them, if at all possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But, then, ahem, the very attractive, conductor Ms.
Cranky had talked to came and did all the right things for the young woman. And they all quietly ventured onward towards New
York. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky wants to thank all the cute guys on the
train (yet another would offer to help her get her bags down!), the sacred Adirondack
Mountains and Ms. Cranky’s amazing writing retreat --- brilliant teachers, kind,
funny and gifted students, smart helpful staff, great meals and, mostly, freshly
baked cookies at each and every lunch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, she thanks all at the retreat who encouraged Ms.
Cranky to get writing again and she thanks God for the joy of coming home, no
matter the home --- it’s full of flowers, lots of flowers, only one cat but
this kitty so rich in love and joy of life makes Ms. Cranky laugh out
loud. She lies beside her desk as she
writes this now. She’s a ‘buddy, a true
true bud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And, so the rituals of daily life begin again, the
things that Ms. Cranky loves --- refilling the water bottles, watering the plants
(lots of water images --- hmm?). Home, blissful for now,
home. Cut off the yellowed flower leaves
and spent blooms, put away things from the luggage, start supper, wash to do in
a pile --- begin again, oh, yes, sacred again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.
Cranky, Saturday, July 26<sup>th</sup>, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
for stopping by, sorry was away for a while, Ms. Cranky would say she was on
‘hiatus’ except that she abhors that over-used word, one of many words she used
to love until every movie star on TV mentioned they had been on ‘you know what,’
--- starts with an ‘h,’ ‘venue’ being the last word, Ms. C. turned on, sad to
stop loving a word --- it’s not the poor word’s fault!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstncd4k6batvu0OUEHU9F-f2SpTqRRtqCI73QZ13C5rbX5QoFqUW7M5n_W01n-VOcd60nsWeFU3UAXMlDc3AYY9DEHGVtT50lbIvW3fnN-euro9pd4TiYyyndHR-u_7RlS8bUfe6DoMgd/s1600/215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstncd4k6batvu0OUEHU9F-f2SpTqRRtqCI73QZ13C5rbX5QoFqUW7M5n_W01n-VOcd60nsWeFU3UAXMlDc3AYY9DEHGVtT50lbIvW3fnN-euro9pd4TiYyyndHR-u_7RlS8bUfe6DoMgd/s1600/215.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">See
soon, have a great week. Ms.C.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-87865828277821428682013-12-03T07:04:00.002-08:002013-12-03T07:04:53.865-08:00MS. CRANKY HAD ALWAYS LOVED THANKSGIVING (until every TV show presented recipes for over 6 weeks before the Day --- get a grip people!)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so</i>
glad Thanksgiving is over this year because she doesn't think she could stand
one more turkey and/or turkey stuffing recipe (the turkey isn’t even stuffed
anymore anyway!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky expects to see a
glut of recipes on the cooking shows at this time of year but not necessarily
for 6 weeks straight and not on every non-cooking show as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe even Al Roker got in on the act. For
all Cranky knows, he put on a white apron and paraded out some old family secret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky, by the way, loves Al Roker and
does not even know if he did a turkey show act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, Cranky still has to wonder ---What is it with all these recipes and
why blast them for so long a time period???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Is the American
public really that dim-witted?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t
making a turkey like universal knowledge? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, now Cranky fears besides, of course,
Christmas recipes galore from every Tom, Dick and Hanna --- a nauseating Valentine’s
Day pre-preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’d better start
getting ready for that one --- all that frosting!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A turkey’s a turkey, stuffing’s stuffing --- put in
sausage, add an oyster, Cranky doesn’t care --- just stop telling her about
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brine the damn poor bird, don’t
brine it but just calm down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, Cranky is really worried in trying to prepare
for the onslaught of silly Christmas songs even on her favorite rock stations;
they’ve already started and she’s jumping up changing stations and not getting
any work done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s enough to make her
turn to those weird white things dangling from your ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>---</o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ouiii,
but, thanks for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s always
good to visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky’d love to know
your thoughts on this whole over-wrought recipe hubbub.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky, Monday after Thanksgiving, December 2,
2013 --- rent due<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-59864410312955576672013-12-03T06:59:00.001-08:002015-10-04T20:23:40.778-07:00MS. CRANKY GOT SICK ON THANKSGIVING DAY BUT DIDN’T FEEL SORRY FOR HERSELF (well, until pretty late at night!)<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<o:p><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
</o:p></span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky woke up quite sick on Thanksgiving Day but is
proud to say, she didn’t give into feeling sorry for herself --- err, well,
until <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the very end</i> --- err, pretty
late actually.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">When Cranky woke up sick on Thanksgiving Day, she knew
she had to make a decision --- first she felt too awful to be out and social,
and, secondly, she didn’t want to pass on whatever she had to anyone else. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky could hardly talk, strange for her.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky’d been all ready and excited to eat with 14 other
people at a holiday gathering she’d been lucky enough to attend for several
years (she always hopes to not act too crazy and be thrown off the guest list but,
sometimes, she forgets!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky loves
this gathering of spirited people three times a year --- for Thanksgiving, Christmas
and Easter and it’s but a few blocks away so you can leave and walk the
dog!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky doesn’t have a dog but she
does walk some and has left the party at times and come back. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And, this particular Thanksgiving, 2013 was a very
special one (to not be missed) as one of the dearest members of this group had
departed earth last summer, and Cranky wanted to be near everyone at this time
and remember him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would not be the
same without Joe, ever, that’s for sure...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But, Thanksgiving dinner out with friends for Cranky
was not to be this year; so, she delivered her contribution to the party,
stayed distant from the lovely host at the door as she did so and went home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky was determined to not feel sorry for herself and
she didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things happen and she was a
lucky person --- the electric bill was down a couple bucks last month, things
like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, she got to talk to her
brother more that day, something she treasured and a good friend from Chicago
called and she was there to take the call and didn’t rush off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, sort of.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky had leftover chili she had cooked earlier in
the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She couldn’t taste anything
anyway even the very hot peppers from the cute guy at the Farmer’s Market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, she had food, a home, and a beautiful
soft kitty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But, when Cranky tried to read her book, her eyes
hurt too much to read but, all along, she knew she had, an ‘ace in the hole’ so
to speak (C. has no idea what that means!). For, though cheapskate as we all
know Ms. Cranky to be, she had actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rented</i>
a movie the day before and was really excited to see it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually Ms. Cranky goes to the library for
videos but this time she plunked down the money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, after the chili she couldn’t taste, she was
going to watch a really good movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
was proud of herself for thinking to get it in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes she really did take care of herself (no matter what anybody said)
and this time she was glad she’d planned ahead and, because the video store was
closed on Thanksgiving itself, she had it till 9 the next evening!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--- Whew, whew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky plugged in the little-used VCR and was proud
of herself that she finally knew where all the yellow, red and white wires went.
Ms. C. had finally memorized that process rather than the old ‘trial and error’
routine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sat down all expectant to
watch the movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might remember that
there is not much on TV for someone staying home on a holiday unless you are
into Muppets specials or intense football.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But, the VCR player though showing brilliantly ready
to go on the TV set, wouldn’t open, the little thingy you put the DVD in, just
stuck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky tried this and that and
this angle and that clicker and manually too but it was closed up tight with no
way to insert the movie disc. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Ms. Cranky will not go into the implements
she eventually tried to open the damn thing with here but it involved nail files,
knives and such).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And, besides being very disappointed and now feeling
slightly sorry for herself, Ms. Cranky would still be too sick to return the
video the next day and, so, would pay an extra and more expensive late fine!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this is
how Cranky tried to look at this situation because she had done so well not feeling
sorry for missing Thanksgiving with 14 fun people and tons of food and drink.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">She really worked at it --- Cranky first tried the ---“Hey,
I wasn’t in the Philippines during the storm” routine --- that was a good one,
then, “And, I wasn’t in the Rockaways during Hurricane Sandy” (she uses that a
lot) and her familiar “I don’t have some horrible disease (that I know of)”
routine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. C.’s ‘current’ VCR had lasted, at least, for 8
movies, maybe 9, making that an all-time record for the breed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky got to see one season of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Parenthood</i> at her own pace and
discovered her newly beloved series <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Friday
Night Lights</i> --- amazing work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This last
VCR, the one now by the door to go out, Cranky even went to ‘a most reputable
store’ in Manhattan and bought a product with a ‘name’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, well, so much for that theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">--- </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Enjoy
the season; there are so many holidays, so little time. As always, thanks for
stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be healthy and happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. CRANKY, Monday evening, December 2, 1013 ---
rent due.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-195509564887278672013-09-11T10:24:00.002-07:002013-09-11T10:24:18.857-07:00IT’S HARD TO BE CRANKY WHEN REMEMBRANCE OF SADNESS IS SO IN YOUR BONES
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Ms. CRANKY knows she’s supposed
to be cranky and complain and be wacky and off-balance, which she is sometimes
good at doing but on the anniversary of September 11, 2001, it’s hard to be
one’s old self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, forgive Ms. Cranky if
she, with so many other Americans, remembers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The day was incredibly
beautiful, ‘incredibly’ --- balmy, not too hot, not too cool, just wonderfully
dry and lightly breezy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The skies were
bright blue with, as Ms. Cranky, remembers, not a cloud, or, if so but, a few
wisps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky was, thankfully, working uptown
for a few weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually she worked
downtown at the World Financial Center --- right across from the World Trade
Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Cranky had voted early
before heading for work so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting to the
polls on time after work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a Mayoral
election and people really came out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When Cranky got to the subway station that day, the endless politicians
with leaflets accosted her once again and she just laughed and said --- “No
more, it’s over, my vote is in --- goodbye.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Little did she know then that she’d have to vote all over again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Since the horror that happened
shortly after she arrived at her desk at her temp job uptown, Ms. Cranky gets a
little superstitious when a day is so beautiful, she thinks a lot of people do
--- like, we remember and think ----“ Don’t enjoy it too much, it could turn to
great tragedy in seconds.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">But, Cranky thinks
maybe she should try and get over that superstition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s finally time, 12 years later to look
at a beautiful day as a beautiful day --- a symbol of hope and newness instead
of violence, death and tragedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe
she should think lovingly again of a balmy day, a pure blue sky, sun and lightness
in the air as possibility, newness, life, oh, life --- the most fabulous of gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Thanks
for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take care of your good
selves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ms. CRANKY SENDS HER CONDOLENCES TO ALL
STILL HURTING SO FROM THE LOSS OF THAT DAY AND WISHES SHE COULD HUG EACH AND
EVERY ONE OF YOU IN PERSON, WHICH SHE NOW DOES OVER THE AIR.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">September
10, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Happy
Birthday, Trevor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-68151355796119844632013-09-03T12:50:00.000-07:002013-09-08T09:29:01.197-07:00MS. CRANKY AND THE RAGE OF TV NAMES --- HAVE WE GONE TOO FAR?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky has noticed a strange and possibly scary
new trend, but, then everyone knows, Ms. Cranky is trendy beyond measure --- just
look at her unmatched socks and cool ones at that.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, this is a TV series trend that makes Ms. Cranky
say --- “no wonder the world is in a miserable place” --- look what we’re
watching? --- first there was REVENGE,
then, DECEPTION, now new ones are popping up all over the place ---- lately promos for the upcoming
BETRAYAL, so warm and fuzzy-sounding, and some others they keep pushing before Ms. Cranky can get to
her beloved ‘mute’ button, what a great invention --- hooray for the mute button!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">What does this say about our society, what does this
say about how people view one another, what does this say about war????<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revenge, deception and now betrayal --- it’s
sounding worse than the mayoral election!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What does this say about us???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And,
why are we adding more and more shows with these names?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aren’t the reality shows bad enough???<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky has some names to add for those producers always
wanting to give us better and better TV, please just put the check in the mail --- how about dejection, rejection,
discombobulated?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How ‘bout deplorable,
unconscionable, innuendo (cranky actually likes that one) or implication or
what a wild thought --- how about, decency, honesty, integrity, or just plain
old affability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know, I know, Cranky
is about to sound like a Mayoral candidate but, believe me, she is not and does
not want to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Noooo way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.
Cranky thanks you as always for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a pleasure to be read, it would be even better to hear from you,
nice things best but,….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Have
a wonderful after-Labor Day life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms.
Cranky rues the closing of her beloved city outdoor pools and vows to go to the
indoor ones (okay, okay) even in the cold and rain, okay, okay, she vows.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-24400935687322474192013-07-23T08:59:00.000-07:002013-07-23T09:00:38.984-07:00<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">MS.
CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain
yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had
bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, there were three new ones waiting to
greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She felt bad missing so many blooms while she
was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads
but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came,
and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous
thing to see. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is
a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the
wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the
scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain,
and now it’s her 11<sup>th</sup> year at a writer’s conference with women she’s
grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, it is very strange to be in that area,
it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and
right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the
heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It feels so atypical especially up there
where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the
very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read
an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide
levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people
keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels
will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about
this??? She wonders. She always wants to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>scream</u></b>
when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller
car???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re doing it to yourself and
all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly
in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Come on people --- stop having cute little babies
you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky
just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used
for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob
and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s
cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy
cookie.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a
lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very
few, kinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not kinky, mind you, kinks
--- get a grip! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Those kinks being, when someone complained about a
class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so
lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to
the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too
long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted
to her impatient sighing NY self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms.
Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor
though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last
night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that
she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thanked God over and over and woke the
next morning with even more bug bites.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains
with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking
her water and torturing herself with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NY
Times</i> SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword
day).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another fabulous woman <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at camp bought it for her as she well knows
Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NY Times</i> in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more
expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, Ms. Cranky was all
settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the
aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into
Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and
the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not
only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you
wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no
attention, she was very focused on her complaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was
crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside
her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this
less than uplifting conversationalist?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be
proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t
believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times,
the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could
you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the
nerve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The woman slightly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went
and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly
closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sat on the very edge of a
seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of
red wine between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even offered
her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of
wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so
Cranky could read the label.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re
talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound
whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday
puzzle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud
woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never think</i> of throwing my personal conversation on you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thought about it a lot but, in the end,
she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her
truly beloved and very hot cat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky prays you’re
getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all
the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for
our world and hopes that people </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">see the light<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> and vow to give up the luxuries that are
hurting us all, including those who own them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t
mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People would die or, at least, get very sick.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Love
to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to
feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might
imagine.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And,
if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains
in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some
people might have one!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Best
to all.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.
Cranky<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">July
22, 2013, Monday<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">MS.
CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain
yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had
bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, there were three new ones waiting to
greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She felt bad missing so many blooms while she
was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads
but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came,
and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous
thing to see. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is
a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the
wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the
scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain,
and now it’s her 11<sup>th</sup> year at a writer’s conference with women she’s
grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, it is very strange to be in that area,
it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and
right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the
heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It feels so atypical especially up there
where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the
very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read
an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide
levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people
keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels
will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about
this??? She wonders. She always wants to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>scream</u></b>
when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller
car???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re doing it to yourself and
all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly
in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Come on people --- stop having cute little babies
you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky
just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used
for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob
and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s
cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy
cookie.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a
lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very
few, kinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not kinky, mind you, kinks
--- get a grip! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Those kinks being, when someone complained about a
class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so
lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to
the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too
long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted
to her impatient sighing NY self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms.
Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor
though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last
night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that
she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thanked God over and over and woke the
next morning with even more bug bites.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains
with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking
her water and torturing herself with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NY
Times</i> SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword
day).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another fabulous woman <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at camp bought it for her as she well knows
Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NY Times</i> in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more
expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, Ms. Cranky was all
settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the
aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into
Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and
the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not
only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you
wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no
attention, she was very focused on her complaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was
crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside
her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this
less than uplifting conversationalist?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be
proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t
believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times,
the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could
you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the
nerve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The woman slightly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went
and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly
closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sat on the very edge of a
seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of
red wine between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even offered
her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of
wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so
Cranky could read the label.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re
talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound
whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday
puzzle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud
woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never think</i> of throwing my personal conversation on you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thought about it a lot but, in the end,
she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her
truly beloved and very hot cat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky prays you’re
getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all
the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for
our world and hopes that people </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">see the light<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> and vow to give up the luxuries that are
hurting us all, including those who own them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t
mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People would die or, at least, get very sick.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Love
to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to
feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might
imagine.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And,
if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains
in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some
people might have one!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Best
to all.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.
Cranky<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">July
22, 2013, Monday<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<li>
</li>
<br />
<div>
</div>
</blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-46086571772462175242013-07-23T08:42:00.001-07:002013-07-23T08:42:37.539-07:00Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-38456588482424573932013-07-03T07:01:00.000-07:002013-07-03T07:01:28.834-07:00MS. CRANKY --- DID THEY PAY FOR TWO SEATS ON THE BUS???
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Ms. Cranky has been on
her best non-cranky behavior lately trying to be forgiving and mellow, like
sooo mellow but she can’t help but notice the growth, the preponderance of
people now sitting on the outside seats of buses with not a clue to moving in
so Ms. Cranky or anyone else can sit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is going on and why is this nonsense burgeoning?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It used to be a few people but now it’s often
a whole row and they look up at you, when they bother to look up, like you just
arrived from Mars as you hungrily eye the empty seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you ask, they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">might</i> let you inside to sit and Cranky always assumes that means
that they’ll be getting off shortly and that’s why they’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">letting</i> you crawl over them to the inside seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, no, no, they never get off, they stay on
forever so that you, then, have to go ‘pardon me, excuse me, oh, I’m so sorry’
as you stumble over them to get off the bus.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Ms. Cranky vows to stop
apologizing for crawling over them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They’re the ones that should apologizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did they pay twice for the two seats???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, they should wear a sign, show a ticket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">How do we stop this
quickly growing phenomenon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky totally
understands phobias, and, yes, someone could have a phobia about being in the
inside seat on the bus but she does not think that this is the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people aren’t, most likely, phobic,
they’re most likely selfish thoughtless people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ouiii, this and the murky weather are getting to MS C.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">And
how are you??? And, thanks for stopping by, more shortly on the guy who ‘dove’ in
front of me on a subway Sunday, then nose-dived into a seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, Ms. Cranky even though the weather is
getting to her, spoke up, oh, yes, she did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More in a few days on that guy and the things she wished she’d said in
hindsight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, hindsight, ouii.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-75622317228724184682013-04-29T09:53:00.001-07:002013-04-29T09:53:48.714-07:00MS. CRANKY YELLS “PILE UP” ON THE ESCALATOR AND WONDERS --- “WHAT’S WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?”
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky was on her way upstate by train (she
loves trains, you might know) to see her beloved relatives. It had been a long
time and she was real excited, so much so that she ran to the wrong track
first, not reading the destination correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But, the one part of the train trip Ms. Cranky hates
is going <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">down</i></b> the Amtrak escalator stairs to the train as some bozoo
usually gets his or her luggage down, then stands there in a stupor while the
rest of us are being quickly zipped down the escalator and about to fall over
this person’s head with our luggage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms.
Cranky has before had to holler “please move out of the way” (‘there are other
people in the world’, she’d like to add.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually the person looks up in wonder but still
doesn’t hurry away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, Ms. Cranky has taken, as she hates being hit
over the head by a huge suitcase from behind, to waiting two or three escalator
steps before getting on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moving stairs</i>
which she hopes will help the situation when she gets to the bottom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>not a
week ago Friday</u></b> on the #281 train to Niagara Falls when this couple got
off with all their luggage and just stood there waiting for Ms. C. knew not
what. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky was still halfway up the
escalator and not a total nervous wreck then but she well knew the guy behind
her had a gargantuan bag with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, as
they got closer to the end of the escalator ride, a huge group of people was
now blocking everyone’s way off the as the original couple had not figured out quite
what they felt like doing and just stood there all goo goo eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, that’s when Ms. Cranky started hollering, at
first quietly, should one be able to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">holler
quietly</i>, and, by the end when she was about to tumble over this assembled group
of people and the man behind her would pile onto her, she screamed full out (there
were no ‘pleases anymore’, no ‘please move, please’)---- ‘<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">GET OUT OF THE WAAAYYYYY!!!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WE’RE
ABOUT TO PILE UP!!!!</b>’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By then, the
conductor had stopped giving directions to the-all-eyes-so-innocent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">looking</i> couple trying to maim us and
started shouting very loudly himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky lives in a
walk-up and cannot be hit by a 60 pound piece of luggage. But, Ms. Cranky, even
if she didn’t live in a walk-up, would still not want to be hit by a huge piece
of luggage nor to tumble over her fellow passengers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These were adults not three-year olds, capable of buying a ticket,
planning a trip and packing a ton of stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, what was that couple thinking or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not thinking</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why does
Ms. Cranky end up making a fool of herself (or, perhaps a hero??? --- yeah, that
would be nice once in a while --- Ms. Cranky the hero!). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">People, too many and
these were mature people here and we are not talking bombs planted here, are lost
in their own worlds and the rest of us can just fall all over the place and
hurt ourselves till they figure which way <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they’d</i>
like to go --- ‘front or back? --- hoo, hum? Which way, ohh, I don’t know’ ---
hey, there are only two options and you can always change your car or seat on
the train if it’s not to your liking but you don’t always have a chance to not hurt
your fellow humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get a grip people!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks,
as always, for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Cranky is back in her walk-up, flowers a
blooming joyfully, cat purring away, very strong coffee brewing --- home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had a wonderful trip with her beloved
cousins and thanks them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She came
home with lovely old family pictures, beautiful eulogies to read from a
treasured family member for two funerals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cranky cried a lot on the train home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There were a lot of memories upstate, good ones, good people ones, she
was lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, she was also lucky to
get there in one piece by acting like a crazy screamer and she’s glad she
did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
again for stopping by, enjoy this God-given spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Cranky walks a dog for her friends, they
always stop at two yards full of, like <u>full of</u>, violets.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms.
Cranky, April 29, 2013 --- who loves and cherishes Amtrak and its kind (and
often cute workers like the guy in the Club Car on the way back--- yikes) ---
Cranky could have spent all her money going back just to see his beaming smile.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Which reminds Crankky of her quote of the day ---<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>Some people make you feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so special</i> and others make you feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">invisible</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky votes for
the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Special</i> is such a good way to go about the world.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-89939171074620535612013-03-20T08:14:00.000-07:002013-03-20T08:14:03.006-07:00MS. CRANKY’S MEMORIES OFTEN DEFEAT HER <h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">BECAUSE IT’S HARD TO REPEAT THINGS </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">MUCH AS SHE OFTEN WANTS TO<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky was on her way out of town to a conference, lugging her suitcase which is heavy empty (‘whatta you want for $40 and wheels that haven’t fallen off in 14 years --- Samsonite?’) and she was just at the bottom of the stairs near the subway when she heard it making <em>getting-ready-to-leave</em> sounds and Cranky began hollering real loud --- ‘Please hold, Please hold’ to two young women just boarding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, they both ignored Ms. Cranky like totally ignored her and she finally got on the train at the last second by hurling her suitcase through the subway door till she could get in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was flabbergasted that neither woman had paid her <em>any </em>attention when she looked down the aisle and saw a lovely woman in veil shaking her head sadly at Ms. Cranky, commiserating on how unresponsive the women had been. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky wanted to holler to the whole subway car --- <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Welcome to our world</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">of now!!!”</b> but, of course, she didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, Cranky thought (kindly) --- ‘maybe those women had those things dangling from their ears and couldn’t <em>hear</em> Ms. Cranky, yeah, maybe that’s what happened.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky always tries to see the good in the world though that has caused her a lot of heartache.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, when she looked to see if the women had those wire things dangling from their ears, they didn’t, and, in fact, one of the women was just inserting them into her waiting ears as Ms. Cranky looked on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">It made Ms. Cranky sad, like the people that read their phones while walking in front of her and move at a snail’s pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Read in the library, why don’t you???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Read at your damn kitchen table, not on the street and, surely, not going up the stairs from the subway when people are dying to get up and out. It made her sad that some people didn’t care about others, actually, lots of people, it seemed of late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What had happened to her world???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world that had been her playground?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky tries to be helpful almost all the time, unless she’s in a trance which can happen, and this uncaring behavior hurt her soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you care, your soul can hurt a lot but Cranky still thinks it’s worth it --- caring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, onward and upward --- when Cranky arrived at Penn Station with her heavy-even-when-it’s-empty suitcase, a young man asked if he could help her carry it down the stairs and Cranky was touched and, then, another man held the door for her and Ms. Cranky’s spirits quickly rose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You probably know this already but Ms. Cranky’s spirits rise <em>very easily with the</em> <em>smallest of kindnesses and consideration</em> so she decided these two guys outweighed the two women back in Brooklyn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes so little to make Ms. Cranky happy, so little, she feels lucky in that regard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">In Boston, people were <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><em>so helpful</em></b>, Cranky almost couldn’t control herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They just jumped to help her with directions and very good directions at that which was lovely because Ms. Cranky, who thinks of herself as a great traveler and prolific with directions and maps, could not find her way around that city very easily as the signs left a lot to the imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky mentioned the problem she was having a few times to Bostonians who said that signage and directions were a real problem in their city which struck Ms. Cranky as sooo very strange because she thought that the Boston area had a university or college every other block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, Cranky assumed (and who wouldn’t?) that the area would be full of smarty pants people who would install good clear signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">But, instead, Ms. Cranky had to rely on the average most-helpful citizen for assistance and they were wonderful but they pay taxes --- shouldn’t there be good signs for out-of-towners so, maybe, they could be about their other business on any given day? Ms. Cranky wonders about a lot of things, things that should be so simple that are made unnecessarily not so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why muddle life more when it can be muddled enough on its own? --- she always thinks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The conference trip was a frustrating one which Cranky wasn’t expecting for many reasons --- finding her way on public transit was harder than usual, a major snow storm came as soon as she arrived off the old BOLT bus and left streets and sidewalks overwhelmed with snow and freezing slush that went through Ms. Cranky’s only pair of shoes she had with her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had truly loved this conference a few years ago but this year it was so crowded that Ms. Cranky could not get near most of the sessions she wanted to get to in her wet clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, not to be daunted, Ms. Cranky loves to dance and there was a disco at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, she ran up to the hotel with the dance the first night and found it too overly-crowded and, mostly, the dance floor was quaking beneath her and even though someone assured her that the floor could <em>hold</em> all the vibration, it put a damper on Ms. Cranky’s already damp spirits --- like her wet socks, shoes, hair and coat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky’s memories sometimes defeat her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a hopeless romantic, very hopeless sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, she cherished the memory of the other conference a few years back in another city, the first one she had attended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was in a smaller locale, she could get a seat to hear speakers and the dance floor surely didn’t shake and, in fact, Ms. Cranky and a new-found friend were the only people up dancing and then they pulled <em>everyone</em> up from around them and they all danced and hooted and hollered and laughed till Donna Summers (so sad Donna’s gone) sang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People on the way out were laughing and happy and thanking Ms. Cranky and her friend for urging them to get up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so much fun but it didn’t happen like that again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">And, at the ‘other’ conference, it did not snow --- well, a flake or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem with Ms. Cranky’s very powerful good memories is that they can make her miserable as <em>she wants everything to be the same as it was that other time</em>, when because of a job, she had only one day and one evening to spend but it was like miraculous, every bit of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She can recall each moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky has the problem of always wanting to repeat things that she loves but that is hard to do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is like a five-year old child clinging to her dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ouii.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In time, Ms. Cranky couldn’t wait to get home on the BOLT bus with the lovely (and cute!) driver and knelt on the floor inside her door when she got home, by the eastern-facing window, and thanked God for letting her get home safely --- to start again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day, sun's sneaking out here. Ms. Cranky. March 20, 2013</span></em><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-68452934429723797632013-03-19T08:25:00.003-07:002013-03-19T08:25:44.331-07:00ST. PATRICK’S DAY, 2013<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ms. Cranky went out to hear music at her old local bar late on the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day and it was nice except that it was the last day for a very old bar and it was to be closed and ‘refurbished’ and Ms. Cranky and most of her neighbors feared that meant like changed and fancied up and “only for upscale people, not the likes of you!” ---which most of the new food and drink places in Ms. Cranky’s once more ‘mixed’ area, now had become, for the gentrified folk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ms. Cranky, and she has said this before in her columns, is still surprised that some of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the gentry in her area still cannot tell the difference between paper and metal recycling and, in fact, in her building, actually change it totally around???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is amazed anew each time that if you are a person with a good job (or parents) to pay the vastly increased rents, and you be able to read the word ‘paper’ and know it doesn’t mean your old bean cans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So, it was fun but sad yesterday afternoon but, then, Cranky remembered a place up the way that had FREE FOOD on St. Patrick’s and used to have people just drop in with musical instruments and play in this lovely rounded alcove area, so Cranky hiked up there and looked for her cat’s upcoming birthday present on her way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, though there was free food, always nice, there was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no music at all</i>, Irish or otherwise on this St. Patrick’s Day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently, the people had stopped coming by on Sunday nights to play music quite a while ago, she was told by the waitress which made her sad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">One of Ms. Cranky’s lovely memories of this place is the story she heard from the people who worked there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had assumed that after 9/11, which was on a Tuesday, that no one would show up for that Sunday’s evening of music-making --- but, that didn’t happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told Ms. Cranky that, in fact, a huge crowd of people and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more musicians than ever</i> came in and played their hearts out that evening, that Sunday after the horrors of 9/11, trying perhaps to bring back our lives, however they could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky has long cherished that story and wanted to pass it on to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone and tomorrow is St, Joseph’s Day and Ms. Cranky’s beautiful cat’s 7<sup>th</sup> birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky has always loved St. Joseph and felt he got short shrift in the PR department of the Catholic Church. Maybe the new Pope can change that one!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Thanks for, as always, stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘May the wind be ever at your back’, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky, March 18, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-34008236263534061912013-02-13T08:36:00.000-08:002013-02-13T08:36:46.146-08:00Ms. CRANKY Asks --- Does Anything Work Anymore??? <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ms. Cranky had paid her bill in full to the Dental School well over a year ago, like 15 months ago. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the few times she went into the school to get a check-up or something, they said ---“You owe this amount of money, you owe this amount of money” and Ms. Cranky always replied --- “But, I know I paid that bill, I remember paying it so I feel okay coming back in again (Ms. Cranky is sort of ‘old-world’ in things like this). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, because of thinking she owed money, Cranky stayed away from the dental school as she was in arrears (a great old word --- don’t you think?) and her teeth got more and more in arrears and after Christmas this year, so many months later, her January bank statement showed her fairly hefty check, her wonderful, duly paid check to the Dental School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, though the bill had been paid 15 months ago in September, 2011, they had not deposited Cranky’s check until December 21, 2012 and it kept Ms. Cranky from seeing the dentist, which, as it turns out, could have really helped her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ouii.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u>Part II.<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ms. Cranky loves the excitement of getting a new monthly MTA card because Ms. Cranky loves to travel, loves to move about her beautiful city and its boroughs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, it’s a symbol to her of a month ahead --- what might happen, what she might do, whom she will see or meet anew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, Ms. C. gave herself extra time on the day she needed a new card (ya gotta always give yourself extra time with machines in case they don’t recognize your payment or have some other kind of hissy fit that day.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, all went well for once. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky veered between three machines at her local subway station as some had good days on Tuesday, some on Thursday and she had picked the machine that took her card without huffing and puffing and gasping and saying the frustrating “try again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, Cranky was on a roll, this was a snap and she entered her zip code as requested and the machine replied “Thank you for your payment,” and “Please take your card” and she was ready for yet another month!!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cranky, almost arrogantly (because when things work, Ms. Cranky can get carried away with herself) entered the turnstile and zipped her card through but was abruptly stopped short by the bar which held her back and when she looked at the electronic sign at the turnstile, it read --- “insufficient fare.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She tried several more times and got the same block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman at the MTA booth (Ms. Cranky thanks God there are still ‘real people’ working in some of these places!) ran her card through and came up with nothing on it, like the whole transaction and zip codes and “thank you very much” had not happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, she didn’t want Cranky to buy another card because she might have already been charged for this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, she let Ms. Cranky through which was very nice of her and for the next few days until she dared try again, Cranky had to take lots of change and use her card bus by bus, train by train, until she was sure that the “thank you for your payment” hadn’t been registered to her charge card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does that happen?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Ms. Cranky, as always, thanks you for stopping by and would love to hear your stories of things not working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could write a book or, perhaps, a series of books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have a great day and remember to always give yourself extra time because things don’t always ‘work’ as they should, could, might, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, most often, not as you planned!!!<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">February 13, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-91392702048720965192012-11-22T08:32:00.001-08:002012-11-22T08:32:30.062-08:00MS. CRANKY, THANKSGIVING EVE, 2O12 --- The End of a Long Subway Ride<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ms. Cranky was coming home from a long, long subway ride and a wait for a volunteer job that didn’t work out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She changed trains once again through the long Court House Square Station in Queens to get the “G” train home to her, now, cat- sitting job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly there was this loud hollering in her ear and two, one quite tall, young boys were talking to each other but hollering though they were but three feet away from each other and could have talked normally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The noise reverberated even more in the long underground of the low-ceilinged corridors of the huge station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, Ms. Cranky’s nerves weren’t the best after a long trip with no results except for a very nice grilled cheese sandwich, thank you very much.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, Ms. Cranky did what she often does when people are hollering behind her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stepped aside and let them get in front of her and holler in someone else’s ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nice person --- huh???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranky did notice that the one boy was awfully cute and, for a bit, envied him his energy, annoying as it was to her peace of mind.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several thousand stops later or, so it seemed, Ms. Cranky emerged from the “G” train to run errands before the beloved cat job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she was moving quickly along the corridor at the Carroll Street Station, there walked the taller of the two boys, beside her --- “was she being followed?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As they got to the end of the, again, very long narrow corridor, and to the enclosed staircase (worse for noise), the boy started hollering again, this time, at a hugely high level and right into Ms. Cranky’s ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She turned to glare, hoping to stop him but he kept wildly screaming back to his friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky is not sure what she did then, hurried as fast as she could up the stairs to get away from this craziness for sure, and she thinks she might have been waving her arm back to indicate --- ‘please, please stop screaming, enough already!’ And she knows she swore, but, quietly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, out on the street, a shocking thing occurred --- the young boy caught up with her and APOLOGIZED, like apologized for screaming in her ear, like apologized like people used to do!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was totally a shock to Ms. Cranky, a very pleasant one but a shock nonetheless --- an apology!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow, sometimes, it takes so little to turn the day ‘round.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cranky was touched, shocked, bowled over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thanked the lovely-looking, if not always sounding, young man with the great haircut, for apologizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, then Cranky added --- “Maybe I’m jealous; maybe I just wish I had your energy --- if only for a moment!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Happy THANKSGIVING to one and all and thanks for stopping by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a lovely holiday though in the New York area <u>muted</u> this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to enjoy the day like we usually do with so many of our citizens suffering so since the hurricane, so many are still without, it hurts us all as we are joined, thank God, we are joined.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Ms. Cranky, November 22, 2012<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173535264764030852.post-85117876927392023222012-08-14T14:13:00.000-07:002012-08-14T14:13:13.655-07:00BOWLED OVER<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">MS. CRANKY HEARD ABOUT BEYONCE AND JZ SPENDING $400,000 A MONTH RENTAL ON A HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS AND WONDERS --- </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It may not be true, you can’t always ‘trust the media’ but it was reported on the news late last week that Beyoncé and JZ and Baby Blue (though she doesn’t sign the checks yet), rented a place in the Hamptons for $400,000 a month, a month, not a year, not buying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky didn’t get really upset over the discrepancy in her money and theirs but she did get incredulous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only about where does one get that kind of money but --- isn’t that a lot for a house for one lousy month? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cranky well knows that there are very rich people in the culture, some in her neighborhood (!) and there are sports figures and rock stars along with the ordinary Wall St. types but this $400,000 summer rental is bowling her over, it must be bowling the poor little baby over, or maybe they have a bowling alley too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Cranky feels that if you rent an expensive home in the Hamptons, you really need a bowling alley. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean George’s on Route 5 just won’t do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, you’ve gone all the way out to Long Island, you’re lost in the beauty of the dunes and the long lovely-sounding grasses, you’re at a wonderful private beach, there’s a pool, so, of course, you’d be lost without bowling! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe Cranky got her facts wrong while being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bowled</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">over</i> --- ha, ha, ha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, Cranky is getting so confused she might need a bowl of Wheaties --- ha, ha, ha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, as Cranky does when she can’t deal with things, she puts them aside and reads a book or does a puzzle that makes her so mad she can’t think of anything else. But, the next day, it came back to her and she began thinking of the amount once again, thinking of what she had earned for most of her life and trying to figure out how many years it would take to save up $400,000 if she had to spend nothing for food, rent, bus fare, etc. --- 16, sixteen years, actually, maybe more like 20, when she thinks of some of those years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was easy; she did the math in her head on the subway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">She wonders if that fee includes paper towels? Salt and pepper, good salt and pepper, not those little paper things Ms. Cranky steals from fast food places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there mustard for the hot dogs? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ya’ gotta have hotdogs --- it’s summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wine cellar --- hmm, now things are starting to look up, fully stocked, of course?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky will refrain from making any comparisons to the lives of this family (they work for their money) and her life and some of her friends’ lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">$400,000!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow, that could buy Cranky a nice little apartment, maybe in an elevator building and an apartment newly crisply painted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, then, she’d be able to live the rest of her life, using coupons still and cooking daily, but she could take her nephews on trips and, maybe, be able to afford a little, well mid-sized, doggie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">She would still donate which she does now but she’d have more to donate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently Ms. Cranky is valiantly trying to refrain from giving money to every subway station musician or group but it’s hard, real hard, especially when the subway musicians carry heavy things down the stairs to set up --- how can Cranky <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> tip them with their drums and tubas and, sometimes, there’s this guy with a piano???<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, come onnnnnn!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">(Cranky once told a guy on the “F” train that she always tipped musicians who were ‘on key,’ but the person, a sort of jaundiced-in-attitude type but she liked him anyway, said that he ‘always tipped the ones singing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">off key</i> --- hoping they’d stop!!!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some things Ms. Cranky just can’t forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, why would she want to???)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It’ll be hard for her to get over thinking of $400,000 rent for a house at the shore for one month but, then, of course, if there’s a bowling alley --- that would explain everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ms. Cranky, Monday, August 13, 2012, a lighter air day <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks for stopping by, as always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have a great end to your summer, however and wherever you get to spend it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">(An explanation --- Ms. Cranky was one of the worst bowlers ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was embarrassing how bad she was, especially coupled with how hard she tried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the one thing about bowling she remembers she liked was the ambience of an old crumby bowling alley on some highway on the outskirts of town with its neon signs, horrible run-down shoes and permeating smell of stale beer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would give up that?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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