The fall of hometown video stores.

Our hometown video store, not connected to any video store chain, has closed. I feel like we had a hand in the store closing.

Brian and his family have entertained our area since I was young. First, they owned the small movie theatre. It was downtown and had all the things you remember from "the old days". You know the ones, broken seats, sticky floors, the wonderful balcony. It always smelled of stale popcorn. This theatre hung around for years. They even started renting out movies in the mid 80s. People were more mobile and were going to La Crosse to the multi-plexes. The ones that had 4 movies at once. Woohoo. They closed the theatre and opened a video rental store. This was in the late 80s I think.

They also owned the drive-in. I miss this the most. We could grab some food, take the kids and go see a double feature. When we were in high school, we stuck people in the trunk to get in. It was a great place. Just like the drive-ins you would see in the movies. Towards the end of the drive-in phase they stopped repairing the silver voiceboxes and you just tuned in on a radio station. They closed this in the mid 90s.

The family moved their video stores to various buildings around town. They also had a few stores in neighboring cities. We followed Brian and were faithful customers, that is until Netflix. We would spend around $30 every weekend on videos. You probably think how would losing you as a customer affect a business. Well, multiply that by many, many family over the years switching. If you could spend $18 a month, for unlimited, no late fees, no having to go to the store to get them, you would change too.

Brian couldn't compete with Netflix or the other online rentals. Convenience and saving money always win. Netflix is wonderful. We make our lists, they send them to us, we send them back. We average 15 movies a month. That makes it around $1.20 each. That is a huge savings. Plus, they have 100s of 1000s of movies. Many, many obscure movies.

We went to the sale that Brian was having before he closed. He is always very nice, happy to help. Always has a smile on his face. I think he truly loved dealing with people. I asked him what he would do now. He said he wasn't sure, he had never worked for anyone else before. Brian is around 40 and now starting his life over.

Good luck Brian, our family wishes you luck! You will be missed, even if we didn't see you often anymore.

In my head I am 18

Oh my, what was I thinking? I am almost 45 years old. Putting 4 slick wheels under each foot might not have been a wise thing.

Saturday night we attended my 10 yr old, great-niece's birthday part at a roller rink. I grabbed a pair of skates, laced them up. Which means I put them on and held them up for Michael to lace up. LOL I wear slipon shoes or clogs for pete's sake. What was I thinking??

After a few rolls up and down the carpet, Annie (niece, mother of b'day girl) and I decided to hit the skate floor. Dang that floor is slippery. Whew, made it one lap. I needed to rest. Okay, out for 2 laps. Then made it 3 laps. Need to rest. For some reason I couldn't pick up my left foot. I was just pushing with my right. What was I thinking???

In my head I was still that 18 yr old, skinny girl that could skate with passion and elegance, speed and fearlessness. I used to be able to move with the music that was playing. I wanted to be able to spin, skate backwards, dance like I did years and years ago. What was I thinking????

I have a few theories for my poor skating ability. Never wear rental skates. They really suck. The wheels are so worn out they are as slick as the floor. Since I now had to wear a size bigger, the front wheels were set back farther on my feet it seemed. Also, I swear my left leg is longer and that is the reason I couldn't pick it up. LOL Okay, maybe not. But, it sounded good.

How will I ever be roller derby queen I always dreamed of if I can't skate any more? I am looking at buying my own skates. I do want to go more. I will practice my butt off. I do love roller skating.

In my head I am that 18 year old, roller derby queen. My dreams will keep me young!!

birds, birds, birds, then a few more birds

So, I was able to get off work early today. Yeah me!! When I arrived home I looked in the backyard. I am not exaggerating, which I have known to do when it comes to birding, but there were over 100 finches in my yard. They were everywhere. It looked like the trees and ground were alive. It was very loud out there.

I bundled myself up and took a pillow to sit on and a blanket. Hey the bench was cold! I sat there for a good 10 mins before a few decided it was safe to come back. Then holy moley did they come. I sat and rythmically tapped the button on my camera. Took over 200 pics and drained the battery. Here are a few of the "action" shots.

blogging lesson learned

So, after my post last night I learned a little blogging lesson. I had saved a draft earlier in the week that I decided I didn't like and no longer wanted to use. Instead of just deleting it, I just erased it and rewrote about my crappy day.

Well, when I posted it, it put the original date on it. I did post it Thursday! No, I do not work on Sundays if I can help it. There have been times though, since I am a dedicated employee. Maybe, that is why I received a $2.oo raise this year. LOL

What a crappy day!

What a crappy day at the work. I can say this because it literally was crappy. The day I get to sleep in and go into work a little later is the day Michael decides to get his butt up and ready to go early. So instead of hitting work at my regular 6:30 am, I arrived at 7:10. So much for going in at 8:00.

Wasn't too bad until everyone started dropping off their animals at once. We had a lobby full by 7:30. I started putting animals away. Then we had a cat fight in one of the cages. Two kittens had been dropped off by their owner to be spay/declawed & neuter/declawed. Well, me thinking that they arrived in the same carrier, they can be put in same cage. Nope, seems that they don't like each other. Noone told me. All of a sudden......holy hell broke loose. So off I run, get them situated in seperate cages. Put a few more dogs away for the groomer. Whew, worked up a sweat in a half hour.

Then in comes AJ, a nice fat dachsund. He needed an x-ray. So off we go to the x-ray room. Take the first x-ray. I pick him up off the table and am holding him under my arm. Sniff Sniff, I smell poop!! I turn around and asked Geri, is there poop on me. Nope, she didn't see anything. I turn back to where I had been standing, ewwww he had pooped. There was a little pile on the floor. Ugh! Geri says he is pooping. She takes him and is holding him upright, I am holding the garbage can under him. We do look like we are squeezing the crap out of him. I went to pick up the pile on the floor and bumped my smock pocket, EWWWWWWWWWWWWW he had pooped IN my pocket. Now mind you this isn't the first time a dog has actually pooped in my pocket or co-workers pockets. It seems if you hold small dogs under your arm there butts kind of sit on the top of your pocket.

The day just kept on like that. It was very busy, people, dogs, cats, kids in and out. Finally it is 4:30, only a 1/2 hour until my 4 day weekend. I can see the end. I just have to bring up one last dog.

Jake, the terrier/beagle mix with the UTI. All day they had been trying to get urine from this dog. Finally they had to stick him with a syringe to get it, he just wouldn't pee on the spoon. (Yes Michelle, that is how we get urine from most dogs, take them outside and once they start, we stick the spoon under them.) Out of the cage comes psycho Jake. He can't sit still. He chews up everything. He had chewed his collar so much that I had to really struggle to get it back on him. In the process, he peed all over the floor. Then proceeded to swish his happy little tail through it, all the while splashing the huge puddle everywhere. In my mouth, in my eyes, in my hair!!!!!! There was so much that it was dripping down my forehead. GRRRRRRRR!!!

At least the girls at work enjoyed my day!! I am just happy I don't have to go back until Tuesday.

Wages vs Jobs

I was not really sure what to title today's rantings. My daughter called last night to tell me what a trying day she had at work. She works in a group home for at-risk teens. She is going to school for family studies, so this is in her framework.

I understand client/worker confidentiality. I also understand the need to vent to your mother. While I will not tell you about her teens, but will tell you sometimes it gets a little scary. There have been threats made against her multiple times. But, she stands her ground. My daughter is a spitfire!!

Here is my problem with it. Her wage is $8.50 an hour. This is nothing!! The job she does is not a little, low end job. I feel she needs to be paid for what she does. This isn't McDonald's. My son is overpaid at $8.00 working in our vet clinic cleaning kennels if you go by the standard that she is getting paid. This is crazy. They are getting qualified college students to run these homes.

Ugh, what is a mother to do?!

Blog remodeling

After wandering around and looking at other blogs, I need a blog remodel. There are a lot of cool things that can be done. Some of them I have seen are works of art in themselves. Maybe I will give my sister free reign over it and let her do it.

Also, thanks Chris for following my blog. I hope it doesn't put you to sleep. It is really a chopped mess. Somedays I have some profound posts (at least they sound good to me), other times, not so much. I don't know how many of them you read. Could you tell me how you came upon it? I enjoyed reading your posts at your sites.