Marlene McKay

This seems to happen frequently

Marlene — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:17:35 +0000

I’ve noticed that credit card companies from time to time decide to change my credit card number. They say it is for security reasons, and I can understand them trying to be “secure” and all of that, but it is a huge aggravation on two levels. OK, maybe three levels. First of all, I’ve memorized my credit card numbers, and it is hard to “forget” the numbers I’ve memorized and learn new ones. Second of all, I have the credit card number listed for automatic charges on a lot of accounts, and now I have to notify them all of the change. On the third account, every single time that they do this to me, the very first billing cycle after the account number changes, there are fraudulent charges on my new account number! How is that being more “secure?” So I have to challenge the charges, which is a royal pain in the neck!

Cross country skiing today

Marlene — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:01:08 +0000

Well, it is snowing today, but I’m going to go out cross country skiing in it anyway for a little while. I enjoy the exercise, and I enjoy the peace and quiet of skiing on a nice trail, the snow falling gently around me. The beauty of the countryside is something that brings a tranquility to my soul that is hard to describe. I really enjoy being outside when it is so very quiet that all I can hear is my own breath and the swish of my skis.

Fuel from salt water?

Marlene — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:51:27 +0000

A friend of mine sent me a link to a blog that was talking about how someone has found a way to burn salt water, and that the possibility was there to further develop that to actually be able to run cars with that technology.

So I was just googling “fuel from salt water” and was reading the different links about it.

From what I can tell, right now it takes more energy to create the fuel than the fuel itself would generate, which makes it impractical. Perhaps someone can refine the process, but I also read that when the salt water DOES burn, it releases a deadly form of chlorine gas, which probably would not be a good thing!

So, I think that quite a bit of “tweaking” needs to be done for that technology to hit the mainstream use of running our cars on saltwater!

Being the Youngest

Marlene — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:46:57 +0000

Guest post from: Constance Rodgers

It’s hard being the youngest in a room and at my job, that’s always the case. I work for a restaurant marketer and there’s always some kind of fire to put out but I feel like being in such a professional, fast paced environment makes sure I learn something new each and every day. If only I hadn’t waited so long to graduate and had been doing this for two extra years! My bosses seem to really see something in me and they’re always giving me some kind of cool assignment like looking up card services or talking to a vendor about price and it’s only a matter of time before I think I get promoted. I already make more than a lot of my friends who have jobs right out of school so I’m doing pretty well for myself and don’t think I’ve got too far to go! I love this place and I feel like I’m lucky to have fallen into a job I really see myself staying at for the long term.

My aunt sent me an article about a leopard

Marlene — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:36:53 +0000

I know I’ve told you that I have an aunt that lives in London. She sent me an email yesterday with a link to a local newspaper (to her) that was running a story with pictures about a leopard that attacked a large crocodile. It was quite a battle; the leopard won the battle and hauled the crocodile off to eat. All I can say is that the leopard must have been pretty hungry to take on a crock! The article was on the Earth news section of the website of the London Telegraph paper at Telegraph.co.uk if you want to check it out.
Absolutely amazing!

Wireless dead zones

Marlene — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:54:31 +0000

For all of the television commercials that I see on television about how great Verizon Wireless is, and for all of our neighbors insisting that Verizon is the company with the best cell phone reception is around here, I have to say that I’m quite disappointed in the dead zone problems that I have with my Verizon cell phone. I cannot use my Verizon cell phone in my house at all – the entire house is a dead zone. And whenever I drive from the house to “town” to run errands, the vast majority of the trip to “town” is a dead zone – even if I pull off the road and stand on top of my car. So, I have to say that I am quite disappointed in the Verizon cell phone service.

Slept through the celebration

Marlene — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:36:05 +0000

How did you celebrate the new year? I wanted to stay up, and my hubby and I even broke open a bottle of champagne! We each drank two glasses (we sipped) and turned on the Dick Clark celebratory television show. I’m sorry to say that we both fell asleep (me on the sofa, him in his recliner) around eleven pm and woke up about around one am. Oh well, we missed it! But you know what, the new year is here just the same. Hopefully this is not the LAST new year our civilization watches!

Landline or not?

Marlene — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:32:53 +0000

I’ve been hearing and reading more cases of families giving up their hard-wired landline in their homes in favor of simply using cell phones. I can understand the logic, the cell phones are small and they carry them with them at all times, the landline phone is usually larger and more cumbersome. Yet I question the wisdom of this strategy. I like having a landline phone, one that is completely hardwired, and corded. Yes, we have cordless phones, but if and when the electricity goes out (and it DOES go out!) and the cell phones are useless because our house is a dead zone, we depend on the hardwired, corded landline to call the electric company to report the power outage! And we use it to keep in touch with friends and family during the power outage! In 1998 we had a huge ice storm that knocked the electricity out for nineteen days, but we had the telephone service every minute! We could not have maintained cell phones in that case because we could not have kept them charged!

So, in OUR house, anyway, I expect the landline is here to stay. What about you?

Boy is it hard work

Marlene — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:26:39 +0000

My sister and I started taking clogging classes a few weeks ago, and let me tell you this; it is hard work! Yes, it is a lot of fun, too, but we certainly work up a sweat! And I do NOT like to sweat! So I have to come up with a plan of action for that one. I’ve been wearing long pants to class, and I think perhaps if I change into yoga shorts and a sleeveless shirt that I should be more comfortable. I am enjoying the comraderie with my sister in the class, and we’ve been inviting one of my sister-in-laws to join the class too. I hope she does; that would be such fun!

Christmas fruits

Marlene — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:31:01 +0000

The past couple of days we’ve been getting gift boxes in the mail from my hubby’s relatives. Seems as if they all decided to buy fruit from Harry & David this year! We love their pears, so we are glad to get the gifts. One of the boxes arrived with no message as to who the gift is from, it just said in the message part for my son to keep his hands off of the fruit! I am thinking it is from my sister-in-law, but I’m not sure of that.

Today we got another box, this time from my hubby’s aunt – it had pears and candies and nuts and smoked salmon and baklava and all kinds of great goodies in it! That box cost a bundle, I am sure! The last time I remember eating smoked salmon was right around 1999, and I really enjoyed it, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy that treat, assuming that my hubby doesn’t eat it all before I get any of it!