Grandy-Cranky-Isms

Grandy is CRANKY!!  Foul foul mood indeed.  I want to put myself in time-out.

A clear sign that Grandy needs a time-out is when the following conversations take place:

Him #1:  When you're done typing away over there, come see me.

Me:  Well since I have enough work to last me 3 years, I am guessing you might forget what you wanted to tell me by then so...tell me now.

Me: Do you have time to do this today?  I need it ASAP.

Her: Could you tell me what my deadline is?

Me:  How do I translate ASAP into minutes again?

Him#2: Please tell her I will be attending.

Me:  I did. In the email you actually responded to.

Him#2: Oh, I must not have actually read it all.

Me:  SHOCKING!!

Me:  I haven't heard from you responding to my email requests.

Schmuck#1:  How long have you been trying?

Me:  6 weeks

Schmuck#1: Ohhhh...yeahhhhh...ya see.  We have been real busy and short staffed.  Could you send me another email?

Me:  And what should I put on THIS email that would trigger a response?

Schmuck#1:  How about URGENT?

Me:  How about "Bad Faith Lawsuit Pending"...will that work?

As I re-live these moments to share them here, I giggle.  I suppose I am not ready to be completely committed just yet, because as long  as I can still find the humor (regardless of if I can laugh at the time or not) I might still have a fighting chance.

Xanax anyone??  :-)

Paying it forward with a "CLICK"

I'm not exactly sure what is going on in Grandy-land at the moment.  Now that I'm 40 am I going all sentimental?  My usual comical posts appear to be replaced with a few "LOVE LOVE LOVE" posts.  HUH? ::taking temperature:: Let's blame it on a full moon, hormones, or a hangover headache, but here you are...stuck feeling my love with another post.

Wait a minute.  It's not my comical anecdotes that you all were missing.  It was just the posts in general.  Riiigggghhhhtttt!!  *wink wink*  We'll just go with that and say, "I missed you too!" 

In my last post, I explained how very cool our small town of Foresthill is.  What I maybe didn't mention was how "small" it is, in comparison to many communities. 

Our local businesses and community members give their all to support the local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Little League, Swim Team, Softball, Soccer (and more I know I'm forgetting at the moment) in addition to the Elementary, Middle and High Schools.  We truly are blessed.

I can't count a weekend where there is not a fundraising opportunity for one event or another.  For a small town, we always rally for whatever the cause.  Car washes, spaghetti feeds, Tupperware parties, and this weekend is the annual "FIRE SALE" which is where everybody donates their things 8 months out of the year for a HUGE sale to benefit the local volunteer fire department.

Because we are such a small town, we are often overlooked in the area of corporation donations.  We have launched full force campaigns over the last few years to raise some serious funds to keep things going, as budget cuts keep coming to our small schools.  Budget cuts are affecting schools everywhere, don't get me wrong.  But since this is my blog...I get to talk about MY schools. 

Enter (stage left) an opportunity for YOU...YES YOU...to help our small town.

Were you touched by the story of our fire?  Have you been moved to tears (pass the tissue) over my love for these folks?  Are you ready to hand over your wallets and life savings?  Not so much?  Hehehe...I don't blame you.  Good thing I'm not asking you for money, huh? 

Target has launched a Gift Card campaign.  For every 25 votes our Foresthill High School gets, Target will gift us a $25 gift card.  Did you catch that?  You click...and TARGET pays.  Pretty good gig huh?

So...You have a computer...you have a Facebook...Please check this out and vote for Foresthill High School.  You can vote once a week until 9/8/12 (or until Target runs out of their $2.5M), so be sure to come back and vote. 

FORESTHILL HIGH SCHOOL

True Appreciation: The Robbers Fire Experience

My commute to work is 45 miles each way.  It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get in and get out every day, and that's on a good day.  On any given Monday morning or Friday afternoon, it can take well over an hour and a half.  I am often asked WHY I do it.  Some days...I'm not so sure myself.  I work a lot of hours in a day so adding over 2 more hours just to be in the car can get tiring.

Working in a city, and having to travel to many other cities to get to work, does help me appreciate that drive home on Friday evenings, as I'm stuck on the windy road behind campers heading up for their weekend.  There are vehicles pulled off at the side of the road with their bike racks, while their owners are on the trails.  As I get even closer to home I see large vans parked, waiting for their passengers to get done water rafting the American River.  I am instantly reminded that I live where people travel to to "get away" from it all.

While I do live in a "destination" area, there is something many of these people that travel to or through our little town only get a glimmer of.  Our town is more than just a small town with a market, and a park, and a couple of gas stations.  We are a COMMUNITY.

It usually takes something major to appreciate what you have.  For us, it was the recent "Robbers Fire" that burned over 2600 acres and threatened 170 homes.  300 people were evacuated, and our community rallied together like we know how to do.

This was not a stranger helping stranger situation, but rather a friend helping a family.  It didn't matter whether anyone knew the other before this fire or not.  When it was all done, we were all a family.  There were constant updates, volunteer coordination efforts, and an outpouring of appreciation.  With everyone outside our community watching, our locals shined in their spirit. 

THIS is why I live where I do.  Cities have their big buildings and big events...but we have our FAMILY COMMUNITY.

With the over 2100 firefighters working hard to keep us safe, the Red Cross making themselves available, and the daily updates provided by CalFire, we were reminded how very precious our community is.  We all have new friends as a result of this fire.  Our appreciation for all the efforts made to keep us safe is evident by all the thank you signs everywhere, but is preciously summed up by this video.

THANK YOU!!

If Grandy falls in the forest...

We all recognize that Grandy's frequency of posting here on this blog has been sporadic over the last year or so. It might be even longer, if you're keeping track like some of my friends and family.

See this picture?  It symbolizes more than just a tree falling (albeit I do recognize it is not actually "in a forest" but you get the point).  This picture is almost what I envision what I look like after the last few months.  Grandy's head has blown completely off.  Whew!!  It's the pressure leading up to the explosion that makes it tough though.  Now I feel much better.

So...have you missed me??  Did you notice Grandy missing at all? 

Just to recap what's up in Grandy-land.

• Grandy has turned 40 years old - WHAT?  I failed to commemorate the occasion here?  Next post will be about THAT.  
• Grandy was on a 3 week criminal jury trial - DEFINITELY some blog-worthy material in that experience.
• Lil Man Grandy got his driver's license - Still in shock and fear.
• Grandy threw the EVENT OF THE YEAR for the construction industry...and NAILED IT.
• Lil Man Grandy is almost done with his Eagle project and application - nail biting and hard to not help.

That pretty much sums up what's new in Grandy-land.

What have you all been up to??  Hmmmmmm???  

Seems like yesterday...Another Birthday

How did it happen?

Where did the time go?

*sniff*

At some point my boy went from this...


To this...



My son turned 16 this week!!!

As I look back over the years, I'm again grateful for this blog. I look back on past birthday posts, and get to relive every heartfelt moment. THIS is the reason I started this blog. I'm not great at scrapbooking, but man will my guy have something to reflect on in the future...hopefully. I have officially commemorated 4 of his past birthdays here. And I am GRATEFUL!!

Take a walk down memory lane with me...

There's this "Letter to Ty" when he turned 12.
I cried when I re-read his 13th birthday here.
And then of course I was tardy for his 14th birthday.
And then there was FIFTEEN?!?

My son is becoming a man. He is working on his Eagle project, he has a job, and he's getting good grades. We still remind him he has to do his chores, and his room is never clean...so my son is still a kid in many ways. THANK GOODNESS!!

Grandy is truly GRATEFUL!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN GRANDY!!!

Spam-Comments-R-Us

We have all seen spam comments, but maybe you are not all amused to see a comment that is totally irrelevant to your post.

In my last post, I got a spam comment that said, "I really like your blog. There is great research and I really think people could get a lot from your site." RESEARCH? Grandy doesn't write based on RESEARCH. Read just a couple of posts (albeit recently few and far between) and you will see that this blog is based more on comedic or emotional anecdotes, rather than research.

Yeah, that was my FIRST clue.

Then the comment proceeded to connect a link to "hot chicks gone wild", and my personal favorite "beautiful boobies".

REALLY?!?!?!?!?

You stopped me at research, and then had me ROLLING at the boobies folks.

Perhaps you work on your spam-comments-101 class, and try to be a little bit more relevant.

Yes...this is what it feels like

Grandy has been absent for a couple months.

It has been a difficult time in the Grandy home, as fubby has lost his mother. The process of grieving and dealing with her effects has been a bit overwhelming to deal with. There have been many times where I have started to write a blog post or a poem, or post a picture, and then I stop. I didn't realize the impact it all would have on me, nor did I want to acknowledge it out loud.

Grandy stayed strong for Fubby & Little Man Grandy, who I am proud to say have been doing amazing with how they are coping with the loss.

In the last two months, Grandy has also been in charge of various events. Coordinating events, "task forces", putting out fires on my desk at work, and essentially giving new meaning to the phrase "directing traffic", has left me feeling a bit like...

...well...

THIS!!