Gaegrand

I had an unexpectedly nice Valentine's Day.

First, I got a gift from my sweetie.

Julia went to her stash of ribbons to get one to put on her gift to Frankie. On top was a big red bow with a florist's envelope. She looked and on the front it said "Mary 40 Hundley Drive." Inside the card said "Miss you, hurry home. George."

It was from some flowers George Rodney had sent me once when I was visiting Tennessee without him.

Julia thought to herself that George Rodney wanted me to have that today so she brought it to me. I think she was right.

Then tonight both my girls called to wish me happy Valentine's day and to inquire about my health. I have been under the weather but I am feeling better.

A very nice day.

I came home from Nashville sick.

Saturday night at the b oys' basketball game, I was so tired. When we got home, I read to the children and went to bed when they did.

Then Sunday morning on the way home, I coughed and my throat hurt. Oh, no. I knew what was going on.

I feel just awful. The muscle aches were very bad yesterday but I have been spared the fever and chills. I am grateful for that.

I called my health advisor Beth and have been following her directions and feel a little better now.

I drove up to Nashville on Friday. Snow advisories were out but I got up there before the snow hit. Friday night it seemed to snow all around the Nashville area but not much in Nashville and the immediate area. The snow in Nolensville was disappointing.

We watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games on Ken's new big screen plasma TV in high definition television.

I have never wanted another TV. The one I have is very old but perfectly adequate.

Then I saw those snow covered mountains of Italy in high definition. It was awesome. I think it was Ken who said it was like looking out the window. So real, just fabulous.

So now I want one but I will not be getting one. Watching the Olympics at home last night I was imagining how much greater it would be watching it at Anne's.

Anne and I went shopping Saturday morning. I wanted to buy new shoes for the party I am going to in North Carolina.

Anne vetoed the shoes I had picked out. She said the toes were too pointed and the hell was too high. I said I was trying to break out and be bold. And that she should, too. She said she was just a school marm.

I decided to buy her some shoes and we argued about what I would buy her. We did compromise on two pair of shoes. They are mule types with high heels. She bought another pair of safe shoes. I told her I was not paying for those.

She wore the shoes I bought to church Sunday and, being the honest person she is, allowed that they were comfortable and made her feel good about herself.

I did find a good pair. They go with my dress perfectly and the heels are very high. Ken says he sees foot problems ahead for me but I was raised by a mother who told me that Beauty knows no Pain.

The JC Penney store at Hickory Hollow Mall is going out of business and I bought two outfits there at 60% off. One is a three piece skirted suit that I will wear to the NC party. It is a neutral brocade with silver threads. The other is a pants suit.

Saturday afternoon we went to Emma's basketball game over in Franklin. Her team lost a very close game. Ken is her coach and thought the home team got the calls.

I learned that Emma is a very good player, the best on her team. She is quick, a good ball handler, and likes to shoot.

I also noticed that when the game was over, her cheeks were a bright, bright cherry red. She gets that from her Grandpoppy George and from her mother. Beth also has this tendency. Anne remembers being in exercise classes in college, seeing the instructor looking at her and saying things like It is okay to quit if you are feeling tired or strained. Blood going to their faces during exercise is just normal for them.

Saturday night the boys played. They are a different matter. They are the worst on their team. However, they are always in the position they are supposed to be in, set screens correctly, and always guard their man. They enjoy playing despite their incompetence.

Their other grandmother Margie Rucker and their aunt Gina Rucker also attended both games.

When June was here a couple of weeks ago, a group of female family members were at my house and, for some reason, I got to telling them about the washing machine I had in Christchurch, New Zealand.

We had taped me doing the wash there so I showed it to them.

That was a fast 20 years but that is how long Christchurch is behind me and it showed on the video tape. The 20 year old VHS tape had degraded more than I would have thought.

I gave some thoughts to how to preserve these records and decided I needed to transfer them to DVDs.

I bought a DVD player/recorder at Best Buy and brought it home.

This began my acquaintance with different kinds of cables and connectors. RCA, S etc.

I wanted the connections to go cable-VCR player-DVD player/recorder-TV.

After hooking things up, I could watch cable TV, watch a video tape, watch a DVD, but I could not play a VCR tape and record it on a DVD. The connections were wrong; I needed a different kind of cable between the two.

The back of the DVD player/recorder had 15 different places to connect to; the VCR only 4. On the VCR one connection was the regular cable connection. The other three were like the RCA cables but they were different colors, not the regular blue, red, yellow ones.

I thought and thought about it, went to WalMart and bought different connections, brought it home, and after thinking more about it realized it would not work.

Jerrell used to talk about machines being smarter than he was. I found that to be true with the DVD player/recorder. It is smarter than I am and I would never be able to figure out how to connect it.

I returned the connections to WalMart and the DVD player to Best Buy. Instead of the DVD player/recorder at $100 I bought for $300 a combination DVD player/recorder and VCR player. The advantage is that the two components are already connected together.

It worked. I was able to record on DVDs the New Zealand tapes.

Then I decided to do my Leslie Sansone walk exercises and could not find the DVD. I had left it in the DVD player that I had returned.

Best Buy has a lot of salesmen on the floor but after you have picked out something and you are going to buy it, the customer service vanished. You have to stand in line to check out. If you return something, you stand at the empty return counter for about 15 minutes before someone helps you.

But that is better their phone service. After remembering where the DVD was, I called the Jackson Best Buy store to ask them about it. First you get a recording that gives you about ten choices of extensions. Don't get excited; that is just to fool you more. When you press the number the extension will ring 10 times without anyone answering. Then you get the same choices again from the recorded voice. It allows you to push the appropriate button again and letss you hear it ring another ten times. You can do this as long as you want.

I went to WalMart to buy the new machine. At least they are honest and make no pretense of having good custormer service.

I was in Jackson today to return something.

I decided to go to Big Lots. You don't go to Big Lots with a list. You just go to look because you don't know what they will have. Maybe they have something you need and it's cheap or maybe not.

I saw some interesting things, like cute ceramic casserole dishes. Even though I have no need for them, I still stopped, handled, and admired them.

Why do I go to a store like that? I am living a perfectly good life without things from Big Lots.

Then I saw a sign that said: The Longer You Shop, the More Money You Save.

That did stop me in my tracks. Of course, you cannot save money by spending. What was I doing there? I left.