Ken and I ate lunch at one of our local restaurants today. Unlike a small business franchise, this privately owned restaurant is expanding and doing an ever increasing business.

Besides having good food, she also caters for churches, weddings and parties. Her Sunday lunch crowd usually winds around the building for a couple of hours after church lets out. She serves “country” food in a “meat and 3″ format although you can also get hamburgers and sandwiches if you choose.

We had pot roast, squash casserole, green beans, rice and gravy, our choice of biscuit or cornbread, our choice of drink and dessert for $5.25 each. I think that’s pretty darned reasonable!

She’s upgraded her space over the course of the last few years with appliances, carpeting and air conditioner. Now she’s bought the space next door and sounds like she made a great bargain as she purchased the space with everything in it (it’s an old china shop) and has negotiated a deal with a china replacements shop in Greensboro, NC to purchase the stock of the shop and says she’s getting more for the china than she paid for the space!

I guess you would say either she’s a very savvy business person or very lucky — I’m thinking the former myself.

It gives me hope for my own future that someone in my small town is doing well and thriving despite the gloom-and-doom of the big financial guys.

So I give this New Year’s wish that her bright outlook is just one of many stars twinkling in the dark night we are currently experiencing.

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I am constantly amazed by humans! Some have the most bizzare (to me) behavior patterns imaginable!

I was pulling into my parking garage the other day behind a gentleman in a nice, expensive Lexus. He punched the button for a parking token, then pulled in and I followed behind with my parking pass.

Most of the people I pull into the garage behind drive on up a few levels to park, however, this gentleman pulled around to the end of the first level where the elevators are, didn’t park in a slot, but rather pulled as close as he could to the edge. He hopped out of his car, opened the trunk and pulled out a sack of garbage which he deposited into the trash container located there. I got a quick glimpse of his trunk and there were a number of bags of garbage in it, so I can only assume he drove from level to level leaving his trash in each of the containers located at either end of the 10 levels.

Now, I’m guessing that since he’s driving an expensive car and wearing nice clothing that he could probably afford garbage pickup — unless he was a murderer disposing of a body he had cut up — garbage pickup costs maybe $30 per month if you’re not in the city where it’s part of what your property taxes pay for. Of course, that’s $29 more than the $1 for an hour of parking, so perhaps he’s just economizing.

I just found it odd and slightly repulsive.

Then there is another gentleman who arrives promptly at 7:00 AM every morning, then reclines the seat of his car back and power naps for 45 minutes (I know this because I arrive anywhere from 7:00 AM until 8:00 AM and have observed his routine).  He dons his Wayfarer sunglasses I guess to keep out any stray rays of the morning sun and ensure a better sleep. He does this no matter what the temperature is outside — I guess the car doesn’t heat up or cool down enough to be uncomfortable before his allotted 45 minutes are up.

When I first noticed him sleeping in his car, I notified the guard on duty as I was concerned that he might be ill or overcome by heat (it was a VERY hot day already!). When I saw him in the same position the next day, I assumed everything was OK.

What baffles me is why he just doesn’t sleep longer at home. I first thought that maybe he has to drop kids off at school or something, except I see him snoozing even on days when school is out. I’m sure there is some explanation as to why he doesn’t just stay home in his own bed for that 45 minutes, but I don’t know him well enough to ask what it is.

I won’t even get into the behaviors I see that are just downright rude — most of them perpetuated by men as it were, but that’s not to say we ladies don’t have our moments. I’m often having the elevator door close just as I get to it because the persons already on it don’t hold the door for me. I also have experienced the doors being shut in my face as I try to enter or exit the building with arms full of packages or bags. Just inconsideration on the part of those who are in front and I try to take those in stride and remind myself to be more aware of what’s going on around me even as I am consumed by some piece of code or composing a blog post in my head. Oh and lets NOT talk about the scum who pulls into the parking spot you’ve been patiently waiting for someone to pull out of

So, with it being the New Year and all, are any of you thinking of ways you can change your human behaviors to be a more insightful or thoughtful person or are you just sticking to the usual diet, exercise, organize, don’t procrastinate?

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I guess starting this painting project has home renovations on my mind.

I’m even dreaming about renovation plans!

Woke up this morning thinking about the living room and what could be done to make it a more useful as well as livable room.

It’s a long room (24′!) that has a fireplace flanked by two storage/shelf areas at one end and a triple wide window at the other. One of the long walls is broken up by the doorway into the master suite. The other side has an open space into the foyer, a two foot solid wall that is the coat closet then a half wall with lattice work over it separating the living area from the kitchen. This chopped up configuration makes it a very difficult room to configure furniture groupings in.  I currently have the t.v. catty corner on the wall the windows are on to minimize blocking the view and also to keep glare off the screen from said windows. I have a love seat set at right angles to the wall that has the doorway to the master suite in it and Ken’s desk with his computer is on the other side of the doorway on that same wall. The other wall has a bank of dog crates and the couch is set to wall off the foyer from the living room. Taji’s cage is in front of the windows as he enjoys watching the wildlife and interacting with the dogs and us.

In my dream, I saw us ripping out that fireplace and the two storage units that are one either side of it that just accumulate junk and dust. That will give us 2-3 more feet of space for furniture and I would turn Ken’s desk so that it was angled across the corner and facing outwards instead of looking at the wall as it currently is, then add a couple of club chairs in front of it so we can have intelligent conversations while he messes around on his computer. His desk is large enough that I could even set my laptop on a corner of it and we could surf the net in tandem Now isn’t that romantic??

The half-wall with a lattice above it gives a corner to the kitchen area. This corner is another junk accumulator and would be better used in another manner. Since we don’t have a dining room table, I would like to remove the lattice work and convert the half wall to a bar with a couple of comfortable bar stools on the kitchen side so we could sit there and watch t.v. while eating. The crates can be re-configured to sit underneath the bar overhang or moved into what is supposed to be the dining room but which currently serves as an area I groom and keep puppies in.

Lighting in that room is another thing I have issue with. It has the windows which are shaded by the porch roof, so it’s indirect light that comes in them. There are also skylights on the opposite side of the windows, but those are giving us problems now with leaking especially during heavy rain storms and are scratched and dirty, so don’t let as much light in as they did when new. Ken wants to remove them when the house is re-roofed in the next couple of months, but there we go with dark rooms again — something that is just anathema to me! There is one light fixture hanging from the beam that bisects the room about where the door to the master suite is. Since it hides where the two halves of the home are joined, the beam pretty much has to stay, but the ceiling fan/light fixture hanging from it can be removed and light fixtures with or without ceiling fans can be placed in each “half” of the ceiling. Adding a couple of floor lamps will help as well. I have some table top lamps which are fine for reading, but not so much for lighting the room.

So, it’s no wonder I woke up tired this morning! Dreaming of all those renovations was a lot of mental work! What’s going to be even harder is convincing Ken to do it

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As you know, my husband and I breed Whippets and we are so lucky and proud that several of the dogs in our last litter (that just turned 4 years old!) are certified Delta Society Partners and do Therapy Dog work at local hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and schools.

One owner is very active in doing therapy work with her Whippet, Ashley who is especially good with cerebral palsy victims. Their shaky movements don’t phase him at all nor does their sometimes heavy petting. Here he’s dressed for Holiday visits in his red Santa suit — what a guy!

It was really hard for me to give Ashley up as he was already well on the way to a breed championship, but this is so much more important than a certificate on the wall ever could be.

He joins sister Tara as a therapy dog and follows Wendy and Bridget (not related, but all “my” dogs) who were therapy dogs before him.

I’ll be breeding his sister, Butterfly later this year and hope that at least some of  her children follow in the steps of their Aunts and Uncles.

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