RANDOM THOUGHTS....

My darling husband reads every newspaper he can get his hands on...or at least his Reader tapped to. The other day over coffee he says:

"Ha! listen to this! A woman in British Columbia received a call from a supposed RCMP officer stating that she owed back taxes to Revenue Canada. The caller instructed her to got to Home Depot and get three $50.00 gift cards, scratch off the numbers on the back and read them to him....if she wanted to avoid this money owing."

Yes - of course it is a SCAM!!! Everybody knows Government agencies don't talk to one another!

She stated in the article,  "I am an educated person and I can't believe I fell for this."

Seriously? You may be an educated person but you are listed under 'stupid' in the book of life.

Personally if I was running this scam I would whisper into the phone,

"Go to Tim Hortons and get three $25.00 gift cards, scratch the numbers off the back and read them to me. Then pick up six Kruller to go and have them double bagged then place them in City Park under the third bench on the left of the main entrance. Along with that you may as well get a large double double.....but don't roll up the rim! I want to do that!."

All the Canadians reading this will understand.....

****

We had a client in this week and while our partner was tapping away on his calculator I had a chat with the guy.

"I was in the hospital this week." he says to me.

"Oh, nothing serious I hope." Somewhat ...........concerned...he is a paying client!

" A mini stroke."

"Really? Are you on medication now?" worried expression on my face.

"Oh yeah. Lots! AND I can have another one any time in the next thirty days."

Hand on speed dial........911   911   911   911   911   911


*****
I recently saw a very funny email. It was totally inappropriate for this day and age, but I confess, I still had a good laugh and it got me thinking of 'back in the day.' You know when we blurted out things without thinking....and probably offended a whole lot of people.

Today we are so afraid of  not being "politically correct" we barely mutter what we are really thinking. Is that a good thing? I don't really know. I suppose it depends on which end of the comment you are on.....

I grew up in a small town with 35,0000 other prairie people. On the outskirts lay one of the largest employers - known at the time as The Saskatchewan Training School. What they were training the residents to do, I have no idea. It was then known as a school for 'retarded' persons....of course now they are known as 'special needs.' Which sounds SO MUCH better....we have grown as a society. But back then.......

Anyway, at one time, I believe, there were about 3,500 of the 'kids' at the school and just about everyone I knew had worked there at one time or another. Some the the kids couldn't be trained to tie their shoes, but some had potential and I often wondered why the community just didn't put them in homes and close down the school. Easy to say now, but back then, people were not that accepting and there just weren't enough kind hearted people about who wanted that responsibility.

My Mom used to drag home these kids for a 'get away' to our house. As my upbringing was, at the best, 'dysfunctional', having a special needs person thrown into the mix seemed perfectly normal. Didn't everyone take a special needs kid home for the weekend??

My Mom's favorite was a young man named Willy. I don't actually know what was his ailment, but he had spasms, a strange walk, was slightly smarter than a gerbil and he drooled. I remember my Mom always folding him in to the car and when he was seated in the passenger side he would miraculously spring back into shape. If you didn't take this precaution he would ....................free fall back into the passenger seat and crack his head on the roof...every...single....time!

In our town, on Saturdays, you could count on being downtown and having the Training School bus disgorge dozens of special needs kids onto the unsuspecting public -. that is if you were a visitor to the town - otherwise it was just another weekend for the local folks.

We had the guys who conducted music on the stage at the afternoon matinee, or always led any parade and several others who were all known by name wandering about the high street. No one blinked an eye.

And THAT is where you could get into trouble. I was about 12 or 13 and standing at the bus stop, along with several others, and I made eye contact with one of the kids from the school. I don't remember if he was with someone or not, but he walked right up to me....of course!

Damn, look away, quickly, oh no....here he comes...he is going to talk to ME!!! When you are just into your teen years the last thing you want is to be singled out.

So this guy walks right up to me...as in facing me, a foot away. He had obviously just come from The Natatorium (our large, enclosed swimming pool) and was swinging his wet bathing suit and towel in a plastic bag........

Back and forth, back and forth.

I brought my eyes up to his and he yells right at me:

"Do you play piano?????.....I do!" and with that he swung his plastic bag up and whacked me right on the head. I saw stars!

To this day I can still recall the THWACKING sound! - Scarred for life.

I'm sure the word "special" wasn't the one that came to my mind.......

***


Things I've learned this week


This would be the last thing a mouse would see if Hope came along....

******

I should be so lucky!  Rina Cooke, 32, from British Columbia, was left devastated when her best friend, boxer dog Romeo, age nine, was diagnosed with inoperable bone cancer by vets. She has posted some touching photographs of  her and her dog carrying out his 'bucket list' before he sadly had to be put to sleep.

These included: a steak dinner, sushi, a blind date with another boxer, a ride in a police car and a fire engine, a massage and spa day.