Autumn Roses And Curses

"Autumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible on mind of taste and tenderness, that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read, some attempt at description,

 or some lines of feeling. She occupied her mind as much as possible in such like musings and quotations."

~Jane Austen

I reached into the archives for this rose photo, from 2013. My current December files are a bit anemic! I need to get back out with the camera, and maybe I will later today, we'll see what the day brings. I am trying to ignore the fact that it is December 10th, a slightly amusing, and slightly dreaded day in our house, because of all the hilarity over the years, and of course the fact that it's cursed. 27 years in a row, we have some kind of financial boo-boo occur. It's been everything from getting robbed... twice... to someone renting a car in my name, and then crashing it, to last years adventure. 

We stopped into our local Bargain Market, to pick up some plastic food containers, and a few other items, but when we went to the check out, sure enough, it happened... the total for 3 small items came to $109.89! Alan and I started laughing, because we knew what it was, but the checker, well, not so much! It took roughly 30 minutes to find out what had gone wrong with the scanner! The containers should have scanned at $9.00 but obviously, they didn't! Then to make it all more fun, it was ultimately discovered that, only the set we picked up had the problem! The rest of the same lot was fine. Oh December 10th, it just wouldn't be the holiday season without you!

#10 Leaf Of The Day

December 10th, 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Amused

~Me

At Christmas, All Roads Lead Home

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

~Lao Tzu


Joey And His Daddy
December 19th, 2013

Alan and I were musing last evening about how, for once, we haven't gotten a phone call about how December 10th has affected us. You remember about December 10th? That's a cursed day, usually financially, that Alan and I experience each year! Well, this year, the number one financial curse affecting millions is the Target breach, and for once, it doesn't affect us at all! In our over diligence and caution, we were very careful where we used our ATM/Debit cards, and this time the over caution worked out just fine. We won't be caught up in that mess! So, it seems we are free and clear this December 10th, unless you count, well, Joey.

If you would have told me a month ago, that we would be adopting another cat, considering the small place we live in, I would have laughed for two weeks straight! I would have told you JUST how full of beans you were and pretty much made fun of you each time I saw you, because clearly you are the most ridiculous person... EVER! Well, the joke would have been on me, because we have adopted a cat, and not just any cat, we have our very own Joey!

 
Dylan At The Help Desk

Things were going so well in our lives. Both Dylan and Hendrix were finally at the age where we could leave the house for extended periods of time, and not have to worry about coming back home to drama, like Hendrix getting into the pantry... he likes to snack... or Dylan driving the neighbors crazy with his early morning concerts, or his fascination with typing HELP on the computer! Also he likes to sing the Dilly Song, bright and early every morning, but a belly rub, and a nice brushing usually calms him down. Although, if I don't happen to be home, he doesn't sing at all! This was confirmed by leaving the webcam on overnight once. The singing is all about the attention! And we have figured that out, so, everything was fine. It was good. We had the perfect family... but you know how life is, it has one damn sense of humor!

 
Dylan, 2009 "Here's What I Think Of You, Mommy!"

I have known Joey for 3 weeks now. He came running into our lives on November 30th. He is our little holiday cat, and a more loving, agreeable cat there never was! He seems to understand that we saved him, kept him from harm, and yes... we love him! He can't possibly be a part of some financial curse, even if we have put out around $400.00 since we found him! He was injured. We got him his shots. He needed kitten chow. He needed toys. He needed blankets for his bed. He needed a collar. He needed his own grooming supplies. He needed a small cat box. He needed all those things any new baby needs, but most of all, he needs us.

 
Hendrix, 2009"I help you! Can I help? How can I help?":)

I can't even begin to explain the timing, except the universe, and God, and Elvis, all have a sense of humor! Over the years, as we got to know Hendrix and Dylan, it has seemed more and more likely that we didn't find them by a lucky chance of circumstances, I truly believe Elvis sent them both to us to ease the deep aching pain his loss left us with! Honestly, I died a little with that cat. He saw me through so much, and he loved me till he died. He was a huge presence in our lives, and he made a big impression on those he met. I had people tell me that, while they didn't particularly care for cats, Elvis had something special to him that made them feel instantly comfortable. He would bond with people almost instantly. I wish I had just a little of the charm he had.


Elvis, 2008

When he got cancer... it felt like a wide dull knife was stuck into my soul. And the day it was time to let go, and I started to leave the doctor's office, I looked back at Elvis, and our eyes met, and he had a look on his face that seemed... to say..." it's okay, it's time, don't worry." And I let go. But I really didn't. I think about him every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And sometimes, I can feel him here with me. Laughing at me. Patting my tears like his used to do, and sometimes just reminding me of his playful nature. So, when we brought home Hendrix and Dylan, and they fit in like we had custom ordered them, it wasn't hard to believe that maybe Elvis had sometime to do with it. He was our caregiver on earth, and he never stopped working. Love transcends ethereal boundaries. I believe that completely.

So, here were are, with a cat none of us planned for, but he is so gentle, and smart and playful. He never complains about having to go into his box for bed time. He doesn't bother the other cats. He isn't super vocal. He is just the perfect cat for us in every way! He is exactly who and what we would have ordered, had we been able to summon the perfect cat! So whether Joey found us by way of God, or Elvis, or Santa for that matter, there is one thing I know for sure, it wasn't by coincidence. Joey, Alan and I were all on the same road that day, and now there is just a little more love in our little cottage. The best gifts don't always come from stores or are wrapped up in paper and bows when you get them! 

The best gift will always be the gift of love!

"At Christmas all roads lead home."

~Marjorie Holmes

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Happy December 10th Eve!

"Christmas is a time when everybody wants their pasts forgotten and their present remembered. What I don't like about Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day."

Phyllis Diller

Good grief! It's the Eve Of December 10th! What is December 10th? Well, that's our cursed day! Yes, Alan and I have our very own cursed day, and it's tomorrow, December 10th! Why is it cursed? Well, you see, it has been an annual occurrence since the year of our marriage, in 1990, that on December 10th something odd, usually something to do with finances, takes place on or very near the actual day of December 10th! If you are new to my blog, and this is all a new revelation about me, let me give you some examples of December 10th oddness, in random order...

Our storage unit was burglarized.

Someone claiming to be me, rented a car, on December 10th, had an accident, and I didn't find out until the following March when the claims adjuster called to ask additional details. That was the year we thought we had beat the curse! How this person got my name and phone number, I will never know.

One of my favorite December 10th hilariousness, happened when Alan was nearly arrested for stalking a neighbor! What he was actually doing was checking the roof at my mother's house for lost shingles, due to a wind storm the previous night! LOL. Thank GOD mom was home to identify him! I was there, trust me, he was looking at the roof's shingles!

In 2011, I decided to just completely ignore the day altogether, that DID NOT WORK OUT! I got a call at 3:30 in the morning, of December 10th, from the fraud division of my bank. It seems someone in Illonois was trying to purchase $1,000 worth of assorted items from a dollar store, using a copy of my ATM/Debit card! They had been approved for $100.00 worth earlier in the day! Thankfully, I wasn't held responsible!

Last year, on December 10th, someone did the exact same thing to Alan! Exactly one year apart mind you! They made a copy of his ATM/Debit card and tried to purchase first $100.00 worth of merchandise, then $1,000.00 worth, only this time, they were in Georgia!

Another personal favorite was the year Alan tried to order a garden hose, on December 10th, using a gift certificate he won at an office party, on December 10th the previous year! He ordered the hose, which was free, but when it came it wasn't one hose, it was 2 hoses! No problem, right? Yes... PROBLEM! Two weeks later, another 3 came! It was difficult to deal with, but they understood we didn't need 4 garden hoses! They told us to choose the one we wanted, and send the 3 remaining back. Alan hadn't opened them, so NO problem. It was however, when he opened the hose he decided to keep, the following spring, only to find it was damaged! 

And there are other assorted incidents. I won't share all of them. My friend Paul, of the blog, Aurora Walking Vacation, a kind and rational thinker if ever there was one, has challenged me at times to consider that December 10th isn't really cursed, but rather I am noticing a pattern where there isn't one. Like if I suddenly noticed that on October 22nd, leaves tend to fall from trees, or more in the abstract, every year during our vacation, Alan and I will spontaneously encounter a celebrity. It's happened a lot, and I used to think of it as magical, but in truth I live in the Bay Area, and we do get the ocassional celebrity in our midst. No magic, more just the way things work! If you leave the house, and even if you don't, random things happen! And I believed that for many years, but how many police reports does one have to fill out before you come to the realization, The Curse Of December 10th is a thing? But does it deserve the respect I give it?

I wish I knew. But good, bad or otherwise, 24 hours from now Alan and I are going to watch old movies, pop popcorn, make some cinnamon frosted pecans, play with our new kitten Joey, watch as many Woody Allen movies as we can fit into 24 hours, dance to disco music, play scrabble, play, Quiddler, and NOT ANSWER THE DOOR! USE OUR CREDIT CARDS OR DEBIT CARDS! WE WILL ACCEPT NO CODS! AND THERE WILL BE NO CYBER SHOPPING! Or for that mater, engage in any transaction of commercialism what-so-ever! There... I said it! I am not afraid to admit to this probably unfounded fear! In fact, I am a bigger person for it! And Paul, if you are visiting my blog this week, I will say it right now... YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT!

But Happy December 10th Day Anyway! Watch your wallet and bank accounts my friend! LOL!

:)

Mood: Uncertain :)

~Me :)

Dear friends, I will update you later this week if anything happens, so stay tuned!

It's Not That He's Wrong, It's That He's Not Right :)

"I am all for curses and superstition, but there's a point at which they start getting in the way. That point had arrived."

"Curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost."

~Proverb

My friend Paul came by yesterday and left his opinion about what December 10th is about, for me, and in general. His opinion isn't wrong. It's true that sometimes we mortals tend to put more belief and emphasis on things that can't be proven. Faith is a lot like that. Faith can be a good thing or a bad thing, and it cane be neither one of those things. Sometimes faith just is what it is. Speaking for me, I think I take a lot of things on faith. I have faith in the chair I am sitting on right now to hold me up. I have faith in the fact that the very next thing out of Sarah Palin's mouth with be idiotic, bordering on moronic. I have faith that if I punch that punkass little shit neighbor next door I will be arrested. I have faith that God loves me. I have faith that my friends are there for me. I have faith in Alan, and that we will be married forever, regardless of any silly curse.

And along with all that specific faith in things good and bad, I have faith that next year something odd, probably financial, with occur on or very near December 10th.

Why? You ask.

Well, because tonight Alan received a call from our bank's fraud department, which called to tell us someone was trying to purchase $2 in gas from an Exxon station in North Carolina.

When you have gone to your local sheriffs department 2 years in a row, within a day or so of December 10th, after having experienced 20 some odd years of strange occurrences in and around that date, when do you give in and say... okay... it's a thing. The Curse Of December 10th is a thing.

Paul couldn't be more right about what he said. We mortals do sometimes reach into the metaphysical or the mystical to explain away everything from our character flaws, to our poor decisions. But in my own defense, I have tried over the years to change my thinking. I have laughed at the occurrences. I have ignored the occurrences. Just last year, I had asked Alan if we could just take that day off to kind of hide a bit. He laughed and reminded me that even if something did happen, his being home wouldn't stop it.

It only took a moment for me to realize he was right. What could he do?

Well, as it turns out HE WAS WRONG.

Something did happen. Someone tried to charge a great deal of money, using an ATM card in my name with my number.

And it has happened again this year.

The odds of it happening in the exact same way, exactly a year apart, kinda gives me a bit of validation don't you think?

I don't know. I know there are lots of things that humans can't explain away, and yet I always find it humorous that folks refuse to believe in science and think it borders on heresy to believe that anyone or anything other than God makes the world go round.

Without getting too far into my beliefs and my faith, I believe that science absolutely created everything, and science and the ability to use it, came from GOD. The two thoughts DO NOT have to be mutually exclusive.

But back to December 10th.

It is what it is. Whatever it is. After 20 years of odd happenings I have learned to give it a proper amount of respect, and not be surprised by it when it happens. What else can I do? But I no longer shove it to the side as a coincidence.

It's not.

It's December 10th.

How many times does a person need to be hit over the head with an anvil before they say...

"OUCH."

So Paul, it's not that you are wrong, it's just that you aren't right. But thank you nice man, it's always good to hear from you! :)

"All of us have our individual curses, something that we are uncomfortable with and something that we have to deal with, like me making horror films, perhaps."

~Wes Craven

~Me :)

Next!

"I don't just look at the thing itself or at the reality itself; I look around the edges for those little askew moments-kind of like what makes up our lives... those slightly awkward, lovely moments."

~Keith Carter

It's officially midnight, well it is at least on the East Coast, so I am calling the rest of the day December 11th! Another December 10th has come and gone, and as far as I can tell, we made it through this year without any strange goings on. Cool! Okay, steady on then...

I will be doing some photography in San Francisco and Pacifica later today. I am hoping to end the day with at least 200 all new images for the files. Wish me luck!

Here is a preview of what I will be working on...

Public Art...

Yin and Yang
By Robert Armeson
The second of the Egghead series, they symbolize Passiveness and Aggressiveness.




I love Yin and Yang. I find them amazingly fun and thought provoking. But that's what its all about... right?

;)

"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second."

~Marc Riboud

Okie Doke. I think maybe I beat the curse this year... but then again I did that one year to. I guess I won't really know if I beat it until December 9th 2013. Damn that seems like a long way off! But of course next year about this time I will be asking myself.... where did the time go? LOL. I will keep you posted.

Now, on to the Curse Of December 24th! That's my favorite curse anyway! So, all I have to say is...

NEXT! :)

Stay Tuned!

Don We Now Our Day Of Peril 12-10-2012 AGAIN!

"Reality continues to ruin my life."

~Bill Watterson

Don We Now Our Day Of Peril...

Jeepers, I could have sworn it was just yesterday I was sitting in the waiting room of the sheriff's department, waiting to give my report. Was that really a year ago? Yep. It was a year ago. How could it have come around again so quickly? Oh well, I know that no day on the calendar day comes any faster than any other one, and yet certain days in my life do seem to move at a different speed that others do. December 10th is mine.

Why you ask?

Well, you see, the December 10ths in my life are... ahem... CURSED!

Every year for as long as I can think of... well... at least since Alan and I got married anyway, there have been a number very strange occurrences on December 10th, no matter where we have been, or what day of the week it happens to fall on. More times than not it has centered around some financial mishap, but it's not exclusive to that. Not at all.

One year, we had a big wind storm come through the Bay Area, which didn't do a lot of damage, but did displace a few roof tiles at my parents house. Alan, good guy that he is, offered to stop on the way home from work to check things out so mom and dad didn't have to do that climbing. While Alan was on the roof, the neighbor lady next door saw the backside of him and mistakenly thought it was the creep who had been stalking her. In a panic she called the police, who came, quickly, guns drawn. It took about 30 minutes to clear things up. Blech... that was fun.

On a different year we thought that perhaps we had beat the curse, only to receive a call from Avis Rent-A-Car the following March, wanting additional information about the car accident we had been in on the December 10th. We hadn't rented a car that day... we didn't need to... we both owned cars, and there was NO need to rent one. But someone did, and used my information to do so. Blech... that was fun.

*One year our Public Storage unit was completely cleaned out by crap stealing bandits. But we gained on old brown blanket that wasn't ours. I left it in the LOST AND FOUND. Blech... that was fun.

*Then there was the year I dropped a large can of Del Monte Cling peaches in Heavy Syrup on my right foot. It still hurts to wear boots. Blech... that was fun.

*One of my least favorite December 10ths involved an apartment on the property where I live being rented by a Ne'er-do-well. He vomited regularly off his balcony and into his very own BBQ that sat on the deck below his place. He only stayed about 6 months in that apartment before the other folks on the property, including myself, requested he be kicked out. I hated it, but what can you do? He has been gone several years, but his BBQ remains. Like a ghost. No one really wants to deal with it. Sigh. Blech... that was fun.

*On a different December 10th, a different vomiting occurred. Alan and I went to Union Square to share a nice lunch and watch the ice skaters, when a lady at an adjoining table completely lost her lunch. And more than likely her breakfast. And I am pretty sure her meal from the night before. No kidding, I was almost convinced she was possessed. BLECH... THAT WAS FUN!

*A real favorite was when Alan and I decided to check out apartments in Santa Cruz. We were looking for a change it seemed like a great place to live. We purchased a local newspaper and began calling the different listings. The first three had NO idea how we got their number, but there was NO apartment available... HELL, the numbers published we to private houses! The last number we called was actually the customer service line for a business called... "Whose Your Daddy Novelties."
 Blech... that was fun.

*On one particularly fun December 10th, there was a bit of odd as I witnessed the mugging of a Salvation Army bell ringer and his elf sidekick. I kid you not, I actually got to hear the phrase... "DROP THE BUCKET OR THE ELF GETS IT!" Yes, someone held the two bell ringers up, and used that cheesy line! LOL.

It's not like I said it's never fun on December 10th, but I really do wish I knew why it is so prevalent in my life! What invisible entity did I piss off? I would say I am sorry if I could, and then we can all go our own way. So strange. So random!

*Last year's December 10th turned out okay I suppose. I got a call on December 9th from my bank, asking me if I had made a last minute trip to Illinois. No. I was still in California. But it seems someone using my ATM card and password had just purchased $100 worth of jelly beans. That purchase was approved, but they placed a second purchase on hold. It was for $1700 worth of ski hats, miscellaneous magazines, 3 boxes of roofing nails... and a George Foreman grill. LOL. Oh yeah, and 2 (size small unisex thongs).  It had never occurred to me that there was such a thing as unisex thongs!

Blech... just.. Blech. But also... ROTFLMFAO!

Like I said, the fraud watching folks at my bank caught it. It was odd though that it happened on the 9th, and would that count as a genuine December 10th occurrence? After I told the deputy about my weird track record on December 10th she kinda chuckled and told me that my case was more than likely part of a fraud ring that had stolen a lot of names and card numbers from different grocery stores in the Bay Area. One of the stores on the list was for... you guessed it... my very favorite stop and shop place, conveniently located a mile or so from my house. The theft ring didn't make the purchases in person, they bought stuff over the Internet, and were located in Eastern Europe, where it was already... yep... December 10th!

Okay, so now I have to worry about December 10th in different time zones? LOL!

I don't know what will happen today. But I know this much, I am staying inside, all day, and night, and I am NOT answering the phone, or the door, should someone come knocking. I might answer the phone if it is the bank calling though... sigh... I think I should take that one!

Do I believe in curses? (Shrug) Yeah... kinda!

Now, enjoy this scene from one of my favorite episodes of ABC'S "TAXI."
Season 4 Episode 1 "Jim The Psychic"



~Me :)