Ebayer's Anonymous?

Help!! Do they have a recovery group for Ebayers? You know, like gamblers anonymous, or alcoholics anonymous? I can see it now: "Hi my name is Donna and I'm an Ebayer." (The people in the group will all nod their heads and mumble, "Hello Donna"....with that knowingness that only others who suffer the same affliction can provide. I will be standing there admitting that yes I did win the crystal parrot brooch that I bid on only to turn around and bid on another cool one I saw. You know you're hooked when you time your watch so you can be sure and rush home to your computer for the final minutes. Hell I even signed up to get a cell phone alert going-3 minutes before closing just in case I couldn't be there. At an additional 25 or 50 cents or more each time they do it. The final phone bill will tell the tale. That appears to be a new addition to the Ebay "experience" as they call it. NEVER have I ever sat breathlessly, continually refreshing the page, counting down the minutes and then seconds to see if the bid I put in at the last minute is going to be outdone. My heart was pounding, my breathing accelerated and my upper lip was perspiring. Notice I said perspiring rather than sweat. Ladies perspire, men sweat. FYI in case you didn't know. Aren't these classic signs of addiction? I understand that casino gamblers can call 1-all-bets-off and they will be banned from gambling in the big casinos. So I have come up with a number 1-800-no2-ebay। That should do it!

Anyway, back to my bid. I'm sitting there counting down the last seconds, in the last minute and finally it states YOU ARE THE WINNING BIDDER! I jumped up from my chair flinging my arms around & yelling "YES! I won!", knocking over my drink in the process (I have to drink out of mugs with lids because I'm such a klutz), then scaring the hell out of my Shih Tzu's with my outburst. Since that is behavior they rarely see they went running in terror from the room. Of course if I don't get that 12 step program for people hopelessly addicted to Ebay I might be scaring them a lot more in the future. Poor little darlings. I found them huddled under the dining room table shaking. I consoled them and explained it was all good news and got them excited and running around barking at me. It became a game then.

It seems that our weather here in Missouri has gone from the 30's & 40's to over 80 degrees today. And add to it the March winds blowing anything and everything into the next state. Forget about fixing your hair and dig out your shorts because this week those coats and boots hanging by the door aren't needed. Next week they might be but today they weren't. We are used to having several seasons of clothing laying out here in Misery..uh..Missouri. Tomorrow promises to be more of the high temperatures and blowing wind. This time I'm taking my mother to the city for a doctors appointment. I'll be transferring her off at my father-in-laws house to my sisters car and she will drive her over into Kansas City while I go back to the nursing home and check on Harold. Driving in the city makes me a total nervous wreck. Totally. People are just crazy when they drive. And most have no patience for people like me who don't know where they are going or are trying to find alternate routes at the last second because of road construction. I understand Missouri has the worst roads in the nation, or so I read somewhere. This does not surprise me. You can immediately tell when you've crossed the line over the Mighty Mo and into Kansas because the roads immediately turn smooth like you're riding on glass. Sometimes I just feel like Alice in Wonderland here. I won't even touch that area right now. Maybe another post.

Driving in the wind doesn't make it pleasant either. I have been stopped on windy days for suspicion of drunk driving. Seriously! I was in another vehicle that handled differently. I think the trooper thought I was weird, but he's not the first and won't be the last. I'll have to remember not to let anything else blow out of the car that I might have to chase across the parking lot again like my last visit to the Home/Prison. This time I'm not taking anything for Harold other than some new jogging suits, clean laundry and his beloved milk shake that he has made me promise to bring each time I visit. I guess nursing home food leaves a lot to be desired as does anything else in one.

Now that I think about it, I am going to have a load again. Maybe I need one of those wire baskets on wheels older people use. I mean, why not? Mom gave me her old walker, as she got a new one. She explained that "you never know when it might come in handy." I started to laugh at her and tell her, "I'm young! I don't need no stinking walker!" But then I remembered the times I've been laid up unable to walk, from back pain, only to use the furniture as a crutch or a stick or umbrella. Jeez age sneaks up on us! So maybe a wire basket on wheels is a good idea after all. I suppose in ten years or less I'll be driving a motorized scooter around town.

God just shoot me now.

More later.......

The Votes Are In!

Well the votes are in on the license plates for Missouri and the blue bird won with over 50% of the vote! I am so happy and apparently I'm not the only one that thought the plates needed more color. It's just too bad we have to wait till 2009 for them. Hmmm...wonder if I can keep the old plates again like before? They make interesting conversation pieces. I've nailed mine to my Birdroom wall.

Update March 8, 2007: Ugh! I have just heard from Brad, a friend of mine, that they will be charging $20-$50 for the new plates over and above the usual rate. Or so the rumor goes. And since mine are personalized I, of course, pay a higher fee. This just pissed me off and made my day! It wasn't the general public who wanted new plates, it was some bureaucrat sitting in an office somewhere. Or however they decide they need new plates. Does someone just get a wild hair up their ass and say one day, "Gee I'm bored with these plates. I know, let's get new ones!" Supposedly these plates will be easier for law enforcement to read. Uhuh, give me a break. It will be harder for the renewal tabs to be stolen. Well we'll see. It occurred to me that the new plates will have that break in the middle, which I didn't realize would be there even though it's beaming at me in the picture. Why would they break up the word SAMPLE if it's not going to be done? It's okay for regular license numbers because they're usually divided up by three letters and then three numbers here in Missouri. Of course personalized are all one word unless you hyphenate it. Well is that gonna make my plate look retarded? Probably. I could let them go and go back to regular plates. Less revenue for DMV, but they'll never notice. It's not like they'll say, "Wow, we're short an extra $20 bucks because Donna let her vanity plates go. Damn, what will we do? We can't make the rent this month."

I've had that particular plate since about 1985 or maybe 1986. But a long time. I think people get used to seeing you driving around and they know you, even if they don't 'know' you per se. When I got a different car people I didn't know were honking at me. The only thing I could figure out was they were acknowledging that I now drive something different. May sound weird to some of you, but I live in a fairly small town and these things DO go on. I'll have to think about the new plate configuration and see how bad it looks. Maybe it won't be as bad as I imagine, but that's government for you. I really think that the old plates were fine. Somebody just decided we needed new ones to the tune of millions of dollars to redo the whole shebang. But of course it will be passed onto us, the unwilling consumer. Why not? After all we're probably going to get that nice National ID card before long anyway. Might as well go all the way and change it all. That national card is another story altogether.

New Missouri License Plates

Missouri is currently choosing a new license plate. They've been having a voting session open since February 9th ending tonight at midnight. Why we have to have new license plates to the tune of millions of dollars is just beyond me. Well according to the site it's to reduce tab theft and make the plates easier to read. The selections aren't much different than the plates we already have which came out in 1996. But there is this bluebird plates which is quite different from what we've got. The other two are plain white backgrounds with one having a ribbon trailing through MISSOURI. The other is a reflection of MISSOURI. Had the picture editor here cooperated with me, I would have posted the other two.

Of course being a 'bird' person I'm for the bluebird plate. Sometimes I see other vehicles from outer lying states and they have some pretty cool ones. Ours just seem drab and colorless. I'm hoping the bluebird gets it, at least it's showing one of our states symbols. Of course I have a private agenda for the bluebird plate. I think my vanity plates will look good on it since my plates have to do with birds anyway. We have come a long way from our original maroon plates with white lettering. The vanity plates back then were just as bad: black with yellow lettering. That made your vanity plates really stand out in traffic. The 'new' ones in '96 were the same for regular or personalized so you all basically blend in the same.

I can't wait to see which ones win but since it's government I'm sure it will take a month or more for them to tally up votes that are probably computerized anyway. The plates won't be issued until January 1, 2009. That seems like a long time away but the way time is flying lately I suppose it will be here before you know it. Law requires the state slogan be on the plates, which for Missouri is The Show Me State. And believe me, people here live by that slogan. We all must be shown something before we'll believe it. Maybe Missouri has energy vibes that just soak into you the more you live here making you say, "Oh yea? SHOW me!"