Category: What Now?

Today may have been perfect if not for this.

Say It Isn’t So

~ JodiLea ~ Leave a comment

Just when we thought the work on our street was nearly finished, we learn that it really has only begun. Now, they are ready for the BIG machines to come in and make REALLY BIG HOLES. From September through November, it turns out.

Oh, they have begun to prep other streets around our neighborhood, and have seriously damaged the one road we were taking to get off our road and into town. Last week, we had to take a different route to town every day. Every day, I had to rely on my Apple CarPlay to navigate me – whether I was coming or going.

Some residents just stopped going anywhere, unless it was Sunday and the road crews were off work. Sure, the potholes and metal plates were still there, causing you to slalom down the mountain. However, the streets were free from roadblocks and detours. No GPS guidance necessary. Even for me.

It started July 10th, 2025, and wrapped up the week before Thanksgiving. Meaning PG&E is finished burying their power lines. We don’t know if the cable or telephone companies will follow suit. If they do, it will be next summer. For now, our neighborhood is ours again. I did not realize how possessive I am of our neighborhood.

I understand now why I was so angry about it. It was like I was being violated when our streets were torn up, and our cul-de-sac was an equipment and materials parking lot. Even getting lost every day was not as disturbing as the fact that residents were not told in advance, or informed of what would happen when. It was as if we were not there.

TTFN

Camping & Conventions Do Not Mix

~ JodiLea ~ Leave a comment

To clarify: Camp Grandma and any conflicting events are not advisable. Upon returning from the annual convention, I found a messy house and a very unhappy camper.

My hubby.

The same man who assured me things would be fine, go ahead and go, blah, blah, blah, had an aloof and irritated manner under the surface. I recognized this because I also am a pouter. Although he urged me to go, he seemed resentful that I was not there to run things.

Everything ran smoothly, no one was hurt, arrested, or otherwise. But I was not there. He could not depend on me to handle things. You know, the things that he pays no attention to when I am there. Many things are handled that he knew nothing about. Until I wasn’t there to handle them. Bad Grandma.

When resentments build up in your mind, they eventually find their way out. While the dust settles, a tense, misty-eyed silence ensues until the one who exploded approaches and explains what just happened. We quietly explain our emotions. Then we hug and make mental notes to ourselves to pay more attention to each other’s feelings in the future.

Even strong, loving relationships can hit a momentary roadbump. Humans are not perfect beings. We all know this, and yet somehow we expect the ones we know and love to be.

Which is completely ridiculous.


Why We Lose Trust in the System

~ JodiLea ~ Leave a comment

When I studied dinosaurs in school, there was one called a brontosaurus. It was a favorite of mine. Gentle (although huge) and a vegetarian. Not scary like T-Rex.

By the time my daughter studied dinosaurs in school, the Brontosaurus had become extinct for the second time. A group of scientists who studied this kind of dinosaur decided that the Apatosaurus was the same creature as the Brontosaurus; therefore, it did not exist. This ticked me off.

My granddaughter told me that the scientists changed their minds after findings of more bones were revealed. This ticked me off even more. I certainly did not trust palaeontologists anymore.

Then, when the astrophysicists decided Pluto was not a planet in our solar system, negating that system as we learned it in school, I gave up on the scientific community. We don’t need them to declare things about dinosaurs or planets. They need to cure cancer, mental illness, and other useful projects.

Even though I am nowhere near a school kid’s age, I found that the facts I learned back then were not facts at all, but they could change or go away. That is disturbing as an adult, so imagine how a grade school child is impacted.

Finding out that your parents have been lying to you all your life is a biggie. Toothfairies, Santa Claus, Easter Bunnies, and the Great Pumpkin were never real; every parent you knew was a liar. Little girls had it worse. Along with their parents lying to them, Society and Literature were not truthful about reality. Prince Charming, Happily-ever-after, magic, beauty, love potions, curses, and so on.

The only fairy tales that approached reality were the “Fractured Fairy Tales.”
Fractured Fairy Tales was a segment on The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends that presented familiar fairy tales and children’s stories, but with altered storylines that were modernized for humorous, satirical effect.

Link to Fractured Fairy Tales
Click on Book to play episodes

Good Humor and fun for the whole family!





What caused YOU to lose trust in the system? Please comment below!

Jodi Lea