I walked to the door and knocked. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.

The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years.


All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters.

In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. 'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated'. 'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said.

When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?' 'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly. 'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry, I'm on my way to a hospice'.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued. 'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. 'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. 'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse. 'Nothing,' I said 'You have to make a living,' she answered. 'There are other passengers,' I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.
Behind me, a door shut.

It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done any thing more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

And I thank you for reading this!

With the new year just hours away, perhaps a story like this is really what we need to start it off with, rather than the usual New Years Resolution that if you are like me and most of the world will be broken and forgot in 6 weeks!

To any one who may be reading this I wish for you the best this New Year. God Bless, and

PEACE!!!

Allison

When I woke up this morning and opened my eyes, my husband Dave was right there, greeting me with the words "Happy Birthday Baby!"
It was particularly meaningful due to the fact it seemed as if he were just waiting for me to open my eyes so he could speak those words to me. It was very very nice and a great way to start my day!
Just a few minutes later as I was getting up my girlfriend Gayla called from southern Ca. with the same birthday wish. It too was so nice.
When I had my eyes opened up enough to read the written word, I checked my e-mail. In that was a whole lot more birthday wishes for me from a friend I just met this past year. Many humorous , some charming and some down right heart tugging. I posted a bunch of them here and some more of them on my "A Daily Laugh" blog.

Then early afternoon the son that lives here in this town where I live called. He called to tell me that his son (my grandson Jeremiah) was going to be visiting his mom (who lives 2 doors down from me) if I wanted to visit. Which of course I did and I did. We took some pictures etc.

The day wore on, my brother-in-law called in the late afternoon and he wished me a happy birthday. I then received one more call a few minutes ago from the mother of Jeremiahs mom, Cheryl. I am now going to bed, the day over, although I had a very nice day, nothing to complain about. The weather was great, I saw my grandson etc, The only complaint EVERYBODY in my family forgot my birthday.

I have 4 sons, and although I "chatted" with one, and talked on the phone with the other, neither one of them remembered.

All my life I have always had my birthday forgotton. For some reason everybody always thinks its December 31st. And in my whole life I have never had ALL of my boys remember it.usually I score two for two. 2 that remember the right date and 2 that do not (I always get happy birthday phone calls on December 31st)

But I know in the morning the phone will ring and the yearly discussion on "I thought it was the 31st, MOM conversation will come once again." My father has never forgot either and I doubt if he did this year but he is in a hospital and unable to call, so he of course is forgiven. LOL!!!

I am so thankful to my friends for today could have and would have been very very, sad. Soooo until next year when once again my family doesn't remember the real birth date, I will lay myself down to sleep tonight knowing I still have friends!!!

and thankful that God gave me a sense of humor where I am able and capable of just laughing this off
(until next year)
LOL!!!

This is a site I found just now! I am really excited about it. I have a feeling I will be having way too much fun with this one.

HOWEVER , this gives me the perfect opportunity to show off my other two grandchildren that I hardly ever get to see. They live in Orange County Ca. and are the children of my oldest born son Eric and his wife Cindy.

First is Katie Ann who will be 3 in September.She is my second grandchild and is the first girl born in my family since I was born.

The other day ( July 22nd ) I happened to post a post about my dog "Buick"  that I titled  I had to go to jail today and how he went to jail because he had been caught on the highway chasing other (Buick's, Chevy's and Fords.)

 The original posting date for it was on March 27th on my other blog that  I am slowly deleting (Willowshimmers Woodworks) so that my woodworking and only my woodworking will be on my new  Wood Alley blog and everything else will be found on  this one, Just my day blog.

Not in a million years did I think I would be writing today, just 3 days later about the irony of that particular post ,but I am and here it is.

These 3 pictures were taken at 4:47 P.M. July 23rd. I was on my computer when both of our dogs, "Buick" and "Nala" decided to have some fun with my hubby who was sitting in his chair. Both dogs had actually got ON the chair with him and the chair was swiveling around and we were having fun laughing about it. It (having both dogs on me like that) would have practically killed me. So I grabbed my camera and as usual things change and they had got off the chair but I still took these pics.

And then here they are smiling for the camera! Nala has the most beautiful almost green eyes, and Buick has one blue eye and one brown eye. But of course they have just red eyes in these pics cus i never would have known I would be posting this!

Less than 10 minutes after these pics were took we took the dogs outside to run around. By this time my hubby Dave had had enough of the dogs horsing around on his belly.

We went and sat down in our back yard while the dogs played, and out of no where 2 black labs ran past us all (as if they were being chased) and Buick was off.  The 3 dogs were were out of our sight in a split second. Yelling Buick was not working and off in the truck we went. We never saw the 2 labs or "Buick" again.

We came home for awhile figuring he would come back but after around 15 minutes and no sign of him we really started to get worried. Back out we went searching, this time we took our cell phones and went our separate ways.

The mosquitos came out and the sun was going down and after a couple hours my hubby and I met back at home. We live right on the edge of the woods, and its not like we have any street lights and by now our closest town has been shut down for a couple hours. I am sure any animal lover out there that may be reading this knows the agony we went through the rest of the night.

And so it goes..........

At sun up the next morning we found our beloved "Buick" undernesth the same picnic table we had been sitting on just 14 hours earlier. Sooo obviously near death we got him in the house and waited for our closest Animal Shelter to open there doors. I never believed in a million years he was going to live those 1 and 1/2 hours. But he did.

He obviously was hit by a car and his left front leg looked little more than a piece of hamburger meat.. Road Rash was obvious and he could barely move.

Unbelievably "Buick" suffered not one broken bone. He does however show signs of blood in his lungs but the vet says he is going to be fine. He was operated on this morning as they could not do it yesterday  because he was in such shock.

We brought him home today around 4;00 p.m. and he came in the house and acted just like Buick acts, I found my self taking pictures of him with the hubby in the very same chair trying to do the very same thing that he was doing a mere 48 hours ago. Even those 48 hours were some of the longest I have ever lived, I am surprised how well he is doing. I will say that after this chair pic coming up, he got onto "His" chair and has been quietly sleeping ever since. It is now 8:28 P.M. But he is going to be okay!!!!!

You can see his tongue hanging out here as it is still swollen. But for a brief moment he just had to try to play. 

It did not last very long.

16 stitches in a leg that looked like hamburger, my "Buick" I think looks GREAT!!!

The moral of this story is HUG and LOVE your animal today and every day. You never know what might happen, and it may happen right in front of you~

PEACE!!!

Jeremiah and I posin'

Jeremiah's Dad my son Travis on the right

Travis on the right, My son!

Jeremiah Lee and I showing off his Medal for T-Ball little league.

Me showing off Jeremiah Lee's medal for T-Ball little League!
The grinnin' granny

It is just un-real how sad all this smoke!

Please click "read full post"

Well the picture here is of the person with whom helped out quite a bit on why I did not get my Indian intarsia done today. I am not complaining I am only stating a fact. I had him for the day and Jeremiah Lee and I had too much fun for me to think of doing anything else today. We (or should I say he) controlled a little monkey jumping from vine to vine catching bananas for nourishment and strength to help him out later on from falling into lakes, and or Volcanos, and all sorts of stuff. YEP. We,(he) played a game called Tropix on this computer. It is such a cute game. Even after he went home I was running around the house making ape/monkey sounds! (Like I don't do THAT everyday)!!! LOL!

Then we went on to a little more older sport of racing cars and motorcycles on the T.V. set game he has over here.

But then of course we did our routine of watching my dog "Buick" make an idiot of himself chasing water in the sprinkler!!!

Being the mother to 4 sons , I know how quick kids can and do grow up. I am not about to let an Indian head intarsia project take a moment away from what is far more important!!!

Me and Jeremiah Lee!!!

My daddy and my dog, "Buick"

I was just informed that tomorrow my town is not going to have electricity from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Not only does this mean I will not get to work in my shop it also means that I will not be able to blog! This is going to interrupt my parental bragging rights! You see my son went AND rode AND finished an endurance bike race yesterday called 12 Hours of Temecula. Hence the title to this post!!!

Anyway I had a big plan on posting a big thing about it in the morning as that IS my PARENTAL BRAGGING RIGHT!!!  Sooo I will have to wait a extra day to do this so I will post what I can now. This was Troy's first ever bike endurance race. He placed 3rd in his class (of riders).   They (the riders) had to ride 6 laps. Every lap was/is 12 miles, each lap had a 1,800 ft. of climbing. Which in my complete lack of mathematical skills = 10,800 feet of climbing throughout the day. It took him 11 hours and 15 minutes.The way I look at it is 5,280 feet is a mile (I think and hope) which means he rode from sea level up to my town, which is I believe somewhere around 5,800 feet, almost twice!

This is the son that served in Iraq and wreaked havoc on my heart for 16 months. He also decided he could not wait to meet the world, and I gave birth to him at 6 months and 1 week gestation!  A whopping 2lbs.12 ounces , he dropped to 2 lbs. 2 ounces.

So far in this 24 years of life he has never let anything hold him back. Be it the womb or war or an endurance race, My Boy Troy just keeps on keepin on.

His dad would be soooo proud!!!

Troy cooling off!

Troy is on the left

Troy drinking what looks like a much needed refreshment!

This occurred in Temecula California, and there is to be another one in November. All the pictures are not up on the sight about this, Sooo come tomorrow after 5:00 P.M. I will be posting more.

I hope no-one is thinking in their mind, "gosh she is a bragging B-----"  Because I warned you. Thanks.!!!