Mandy Muffin's Blog – January 2013 Archive (10)

That what an Hispanic mother was yelling at her five kids yesterday as I was shopping at my local grocery store. They were scattered throughout the aisles, as she was hauling a overloaded grocery cart towards the register.  I live in south-central Florida where the white-painted converted school buses bring the families of the orange pickers to…

My local Walmart has just installed about 10 self-checkout registers. Now I live in the Florida county that has the second oldest population of any county in America. Further, this Walmart is located among a half dozen retirement communities, which after citrus farming is the number two industry in the area.…

Women may now be used in combat according to new military rules. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/women-combat-process/ Accordingly, there is no job that a woman cannot do in the military as long as she passes the same tests as…

I drove over to the golf course and played a round yesterday, as I do twice a week. I paid my green fee and enjoyed about 4 hours of bright sunshine, conversation and competition with my fellow retirees. I thank God for the days I have left to play golf and try to enjoy my life. But while I was doing that, the news was filled with the complaints…

I have engaged in the process for about three quarters of a century. When I was a child I mostly took, as my parents gave me what I needed. But I soon learned the art of giving. I served mass as an alter-attendant in my early school days, then served the community as a scout for a number of years. I took some public education money, as I attended…

I saw the Fold-A-Day paper airplane kit as I was touring the mall last week. It was on sale for half price, at $7.50. There is a paper airplane to fold for everyday of the year. I purchased the kit and thought I would try to accomplish the daily folding as a relaxation activity.…

In the past year numerous polls have shown that between about 73% of the country believes the federal government should cut back on spending. …

There was a day back in the late 1950s, when as a teenager I had use of the family car and discontinued going to the Sunday 8:00 AM Catholic Mass with my parents.  I was a college kid home for the summer and was given a bit of latitude to engage is some of those bad habits I had picked up at college.  My parents were both non-smokers but accepted me puffing on a…

Yesterday, my wife and I went to see "Les Mis," the movie version of the highly successful musical based on the novel, "Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.  I remember reading the original book sometime in my growing up days when I attended the French parochial school.  It was a mortality lesson that I never forgot.  



A man is imprisoned for 19 years for…

They say that two thing you never want to see are: sausage being made or legislation enacted by the government.  Well one of the processes happened over the holidays as both houses of Congress passed legislation to prevent the "fiscal cliff" from happening. …